Chic Aeon

Can't edit my original post (I agree that is a pain) but you can now also watch these at SLArtist here: https://www.slartist.com/browse-the-tutorial-chic-videos-1-date.html No ads. Obviously these are posted like a blog so find the beginning ones further down in the list. The ones with the "Blender" and ONE-TWO-THREE are the mesh tutorials.

Just a visual as without one I am pretty sure I would be lost if I were new - LOL. Depending on the item -- and IF it is the download that is dictating the land impact cost -- then making the item slightly smaller could take the LI down to 2 again. In this example for instance the mesh is all one piece (0.5 server cost), the physics is minimal (typical on small objects - I use a cube as a physics model) and the actual land impact is determined by the download (this example has high LODs at a far distance and decreases easily as it gets smaller). To get the information window to the left, you click on the MORE INFO link (underlined) in the building tab.

Redundancy doesn't seem to be helping at all (at least in the past as recent as three months ago). I had MANY backups of the items under various names and in different subfolders -- also backups taken at different times (months apart) and they ALL disappeared. My missing logo obviously completely disappeared from the database, not just my inventory since NO ONE had a copy who had had one before. The only safeguard that sometimes works is to put a copy of items in a NEW PRIM and keep it rezzed. I tried putting items in the content tab of a book I had made for safekeeping and after an apparently loss went back to the book thinking how smart I was. The book was empty (seemingly reverting to its unfilled state during some database rollback or possibly a sim rollback). Earlier this month I had my filled, triple checked gacha machine revert to at time BEFORE I moved it to On9. I usually fill things early and they sit in a staging area so it was filled way before the opening. I thought it was very odd I wasn't selling things but I was busy and just though "oh well, no one likes it". After over a day a customer wrote to tell me they couldn't play the gacha. Not only was the script missing (it had been there) permissions were also off with some being copy. So this was an old version of the machine before I had added the script or changed the permissions. It was NOT the one I had put out at the event. This has happened before but nothing quite this major -- usually hunt gifts reverting to no buy. Anyway I doubt there is really anything much that WE can do as there do seem to be many kinds of major problems.

Just a couple of thoughts as this seems resolved. Should your EMAIL be accurate (hence changes in email rules with confirmation soon) you get an automated reply stating that you will very likely NOT hear from The Lab about the abuse report. I have sent in many over the years, mostly on the Realms before it was cleaned up and often through my alt. I only received notice once -- and THAT was impressive. Years ago I was over on the Realms (and I think it was "me") and someone was teleporting folks in to block the landing spot on one of the regioins presumably so that they could pick up all the crystals without any competition. I have no idea how they managed that, but they did. The folks coming in would only stay a very short time and then would disappear and then come back. All very strange but certainly not friendly. I reported with a photo and almost INSTANTLY it got remedied. I got an IM asking me some questions. I replied and the bottleneck stopped. The person BEHIND the issue (seemingly) was still there and not booted, but the problem went away. So I suspect that someone is watching that abuse thread. When I had a similar building ugliness (a giant advertisement around a whole sim on a nearby plot, it took a month to fix but it did get fixed eventually. Happily it has been a long while since I had to make a report.

A separate note to say how NICE it is to see some Lindens commenting in the forums these days. Thumbs up!

One of the more interesting threads we have had in awhile :D. It took me back. One thing not mentioned (at least I don't think so as this WAS a long thread so far) is that "old age" does have its perks LOL. I doubt very many of us old timers have issues any longer. Guys (or gals I guess) will come up and hit on you now and then but most often in a polite way. Not a big deal. So getting OLDER is good :D. The only place I ever ran into griefers was in the sandboxes, so those aren't the best to hang out in if you are new (hence targeted as in theory you are easier prey). I suggest that you find a home. Searching the rental listings (and sometimes the forums) will likely find VERY cheap almost free housing --- or sometimes free for new folks. It will likely be less than picturesque but a starting place. Since you love to learn (and I so get that as I spent two days in the induction area (no longer around) when I joined, reading all the signs and practicing stuff) you should also really like exploring possible rentals. It would be VERY unlikely to run into greifers while house-hunting. I go out and look at land and rentals from time to time still just for fun and to see what is out there and how things have changed. To PAY for said super cheap rentals (some are $25 a week) I suggest going over to Linden Realms and picking up crystals. Now you MIGHT run into griefers there but most have HAPPILY been negated by the security now in place -- so unlikely. You can't make lots of lindens there now like you used to but you can collect crystals by running through them (orange is best unless you happen to see a VERY RARE THESE DAYS blue or green). You turn these in at a collection hut AND along they way you definitely learn how to navigate your avatar better. So fun too. Since you presumably haven't been to the Realms before you may be able to go on the quest (I am not sure if it is working now but guessing it might be fixed). If you get a note on your screen when you enter just follow the instructions. The whole point of the quest was to help new folks learn the SL ropes. You can find the Realms in the Destination Guide. Along with MUTE there is also DERENDER which is a handy right click option LOL. Good luck and have fun.

As someone that both blogs (hence lots of furniture to test) and makes animations I can tell you that a large percentage of animations and poses don't work for everyone (like me). So often I end up standing in front of the furniture. As a designer the best thing you can do is to have different sized alts and friends test animations before you buy for your furniture. If you make animations the same advice applies. I try to make my animations (and poses) so that they fit the majority of people, testing on many avatars. Honestly, that makes my animations not as exciting as some others but at least I don't have hands running through legs and heads and such LOL. So I live with the mundane aspects. The best you can do as a consumer is TEST with both you and your friends BEFORE buying. There will likely be SOME animations that will work for you. That is of course unless you just want to change your avatar shapes. You should NEVER (IMHO) buy AOs, poses or animations without thoroughly testing. If you do, you are bound to find some that need to be discarded.

Just a note that as far as I can see sales are back to normal or better after the "Tax Time"slump. My sales are noticeably UP. Since we know that part of the algorithm is percentage of folks that buy after looking, then I agree that the best thing a seller can do is be clear and honest with the description. Having a demo inworld if it demo isn't provided (like with clothes) is also a very good thing. And I think that was super nice of @Dakota Linden to take the time to look at your listing. :D.

I posted a question about inventory in OpenSim on a Google Group mentioning these threads on inventory loss. This was the techy reply I received. Thought it might be of interest.

Well no one is replying so I will let you know that integrated graphics in general are not best for SL. And there have always been issues with AMD. If it doesn't work well when you try, then an older styles 1.23 viewer will likely run things better, like Singularity. You can find a list of accepted third party viewers here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

Your post suggests that you are going about things the right way :D. WHILE in your pose you simply right click on the object and choose Attach To> Right Hand (etc.). From there you use the editing tools to rotate and place the object as you want it to look. THIS DOES TAKE PARCTICE. After it is in the right spot, but SURE to detach and attach AGAIN in order to get it to "stick" at the rotation and placement you have defined. There are no scripts necessary.

8f8 items have been traditionally "heavy". I only have one thing I think but I can remember going to venues with lots of (very lovely) 8f8 items and not being able to move. It was molasses. So IF you only have the disappearing issue at home where there are those 8f8 items then likely that is the problem. There can of course be OTHER mesh that is too dense. Happily a lot of content creators are doing a good job on both vertices and LODs.

I was thinking the same thing a day or so ago. I don't go to the beta grid any longer, my alt does all the testing. When they first instituted the "link" between grids it was a mess and I lost a LOT of stuff on Agni and it took me a week just to get my inventory working in any semblance of normalcy. That being said, I "could" be helpful for scripts and textures. It would SEEM like you could send full perm items to your alt(s), but unfortunately I had an occurrence where that did no good at all. ALL instances (many different UUIDs) disappeared from the grid no matter who had them. So there must be a hierarchy in the database with the original item and then all the copies of that item. All very strange but definitely something is wrong (not new news but seemingly getting worse). You COULD export any mesh you had made if needed. In theory you should have that on your hard drive -- anything recent anyway. I have considered Opensim a "cloud backup" for a couple of years. It has saved me a time or two for sure.

There was a time when the web profiles were new that uploading there did change your inworld profile photo. The problem was that with 75% or so of folks in Firestorm with a 3 to 4 ish ratio and the web (then anyway - I never go there) at 1:1 that the photo look BAD "somewhere". So it may have been purposefully changed. Just a thought. I only uploaded to the web once long ago and didn't like the way it worked so now I just upload inworld. You CAN use the "local" feature to test how your profile picture will look, and that is a nice thing.

Here is the playlist (currently 8 videos) for the new Blender Cycles Tutorials. This starts pretty much at the beginning assuming very little knowledge of Blender although I am sure I left out some things along the way.

@ChinRey Well yes Rotation and Scale is mandatory for manual unwrapping which I always do. I just ALSO apply all those things before exporting :D.

Good to know about the SL OS differences and thanks. Your ideas about where the problems are coming from may be correct for some folks but I have no issues logging in (like EVER unless the grid is down), I never clear my cache unless I have a real issue (like mesh being invisible which hasn't happened in a long while) and don't have thousands of items in a single folder LOL. So none of those reasons answer why I am (and have always) had issues. I can't say that my inventory losses are any WORSE than they have always been (I seem to average about one giant (10,000 items ish) loss a year or two with some smaller not too handy but not catastrophic losses in between. They certainly haven't improved though. And my inventory is only 30,000 as I have mentioned and I do PURPOSEFULLY empty my trash fairly often AFTER CLOSELY CHECKING the contents *wink*. I really can't think of anything else I can do to fix this on MY end. Any ideas are welcome.

While Dakota's info is important and will likely increase your Marketplace sales if you have not already made those adjustments, the most likely reason for sales dropping is that it is TAX TIME IN THE UNITED STATES. This is an historical low sales time -- not just in SL but in RL also. I agree my sales were down and procrastinators did their taxes and many found that they owed money --- hence no extra money to play with in SL. I have seen this every year since I have been here and yep, it was that way this year to. Not really much to do about it but recognize the cause and work on things for AFTER tax time (around the middle of the month each April).

A note about having things all in one top folder (like Objects). Aside from being beyond messy and impossible to find things, there is a possible prolem with too many things in one folder. That is true for sure in Opensim and it is likely a problem here too. Some techie person might know the answer there. In Opensim if you get too many items in a folder (maybe 1000? I don't remember the number) then items will not show up any longer in your inventory window. They will apparently be there but not viewable. That wasn't MY problem however as my whole inventory is 30,000 (I purposefully delete many items after I blog them) and I have lots of top level folders. I also often save backups in coalesced form to keep my numbers down.

No, it isn't a cache issue -- at least not mine. And that is what logging in on a new viewer will do. There have been SOME TIMES when this was a fix. Clearing your cache on you viewer would likely do the same thing and most people try that first. But even with a brand new viewer that you have never used installed, things can be gone. And lately it seems these losses are happening more often. They aren't new though. They have been around a long, long while (at least nine years). I am going to assume that the OP being an old timer did all the "tricks" to retrieve seemingly lost inventory BEFORE they considered it a real loss. There is a whole page in the wiki about Inventory Loss. Unfortunately it isn't about REAL inventory loss :D.

As far as I know from the information on that other thread, premium membership is not the criteria. One person was told that they need to show NEED as I said, so you would need to MAKE over $999 US a month for some consecutive months in order to meet their criteria. The point (for them) is that if you are making less than $999 US a month you can cash out each month. This of course keeps you from saving on fees but IS possible. I will eventually get all my money out this way. And yes, I suspect a lot of folks asked for an increase and didn't get it. I have no idea why some folks that don't NEED the high limits have them. That's all I know.

Ah OK. Sorry. Too late :D. When I have seen those they swung to and fro but they still didn't change direction. Rolig will answer your question when she is on no doubt. Good luck.

You set preferences in the marketplace SEPARATELY from inworld. So you need to change that in your MARKETPLACE account. The information doesn't filter over.

@Ruthven Willenov I am not a script writer (only a tinkerer) but every door I have acts that way. If you THINK about it, the real life doors do too. The ONLY open in one direction *wink*.

Just a thought. If you are looking to make some chiaroscuro photos a facelight set to dim OR a globe with some low lighting will likely be necessary. The whole point of that style (which I love) is "light and dark". All dark doesn't really do it :D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro