Arduenn Schwartzman

I hope you'll mention in the Discussion section of your final publication that the population selection for this survey is subject to potential Microsoft Teams and Amazon bias. And to promise that, in future studies, you'll include alternative modes of communiation, like Zoom, Discord and Skype and rewards by other means. You know, just to keep the peer reviewers happy. [Edit] Even more importantly: I'm pretty sure a substantial portion of SL residents is not at all comfortable using voice and/or video communications. So you're Zoom requirements are going to severely skew your findings. Seriously. Better give that a good long thought.

Accidentally leaving 'Stretch Textures' unchecked and then resizing a very large and complex mesh link set.

Those Substance Painter files are HUUGE! Totally unnecessarily huge, IMHO. Curse you, Big Data Storage!

No. Your conclusions are skewed and slightly wrong and misleading and I can't be bothered to point out where they go wrong. So, no, from those three conslusions, it is clear you didn't entirely get it. Either wilfully, or accidentally. Let's leave it at that.

It's purely a viewer's shortcoming. Blinn-Phong materials and PBR materials can be altered without the need for removing anything at any time. In the official viewer you can't do it in Edit (right now, that's definitely a problem), but with scripts you can and I'm pretty sure in future viewers you can do it in Edit too. (I'm pretty sure the good people at Firestorm are working on it already.) Below, some proof. One and the same object as seen with a PBR viewer (left) and with Firestorm (right). Inside is a script that will toggle between a red and a green Blinn-Phong material when the object is touched.

With a bit of reasoning your way into a pretzel, you could argue that the new year had started as of the OP's posting - given that the Russian Federation is considered a European country and that Vladivostok is part of the RUssian Federation.

MarketplaceApocalypse I'm not even kidding. Half an hour ago, I had 309 items (out of 640 that were supposed to be listed on it). Right now it's 305. That means that in 38 hours, my entire MP store will be empty. The relevant forum threads are now also in semi-lockdown because of some CAPTCHA-like tool that does not allow me to write anything anymore there. Ans then it does not redirect me anywhere at all.

I can't respond in another thread anymore. It sends me to some weird 'prove you're human' test that fails itself.

I have 640 listen items according to the viewer. On the MP website, 309 items are listed. Linden Lab is employing someone who thinks they're Thanos or Mark Zuckerberg. Or a very early Marketplace spring cleaning with some new rules has been initiated.

Why can't I deactivate a group tag the same way I can activate it?

Land Impact

There can be only one:

Educational

I'm not sure if SL is more toxic than other games 'in general'. Subjectively, I'd say "hell no, not by far". For one, it's not really a game, more a barbie dollhouse toy-like 3D play thing with some other possibilities (role-playing families and fantasy/sci-fi thngies). SL generally not really being competitive (like other games), but more cooperative, is probably a big reason. But, if you'd look for some data on the internet, I'd say: it's not in the top 10 of games with the most toxic communities: Sauce As for forums: I've also seen way way worse. Overall, I'd say this Forum has got some particularly good vibes. In the end, it's probably all in the eye of the beholder. We're all projecting, because we're all human beings. So, if you have had some generally bad experiences in SL and the SL forum, then, yes, it's probably toxic. Maybe try a fresh start and, with some self-reflection, a different set of expectations/attitude? You could give up, but you could also put some effort in it and try again.

You look at the little numbers in the Edit window of a prim.

Then I'm double *****ed.

Me, getting an email notification from some lame 'security' device, while I'm being offline: "You Arduenn Schwartzman hit ****** Resident with [vehicle from rezzer]. They have been notified." My Asparagus brain: "I DID NOT!!!! I'M INNOCENT!"

[sorry I though the light source was the reflection probe] I did have a light source. It was a projector light source shining down on the desk, rather than a point light source that radiates in all directions. I guess that makes a big difference too. Important lesson learned: use enough lights inside the room, even if the room has windows to the outside world. Those windows do not provide enough light for the room like windows in the real world do. Unless future windows in future SL houses are (projection) lights sources too (like a church with stained glass windows that I made once).

Is the prim box encapsulated by a rectangular reflection probe?

So Midday's purpose is to serve as a reference environment for creators to make their objects in SL look like in Substance Painter? That solves the question as to why Midday exists, for sure. But now, there is another problem. I expect neither the vast majority of parcels in SL, nor the vast majority of residents to have their personal environments set to Midday. Therefore, all of the PBR-using objects in SL will still look dramatically different from what they look like in Substance Painter and its SL counterpart Midday. I understand that a standard reference environment is convenient for creators. I used to use Midday all the time, before PBR, as a lowest common denominator - the ugliest EEP setting in which my product still had to look acceptable. But now, Midday, tested indoors, is just completely unusable. So now, Midday, as a reference, is too far away from SL in the wild, too artificial. Instead, I imagine creators have to constantly evaluate their products in an array of different environments that are 'representative' of SL and still not know what their product may end up looking like, since 'object looks' are now far more intimately linked to the environment that their siting in. And JIRA, Yes. For a better world. But I have JIRA PTSD. I get the cold sweats and jitters and flashbacks of 'can not reproduce', 'priority low' and 'duplicate' and other excuses at the slightest mention of JIRA. Idealistically, I should fight my dramaqueenesque bodily reflexes, take a break from building stuff and fighting deadlines (and, above all, valuable Forum time), and take a few hours off composing a comprehensible, airtight JIRA case.

I appreciate all of the replies and they mostly seem to address why Midday looks so black (TL;DR: technical reasons). This is by no means meant as an attack on PBR or Environments or SL. I totally agree that at least from the creators' side it's easier to work with than the old materials. And in many case it's prettier. It has its ups and downs and I'm not against it at all. I want to stress that the circumstances in which I created the first two pictures were pretty simple. It didn't require jumping through hoops: I rezzed a shool house (a single room, 10 x 12 m, with 10 windows in it). I made a plywood box, slightly larger than the house, and turned it into a reflection probe by just checking the reflection probe button and selecting the rectangular option. Nothing else. My graphics settings were as recommended by the viewer (it had shadows on). The main question is still only half addressed. Why is Midday darker than Midnight? Granted, Midday under these circumstances is quite dark, because of the various programming design decisions, (lack of) light sources and math and stuff. But then, by extension, shouldn't Midnight even be darker? But it isn't. Again, probably because of technical reasons. But the buck stops at a concious decision stemming from someone's brain... (apparently) to have a Midnight that's lighter than a Midday, under conditions that are pretty standard, (to my knowledge) easy to reproduce and easy for other people to encounter in a similar fashion. So there's some possibilities: No one knew. This phenomenon just emerged by accident, after a series of developments and I happened to be the first one to notice. I find this hard to believe. I expect at least some other people to sit in a room in SL and toggle between Midday and Midnight and think: hmm, that's odd. Others already noticed too but didn't care too much, because there's plenty of solutions, Enviromnent settings to choose from, light sources to ad, to make it better. Easy fix and life goes on. This is the pragmatic approach, and for most things in life is to be applauded. These people are better than me. Someone did notice and actually did care and made an extra Midday, 'Midday (Legacy)', which seems to me brand new and not legacy at all. But maybe I'm wrong and it's Midday that's new. Nonetheless, if you go back to the first five pictures in this thread, four out of five Environment settings are consistent with each other: Midnight, Sunrise, Midday (Legacy), and Sunset. Maybe then the naming in the menu was just inconsistent and all these four all should have the label (Legacy). Or maybe Midday (Legacy) should be called Midday, and the other Midday should be called Midday (No Ambiance). In the end, this 'No Ambiance' Midday sits there prominently in the menu bar at the top of our screens, for some reason. It's weird and it's unintuitive and ugly as sin and confusing to me and I wonder why it even exists.

[Snip - wrong thread]

That's not true. In the first two pictures: I made a really simple probe and I set to Midday. I did not touch the Ambiance. Stop misinterpreting/misrepreseting things here and twisting my words. For me you're going on ignore. Bye.

So, how does Midday work then, and why is it not an abomination? Why did I not step into dog poo until yesterday, while dogs have been pooping on the streets for millenia? Until Midday is gone from the menu? Where in this entire threat and I giving 'the work' so little chance?

Ok, let me rephrase the question then: why does an abomination as Midday have such a prominent place in the top menu bar?