The all-in-one Home Furnishings Topic!

[LittleMe Jewell]

23 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

ChiMia offers the Hera Iris Curtains for this weekend's TSS. Only 1 land impact.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serena Pisces/92/121/22

 

I'm now getting ticked off at creators.  These are the curtains from exactly 15m away -- notice there is no curtain rod.  My LOD is set at 2.

 

 

I was very interested in these curtains and I suppose I may go ahead and buy them, since they will work as long as I put them in a small room not visible from 15m or more. 

These types of things give me more incentive to learn Blender.  
 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell
spelling

[Eddy Vortex]

ZOE's Deluxe Mancave structure for the Manly Weekend sale at $50L.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ellis Island/155/211/23

I could see this as a kids backyard playhouse and made it so.

I've added the pirate flag to give it a finishing touch.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DC-FREE-Pirate-mesh-black-flag-banner/20250310

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Eddy Vortex

[Nika Talaj]

6 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

 

I'm now getting ticked off at creators.  These are the curtains from exactly 15m away -- notice there is no curtain rod.  My LOD is set at 2.

...

I was very interested in these curtains and I suppose I may go ahead and buy them, since they will work as long as I put them in a small room not visible from 15m or more. 

These types of things give me more incentive to learn Blender.  

I bought them too.  If they were built so that they DIDN'T break down, I'm not so sure they'd be 1 LI.  You know, just as shapes go, they don't look difficult.  Maybe when we get far enough in these courses (next fall lol), it'd be interesting to see if we CAN build them to be 1LI, without using an outrageous number of triangles, rezzable at higher distances. 

Where's @Chic Aeon when you need her!

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Nika Talaj said:

I bought them too.  If they were built so that they DIDN'T break down, I'm not so sure they'd be 1 LI.  You know, just as shapes go, they don't look difficult.  Maybe when we get far enough in these courses (next fall lol), it'd be interesting to see if we CAN build them to be 1LI, without using an outrageous number of triangles, rezzable at higher distances. 

Where's @Chic Aeon when you need her!

  Awake with bad dreams (not good energy out there in the US).   I already did my one LI drapes. They were not fun but I patted myself on the back when finished.

I did look at presumably anyway the drapes in question, but the ones I looked at had no second side so part of the front side showed through the baskside from OUTSIDE (wow what a sentence and I'm not awake yet) and I couldn't live with that.    

 

It is difficult to make 1 LI drapes because in order to get the curves to curve and drape you need a lot of topology and if you want things to look good  for your neighbors they pretty much need a backside (at least in a lot of instances).    And if you want them to "gather" on the rod that makes it harder.  Some I am guessing are made in Marvelous Designer.  I never found any tutorials that helped me with furniture items in MD so quit at Sansar clothing. 

 

So no help at all from me, but enjoyed the poke and got some of the nastiness out of my head which is good.   

 

We've had some threads in the past only on drapes and I don't remember anyone finding any great ones or I would point you towards them.   

 

I was going to come here yesterday and remind folks to check the triangle count on the furniture they were looking at (sales) but decided that sounded like a bossy teacher. There was some pretty stuff out there but it was obviously made for RENDERS and not for using in games and the mesh was super dense (I crashed immediately when I entered the sim and then went back more carefully the second time).    It seems like it is getting worse lately and I am guessing Arctan has or will be shoved into a dark closet now so it is up to each of us to be on our toes.   (OK bossy teacher mode over). 

 

EDIT:   These are 4 LI at this big size but do have nice backing on the drape part.  I am not thrilled with them though and think I will export them out and see if I can improve them.   No new products though. I am only working on MY stuff which become Advent gifts :D.   But as I said I made these years go  (must be four anyway) and smarter now happily.

 

I have 1000 LI in this place and I am (as you can see) using some hefty mesh items. I basically have no neighbors so as long as "I" do OK things are good. So far so good as I really don't have that many "primmy" things and no heart-stopping ones that I know of. 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Chic Aeon
adding info

[Leora Greenwood]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

  Awake with bad dreams (not good energy out there in the US).

I was going to come here yesterday and remind folks to check the triangle count on the furniture they were looking at (sales) but decided that sounded like a bossy teacher.

Totally agree about the good/bad energy currents flowing in the US; I have been awake at 4:30 a.m. the past few days and generally giving up and getting up to be productive, then crashing later.

PLEASE feel free to be "bossy teacher"!  So many of us here are longing to understand our SL environment better.  I, and several others from this forum, are two lessons in on Blender and (I at least) still know nothing.  HOW does one check on the things we see in stores?  Is it putting them in edit and clicking on the "more info" link?  I have only the haziest of understandings of what I am seeing when I do that; I took some 1LI stools out to a sandbox to try linking them to see how the "more info" info translated to inworld info and that helped a bit.  But I am still generally mystified as I stumble through SL. 😕

Edited January 17, 2021 by Leora Greenwood
fat fingers

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

3 hours ago, Leora Greenwood said:

Totally agree about the good/bad energy currents flowing in the US; I have been awake at 4:30 a.m. the past few days and generally giving up and getting up to be productive, then crashing later.

PLEASE feel free to be "bossy teacher"!  So many of us here are longing to understand our SL environment better.  I, and several others from this forum, are two lessons in on Blender and (I at least) still know nothing.  HOW does one check on the things we see in stores?  Is it putting them in edit and clicking on the "more info" link?  I have only the haziest of understandings of what I am seeing when I do that; I took some 1LI stools out to a sandbox to try linking them to see how the "more info" info translated to inworld info and that helped a bit.  But I am still generally mystified as I stumble through SL. 😕

You can right click and choose "object" and "inspect" to see how many triangles are in an object.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Sylvia Tamalyn

[Chic Aeon]

4 hours ago, Leora Greenwood said:

  HOW does one check on the things we see in stores?  Is it putting them in edit and clicking on the "more info" link?  I have only the haziest of understandings of what I am seeing when I do that; I took some 1LI stools out to a sandbox to try linking them to see how the "more info" info translated to inworld info and that helped a bit.  But I am still generally mystified as I stumble through SL. 😕

Happily Blogspot found some old posts of mine  (after 5000 posts it is a hit and miss deal it seems so it was a lucky day). 

 

Here is an old post on how to learn more about the distance items will break apart and LODS:  https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-new-firestorm-building-and-shopping.html

And here is a recent post on how to link things together to lower the LI and why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't: https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2020/11/prim-magic-getting-more.html

And for some historical fun, here is a post on when mesh was new and how you could save LI on prims (or so not as I remember a good friend didn't heed my warnings and had a LOT of her items sent back to her) :  https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-is-prim-not-prim.html

 

Mostly you want to inspect an object to see its triangle count. This let's you know if it is heavy mesh.

You also want to check the LODs to see if the only reason the object is relatively low LI is because it breaks apart quickly (note that on LARGE buildings and such this is not a fair test - complicated but true). 

You want to be sure and "back away" from objects when you view them inworld to see if they fall apart for you. 

AND you want to see how many textures and how big those textures are (how long it will stay gray for you --- especially lately).  

 

All these things come into play and what will be a good item for you depends on your needs and of course the needs of your guests and neighbors. 

 

For BUYING and for myself the LODS are the most important thing. I can live with somewhat heavy mesh (half a million triangles for a medium sized piece of furniture is WAY too much for me but  130K for a smallish detailed food display that goes inside is OK for me if used sparingly).   When I was running public sims I was definitely careful about LODs and heavy mesh -- ONCE I UNDERSTOOD IT :D.

 

For BUILDING I always went for the most streamlined mesh that I could (well there was at least one dropped cloth that was pretty heavy but certainly not by today's norms *wink*) .  I also kept my textures fairly low (not as low as some but definitely on the close to lowest end of the scale) and as time went on used Cycles to bake in the ambient lighting so that materials weren't needed. I also chose to to limit shadows in most cases so that the items looked "flatter" than many items of today but also worked for folks with low end machines as well as those that always had shadows on.  These were MY choices as a creator; other folks made other choices. I did so knowing that I was cutting out a big portion of shoppers who wanted it "as pretty as it could be" :D.   

 

Now that I am building for myself the textures are getting a bit fancier than in the past but the mesh itself is still very low poly.

In most cases the high poly mesh you see is either the creators not understanding what "game asset mesh" is or --- these days more and more -- people buying RENDER mesh (made for taking photos for magazines and such) instead of GAME mesh and not lowing the triangle count (retopology). The buying is completely legal now so far as Linden Lab is concerned  but really REALLY hard on computers.    

 

This has all been said over the years. Nothing really new here but maybe a good consolidation for those new or new to the forums.  Hope it helps. 

[Leora Greenwood]

13 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

Happily Blogspot found some old posts of mine  (after 5000 posts it is a hit and miss deal it seems so it was a lucky day). 

 

Here is an old post on how to learn more about the distance items will break apart and LODS:  https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-new-firestorm-building-and-shopping.html

And here is a recent post on how to link things together to lower the LI and why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't: https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2020/11/prim-magic-getting-more.html

And for some historical fun, here is a post on when mesh was new and how you could save LI on prims (or so not as I remember a good friend didn't heed my warnings and had a LOT of her items sent back to her) :  https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2012/12/when-is-prim-not-prim.html

 

Mostly you want to inspect an object to see its triangle count. This let's you know if it is heavy mesh.

You also want to check the LODs to see if the only reason the object is relatively low LI is because it breaks apart quickly (note that on LARGE buildings and such this is not a fair test - complicated but true). 

You want to be sure and "back away" from objects when you view them inworld to see if they fall apart for you. 

AND you want to see how many textures and how big those textures are (how long it will stay gray for you --- especially lately).  

 

All these things come into play and what will be a good item for you depends on your needs and of course the needs of your guests and neighbors. 

 

For BUYING and for myself the LODS are the most important thing. I can live with somewhat heavy mesh (half a million triangles for a medium sized piece of furniture is WAY too much for me but  130K for a smallish detailed food display that goes inside is OK for me if used sparingly).   When I was running public sims I was definitely careful about LODs and heavy mesh -- ONCE I UNDERSTOOD IT :D.

 

For BUILDING I always went for the most streamlined mesh that I could (well there was at least one dropped cloth that was pretty heavy but certainly not by today's norms *wink*) .  I also kept my textures fairly low (not as low as some but definitely on the close to lowest end of the scale) and as time went on used Cycles to bake in the ambient lighting so that materials weren't needed. I also chose to to limit shadows in most cases so that the items looked "flatter" than many items of today but also worked for folks with low end machines as well as those that always had shadows on.  These were MY choices as a creator; other folks made other choices. I did so knowing that I was cutting out a big portion of shoppers who wanted it "as pretty as it could be" :D.   

 

Now that I am building for myself the textures are getting a bit fancier than in the past but the mesh itself is still very low poly.

In most cases the high poly mesh you see is either the creators not understanding what "game asset mesh" is or --- these days more and more -- people buying RENDER mesh (made for taking photos for magazines and such) instead of GAME mesh and not lowing the triangle count (retopology). The buying is completely legal now so far as Linden Lab is concerned  but really REALLY hard on computers.    

 

This has all been said over the years. Nothing really new here but maybe a good consolidation for those new or new to the forums.  Hope it helps. 

WOW, thank you so much!  I made a copy of all that (I hope you don't mind!) to read through and digest this afternoon.  You are totally amazing!  🧡

[LittleMe Jewell]

7 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

the ones I looked at had no second side so part of the front side showed through the baskside from OUTSIDE (wow what a sentence and I'm not awake yet) and I couldn't live with that.    

Ugh - I never even thought to look at the back.  It hadn't dawned on me that there might not be one.  I was actually a bit surprised when I put a dress demo on last night, cammed partly under the skirt to ensure it was long enough for what I wanted, and noticed that the entire thing was invisible from the inside -- apparently that is what happens when someone doesn't put two sides on something.

Yes, definitely need a back side for curtains and thus something new to add to my "checklist".

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Leora Greenwood said:

PLEASE feel free to be "bossy teacher"!  So many of us here are longing to understand our SL environment better.  I, and several others from this forum, are two lessons in on Blender and (I at least) still know nothing.  HOW does one check on the things we see in stores?  Is it putting them in edit and clicking on the "more info" link?  I have only the haziest of understandings of what I am seeing when I do that; I took some 1LI stools out to a sandbox to try linking them to see how the "more info" info translated to inworld info and that helped a bit.  But I am still generally mystified as I stumble through SL.

Here is what I do to check triangles and LOD breakdown (after backing away from the item, or scrolling out, to check for obvious breakdown) -  I Edit the item, click 'Edit linked', go to the Object tab of the Edit window, and cycle through the pieces.  If one particular piece of an item is heavy, sometimes I'll derender that piece to see how it might look without it -- if it is the root, that won't work because it will derender the entire item.  In many cases, removing one item in a piece will leave a black area.  Depending on where the black part is, it might not matter to me.  Say for instance I'm looking at a bed that overall isn't bad, but has a very mesh heavy blanket tossed across it.  If I have one that is less heavy with good LOD that will cover the area of the original blanket, then I can swap it out.

 

Side note about backing or scrolling away from an item:  Remember that if you are using Firestorm, you can derender buildings, trees, etc..  that are in your viewing way.  I often have to do this when looking at outdoor items that are in a building.

Edited January 17, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[LittleMe Jewell]

46 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

And here is a recent post on how to link things together to lower the LI and why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't: https://chicatphilsplace.blogspot.com/2020/11/prim-magic-getting-more.html

This one is great info - definitely a more advanced way of looking at the "link together" method of reducing LI.  

[Chic Aeon]

I redid my drapes for the Lilly Ave house this morning (thanks for the nudge) and think I will be much happier with them.  I will post some info over on the MESH forum for those that are interested but here is a shot of the drapes at the distance where you can see them which I THINK should be adequate for most folks (this is LOD2 setting).   They are double sided and I even finished the inner parts of the cornice that won't normally be seen. They are 2 li. So it  certainly IS possible.

 

Firestorm says this is 28 meters on LOD 2 and 15 meters on the Linden viewer default. 

[Kat Shadow]

The new Chez Moi kitchen is ridiculously cute, low LI & small enough to even fit a camper. Total win.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by KatHeartsong Kaos

[Elora Lunasea]

20 hours ago, KatHeartsong Kaos said:

The new Chez Moi kitchen is ridiculously cute, low LI & small enough to even fit a camper. Total win.

 

 

Bought this earlier today.

It even has animations built in. And a texture change HUD for cabinets and countertops. Huge plus. 

Dislike the stools but that's an easy swap.

[Trinity Blakewell]

It's great to see a new kitchen for smaller spaces!

 

[Mercedes Avon]

That kitchen is really cute.

[Frigga Freidman]

On 1/15/2021 at 7:12 PM, Frigga Freidman said:

Extremely exciting news from Muniick for this weekend's Happy Weekend Sale! Their entire Wickman Farmhouse Kitchen - in 4 finishes, Adult or PG - is being sold for only 60L$! Note that anyone who has bought this previously should check their inventory for a free update! (The only problem I see is that the pieces are a bit too large - I haven't been able to check how well they scale down, but for 60L$...)

For the first time I'm seriously disappointed in a Muniick product - not only are the pieces HUGE, but more than half of them do not give a menu option to change color. Sometimes a bargain isn't. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

19 minutes ago, Frigga Freidman said:

For the first time I'm seriously disappointed in a Muniick product - not only are the pieces HUGE, but more than half of them do not give a menu option to change color. Sometimes a bargain isn't. 

Yes, but there is a bit you can do.  You should be able to resize it all by dropping a resize script into each piece, change all of them by the same percent, and then shove the pieces back together.   I haven't yet done that, but logically it should work.

As to the color change, due to how the items are textured, all we can do is tint.  Applying an actual new texture will NOT work correctly.  We shouldn't be totally surprised that there is no real texture change included, given the price we got it for. 

Luckily for me, I wanted the light wood and any change I might want, would probably be just tinting it a bit darker.  

[Sparkly Rainbow]

42 minutes ago, Frigga Freidman said:

For the first time I'm seriously disappointed in a Muniick product - not only are the pieces HUGE, but more than half of them do not give a menu option to change color. Sometimes a bargain isn't. 

I thought that the texture changing wasn't working - but then I read the directions.  There are some notes on where to click to change just about everything.  I'm not sure if this will help, but it helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

From the notecard:

===== TEXTURE CHANGING =====

The smaller cabinets and shelves are all controlled by one menu, while the tall pantry, tall refrigerator cabinet, and the island have their own touch menus. 

For the smaller cabinets and shelves, the SINK CABINET is your controller. this must be rezzed to control the other small cabinets and shelves. CLICK ON THE COUNTERTOP of the sink cabinet to bring up the menu. (This menu can only be accessed by owner)

For Tall Pantry, Tall Refrigerator Cabinet, and the Island, click anywhere on the wood to bring up their texture menus. 

The Chandelier also has texture menu, includes the same 4 wood tones with the cabinet. Click the wood cylinder part of the frame for the menu.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 minutes ago, Sparkly Rainbow said:

I thought that the texture changing wasn't working - but then I read the directions.  There are some notes on where to click to change just about everything.  I'm not sure if this will help, but it helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

From the notecard:

===== TEXTURE CHANGING =====

The smaller cabinets and shelves are all controlled by one menu, while the tall pantry, tall refrigerator cabinet, and the island have their own touch menus. 

For the smaller cabinets and shelves, the SINK CABINET is your controller. this must be rezzed to control the other small cabinets and shelves. CLICK ON THE COUNTERTOP of the sink cabinet to bring up the menu. (This menu can only be accessed by owner)

For Tall Pantry, Tall Refrigerator Cabinet, and the Island, click anywhere on the wood to bring up their texture menus. 

The Chandelier also has texture menu, includes the same 4 wood tones with the cabinet. Click the wood cylinder part of the frame for the menu.

One of those times when we really do need to read the '**READ ME**'

 

[Frigga Freidman]

9 minutes ago, Sparkly Rainbow said:

I thought that the texture changing wasn't working - but then I read the directions.  There are some notes on where to click to change just about everything.  I'm not sure if this will help, but it helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

From the notecard:

===== TEXTURE CHANGING =====

The smaller cabinets and shelves are all controlled by one menu, while the tall pantry, tall refrigerator cabinet, and the island have their own touch menus. 

For the smaller cabinets and shelves, the SINK CABINET is your controller. this must be rezzed to control the other small cabinets and shelves. CLICK ON THE COUNTERTOP of the sink cabinet to bring up the menu. (This menu can only be accessed by owner)

For Tall Pantry, Tall Refrigerator Cabinet, and the Island, click anywhere on the wood to bring up their texture menus. 

The Chandelier also has texture menu, includes the same 4 wood tones with the cabinet. Click the wood cylinder part of the frame for the menu.

Thanks - part of my frustration was that I rezzed it twice, and there was no notecard. I did buy it the day before it was officially advertised as being on sale, so maybe the creator updated it. (The pantry, fridge cabinet and island are the items I was able to re-color.) Will get a redelivery. However, I was unable to resize most of the items, and they're way too big.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Frigga Freidman

[Frigga Freidman]

6 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

One of those times when we really do need to read the '**READ ME**'

 

It would help if there was a 'Read Me' to read! See my response to Sparkly.

[Sparkly Rainbow]

3 minutes ago, Frigga Freidman said:

It would help if there was a 'Read Me' to read! See my response to Sparkly.

That is strange - when I unpacked I ended up with two notecards ...  the "READ ME" and a "TEXTURE CHANGING INSTRUCTIONS".  I can send you the notecards in world if you would like them.

[Frigga Freidman]

6 minutes ago, Sparkly Rainbow said:

That is strange - when I unpacked I ended up with two notecards ...  the "READ ME" and a "TEXTURE CHANGING INSTRUCTIONS".  I can send you the notecards in world if you would like them.

That would be great, thanks! (I've run into a problem like this before, when I 'scooped' a Christmas set from Kazza that just refused to rez properly - the creator apparently corrected it twice, so the third time I had it redelivered a couple of hours later everything was OK.)

[Frigga Freidman]

I think these shelf units would fit in well in a lot of styles where you need to fill a corner (hoping they'll suit the Tortuga's odd indents) 50L$ each, 2 LI at Hive now.

[Frigga Freidman]

Consignment is selling this shelving unit (with all decor) in a darker version of the one I used in my stilt house - 50L$ 6LI.

 

Edited January 22, 2021 by Frigga Freidman