Chic Aeon

So the good news is that you CAN do what you want to do. There is really no need to break off your long ties from the rest of the UV map. In simplistic terms (and this is SO not simple) you need to make a separate UV map for the ties and then connect that UV map (TiesUV) to the main UV map -- making your adjustment to the texture input on the TiesUV map. I do this all the time now BUUUUUUUUUUUT it took me forever to wrap my head around it all. Happily someone made a video that will give you a start on the process. I suggest you go through that tutorial a few times (LOL) before tacking your actual model. *wink*. Once you learn it, it all makes sense -- and perhaps it was just me Adding a couple of recent screenshots which will hopefully help some also.   Going to look for that video URL. ALSO, I have to say that I am a bit worried about the density of your mesh. We have seen a lot of dresses like that come through this forum with folks not being able to upload because of the density. So I suggest -- if you haven't -- uploading it before you get tooooo far along. You may need to lose some of thos edge loops . Good luck. This is a WONDERFUL skill to master.

If it is just "today", it might be a temporary database issue. Whad does "not fully rez" mean? Can you put in a screenshot? And did you see if the same houses would rez on other land -- like a sandbox. If the house that WILL rez is prim and the others are mesh then it may be a mesh rezzing issue which does happen from time to time. I am guessing that with some further issue there might be more ideas. AND again, it might just be temporary.

There are tons of 512s available often for less than a linden a square meter. Search the land tab and "512". Then explore. If you aren't terribly picky about neighbors (as in a skybox for your shop) you should be able to find something easily. Most sims are pretty low lag now. Just check for clubs and the like. Of course what is on a sim when you BUY your land has little to do with what might be there next month - . Good luck.

This is an LOD problem (level of detail). When you upload to SL there are settings in the uploader that determine how your mesh will look as viewed from a distance and with different LOD viewer settings (Firestrom default is 2 but people can change to 4 and some viewers are 1 or 1.25 as the default). The simple way since you are apparently just starting is to increase the LOD settings when you upload. The LAST (lowest setting) most oftentimes can be turned down as far as possible and the item will just disappear when seen from afar.  That's the EASY answer. The more complex answer is that you can make your own LODs that will solve this problem. So remember that down the line. For more info on LODS, this very old but still good video explains it well. It was a series made to help SCULPT creators move into MESH. PS. If you prefer text over video tutorials, I have some beginning ones here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100190052320604204973/posts/a8DDxZXB5Eh

I am not sure standing preview EVER worked. I dimly remember trying it out VERY LONG ago. I have been uploading sits via the "standing" choice for six years or more. They work perfectly inworld. I use Qavimator. Either Priorty 3 or 4 should be fine. You might want to adjust the "height" of the sit in your software before uploading so that it is lower than a stand, but since sits are normally used in furniture which has a target that may not be terribly important to you. That's all I know .

You can have as many avatars on a single account as you want assuming they would all be named Tara Innis. I have a pony and several guys and likely some odd animals I don't remember I have -- oh and a robot LOL. You can also make ALTS if you want to be someone other than Tara Innis. The rules on alts change over time so check the official TOS and corresponding pages that lead off that to find out the current rules. In the olden days you paid to make "legal alts", then you could have FIVE, then you could have as many as you wanted IF you had a good use for them (and obviously not using for griefing). I am not sure anyone ever asked me if I was really a girl -- maybe because I look so much like a "real girl" would make herself LOL. But lots have asked my age. I would say "three" and now "eight" and there would be a pause. Sometimes folks just don't get the VIRTUAL bit of it all.

You might be best off with FITMESH rather than standard sizing for men. Honestly I don't think the standard sizing for men ever worked as well as for women (I have a couple of male avatars for when I need them even though I am a gal). Check out some of the venues for men like The Mens Department and Men Only Monthly. Likely they are in the destination guide as I have certainly seen TMD there. Other monthly event venues sometimes have menware also. Always of course try the demos. These days lots of desginers are making fitmesh for the various gal bodies which oftentimes works the very best (not always as not all fitmesh is of equal quality), but I don't know if the folks making male clothes are doing that. Again, I don't shop for mensware. Hopefully a GUY with an ADAM body will reply. Quite a few female bloggers have that body and they would likely be the ones that know. Good luck!!!

If you are using Cycles to make your textures and baking to a texture plane within Blender, you can adjust the RESOLUTION (see screenshot below) OR bake to a larger texture (like 4096). Both of these methods will give you a much sharper image. If you use 4096 then be sure and sharpen in some way after resizing. Note that BOTH METHODS take a lot of computer power and depending on your computer it may not be practical. Before I got my new computer, it could take up to 40 minutes to bake. Now it takes just a few even on a complex and very high resolution. Note my new computer was VERY expensive LOL. Be sure and experiment on the beta grid where it is free and good luck! Edit: You can TEST your bake on a much lower resolution (like 20) to see if things are baking correctly and the lighting is "close". Also note that MUCH in Cycles depends on your lighting and so it could easily take a few tries to get the look you want (you may already know that but just in case). Also while the screenshot below says 250, I sometimes bake at 400. It all depends on the complexity of the project (I am usually making furniture and decor and sometimes houses). EDIT 2: and here's another thought -- since you are making the garment, IF NEEDED, you could map the dress for example into two parts which would give you two textures to upload and increase the clarity of your texture. This will also increase the DOWNLOAD for folks viewing your dress so I would use that as a last resort *wink*. 

You are very welcome. Should be easy with the shadow maps

If you don't want to upgrade your computer you might try hooking directly instead of wireless. That changed my speed by half so a big difference. You could also try a third party viewer with less bells and whistles that is based on the 1.23 viewer. Singularity is one, you can find others in the SL third party viewer list via the download page. As someone mentioned turning down your graphics settings if you can would be a VERY good idea also. Your machine has Win 7 Service Pack ONE? which leads me to believe it is pretty old. I have a similar machine from long ago and it won't run SL except for maybe chatting and gives a "your computer is SO not usable for SL" message (my verbage) when I try and log on. If you plan to spend a fair amount of time here, an upgrade is in order.

Generic instructions: If you ONLY have the UV map, then you put a layer over or under the UV making one of them semi tranparent and then "draw" (adding sections of textures in the appropriate areas if you want and adding shadowed edges etc.). You then make sure your texture is at 100 percent on the layer that will be your uploaded texture and upload. If you have the AMBIENT map then you typically layer the texture you are adding to the already shadowed map and use "mulitply" in the layer options to meld the two layers together and then merge it all and upload. There is a tutorial from a mesh maker here on the ambient method that might help: http://nakedmesh.blogspot.com/p/mesh-faqs.html That general method works for any graphics program that I have ever used, but the wording of the features might be different. A starting place maybe . To add within Blender you would need the original mesh dae or blend file. I am guessing you don't have that.

SabaothMastema wrote: Well really I am just getting a public consensus on the matter. Personally I see nothing inherently wrong with the practice. So long as there is no money changing hands. Limitations of creative commons however does present a rather large problem for quite a few merchants. Particularly the ones who sell weapons designed after their real world equivalent. That in quite a few instances is just as much IP infringement as someone selling a beanie baby mesh on the marketplace. There are several levels of Creative Commons liscenses. Many require that you list the maker as the maker with your work. The broadest Creative Commons 0 I believe it is called, is pretty much the same as Public Domain and that MIGHT be OK for SL (hasn't been tested that I know of). But in most Creative Commons items the owner does not relinquish his creative ownership -- he simply shares freely. So that doesn't conform to the current TOS verbage.

Ilithios Liebknecht wrote: This isn't really a matter of opinion. It's very clear cut. You are allowed to do with models exactly what the creator allows you to do with them. If the model has a license, you are allowed to do with it what the license allows. If you do not have a license to use the item in SL, then it is illegal to do so without permission from the creator. It's that simple. Even if you HAVE the permission of the creator, unless the creator has given away ALL his rights ("I give this model to the pubic for public domain use") it would STILL be illegal to upload to SL because of the TOS.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: My personal opinion is that the mesh must be Public Domain for you to import into SL due to the TOS. Creative Commons isn't sufficient IMO due to the necessary requirement to attribute the original creator. It matters not if it's for personal use or not, unless the license actually states different terms for personal use as opposed to commercial use. What matters is the terms of the license you have. I agree. For anyone actually striving to be within the Linden Lab TOS, Creative Commons does not qualify. There were many discussions with RL lawyers about this during the dreaded rewriting of the TOS a couple of years ago (maybe three as we are getting near August again). See the text earlier in this thread for those that didn't live through those times. The idea that just because a item is not being SOLD there is no copyright infringement is completely wrong in the United States. A bit of research will show you that. I wrote a long article on Google Plus about this but won't paste in. The point is --- do your homework and don't just ASSUME that it is OK -- and please don't advise folks to do so (not aimed at the OP). The pratice of uploading others work might be OK on another platform and might possibly be OK in a country outside the United States as laws differ including copyright laws, BUT Second Life is a US based platform owned by a US based company. All that being said there are tons of things uploaded and SOLD (still) in Second Life. That doesn't make it right or legal .

Catwa heads are a bit different than many of the other mainstream mesh heads in that you can buy the BASIC head (which I think are $900) and then you can buy -- if you choose huds that let you change expressions and such. So be sure and try both to see what you want. Also my alt is a big gal and she had some issues with getting heads to look large enough for her body. Again TRY things out together. Spend some time with the head, your Maitreya body and some APPLIER demos to find just the look you want. You can only make minor changes to the heads so far as shape goes, but the skin appliers definitely can change the look of heads (I have a Lelutka, not a Catwa but I did try the Catwa). The big plus of Catwa other than the low basic head price if that works for you is that LOTS of skin makers have the Catwa appliers where the other heads seem to have less (the Catwa applier system was free for designers at one time and may still be -- other head applier systems are more difficult for designers to get. At least that is what I have heard . And so far as eyes go, most should work. I used my older Mayfly eyes and they worked great in my Lelutka head. You will likely need to READJUST THEM though for the shape of the head.

I don't make clothes but this is a typical problem in SL with transparencies and mesh. There is a VERY good (and long) thread on how to get around the problem. Be sure and read toward the end where the answers show up. https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Checkerboard-distortion-about-phong-reflection/td-p/2326219/highlight/true Good luck. I did manage to get it done (took awhile). My comment is the last on that thread as I type this .

Your screenshot doesn't go as far down as the possible wayward vertices. .

If you decide to use Blender, I have some very simple starting tutorials here which are designed for our type of game assets. https://plus.google.com/u/0/100190052320604204973/posts/a8DDxZXB5Eh Blender is a HUUUUUUUUUGE program and does almost everything, so there will be many tutorials that are not about what we need in Second Life and other games --- they are designed to make lovely superrealistic photos and such amoung other things (even film). Start simply. Give yourself time. Be prepared to spend LOTs of time learning. I have many thousands of hours in and still have LOTS more to learn. That's a good thing if you love learning. Have fun!

ONE reason to go to a mesh body from this time and into the future is that many to most of the top designers of clothes for women are now ONLY making their things for the popular mesh bodies (typically Maitreya, Slink and Belleza). These are fitmesh made for those specific bodies so you can use your own shape (you may want to tweek it a bit depending on the body used). If you are into fashion, photography, film, or getting naked a lot, then a mesh body is important. Many role play folks simply ignore those that are not "updated" so that fits into the mix. It all depends on what you are doing in SL and how much you identify with your avatar. If you don't get a mesh body you will likely still need to get Slink feet as there are almost NO shoes now that are not at least for SLink (older) or the mesh bodies.

Ahh. Thanks sweetie. Yes I have baked at 4096 and resized but then the things I wanted sharp get less sharp - LOL. Such a PICKY GAL!!!!! I am in 2.75 not the newest and typically don't update instantaneously. I will search some on the new anti-alias feature and see what I come up with. I thought maybe there was some setting in that long menu that wasn't the default . I have noted that even the folks in Maya seem to go for "blurry" textures over crisper ones. I just like --- my chocolate dark, coffee strong, and textures cripsy with contrast - *wink*. Thanks again. Will report and also bookmark this thread so I don't lose it. Update: here is the page that talks about Anti-alias or oversampling, but I haven't found if this affects BAKING yet. https://www.blender.org/manual/render/blender_render/antialiasing.html Update 2: Further research and some experimentation (not in 2.77) suggests that the anti-alias doesn't translate into the bake. I tried some suggestions on anti-alias with Gaussian Blur and it had no effect on the bake at all. So hopefully someone knows - LOL. I did find a SLEW of folks complaining for years . Onward. PS. I followed your link to the bug reporting form but when I look at this note, it "seems" like there is still an issue even with 2.77.  but I am SO NOT GOOD at readying JIRA type things so I may have that all wrong. Hopefully in the future anyway! Will watch this thread .

So typically when I bake in Blender I end up with ragged "inside" edges. Places where another piece of mesh intersects. While I don't love intersecting meshes, sometimes that is the best choice for poly count etc. And sometimes even when edges DON'T intersect there is a very ragged edge. Adding a larger margin does nothing to help these "inside" edges. Reading in the Blender manual is not making the DAWN APPEAR :D. I typically fix this in my graphics program but if there is a setting that I am overlooking I would love to know. Uping the sampling rate doesn't fix this issue and neither does making the margin larger :D. I typically bake at 300 - 400 on a 1024. Thanks. 

Can't say I have a definitive answer but that flickering typically happens when there are faces intersecting where they shouldn't OR when there are extra faces very close together. You didn't say what program you are using. I use Blender so that's what I will talk about . Selecting all the edges you can SEE on one of the squares with the circle cut out and then looking in Wireframe would give you a hint. Easiest to see in FACE mode I think. You could also SAVE your file then delete the faces that you can see -- uncovering any extras. Hand mapping, unwrapping and then baking will also show up extra (inside) faces as they will of course not bake (no light). If you circle cut out is supposed to be FLAT rather then elevated like a pyramid (hard to tell in the photos) then I suggest simplifying to an ngon shape. This is the default I believe in the newer versions of Blender; (I am in 2.75). Again, not sure what program you are using. This would get rid of those edges that are attracting light variences. IF it is supposed to be elevated with four sections, then maybe simplifying into a less complex shape would help. Here is a screenshot of something I worked on the other day that might help explain things. Hopefully someone will have that difinite answer soon . 

So just IMPORT the dae into blender and you should be able to go from there. There ARE however many "issues" *wink*. Hope the process works for your needs.

I am with Drongle in that we are making guesses here. IF (assumption) you made a wall inworld with prims AND (sorry somehow published this without trying) then exported from a viewer (Firestorm and Singularity will let you export as DAE but I logged into the Linden viewer -- which I almost never use -- and didn't see an obvious way to do that) you would get a DAE file to export. In this case you have a OBJ file however you exported from SL. Blender as Drongel said using .blend as its ACTIVE file so you cannot open a "published" file like a DAE or OBJ -- you need to IMPORT it into blender AFTER you deleted the default cube that shows up in Blender EACH TIME YOU OPEN A NEW FILE (unless you have changed your default). But here is a bit of extra info that you probably need to know. It has been mentioned often but not lately . 1. A "ported" (exported from inworld via a viewer or other software and then imported into Blender) is not great mesh. It has WAY more faces than it would have if you made it from scratch in Blender. 2. The JOINED object can only have 8 materials total and in my experience those materials need to be reassigned (I will reread Gaia's note as I just skimmed it in case there is a magical way). They typically get assigned a material automatically and it gets VERY messy. 3. If you export several pieces of mesh over time, reassign materials and such and THEN want to join them you often end up with an issue of UVMaps not combining easily. A way around this but not really a beginner thing. There are LOTS more issues but the bottom line is that if you are building with prims in hopes of lowering land impact etc etc -- it really doesn't work that well. Exporting prims as mesh is very handy for SIZING and giving you basic shapes and perameters to build FROM, but not so much as a finished product. Better to learn how to make mesh from scratch. There are TONS of good tutorials out there (including mine which start VERY basically ). If you simply want to "move" a prim build between platforms (SL to Opensim or the other way around for example) the Export LINKSET works much better and is almost instantaneous. You can also (depending how you build your prim structure) change it to CONVEX HULL in the build menu and cut your prims in half. This ONLY works if you don't have cut out doorways and such, but it is a real land impact saver and VERY easy to impliment. Good luck!

I think no one is answering because : A. this is not about mesh B. It seems like what you are doing is against the terms of service. It is unlikely that the original creator's EUL allows you to export their file for use outside of SL.