Product Brief — HS_DollyCam

Overview

HS_DollyCam is a cinematic camera dolly HUD for Second Life that enables users to compose, save, and playback professional-grade camera movements and tours. It is distributed as a wearable HUD (single-prim, Controller in ROOT) with a suite of companion scripts that handle playlist playback, continuous tour runtime, camera engine control, dialog menus, visual markers, and field-of-view adjustment.

Problem

Second Life's default camera is imprecise and non-repeatable for cinematic photography, viewer capture, or scripted scene direction. Users cannot reliably reproduce camera angles, compose multi-shot sequences, or execute smooth automated camera rides across predefined waypoints without manual repositioning for each shot.

Solution

A HUD-based camera system that:

Lets users save camera presets (position + focus + FOV) into Linkset Data
Enables smooth cinematic moves between presets with configurable timing and easing
Supports playlist playback from inventory notecards for complex multi-shot sequences
Delivers continuous tours via Catmull-Rom spline interpolation with trapezoidal motion profiles
Provides visual markers (rez'd pyramids) at preset positions for clickable navigation
Offers FOV control via RLVa, dolly zooms, lock/follow modes, and a touch menu for common workflows

Target Users

SL photographers composing cinematic viewer captures
Content creators building scripted camera experiences
Virtual set directors directing camera movement for viewer recording
Linden Scripting Language (LSL) developers using the engine as a reusable camera framework

Key Constraints

LSL memory is severely limited — all scripts must avoid large/mixed-type lists and expensive llParseString2List in hot paths
Single-prim HUD — the Controller lives in the ROOT prim; all logic must be memory-efficient
Second Life viewer limitations — camera permission quirks require ESC-workaround; RLVa required for FOV
Parcel object limits — marker rezzing depends on parcel LI and rez permissions

Scope

In Scope	Out of Scope
Preset save/load/delete/list	Multi-user / networked camera sync
Notecard-driven playlist playback	Mobile / non-desktop viewer support
Continuous tour with spline interpolation	Audio synchronization
FOV control via RLVa	AR / VR viewer camera modes
Lock / Follow modes	Physics object interaction
Visual marker system	Cloud-based preset sharing
Dialog menu UI	REST / external API integration

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