Resources: hippoRENT v5: Rental Sign

A rental sign can be connected to a rental box and will allow the tenant (or partner) on the connected box to change the texture on it, as well as add a landmark and notecard if they wish. When the tenancy ends, the sign will revert to your default texture. This allows mall owners, for example, to easily standardize the size and shape of store front signs, yet easily allow tenants to quickly brand a shop with their logo once they’ve rented.

Setting up the rental sign

1. Rez the rental sign, right click it and choose “Edit” (and then “More>>>” if only the mini-build window appears).
   
   
2. Click on the “Contents” tab and drag the texture you wish to use for the default (unrented) sign to the sign’s inventory. For example, here we’ve added a texture called “My Vacant Texture“.
   
   
   
   
3. Double-click the Rental Sign Controller script to edit it.
   
   
4. Change the sign_channel and passphrase settings to something unique. Change the vacant_texture_name to the name of whatever texture you added in step (2) above. For example:
   
   
   
   
5. Close and save this script.
   
   
6. Next, open up the rental box as you did the sign in step 1 and add the PLUGIN_rental_sign script from your inventory to the contents of the rental box you wish to connect to the sign.
   
   
   
   
7. Double click this script and edit it in the same way you did for the Rental Sign Controller in step 4. Ensure that the sign_channel and passphrase settings are absolutely identical to those in step 4. And ensure that the “Running” tickbox is ticked at the bottom left of the script window. So, for example ...
   
   
   
   
8. Close the script and save it. If everything has been correctly, the PLUGIN script will chat readiness to you:
   
   hippoRENT Rental Box whispers: Rental sign plugin loaded and running ok.
   
   
9. Then click the rental box and reset it. If there is a current tenant, their details will be transmitted to the sign; otherwise the next time a tenant rents, their details will be immediately sent. (The box also resends the details every two hours). When a sign picks up details of a new tenant, it will report this, for example:
   
   hippoRENT Rental Sign 5.0 whispers: I can now be controlled by King Agamemnon, who may click me and choose 'Change Sign' and follow the instructions.
   
   
10. You can now control your sign by touching it to produce a menu like this one:
    
    
    
    Click Users to see a list of who can currently use the sign.
    
    Click Change Sign to open up the sign for inventory receipt (more on this below).
    
    Click Wipe Sign to remove any inventory and reset the sign to your default texture.
    
    Click Test Touch to check any notecard or landmark in the sign is given properly.
    
    Click Reset to completely reset the sign.
    
    Click Help to get a copy of these instructions in notecard form.
    
    

How Do Tenants Use the Sign?

1. To use the sign, a tenant begins by clicking it and it will display a menu, similar to the one above but with fewer buttons. It will look like this:
   
   
   
   
2. To change the sign’s texture, or to add a landmark or notecard, the tenant should click Change Sign. Then they should drag, while holding down the CTRL key on their keyboard, a texture, landmark, or notecard (or all three at once) to the sign.
   
   
3. Repeat step 2 for each item they wish to add. Please note, they cannot add multiple landmarks, notecards, or textures — if they try, the extra items will be deleted.
   
   
4. Adding a texture will cause the sign to change. Adding a notecard or landmark will cause this to be given to other people who touch the sign (the tenant may test this is working using the Test Touch menu option).
   
   
5. When their rental ends, the sign will delete the tenant’s inventory and reset to show the default texture you specified when you set up the sign (steps 1, 2 and 4 at the top of this page).