Major Additions - Living Avatars

Introducing Living Avatars!

Today is a great day and I have something really cool that some of you are going to love! It's called Living Avatars, a new vBulletin addon that I've been working on for almost one year.

This program will allow your users to customize their avatars by using the mouse to drag and move items around (items such as clothing pieces, etc). In order to collect items, you need to spend points, the more you post on a forum the more points you get! Thus, Grow your Forum with Living Avatars!

Tour

Click here for the tour movie.



Here is how it works in detail:

1) Download and install Living Avatars to vBulletin (install instructions below).
2) Once installed, go to the Living Avatars admin panel and click 'forum integration'.
3) The user profiles of your members will now have an extra link:



4) Now, the more a user posts on your forum, the more points he or she will earn. If a user has posted 500 times, and then you install Living Avatars, then that user will start with 500 points.

5) Once users have a few points, they can then start spending their points to collect items:



6) Now that they have collected a few items, they can create their ultra cool avatar! Check it out:



I highlighted the canvas in red, in that box (the canvas) you can use your mouse to drag items around. It seriously works beautifully.

7) Now, press the 'Save Avatar' button and your avatar on vBulletin will be updated:



And that's it! Cool yeah?!

Ok, so on with the install instructions:

Installation Instructions
Installation is very simple, just follow these steps and you shouldn't have any problems (if so, then I'm sorry and I'll try and help you out asap!).

1) Download & Extract living_avatars.zip
2) FTP the living_avatars folder to your forum
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/forums/living_avatars/
3) Run Setup: forum/living_avatars/setup/
4) CHMOD the Living Avatars 'avatars' folder to 777 (this folder: /living_avatars/avatars/)
5) Delete the setup folder (/living_avatars/setup/)

Now that Living Avatars is installed, go to the admin panel of Living Avatars and click the 'Forum Integration' link, from there you can press one link which will update the vBulletin modifyavatar template to insert the Living Avatars link.

Upgrade Instructions

1) Download & Extract living_avatars.zip
2) FTP the living_avatars folder to your forum (overwriting previous Living Avatar files)
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/forums/living_avatars/
3) Run Setup: living_avatars/setup/
4) Delete the setup folder (/living_avatars/setup/)

Uninstall Instructions
1) If you enabled the forum integration link from the LA Admin Panel, then login to the LA Admin Panel and disable it.

2) Drop these tables:
la_admins
la_avatars
la_groups
la_items
la_items_purchased
la_packs
la_points_spent
la_positions
la_settings

3) Delete the living_avatars/ folder.

Why should I use Living Avatars?
"Grow your forum with Living Avatars" - Simply that! Not only is Living Avatars a lot of fun to use but it's also addicting. Users will want to post on your site in order to gain enough 'points' to purchase a certain item (ex: Sword of Doom!). Imagine having certain items that are rare & expensive, such as "Dracula's Cape" which can only be purchased 3 times and costs 50 points (aka posts)...get it?

Where can I download more Avatar Packs?
You can download free user created avatar packs here:
Avatar Packs

How can I create Avatar Packs?
Please read this tutorial if you are interested in creating avatar packs:
http://www.livingavatars.com/help/p2_articleid/2

LA 120 Released
+ New Frontend & Backend
+ New theme editor

LA 115 Released
+ Better vBulletin integration

LA 114 Released
+ Online/Offline feature now works correctly.
+ LA admins can be deleted from the admin panel.
+ Fixed a positioning bug in the canvas.
+ Fixed IPB and SMF userid/avatarid conflict.
+ Fixed PHPBB3 download.php file change.

LA 113 Released
+ SMF Support (1.1 -> 1.3)
+ Better Forum Link Integration.
+ Less Warning Messages.
+ 'Bring to Top' is now used.

LA 112 Released
+ Added IPB 2.3 Integration.

LA 111 Released
+ Added phpBB3 Integration.
+ Fixed Crop Tool.
+ Better LA link integration for phpBB2.
+ Fixed a bug that caused avatars not to show up in the forum.

LA 110 Released
Updates & Fixed Bugs
+ Database changes, redid a lot of the LA Grouping logic.
+ You can only reinstall LA if logged in as admin.
+ Fixed 'Items Misplacement Issue'.
+ Fixed mysql error when adding admin with high userid value.
+ Items & groups an be moved around & deleted.
+ Removed admin/forumlinks.php file.
+ Add/Remove Forum link added to settings page.
+ New layout for admin panel.
+ New groups can be added.

LA 102 Released
+ Avatar Packs can be upgraded.
+ Avatar Packs can be uninstalled.
+ Minor changes to the design layout of certain pages.
+ Fixed a points remaining calculation bug.
+ Fixed a mysql_connect() database warning for vB users.
+ Other small misc fixes.

LA 101 Released
+ Better error checking when saving avatars.
+ Update to work with the vBulletin File System.
+ Fixed some vBulletin & phpBB integration issues

Always Backup your Database before Upgrading
Living Avatars might have database changes during the upgrade. Please, take the extra time and backup the living avatars tables (the tables that are prefixed with 'la_' in your forum database) before upgrading to new versions. I always do as much as testing as possible before releasing updates but it's still better to be cautious.

[DiSpy]

Originally Posted by Calash

One question, are there any hooks that I could use to apply points to a person for actions outside of the forum? In my case I would also like people to earn points for posting stories and reviewing stories. I could probably do some database updates, but if hooks exists already I would rather use that

I'd like something similar implemented (a hook or something) so that others can create mods that would allow users to get points other ways that just via posting, like referring friends, sending points to others, etc... I have alot of ideas for this... just need the hooks to start with.

Also there should be an option in the admin panel to turn on/off points for posting per forum (example some forums where people don't want users to spam, won't have thier posts add points to this).

One last thing would be the ability to send items you've bought to another user... that way people could trade/auction thier items to each other.

THANK YOU!
(rated 5 stars, and nominated for MOTM, will install soon)

Edit: Oops, forgot I wanted to ask a question... does this work with the built-in usergroup permissions so that only certain usergroups can:
A) Have the ability to use this system at all
B) earn points for thier posts

[Calash]

How can I remove packs that I added, or sort items into different categories without members losing there purchases?

If you add the same pack twice (easy to do if you do a lot of them) it shows up as a blank folder in the admin panel. I would also like to sort stuff better...put all the dresses together, all the shirts together.


Is there an easy way to do this yet? If not...it would make a good addition

[subduck]

Originally Posted by rickyreter

Getting this when installing a pack;

Living Avatars Database Error

Invalid SQL: INSERT INTO la_items (itemid, packid, groupid, title, filepath, width, height, pngexists, cost, displayorder)
VALUES (NULL, 3, 0, 'Linda', 'packs/Dark Skin Toned Bodies_/linda.gif', 79, 208, 1, , 1)
Error: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ' 1)' at line 2
Error number: 1064
Date: Thursday 03rd of May 2007 10:38:02 AM
File:

Also i was told from my server that:

This error means that the syntax used in your mySQL is outdated and is no longer supported. You will have to update your script to a more recent version in order to fix it.
..ummmmm..how doe's one fix this then..with mod

Also how you uninstall a pack as it still showing in admin

Peter

Thanks, I found that error and it will be fixed in the next version (being released tonight). You can fix it yourself by logging into the LA Admin Panel and making sure their is an integer value for the setting 'default points cost'.

[subduck]

Originally Posted by Calash

I have Zoints Local installed the the Living Avatar shows up fine in the profiles.


Great job with this one

One question, are there any hooks that I could use to apply points to a person for actions outside of the forum? In my case I would also like people to earn points for posting stories and reviewing stories. I could probably do some database updates, but if hooks exists already I would rather use that

No, hooks do not currently exist.

[subduck]

Originally Posted by aberg

Great Job and work!
Only one question, Is it possible to make this work for some usergroups?
I don't want use postcount option for the forum
My experience is that a lot of users posting nonsense if they get more level when they posting more message.

Right now it works with all usergroups, there is currently no setting to choose which usergroups have access to Living Avatars.

[subduck]

Originally Posted by Calash

How can I remove packs that I added, or sort items into different categories without members losing there purchases?

If you add the same pack twice (easy to do if you do a lot of them) it shows up as a blank folder in the admin panel. I would also like to sort stuff better...put all the dresses together, all the shirts together.


Is there an easy way to do this yet? If not...it would make a good addition

This will be available in future releases.

[teneffus]

I think this is the greatest mod on this website..
i was looking for it for months.

but i have an idea: There must be an integration with other point mods(like ICash).
Because as long as this works with posting message there will be so much spam messages.
so we dont want it

if you can do this, this will be the greatest mod all over the world

[Philipaclayton]

installs thanks dude

[moonmoth]

Superb mod, my members can't get enough of it.
Nominated MotM. Thanks.

[subduck]

Originally Posted by moonmoth

Superb mod, my members can't get enough of it.
Nominated MotM. Thanks.

Thanks, that is awesome to know!