VaM 1.x Ethical Questions To Timeline Edits

[HiGuy69lol]

I’ve edited my local Timeline var (v291) by Acid Bubbles. These are very minor cosmetic tweaks I find helpful. NO structural changes – only visual edits. I don’t code (but AI does) and the 3 changes were very easy. Even for me. The single hardest part was finding what .cs files to edit.

Questions first.

• Can I post a tutorial on how I edited the var?
• Do I need Acid Bubbles permission?
• Is anyone interested in this (and/or how I did it)?

I’m asking first because I don’t want to post code or my edited .cs files (only 2) without checking if such things are kosher.

Here’s what I changed:

• Resorted Controls in a more logical order (from alphabetical)
• Added color to Controls.
• Swapped Length and Speed on Edit tab.

These changes worked flawlessly from the start (desktop and VR) with no errors or odd behavior (again, only cosmetic tweaks).

Here’s what I wanted to solve:

1) By resorting, groups are naturally formed by where they are on the body.
2) I rarely use Speed on the edit tab and with Length at the bottom, I need to scroll if I want to change the time – say from 2 seconds to 10 and/or stretch an animation.
3) When selecting a Control (i.e. lElbow) I find myself ‘hunting’ for rElbow from a sea of gray.

Sort Logic (method to my madness)

• Top-down approach first.
• Left, then Right (since this was how it was originally – alphabetical).
• Grouped body parts – Left Arm, Leg (top-down), then Right side.
• Colored groups – Arms blue, Legs gold. I had Legs green at first, but since I usually play in passthrough (and use green via Virtual Desktop and Sally Whitemane’s Camera Background Color plugin) I couldn’t see those groups.

All controls:

Here’s what all Controls look like when selected (in color):

My typical setup and what a partial selection looks like:

 

[Vampix Collections]

I’ve edited my local Timeline var (v291) by Acid Bubbles. These are very minor cosmetic tweaks I find helpful. NO structural changes – only visual edits. I don’t code (but AI does) and the 3 changes were very easy. Even for me. The single hardest part was finding what .cs files to edit.

Questions first.

• Can I post a tutorial on how I edited the var?
• Do I need Acid Bubbles permission?
• Is anyone interested in this (and/or how I did it)?

I’m asking first because I don’t want to post code or my edited .cs files (only 2) without checking if such things are kosher.

Here’s what I changed:

• Resorted Controls in a more logical order (from alphabetical)
• Added color to Controls.
• Swapped Length and Speed on Edit tab.

Timeline is licensed under CC BY-SA, so license-wise I don’t see an issue with posting your tweaks as long as you credit Acid Bubbles and share it under the same license. You shouldn’t need explicit permission for that.

The only thing I could maybe see being an issue is whether your version is considered different enough for moderators to allow it as a separate upload rather than just a tutorial. But from a licensing standpoint, cosmetic edits with attribution should be fine.

 

[HiGuy69lol]

Timeline is licensed under CC BY-SA, so license-wise I don’t see an issue with posting your tweaks as long as you credit Acid Bubbles and share it under the same license. You shouldn’t need explicit permission for that.

The only thing I could maybe see being an issue is whether your version is considered different enough for moderators to allow it as a separate upload rather than just a tutorial. But from a licensing standpoint, cosmetic edits with attribution should be fine.

Ok... I was thinking that too based on what little I know of licensing. That said, I have two options: a tutorial where I simply provide the added code and explain where to add it, or the easier option of providing a copy of the two .cs files with the new code already added and a brief explanation of how to add/overwrite both files in the var. I'll wait and see what others think.

 

[VaMStaff]

This would be something you should ask in a support ticket to Hub staff, the community cannot answer whether something will be "kosher" other than giving their best guess.

 

[VaMStaff]

Under the CC BY-SA license you could upload your own version as long as you credit AcidBubbles and your content is also licensed CC BY-SA.

A guide on how to modify the files would be a bit odd, and wouldn't really be a guide, it would just be instructions on your fork of the plugin.

The best solution would be to see if you can get in touch with AcidBubbles and ask the best course of action. If you can't get in touch with Acid, then packaging your plugin in such a way that it automatically overwrites the proper files would be best.

As an example: https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/modified-breathing-driver-for-macgruber-life.29940/

 

[LeChuck99]

The thing is, if there is a new version from acid, then you need to transfer your updates into the new version. If there are also some cosmetic changes, then you have to re-engineer your whole thing.
I would talk to acid, give him the package as an update package, he can check it and maybe implement it into the main version. Then you dont have the issue with a custom version beside the original version.

 

[hazmhox]

I agree with @LeChuck99 here. Timeline is a pivotal plugin of the hub... releasing something for a cosmetic change is gonna require you to follow Timeline's updates, and it could fragment dependencies for people who do not know better.

I'd even go further: if your whole update is just your own cosmetics changes... don't release it. Use it when you script/animate your scenes, and simply replace it with the actual current version of Timeline. It's not bringing anything very different from the original besides your own subjective thingies of the UI. If everyone was doing that, we'd end up with X versions of timeline for no real new features.

But you could contact Acid to see if he thinks the changes are relevant and could be included in the actual main version of Timeline.