autoquit option
tracked
Ratany Resident
It would be nice to have an option to automatically quit the client after the agent has been idle for a configurable amount of time.
Some poeple fall asleep or forget that they still have their client running which can be annoying for someone sending them IMs and getting no answer, which leaves to wonder if that someone isn't talking to them anymore or what happened. Computers also consume more electricty when the client is running, and that could be avoided. It would also unburdon the SL servers and other resources from obsolete connections when people have the option to get automatically logged out when they're not using their client anyway for a while.
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Spidey Linden
tracked
Issue tracked. We have no estimate when it may be implemented. Please see future updates here.
Woolfyy Resident
I saw few falling asleep but many simply having RL work or a long RL phone call .... and coming back to SL once done. Oooops I was forgetting the many others who go and ride their RL dog outside, keeping their SL viewer connected :-)
Ratany Resident
Then they should log out, or use the auto-quit feature. What's the point of having 'dead' avatars hanging around?
If they're working on a different virtual desktop, the screen saver won't come on and the client might not log out. Though it's bad the some clients inevitably disable the screen saver, and that's also a misfeature that needs to be addressed.
It should be possible to distinguish between 'not doing anything in the client' and 'not doing anything with the computer at all'. Like there's no point in quitting the client just because I'm writing this comment on another desktop; I'm still available because I can hear when someone sends me a message.
Drake1 Nightfire
Ratany Resident Why does it matter to you if i leave myself logged in when I go to bed? Maybe I'm fishing for an outfit somewhere. Maybe I'm cuddling my SL GF because for whatever reason we cant meet in RL.. What business is it of yours if I am logged in?
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident
Simple automatic logout on idle is a much better option — what happens to the IMs or whatever that you received after falling asleep? If your viewer quits, they get yeeted into oblivion. Though I suppose if you're the kind of person who just doesn't care, and always simply closes your viewer without bothering to check anyhow… (In which case, I'm glad you're being inconvenienced by not having this option.)
That said, the viewer shouldn't be just sitting there rendering the scene constantly at 1000 FPS… One hopes it's smart enough to stop constantly re-rendering, and perhaps even switch to a static image of the last view. (Haven't checked whether it already does, because I'd never want to use an option like this.) And having the viewer greatly reduce it's rendering rate when you're obviously away (as they do when minimised) might be nice.
There is a post somewhere asking for a "restart" option from the quit dialog… Would be rather handy if it could preserve any open IM's and what-not across such a restart.
I guess the option to auto-quit if no new messages or inventory or anything else has come in? But, who is in so few groups (or groups so boring) that you don't at least get
some
group chat? Do we also need to be able to flag groups that you care about enough to inhibit auto-quit? Or inhibit auto-quit if any groups have had keyword watch hits? Have the viewer auto-close any chats that have been idle since your last twitched, so you can more easily see what's new (and close the viewer in the magical occasion there's nothing left)…But I don't want to compound the issue by throwing away any of those IM's and what-not you mentioned, and alas, there's no way for the viewer to go back in time and close before they tried to talk to you.
Ratany Resident
You are right about the messages being lost. Having them automatically displayed after the next login would be possible, though. However, I didn't get any answers to messages I sent to people who fell asleep, so it wouldn't seem to matter.
Perhaps an option to enable an automatic response to IMs when the user has been idle for a while would be a nice feature.
You can alter the debug setting 'BackgroundYieldTime' to slow down the rendering and thus the power consumption to something like 300 or 500ms, but that only works when the client is not in the foreground. When you fall asleep you probably don't put it into the background first, so an option to automatically increase the yield time when the user has been idle for a while and to automatically set it back when he has returned would be nice.
Unfortunately, nothing of this is going to be implemented, and making more feature requests would be a waste of time ...
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident
Ratany Resident: This is an issue worth discussing. To be clear, I think auto-log-out is a valid option, it's specifically auto-quit that I dislike.
Having the messages presented at next login would help, but… Doing that on the viewer side, would likely be counted against your limited "offline messages" count, while on the viewer side, won't work so well if you run more than one viewer. That said, it's no less an imperfect solution as simply logging out and hoping the machine doesn't crash before you see your messages…
Also, 1000 wrongs, still don't make a right — one should endeavour to be the change they wish to see in the world.
Regarding the background usage time, I was specifically talking about the viewers resource consumption once logged out — in which case it's probably still going to be foreground, but it also has basically no real time rendering requirement, since nothing new is going to be coming over a closed connection.
A "this user seems to have gone idle" response would indeed be a nice intermediary step, or even better, send such a message to any IM's that have had activity during the idle interval, right before logging out.
Also, don't be so discouraged — if you want discouraging, try participating in the LSL scripting features instead (where LL are prone to accepting a good idea, and then immediately doing the exact opposite, only to later admit they wished they'd done it "differently", which just happens to be much like what they accepted in the first place! — yes, a little salt does still flow from time to time).
Ratany Resident
Then simply make another client like an xmpp client, and deploy an xmpp server for the messages. That way everyone could be reachable all the time and wouldn't miss any messages. That would also solve the issues with delayed group messages and with IMs sent to someone who's offline. Both xmpp servers and clients are readily available.
If you want to be user friendly, stick to standards when ever possible.
Bleuhazenfurfle Resident
Separating chat out completely, is an idea that has been raised before… Though I haven't seen it mentioned in a long time.
It'd be awesome for "text-only", not having to even actually be in-world at all, to still participate in group chat and IM's.
Personally I think a separate chat app would work great, with the viewers built-in chat UI automatically hiding when it detects the chat app is active (and/or automatically punt focus to it instead, when the user starts typing) — which would also solve the issue many people have of wanting to be able to have their chat on a second monitor.
Ivanova Shostakovich
You can still set Firestorm to log you out after a period of inactivity. I don't remember ever having a client that would automatically quit.
Ratany Resident
I've never come across such a feature. And the client should quit when logging out and not keep running.
Drake1 Nightfire
Ratany Resident When you say client, do you mean the viewer? When you get logged out with the Feature in FS, it logs you out and closes the viewer as well. Does the SL viewer stay open after you log off?
Peter Stindberg
We HAD that feature, back in the day. People hated it :p
Oil Supply
Peter Stindberg Probably because it wasn't optional. Some people want to auto quit on idle, some don't. Seems like a simple enough feature.
Alwin Alcott
Peter Stindberg it's been optional for sure for 15 yrs or more ...
Alwin Alcott
Peter Stindberg it's still available in the newest firestorm: preferences/general/lower part of the window - log out after being idle for xxxx minutes
Ratany Resident
I never saw that before, is that new? But what is 'Log out after being marked a' supposed to mean? Marked by whom as what? Does that quit the client?