Fixtures (v7.0)

v7.0 documentation in progress. v7 beta documentation may be incomplete or inaccurate.
v7 functions and features may be significantly different from previous ACS versions.
These instructions are not valid for current v6+ ACS!


Requires the ColorSystem root prim script.


Fixtures has changed from v7 beta to v7.0. Fixtures now uses the ColorSystem script and you now have up to eight hide/show prim face groups.


Place only a single copy of ColorSystem in the root prim, not in each prim.


The Fixtures system allows you to record up to eight groups of prims faces to vanish or appear, for parts such as spoilers, motorcycle windscreens and luggage. It can also show prim faces when others are hidden, such as swapping between two different styles of vehicle parts or other creative uses. Fixtures is the multi-face update of the previous Hide/Show system and now can store transparency levels for hiding/showing semi-transparent prim faces.

Fixtures requires the installation of the ColorSystem script in the vehicle root to operate, and there is no stand-alone Fixtures script.


Upgrading from earlier ACS versions including v7 beta:

You will need to re-record any fixtures or hide/show groups on the vehicle. You should not need to do this in future updates, as the Fixtures groups are now encoded to the prim as with color and light assignments.


Setup

You will be using touch-select with the Mechanic HUD to select prim faces and then assign to them to an ON groups, which will hide the prim faces when that Fixtures group is selected by the user.

Optionally, you can also assign prim faces to the equivalent OFF group. The OFF prim faces will be made visible when the ON faces are not when a specific Fixtures group is toggled.

  • Connect the MCH and from the main menu choose Miscellaneous, then Fixtures
  • If you have not installed the ColorSystem script, you can inject it from the menu.
  • From the MCH menu select a group between 1-8 such as Fixtures Group 1
  • Choose Touch Select Faces and touch the prim faces to be hidden. They should light up/flash to inicate they are selected.
  • Select Record ON Group 1
  • Return to the MAIN MENU (turns off the Touch Select), then touch the vehicle for the vehicle menu and choose Options, Fixtures to toggle the display of the hidden faces on Group 1.

If you want different prim faces to turn show when Group 1 is hidden, you would go back to the Group 1 menu, touch-select those faces, and choose Record OFF Group 1

The OFF Group appears when the ON Group is hidden, and vice versa. You could use this to open/close a convertible top, or open/close saddle bags or even switch between two sets of rims. An OFF Group is optional. If you just want to hide some prim faces, you do not need an OFF Group.

Once you have recorded a Fixtures group, if you have also recorded an OFF group you will need to toggle it once through the vehicle menu to get either the ON or OFF prims to be hidden for that group.

If only one single group in a linkset is recorded for Fixtures, the Fixtures button from the vehicle menu (or Driver HUD) will toggle that single group. If there is more than one fixtures group, then a menu will be presented offering the choice of groups, and listing the group names if you have recorded group names. You can name these groups with the Mechanic HUD from the Fixtures Group menu and those group names will show on the multiple fixtures choice menu, as they do with multiple color or shine groups.


Things to Know:

  • You must record at least a prim face or faces to an ON group to activate that fixtures group. Recording an OFF group is optional, and any recorded OFF group prims will not be selectable via the menu without a recorded ON group for that group number.
  • Fixtures group assignments are stored with the prim, so if you unlink them and move them to another vehicle, it will still be in the same Fixtures Group # and ON/OFF assignment.
  • Fixtures Group names, if assigned, are stored in the ColorSystem script memory, and will vanish if the ColorSystem script is replaced.

Transparency level for Fixtures

The *best* way to have semi-transparent prims in a Fixtures Group (normally for windscreens or glass) is to create a texture with built-in transparency. When fixtures groups are turned on, by default they are at 0% transparency, fully visible unless there is transparency in the texture. But there is a way to set a transparency level for your fixtures group faces if they do not have built-in transparency in the texture:

To add a tranparency level for a prim face, you will be manually adding a command to the prim name field that specifies both the prim face and the transparency level. (Sculpted prims have only one prim face, 0).

The command starts with .pf followed by the prim face number (0-7) and a transparency level between 1-99.

So this example command: .pf350 added to the prim name field would display prim face three at 50% transparency when activated by fixtures (either the OFF or ON groups). .pf075 would set prim face 0 to 75% transparency. You can stack multiple commands for multiple faces. Make sure you add these only to the prim name field, not the prim description field which is fully used by the ACS for other data storage. The prim face is always 100% transparent when its ON or OFF group is activated.


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