[Making House Siding-blender]

As Chic mentioned, making custom LOD's of your siding walls is very important to control LI.  If you control your UV map well and get a nice, crisp AO map, you can flatten the wall in LOD2 and it can still look very good in SL.  Let the AO "shadows" do the work for you for LOD's 2 and lower.

[Physics Irregularities]

Thanks. No, everything is set to prim. I'm guessing this is an SL glitch, but don't want to assume so if I can mesh better. Like I said, it seems to have something to do with the build being new to a sim. It works, but seems to take its time doing so.

[Physics Irregularities]

I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this right now and whether I can improve on something.

I have a house that is composed of several meshes.  Some pieces were uploaded with cube physics and analyzed, some areas were uploaded as planes and not analyzed.  These pieces were uploaded separately.  Also, this is an expansion of a former model which has sold hundreds of times without issue and two of the areas I describe below are not even new.

The issues is when a new mesh house of mine is rezzed a first instance, it can take about 20 seconds for the physics shapes to be recognized in three or four parts.  I can walk through the front door, but cannot go through three interior doors.   I can walk through doors to a patio.  There also appears to be a triangle stopping progress in the living room.  After 20 seconds, it seems to set and everything is fine.  When I render physics, the physics shape appears as intended.

If I remove and rezz again, it seems to take more than a minute or even longer for the physics shapes to be recognized.  Two things will resolve the issue immediately.  If you right click on the house as if to edit, boom, you can immediately walk around as intended.  If you TP out and come back, the same occurs - all is fine.

I've already redone one area which was an unanalyzed plane to have depth and was uploaded using analyzed cube physics.  No change and the problem still occurs

I am pulling my hair out.  

[A Small Curiosity About RL Taxes And Second Life]

Consult a tax professional in your jurisdiction. You may find you cash out less than needs to be reported.

[I'm working on my first build (a house) and need to pick some brains.]

True.

 

Aquila did a wonderful job of setting forth steps necessary to do what you want, MisBegotten. You're going to have to learn Blender to accomplish it, so it's probably inefficient to start in world with prims because of the extra work you'll have to do in Blender. Just my two cents.

[Why am not getting the Shadows i want in my texture !]

Are you baking with AO set to add or multiply? Try changing that setting back and forth and see if yu get the result you want. I also like making sure under AO in the bake tab that normalized is checked.

[MESH: Why does a mesh model increase its Li when i reduce it's size in world?]

Optimizing mesh with regard to SL's Land Impact value is an art.  It's hard to say without seeing precisely what you've modeled why your LI is what is or if it could be better.  There's quite a bit that goes into the whole calculation, inluding different models to be used for the vaious LOD's.

There are a ton of mesh tutotials out there if you do a Google search which may help you as well as any other input you may receive here.

It's very rewarding to learn how to model mesh. 

[Texture Artist Wanted]

I'm seeking an artist who can make architectural seamless textures. Candidates should have a portfolio of their work (not necessarily limited to architectural products). Of particular interest are stone, stucco, wood flooring and stone or ceramic tile textures.

Please IM Robert Galland if interested.

[Is there much of a market for this sort of thing?]

Welcome to SL Goodsprings. If there's a market for something in real life, I've found there's a market for it in SL. There's businesses requiring graphic work for advertising and numerous blogs and publications related to various markets in SL.

[Can Anyone Identify This House?]

That might be Eliza's Patron House sold at.....Patron.

[PAST TRANSACTION HISTORY INFORMATION!!!!]

Thanks Pamela. That's a generous development on the part of the Lab.

[PAST TRANSACTION HISTORY INFORMATION!!!!]

Transaction history goes back 30 days only. Before moving to vendors, I tried to make a habit of downloading info at least twice a month.

[Perms change when I pass something]

I was building just last week and had items go no mod and no copy on me. I re logged and all was fine.

[More Beginning Builder Questions:]

Hi Red:

 

There are quite a few products out there.  I use one still that I am not sure is available after 7.5 years - Jack in the Box.  Rezz Foo and Rezz Faux are names you may see.  If Builder's Buddy is still available, it was free when I last looked into this.  I believe Casper products has a rezz box product as well. I use there vendors, but not the rezz boxes.

It's been awhile since I researched the products out there.

[More Beginning Builder Questions:]

Large houses with more than one link set can rezz as "one" structure through the use of rezzing products.  Builders place scripts in each house section or link set which records the relative position of root prims to each other before you stuff a copy of the complete house in the rezz box.   SL Magic

[Why do LL consider DMCA take downs to be temporary?]

Right. The DMCA process is for informing a third party they are unknowingly hosting or showing violations of copyright to give them a chance to stop being an accomplice. The DMCA process through the Lab is not the adjudication of your copyright claim and the Lab isn't the judge of these things. It's not their job to police my copyright or anyone else's.

 

As DMCA'S can be abused, the proper means of litigating alleged copyright is like anything else, through findings of fact and conclusions of law reached in the court system.

[Which rezzer to use]

Casper is one and is compatible with most other rezzing boxes.

[building a house...]

Is the house and the rezz box it came in copiable?  It's pretty standard for the industry in SL to sell houses with such permissions for the very reason you are facing - to allow people to easily replace a house.

 

You should be able to rezz the house multple times with homes bought from most vendors.  Test your rezz box in a sandbox and see that the entire house is there.  I often advice customers that sometimes it's just easiest to rezz a new copy instead of trying to piece a house back together on your own.

 

Good luck and welcome to SL!

[US State Taxes]

I pay state income tax because that is the law of my state.  I have income that is taxed as wages and I also can apportion a good deal of income as royalties.   I do not pay retail tax.  You may have local municipal tax to pay also.  It really comes down to where you live. 

Consider paying a lawyer and or CPA in your state a few hundred bucks to really go over this stuff because it could save you many times that depending on your business.  I sat down with an accountant a few years ago to figure this stuff out, made my business into an S corp and that's legitimately saved me mucho money in taxes.

[Joining meshes and UV maps]

Thanks for that tip, Dree.  That had escaped me.  I only recently learned how much naming can play a factor in Blender for a variety of reasons.  Naming textures, objects...UV maps!

[rate items without writing a review?]

Merchants have been complaining about the Marketplace rating system for three years. With the expectation that another three will pass without answer, I am giving the Lab a one star review on their response to merchant concerns regarding this issue.

[New Tax policy??]

There's no reason PayPal would assume Linden Lab's responsibility under the law with regards to reporting.

[New Tax policy??]

It looks as if those U.S. citizens who submit the 1099, LL does not withhold taxes and it's up to you to legally prepare your taxes. That's not really a new concept in and of itself.

 

I would guess, and the above should be remembered about consulting a tax attorney and or CPA, what is reported are US dollar transactions only. Linden cashed out to dollars.

[Blender: No objects or images found to bake to]

I've had this happen as well and gone through the tips posted above. If all else is failing, I just copy the object instead of going through an export and import process and have been able to then bake AO, Pamela.

[Blender collada export with multiple UV layers (what is the "active uv layer"?)]

Great, clear advice and tips everyone.