Chic Aeon

So since I was all caught up with "work" I decided I would explore some features I had never used and maybe learn something new. The making of the spring went fine, but unwrapping is very odd. I applied rotation and scale -- and even location LOL during my frustration period. It is acting like it is ignoring the marked seam at the filled circle at the bottom ALTHOUGH the circle fill itself shows up in the unwrap as you would expect. I have redone the marking of seams and unwrapping a few times. I even tried dividing the spring in half (like cutting it with a saw more or less) and then the same thing happens with BOTH pieces of the spring ^.^. So any hints on how to get this puppy to unwrap would be helpful. Thanks. A material is applied already and assigned. I realize I can just use a flat color but I was hoping on a nice Cycles metal shine :D. I was more or less following the instructions in the first part of this video (with much lower poly count). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkB6nJtiPhQ 

OK. LOL The dressing room idea is only for your peace of mind (maybe) as anyone can see inside the room if they know how to cam --and most folks of a certain age certainly do. Some schools actually used to give classes in how to change clothes without getting naked. Those might still be around if you check. It is really pretty simple. You just need to understand how layers work for texture things and for mesh items just wear a swimsuit or whatever. Here is the general idea. ** Have some texture clothes on --- any layer but for example a tee shirt and jeans. ** ADD the NEW clothes to what you are wearing. This works for either texture clothes (appliers or standard) as well as mesh with alphas (or alpha slots if you have a mesh body). ** Go to the WORN tab and take off your shirt and jeans to see what the new items look like all by themselves. For applier clothes you can take of the LAYER of your "jeans" to see the new item. Honestly even though I have my own place and have no qualms being naked I frequently try on outfits to blog using this system. You can often tell if something is going to work for you WITHOUT even taking off the "shirt and jeans" clothes. Just keep trying new outfits or demos until something looks good, then take off those "privacy layers" of garments. A few tries and you'll be a pro and can change anywhere without anyone seeing anything .

I found it though Google search -- something like Maketplace Terms of Service etc. Way too far down in my page views to find but it IS still there .

I answered this last night and then deleted as I thought someone might have better input. . With the new marketplace (from the viewer) you are supposed to upload NEW versions WITHIN the old version listing. Torley made a bunch of YouTube videos explaining that. So you no longer upload "new" (hence keeping the longevity of the product) unless it actually IS a brand new item (as apposed to an IMPROVED item). Here is part one. There are four: You can certainly change the name and the photo for the product, but relisting (I went back and reread the rules last night) is definitely not allowed. So to be legal I would say anyway, to put an updated version under the original one calling it V2 or whatever. Change your photo with your new brand name if you like and you are set. In the ones I redid I mentioned that this is V2 (or in one case V3). Just so folks that might be looking for a previous version would know.

Make a new texture with the scale you want your pattern. Not all graphics programs will do this (my version of Corel does not so I use a VERY old version of PhotoImpact when I need to do this (not often now that I am working in Cycles mode in Blender). Place that texture on top of the AO map and use "multiply" to merge the two together leaving the shadows on the map. Obviously your pattern texture needs to be the same size as your AO map OR at least big enough for the area you want to fill with the pattern (like a pillow perhaps when there are other parts of the item on the same AO map. You don't say what graphics program you use, so that would be helpful and maybe someone that uses that same program will know the steps to make a texture with different scaling from your smaller graphics. Sorry missed that in the title. So hopefully there is an easy way in Photoshop. Will leave this here for those that might not be using that program. The OTHER option would be to find some very large graphic patterns and resize those down to the size you need OR of course make your own textures. Good luck. PhotoImpact X3 does a nice job of making fine textures from larger ones (and has a pattern making mode formerly used for website backgrounds). It works up to Win 10 and should be very cheap if you can find a copy as it is really old LOL. I am guessing Photoshop will do this somehow but I have never used that program.

From the marketplace listing and the store of that creator it looks like you can ONLY wear outfits made for that specific avatar (and likely from that creator although there may be some others making clothes for it). This isn't unusual for a specialty avatar. If you want to wear "normal" clothes like for Maitreya then you will need a Maitreya body. Same for Slink etc. Appliers certainly will not work -- they only work for the body they are made for. There may be some mesh clothes that might fit but trying the demos will be the only way to tell. It is definitely not a Maitreya body. They are much more expensive ^^

She can pick a standard avatar from within the viewer. In Firestorm it is "Avatar" - "Choose Avatar". From there she will have a standard body that she can change the skin on and shape of course. If she wants a mesh avatar then she will need to buy one inworld. Most are around $10 US (no head). It actually is getting tricky to get by without one of the popular mesh avatar bodies -- especially for shoes . Boots are an answer or some old items on the marketplace. I've had my mesh body for a year and a half now and I was definitely not early to the party. I waited until I found one that I really liked. So this isn't really new technology and many designers are starting to make clothes JUST for the popular mesh bodies - hence no standard sizes and no alpha layers. Guys not so much yet .

As I understand it, most of the "work" has been moved from the servers to our computers now, so I agree that the reason for you "lag" is surely your computer and settings. My work computer is hefty but I have a laptop that is laggy in SL --- different machines at the same places. One thing you can do is rent a skybox or a dome where you will only see a small area when you log in . This will likely help your day to day at home issues. When you go out of course there are people and sometimes badly made mesh that will cause problems unless your computer is high end. That is just how it is. It doesn't matter if you rent or buy, mainland or island. It matters what your viewer SEEEEEES that causes problems. As someone mentioned, turn down your graphics settings if you can.

Also POSES (static - don't move) are different from ANIMATIONS (moving in a certain way). So if you actually bought POSES, they are meant for use when taking photos, not for everyday walking around. There have traditionally been free AO (animation overriders) on the Marketplace. I suspect they are still there. That would be a good way to start and learn. Basically you WEAR the AO, it appears on your screen and you can turn it on and off as needed. Once you have that worked out, you can make your own AO (add on or in the viewer) as you like. Good luck.

Well if we did not have to worry about PRIM cost, then making things at LOD 0 might be fine, but ... There are always trade offs. And very few creators agree on the best method. Since all my items (well 90% anyway) are out on the floor where folks can see them I am happy to make things for LOD 2. As I said, most work reasonably well at LOD1. As a creator making products for SALE, we each have to decide who our customers are. Mine for the most part are those higher end folks. I sell lots of surrounds and odd things like camping cots and such and I suspect those are more of the "everyday" folks will less than stellar computers. I amazingly sell some quite old items on the Marketplace. The SL customer base is definitely vast and varied. And yes, my last computer was $1700 for a desktop with no monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. So "I" am certainly in that power user category. I will say that I am not happy these days with the folks that build at LOD4 and I am pretty much not using their items any longer or (honestly) featuring their products as my outlook has changed in that reguard. STILL, those folks DO have their customer base and it is a big one. So as long as folks can see the items before they buy, I don't think it matters all that much. And the really lazy folks who will not bother to come SEE those demos - well then they have no reason to complain since it was their choice. As I am typing this, I am thinking about when I taught computer classes in college. I announced at the beginning of class that I "taught for the middle". I did not expect all the folks to wait patiently while the slowest person in the class grasped the concepts and methods. Those folks could come in and practice on their own during open lab. The people that were the vanguard (and frequently went ahead of where we were in class) could do that with my blessing. I however told them outright that if they got stuck they were not going to get any extra help; they would just have to wait for the class to catch up. I did get Teacher of the Year the first term I was allowed to be selected (the students decided via end of class questionare ratings), so that worked for that scenaro. I guess my outlook on LODS is pretty much the same. I go for the middle . In the end, I pretty much make things because I enjoy making them. I am not trying to put the kids through college or pay a giant mortgage. I just like creating and after a year of forty hour work weeks with Cycles, I can pretty much make what I want now and enjoy the process without tearing out my hair. AND, if I was designing a Linden welcome area or some such thing, then I would go for LOD 1. But I am not (thankfully).

Specular and normal maps that you buy in texture packs are made to use (mostly) with prims as in "tiling textures" for buildings and such. If you want to make your OWN specular map, you can do that by taking your finished texture (made in Photoshop or another graphics program) and use special software which makes a variety of maps that can be applied inworld. For Second life these are the normal and specular maps. You actually CAN use the already made maps as part of a nodal set up in Blender using Cycles Render, but ....... better to make your own really so you can get just what you want. I use ShaderMap 2 and there is a similar program called Crazy Bump (think that's it). There are likely others.

Well DUH I obviously wasn't replying to Drongle on this. I frequently hit the wrong reply button. Sorry. You can make very reasonable 1 li furniture and such (even jewelry and shoes) with good LODs. EVEN if you don't make your own LOD models, you can get very good results simply by paying attention and adjusting the uploader values smartly. Most fairly small items (furniture - clothes - decor) can come it at 1 or if a bit more complex at 2. Most of the time the very last LOD setting can be set as low as possible. You do not need to see a table all the way across the sim. You probably know that there are three parts to the upload number with the highest being taken as the land impact number. If your physics number is too high (higher than the download value), you can often just use a plain cube as the physics model. For houses and beds and and such, then making your own physics model is a good choice for many reasons. We each have our own idea what "low poly" means and there have been threads on that here. I am in Blender but I can't imagine that the software is the issue . It is the number of tris or whatever. So simply modeling (no more than one subsurf addition or whatever the equivalent is in Maya for example -- better not to use that at all if you can). Here are some photos that might help. While many of the pros here are in the making your own LODs all the time, my personal experiments have shown that (for me) mine are really no better than what the uploader does in most instances. Since I really don't love the process, I seldom do it -- only when really needed. This is a fairly large (almost 2 meter) and fairly complex piece of furniture. It is 3li COMPLETE with all the stuff you see and the LODs are way better than needed for inside a house. I test at LOD 2 (the default in Firestorm which has 2/3rds of the viewer pie) and from there make the viewing farther than needed (so in this case maybe 64 or more meters with the shape still holding very well). This is important when you are showing your items in an open venue setting as well as just being good practice. I just tested the LOD viewing on that table in world at even at a setting of 1.00 it holds perfectly at about 12 meters and well at a longer distance. So hopefully some of these details will be helpful. Good luck. PS. I have no idea what the add on program is for Blender for super low LI but if it is anything like the decimate modifier I would really stay away from that. Better to model efficiently (or semi-effienciently) than to try and fix your issues after the fact. Just my opinion of course for what it is worth . The very best thing you can do is: TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST And a second PS -- I turned down my LOD setting from 4 to 2 long ago for testing. I leave it there now. It is amazing how much difference that makes on your viewer -- even with a powerful machine. Happily I notice that many of the items I see in venues (events) hold well at 2. I don't usually check the land impact on their things since I am not going to buy them and since I currently have lots of prims to play with anyway. BUT, I would much rather see good LODs than .5 li mesh if that was my choice as a consumer. Just sayin. 

As others have said buying handmade mesh from other Second Life users would be the way to go. There are tons of full perm mesh objects on the Marketplace and many of those folks have inworld stores. There are building components, furniture and clothes. As with all products there are some items that are well made and others that are not. Most clothing has demo so you can at least see how the rigging is. Difficult to tell how the texturing might be. The August 2013 change in the Terms of Service cut off buying from sources outside SL and in response to that change many suppliers no longer sell products TO upload into SL -- so two ways to "break the law" if you don't comply. Of course this still happens fairly regularly and there appears to be little control from the Linden side of the equation stopping this. Still much better to stay within the TOS. You might want to read through that very long document -- especially the section on content creation and what you already agreed to do and NOT to do .

OK. I really can't help but reply to this (and you machinimatographers wanted post of the other day ). I doubt that anyone (well perhaps someone new) is going to take you seriously because your date it SO FAR OUT THERE!!!! Your account is an old one so in theory you know how fast things move in the metaverse. Three months down the road? Yep, that would be a better plan. Who knows where anyone will be or what we will be doing in 8 months. And having some actual machinima in your promo might be wise and not just special effects *wink*. I do wish you luck, just pointing out what some of us are thinking .

If you go to the INWORLD Kittycat's store, there is a support desk with support folks there (I think 24/7) that you can chat up. A friend of mine had them come FIX his older (and FREE) Kitty. They were very professional. Things go wrong -- especially with scripted items. So I suggest contacting the support person on duty to see if you can get it fixed. Reguarding the AO, that could easily be a problem with the AOs which against all reason insist on using Priority 4 for what is supposed to be default animations. I don't KNOW that of course but it seems like an obvious answer. I have no issues with my over 1000 day old kitty. You can turn off ALL the text if you want or just leave the name. Much of that info can be seen by clicking on the Kitty. PS. It DOES sound from your description of issues that it is "you" learning the system and not the kitty.

That was beyond my techieness threshold but I did find a SORT of fix and I am updating the original post with the new work around (partial fix) info.

You can report on a ticket and sometimes the reveiws will be taken down. You can also RESPOND to the review giving your side of the story. Oftentimes competitors buy you items simply in order to give it a bad review. Some buyers know this, others do not. If you have a full refund policy then I would put that in BOLD a few places in your adds for folks to see. It won't help the low stars though. Just something we all live with. Not everyone "plays fair" .

I have been using the newest version of Firestorm for several months and on several platform with no issue. As viewers progress more gets added to them (this is pretty much all viewers, not just FS) so it might be -- depending on your system that you need to go to a 1.23 based viewer. There are several and it might be worth checking to see which ones have updated for the newest "money" codes. If you have a hefty computer with lots of power then obviously that isn't the answer .

And of course warn folks by "reviewing". While in theory "all is mesh" including prims -- this certianly is false advertising IMHO . Reporting would be good. And sculpts and what we call MESH these days definitely do not play well together. I was never in the sculpt camp and going through my inventory for cleaning I am amazed at how LONG those sculpt maps take to load. Gone. Gone. Gone.

Obviously you are not doing your homework . And no, most folks are not getting that error. It is not the uploader. If the uploader gets confused trying to make a physics model FOR YOU, you will get that message. If you use a MESH CUBE as the physics model (assuming you don't want to make a "real" one LOL) that will likely disappear. There was a post from a pro here suggesting that method not long ago. If you are making something that actually needs physics (like a house ) and not just a vase, then you will likelly need to make a physics model. And yes, all you need to know is HERE. Just read.

Before mesh bodies came along and there was "just standard mesh", IT CAME WITH ALPHAS. Having to hide you body has always been part of the problem. That being said there ARE some designers that make their FITTED MESH so well that you seldom need to turn on any alpha layers unless you are in an odd pose. So try some fitted mesh by some top name (and popular) designers and see if that works well for you. And yes, there are appliers for texture clothes but that didn't seem to be your point. Personally I have no issues with turning on alphas in a mesh body. It is pretty close to adding an alpha layer and those FREQUENTLY were not correct (especially for folks that just bought the mesh and textured). Since mesh clothes making has improved greatly over the last year, I suspect that more and more folks will get their meshes even better. Many to most top designers and now ONLY carrying mesh body clothes (not standard sizing mesh). Some work beautifully, others not. That is where there are demos

That RUMOR has been going on for what ? Two years almost now. It was never true and even at the beginning that was made crystal and officially clear. So the folks that keep passing on bad info are doing just that. For the ACTUAL authentic news, please see this link. https://modemworld.me/category/sansar/

arabellajones wrote: There are one or two 3rd-party viewers which have 64-bit versions. That helps. They cannot be used to upload a mesh to the SL servers, and there are maybe one of two other things they cannot do, because the Havok code SL uses still isn't 64-bit, but you get better memory handling. You actually can upload mesh successfully using the FS 64 bit viewer. Yes, a few options are gone but I haven't noticed any issues in several years with houses, home decor and furniture and even a few clothes. Just wanted to note that. My personal "best bet" hint for laggy places is to wait a few days for the first folks crowds to calm down. Even the birthday celebration is pretty calm then. Agreed that going in basic wear like we all did in the olden days is a good plan, BUT unfortunately most folks are not. You CAN look at your NEARBY listing of avatars and DERENDER them from there (this on Firestorm; I don't know if the Linden viewer has derender by now). That is a great help if lag is an issue. Folks of course were told NOT to use giant texuters on most things (mesh was exempt) but not everyone listens . Flying is almost always better than walking if that is part of your issue (again, old Hair Fair days ).

Whether it is worth getting a body and WHICH one to get is all up to the individual. If you spend a lot of time naked or semi naked then a mesh male body might be a good investment. More guys seem to have hands and feet than full bodies still. The "best" really depends on what yoiu want your body to look like. Try the demos and REMEMBER that you will most likely need to change your shape to go with the mesh body. The best way to match the colors is to get skin appliers that are for you body. Note that not all skin appliers are actually great skins . So again testing is important. DEMO! Right now a good number of FEMALE clothes are ONLY made for the major mesh bodies (fitmesh) so for the gals a mesh body is more important than for the guys. That will probably change in the future. You might just want to get some Slink male feet for sandals. Also note that not all male bodies have clothes being made for them. So finding your favorite clothes makers and seeing who they design for is a good plan. Also depending on your shape, nicely made fitmesh designed for your brand of body will be the best fit. Again, not all fitmesh fits that well, but when it does it is impressive. Good luck.

Back in the day I took Logic 102 and then Symbolic Logic. While this doesn't DEFINE low poly I would say that ONE criteria might be how much it costs to upload. If it is 11 or 12 Linden it is more APT to be low poly. So if your upload cost is say 55 linden you might assume you have tooooo many vertices. JUST being 11 linden doesn't actually make something low poly however. You can have a small object that is high poly that still comes in at 11 linden. I made one long ago when just starting out. WAAAAAY too many vertices really. BUT if you have a much more complex and larger item that is one land impact WITH good LODs, then in my mind it qualifies as "low poly". So "Some Low Poly items are 1 land impact"., "This item is 1 land impact" = It "may" be low poly. No guarantees.