Windlight Settings - how many of you play with these?

[Love Leonoase]

First off, are these just simple display settings that you can adjust yourself, or do you NEED to download a plugin/package to adjust them?

 

I recently read that they make a tremendous difference, and are the reason that many times the pictures of items you see at a shop inworld are much better looking than what you see when you put them on.......    but this still begs the question why you can view them and see them as nice looking at all, before you've put them on?  And why does it look of less quality on your avi, then it does on the wall of the shop?

 

 

[Chelsea Malibu]

Your windlight settings are in your Environment option and have quite a few presets you can play with.  There are even some installed for what you want to do.

Each browser is slightly different in their windlight options so you may want to check the Viewers FAQ or Help to learn more.

 Furthermore, you can make you own and save it to your inventory or get one from someone else and when you click it, it will set your light to those settings.

[Ry0ta Exonar]

Yeah, I'm playing with them. My computer is very slow, so I usually have to turn off the shaders and if I use default windlight setting turning off shaders, it looks a bit too shadowy. (left : default, right : mine)

 

---

Love Leonoase wrote:

 

I recently read that they make a tremendous difference, and are the reason that many times the pictures of items you see at a shop inworld are much better looking than what you see when you put them on.......    but this still begs the question why you can view them and see them as nice looking at all, before you've put them on?  And why does it look of less quality on your avi, then it does on the wall of the shop?

 

 

---

I'm not sure what you exactly mean. Some people might retouch the pics for ads with image editors so they look better just like in RL, others might not.

[Kelli May]

---

Love Leonoase wrote:

First off, are these just simple display settings that you can adjust yourself, or do you NEED to download a plugin/package to adjust them?

 

I recently read that they make a tremendous difference, and are the reason that many times the pictures of items you see at a shop inworld are much better looking than what you see when you put them on.......    but this still begs the question why you can view them and see them as nice looking at all, before you've put them on?  And why does it look of less quality on your avi, then it does on the wall of the shop?

 

 

---

Any viewer that supports Windlight (which I think is all of them now) will let you adjust and save settings to your preferences. In Phoenix, you'll find it under World > Ennviroment Settings > Environment Editor. You don't need any plugins or external packages.

The reason they are sometimes used in photography is because the default SL light can be quite harsh. There are many ways around this, such as using extra light sources in world or reouching the photos, but Windlight lets you set a more diffuse and generally flattering light. You see this in the stores product shots because that's what the light source was when the pic was taken; you don't need to be using Windlight to see it.

I use a Windlight setting similar to this that gives the impression of very subtle full-body lighting on everyone, as if they (and I) are all using very carefully balanced facelights. With 'attached lights' disabled this removes the problems of excessive face-lighting without losing the benefits.

[Gryphon Ronas]

OK, I think you are asking why you can see the effects of windlight on the vendor pics, even though you do not have those setting in use?

The reason for that is, windlight controls how light is handled when the scene is rendered. When you look at a pic in world, be it on a vendor or a snapshot, you are not rendering the scene in the pic.  You are basically looking at a partial screen capture that shows what the person was seeing at the moment that they took the picture. When it becomes a pic, not a rendered scene, we all see it pretty much the same.  Which begs the question of vendors with overlit blown out messes passing for product shots - but that's another topic.

If you have to run with shaders turned off, it's probably not worthwhile to put a ton of effort into windlight, since one of the primary things it does is handle how the Atmospheric Shaders work.

Where windlight really shines is when you are running full graphics - shadows.  You can tailor the amount of ambient light to give the shadows the right level of contrast as rendered by your video card and shown on your monitor.  A given setting will not necessarily look the same for everyone since we have so many different types of hardware.

[Lyra Blackthorne]

Windlight will adjust how you see the world and there are a ton of presets in your environment editor...the problem is that we all use different settings.  So, what you might see is different than what someone else will see.  This especially effects how you see your avatar vs how others see it; that is why sometimes you run across people wearing really bright lights and such...they are bright to you, but not to themselves.

I mostly turn off windlight unless taking photos and even then if shooting in a studio, normally use inworld lighting systems vs windlight

[Love Leonoase]

---

Chelsea Malibu wrote:

Your windlight settings are in your Environment option and have quite a few presets you can play with.  There are even some installed for what you want to do.

Each browser is slightly different in their windlight options so you may want to check the Viewers FAQ or Help to learn more.

 Furthermore, you can make you own and save it to your inventory or get one from someone else and when you click it, it will set your light to those settings.

---

Thank you Chelsea :matte-motes-smile:

[Love Leonoase]

---

Ry0ta Exonar wrote:

Yeah, I'm playing with them. My computer is very slow, so I usually have to turn off the shaders and if I use default windlight setting turning off shaders, it looks a bit too shadowy. (left : default, right : mine)

 

---

Love Leonoase wrote:

 

I recently read that they make a tremendous difference, and are the reason that many times the pictures of items you see at a shop inworld are much better looking than what you see when you put them on.......    but this still begs the question why you can view them and see them as nice looking at all, before you've put them on?  And why does it look of less quality on your avi, then it does on the wall of the shop?

 

 

---

I'm not sure what you exactly mean. Some people might retouch the pics for ads with image editors so they look better just like in RL, others might not.

---

Ryota, thanks for posting those pics.  Wow, you can really see the difference!!

 

As for the pics for ads, take ads for skins....   many times they look much better on the advertisement pic, than they do when you put them on.  Like they will be much more vivid, for example.

I was TOLD that the reason for this is Windlight settings.  That might not be true though?

[Love Leonoase]

---

Kelli May wrote:

 

Any viewer that supports Windlight (which I think is all of them now) will let you adjust and save settings to your preferences. In Phoenix, you'll find it under World > Ennviroment Settings > Environment Editor. You don't need any plugins or external packages.

The reason they are sometimes used in photography is because the default SL light can be quite harsh. There are many ways around this, such as using extra light sources in world or reouching the photos, but Windlight lets you set a more diffuse and generally flattering light. You see this in the stores product shots because that's what the light source was when the pic was taken; you don't need to be using Windlight to see it.

I use a Windlight setting similar to this that gives the impression of very subtle full-body lighting on everyone, as if they (and I) are all using very carefully balanced facelights. With 'attached lights' disabled this removes the problems of excessive face-lighting without losing the benefits.

---

Thanks Kelli, that was VERY informative!  That clears up quite a bit!!

 

I get what you're saying, because I started using facelights a few months back, and they DID make a huge difference.

 

As for your 'attached lights" comment, I'm guessing that there is an option to disable this in your windlight settings, so that you can adjust for good lighting, without it doubling up the already existing facelights of others, which would make things TOO bright?

[Love Leonoase]

---

Gryphon Ronas wrote:

OK, I think you are asking why you can see the effects of windlight on the vendor pics, even though you do not have those setting in use?

The reason for that is, windlight controls how light is handled when the scene is rendered. When you look at a pic in world, be it on a vendor or a snapshot, you are not rendering the scene in the pic.  You are basically looking at a partial screen capture that shows what the person was seeing at the moment that they took the picture. When it becomes a pic, not a rendered scene, we all see it pretty much the same.  Which begs the question of vendors with overlit blown out messes passing for product shots - but that's another topic.

If you have to run with shaders turned off, it's probably not worthwhile to put a ton of effort into windlight, since one of the primary things it does is handle how the Atmospheric Shaders work.

Where windlight really shines is when you are running full graphics - shadows.  You can tailor the amount of ambient light to give the shadows the right level of contrast as rendered by your video card and shown on your monitor.  A given setting will not necessarily look the same for everyone since we have so many different types of hardware.

---

a HA!

So basically, the lighting display settings of SL, are quite intricate, similar to how lighting settings with photography is intricate.

In other words, it can make a TON of difference to adjust these settings....    and I'm guessing it's even MORE complicated, as you will have to adjust according to both your monitor, and your graphics card, in order to get the desired effect.

NOW I get it.

ty

[Love Leonoase]

---

Lyra Blackthorne wrote:

Windlight will adjust how you see the world and there are a ton of presets in your environment editor...the problem is that we all use different settings.  So, what you might see is different than what someone else will see.  This especially effects how you see your avatar vs how others see it; that is why sometimes you run across people wearing really bright lights and such...they are bright to you, but not to themselves.

I mostly turn off windlight unless taking photos and even then if shooting in a studio, normally use inworld lighting systems vs windlight

---

That fills in some blanks....

I've been with some peeps in the past, who were overly bright.  They must have seen their own avi different to what I was seeing.

So I take it the only thing that will make YOU look different to others, is an attachment like a facelight.  Otherwise, you can adjust windlight settings like an expert, but the only one whom will get the benefits is you.

[Gryphon Ronas]

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

You can tweak your windlight settings to perfection - but unless you take a pic and pass it, nobody will see that but you.

As far as face and body lights go tho, the thing to remember is that they are usually omnidirectional. So if you have one that has a 10 meter radius and set to max intensity, it will not only light you, but everything around you as well - and light intensely at that. Another that many don't know is that these light systems that some sell & wear that use like a dozen lights are useless. They have more lights on them than the OpenGL system will even render.

The best thing I ever discovered in a viewer is Develop>Rendering>Render Attached Lights.  I uncheck that (it's on by default I think) and the world gets much better. As for how I see others? I see them rendered as evenly as I see myself, because my settings effect how I see their avatar too.

Hint: If you are playing with the settings and you want to eliminate the harsh shadows that Default causes, gradually increase the Ambient light. That will give the effect of more scatter of light rays and fill in the dark areas. On many or most graphics cards, the LL default settings are too contrasty.

[Kelli May]

---

Love Leonoase wrote:

Thanks Kelli, that was VERY informative!  That clears up quite a bit!!

 

I get what you're saying, because I started using facelights a few months back, and they DID make a huge difference.

 

As for your 'attached lights" comment, I'm guessing that there is an option to disable this in your windlight settings, so that you can adjust for good lighting, without it doubling up the already existing facelights of others, which would make things TOO bright?

---

More or less. The problem isn't with all attached lights, as a well-positioned facelight doesn't really cause problems of excess lighting with or without custom Windlight settings. It's the small but annoying number of people who wander round with multiple, over-bright facelights that mess up the view *regardless* of Windlight or other environment settings.

By disabling attached lights (in the Advanced > Rendering menu in my viewer, could be elsewhere in others), nobody's facelights are rendered by my viewer. So when Miss Glowbug and her six 10m-radius floodlights wander into view, the scene isn't instantly washed out.

[Gryphon Ronas]

So when Miss Glowbug and her six 10m-radius floodlights wander into view, the scene isn't instantly washed out.

---

LOL!  Exactly!

 

[Marianne Little]

Yes indeed. I wonder if those with superbright facelights run so old viewers that they can't see rendered lights, or their graphic is turned down to the lowest possible? I have a Facelight that I use sometimes for pictures only. I might want a dramatic dark sky, and then a Facelight can be useful to just light up me. Here is how it looks on max: (I newer use this setting, lol)

Belive it or not, but there are much worse facelights out there! 

I know I have linked to this blog before, but it is informative. http://juicybomb.com/2010/04/22/gogos-updated-windlight-tutorial/

And if you use a viewer who has the popular windlight presets, you can actually see the same as others. If a notecard say that windlight setting "Nam's optimal skin and prim" was used, and you find that one under sky settings, you should see the same. If your graphic is compatible and you can run SL on High or Ultra settings.

More: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/07/second-life-screenshot.html

 

[Ry0ta Exonar]

Of course it could be windlight settings, but that's not the only reason.

[Gryphon Ronas]

Actually, what I was referring to is what you actually see as you sit at the monitor.

Theoretically, if we are both running Nam's, we should see the same thing.  The info set to the monitor will be the same, but what reaches our retinas will probably not be.  Anything from contrast and color balance of the monitor, all the way to the age of it will have an impact.  Sometimes far more than one would expect.

Nam's is a great one.  I picked it up somewhere in a blog and I manually install it as needed when I change viewers.  The only problem with it now is that it's 'too good'.  lol  The lighting is a bit too even and when you turn on shadows, the ambient kills them off.  Avatars sure look good in it tho.

[Love Leonoase]

---

Gryphon Ronas wrote:

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

You can tweak your windlight settings to perfection - but unless you take a pic and pass it, nobody will see that but you.

As far as face and body lights go tho, the thing to remember is that they are usually omnidirectional. So if you have one that has a 10 meter radius and set to max intensity, it will not only light you, but everything around you as well - and light intensely at that. Another that many don't know is that these light systems that some sell & wear that use like a dozen lights are useless. They have more lights on them than the OpenGL system will even render.

The best thing I ever discovered in a viewer is Develop>Rendering>Render Attached Lights.  I uncheck that (it's on by default I think) and the world gets much better. As for how I see others? I see them rendered as evenly as I see myself, because my settings effect how I see their avatar too.

Hint: If you are playing with the settings and you want to eliminate the harsh shadows that Default causes, gradually increase the Ambient light. That will give the effect of more scatter of light rays and fill in the dark areas. On many or most graphics cards, the LL default settings are too contrasty.

---

You know your stuff here Gryphon.

 

Thx again.

When I have time, I will experiment, and report back.

[Love Leonoase]

---

Kelli May wrote:

---

Love Leonoase wrote:

Thanks Kelli, that was VERY informative!  That clears up quite a bit!!

 

I get what you're saying, because I started using facelights a few months back, and they DID make a huge difference.

 

As for your 'attached lights" comment, I'm guessing that there is an option to disable this in your windlight settings, so that you can adjust for good lighting, without it doubling up the already existing facelights of others, which would make things TOO bright?

---

More or less. The problem isn't with all attached lights, as a well-positioned facelight doesn't really cause problems of excess lighting with or without custom Windlight settings. It's the small but annoying number of people who wander round with multiple, over-bright facelights that mess up the view *regardless* of Windlight or other environment settings.

By disabling attached lights (in the Advanced > Rendering menu in my viewer, could be elsewhere in others), nobody's facelights are rendered by my viewer. So when Miss Glowbug and her six 10m-radius floodlights wander into view, the scene isn't instantly washed out.

---

ah..........

 

and TEE HEE at "Miss Glowbug"