av-caps
ARES System Manual: AV-CAPS

NOTE: This feature is a work in progress and is not yet available.

AV-CAPS (Avatar Capabilities) is a mechanism for automatically attaching configuration and interaction HUDs to the unit when requested by furniture and other objects. AV-CAPS is similar to an RLV relay, and uses the RLV protocol internally, but is much narrower in purpose.

ARES includes an implementation of the AV-CAPS Host program, which allows it to automatically attach and detach HUDs as needed, provided they are first configured for use, and that the requesting object is able to talk to AV-CAPS.

A HUD being managed by AV-CAPS is referred to as a 'service,' and the furniture or other devices that these HUDs control are called 'clients.' An 'AV-CAPS aware service' is a HUD being managed by AV-CAPS that can tell AV-CAPS when it is ready to receive connections from clients, and when it is no longer in use.

HUDs in AV-CAPS are always either 'stowed', 'deployed', 'active', or in transition between these three states.

- A stowed HUD is one that is present in the AV-CAPS Host's inventory (ARES user memory), but has not yet been copied into your SL inventory.
- A deployed HUD is one that is present in your inventory, whether or not it is in the Host's inventory.
- An active HUD is one that is currently attached and known to AV-CAPS. AV-CAPS can detect when a deployed HUD is also active, although AV-CAPS-aware HUDs may report directly.

AV-CAPS expects HUD names to be formatted in a particular way (<protocol name>-<version number>), which allows it to manage version numbers, and to ensure only the latest version of a given service is used.

Stowed HUDs will be provided whenever a client device attempts to connect to the matching service, unless the deployed version is already the best available. AV-CAPS will then attempt to attach the HUD.


Settings

AV-CAPS settings are stored in the database section caps. (See db for more information on the database.) Currently the following settings are available:

caps.path (default: ~CAPS): Sets the RLV folder where AV-CAPS stores and looks for deployed HUDs.
caps.service (default: {}): The list of services known to be stowed inside the inventory of the AV-CAPS Host. Each key of this JSON object is the name of a service, and the value is the version number.
baseband.caps (default: 1): Enables or disables both AV-CAPS and HW-CAPS (see hw-caps). A baseband restart (@service baseband restart) is required afterward.

The AV-CAPS features are implemented inside the device system module. To reload these settings, use the input command @reset device.

For full documentation of the CAPS protocols, see http://nanite-systems.com/reports/caps.txt