Coby Foden

Red52 wrote: Thanks, Trinity - however still cannot access these menus. If the shortcuts Ctrl-Alt-Q and Ctrl-Alt-D don't work for you to turn on Develop menu and Advanced menu you can turn them on also in the Preferences. In Firestorm 4.6.9, open the preferences window: In the Preferences window select the one's shown with green arrows in the image below: (PS: In the Preferences it says "Developer Menu", that is just a spelling error, actually it shoul read "Develop Menu").

The new Virtual Flycam version (Beta 2) works for me now. Thanks. :smileyhappy: Tested with: OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601) Viewer: Firestorm 4.6.9 (42974)

irihapeti wrote: my takeout from this is that there is not going to be any LL-provided object creation tools in the new world Ebbe said also: "Support for voxels is under consideration with the next generation platform, to present an in-world option for content creation, terrain modification, etc." "Like I said, over time, we’re obviously going to make it easier to do layout without within the world, but we’re also exploring technologies like voxels to think of ways to make it easy for non-3D experts to be able to create environments and structures; so that’s an area we’re investing some time in right now, to understand what we can bring to the table there." "So we can hit a much broader range of creators, from professionals who can use the tools they’re comfortable with today to hobbyists who are willing to learn some new tools and who could benefit from using things like voxel systems to easily “paint” and chip away to create terrain and tunnels and caves and stuff like that."

"Second Life is a shared experience and" you shall accept the time of day and Windlight what the viewer shows you by default. You shall not override region Windlight setting by tampering with Windlight settings. :smileysurprised: Things like below would be history: Avatar 1: Look how beautiful sunset! Avatar 2: What sunset? I cannot see any. Avatar 1: Look towards west. Avatar 2: It's midday, no sunset. Avatar 1: Pffftt... Avatar 2: Oh sorry, I had set the time to midday. Avatar 1: I see. I was thinking we would share this experience. :smileysad: "Second Life is a shared experience and" you will use gaming grade computer with ultra graphics settings. Thus you all will see the same thing. :smileysurprised: The added bonus is that all the useless whining and complaining like "my computer cannot handle Second Life properly, do something!" will finally be history. :smileytongue:

irihapeti wrote: Theresa Tennyson wrote: I created a JIRA to tell them about it and to ask for behavior change in this viewer before it becomes the default viewer.. https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-8739 In other words, I told people who could actually do something about it. well done (: they hopefully will listen to you. Well... Status: Closed Resolution: Expected behaviour Grumpity Linden added a comment - 16/Mar/15 2:41 PM: "This behavior change is intentional. Second Life is a shared experience, and we want to default to that where possible. thanks!" (Psstt... And the next, secret step at the moment, will be - because Second Life is a shared experience - that users will be forced to use parcel/region Windlight settings always. No way to override it.) :smileytongue:

LlazarusLlong wrote: I am celebrating the other Welsh Patron Saint's Day. :smileysurprised: Hopefully it lasts only for one day. :matte-motes-sunglasses-1: :smileytongue:

Is Second Life like real life is

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Month, Day, Year is Totally right For Americans. :smileywink:

Conifer Dada wrote: At one time the Beta Grid used to keep pace with your main grid inventory by regular updating but that doesn't seem to happen any more. Yes, doesn't happen automatically. We can force the update from main grid to the beta grid though (naturally not vice versa). http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Preview_Grid says: We have an account auto updater system of sorts in place. If you cannot log into Aditi or would like your inventory updated change your password. Then your account will be updated automatically within 24 hours. You have the control to update your accounts now. You no longer need to message a Linden for account updates to Aditi . Account Update Steps 1. Change your login password on AGNI (i.e. the main grid). • How to change your password 2. Wait 24 hours. 3. Log into ADITI (i.e. beta grid) 4. Rejoice!!

Those of us who write the dates in the logical order: Day, Month, Year (instead of the mixed order: Month, Day, Year) don't have a Pi Day because there are only 12 months in a year. We cannot participate in this Pi-kus sharing. :matte-motes-crying: :smileysad:

Drongle McMahon wrote: "...but normal maps often don't and even when they do, the effect is very different from what they produce in high res graphics" I am intrigued by this statement. I haven't noticed much difference, but then I haven't particularly looked for any. Can you give some examples? Maybe pictures? Is it maybe on attachements, which I never look at? I haven't noticed that kind of behaviour either. The normal map's effect looks pretty much the same to me whether the shadows are on or off. I have haven't noticed difference either whether the object is an attachment or not.

Aquila Kytori wrote: ... with Google you will find plenty of Blender tutorials on the subject and others on what to do with your AO texture. Indeed so, there are lots of tutorial videos available about ambient occlusion. Like these for example: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Blender+AO+baking

LlazarusLlong wrote: LL are running a pilot on advertising during teleporting. ...see what you have done! This is your fault! :smileytongue:

Aethelwine wrote: What are 'internal improvements for premium users' ? Bionic organs? Brand new professionally made awesome avatar's default body mesh? So we can ditch all the various body mesh add-ons; the sole purpose of which is to hide the ugly present avatar mesh. :matte-motes-big-grin:

Aethelwine wrote: Some use page up\page down... others use shift left\shift right to change gear Linden Lab should implement that to avatar walking speed. Avatars walk unrealistically fast in Second Life, as if they were always in a hurry to go somewhere. We need 'gears' to be able walk in varying speeds. :smileyhappy: Strange that Linden Lab never paid any attention to that. :smileyfrustrated: [ETA] http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Physics_Test in that link there a script wich will tell avatar's velocity. Put the script in in an object and wear it. The result for walking speed is: 11.52 km/h = 3.2 m/s, (7.16 miles/h = 10,5 feet/s) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking says that the average normal walking speed for humans is: 5 km/h = 1.389 m/s (3.107 miles/h = 4.557 feet/s) So avatars walk a bit over two times faster than the average human walking speed is.

Doug Falta wrote: I use it all the time when I'm on a computer that runs well with it. The only thing that bothers me about using it all the time is when content has pre-baked shadows. It's weird when there are shadows going in two different directions. You can use Advanced Lighting without shadows too, good for those situations were there are baked shadows and good also for situations when the shadows drop frame rate radically. If the computer has a decent graphics card then the Advanced Lighting has very minimal effect on fps. Shadows have a lot of effect on fps. I guess there are people who are not aware that Advanced Lighting and shadows are two separate settings: • Advandced Lighting does not require shadows, it can be used either without shadows and also with shadows. • Shadows require Advanced Lighting, shadows cannot be turned on if Advanced Lighting is off.

Yes, I have Advanced Lighting always on. Things look so much nicer with it on. Most of the time I have shadows on too, those add a lot of realism to the scene. Like walking in a forest, shadows, sunshine, it's pretty cool.

Linden Lab should implement a new feature. Every time one logs in, a torch will magically appear in their hand. Yay, there is light! :matte-motes-big-grin: :matte-motes-sunglasses-1: :smileyvery-happy:

Thank you IvanBenjammin and Drongle for the excellent explanations. :smileyhappy:

Drongle McMahon wrote: There is also the combination of the Glossiness spinner and the specular exponent map in the alpha channel of the normal map. The Glossiness/255 multiplies the value in the exponent map to produce the a number than controls the angle over which the reflection is spread. I have never quite understood what exactly the alpha channel of the normal map does to specularity. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Material_Data says: "Glossiness: This controls the “glossiness”, or the roughness, of the reflected light on a surface. The lower this value is, the “rougher” the light reflectance is, while the higher the value the “sharper” the light reflectance is. When the normal map’s alpha channel is present, the specular exponent map contained in it is modulated by this parameter." Unfortunately, I'm not any wiser by that statement either. What normal map's alpha channel does to the specularity is still a mystery for me. What more does it do to specularity what cannot be achieved by the specular map itself, I wonder?

Yes, the default Windlight setting gives pretty good specularity. Also if there are some local lights about then the specularity works well. There are many smooth Windlights, which enhance the avatar's looks; those give no specularity at all. In the picture below, there is one similar fireplace in front of the avatar as those two fireplaces at the background. In my outfit there are no baked higlights at all (except for the skin). The bra has specularity, the bangle has specularity, the loin cloth has slight specularity as well as the top rings of the anklets. Specularity is pretty cool when the lighting is right. PS. On the outfits I have used coloured specular maps (made from the diffuse map just turning it a bit lighter). I have noticed that if the specular map is gray scale then the local lights will fade away the colour of the diffuse map to a great degree, which does not look natural. Gray scale specular map is especially bad with local lights in clothing where the glossiness is kept low. Colour specular maps work well with the sunshine as well as with local lights.

The specular map does not need to have alpha. The specular map can be black and white, it can be gray scale and it can be also coloured one. For example for metals (copper, gold) you would use colour specular map. For colour specular map you can make one from the diffuse map; just make a copy of the diffuse map, make it a bit lighter and use it as a specular map. Then the specular reflections will have the colour of the metal just like it should be.

You need to have Advanced Lighting Model ON in your viewer to see the effects of specular map (and normal map). In: "Preferences, Graphics, General" tick on the "Advanced Lighting Model".

dldmlcks5027 wrote: dd I asked Google. define: dd Google answered: "dd is a command-line utility for Unix and Unix-like operating systems whose primary purpose is to convert and copy files." :smileytongue:

Juliana Lethdetter wrote: I checked their Jira, and it's been reported by other users, in association with a feature called Screen Space Reflections. It's unresolvable, and will be "fixed" by the elimination of that feature in a future release. You can fix the issue by turning off the "Screen Space Reflections" in the viewer. (By default it is off, perhaps you have it accidentally on?) In: "Preferences, Graphics, Rendering". Tick off the "Enable rendering of screen space reflections". When I turn that feature off in Firestorm 4.6.9.42974 the specularity works correctly, just like in the Linden Lab viewer.