Chic Aeon

LOL. I used to sew for a living in real life and taught sewing classes in college when I was (gasp - 20 - and folks had a hard time "finding the teacher" amdist all the older women - funny memory). I was a fairly mediocre clothes maker. I CAN do it and I HAVE (mostly in Opensiim where my options were limited at the time). I think it took me a week to make my overalls. And I am getting better with scripting although it is not my first love for sure. Still, I can get my texture and tint (and now shadow) menu that I made in a class LONG ago adapted and working the first time on a good day. We learn, we grow and we find our niche if we are lucky. And here is a MUCH better photo of those pants. Somehow the uploader for the forums loses the lights and darks in compression. I checked my original photo and it was SO much better than what ended up here LOL. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24257589@N03/30596465384/in/dateposted-public/ Zoom in to see the details. Impressive. I want a really nice turtleneck APPLIER for Maitreya

Just wanted to add that it seems like SOME of the issues have been fixed in the uploader now since that post. a year ago. I have noticed it often lately and I frequently reference that post which happily comes up in search if you remember the PHONG part . In that thread along with making the "inside" one material and the "outside" another I believe you also had to let the uploader generate normals (something that I had never done). At least there was an extra step similar to that. That is the only way THEN that I could get it to work for me. Lately when making glasses similar to the ones I showed at the end of that post, there was no need to do that. I just uploaded as I would normally and it worked perfectly. I even put wine in the glasses with no issues. As it has been said your design might have too many overlapping areas to have a clean transparency, but making the underside of the skirt one material and the rest another material would be the first thing to try. You "might" also have to make any small thickness at the bottom (if that is a part of your mesh) a third material so that you wouldn't have a tiny thin "line" showing through from some angles. I have only seen that once on a garment but it was there. Good luck!!!!!

If you pay attention to the news you know that ANY company including the very biggest as well as governments CAN be hacked. Before I joined there was some kind of fiasco with personal info getting out from SL (likely a Google search would find that out; it must have been 11 years back or so). The big risk of course is clicking on a wrong button or sharing your password. As far as I can see you are as safe here as anywhere on the web or the real world where a computer is involved. I also suggest that you NEVER leave your login info on automatic login in your browser or viewer. That is most likely the biggest risk folks take.

While it has taken me awhile, I have definitely bonded with Cycles and enjoy building modeling in Blender. That being said, when I was in Opensim I did a ton of building with prims and even made video tutorials on prim building. You can do some pretty spectacular things with prims and in Opensim where the land (and hence prim costs) as SO inexpensive, it is a more viable method. Still, by using the convex hull trick you can cut the prim count down a lot AND as some of the great prim builders of the past taught us, a whole lot of the quality had to do with TEXTURES. I was never all that good with drawing my own textures, so Cycles lets me get the look I want without the painfulness (for me) of graphics programs. I love all the wonderful things mesh has brought into the world, and I do spend a fair amount of time looking at my work in progress IN world (hence better proportions than some well known builders -- who I am guessing do NOT continuously test their builds on the OMG BETA GRID! LOL). We each work in our own ways. But, while there is some nostalgia in my post as I had some of my best times in building classes -- I was mostly mentally extrapolating the difference between prim building (all in world), current mesh building (part in world) and "hitting that publish button" that has been mentioned. While it "may" be OK for me, I am thinking it might be too far removed from virtual life and much more of a simple commodity. That's not a bad things for some folks. Just not sure it will work for me. And to Rolig maybe or whoever left clothing -- there is still a niche for great texture garments. I live in my applier jeans and just got some new pants last night. I wish more "old time" designers would delve into that a bit more. Now with mesh bodies that look so smooooooth, those clothes look super. Here is a shot of some newly released applier pants. Pretty amazing. We would have beaten down the doors back in the day to have something this nice. Skills and software have made improvements in all areas. 

Rhiannon Arkin wrote: Hey Thanks a lot for your detailed example. There's a lot to be gained by paying attention to these lods. For texturing, I am trying to fit as much as i can into a 1024 square by laying out uvs manually. It's just as much work as building itself. Your initial example of uv layout is indeed a huge waste of space. I don't know blender, can you manually generate, manipulate uvs in that software? The quality of sl image uploads is a bit a pain. it was mentioned above, the compression is making everything a lot more blurred. my 1024 photoshop file is substantially better then my 1024 upload. but i guess there's not much to do here. So far the tips I found here in this thread have helped greatly. So i'll update you with my tree project soon. I've so far experimented on other models how the mesh uploader sees things. So i managed to get a pile of books from 5LI to 1LI and it's looking better too. Now. onto the tree. When I first started looking at mesh (maybe over four years ago) I went to a then popular (may still be -- I don't keep up) full perm mesh store that gave away items each month to the group. I found that each (EACH) leg of a table was on its own 1024 UV map. Well, not knowing any better --- we can assume that "I" assumed that was the correct method. OH HOW SILLY. I admit that getting things down texture wise has been difficult for me, but it IS possible and with EXCELLENT results. The trick is high resolution baking with some hand work after. And yes, you can certainly (and should IMHO) map by hand. There are a plethora a reasons why NOT to let the automatic UV editor in Blender make your choices (more than with the LOD uploader for sure (again IMHO) Here is a screenshot of the layout of a new building I am working on. The complete roof, ceiling, trim and decoration is all on one 1024 texture. it looks great in world. It was baked at 400 resolution in Cycles. I actually LOVE laying out the UV maps. That and making the textures in Cycles are my favorite parts. It's like a puzzle trying to see the best way to fit thing into the grid. Remember of course that SCALE is important so that all your wood pieces look the same, metal etc the same.  Not a lot of "air" there. It looks great inworld. Whew!

There are as many opinions on this subject as their are creators. While I am not in the "make the populous turn up their LODS to 4 camp, MANY folks in the sculpt era changed their defaults simply so they could see the world. That doesn't mean it was right, just that it was a necessary. I still see mesh that breaks apart but not all that much thankfully. I run at LOD2. I appreciate the idea that some folks build for LOD1. That is not my choice or actually the choice of most content creators in retail. Public SL builds are a different matter. Things may change slowly and modeler may start testing at lower LODs. That would be a good thing, but this is supposed to be a free market, economy, and for the most part world. If people choose to make mesh that only works at LOD4 they will find a market. "I" don't think that is the best choice, but it isn't MY choice to make for THEM. This has been discussed and discussed and I doubt anyone will be changing their point of view except for the people that had no idea there was even a choice in how to view objects inworld.

Well even in the VERY beginnning Ebbe stated (on these forums somehwhere back then) that content would be converted to a proprietary format therefore limited the "stealability" of things. I just hadn't heard about the "going through channels" type of review . I have no real problem with that, just more and more it is sounding like NOT my platform of choice (sadly as I was looking forward to it). Thanks.

No changes in my system but I have been having "your region is experiencing difficulty" logout which is very unusual for me. On mainland. I haven't been having any texture rezzing issues but I have a hefty computer and a fast connection. It does seem to be taking longer for items pulled from inventory to appear. This since the beginning of the week. I don't watch to see if my region got new codes; I just deal and assume it will work out eventually. West Coast USA.

Well yes, it is indeed the animation in that AO, not the body . BUT "age" isn't the issue. There are still new AOs out there with these problems. You could take that particular animation out of your AO if the others work well for you. Meanwhile, be sure and TEST all the animations in any new AO you get. NEW doesn't necessarily mean BETTER.

I hadn't heard about the Sansar Lab approval bit. Do you remember where you found that? Always good to divide official statements from rumor. Whether or not you need approval, there have been a lot of official comments about "publishing". At first I was thinking it might be like Cloud Party where you worked on a -- let's call it sim for ease of understanding -- and then when you felt you were finished you sort of set it in stone by publishing. You could keep working on your UNPUBLISHED build, making changes, adding products in case of a store say and then publish "over" the earlier version. But the more I read snippets of info the less that seems likely. It also bothers me a bit that there hasn't been much unveiled from the "200 creators" that went over in August with one comment from an official reported interview stating the most of the creators were working offline and learning the tools (these being guys who at least for mesh were working in Maya and hopefully proficiently). I spent a year and a half getting comfortable with Cycles when I already knew Blender; another year to get comfortable with another bit of software isn't making my bells jingle. So at this point, the new platform seems less like a "me" experience than I expected it to be. But my assumptions made from breadcrumbs of official and semi-official comments could be way off track. We'll know in a few months I guess. If nothing else it will be fun to visit and see the creations of the designers who call Sansar home. And yes, building WAS more social back towards the beginning .

A perusal of new platforms and a review of what we know of some not unveiled had me thinking a bit tonight. I grew up in a prim world. It was an impressive feat to take a prim (ring or tube or whatever) and turn it into a curved seating area; 1 prim -- a big deal if you only had 117 which is what the majority of us had then. These last four years I have been working in mesh. It wasn't an easy road, but these days I feel pretty comfortable and can generally make what I want to make as long as I don't journey beyond the home and garden arenas. I am very happy with Blender now that we have bonded, but still -- thinking about making a whole "scene" in a 3D program with no interaction in the "real" part of our virtual existence has me a bit -- well, my head seems to be shaking a lot. Mesh makers spend a lot of time outside of our virtual world, locked away on imaginary grids with nodes and lamps and all that jazz. Those making skins and texture garment or appliers have their own set of tools -- outside of the lands we live on. Still, we don't just hit a publish button and call it good. We import and texture and tweak and test. We put together pieces of a model to make house, a copse of trees, a fairytale village square. We do this INWORLD, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with others looking on and giving their opinions. I remember the first time I moved a skybox up into the sky. Of course I didn't know I could just put the coordinates in, hit the OK button and then tp up TO it. How silly. Instead I moved it with the blue arrow up into the atmosphere. It didn't get far; it was a slow process. Still, there was a thrill of accomplishment when I got it up there. It seems to me that we lose that when our worlds are created in a closed environment. The thrill of our avatars manipulating prims and models get's lost. I am glad that on this platform we still have the feeling that we are creating our world INSIDE our world. Just some late night thoughts.

Yep, the Zen seems to be keeping things the same also. I don't see how the landlords that increase the rents will keep customers when other land owners aren't upping fees . ESPECIALLY since everyone gets extra prims now. The folks on double prim private lands might see an increase as there would be a small new cost for the landowner. Still, since they get the most prims per plot that seems fairly fair IMHO.

Just adding to this thread for later readers. I suggest getting a bigger power supply than it appears you might need AND doing research on power supplies. I had a machine built from what used to be a good company on the web. But alas that is no longer the case. I ended up with a power supply that was listed as being big enough to run my graphics card and motherboard, but it died after a few months taking the motherboard with it. The whole machine was (let's politically correctly say less than optimum) but the power supply issue cost me another $500 to fix. This was NOT a cheap machine. So if you are building or having one built make sure that what you are getting is what you need . And while I seldom have parts die, it has been most often the power supply (on a few machines). I do not overclock.

Was not advocating sculpts as I always hated them and still am not found of the giant sim surround landscapes that encompass you when you go to a new place taking forever to load (and I have a very fast machine AND connection). Just saying that some of the items that you see that are "low prim" are mixes of sculpts and mesh OR (in the past anyway) were actually all sculps and not tagged correctly. Many consumers seem to assume things are mesh sometimes when they are not. If you use Cycles render you can bake the trunk at a high resolution and get plenty of details in there. It is just a different look than tiling textures. Some mesh makers actually BLUR their textures on purpose. Lots of ways! Lots of choices!

Before the days of mesh bodies and heads, in order to get a job in the public eye most folks need to have "premium skin and hair" (and clothes too of course). As it has been said, a public job in SL is much like a public job in RL. Looks has a lot to do with it. If you are a good scriptor no one cares how you look. No one will see you, just use your products. About The Lab making new "good" mesh standard bodies? I can't see that happening. While it might be possible for them to do so, they would be in direct compitition with the people who they are suppose providing a creative outlet. That wouldn't be good. Plus that would be yet one more major mesh body clothing creators would need to add to the growing list of sizes. And from a broader viewpoint have you ever noticed that things made for the public by the lab have a look from several if not more years in the past? I don't think that's an accident; I think it is a plan NOT to be in competition with the folks that make the majority of this world -- the private creators. I went around today looking for Advent calendars for a list I do every year. I can definitely say that there is a place for legacy avatars and 2006 prim building. It isn't pretty from my point of view, but there are plenty of areas where one can feel at home without upgrading. If you want to have a semi-prestigious job, be a blogger or fashionista, or model? You need to get at least a mesh body and a good applier skin and a mesh outfit. That would be like getting a haircut and buying a nice skirt and blouse for an interview in real life; simply a necessity. It IS difficult to live in a 2010 world these days. Even most freebies are for mesh bodies or at least Slink feet. People want mesh furniture because it is more efficient (if made correctly) with lower land impact. There were plenty of great things about SL a decade ago just like there were plenty of great things in our coporeal 1940s 60s 80s etc. Some folks would prefer going back and others want the brightest and best they can have. So we choose our path.

Also note that some things on the Marketplace are SCULPTS and not mesh.I found at least one MP item that matched your description and as I suspected it was listed as "partial mesh". This means that the trunk is mesh and that the brach planes are a sculpt. Since you can apparently link sculpts to mesh now with a capped maximum land impact for the linking (don't remember the number and I don't use sculpts but when mesh was new there was a HUGE issue linking the two). This could be a possible way to get the low land impact. Uploading the branches separately from the tree (or as a linkset with your own LODs and Physics models) might garner a bit lower land impact depending on how you upload. AND many all mesh low land impact trees DO fall apart at a fairly short distance -- even at LOD 2 settings --- so there is that. That being said I have some still very nice animated trees with an extemely low land impact and very good viewing. Looking at the mesh you can see it is in two pieces (trunk and leaf planes) and I can tell you that the trunk is VERY low poly with the main part of the trunk pretty much a cube and that TEXTURES give the illusion of more shape. So that is likely part of the key also. Good luck. 

Along with that I have seen some "plus 10 linden" bids on the Horizons lands so that can still happen even if it doesn't on the ones you are watching.

Probably not the best choice of forums for this post. Note the description of this forum "Share best practices on building, importing and working with mesh objects in-world." Most mesh bodies will support curves. Slink has one specifically for that. The three top brands are Maitreya, Slink, Belleza. Others you will have troubles getting clothes for that really fit. TRY THE DEMOS.

 MERCHANT HOME ---- INVENTORY --- MANAGE LISTINGS.

I guess I am in a picky mood but although I am a big Firestorm supporter and users for many years -- this IS THE SECOND LIFE VIEWER forum. Really. There is also a Firestorm wiki that can answer many of your questions AND many Firestorm classes with open questions at the end. Google is your friend.

OK. But so far we have no answers LOL. It isn't like a margin setting or anything that I typically CHANGE from the defaults (for me anyway) and I have been using Cycles for almost two years now I think so that shouldn't be it either. A mystery.

Yes, clear is set. No, there are no alpha channels in the textures I am using in the image textures (Cycles Nodes). Yes, the combined texture always bakes perfectly the first time (well it bakes CLEARLY with no alpha channel - if it baked as I wanted it there would be no need to rebake ) I only change lighting (lamps in the 3D viewport) or brightness and contrast (nodes) or make similar changes. The next bake often (not always as far as I can tell) turns alpha. Sometimes you can see this clearly in the UVimage editor Viewport -- other times it isn't obvious at all. If I forget to LOOK and CHANGE to RGB from RGBA on the button, then I get a texture inworld that appears at first to be RGB but actually has an alpha channel and hence some issues. I know I can turn off the alpha channel in the texture panel but the texture takes longer to download so THAT'S not good . Yes, this is still happening. Eventually I guess I will learn to CHECK each time, but so far I forget now and then. This doesn't seem to be planned behavior PS. This did not happen with the original 2.78 release or any time before on earlier releases. It has only been happening with 2.78a.

Agreed and that is one of the main negative arguments. I think we have to assume Sansar tech is looking as far ahead into the future as it can and trying to build for down the road. For me it isn't the price, it is the clumsiness of most of the gear. When things look like driving gloves and regular sunglasses I will be there. Until then the idea of MORE technology isn't working for me. I am very happy with Second Life.

According to the reports I have read (many official) Sansar can be used without VR gear but is optimized for VR gear and certainly being MARKETED that way. Lots of comments about it (pro and con the wiseness of the choice), but I guess most of us won't know how it will work for US until the doors opens. It is certainly being PRESENTED in all the videos as a VR environment. So for example I am playing Obsession (the Myst folks) in the old fashioned point and click version but I also have the ability to play in VR if I had the gear. That's my thinking from the comments I have read. Since the content creators over there are reportedly under Non-disclosure agreements we only have bits of info and slips of the "tongue" here and there to go by.

I didn't read it but there is a long post on the Living in a Modem World blog on this issue here: https://modemworld.me/2016/11/24/lltakecontrol-and-horizons-experience-update/ Hopefully that will give you some hints.