Peformance Director
Use the menu below to navigate through the Performance Director documentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance Director provides feedback in local chat for some common errors such as missing a pipe "|" character. Turning on Debug Mode (@debug) can also help to see what is happening while playing your routine. Always RELOAD the notecard by clicking on the name of the notecard after making any changes.
1 - I'm using the Group Formation System and me and my dancers are not getting invited to the HUD when we sit on the movers. What's wrong?
You must first configure the Group Formation System Controller (the blue triangle) to work with the Performance Director. It's a simple edit in the !! Configuration notecard inside. See Prepare the Controller section on How to Use with Group Formation System.
2 - I have a group of 10 dancers and two of them are not getting the invitation from the Performance Director HUD.
The default amount of dancer slots in the Performance Director is 8. If you want more, you will need to use included Updater to increase the amount of dancer slots. Watch this short video on how to do that.
3 - The Performance Director HUD is not animating me when I stand on a Choreography System Mover.
You must first configure the Mover to work with the Performance Director. It is a simple line of text in the Mover notecard to assign a dancer number.
Please see Prepare the Movers section on How to Use with the Choreography System.
Please see Prepare the Movers section on How to Use with the Choreography System.
4 - How many groups can I have?
As many as you want. The limit on amount of dancers is 32 (8 is default).
5 - How long can my routine be?
THIS SHOULD NO LONGER BE AN ISSUE WITH PD 3!
That varies and there is no set amount. It will depend on what you have going on in that routine. SL does limit the amount of text characters, including spaces, that a notecard can hold. We've seen them go well over 10 minutes long. When you start getting a "stack heap" error, that means you've run out of memory so you will need to lessen the amount of text in your notecard by sending less commands.
That varies and there is no set amount. It will depend on what you have going on in that routine. SL does limit the amount of text characters, including spaces, that a notecard can hold. We've seen them go well over 10 minutes long. When you start getting a "stack heap" error, that means you've run out of memory so you will need to lessen the amount of text in your notecard by sending less commands.
6 - Can dancers be in more than one group in a single routine? How would I do that?
Yes. Just be sure you are not making a dancer do two things (like change to an animation) at the same exact time from two different groups. Here's an example of putting dancer #1 in two groups (lead and all). Notice that it is not necessary to write out the entire "all" section for each group. PD will go to the "all" group at the proper time. Actually, PD reads the entire notecard when it's loaded so it knows what is in the entire timeline already while playing.
Example of Dancers Assigned to More Than One Group:
@group lead|1
@group backup|2,3
@group all|1,2,3
lead=
0|dance1
12|dance2
backup=
0|dance3
12|dance4
all=
20|dance5
40|STOP
Example of Dancers Assigned to More Than One Group:
@group lead|1
@group backup|2,3
@group all|1,2,3
lead=
0|dance1
12|dance2
backup=
0|dance3
12|dance4
all=
20|dance5
40|STOP
7 - I am using Performance Director to send a chat command to a device I have but it isn't working. The command works when I type it in local chat however. What am I doing wrong?
Some devices are not scripted by their creators to take commands from 3rd party objects. This is most likely the case (given that you have the correct channel and have the command written properly in PD).
8 - I am getting a "stack heap" error message when I load my notecard in the Performance Director HUD.
THIS SHOULD NO LONGER HAPPEN WITH PERFORMANCE DIRECT 3!
A "stack heap" error message means it is out of memory. Although we have seen successful routines up to 14 minutes long, it is recommended that you keep your routines at or under 5 minutes and you should have no issues with memory errors. This applies for movers too!
A "stack heap" error message means it is out of memory. Although we have seen successful routines up to 14 minutes long, it is recommended that you keep your routines at or under 5 minutes and you should have no issues with memory errors. This applies for movers too!
9 - Is there a way to move dancers from the point they get on the movers to the first waypoint and pause there until I'm ready to start the routine?
USE THE LAUNCHPAD!
Once you press PLAY, your routine has started and cannot be started again. You do have several options if using Choreography System:
Once you press PLAY, your routine has started and cannot be started again. You do have several options if using Choreography System:
- If the dancers will be seen by the audience, give those movers a channel using the @user_channel parameter and put either Autopause or a SleepTime on that Waypoint. You can then send the PLAY command to just that channel using your PD.
- If the dancers are to be out of sight, keep them backstage in one place by using a "dummy" notecard. See the Backstage Movers video.
10. My Performance Director is giving me errors like this: "Performance Director 2.X OR 3.X: Error: Dancer 8 :: Can't Process "4". No dance by this name was found in the Performance Director." I don't even have a Dancer 8!
ALSO SEE QUESTION #12.
When you see these strange errors it's very probable you have put a newly created notecard directly from your inventory into your HUD. You MUST first open any newly created notecards, type something in them (even just a few letters), save and close it, prior to putting it into your HUD. This applies to all HUDs in SL and your movers! A HUD cannot correctly read an unopened notecard and furthermore, it causes a corruption in that notecard to such a degree that you cannot copy/paste the data and place it into another notecard. It just brings the corrupted data with it! Yes, everything looks fine to you, but not to the HUD!
OTHER POSSIBLE CAUSES:
The only way to fix a corrupted notecard is to replace it and start from scratch:
1. Create a new notecard in your inventory and rename it for your routine.
2. Open it and RETYPE MANUALLY your entire sequence. You can copy and paste the dance names from the animation properties but NOT from the corrupted notecard. Save the notecard and close it.
3. Delete the corrupted notecard from the HUD and put the newly created one in. Reload the card and everything should be fine!
When you see these strange errors it's very probable you have put a newly created notecard directly from your inventory into your HUD. You MUST first open any newly created notecards, type something in them (even just a few letters), save and close it, prior to putting it into your HUD. This applies to all HUDs in SL and your movers! A HUD cannot correctly read an unopened notecard and furthermore, it causes a corruption in that notecard to such a degree that you cannot copy/paste the data and place it into another notecard. It just brings the corrupted data with it! Yes, everything looks fine to you, but not to the HUD!
OTHER POSSIBLE CAUSES:
- If using a text editor outside of SL, be sure to use something that uses only "raw" text (Notepad) without all the hidden code with something like Word.
- Not using the latest versions of our products.
The only way to fix a corrupted notecard is to replace it and start from scratch:
1. Create a new notecard in your inventory and rename it for your routine.
2. Open it and RETYPE MANUALLY your entire sequence. You can copy and paste the dance names from the animation properties but NOT from the corrupted notecard. Save the notecard and close it.
3. Delete the corrupted notecard from the HUD and put the newly created one in. Reload the card and everything should be fine!
11. Can someone tell me how movers can change numbers on their own?
The simple answer is NO. Movers do not change their dancer numbers by themselves. There is no function, no action, nothing at all in LSL scripts that can modify the contents of a notecard in an object's or an avatar's inventory.
Likely causes to make you THINK they did:
Likely causes to make you THINK they did:
- The notecard didn't save correctly due to lag on the sim but you thought it did.
- You changed the hover text instead of the dancer number in the notecard (@text instead of @spot_dancer #)
- Movers are incorrect inside the rezzer. You inadvertently put the wrong movers in your rezzer, or took the wrong ones from inventory.
- Putting 3rd party scripts in the movers could make them not behave correctly - but that would not change the dancer number.
- Double movers rezzed in exact same location.
- Multiple copies of the rezzer in your inventory and perhaps one that is not the final is used
- Rollback on a sim while your set rezzer was present
- The proper movers are rezzed but you can't see them because they are in a different location (not using Stage Manager or Stage Marker)
- Multiple movers rezzed in the same location - if you sit on a mover and still see one under your feet, you have two or more rezzed in that exact spot.
12. i GET AN Error when loading a 2.x notecard into 3.x
You may get an error if you load an unfinished notecard into 3.0. Unfinished means you have not yet made a timeline, have a time stamp and no event (animation or command) after it. You can ignore this and it should stop after you enter the timeline and/or missing event.