How does your avatar look today ?

[Talligurl]

Thanks to @Lene Nykvistfor this great bikini

 

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

...tries to tip you over.

Aww, now there's a warm welcome back! I feel gently toasted and delightfully singed around the edges now. Thankee!

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, Seicher Rae said:

Yay! I was wondering where you had gone and was missing your fabulous photos.

Thank you! I just needed to take a step back for a while.

(Sorry, I'm replying a bit piecemeal today, for some reason.)

[Maitimo]

4 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Thank you both

Matty: the hair is 'Selene' by Exile.

Ahah! I knew I recognised it; I have that one too. 😊

[Maitimo]

So I bought new hair today, from Stealthic, and then went to Burrows with Black Dragon:

I ended up editing these because I decided to crop them for better composition, so I replaced the viewer's vignette that got chopped off. I've noticed though, that I didn't need to sharpen them, which I nearly always have to do when I take pics in Firestorm.

Also showing off the new dress, made by myself (well, from a mesh template anyway).

 

[NiranV Dean]

5 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's a lovely shot! And it has that very distinctively "BD" feel to it.

As for defaults -- I found that if you right-click on the slider bars it resets them to . . . um, something. Default, maybe?

3 hours ago, Angelina String said:

@RaeLeeH - Scylla is on to it but here's a slight correction: 

Right-click -> back to previous held value

CTRL +  right-click -> back to default

Works on most sliders/spinners except those who have [default] next to them, where a click on that does the trick.

Ah... how did you.... fff... man i'm slow today...

But a slight correction: It works on all sliders except group vector sliders. E.g all sliders that control a single debug setting such as draw distance, max avatars, max particles etc. Sliders which control only a part of a debug setting (a vector which has 2 up to 4 values, X/Y/Z/W) can only be reset back to their last value. The easiest way to see whether something is a group slider or not is by checking the [default] button, if there is one including multiple sliders then that's a group of sliders (they are also grouped together). This is sadly a limitation of how controlling debug settings works, since these sliders do not directly control the debug setting but rather call a function which takes the vector, and edits a given part of the vector manually then saves back the entire vector the Ctrl + Right Click cannot read which debug setting is being controlled since it is not written into the slider itself as parameter unlike with normal sliders.

5 hours ago, Catrie said:

I can't really use BD.  Every time I go to close it, it screws up my laptop's graphics until it looks like an old time tv station where everything is colorful and scrambled so you can't see anything.  The only thing I can do is restart my whole computer. 

Anyway, today is just a simple portrait.  nothing fancy. no fancy windlight or filter or anything.

 

2 hours ago, Saskia Rieko said:

i had exactly the same issue, but then I realized, actually by the fact I could not find the Poser, that I was running old / not updated or maybe broken version - that was my best guess. I immediately downloaded a new one and it works well.

Another.... fff what the is going on today... i shouldn't have slept those extra 3 hours...

Anyway, yes. If you are seeing your screen going funky after closing BD then you're running a very old version, this issue has been fixed like half a year ago or something. BD updates much more frequently than FS and doesn't tell you that there's an update around because i don't have a working auto updater.

3 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

Just a quick fyi tip for the rest of you who are also learning BD viewer: I just learned that under the display settings, for where you set the rendering for trees, terrain, etc. you see boxes for none to ultra. The boxes marked in BLUE are the settings that equal the Firestorm or LL viewers' ULTRA. The boxes set higher, in yellow, are therefore higher than FS ultra. Just gives you a sense of what you are asking your graphics card to do, and where to play with settings.

So while we are on little UI secrets here are some:

• As she mentioned already, blue badges mean ULTRA on LL, yellow badges mean these settings may cause issues, all options higher than ULTRA have a yellow badge for the simple reason that they might be "too much".
• All options have painstakingly hand-rewritten tooltips explaining you what they do, this includes possible hints to extra notes you should take, the actual value of a setting in blue (on those quality settings for instance), the possible impact on visuals and performance (with a slider rating). They are there for you to read, do it. 
  
• BD has a unique "warning system" that will try to tell you whenever you are about to break the Viewer in a spectacular way, doing certain things or setting certain settings to values will trigger a warning, highlighting options in red and showing you a warning sign just like above, this warning sign has a tooltip attempting to explain to you what you are about to **** up. You should probably listen to these, unless you are going for something that requires doing this.
  
• As previous @Angelina String already mentioned: Right Click reverts to the last value, Ctrl + Right Click reverts to default.
• Shift can be held down on spinner controls to multiply your input by 10 times (this is going to be changed to divide by 10 in the next update)
• Similarly you can hold Shift and press Up or Down arrow after you've selected them to change their increment precision either by 10 times or divide by 10 times. Useful if you don't like a particular slider to change in 10 units at a time and you want it to change in 1 or 100 units. The UI does not show you the current increment value, i wouldn't know how to show this in a sensible way that doesn't overburden the UI even more than it already is.
• You can hold down Shift and press Up or Down arrow on dropdown boxes to jump to the next/previous entry directly without opening the dropdown menu. Useful if you want to quickly switch through Windlight presets, was actually implemented just because of that.
• You can hold down Ctrl and use the Mousewheel to scroll through sliders and spinners with their current increment value, by default the UI allowed scrolling at all times, you can imagine that with a huge Display tab that has millions of sliders this was quite... annoying... scrolling through your values accidentally while attempting to scroll through the tab instead.
• You can use Left and Right arrow keys to increment/decrement a slider one tick at a time for that extra bit of precision in case you don't want to type into the text box, similarly you can use Up and Down arrow keys to go through drop downs and comboboxes.
• F1 key is your friend. No its not that useless Help.
• You can undock chats (specifically the Local Chat) with this button:  you can then collapse it to a chat line with this button:  some options only work if the Local Chat is collapsed to a line but once again the tooltip will tell you. 
• The loadingscreen will show you random helpful tips... if you can read them before the teleport finishes that is.
• You can Right Click copy SLURL of someone at any time from pretty much any location you can get a menu of the target person.
• Common shortcuts are: Ctrl + P (Preferences), Ctrl + Shift + S (Snapshot), Ctrl + Alt + F1 (Hide UI), Shift + Alt + H (hide HUD, do not Ctrl + Shift + H, thats TP Home), F1 (Machinima Sidebar), Ctrl + Alt + F (Freeze/Unfreeze World, useful for setting up a picture before setting it up) and Shift + Alt + S to sit down at any time.
• You can "pin" menus to make them stick by clicking the top double lines of a menu, useful if you need to click multiple entries in a menu or a single one multiple times fast. 
  
• Above menu. Alpha, unalpha, change masking status, de-fullbright selected items and so on. Extremely useful if you don't want to use the global Fullbright toggle and turn off all Fullbrights. Dragon - My Useful Features - Manipulate Prims. These changes are local and will revert on TP (except for worn stuff, they need a relog).
• You can /GTH by clicking into the Navigationbar and changing the last coordinate, hit enter to confirm. Similarly you can type in any Sim name directly or type in a name of teleports from your TP history or landmarks, the Navigationbar will attempt to autocomplete and/or search for these.
• Everything is there for a reason. I hate wasting space and i hate pointless things. If it looks like it might be a button or contain a tooltip, it MOST likely does. *caugh* Warning signs.
• You can rebind all controls in Preferences - Keybindings. This includes all camera controls.
• You can customize and create camera presets in Preferences - Camera. Make one for every Sim in SL! No don't.
• This little baby:  found in Camera prefs brings you straight to smooth camera heaven if you own a Controller. SpaceNav works too... i guess but is unsupported.
• On login you can see changes done in each update. You might want to read them if you don't have anything to do, you might find your issue fixed or a nice hint at a new feature.
• I will always appear at the top of your friendlist:  regardless of our actual friendship status. In case you need help. It's there for a reason.
• You can click the 4 little icons in each friend's entry to toggle the coresponding permission, it's slow and might not properly refresh at times but its better than nothing. I told you everything is there for a reason.
• You can create short links with [link text], [www.google.com Google], you can hover links to see where they lead. Everyone can see this (excluding possibly Viewer 1 if its not updated)
   
• You can also stylize your chat (although only in BD) with several fancy things like <b> <i> <u> <nolink> <icon> <red> <green> <blue>

  It works like this: <b>Text</b> to write something in bold. <icon>Viewer Texture Name</icon> to display a Viewer UI texture. <red>Red Text</red> to write in red. You get the idea. Note that only you and other BD users can see these, LL disabled this a while ago.
  

Edited January 25, 2020 by NiranV Dean

[Alyona Su]

 

[Ted McGregor]

[Alyona Su]

30 minutes ago, NiranV Dean said:

Ah... how did you.... fff... man i'm slow today...

[-SNIP-]

This is all really helpful, thank you. I'm actually getting striking performance in Black Dragon and I even like the UI a lot. One thing that have seen talked about over and over is its "photograph" abilities. Sure, there are a lot of functions and tools that equal, if not surpass the Firestorm Phototools, but it's not even really about that!

I noticed this aspect specifically while shooting against a white background for my CTS Wardrobe and uploaded the images: The *look* of the image is so amazingly superior to every other viewer available.

Every.
Single.
One.

Including and especially Firestorm, and I don't mean resolution or graphic settings or any of that. Okay, maybe it's in the graphic setting, but what I'm referring to is the GAMUT levels. The whites are not over-white and blacks are not over-black. And the dynamic range is amazing. Picture-taking aside, the Second Life grid just plain looks better in Black Dragon.

I've been using it exclusively since I first tested it last weekend. I'm thinking this will be my viewer of choice for the very reason that SL just looks so darned good in it.

The image I posted just above this is done in Black Dragon. For kicks, I'm thinking to do a two-for to show Firestorm and Black Dragon side-by-side shots, unedited. Just so people can see what this viewer does for how great SL just plain looks.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Alyona Su

[VictoriaGrwd]

[Laika Ravikumar]

[NiranV Dean]

26 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

This is all really helpful, thank you. I'm actually getting striking performance in Black Dragon and I even like the UI a lot. One thing that have seen talked about over and over is its "photograph" abilities. Sure, there are a lot of functions and tools that equal, if not surpass the Firestorm Phototools, but it's not even really about that!

I noticed this aspect specifically while shooting against a white background for my CTS Wardrobe and uploaded the images: The *look* of the image is so amazingly superior to every other viewer available.

Every.
Single.
One.

Including and especially Firestorm, and I don't mean resolution or graphic settings or any of that. Okay, maybe it's in the graphic setting, but what I'm referring to is the GAMUT levels. The whites are not over-white and blacks are not over-black. And the dynamic range is amazing. Picture-taking aside, the Second Life grid just plain looks better in Black Dragon.

I've been using it exclusively since I first tested it last weekend. I'm thinking this will be my viewer of choice for the very reason that SL just looks so darned good in it.

The image I posted just above this is done in Black Dragon. For kicks, I'm thinking to do a two-for to show Firestorm and Black Dragon side-by-side shots, unedited. Just so people can see what this viewer does for how great SL just plain looks.

I don't know how colors look with default display settings as BD's Tone Mapping and Color Correction is aimed at a "Full Range" color profile. In Nvidia Settings you can change the display settings to either be limited (16-239 shades) or Full Range, which will make black REALLY Black, THIS is the way colors are supposed to be but NVidia disabled this by default (you need to redo this every time you update your drivers) because most people don't have their Monitors properly configured for this. Black in BD should usually be really black while white shouldn't be fully white (white is actually the only thing that is slightly washed out) but yes the dynamic color range is much better, even more if you use a Full Color profile, that's when BD truly shines with colors.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hippiestock is underway...

[Alyona Su]

12 minutes ago, NiranV Dean said:

I don't know how colors look with default display settings as BD's Tone Mapping and Color Correction is aimed at a "Full Range" color profile.

I did this, more or less, to confirm what I thought I was seeing and I'm right! LOL Same hardware, same drivers, same everything, including settings as best as I was able, here is a comparison. Some will like the "harsh" tones because that is what they are used to. But as a graphic designer in RL, I know know the "softer" tones are what we want because it give greater dynamic range.

The small preview the forums gives cam make it difficult to tell the details in the hair and overemphasizes the softness on the right side, but it posts the picture instead of the URL which I would prefer people look at the full size to see the differences as they actually are. Though even at this size, the difference in the dress colors and hairband is clear.

Quote

the dynamic color range is much better, even more if you use a Full Color profile

This is the main point, I think. Computer graphics are always so harsh. When we create video for television in RL, we always have to tone down the whites and blacks just to get dynamic range to pop better.

And to be clear to all readers: I'm not debunking viewers or anything! LOL I'm just showing what I'm seeing and, for ME, I prefer the right side image to the left side.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Alyona Su

[NiranV Dean]

1 minute ago, Alyona Su said:

I did this, more or less, to confirm what I thought I was seeing and I'm right! LOL Same hardware, same drivers, same everything, including settings as best as I was able, here is a comparison. Some will like the "harsh" tones because that is what they are used to. But as a graphic designer in RL, I know know the "softer" tones are what we want because it give greater dynamic range.

The small preview the forums gives cam make it difficult to tell the details in the hair and overemphasizes the softness on the right side, but it posts the picture instead of the URL which I would prefer people look at the full size to see the differences as they actually are. Though even at this size, the difference in the dress colors and hairband is clear.

Hum i don't remember the differences being that extreme, are you using Tone Mapping only maybe? Tone Mapping is supposed to be used in combination with Color Correction and vise versa. Also, i know quite a few people who have been complaining about the washed out white.

Edited January 25, 2020 by NiranV Dean

[Alyona Su]

24 minutes ago, NiranV Dean said:

Hum i don't remember the differences being that extreme, are you using Tone Mapping only maybe? Tone Mapping is supposed to be used in combination with Color Correction and vise versa.

I'll check the settings. I'm still learning all those extra ones. Though I do like what I'm seeing thus far (I'm not trying to do Photgrapher stuff with it, just to make the entire grid look as awesome as it can be!)

Edit: All my settings are at default, Tone Mapping is on, set to "Custom" and all the defaults. Color Correction also is set to Linear and defaults. So manybe it is the nVidia driver thingie LOL I *hate* that control panel because it barely makes any sense to me.  I'll fiddle with it, but either way, I'm loving what I'm seeing.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Alyona Su

[Miakis Littlepaws]

[NiranV Dean]

1 hour ago, Alyona Su said:

I'll check the settings. I'm still learning all those extra ones. Though I do like what I'm seeing thus far (I'm not trying to do Photgrapher stuff with it, just to make the entire grid look as awesome as it can be!)

Edit: All my settings are at default, Tone Mapping is on, set to "Custom" and all the defaults. Color Correction also is set to Linear and defaults. So manybe it is the nVidia driver thingie LOL I *hate* that control panel because it barely makes any sense to me.  I'll fiddle with it, but either way, I'm loving what I'm seeing.

Ah good, yea Tone Mapping should by default be on and set to Custom and Color Correction should be Linear (on).

NVidia Control Panel - Display - Change Resolution - 3. Dynamic Color Range

[Seicher Rae]

I'm dancing as a cup of coffee and plate of cookies at a club that is doing a food theme.  As one does. A *sexy* cuppa since I have on fishnets and red high heels. (Firestorm, on med high because I couldn't even figure out BD for all of this today, not with all the chatting and things.)

 

[Eva Knoller]

 

 

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

31 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

A *sexy* cuppa since I have on fishnets and red high heels.

Meet any nice creamers or sugar bowls?

[Seicher Rae]

13 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Meet any nice creamers or sugar bowls?

Sadly, no, but there is a very nice stack of pancakes.

[MrsSeren]

18 hours ago, NiranV Dean said:

Oh... oh.. uhm.. I.. uh i didn't mean to ... of course the world is flat! That was just me brabbling nonsense!

W-what do you mean arrows visible to you when editing something near you? Are you telling me the edit arrows should poof when editng something close to you? My god that sounds like a bug.

LOL No, it just me being happy on easier editing of things is all.  

[AylarL]

Fierce creatures

[Cristiano Midnight]

Spending time with my better half: