Charlotte Bartlett

Monday at 07:37 PM

I will mention Jewell Lamourfou who created Distressed Textures.
Sadly no longer with us either in RL (recently passed).

Monday at 07:34 PM

On 5/3/2024 at 6:57 AM, MrsCerise Blackheart said:

This might sound a bit ranty and moan-a-lot but I can assure you it's not. This is just a post to celebrate those creators that aren't active in SL anymore that made some of the best content in SL:

Emery Milneaux - [Commoner] (Binge Watcher's Survival Kit - Apt 20 was one of the best cult following items I have ever seen made in SL!)

Redd Columbia - RC Cluster (created some of the most fun items like a shivers AO and bento toothbrush)

leela Darwin - [POUT!] (British designer of some really brilliant BOM/applier make-ups for both RP and just looking pretty)

I loved RC Cluster - I had a pet bumble bee on a string from them I think back in the "old" days.

April 20

21 hours ago, Madi Melodious said:

This is one of the things I'm questioning. When I sighed up for PP account, I remember it as "texture uploads are free." I don't remember it as, "some texture uploads are free."

The only reason I have PP is for texture upload especially with PBR initially.
If they are excluding 2K textures or even not providing a stipend towards then to counter cost for creators, I will simply cancel my PP (I pay enough with region fees x 4 too). There still remains no PP aligned to creators/merchants despite the requests since 2010 onwards for them to recognise this user case.

April 16

3 hours ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

Maybe they don't want people messing with their creations with their name as the creator on it. If I made a box and colored it red I would hate that someone could just color it neon green and my name as the creator would still be on it. I HATE neon green!

After purchase, they would Rez on their own land. So how would you even know it's neon green? I can't imagine having a non mod house or furniture - it makes zero sense. On the opposite end of the scale I have seen mods on my products that are amazing (so much so) I will then go and create that version for the rest of my customers based on that customer's permission.

Non Mod creators probably lose about large % of the market by default and most I have ever spoke to are Non Mod due to lack of education and understanding of the platform.

I have only ever seen a few decent user cases for it but @Cristiano Midnight for animations it is frustrating as I also rename them. I have a bunch of good animator stores I use who are mod if you want any recommendations.

iQuit.

April 16

On 3/29/2024 at 4:46 PM, wantedfelon said:

Hi! Thank you for this feedback, I separated the mesh and brought it in piece by piece with this info which dramatically decreased vertices and tris. The screenshot showed the overall mesh statistics. It still broke inworld, however, I figured it out.

For others having this problem in the future, you can also change the "High" option from "File" to "Generate Precise" when uploading then hit the drop-down from "Triangle Limit" to "Error Threshold". This will show you where it's messing up then change it from 100.00 to 0 and it will stop the breaking of the mesh inworld.

Please don't load this into SL, high poly models are not suitable for SL in any manner - will be a nightmare for anybody.

Start with learning the basics if this is your first model

You need to create a low poly model version, for that bed I could make it for around 6 land impact all in using LODS I create and only using the high poly to bake out the normals.

Recreate the model first as a decent low poly model.

I would target for the highest LOD - no more than 3900-4200 polys, Mid to 1800-2000 polys and get your Low (not lowest) to 30 polys. Generate Precise etc (Chic and I may have different opinions on some of this!) does help reduce the heaviness but I suspect based on the original model it's probably a bit of mess to look at on lower settings from the other side of a room it is in.

Use those parameters above to guide you one what this model should have for uploading and please ensure your unmaps are clean and you don't put on 50 x 1024 textures - pack the UVs and ensure you are using texture space very carefully to reduce the number of textures/size.

April 16

Don't think SL creators need to worry too much generally as this is even more complicated than somebody just taking a pre-made model from some random website and butchering the LODS. Design is a big part of SL content and if you can't bring design to the table. Generic content typically doesn't outpace brands with loyal following who bring new styles/designs out on a regular cadence.

Where I have found AI quite useful for SL content creation is scene management when creating assets.
ChatGPT has helped me with python scripts which now name my assets in scenes automatically, apply base materials, layer them, order them, automate my LOD FBX exports etc..

April 15

What is posted above, but if not you need to create a proper uvmap and unwrap it properly in Blender or your 3D tool.

Did you buy it off marketplace as normally they would have done that work already did the listing say it was UV unwrapped and ready for texturing?

April 8

On 4/6/2024 at 9:07 PM, Jaylinbridges said:

https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/15325-increased-land-impact-allowance-is-here/

It is all explained in their blog post. Summary - PBR extra lights and mirrors will use extra LI, so we are cutting the weight for LI mesh downloads.

Some of the speculation here seems to not agree with the LL notice technical information.

Thanks I had read, but that doesn't explain why at the object level versus region level to allow for the probe impacts.

April 8

29 minutes ago, Softcakes said:

Yes, and there's been many occasions where I found items not to be as advertised or the textures being a huge problem.

Where I said "dislike," was in context to him personally asking me why I'd written my review in where I then told him what I'd found unsatisfactory.

I feel even if it's a "dislike or like," if I can give a 5 star review stating I LOVE THIS PRODUCT, I can also do one where I say the opposite. If it's my opinion then people can overlook that review, if all one wants to see are 5 star reviews then go ahead.

In this case I'd written a short simple review what I found troubling with the item, he didn't like it.

Reviews just need to go away on Marketplace - they hold little value in reality on either side of the fence.

Creators cannot remove reviews (in the scenario the rest of the other reviews remained, so the creator didn't delete and re list it).

LL removed the review and likely it meant something in the review was an issue as trust me most of the time they will not remove reviews even the ones that do break the "rules" as they don't review the majority of flags (form experience).

Painting broad strokes works both ways - I have had one star reviews with just bizarre comments: like this house should have been pink as it's my favourite colour (for a wood cabin LOL) and LL don't remove those. Thankfully eventually those old products retire although I will always miss the 1 star review with the need for a pink house!

Also the good creators don't give people trouble for reviews they will actually work to understand what the issue is if it is a valid review. But personal taste is subjective so it may not be valid for a creator to make a specific change. But if it something like the sizes missing as another poster put, or the wrong land impact or perms they 100pct should be correcting (but a courtesy message to them versus a review might get more results). There are good and bad on both sides sadly so I can understand those who jump straight to a review versus speaking to the person who made the item first.

April 7

4 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Was this the Magicae house? It was a bit hard for me to count the Li since it is in more than one part - due to the maximum prims a linkset can have.

But I could see the Li went down, and it was a lot.

It was yes - I am itching to rebuild from scratch that house but RL never allows me time!
And nice on Zanzibar that's a nice loss.

I am wondering how the algorithm works to calculate it on large items. As to my mind, using the information they gave, if the build has custom (proper) LODS, it may make it different in terms of loss. However, I need to understand it more, as have only skimmed it so far.

April 6

2 minutes ago, Rick Nightingale said:

I'm purely guessing, but that might have impact on renting if you rent by the LI, if anyone works like that.

Doing it on the mesh calculations to simply change what people have rezzed avoids any complications like that, although clearly introduces a few of its own.

I would go the other route - doing it at the region level just increases each parcel by pct (much like you can pay extra to have 30K LI versus 25 LI on full regions).
Adjusting how every single object is calculated is an interesting alternative and effectively every single creator now would have to go and update each listing, each vendor ad work with the new counts... (I am not going to do that unless something major so a few big houses). But was genuinely interested in the methodology and rationale (beyond freeing things up for probes etc).

April 6

5 minutes ago, Charlotte Bartlett said:

I will do and check it when I get a moment. Albeit I don't think I can stomach updating every listing for every item inworld and on marketplace unless it's major!

I went and checked - it reduced from 490 to 404 LI so that one I should update LOL.

April 6

On 4/5/2024 at 12:22 PM, Marianne Little said:

Great idea!

Are creators/store owners aware of this?

Those who sell big items like houses, will have an advantage over those who do not update their listings. I have not yet found a house that is 100 Li lower than before, but I have found houses that have lost over 50 Li, like 60-70 Li.

It is a bit difficult to calculate the Hisa house "Hacienda la Valeta" since it is rezzed in several parts, due to the maximum prims a linkset can have. The "Magicae" house from Scarlet Creative is also rezzed in parts.

I sort Land impact low-high when I shop. Land is my biggest expense in SL, and when a house drop in Li, it is more attractive to buy. It makes me able to have more items on the land than before.

I will do and check it when I get a moment. Albeit I don't think I can stomach updating every listing for every item inworld and on marketplace unless it's major!

April 6

I have to ask - why didn't just change region limits by the %.

Why was it done at the object level, any technical reason - does anybody know?

March 17

22 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

So the Lab is so embarrassed about what they pay, that they have to put it under protection of a NDA?

I know what they payed a few years ago, and I would be embarrassed too if it was me hiring.
The Moles are worth their weight in gold for the Lab. But that is not exactly what they payed back then.

No that’s not what it was focused on at all. If you know you could post it? I haven’t been one in forever so I wouldn’t even know what the going rate is today.

A simple question to them by the person who expressed interest I am sure would provide the information needed if they wanted to apply if applications are open.

March 16

5 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

What is the pay rate for moles, and where do you apply? I'd love to be a mole, talk about the perfect job. 😁

I would ask LL. I had a NDA so can’t discuss terms.

March 15

On 3/13/2024 at 11:18 AM, Katherine Heartsong said:

I'd pack up and move to Belli or a Mainland 2.0 in a second with my PP account (and my male alt's P account) if two things happened.

First, the homes LL offered on them could include at least a handful of other approved builders because compared to Scarlet Creative and Trompe, I think LL home designs are dreadfully boring and not good looking.

And second, LL offered Belli commercial zones where what you rendered was a storefront/shop and not a residential home. Create shopping districts to wander around in. Then again, apply point one. I'm uncertain that LL could design a range of decent looking commercial buildings that would compete well with most other architecture/builders here, so the first point applies to this as well.

(Honestly, if I could put together another $50/month? I'd most like just do the Homestead thing with my PP account.)

Fun Fact - when I was a Mole - I built anything but houses (It was a super quick Mole time for me as RL was and is too busy).
But it was prior to LL doing houses.

If they wanted to pay commercial market rates to creators I am sure some would be happy to design a few houses and assign IP over, but in reality I suspect those rates would be outside their budget (knowing what they pay Moles).

March 15

8 hours ago, Porky Gorky said:

Hi Charlotte, could I get a copy of your PBR EEP please? It's really handy being able to cycle through a bunch off PBR friendly EEP's when testing materials and It would be great to include yours in that list. Thanks.

of course - just ping me in world and I'll send over.

March 3

On 3/2/2024 at 5:49 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Unfortunately, I think this is demonstrably not true. I and others have posted comparative images of pre-PBR items, and most especially clothing, that do not look at all good, yet alone "better," in a PBR-enabled viewer. The skirt I'm wearing below in this comparative image of the same EEP in two different viewers is an instance. There have been others.

I want to be clear about two things: PBR isn't making everything that uses legacy textures look worse. Some things it likely IS improving the look of. And, to repeat something I've said before, I think some of this can be fixed by tweaking EEP -- although not, at least based on my experience, the vasoline slime on my skirt above or that weird blurry haze on the wood texture. The only way I can remedy those is by essentially going to a "nighttime" EEP.

But to argue that we're not going to notice the difference is just not true. I am not sure that this outfit will actually be wearable anymore when everyone is on PBR.

The second point pertains to this:

Many of us, myself most definitely included, want PBR to work well. As a photographer, I WANT to make use of reflection probes to give me more control over lighting differentials within a scene. I WANT objects to look better and more vivid and "3D" when shooting them.

And I'm sure that, managed well, PBR can accomplish that.

But right now, and despite having spent a considerable amount of time experimenting, buying or importing PBR materials, etc., I won't take a picture using a PBR viewer because it doesn't look good. Yet.

I don't want to go back to living in a cave. I want them to make this work properly.

The challenge is also you are using an old EEP that hasn’t been updated for the latest PBR viewers. I am happy to send you one to run comparison with on legacy and PBR viewers. Which obviously brings us back to think a post I made at the start on how older EEP settings will need adjusting in the newer PBR viewers.

March 3

On 3/1/2024 at 12:56 PM, Shiera Kealoha said:

Thank you very much! I love Scarlet Creative's homes; they are just so beautifully done, and I wanted to better fit the theme of where I'm living so the boat/cabin house was perfect.

Only one issue.... I just wish I didn't have to crouch to open my front door! 😂

Oh lol. I generally keep handles low for realistic avatars but that does look quite low indeed!

February 29

13 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

So THIS is what happens when you put a piece of furniture with a probe inside a house with a probe. Lighter area is a "reflection" of the probe prim. I am testing some stuff so if I am incorrect please let me know.

Works MUCH better in a house without a probe.

So we have an issue with @Charolotte Caxton FOLLOWING best practices and Dutchie "doing what works" LOL. Which is VERY MESSY and I suspect it will be for some time to come.

That’s a bit arbitrary. You should post what the probe settings are etc and set up.

Anybody can attach a probe to a “bit of furniture” but in reality indoor furniture will most likely be inside houses so furniture makers are going to need to take this into account and house makers are going to experience the same challenges as customers can have furniture from multiple creators all who no doubt will fudge things a different way

I bet I could make a mirror inside one of my houses and post the opposite result you share I will do an example if helpful.

The point remains the same as we have with EEP settings, the variables are there. Those variables when users are creating a scene (or setting up their items) means adjustments are going to be interesting and frustrating.

I am speaking to two major furniture creators now about doing some co projects so our products “compliment” each others set up. I will publish those outputs once done if furniture makers want to test their items in my houses they are welcome to (and vice versus).

To my mind one of the ideas of the probe inside a house is so the output is stored and which can be used by furniture inside the house with reflective materials.

I assume you meant to tag me with the “best practice” statement LOL, but either way my only learning comes from Unity and then all the workarounds SL needs. I do the best I can with what I have.

I am a hobbyist with very limited time snd busy RL career, so can’t provide the same expertise a professional will have. Instead I put my effort into learning, testing, and adjusting so at the minimum my customers know all my effort I can afford is to do the best possible with the cost/benefit taken into account.

Results may vary.

February 27

Thanks everybody for sharing these very helpful.

I am now going to translate this into C4D workflow too (think there is less than 2-3 people using it in SL ha).

One thing I always have to do for LODs is export FBX out of C4D into Blender to export to DAE as the material order scrambles on Firestorm and LL viewers (when I get time once of these days I will figure why as it's a PITA to run that extra step). So might actually finally get more into blender for the lowest LOD workflow.

February 26

28 minutes ago, Porky Gorky said:

Since realising I could highlight reflection probes I've been more nosey, looking at them in public spaces as well as poking around a few build platforms looking at WIP’s. I’ve seen a broad spectrum of usage ranging from single box probes around an entire building to numerous overlapping spheres as well as more considered usage focusing on individual spaces. Not much consistency yet in the usage I’ve seen.

I’ve also noticed some weird effects with moving objects, for example a door opening inside the probe would cause the probe to recalculate the reflection capture which had a notable effect on the materials within the probe for just for a few seconds. Has anyone else noticed this?

I had an open Jira on the overlaps. It can def go wonky. They fixed the issues when rezzed at height. But I still see some weirdness eg when a probe almost “fails” and will stop reacting.

i recommend anything you see raise (now not on Jira, but the new system) if not already raised.

February 26

On 2/21/2024 at 8:29 PM, Porky Gorky said:

Hi @Charlotte Bartlett thanks for the encouragement / pep talk. It's genuinly appreciated.

I’ve been testing sphere probes in non rectangular interior spaces and I am achieving more acceptable results. Spheres seem to allow some level of overlapping. Do you know how overlapping probes work in SL with regards to their importance? We can’t assign importance values to probes. Unity documentation says “By default, Unity calculates the intersection between the reflective object’s bounding box and each of the overlapping probe zones; the zone which has the largest volume of intersection with the bounding box is the one that will be selected.” Do you know if this how it works in SL?

Also I seem to be using a lot more probes, do you know how costly probes are on performance? I’ve used many and haven't noticed any performance loss, but I am using a workstation built for rendering, so not your average rig.

Thanks

There are not any specific docs for SL to glean this info from, so it is a case of try and test for performance. Using the advanced menu for data as needed. In overlap from memory yes I would search on the old JIRA and also some past posts as I believe similar questions were raised.

I have been using 3-4 probes for a larger house but again best practice will come from testing and evolving as we all get more used to PBR and limitations.

I have been away for a few weeks so haven’t progressed further but am looking to do more testing during March

February 21

13 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

This is probably off-topic, but I guess I need some remedial PBR training, having finally used some PBR materials on a complex structure and realizing I don't know "best practices" and I'm a little fuzzy on the tech, too.

It starts simple: I want to tile PBR materials on walls and floors. The walls in particular have real 3D features (columns, alcoves, etc.) that should naturally have an occlusive effect. For the life of me, I see no effect of enabling SSAO regardless of viewer or driver settings, so I guess I have to bake that occlusion into the red channel of the metallic-roughness-occlusion map. It's easy enough to do by subtracting the blackness of a greyscale AO-map from whatever occlusion is in the tiled Materials…

… so I do that and it looks pretty good, but doing it this way means I have lost the resolution advantage of tiling those source PBR materials: I had to tile them onto a final-resolution image before I could apply the structure-level occlusion, so a 3x3 tiling reduces effective resolution by a factor of nine. Worse, if the same tiled materials are used on different walls with different structural occlusion effects, I have to make a separate high rez material for each of them, a reversion to the download and memory bloat of unique per-face textures.

So I went to Scarlett Creative to inspect the two PBR models I found (search aided by highlighting reflection probes 😛 ) and from superficial inspection it appears they, too, use the baked occlusion approach along with other adjustments to the tiled textures.

I really hope there's a better way to do this.

There has to be a better way. I want to tile and keep resolution. I am sitting in the camp of will release free updates as best practice evolves.

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