How can Linden Lab encourage better content?

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, halebore Aeon said:

 

Yes what she said, there are tonnes of tutorials on YouTube and are a great first step to learning blender. I can make a diamond, in 2 minutes flat. Just cause I learned how to do  it on YouTube.

Couldn't resist. Two clicks - Two seconds

[animats]

3 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

You can make them yourself in blender. If you can model and UV unwrap lettering then you have all the skills required to put a picture of that lettering on 2 triangles.

Yet it's rarely done.

Model on the left, impostor on the right. Done in-world. Just took a picture of the build on the left and pasted it on the front face of the object on the right. The impostor looks better than the low-detail view of the original at long range. 

Set the impostor image face to full bright; otherwise it's too dim.

 

It's a flat impostor. The illusion breaks down if you get too close. Good for flat objects like signs.

 

In the dark, the impostor is too bright. Unfortunately, to get the lighting right, the texture has to be full bright.

Working on that. For this image, using about 0.05 glow, instead of full bright, produces something that looks OK in bright light and doesn't glow brilliantly in the dark. Using the "brighten" filter on the image doesn't help much. May need to light the image differently when taking the picture. This needs a bright diffuse texture.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2018 by animats
More on lighting.

[ChinRey]

5 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

You can make them yourself in blender. If you can model and UV unwrap lettering then you have all the skills required to put a picture of that lettering on 2 triangles.

That's absolutely right. Making an impostor for a sign like that is dead easy. No excuses. It's trickier with more complex objects though.

Here's one I made last week (pictures taken at swap disatnces with LoD factor 1):

High LoD:

mid:

low:

Lowest is identical to low. It's only tree triangles at that stage so nothing left to reduce.

Edited July 23, 2018 by ChinRey
Adding illustrations

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, animats said:

Yet it's rarely done.

 

Model on the left, impostor on the right. Done in-world. Just took a picture of the build on the left and pasted it on the front face of the object on the right. The impostor looks better than the low-detail view of the original at long range. 

Set the impostor image face to full bright; otherwise it's too dim.

 

 

It's a flat impostor. The illusion breaks down if you get too close. Good for flat objects like signs.

 

In the dark, the impostor is too bright. Unfortunately, to get the lighting right, the texture has to be full bright.

Working on that. For this image, using about 0.05 glow, instead of full bright, produces something that looks OK in bright light and doesn't glow brilliantly in the dark. Using the "brighten" filter on the image doesn't help much. May need to light the image differently when taking the picture. This needs a bright diffuse texture.

 

 

Suggest brighten AND contrast for the texture. Then you can make it much brighter and keep the same look -- in my software anyway. 

EDIT: and the reason it is seldom done, even in this simple anyone can do it with few skills manner is that the folks making the mesh that falls apart and the ones BUYING the mesh that falls apart are all using LOD4 :D. To them it looks fine; hence the issue. 

 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Chic Aeon