CasperVend 2/Customisation

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Requirement - Experienced Builder

• You must know how to build a "physical" item "from scratch".
• This does not mean simply retexturing or combining full perm kit items.
• You must know how to create and edit both objects and their contents.
• You must be able to edit individual prims/objects in a linkset.

Vendor customisation is an advanced skillset that depends on you already having these experienced builder skills.

Because this is a more advanced skillset, we do not provide technical support for this process beyond the scope of this docunentation.

Need to Learn Building Skills?

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We highly recommend classes at the Builder's Brewery to increase your skillset (see their class schedule at the Builder's Brewery website or inworld at the Builders Brewery sim/region) if you wish to learn how to create and edit prims and their contents.

Have Custom Vendor But No Time to Map It?

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We offer a customisation service - see this page for details.

Known Limitations

No HUD-based Vendors

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LSL does not allow the "pay" function on HUD-based objects, so HUD-attached vendors will not work.

Where Do the Scripts Go?

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1. The vendor script (and thus the mapping helper script) must always be in the root prim.
2. The panel that you expect the customer to pay on - to get the product - should be part of the root prim. Otherwise, you will get script errors - the "pay" function of LSL only recognizes specified pay amounts (like the price of your product) when the script is in the root prim of a linkset.

Do Not Use in Furniture

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The vendor script WILL reset itself any time the vendor is sat on, and anytime a sitting avatar stands up.

LSL reads all sitting avatars as a change to the relevant linkset, so sitting or standing up will force the script to reset and re-read the configuration.

It is important to note that the vendor will still WORK (a seated avatar is never "root"), but if it's resetting while a customer is attempting to pay the vendor, then that may confuse the customer and make them think your vendors are broken.

There are two workarounds for this:

• Using the HoloVend to display furniture that is expected to be sat on. (This lets the customer sit on furniture, and you to save prims/impact. Win-win!)
• Use regular vendors, and simply set one vendor next to each furniture item (or set) that you are selling.

Holovend Panel Limit of 7 Total Panels

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Holovend, unlike the regular vendors, also performs rezzing, derezzing and timed functions. Because of this, and the CasperTech practice of only having 1 script per vendor, there isn't room in the script programming to safely handle more than the main panel + 6 additional panels (total of 7 panels).

If you choose to add more, you do so at your own risk - "Stack Heap" errors and vendor crashes will be common.

If Linden Lab actually increases the maximum filesize of a script, this will be revisited at that time.

Creating Your New Vendor

Mapping Your Vendor Object

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1. Create (or edit) your vendor object.
2. If your new vendor object has more than one prim, give EACH PRIM its own unique name.
3. Drop the Mapping Helper script into the root prim of the vendor object.
4. Click the vendor object.
5. Follow the instructions on the popup prompts.

It is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to give each prim in a multi-prim vendor object a unique name because the mapping script essentially looks for "the face numbered ____ on the prim named ____" - if your vendor object's multiple prims are ALL named "object", your mapping will be very VERY confused and your custom vendor will NOT work properly!

You do not need one prim per face.

Selling Clothing? Difference Between "Touch" & "Headless"

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HEADLESS:
Headless vendors are designed to be used in an object that is not normally a vendor - such as a plant, a table, or a chest of drawers. Thus, there is NO image called with the Headless' mapping card.

TOUCH:
Touch vendors are designed to be used as a simple box. The touch vendors DO use a picture, so space for one is required.

BOTH TYPES:
Both types DO have a popup menu that is accessible by clicking on the main panel for actions beyond just paying the vendor.

Single Item Vendor Types

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All vendors - single or multi product - will rez out and by default will pull in what is called the "default" profile. However, the vendors in this list do not have arrows, and will need to be specifically told which single product you want to be shown on that vendor:

• Touch vendor
• Two-faced
• Headless
• Static

Making A Non-Vendor Object Into A Vendor ("Headless" Vendor)

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1. Take the vendor script AND "mapping" notecard out of the headless vendor into your inventory
2. Drop the script and notecard from your inventory into your non-vendor product
3. Click the object, and select "Admin"
4. Log in to the website, if necessary
5. You will be taken to the configuration page for that vendor product
6. Change your options as desired
7. All set!
8. You will NOT see any images on any vendor object using the headless script - this is intentional.

Remember: All vendor objects NEED a mapping notecard - they will not function without it. You do NOT need to set up panels with the headless script, but the vendor script does need to know what faces to accept payments from.

Cube Vendors ("Touch" vendor boxes)

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The touch vendor allows the customer to interact with different options by way of a click/touch popup menu instead of buttons on one of the visible faces. This means that the vendor can be in a "standard" box shape, with customers being able to interact with all sides of the vendor instead of only one or two sides of it.

The touch vendor is only designed to vend ONE product - so don't use a profile that has multiple items in it, because only one of them will be displayed. It has no way to scroll between items.

Pay All Sides of Cube Vendor

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If you wish to use a vendor as a simple box/cube shape, and want customers to be able to PAY any side of the box, then make this simple change in the mapping card:

  Where it says:  __ROOT__,1,<0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0> 
  Change it to:  __ROOT__,-1,<0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0>

Customising Vendor Textures

Offline / Back Soon Textures

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Inside each vendor are two textures: "BACK_SOON" and "VENDOR_OFFLINE"

Simply create two replacement textures, name the appropriate one with the appropriate name, Delete the old ones out of the vendor, and replace with the new. It's that easy!

"No Product" Texture

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This will allow YOUR customised "No Products" texture to be used rather than the default CasperTech one.

You may need to reset the vendor (click the vendor, select "reset" from the popup) for it to pick up your custom "no products" texture.

1. Place your texture into the contents of the vendor
2. Rename the texture to this: 7273cc74-2b6c-530f-293a-3af92422beae
3. Reset/resync the vendor so that it re-reads the contents and picks up the new texture.

"Initializing" Texture

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This is not necessary, as it doesn't usually show for very long, but for consistency with the Offline and No Items textures, you can replace the Initializing texture as well.

1. Place your texture into the contents of the vendor
2. Rename the texture to this: 70fd1ef6-0877-c53a-4f34-45576f880d76

Texture (Button) Templates

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Inside the vendor shipping crate is a box called "CUSTOMISATION GUIDE AND TOOLS". Inside THAT box is a box called "CasperVend2 Templates". Inside that box are templates for the following things:

• Standard / Mesh CasperTech CasperVend vendors
• Gatcha templates
• Lucky Chair templates
• Midnight Madness template
• Redelivery Terminal template

Templates for the Transporter are NOT currently (as of the last major update) in the shipping crate, but ARE available upon request from either Casper Warden or Sphynx Soleil - simply inquire within Second Life.

TextureVend templates are inside the TextureVend vendor itself, rather than the general "customisation guide and tools" box.

Texture Repeat Issues

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If you are having issues getting the textures to repeat properly and in the correct orientation...

1. First, fix the textures so that they have the correct repeats and orientation
2. THEN, hard reset (Edit > Reset scripts in selection) the script
3. Allow debit permissions.

Done in that order, resetting the script will force it to pick up the new orientation as correct one, instead of remembering the old incorrect one.

If you reset the vendor for this situation and (1) you did NOT get a debit perms popup, and (2) the vendor came up normally, then you used the wrong reset option.

Do NOT use "reset" on the popup if you are trying to fix the texture - use edit mode, then find the menu option in your viewer menus for "reset scripts in selection".

Vendor Errors

Error Running Rule: Prim Texture

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Clothing merchants and similar situations

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Did you just take the MAPPING card out of a normal vendor and drop it in a normal box with a picture (i.e., some clothing sellers)?

If so, you need the MAPPING card from the HEADLESS vendor instead.

As long as the script came from a regular vendor, that will be fine - it's the MAPPING notecard that makes a difference.

Customized vendor object from scratch

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You may see one, all, or some combination of these errors:

rule #1 (PRIM_TEXTURE): arg #3 (texture repeat) is missing.

rule #2 (PRIM_TEXTURE): arg #3 (texture repeat) vector expected but string given.

rule #1 (PRIM_TEXTURE): arg #3 (texture repeat) vector expected but integer given.

Check every single prim in your vendor object. You quite likely have two or more with the same name (Usually it will be seen with "Object", but it depends on how you've named your prims.)

Simply change the prim names so that no two prims in the vendor object have the same names, rerun the mapping script, and everything should be happy.

Error Running Rule #2: Non-Integer Rule

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If you have used the instructions for "__ROOT__,-1,<0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0>", the vendor WILL give you a "llSetPrimitiveParams error running rule #2: non-integer rule." message.

The vendor WILL still function despite this error.

This will be normal until Casper tracks down why that happens and fixes it. (He is aware of the problem.)

Stack Heap errors

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A stack heap error is not very common, but when it does, it generally will be for one of these two reasons:

1. Duplicate Prim Names:The customised vendor has more than one prim AND at least 2 prims have the exact same name. (This makes the script very confused)
2. Too Much Data: You're using product names which are excessively long, especially on a vendor with 13 panels. (A single script only has so much memory....the longer the product names are - especially when you include the full store name as part of the product name - the more memory each product takes up.) For 13-panel vendors, this can happen with the default 13-panel that ships with the system as well as custom vendors.

Any vendor in either of these situations may simply appear - to customers - "frozen" and be completely non-responsive, rather than giving anyone an obvious stack heap message. You may not get the error if you have script error messages disabled, or if you are offline when the error happens.

Payment Stopped

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  Payment stopped: The price paid does not match any of the pay buttons set for this object

This is (99% of the time) a linkset or multiple script issue. Basically, the CasperVend script isn't in the root prim, or the vendor has been linked to another prim that contains another script using the script-pay function.

To fix, make sure the CasperVend script is the ONLY vendor script in the object (check ALL the prims), and that it is in the root prim.

Note: The vendor script doesn't have to STILL be in the prim to cause this issue - payment button settings are remembered by the prim. So if you reuse the root prim of an old vendor as a child prim in a new vendor you will also run into this issue.

If you've reused a root prim from another vendor as a child prim in a new vendor and are getting these messages, you will need to drop this self-deleting script in EACH prim of the linkset that does NOT have the vendor script:

  //Based on information from Casper Warden
  //Public Domain, use as you wish. No license terms.
  default
  {
      state_entry()
      {
          llSetPayPrice(PAY_DEFAULT, [PAY_DEFAULT, PAY_DEFAULT, PAY_DEFAULT, PAY_DEFAULT]);
          llRemoveInventory(llGetScriptName());  
      }
  }

On very rare occasions, if the viewer is giving the customer a different price than what you've set the pay buttons for, this error will also happen - but this will NOT happen with any sort of regularity, and other viewers which are reporting accurate pay button information will have no problem. See this JIRA ticket for details.

Vendor is Grey

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If you have rezzed out your vendor and given it permissions but it turns grey, the common causes are:

1. Mapping card - redo if necessary
2. Profile vendor is set to has no products
3. Vendor is missing the "Vendor_Offline" texture

Note: If scripts are off, OR the vendor has crashed, you will NOT get a debit window, any message, OR change in vendor textures. If you have muted yourself, you won't get a debit window or any message either, but you will see the textures change on a multi-panel vendor.

Technical Notes & Background

This section is for background information only!

About The EasyMod example Object

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This is an example vendor set up just so that you can see the maximum possible buttons. Each prim in the vendor is labeled with the appropriate button name the script is looking for.

Included inside the EASYMOD vendor example are all the default button textures, as individual textures.

The "EasyMod" is NOT intended to actually be used AS a vendor - only as an illustrative example of the complete setup.

NOTE: The numbering on the prims of the EasyMod may not necessarily match the order of the mapping helper script panels. This is just an example layout.

About the Mapping Process

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This is JUST AN OVERVIEW of the mapping script process, and is presented only for informational purposes! Do *NOT* use this as a guide to set up a MAPPING card!

Reset

This wipes any configuration you've done up to that point

Textures

There are 13 possible texture displays on a vendor, and this option walks you through selecting which display is which. If you're having trouble visualising the usual order of these buttons, rez out the "EasyMod" from the Customisation box and look at how the prims are named. (use Edit > Linked Parts if necessary).

You do not need to be in "edit" mode to do this step - being in edit mode means you have to right-click, THEN "touch" as opposed to just clicking the prim.

The script will ask you to tell it the faces of the display panels. So that you know ahead of time, it is looking for this information in the following order:

1. Left panel six
2. Left panel five
3. Left panel four
4. Left panel three
5. Left panel two
6. Left panel one
7. Main texture panel
8. Right panel 1
9. Right panel 2
10. Right panel 3
11. Right panel 4
12. Right panel 5
13. Right panel 6

If you want to use all sides of a prim for one or more of those faces, then click "ALL SIDES" on the popup menu, BEFORE clicking the prim. It will give you another popup once it's processed the "ALL SIDES" selection and is ready for you to click the prim.

You WILL be having popup dialogues for each step. The one for the current step will always be on top - ignore the ones that are left up from earlier. It is NOT required to click "ok" or "ignoree" on the popups menus before proceeding to the next step but you can if you want to. (LSL doesn't allow self-closing of popup menus.)

Just click "skip" for the display panels you're not using. If you're using a simple one-prim, one-item vendor, then just use "skip" on everything BUT the "Main Texture Panel".

Buttons

This maps the clickable button areas from TOP LEFT to BOTTOM RIGHT, in the following order:

1. Page Left
2. Scroll Left
3. Admin Button
4. Search Button
5. Help Button
6. Demo Button
7. Gift Button
8. Scroll Right
9. Page Right
10. Rez

As with the texture panels above, just click "skip" on the options you're not using. (For example, not everyone uses the demo button.)

Yes, this can be used to customize buttons for a HoloVendor!

Finish

This does two things: (1) Sends the configuration to a code pasting site, and (2) gives you the link to the page it went to so you can copy it. Remember this link is valid for just one hour so if you get distracted and it expires, you'll have to do the configuration all over again.

Copy the configuration file from pastebin into a notecard and drop it in your vendor.

NOTE:

MAPPING notecards should have 37 lines for a normal vendor, and 38 lines for a holovendor. If you generated one that is longer or shorter than this, tell the mapping helper script to "reset" and go through the process again.

Delete the mapping helper script from the vendor once everything else is complete

Copy the MAPPING list from the pastebin site into a notecard and drop it in the vendor.

All done!

FAQ / Troubleshooting

Q. If I stretch / resize my vendors, will they still work?

A1. Yes, it doesn't matter what size the vendor is, as long as all the buttons map correctly.

A2. You can also change the shape, just remember to go through the instructions in the customization section to remap all the buttons and vendor image panels correctly.

Q. A vendor I'm setting up for a new profile has a quirk, each time I "touch" it, it tells me "(my vendor name): Touched" - and does not display the menu, just gives me that message. How do I fix this?

A. Look inside the vendor contents for a script named "New Script". The script that ships with the vendor will never be named this, so if there is a script named "New Script" it may safely be deleted. (You may have accidentally clicked "new script" - which creates a script that merely tells you the object was touched.)

Q. Can I set the vendors to "Phantom"?

A. Yes, and they will still work :)