Signs, Screens, Displays, oh my!

[Shard-Angel]

Greets.

Since there is no "furniture" section - the "tools" section is as close this topic comes to.

Scanning through Entropedia - I note that Signs, Screens, and Displays, all have some features enabled/disabled.

Can someone explain this in further detail - as Entropedia is lacking this info:

SIGN:
Images & Text: YES
Effects: NO
Multimedia: NO

SCREEN:
Images & Text: YES
Effects: YES
Multimedia: NO

DISPLAY:
Images & Text: YES
Effects: YES
Multimedia: YES

Images + Text: Can this is "created" on the fly? Or do we have to upload PC first? ie can we have a plain text message just by typing it in - and skip images altogther? Does this cost the same to setup - or is it cheaper than uploading PC?

Also, can we upload Animated .gifs to have an animation of sorts via this method? Can we have a "video" uploaded via this method?

Effects: Again - are these EU system generated from a pre-defined set of effects? Does applying each cost extra?

Multimedia: Is this "video" only content? Can this contain sound? Is this the only way to upload "moving pictures" content? Or can we use .gifs?

Thanks for the info.

[Violet]

Originally Posted by Shard-Angel

Images + Text: Can this is "created" on the fly? Or do we have to upload PC first? ie can we have a plain text message just by typing it in - and skip images altogther? Does this cost the same to setup - or is it cheaper than uploading PC?

Also, can we upload Animated .gifs to have an animation of sorts via this method? Can we have a "video" uploaded via this method?

Effects: Again - are these EU system generated from a pre-defined set of effects? Does applying each cost extra?

Thanks for the info.

You can create Images and Text on the fly, or upload an image the choice is yours. It has to be (PC) for you to upload an image btw, there are some signs that are not (PC). There is a choice of around 40 standard images which you can use as a background, and another set of (the same) images you can use within your text. In otherwords you can mix two images together.

The images and text are static unless you have a screen that had Effects enabled. With Effect you get to scrolling text in different directions, or fade in out images/text. Depending on the sceen you can add different text messages with different effects.

For Example, the sign for my shop (see sig) has the background uploaded. It then has 9 different text fields fading/scolling through a sequence. The part of the sequence you can see below is " Equipment for Hunters and Miners of Club Neverdie". This is infact 3rd on the over all sequence and i use 3 fields with the same text, first in red text, then fading to black text, then fading to red text before moving on to the next part of the sequence. The whole sequence is "Equipment for Hunters and Miners of Club Neverdie, Ore Amps, Enmatter Amps, Mining Tools, First Aid & Weapons, Components for the dedicated crafter". All these sequences scolling and fading in and out in sequence.

Sorry for rambling, hope that makes sense. Best thing to do is buy a sign/screen and have a play. You can preview your edits without costing anything. It took me quite a while to sort the sign for the shop, but im very happy with it.

[Shard-Angel]

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

As for video or "moving pictures" - the EU sites states only "bink" files are permitted.

Now does anyone know which .extension files are permitted for bink? as radtools makes 2 types of extensions. I'd assume the .bik should be ok. Is sound enabled in bink files?

Is there any option for sound in the Sign/Screens?

As for "having a play with it" to preview - dont we have to pay: (A) 30PED for just uploading PC + (B) 5PEC/kbyte + (C) 25% of (A)+(B) deposit?

Wont making a bad upload cost us PEDs? Or are we not charged until we "COMMIT"?

Thanks.

[NevadaJake]

Very useful information.

Quick question: does text put on these boards need to be made outside of EU and then imported, or is there an in-world text editor?

[alh]

You can enter text in the system, but its very limited.
You can for example only have one font size and style for all text visible at the same time. (Signs can only have one frame, screens can have more then one frame of text, but only one font style per frame too)

This you can go around by integrating the text into the image you upload...

BTW, if you want a preview of what you can do, just visit an ad-screen terminal, it is the same interface. (With the addition of user uploaded pictures for the (PC) ones)

[Shard-Angel]

Well... I saved and scrimped and picked up 2 screens and 1 display.

Thought I'd go home and place them - and get them repaired later - but guess what? I cannot place them down until they get repaired.

So ok. I'll get them repaired to the usual 10% state - but no! MA insists we repair them to 90% of their MaxTT price!!

90% for screens is 90 PEDs each! And for the display its 315 PEDs!!!!!

And I have not even been able to preview them yet!

Not happy.

As usual - MA wins - we lose.

[alh]

yeah.. that sky high condition limit really sucks...
Also quite high fee to change the message, doesn't really make you want to change it a lot...

non-(PC) screens and signs cost much less to change, but they are a bit hard to come by.

[Shard-Angel]

How much do signs/screens/displays decay over time? Or do they decay only when new content is added?

Also, whats the max amount of seperate "adverts" I can stuff into one sign/screen/display?

Thanks.

[alh]

They only decay when you change content.
The fee is deducted from the TT-value of it.