MST Venue Setup

Preparing Your Official Performance Space for MetaHarper Show Tools

This page contains information for theater and venue owners who wish to use MST technology. Setting up MST in an official venue does not require specialized technical skills, but it does require you to follow some detailed steps carefully. I’ve listed these below.

Special Note: I sometimes use the term "performance space", "venue", "theater", and "stage" interchangeably. In this context I'm talking about a specific boundary where your show takes place. It can be a building, a sky platform, a beach, or whatever else you can imagine.

General Preparations and Requirements

• Build Window Comfort: You do not need to be a regular builder, but you do need familiarity with your viewer’s build window for tasks such as selecting objects, moving objects, setting object coordinates, locking objects, and changing transparency, renaming, linking objects, setting object permissions, and editing notecards. If you are not comfortable with these things, you should find someone who can help you with some of these steps.
• Region: Ensure your stage area fits inside a single region. In general, MST does not support splitting your performance staff across different regions. If you have a setup where performers are on one region, and your audience is on another - this will work and has been done, but not every feature is supported. In in doubt, ask Arrehn Oberlander.
• Buffer Zones for Rezzing: Make sure your performance area where you will be rezzing sets, props, and backdrops has at least a 20 meter buffer space between it and the edge of the region. Automatic rezzing of large objects close to region borders can cause problems due to built-in SL limitations. Also make sure that your stage floor is at least a few meters above the ground terrain floor, and at least 50 meters below the 4096 maximum-buildable altitude limit.
• Land Experience: You should add an allowed Experience to your land or region. The Experience name is "MetaHarpers Interactive Theater" and it is rated G. This will help your MST tools, particularly movers and group dance inviters work faster.
• Scripted Camera Support: If you plan to support scripted cameras, your actors and staff will be able to see camera effects by virtue of using HUDs or movers included in the MetaHarper Show Tools package. However, your passive audience visitors who are not in the show will need some way to see the scripted camera effects. This can be accomplished by customized furniture (typically anything that sits 1-2 avatars and has mod permissions will work, see the Camera section for specific details). If you wish instead to use attached HUDs instead of customized seats, this is also an option. For more details see the MetaHarpers Immersive Theater Land Experience section
• Lock the permanent parts of your stage: Regardless of whether your stage is a building, an island, or a platform, do be sure to check the "locked" checkbox on any parts of it that are intended to be permanent. This will save you hours of frustration by ensuring that no part of your stage structure inadvertently moves or changes, and will always be synchronized with your rezzers.

Place and Customize the Official MST Centerpoint

Almost every MST tool will need to know the name of your stage, where it is, and who is allowed to use it. The “MST Centerpoint” object accomplishes all of this for you. Normally you would place it on the floor of your stage or just backstage, rename it, edit its configuration notecard, then optionally make it invisible and lock it in the build window. The detailed steps to accomplish this are described below:

1. Choose a Location: Locate where you would like the centerpoint to be placed. Typically this will be in the center of wherever you plan to rez the most props or dynamic scenes. The closer you can place the centerpoint to where you would wish any props to be rezzed, the faster rezzing will be. Typically people use the center of their stage area or just backstage, either on the floor or slightly under the floor. Wherever it is, try to keep it more than 20m away from a region edge, more than 4m away from the terrain floor, and try to keep it 20m or so away from where any audience member might be standing or sitting, because sometimes SL does not allow large objects to be rezzed if they would clip over on top of an avatar.
2. Rez and record position: Rez the “MST Venue Centerpoint (rename me)” object from your MST Tools folder, and move it to the location you’ve determined above. Rotate the MST Venue Centerpoint, if needed, so that the point of the triangle faces toward the audience. Once you have it in the right place, it is wise to go into the build window and record the X,Y, and Z coordinates of your centerpoint, then paste these into the centerpoint's description field. This way if for any reason it is moved or returned, you can remember where exactly to replace it.
3. Choose a Name: Rename the MST Venue Centerpoint. For example, if your stage is called “Augustus Stage” rename the centerpoint to something like “AugustusCP”. Shorter names are best, try to avoid spaces or unusual punctuation.
4. Open the notecard Select your centerpoint, look at the contents, and open] the notecard inside it named “VENUE_CONFIGURATION”.
5. Using Cameras? Think about customizing the camera channel: If you plan to use scripted cameras, you may wish to customize the “CHANNEL_CAMERA_VIEWERS” channels to something unique, by adding or subtracting a few numbers. For example, “CHANNEL_CAMERA_VIEWERS=-500010”. There's nothing wrong with the defaults, but making your stage unique will allow people to rehearse or build up in the air without affecting your main performance stage.
6. Give your staff and choreographers access: You will probably want to allow people other than yourself to use the official stage centerpoint. Anyone who might use MST technology at your stage will need to be allowed first. The easiest way to do this is to allow a specific group, usually whatever group already has rez rights on your stage land. In the build window set the group of the centerpoint prim to the group you want to allow access. In the VENUE_CONFIGURATION notecard , make sure the “ALLOW_SAMEGROUP=YES” line exists. Users who have an active group that matches the group of the centerpoint will now be allowed to use it. It's also possible to allow specific other users not in the group by their UUID. To get a UUID of a user, look at their profile and the UUID for that person will be listed at the top. Copy that value and paste it into an ALLOW line. For example, if wanted to allow Arrehn Oberlander, you would add the line “ALLOW=3c637a3e-370e-4bca-b18e-92b4692a685a” to your centerpoint's notecard. This is sometimes handy if you do not want people to have a particular group set active. Make sure to save the notecard after your changes.
7. Hide the Centerpoint: Change the transparency of the MST Venue Centerpoint to make it invisible, and set the “lock” checkbox. If you want to move or adjust the notecard, first unlock the prim and then lock it again when you finish. Locking this object insures that it does not accidentally get moved or damaged, which could throw off all acts at your venue.
8. Finished! You’ve now finished setting up your centerpoint.

Best Practice: Create a “Theater Template” so you can build and plan performances without tying up your main stage.

Why do I want to make a stage template?

In this step, we’ll describe how to build a rough-and-ready mockup of your theater, called a ‘Theater Template’. This step is not specific to MST tools, it's mentioned because it's a best practice for theaters in general. Choreographers use stage templates by rezzing them in their own private build areas to plan acts for your theater. You should encourage people to use templates whenever possible to avoid competing for time in (and possibly cluttering) your actual theater outside of planned rehearsal times. Even if you are the only performer in your theater, there are still many good reasons to build and test most of your performance outside of the public performance area.

How to make an excellent template

• Use PrimsThis step requires some basic but careful prim building skill. You do not need to use any fancy mesh for this, as typically you only need to make a simplified model of a rectangular, round, or spherical space. If you’re not a careful prim builder, ask someone you trust to help out. Create full-perm plywood prims and carefully cover the entire floor of your official performance area. Your plywood should follow the shape of the performance stage as closely as possible but be slightly above it, usually around 0.01m, in places where it is visible to the audience. When you cam out and move your camera back and forth slowly, facing the performance area, you should not see any flickering textures. It is very important that the build you create have full perms so you can give them out to your choreographers easily.
• Cover floors, walls, and ceilings As a rule a thumb, for parts of your performance area were your individual set designers and choreographers are likely to want to customize a background texture, make sure your prims extend OUT 0.1m, so that the plywood is exposed. Conversely, for areas where you do NOT want performers to put custom textures over your theater, keep any edges of your prims about 0.01m INSIDE the theater build and tint them full black, so they will not show and offer a visual cue that they are “out of bounds”. This will lets designers see where their “Edges” are, but not override your theater textures. If you need more than one prim to cover all of the performance area floor, align your floor prims as perfectly as possible to avoid any visible gaps or overlaps. It may be helpful to learn how to use the build window’s “alignment tool” to help with this.
• Avoid Flickering Zoom your camera in and out of your build a little. If you see flickering textures from the floor showing through your plywood prims, make your plywood prims extend a hair further away from the stage until the flickering stops.
• Include Backstage Areas Depending on how much detail your choreographers and designers will need, add prims to cover the walls, roof, and backstage area of your stage. Backstage areas are helpful to model for movers that may need to move to or from the backstage, for example.
• Color-code your temple Texture or tint all the faces that are visible to the audience that your performers should retexture a grey or similar neutral but non-pitch-black color. Tint all the rest of the faces you do not wish your performers to cover up, and especially interior areas that cannot be seen by the audience 100% black.
• Link and name Link your prims together. You may wish to change the prim type to “convex hull” to reduce the overall prim count if it helps. You’re now done. Name your template.

Best Practice: Add an MST centerpoint marker to your Stage Template

In this step we’ll take the theater template you made earlier and modify it so thatg it marks where your choreographers should place their own MST Centerpoints when working in their personal build areas. This is useful so that when your performers are working in their own build areas, they will use centerpoints that will line up exactly with your main venue. There are actually many ways to communicate where the centerpoint should go, but here we will simply assume you are adding a marker in to your stage template.

1. Rez your theater template and place it over your actual stage as exactly as possible.
2. Create a new box prim, call it “<name of your centerpoint> MST centerpoint goes here”, color it something bright such as red, and shrink it to a small size, smaller than the actual MST centerpoint.
3. Copy the coordinates of your theater’s MST centerpoint you set up in step 1. Paste these coordinates into your box prim so that it will move exactly on top of your MST centerpoint.
4. Copy the rotation values of your theater’s MST centerpoint you set up in step 1. Paste this rotation into your box prim so that it will face the same direction as your MST centerpoint.
5. Link your new box prim centerpoint marker to your theater template.

You’re done! Distribute this new template to your choreographers as usual.

Best Practice: Set up a "Curtain" mechanism if you haven't already

This step is not specific to MST, but many stages find it useful to create some kind of curtain that can obscure the performance area from view, so that set changes can happen more elegantly and be revealed in a well-managed surprise. Almost anything can work as a curtain, and there are many on the SL marketplace. There is also a "Smart Curtain" included in the MST package you are welcome to use. Once you've set up a curtain, give out the curtain controls or HUD to any staff or helpers that need access.

MST Cameras: Set Up Your Theater for Scripted Camera Capability

If you plan to use scripted camera effects with your theater, product for HUD-based camera viewing, or use customized seats for furniture-based camera viewing.

Cameras: My theater does not want to require specific seats. How does my audience see the MST camera effects?

You will need to either purchase and install the MetaHarpers Immersive Experience to provide an easy, HUD-based method for your audience to see scripted camera effects.

Cameras: My theater intends to use audience seats. How can I make the seats work with MST cameras?

Generally you can make any one-seater or two-seater furniture into something that can show MST scripted camera effects. The general process involves removing a few scripts from the example seat included in the MST package, and placing this into your own furniture. You are also free to use the MST theater seat directly if you desire! You may use the following steps as a guide for setting up seats that are compatible with MST Scripted Camera effects:

1. First, rez the “MST Theater Seat” object near your stage. It’s important to start with this object even if you have your own custom seating. After rezzing the MSt Theater Seat, edit the “~seatConfig” notecard inside. Edit the line that says “VENUE” to match your centerpoint’s name. For example, if your centerpoint is named AugustusCP then you should make your seat configuration notecard have a line “VENUE=AugustusCP”. Save the notecard.
2. Watch your nearby chat window for a line that looks like “MST Theater Seat: Venue configuration set for AugustusCP” that will appear AFTER you save the notecard. It should say the name of whatever you have named the centerpoint object. If this does not happen, double check each notecard to make sure you have no mispelllings or formatting errors. Only continue after you see this line appear after saving or updating the MST Theater Seat “~seatConfig” notecard.
3. Edit the “~seatConfig” notecard again, and add “ALLOW=” lines to match those you have allowed in your centerpoint’s configuration notecard. At a minimum you should allow your own UUID and the owner of the centerpoint if this is not you.
4. At this point, you can copy this chair you’ve set up to create an array of chairs for your audience. Feel free to change its textures or name. If you want to use custom seating read on:
5. If you wish to use your own seating, copy the “~seatConfig” notecard into your custom furniture, along with the “~camSeatManager” and the “~camSeat1” script. When finished moving these scripts into your furniture, either re-save the ~seatConfig notecard or “reset scripts” on your custom furniture. Make sure you see the message “(name of your custom seating): Venue configuration set for <your centerpoint name>” similar to step 2.
6. If your custom seating supports more than one avatar sitting on it at one time, unpack the “MST allow more seated avs” box and copy scripts as needed into your furniture. For example, if your furniture supports 3 avatars, copy “~camSeat2” and “~camSeat3” scripts into your furniture. You can copy and rename this scripts if needed to support larger amounts of avatars on a single chair. (CAUTION: when one avatar stands up or crashes in the middle of a scripted camera sequence, this causes some minor disruption to other avatars seated on the same piece of furniture. This is an SL limitation.)
7. You’re finished setting up seating.

Cameras: Create a Camera Reset Mechanism

If you are planning to use scripted camera features described above, normally performers will reset or “clear” camera control at the end of their show, returning control to the audience. However, sometimes unexpected events happen that will prevent the clear command from being sent. For example, the performer might crash, or the region might restart at a particularly bad time. If for whatever reason the performer cannot reset camera control, your audience may be "stuck" looking at the last camera location. To avoid this situation it is strongly advised that venues create a “camera reset mechanism”. There are many ways to accomplish this. Examples are:

• Gestures: You can create a gesture that sends “/8 clearcam” when activated, or show directors can shout the “/8 clearcam” directly when needed. Whoever uses the gesture should be allowed to use the MST Centerpoint, as specified inside the centerpoint's VENUE_CONFIG notecard.
• Buttons: You may rez a button backstage somewhere that sounds "/8 clearcam" when touched. The button should be owned by whoever owns the MST centerpoint.
• Macro HUD: You may also use your macro-HUD of choice such as the MST Programmable Button HUD to provide a camera reset capability. Whoever uses the HUD should be allowed to use the MST Centerpoint, as specified inside the centerpoint's VENUE_CONFIG notecard.

If you need help making your own emergency clear cam button such as described above, contact Arrehn Oberlander or a friendly scripter. If you do make one and want to contribute it to the MST package, please let me know!

Communicate These New Changes with your Staff and Performers

Let all of your people know that you have created an official MST centerpoint location and what you have named it. If they are using the MetaHarper Show Tools Suite or ChoreoHUDs, this is very important info!

1. Make sure to tell your performers who owns the centerpoint, so they can "Allow" the centerpoint from their own MST performance engines.
2. Let them know where they can find your updated theater template with the MST centerpoint location.
3. If you set your MST Centerpoint to a particular group and authorized access from that group in step 1, tell your performers that they should have this group active when using MST tools in your theater or performance area.

Please think about letting other MST Users know about your new theater! Send Arrehn Oberlander a message with a texture of your logo or name along with a notecard describing your group or theater, and you can be added to the "MetaHarpers Community Wall" at the in-world store and studio. This free promotion can help MST veterans and new users alike find each other.

Read more about best practices for setting up Performance Areas

There may be additional resources in the Theater Design section of this website.