Chic Aeon

Here is what I use most of the time in the Firestorm Viewer. Folks that REALLY want to play use Black Dragon but it is missing some things that I use daily so I stick with FS. The Linden viewer while "simpler" is more difficult to get a good photo in IMO. And here is a Fall picture similar to yours. But (and it's a big one) not all computers can do this. At the same time many computers with dedicated graphics CAN do much of this although it may give you the scary black screen phenomenon while the viewer "thinks" :D. Also, it takes quite awhile to figure out Windlight (now EEP) and Depth of Field. Practice and playing will help a lot. The only post processing here is resizing (down) and a vignette shadow around the edges.

The lighting tab IS dangerous, agreed, but with fairly good computer with a designated card, they work well. I can do anything I want with that lighting tab with DOF on and shadows and everything else you might want. So for SOME folks it will work fine. Just hate those absolute statements as they are most always incorrect == no matter how true they might be for the person stating them :D.

Thanks. I will probably --- eventually --- want to buy something else there but most likely not this round. So it will still be a question as to the creators have the ability to turn on some sort of "sort" function or not. If they DO then that certainly should be known to the public. I like this creators stuff and they seem like a very nice person, but as I said I NEVER got a rare on a variety of their machines so that sort of fogs their business practice morals for me. If I go back and get the other rare as the buy item I will try again as a test. If it does it twice on THAT machine, we will know I guess -- well anecdotally anyway. :D.

Please see later posts on how this all turned out. Leaving the original post as originally written. ************************************ No, wasn't a reset time -- and yes, agreed NO REASON to have those balls there other than confusion. So it WORKS (surprisingly) like a lucky board. You GET what it says you will, yes. I bought a rare the other day on a different machine at the same event but didn't NOTICE (at least that is my presumption) that it scrambled the balls after buying because I had no intention of playing again. The fact that it looks so much like the D-lab machine which I was TOLD let's you buy the next number in the list after you buy the current prize -- is VERY manipulative, for sure. Down right nasty. So can someone who BUYS the current object please watch and see if it happens to them too? This all came about because I was trying to test to see if the creators got to set their own percentages for the rare -- which I believe they do as that was the method in every gacha even I was in previously. The machine in question was from a a creator that I had played often in the past and NEVER got a rare. So far two of us had played every day and only seen one of two rares once in the list. While others here got rares easily -- as did "I" on another machine. And to the person that I was talking about this with when the event first open -- and I am guessing is still reading this thread, I do finally see their point about the randomness of the '"set" hud. I still think LL will think this is OK, but for me -- the best machine and the only one I would use as a creator would be the D-lab machine. It is the most friendly to those playing. At least I am glad I was thinking bout buying that second rare in the ball list LOL -- or we may not have known for a long while. It COULD have been a malfunction; but that's not good either.

I haven't really been reading this whole thread so if someone wrote about this, apologies, but in the beginning we all seemed to be expecting the machines at this newly opened event to be "play down". They are not -- or at least some of them are not. Pasting this update in from my blog. Head spinning a bit on this. I bet a LOT of folks got a surprise.

That's kind of a conundrum isn't it. If LOTS of folks buy the body and cloths for the body then yes, likely it will get continued support until it drops out of favor (think of some "top" sellers of a few years ago that are almost never included in the sizings of new original mesh (the template makers are still creating for a bunch I think -- or some anyway). It is a pretty body but like many of you I have a small fortune (some actually purchased) of clothes for Lara. And I as Chic has always had a boyish figure. I see no reason to change. So far as fitting previous eBodies I think the chances are VERY minimal. Maybe someone can report and we'll know for sure.

That is what Kitely (prominant Opensim grid and the one with the marketplace for the "whole" of Opensim) has been doing for many years (maybe always). But while it is on the table with LL I seriously doubt it will ever happen. AND if it did it would be a total nightmare for the folks selling individual colors. I don't buy a lot of clothing as I have so much but when I do I often by the fatpack now. I think the idea of single colors as well as a fatpack WITH BONUS CONTENT is the best way to go. Plenty of options for buyers. But agree that having just the fatpack on the marketplace would be good. Again I don't foresee any changes -- just musing.

You might also try uploading each section separately and then putting them together inworld. a LOT of building makers use that system :D. And you can easily see how well your physic mesh is defining in relation to the building itself. I can't imagine seeing a whole house all at once and being able to tell what might be wrong :D. Good luck.

I have been thinking about the resellers ^^. Logically it seems like their business will go down. The only reason that I bought on the Marketplace was when there was an item I wanted (usually NOT a rare) and I didn't want the other things in the set. This way you can be sure you get what you want and only pay the machine price once. That really is a deal unless someone is beyond lazy or the machine and goods have been retired. I also think that the sellers are going to take a big hit on this too. So "better" for the consumer AND of course the people running the event get to keep having an event and make money off of that. Not so good for the sellers -- original or resale. That's my take. YES YOU DO SEE WHAT YOU ARE PURCHASING. As well as what will come up next time FOR YOU. You SEE what you are getting each time. All you need to do is come back and check each day OR use alts and almost CERTAINLY the number you want to be sold "right then" will come up on the hud. (The odds would be astronomical that it would not if you are also using alts) You don't NEED skill you only need perseverance to return and check until what you want is on the machine. And / or have your alts (or teams of friends working together and then trading afterwards) watch together to get the things folks in the group want. Some people consider it gambling; many do not since there really IS NO RISK. I am thinking maybe your don't fully understand how this works. You answers to your own questions seem to suggest that. Maybe more personal research is needed.

Well for ME, it is nice because this is my own "approved" list of places all in one spot. I will say that I ALSO made landmarks of the place with notes (newish in Firestorm) so that I know this is the snow place with long roads or the beach with lot of vistas etc. The other difference is that anyone wanting to be listed CAN be listed as apposed to the destination guide which picks from the listings -- so definitely MORE INCLUSIVE and includes "niche" places that the destination guide would not. Folks putting themselves IN the listings made their own icons. Hopefully most everyone can read the CHIC in mine. I do agree that that they could be very tiny for some folks. I have a really big screen and they are still hard to read for me and one just has what ends up as an orangish picture. What would be nice if there is a next version of the passport would be for it to enlarge as needed. Granted that would take up a lot of screen real estate if you are on a notebook. No perfect answer there. Location owners didn't make our icons as small as they end up on the screen though so there is room for improvement on that if not too difficult (not a script person). Maybe fewer stamps per page. I think it really boils down to why folks are doing this. If they are just trying to get as many stamps as they can in their passport that is one thing -- it is another if they plan to use the passport as a TOOL in the future.

Well the new list is easier to read for sure. TY. But HOW can we tell where we have been now since the order changed? Maybe there needs to be a MASTER LIST and a NEW THIS WEEK list? I am not comping on the bit to go visit places I didn't like over again LOL. "DAMN she is a picky gal." I did find some lovely places this last week.

Bad physics (or no physics LOL) on the house. There are two ways to make a transparent prim. One is to use transparent texture, the other is to make any texture (plywood?) transparent. I think the later is the one that works for rezzing on the floor. You can also put a nice RUG down and just rez on that (assuming it was made correctly). It isn't YOU.

I went over and played -- not that I wanted "anything" there ^^ but because I thought folks should understand AND a blog post seemed likely :D. I was only willing to look at a couple of machines as most things were less than stellar OR I knew that creator made horrid LODs as I had tossed things in the past. On one machine that had a LOT of stuff (say 20 items) neither of the two rares showed up. On another machine the rare was number one. I bought that, not because I could use it but because the creator did a good job and "deserved" a little bit of my money if for only that reason. I sent a friend over and she did indeed have different numbers (well we know that well now) but didn't see a rare on either machine. IF you are willing to go back day after day to check your hud and your machine(s) then you can most likely pick up what you want for a very reasonable price. This is a good thing. I am not seeing how it is helping the creators much except I guess for the folks that GO WILD and play and play and play. I haven't seen much at this event lately that I wanted. It is mostly strange cutsie items that hardly seem worth the lindens. AND I have noted a lot of former creators who are no longer in the event. The role call was very small this month; I guess time will tell how it works out. For the folks that are thrilled good for them. I hope they have lots of fun.

Well lots of conversation going on inworld -- a plus really as many of us (creators anyway) don't talk a bunch to each other :D. Here is my take on it after learning all the ins and outs --- (oh and I forgot to say that I never saw a "join this experience" pop-up either --- so unless folks are reading this or FB or some inworld group chat it is beyond confusing). That "might" be why one sim was apparently working and the other not. Meanwhile from "my " point of view the seeing before you buy is a point for legal. Only The Lab can decided on that of course --- BUT the items on the machines I looked at said that they were TRANSFER--- so as someone pointed out there seems to be a very easy way to game the system SINCE they are transfer. That transfer part was mentioned at the beginning of the "goodbye gacha" month as part of the criteria LL wanted to avoid. As I was chatting with someone about this I realized that for ME, the word about it all was "manipulative". True you would "have to play down" your own set of numbers to get what you want (if it is even in the list - I don't know how big the list is) BUT you have the option of coming back the next day to get a new and very PERSONAL list. So it is much like the mating (I had to smile as we used to say MARRIAGE) of a conveyer and a lucky board. AGAIN no one is forcing folks to play and I am not playing. It will be interesting to see what LL's take on all of this is.

It is probably very important to understand EACH TYPE of system. Since I won't be playing I don't have to worry about that but I thought the MEI-PON or whatever is close to that, was the best of the ones I have seen. I would play that if I really wanted something. From the looks of it though many of the good gacha items makers have moved on and aren't going to help in trying to reinvent the wheel here :D.

Those conveyers are supposed to lock out other people for 20 seconds or so. Have you actually had someone "snatch" up what you wanted. Once you start playing the machine is more or less yours as long as you don't dilly-dally ------ at least that is what is being said. I only played once to test one of the conveyer systems. And yes, drama. This is a company who has had a LOT of that over the years. Well I won't be going back for sure. And these items ARE all transfer, not copy items (at least that is what the vendor keys say -- and they are using the term "gacha" which I think you aren't supposed to any longer. Messy messy. Going on to calmer things. EDIT QUICKLY: OK. Some helpful person at the event told me you can get a hud at the entrance to the event. You can very easily walk PAST the hud vendor or whatever it is. These guys didn't think things through all that well. If nothing else, the spam bot should tell you that in one of the many chat messages LOL. So buy the hud, wear the hud, click the button (at the VERY BOTTOM OF THE MACHINE THAT I DIDN"T SEE FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES) to "Pair" and THEN you can see what is up to buy. Way to complex for me. But that's the scoop and now we know.

OK. I heard someone talking at the event (still there) and there is a hud that you have to wear so that only you can see what is up next? And then you PAIR with the machine and THEN you can try and buy. So apparently NOT illegal. But the mirror sim I am on is apparently not working even if you have the hud and going to the HELP web page it tells you all of this but doesn't tell you how to get the hud. WHAT A MESS. I didn't want to play anyway, but geez. OK going on with life. I can't say I missed anything not playing LOL so I am OK with it. YOU WOULD THINK THAT THE HOW TO PAGE WOULD TELL YOU HOW TO GET A HUD TO PLAY. I feel sorry for these creators.

A well-known and not to be named gacha event just opened. I saw the ad for it on our other well-known shopper site. Eyes wide I looked up the SLURL and tped over to the same event site as always with just 17 other people. Well, gachas were gone. No one would expect this to be open as in past years. But I think -- it must the the new type of "know the product and buy" shopping. Nope, it is exactly like the old method. I am confused, surprised and about twenty other things. I took a screenshot but don't want to even show the gacha key with someone's name on it. The only info I can find is a bot calling out to the room that the machines reset at midnight each night so come back and try your luck. SO VERY CONFUSED. So what is up? This seems like someone thumbing their nose at the rules. I am just --- well JUST about sums it up. Backstory here?

It isn't about ruining the sim --- that's the triangle count and big textures. It is about if anyone would actually USE your tree if the land impact was high. Very few folks would be willing to use the big Linden trees at Belli -- that has been discussed here a few times. And yes in most cases increasing size will increase the land impact. I think you should aim for around 12 li. More than that a majority of people would just walk away. You need a big piece of land if you are going to use a lot of high land impact trees. Lots of folks don't have that.

You know your tree is a good LOOKING tree. It "could" however have some nasty mesh issues that we can't see though. I had some of that at the beginning. triangles inside of triangles and such and the uploader is not happy. You could also have some wandering vertices that aren't all that noticable but you should be able to see that in the upload pane (easier in FS which has extra "stuff" LOL) I would do a couple of tests. Well maybe three. First the tree with your custom LODs but the lowest LI zeroed out (so maybe 3 or 4 planes?). The next would be to let the uploader decide what should be seen in the LODs and again zero out the lowest. See if either of those turn out to be better. They should be. Your tree with reasonable (not MOLE distance) LODs should be around 7 - 11 to be a viable product. Less would be better of course but there are plenty of folks with lots of land impact points that would be willing to spend that on a good looking tree. If those look good, maybe you could use the billboard method if you want for the lowest LOD setting so the tree would be viewable from a very long distance. Let us know.

Your lowest LOD is WAY too many triangles. Typically creators make this level (if it is a big tree it would be quite a distance away) disappear. OR they use the "billboard" method and replace the tree with a picture of a tree. Hopefully you are using the beta grid for testing or this could get very expensive. I would try "zeroing out" that lowest LOD and see what you get. For "best practices" I would go look at some of the trees made by MOLES over in the new Linden homes areas . This is a much "better" method. Unfortunately in many cases the land impact of the MOLE trees is so high that no one will use them. Not quite as high as your LOL ---- but some are very close. Inspect a bunch of trees made by others using Firestorm which has some extra info still I think over the Linden view and you can see what works and what doesn't Yugen makes some good middle of the road trees and they often come in two LOD versions - high and low -- for different uses. GOOD for you for asking!!!! Good luck.

A big change and a really pretty color I think -- one of my favorites. It is named after a tropical flower -- one I had never heard of until I came to SL and it was one of the free plants in the library :D. PLUMERIA Here is a snippet of what I came up with. Only a few weeks left!!!!

I haven't seen that house (or at least don't remember seeing it) but LAQ was one of the first mesh designers that followed "best practices" for game assets in SL. I still have his fairly famous trees that hold their shape because they make a switch at a certain distance to become just a flat plane with a texture. That method was WAY before its time in SL (not so much on other platforms). It is nice to see that some things stand the test of time. My top selling products are all very old now and still very popular, so "age" shouldn't be a factor really. I have no idea how much that house costs but ask yourself if you will get that much enjoyment out of it when decorating. That should give you a good answer. Personally I like small abodes so can't comment on decorating a large house :D.

It absolutely matters to ME. Then it is much (you have to come back and wait and such to find what you want as the next item) the same as buying a no copy item off the floor. Back in the day MOST items were no copy and if you wanted four chairs you BOUGHT four chairs. On the plus side if you didn't like the sweater you bought (no demos then) you could pass it along to a friend who might like it. Creators made a lot more money with no copy items even if there wasn't CHANCE involved. And some Home and Garden stores still only sell no copy items.

Thanks that was helpful. I was only the USER. Even on my own sim though when I enabled the experience it didn't work as one; it merely gave out the items in the old accept and attach manner. It could be the abilities that I have RENTING the sim, but honestly what percentage of folks actually OWN their own sim. I tried on mainland lots also to no avail. As a consumer who doesn't know a lot about experiences when I get or buy and item telling you to add the experience I have never seen an explanation about what abilities you need to have for it to work. The sellers either just assume the purchasers know all about it -- or they don't care. Since "I" don't care either LOL it really doesn't matter to me. But still ODD to be pushing something that only works for a small it seems group.