Big designers grey boxes

[ShaShaSha]

Is this only me or most of big designers of sl have such... ugly places (stores). Mostly giant, grey boxes, miles of boring space with (so with surroundings). It's not nice experience. Great, they put energy in creating their products, but...it's such dissonance.

[Luc Starsider]

If you see mostly gray boxes around when visiting stores, I suggest you have an issue with your connection to SL. Most storeowners take care to decorate their stores to encourage visitors to visit and to come back. There are exceptions it seems, but I haven't seen any who decorate their store with gray boxes... Be aware that it will take a bit of time for all textures in a store to materialize.

Here's what I suggest.

Check your internet connection is up to the task. You need a good quality connection for SL. Check by running the test at http://www.pingtest.net/ and see what result you get. Ideally, you don't want packet loss at least.

Then, try reducing you graphics setting in me->preferences->Graphics to a lower setting.

Check for packet loss by pressing ctrl+shift+1 and watch the packet loss number at the top of the panel. As before, you want a low number here - preferably below 2-3%, but some spurts of higher numbers are ok. If you have packet loss, try to reduce your Max bandwidth setting in me->preferences->Setup and see if the packet loss is reduced.

Try turning off http textures from the develop menu, which you enable in me->preferences->Advanced to see if it helps.

It is possible I have misunderstood what you ask/or comment on, so I may be off with my suggestions, but hopefully some of it helps...

- Luc -

[ShaShaSha]

Thank you for quick reply, but i see content properly (i believe    ). By grey boxes i mean buildings. And i mean some of really big designers.

[wrable Amat]

I agree it must be your settings,you can see content boxes and gray walls behind them,normaly that is your vcard speed.smaller objects not in a link set rez faster.

[ShaShaSha]

no technical issues. i see higly detailed textures, all realictic. but i think those stores have no style (some of them like i wrote)

just have biger aesthetic expectations. nevermind, like i said maybe it' s only me

[Luc Starsider]

I totally misunderstood. You mean 'gray' as in uninspired, boring, bland and that sort of thing. Perhaps you're right. Some are boring and uninspired, but others are not. Some I see as big designers (and I don't mean who have big stores ) have very nice shops and settings for the shops. Often laggy on my computer, but still nice. Often the choice is done to reduce lag for visitors. Sometimes it is just from the lack of creativity. How a store is viewed also depends on your taste and style as a customer, I think.

- Luc -

[Morgaine Christensen]

I have to agree.  Many In-World merchants seem to have these huge warehouse feeling builds that aren't very welcoming IMHO.  Most of it seems to be modern type architecture and are nicely built, but I am not fond of that type of archetecture nor the mall variety.  I think the modern type is to give that psychological feel of "buy me, I am upscale". Plus, it is all right there.  You know what it is and go find what you need and leave.

While it is not complete and needs work, I designed my In-World to not look like a mall nor is it one big modern lump.  It was build to  look like 4 blocks of an old inner city.  It is a defined area and folks can walk around and discover things.  I have a vacant lot with holovendor and  my clothing/furniture inside the various builds for sale.  A few items under construction. It needs an update really, but I have had it mistaken frequently for an RP area rather than a business.  It suits me but may not suit everyone because you do need to move around and it is not "just there".  I encourage folks to just hang there if they wish.

With the fall off of sales in SL, maybe some of the designers will take heed and try something new. Then again, if it is working for them now, why change?

 

[Monti Messmer]

There was a thread a while ago about ingame stores.

Alot complained that stores are filled with decorations and walls and stairs ... so you have to walk ages to find the products. It´s hard to draw a line between nice decorated and flooded.

Two things to keep in mind.

Prim count; each vendor is at least one prim and cost money

Every item of decoration (textures too) need to rezz 

SL Stores cannot be like RL stores and with the forced attention to the Marketplace i stopped invest much time and money in my ingame store. All the prims i have go to vendors, no more decoration and if i had to pay for the place it would be closed same day.

Monti

[Tamara Artis]

Yeah you prefer small shops, with more personal feeling. When you enter  its like meeting a person and discovering her/his small world.

I prefer clean big spaces, saturated walls that put vendors in the first plan. Maybe few plants at the entrance to give some life to the whole space.

Its all about tastes:)

[ShaShaSha]

Thank you all for replies!

Of course we have palette of tastes, my is a bit hungry one

For me doasn't matter store is big or small, i like if has some own character. About deco's: filled 'warehouses' are the same what empty ones - they has no visual idea.

Marketplace was already when i log in first and for me this is good way to get something quick (vendors pictures can give a  more info thro), in other case i like to wander a bit in world.

I'm aware about costs, but maybe some idea investment would be usefull to keep inworld movement.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I agree with you.  I think a lot of them do it to keep everything neutral and low lag, but they all look alike to me and are boring.  They could accomplish the same thing without using bland gray / black/ white textures and spice them up a lot more without being overly decorative to the point they impede customers who want to shop and run, add lag or use a lot of prims. 

Even though people don't like a lot of walls stairs etc, some serve an important purpose in organizing a shop and also blocking sight lines so everything doesn't have to load at one time - hench no laggy and long rez time.

Modern blocky, urban and grunge are looks that in my opinion are way overdone in SL to the point of being a cliche.

[Kristin Burner]

mewp a mewp da mewp de bewp :matte-motes-sarcasm:

 

Could you post a slurl so i can go see.  I see either a clone store , ie the bought it, and rezzed it, or i see custom made ones.  Most of the stores i go to, about 10000000000000000000, since i am hunt obsessed, i see lots of great stores, so style wise i dont really see much that is cloned or overly blah, but texture overload kills me bad, so i practice hit n run, shock and awe hahaha, you know, tp in, area search, click, ok, tp out

 

 

[Tiffy Vella]

I see lots of stores with square, plain design...minimal clean looks..minimal textures, and I imagine that they are going for a sophisticated designer, graphic look, and keeping lag down by keeping textures down. There is good logic in that, but after a while some (not all)  can look a bit soulless. Some look fantastic, and an open floorplan can suit many customers.

Some are the opposite, with very cute, small rooms, soft pastels, cottagey whimsical look. They put kittens in, somewhere, probably. Very pleasant, and a different viewpoint. Small rooms can also be a great foil against the many textures that a store needs to present to visitors. That is always a struggle for the store-designer;  to balance the two.

Both beat the circa 2005 red and black latex stores-from-a-box. Many of those are "walk into a big confused box of vendors", "walk up a ramp", "walk into another confused box of vendors". Horrible design.

I saw the worst store ever recently. Was walking down a Linden Road, and saw this big conglomeration of vendors all over the place..all BIAB stuff from years ago. It was like someone had made a store, then removed the external walls, so that everything was on display from the road. A huge ugly jumble. I walked on about 50m, then saw an intriguing neon (fullbright) sign over a prim "tunnel" leading back, saying "enter here for club, shopping, and naughty room". Of course I went in, to find no club, just the same old store. No naughty room, and I'm so disappointed as I was a wee bit intrigued

I don't shop as much as I ought to, but love what some people do with their stores. But as a merchant I know how hard it is to get the balance between entertainment and practicality right for everyone. Too much ambiance is annoying to serious shoppers who just want to get on with life and too little soul robs the others of  fun experience. We all do what's best for the time we have to expend, and our desires.

 

 

 

 

[JoJo Aurelia]

I have a small store that one might say has a cottage feel, it's actually tucked behind some trees. I keep it small because it's easier to manage, and I only present customers with new items. I keep it updated by season, and enjoy and take pride in my store. I want people to say, oh, this is different. And enjoy their visit. It brings me pleasure.

Last year, well, nearly 2 years ago, I had a HUGE store. It was overwhelming. It seemed I couldn't ever get it to look cohesive. And way too many walls to fill. It was a good learning experience. I've had my small store now since and I'm very happy there and don't plan to expand.

[Melita Magic]

There was one shop that had cute clothes but it was SO laggy I'd literally go prepare a meal while my av stood there rezzing before I could even see anything! And that was after being there more than once, so it should have been much quicker since wouldn't my computer remember the textures?

So a lot of customers prefer a very plain shop so they can see the merchandise, buy and get out.

I find the Japanese shops in general have the right medium size shop with lovely surroundings. And you can see their merchandise. I never seem to remember shop names without looking, there are a few other ones too but mostly it is the Japanese creators who have the pretty shops and the prices are good too.

Well Bare Rose is very laggy but it is enormous and it's a giant in SL like Sears or JC Penney in real life but with more style so I can't find any fault in Bare Rose. Plus the creator there is very nice.

[JoJo Aurelia]

I had lag problems for awhile but it's cleared up. Hope it wasn't my store! LOL