Topic

Staff Topic

New Feature: Glitch Snaps

Got Eyeballery? Snapshotting? A Camera from the toy vendor? Well, well, well… look at you: making .png files and downloading them to your hard drive. Like a sucker.

Well, no more!!! NO! No more. Friends, now when you make that snap, you can save it right here on Glitch. You can still download the image and post it wherever you want, but we'll save multiple sizes of your snapshot right here, just for you. And you can add captions. And you can post the photo as a status update. And people can make comments. And if you think that's all … well, we know you're not silly enough to think we'd stop there.

We're also storing tags for each person in the image, we're "geotagging" the snaps themselves and we're even recording what animals and other non-player characters appear in frame. In the next release of Glitch Snaps, it'll be easy to do really important things … like find all photos which include a particular chicken taken in Smallend High in Groddle Heights on a particular day. You'll wonder how you lived without it.

Anyway, enough of the future. Here are some notes on how things will work in this first release:

1. You still need the Snapshotting skill and a Camera item to take the snap (once we do the transition to Imagination, that is liable to change). Press "C" to enter Camera mode. Pressing the Enter key while in Camera mode will show you a preview of the snap. From there you can choose to save it, add a caption, post a status update, etc.

2. Only you can see your archive of snaps you have taken (there is no public gallery) and the web addresses (URLs) of the snaps are secret (that means they are effectively private — the addresses are pretty hard to guess).

3. Therefore, if you want others to see your Snap, you'll have to post a status update or send them a link. (Later, we'll add the concept of "publishing" a snap so it will automatically show up in your updates, be included in your public gallery and be available for searching.)

4. To make sharing easier, we included a short URLs service (on the new lem.to domain). We'll show you the short URL on that page for cutting and pasting. Twitter and FB sharing buttons are coming soon.

And, that's it for now. Enjoy!

Posted 8 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • oh boy oh boy! Thanks stoot!
    I'll go take pictures of my new house and my piggies now :)
    Posted 8 months ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • so awesome! ty

    Will we be able to later "Like" them like a status update?
    Posted 8 months ago by Rook Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Brilliant!
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay!
    Posted 8 months ago by RJStormRider Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sweet!
    Posted 8 months ago by Syrup Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ridiculously cute!  the update feature doesn't seem to work yet though...

    ETA: and functional!  cute *and* functional!  *swoon* :)
    Posted 8 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

    Thanks!
    Posted 8 months ago by Lady Cailia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • AWESOME!!!!

    Now we need a separate line for filtering snapshots, like the filter for requests and updates!
    Posted 8 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • NOW I'll need that snapshotting skill.  Alright!
    Posted 8 months ago by Carl Projectorinski Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The URLs appear to be overlapping. The following both lead to the same image, but have different player TSIDs.

    http://www.glitch.com/photos/PHFMLN0D3UC2VU0/7/
    http://www.glitch.com/photos/PLI10VSF8V7IE/7/
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hey.. wait... I'm not a sucker... Hrmph.
    Posted 8 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • one thing that looks like it was missed - the update page doesn't display the text of the update that shows up on the home page updates feed.  also, the updates are not displaying in the in-game updates channel or the glitch HQ app.  otherwise, bravo!
    Posted 8 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oooh!!!! yay!! im glad i have a camera now :D
    Posted 8 months ago by Gwynne Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh this is fantastic!

    I was in The Drop when this feature went live, and it seems that it only works on streets where Eyeballery works, at least at the moment. Since Stoot said the use of the camera is liable to change after we switch to Imagination, I'm guessing this is just a temporary limitation, but FYI to anyone who hopes to use this feature to take a screenshot in a street where Eyeballery doesn't work!
    Posted 8 months ago by jessypie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Uh-mazing!!!! Going to try it right no..
    Posted 8 months ago by ☠ lala512 ☠ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TomC: good catch there, thanks! Only one of those URLs now works.
    Posted 8 months ago by hitherto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • HAHA, Glitchr, I love it. I lol'd!
    Posted 8 months ago by Muncey Mango Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sweet!
    Posted 8 months ago by Codex Subscriber! | Permalink
  • DON"T SELL IT THIS TIME.
    Posted 8 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay! Finally another use for snapshots
    Posted 8 months ago by Cleops Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This.Is.Too.Awesome.Thank.You.T.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Posted 8 months ago by Maruchan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • *Backs away slowly*
    Posted 8 months ago by OMG BACON!! Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Now all you need to do is add Borders like Instagram!
    Posted 8 months ago by Bashere Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Not even this will make me buy a camera!
    TS is spying on Glitchen through it!
    Posted 8 months ago by Electric Wizard Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oh dear devs:) this gets better and better:) slow down with this incredible things!! it's awzo.Ome!!
    i just have a little tiny detail i wish you could work on: right now, the camera don't let us snap while jumping arround. is it possible to activate the camera and freeze while jumping? it would be super fantastic!! thank you i love you but i need to go test this! whoo hoo:))
    edit: while testing, i get to snap a jump, but i have to be very very fast to get it. a freeze would be better i think...
    Posted 8 months ago by mira gaia maia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm pretty disappointed that Snapshotting doesn't work inside the "lobby" of my old bog house, Boan Stravenue Villa.

    There is this Shelf there, of which I've become rather fond, and I really need some photos of it before it goes away forever.

    Any way to make this work, please?
    Posted 8 months ago by MicklePickle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yayy!  Thankies guys.  :>
    Posted 8 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love Glitchr! One thing I miss about the old snapshotting, though, was how quick it was: C, Enter, Enter, done. With the new snapshotting, there is a delay after taking the photo (as the preview fades and rotates into view), and another delay when saving (which took over 10 seconds for me the first time I tried it, and around 5 seconds on average). It would be great if the preview animation could be shortened and the saving/uploading done in the background so that I could return to the game more quickly.
    Posted 8 months ago by Lx’s Ghost Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What Lx said  ^^
    Posted 8 months ago by Dahlia DreadNaught Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love it! Now all I need is some Glitchr schwag ;)
    Posted 8 months ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The pictures' URLs don't seem too hard to guess; bug or feature?
    Posted 8 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ummmmm... >_> ..... where's my Glitchr album and where is it Shared when I share it?  I set a test up but can't find it.  ~O_o~
    Posted 8 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • glum, they seem pretty difficult to guess because it involves the correct TSID plus #. Sure you could go for say the 15th photo with ../photos/????/15/ you'd still have to figure out the player/TSID that took the 15th photo.
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪, there's a link on the home page below the updates feed.
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ooooh I did not see this.  >_<  Thanks Tom.
    Posted 8 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like how the devs figured out just the thing to distract us from when R2 is dropping.... ooops, I thought about it.

    Back to snapshotting. :)
    Posted 8 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rats! I had totally listed snapshotting as one of the skills I didn't need to learn. Now I have to add one more skill on the list of bajillion more skills I need to learn XD
    Posted 8 months ago by Omnika Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm on my /photos/ page and trying to delete several photos in a row.  I get the "Are you sure you want to delete this?" pop-up once for the first photo, but each other one gives me the pop-up multiple times before finally working, and sometimes an error message afterwards because I've said "yes" to deleting a photo which no longer exists.

    As for the numbering: if I want to look at a particular player's photos, I can just increment the number at the end of the URL until I find one, which doesn't seem terribly "private" to me.

    Edited to add: now, even after deleting a photo and getting the photo_not_found error, I'm getting the "Are you sure" dialogue again and again.
    Posted 8 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just realized you cannot delete comments posted on published "snaps."

    I'm not sure if this was deliberately done, but if it was, I don't see a purpose for it since status updates and replies to status updates can be deleted. I'll just assume that the comments section in the "Glitchr" section follows an entirely different system and didn't adopt the thread-like system we're familiar with in status updates (which includes the ability to "like" and reply to replies).
    Posted 8 months ago by Deadshot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • glum, that is a good point, though when there are millions of photos, it'd take quite a bit of trial and error, and there is no way of knowing how many or when each of a player's photos were taken.
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If a pattern is apparent, no matter how laborious it would be to manually enter trial and errors, it can easily be done automatically if one is familiar with fusking :)

    Only those image-hosting sites that utilize a URL algorithm that is nearly impossible to crack, such as Facebook, are truly private.
    Posted 8 months ago by Deadshot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • True, though photos could always just be set as private by default, so even if you have the URL you can't view it. I like the current look of the URLs and would prefer it over something like /ca0b97e7f9/
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Excellent!
    Posted 8 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I forgot to mention: when I referred to URLs, I meant the actual .jpg-image URL which cannot be made private. The only URL that Tiny Speck could make private is the URL of the Glitchr page where you would find the image posted. Image URLs can always be accessed by anyone, but they can be made very difficult to guess. The challenge would lie in creating an algorithm that would show no apparent pattern: hexadecimal codes work great.

    This is actually an underlyng privacy issue for other sites like Photobucket, so it's not an easy task to overcome. It shouldn't be a problem, though. I have high expectations for Tiny Speck, since I know they have an experienced crew and are very familiar with image-hosting sites.
    Posted 8 months ago by Deadshot Subscriber! | Permalink
  • luvin this!
    Posted 8 months ago by MzMunchken Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah Deadshot, in the case, the URLs of the direct images are already like what you were hoping for, such as: http://glitch-users.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/2012-04-04/PA9VHKNCKQD2LUN/24_d70389c92d_t.jpg
    Posted 8 months ago by TomC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Re URL guessability, we realized after this was released and we all went to lunch that they were much easier to guess than we originally intended. A fix will be rolled out shortly (photo page URLs will be more like photo URLs). Also, the URL path is changing to use /snaps/ instead of /photos/ (it is hard to be consistent!).
    Posted 8 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • glum pudding: the multiple prompts & error messages when deleting a bunch of photos will be fixed. Thanks!
    Posted 8 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lx, re "One thing I miss about the old snapshotting, though, was how quick it was …"

    We'll look at this and see how it can be made better/faster.
    Posted 8 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think this feature is AWESOME!!!!! 
    Posted 8 months ago by GreyGoose Subscriber! | Permalink
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