Coby Foden

krasnirex wrote: In Second Life when shininess is turned on for an object, a dark to light gray gradient appears on its surface, simulating a reflection from the environment. That old legacy shiny in SL only reflects the sky and sun above, thus the effect what you see. For more realistic dynamic lighting reflections use materials (Diffuse map, Normal map, Specular map). Specular map is the one that is used for the dynamic shininess. It reflects sunlight and also local lights. You can vary the amount how intense the reflection is. Higher values give more intense smaller area shine. Lower values give more spread out and less intense shiny effect. If you don't know anything about the SL materials system, here is an good article to get you started: http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/playing-with-materials-processing-in-sl/ By searching "materials" you will find some threads in SL texturing and mesh forums about materials. Note that you must have "Advanced Lighting Model" enabled in your viewer to see the material effects. If it's not on you will only see the diffuse map (i.e. the ordinary texture what defines the colouring of the object).

Few months ago I had a visit there. It was ok then; people just having a nice chat. Hmm.. maybe I will wear my newbie avatar from 2007 and pay a visit there to see what happens... :matte-motes-big-grin: :smileyvery-happy: :smileytongue:

The top is obviously system clothing top (not mesh or sculpty). I think the texture re-fressing has no effect on system clothing. I have understood that texture re-fressing works only on items which are selectable by right clicking. System clothes are not selectable. Well, sometimes the SSA for some reason "thinks" that the textures are all rezzed even when they are not. When that happens I have noticed that taking off the clothing item, wearing something else, taking it off and wearing the problem item again usually resolves the blurriness problem. Occasionally one might need to repeat this few times before the servers realize "ah, we thought that it was rezzed properly but it wasn't - let's do it now." Once I had such non-rezzing problem with my skin. Everything else was ok, but the head remained gray. Rebaking didn't help at all. I wonder does rebake even work anymore at all now as we have the SSA?. Ok, I changed to another skin, waited for it to fully rez (which it did). After that I wore again the problem skin and then it rezzed ok. :matte-motes-big-grin:

Instead of linking the flower to the rigged shoe, attach the flower - as a separate object - on the foot (right or left) and adjust the position so that it will look as if it was a part of the shoe.

Krueger wrote: Does anyone have any stories of what it used to be like? Or screenshots? One of the complete avatars available in the Library when I was a newb (2007). I almost quit! :smileysurprised: (I still have that saved in my inventory - I can dig it up always when I need a good laugh.) :smileytongue: :smileyvery-happy: --||-

larry Mavros wrote: What is a "lolcat" anyway ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat "A lolcat is an image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour. The text is often idiosyncratic and grammatically incorrect, and its use in this way is known as "lolspeak" or "kitty pidgin"." :catvery-happy:

Madelaine McMasters wrote: Coby, maybe this link will work. If not, Google "eds cat herders"... http://vimeo.com/26828021 That worked. Thanks Maddy. :matte-motes-big-grin:

The video shows only: "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Erm, why not?

This is my oldest account, created in March 2007. As the years pass by my avatar seems to enhance its looks little by little. Just the opposite what happens in RL. :smileysad: This is not fair! :smileyfrustrated: :smileyvery-happy: :smileytongue:

Please note that you cannot upload JPEG2000 files to Second Life (even though it internally stores them as such). And Second Life does not support 16-bits per channel images. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Uploading-assets/ta-p/700165 says: "Supported image formats" "Second Life supports TGA (32-bit supports alpha channel), PNG (24-bit supports alpha channel), and BMP. When you upload an image, the Viewer internally converts it to JPG2000 for optimized future transmission. For best quality, try to avoid uploading JPGs; their already-compressed quality degrades further because of the double conversion." So for best results in uploading use either TGA or PNG files (8-bits per channel). PS. It is possible to upload also JPG files (not JPEG2000), but as said it is not good use lossy file format in uploading.

By looking at the specifications I wouldn't recommend either one for Second Life use. Second Life is very graphics intensive application and it needs fast GPU for pleasant experience. http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8610G.93719.0.html says the following: "The AMD Radeon HD 8610G is a processor graphics card in some of the low voltage AMD Richland APUs (A10-5745M). It offers the full amount of 384 shader cores (VLIW4 architecture) and clocks at 533 - 626 MHz. The 8610G has no dedicated graphics memory, but shares the main memory with the CPU cores." ..and.. "Without fast dual-channel memory the performance drops dramatically." So, to explain what is the problem: • AMD Radeon HD 8610G is integrated graphics processors • It shares the memory with the CPU (Central Processing Unit), which is very bad news concerning operation speed You should look for a system with dedicated GPU (i.e. graphics card), these give much better performance than intergrated ones do. What is dedicated graphics card you may wonder. Here's explanation: "A dedicated GPU (aka graphics card) is not necessarily removable, nor does it necessarily interface with the motherboard in a standard fashion. The term "dedicated" refers to the fact that dedicated graphics cards have RAM (i.e Random Access Memory) that is dedicated to the card's use, not to the fact that most dedicated GPUs are removable. Dedicated GPUs for portable computers are most commonly interfaced through a non-standard and often proprietary slot due to size and weight constraints." So, a dedicated GPU has its own memory in it. No need to share the memory used by the CPU. This makes graphics operations faster.

The file sizes of 8-bit and and 16-bit images are not the same. This is easy to see for example by creating new solid background images in Photoshop: • 512 x 512 / 8 bits per channel: file size is 0.75 MB (without alpha channel) • 512 x 512 / 16 bits per channel: file size is 1.50 MB (without alpha channel) So, a 16-bits per channel image has two times bigger file size than a 8-bits per channel image has. However in Second Life the file size of the texture on your disk has no relevance. The images are used as textures inside SL which your graphics card renders on your screen. The graphics card does not know what a file size is, and the file size on disk has no meaning to it at all. Only thing that matters are the pixel dimensions of the image. The bigger the pixel dimensions are the more it consumes system resources (i.e. SL server resources and your computer resources). Texture sizes supported in SL are listed here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Texture_sizes Use only those supported sizes. If you use any other sizes, then in import SL resizes your texture to the nearest one it supports and some information in the texture gets lost (result: the texture is not any more as sharp as it was originally). Second Life does not support 16-bits per channel images. So if you created/edited your texture in 16-bit mode, before saving the final file change the mode to 8-bit mode first. Then save the file in lossless file format; either TGA or PNG. There is no reason at all to use lossy JPG format. Second Life uses internally JPEG2000 file format which is lossy format. So if you upload as JPG then your original file gets compressed twice (first in JPG then in JPEG2000). Whereas using lossless format (TGA and PNG) the file gets compressed only once (in JPEG2000). Ok then, are there any advantages using 16-bit mode instead of 8-bit mode when creating/editing textures? When creating texture there could be some advantages using 16-bit mode. For example if the image is heavily edited the gradients stay smooth. Whereas in 8-bit mode the gradients may end banded if the image is edited heavily. More information about 16-bit vs. 8-bit for example here: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/16-bit/

Don't waste your time in re-installing and trying out different viewers, it won't help. This is not a viewer problem. Just wait (and pray) until Linden Lab resolves the issue; they are working on it. .. now let's see what's going on here. Hmm... strange...

RJ3YO wrote: So would a AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor Or a AMD A10 processor be good enough with a decent graphics card? Google is your friend. I searched some info: http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A8-4500M-Notebook-Processor.74884.0.html "If compared to Intels Core-i3-series, the A8-4500M offers less performance in most cases." http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Series-A10-4600M-Notebook-Processor.74065.0.html "If compared to Intel, a Sandy Bridge Core i3-2310M is roughly on a similar level to the A10-4600M" Personally I would go for Intel i5 or Intel i7 processor and NVidia graphics card. To get good performance on a laptop in Second Life be prepared to spend considerable amount of money. Some examples of laptops suitable for gaming (and Second Life): "Lenovo IdeaPad Y500" at around 1250 US dollars. [CPU: Intel Core i7-3630QM] [GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 650M] "MSI GX70 3Be-007US " at around 1399 US dollars. [CPU: AMD A10-5750M] [GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8970M] "MSI GX60 1AC-021US" at around 1299 US dollars. [CPU: AMD A10-4600M] [GPU: AMD Radeon HD 7970] "CyberPower FangBook X7-200" at around 1549 US dollars. [CPU: Intel i7-3630QM] [GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX] (To answer your question: Yes, even an AMD A10-4600M processor with good graphics card most likely would give fairly good performance in Second Life. Good graphics card with its own memory is the most important component what comes to graphics performance. One more thing: For enjoyable viewing experience I would go for 17 inch screen size laptop with 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200 resolution - plus a no-glare matte screen. Naturally those are heavier to carry than 15 inch laptops.)

QueenNeon wrote: What other options are their besides mesh? Just re-read what Rolig Loon said. Maybe you missed it? She gave all the info of the options. :matte-motes-smile: (Besides mesh: there are prims and there are system clothes.) :smileywink:

RJ3YO wrote: Also what do you mean by the graphics adaptor? Where can I find this on the product information page? Thanks The "graphics adaptor" is more commonly called "GPU" (Graphics Processing Unit). This is the hardware which draws everything what you see on your display (it performes some other functions too besides graphics). Most cheap low grade laptops have an Intel GPU; integrated in the computer motherboard. Those usually share the memory with the CPU (Central Processing Unit). Intergrated graphics are very innefficient and slow for any graphics intensive software (like games, Second Life, etc). Therefore for good performance a dedicated GPU with its own dedicated memory will be required for smooth 3D experience. So look up for "GPU" in the product information page and read what it says there. If there is "Intel" and/or "intergrated" then stay away from that laptop. That would perform poorly in Second Life. You might want to read this article for reference: Top 10 Best Gaming Laptops

kingkong112 wrote: why is zindra not on my world maps? It is on the world map. A very long way to the east from the rest of SL regions. There is an adult infohub at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Arapaima/128/128/2 Everything to the east from that location is Zindra.

Monty Linden wrote: Nothing new to report at this time. Thanks for keeping us informed Monty. :matte-motes-smile:

maxmittle wrote: The problem with a 'walk' using an "Animation Overider is that when you stop moving (finger off the UP arrow) the AO continues and there you are walking while stationary - duh ! It appears that there has been something wrong with the Animation Overrider (AO) what you were using; it shoul not work like that. You hold down the up arrow key - you walk. You stop holding down the up arrow key - you stop walking. After that if you have standing animations in the AO they start playing while you stay standing. What are the differences and similarities between walk replacer and AO? • Both are objects in your inventory; both are worn, both have srcripts and animations in them • AO is a HUD which attaches visibly to your screen • Walk replacer attaches to your body and is invisible • Instead of being a separate object walk replacer animation can be put for example on a shoe • Walk replacer has just one single walk animation and one script • AO has many animations - walk, run, fly, hover, chair sits, ground sits, stands, etc.

Adumelial Rothstein wrote: Should we fill out a report to Linden Labs on this? No. They - Linden Lab - already know about this. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/failed-to-Upload-image-to-your-profile-feed/m-p/2393757#M12926 Monty Linden says: "Just a note that this is getting attention under BUG-4644. No information as to when a fix will be available."

fatman600 wrote: *sighs* the WOOOOOOORST GAME EVER MADE!...

Sassy Romano wrote: Next thing they'll be complaining that after spending SO MUCH to make themselves look good that nobody is looking at them. Dramatainment at its best! :matte-motes-evil: Yeah! I don't get it why some get overly pi$$ed off if we look at their pixels on our screen. Once I looked at very awesome avatar hovering high up in the sky. In no time at all an IM popped up. "Please don't stare at me. There are viewers that can harm a person just by staring at somebody!" Erm.. what? Seriously?

May the winds be favourable for all of us - virtually and really. :matte-motes-smile: :matte-motes-big-grin:

[Edit] Photo updated as more of some suspicious activity was spotted. :smileysurprised:

Aislin Ceawlin wrote: Sorry, this was for everyone, didn't mean to reply to Tex only! We need a "Reply to All" button here. :matte-motes-big-grin: