Chic Aeon

Yes, see the explanation by Aquila on that thread. You DO have to understand Blender fairly well to tackle the "simple" method. If not then the answer as far as I know is "no". What you are suggesting is what she showed how to do. You need to read :D.

So I said I would head over to FaMESHed when the crowds died down and I did. As remembered the venue has shrunk by a LOT. This 'may' be a trend as [another venue] did the same thing recently cutting down a third or so of the creators. There is likely more to that story but not important to this discussion. and I deleted the venue name purposefully. Fameshed is now in a very TINY part of the sim with very TINY booths and yes, close together and definitely difficult to test any long range LODs (hence Beq's new feature as a SHOPPING TOOL comes into play). I DID manage to derender the stalls and much of the display on the area across from "a" (not the :D) landscape person and camming out was possible with the effects as mentioned -- noted. It is also true that while the creator "should" (a judgement call I admit) have a demo on the big outdoors demo area -- they do not. We can draw conclusions from that. I no longer blog their items. The photo below is the furthest away I could get at LOD2 and still see a tree. This seems much further than the earlier reports, but also a different tree. It may also have something to do with my computer as compared to others; I know not. We can only hope that the new FS features filter down to the general populace and encourage shoppers to pay attention causing creators to pay more attention too (and perhaps learn) how to deal with LODs for their products. I guess I should note that there WAS another tree in that booth that is completely gone at this distance LOL. So it is understandable -- a bit of ranting. Since I seldom spend lindens on things, I seldom have reason to complain, but I certainly understand why someone would feel somewhat "cheated".

It probably should be noted that according to the last official (?) info I read (Dakota will likely refute this if it is no longer working this way and I would like to know that too) -- once you make changes to a Marketplace listing it goes to the bottom of the category as if it was a NEW product, so you could lose sales over that if any of your sale products are high up in the rankings. If that is no longer true (and things change ALL the time and we don't know) then maybe a heads up on that would be good. Pretty please official folks *wink* I did my sale manually for the Hop and shop as they were supposed to have banners attached to the vendor photos. While I did fine at the inworld event, I can't say that I sold ANY more items on sale than I did regularly. That is just one case though. Kitely (OpenSim) actually has a way to do sales (you pay extra for it and only a certain number in a certain category can have a sale). And that would be a nice possible feature for the MP if it isn't too complex.

This is NOT my info really. @Aquila Kytori brought it up on this thread: but since the title of that thread and OP has NOTHING to do with the info that showed up on page 3 and will likely get lost in the archives (now why is that not news?), I am making a new topic linking to it and adding some of my own info to carry on the discussion. Be sure and go to page 3 and 4 and look for BIG PRETTY Info shots. And here is my input ^^. I had some warehouse buildings with complex and many-paned windows. They were certainly "on the edge" of what is practical for SL but they were great for the mood I was trying to create. I tried a lot of things, but they were primmy and still broke up. I COULD have made them even MORE primmy by upping the lowest LOD but that was really going too far. The thread above -- which really most everyone should read because it does go into the real importance of LODs -- testing, setting et al; brought up that nasty crumpling of complex objects with one example being some multi-paned windows. Aquila as she often does, reproduced the item in question and gave a great idea on how to "solve" the problem. This was talked about quite a bit when mesh was new to SL with the theme THEN being "but you will be uploading an extra texture and so that is not good". So I had, long ago heard of this method in passing but didn't pay much attention then. Enter this week :D. These are the windows I changed out today. They have no glass (but could if that is your choice) as I don't like all the issues that come up with baking and glass in windows and often use one LARGE mesh prim as the glass for a whole wall. So ignore the no glass bit as being part of the work around :D. They are big windows for warehouses. They are fairly thick. Still nasty breaking up at LOD2 from a fair distance but not long enough for my tastes (full sim installation). With the new LOD information now in the Firestorm viewer thanks to @Beq Janus builders (and shoppers) can easily see the distances that the LODs will switch (hence often breaking up). I remade my windows (one in the middle of the night with a few tries as I had exported from inworld out to Blender and that made it more complex than if I would have done this to start with). It is actually a fairly simple process ONCE you understand the theory and work through it once. We all know how EASY things can get when we FINALLY (well, me anyway) understand them. After I did the closed window I tackled the open one which was a little trickier but with some logical thinking I got it working very well. It had a slightly higher land impact than the closed window but I was fine with that. Not only did my windows HOLD (well, appear to hold anyway) much better at a distance, the land impact went way down from 75 to 45 for the building with ten windows, and down to 32 for the building with only five. Here is what they look like inworld. I can cam a long ways out now at LOD2 without any issues, you can notice the texture switch but most likely only if you are looking for it. So many many thanks to all the folks that contributed to that thread. Even if you are just starting to work with mesh and it is too complex right now, BOOKMARK it (or this one that references it) for the future. Eventually, if you make buildings, you will likely need to know how to do this! And with that I am taking a "game" break and then going to play with some Fantasy Faire stuff. A gear change is called for, but this was a fairly pleasant redo and not all that time consuming. I have one more set of windows that could maybe use this help -- but that's for another day.

Back to the impostor window -- well let's call it NEW SKILL and not "trick". I can't say it was effortless but I DID get it and it DOES work wonderfully. It is the middle of my night so I will put the new windows in the building on the main grid later but beta grid tests were excellent. How much the texture switch will be noticeable is still a question but the land impact went from 6 to 2 for each window and there are a LOT of windows in this small building (like ten I think) so a big difference in land impact (and yes, that had been bothering me for awhile but I did't know how to fix it other than abandoning the windows). So here are my screenshots and you can see NOW WITH OUR HANDY LITTLE CHART where the break ups will be. OH, two things for folks to watch out for (and why I had to do this three times) is 1. If you are exporting the model from mesh in world be SURE and get your UVs down to one ^^ IF your window is more than one mesh (of course I couldn't do this the first time on something SIMPLE). 2. Remember which way you want the impostor face to face (well DUH). It IS the middle of the night and I did finally get it! If this works well inworld I will need to make more versions for the windows that are partly open -- but I am thinking that actually won't work well --- STILL I learned a lot and it will be handy later on.

World > Show More > Ban Lines

Machinima Open Studio Project - LEA6 http://machinimasl.blogspot.com/

This isn't my lot so I am not putting this in the for sale forum. Actually I just thought it interesting in that mainland discussion kinda way. Now and then there is a post about mainland getting more or too expensive and my position is that there is almost always some pretty cheap mainland around. This morning I looked on the map to find one close by my store lot (rental). A 512 for $300. This WAS at auction not long ago as part of a bigger piece and it isn't a great lot but certainly not one of the worst either. It currently has a brand new not good looking neighbor but if history hold, they will be gone relatively soon (the blue ball place rents out the land level also).

There is also a case (my alt had this) when the items are actually there and Firestorm can't see them. So installing the Second Life viewer would be a good step, log on and see if the files are missing in THAT viewer also. If so, then there is a good chance your items are gone. This happens all the time and I get friends telling me (this week even) of things gone missing that should not have disappeared (often no copy items). Those of us here for awhile know thing go poof at the database fairy's whim. Sadly. BUT if you can see your items in the Linden viewer you CAN get FS seeing them again by copying a file out of the Linden viewer to replace the one in the FS viewer. It is on the page in the FS wiki about inventory loss and getting things back. That's really all I remember. Good luck!

OK So strange she had to wait a month with all those warning bells. A Linden Home was not an option, buying without paying more tier or even bidding at auction. Either things changed again or her account was messed up which I guess is possible. My only comment is that IN THE PAST (who knows now) upping your tier in that radio button selection caused you to have to pay that tier EVEN if you did not use that tier. I hope that doesn't happen to you for testing this out. It IS a minefield out there. I am not premium and I don't plan to be. I am a happy little renter who does need to go take copies of things tomorrow after redoing the store. Well maybe tonight. It won't take long. Glad I remembered that. Thanks for the update. It doesn't solve my confusion, really only adds to it but THE EFFORT WAS GOOD!!!!

OK. It was just me spending WAY TOO MANY hours on this it seems. And yes, turning to prim will get the shapes back to my shapes but at a high cost which is not needed in this case. I guess that when I have done similar things like this before I NEVER LOOKED at the physics model since it wasn't a doorway or a staircase or something like that. And when I did need that physics to happen, it did -- but again at a cost. SO SEE HOW HELPFUL THAT VIEWING PHYSICS quick button is. No more having to go into the develop menu :D. Thanks all and Aquila you don't have to do ALL this work LOL. A simple "you are being dumb, girl" would suffice. Thanks. I like the camera too; just not my kind of project -- only preformed out of need :D. AND I am a bit smarter now. Always good.

I have never seen this happen before; perhaps it is normal for the uploader to rearrange your model. I tried both unanalyzed and analyzed physics, both FS and Linden viewer. I could see when the physics model was shown (very briefly and only once) that the physics model rezzed as I had made it and then morphed into something different. I have no big issue with the physics model it made. Just wondering what is going on. These are hexagons and are not touching. I use single hexagons all the time on cylinder shaped objects. But it really didn't like my physics model this time. Any clues appreciated.

And "I" thought the point was that the VENUE had changed things -- for whatever reason as it didn't used to be this way at FaMESHed. It could be in part that they have a "cam sim" and who know what things looked like depending on camming abilities. So YES, these new tools will help and I am certainly using them as a builder. I seldom actually BUY things (although I REALLY would have bought a TV camera instead of spending four days (not whole ones) on building it) but I AM picky about the demo thing. So hopefully the folks that haven't been paying attention to LODs and PHYSICS (another thread) will decide they need too. THIS WOULD BE GOOD. PS. I am going to go back when FaMESHed opens and see what the lay of the land is. I remember at Christmas time there was a big demo area above. Of course creators aren't required to use it -- at least not in any event I have been a part of.

So I just did a test and I am patting myself on the back and ChinRey will be glad. This is me at 40 meters away or more from my finished work on my building pad at LOD1 And with that I am going to start my day with a gold starred crown on my head LOL.

Hint for the future in this case (I am assuming that there wasn't a model up on the H and G demo area) is that you can derender the wall behind (I have even derendered whole buildings and anything else needed so you can 'test'). But now you know anyway which plants to avoid. Another thought LOL as I type. Those of us that have been at LOD 2 for awhile need to remember that there are still plenty of folks viewing at 1.25 or 1. :D. Honestly, I sometimes turn my viewer down that low and it is still fine since I am in over-distance mode at LOD2, but we have to draw a line somewhere and for ME it is long distances at LOD 2. ( I may be a very VERY good girl and test at 1.25 for Fantasy Faire. That would be a "good" thing and certainly doable.) I think there has been some very good info come up for builders BECAUSE of the new Firestorm building tools and that is a GREAT THING. I hope that the Linden viewer incorporates those tools into their viewer. I doubt that they will ever set the default at 2 because that would cut out more folks that wouldn't be able to use SL because of their computer capabilities. Choice is good and the folks that absolutely have to have their viewers at 8 or 16 CAN still set it that way every time. A pain but possible.

Pam is correct. The discussion about LOD setting levels has been talked about for a LONG while here on the forums. YOU are here on the forums all the time so if you were not paying attention it is not the Firestorm folk's problem. You can still set your LOD to four and it will stick (I did that yesterday by accident and made sure that it would stick at 2 as I wanted it to this morning). So yes, it is a BIG difference switching from LOD 4 to 2 and yes as I said MANY times a lot of things need to be tossed or "put away for close up shots" for us film and photo folks. AT THE SAME TIME -- also being said on these forums often -- MY COMPUTER IS MUCH HAPPIER and running better and "I" am much happier with the change. I know the creator of your trees and while that creator has a well-known name you should not equate that with "well-respected" -- as creators that make mesh chatter a lot among themselves about "cr***y* LODs. The folks that go to all the trouble TO make better mesh are the worst when it come to complaining about folks that don't. We just do it mostly in private LOL. One thing you MAY be able to do with both your flowers and plants is to make them LARGER. This will increase the land impact of course but it will also help withe the LOD viewing issues. Very few trees will hold up across a sim. I have some old ones from LAQ that do; still look pretty good. They are the red dot in the screenshot and while very tiny in the distance they are still there. That is about two-thirds of the way across the sim. They might be fine long but really, who needs them THAT long.

I saw you on the builder list but with so many names on there it wasn't easy to tell who was building THIS year LOL. I am very happy with my first building but waiting for the upcoming definitive info before I get too far along. Supposedly that is coming VERY soon.

It is VERY likely that you have the developer kits for making APPLIER (texture) clothing and things like tattoos -- not the mesh body from the maker that you need for making fitted mesh clothing. As I said, the others you have to sign up for and be OKed by the maker of the body. So TWO developer kits -- one out for everyone usually and one almost impossible to get from the many many reports on these forums :D.

That's pretty close to correct :D. There are lots and LOTS of things on the marketplace that are very old. They usually don't disappear and sometimes their creators aren't always around. So you can't really judge what is selling but Marketplace listings. A very brief story with some parts left out or it would be VERY long. Historically when mesh came to SL (five-ish years ago) designers made things to fit THEIR avatar which as you can imagine didn't work well at all. Then some folks got together and took surveys of what sizes were "the norm" and came up with Standard Sizes. Those were better but people had to fit into molds more or less or not wear mesh. Fitted mesh came on the scene later and came in two ways -- one size fits most OR standard sized fitmesh (not as popular but you will see things like "S fitmesh", "M fitmesh" etc.). When mesh bodies were introduced a big change happened. Lots of designers over the years stopped making Standard Sizing and started making clothes for the various bodies (Maitreya is by far the leader but Belleza and Slink are popular too). It is VERY VERY hard to get the developer kit needed to make clothes for the more popular bodies. Basically you have to prove to the mesh body maker that you can do a good job already making fitmesh. So you can certainly create for standard sizing as there is still a market for it, just not the primary market. AND you really need to go through most of those historical steps to get to were we are now. Good luck!

Hopefully you found your files and have a starting place. Keep in mind though that while standard sizing WAS the standard a few years ago, it is not any longer. So after you conquer (and personally I do mean conquer LOL) weight painting and rigging, you will probably want to move on to FITTED MESH which is what a lot of folks are now wearing. JUST IN CASE you don't already know your way around your favorite 3D modeling program (many of us on this forum use Blender so you will see lots of Blender info) please understand that you need to learn all the basics BEFORE you tackle clothing, which is pretty much the most difficult thing made for Second Life. Not trying to discourage you; all really good clothing designers started at the beginning. Just letting you know in case you didn't. We see lots of new folks coming in that don't really know how difficult clothing is. Best of success and enjoy the journey.

I actually understood it from what you said . But Aquila always has the prettiest pictures. Mine were all in my head. I will likely report when I get my problem window tested, maybe on a NEW thread with a better title and link back to this one :D. Meanwhile back to the camera ^^.

Thanks. Lovely photos. I did actually get it from Pam's answer -- at least I think I did and I was going to do just what you pictured. But still deep in TV Cameraland (base all done, textured and uploaded. Now to get the camera part baked and uploaded too. Thanks to you both. Sure this will help lots of folks. Unfortunately it is kind of buried in the FS post :D. A good reason why folks should read EVERYTHING or at least cycle through the screenshots. :D.

THANK YOU! OMG the things people still believe! You saved me a lot of typing LOL.

Well my problematic windows only have one material. I think I have the idea. When I get down with the infamous TV studio camera from hell (actually it has gone just fine, however NOT something I was enthused about making) I will test that out on the windows. Would be good to get things working better. The rest is fine; just the impressive many paned and many of them windows that are an issue. Thanks.

So you make a tiny triangle say that would be inside the wall or on top of the window pane on the high LOD and then in the lower LODs you make that face into a "pane" that shows and the other faces that you don't want any longer disappear via deleting loop cuts or merging vertices? Is that the idea ? LOL. OH YOU ARE SO SMART *wink*. TY.