Moco Scribe

I was watching the morning show finale and up pops Second Life! I thought it was really great to see SL just slipped into something mainstream without all the negative references it normally attracts. The message was, yep, still here and still going strong. My only criticism was SpaceCase's AO which did seem a bit clunky!

Thanks ChinRey that has given me some ideas to work with!

I was wondering how Turnip of Turnip's Skydones made his as he has ones up to 150m. Although these could be sculpts but the question still stands how are they made. Plus what about all the megasize mesh sim surrounds how are they made and uploaded or if they are imported small how are they made so big? I know that I may be missing something but any pointers would be appreciated.

That's an interesting solution but I have seen mega sized single meshes so the search goes on!

I have seen and bought many mesh items which are way bigger than the maximum 64m. I've tried importing bigger sized mesh but with no luck and am at a loss as to how they are created and imported. Can anyone help? I would like to make a sky box which is at least 100m in diameter and can't get any bigger than 64m....please help! https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/34325 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ven%20River%20Port/33/30/22

A few months ago I launched a survey to better understand what Second Lifers really wanted from their house builders now that we all have mesh to play around with. My question was prompted by a conundrum I experienced in my store. Despite all the hype around mesh cottages and low LI my best selling cottage was and still is a 100% prim build of over 200LI. The part mesh cottages sell well too but I wanted to know why the prim cottage sold better before embarking on a year long exercise of changing everything over to mesh. The results of the survey (100 avi's responded) are here. And you can see the original post via this link.

I have come to the same conclusion as Pamela. Part Mesh builds offer the best options for customers and funnily enough the survey results suggest the same. I think that there was a lot of hype around mesh in the beginning and everyone jumped on the 'we must now make everything out of mesh' bandwagon and we (builders and customers) all fell for it. Now with the passage of time we have reached a better level of understanding and realise that it's not what something is made out of that's important (although it all helps) but giving our customers what they want.....So no different to the real world. Plus shoppers also have a better understanding of what being made of mesh actually means and that although it delivers a lot there are also some significant constraints and there's a lot to learn about how to use it even as a consumer. Mesh isn't always the answer. Doing the survey has clarified my thinking and you can see the full results here on my blog, it may help you with some of your builds. There were 100 responses which basically told me what I sort of suspected but needed to see it in writing!

Lol! No not arrogant it just amused me and you will need to grow a thicker skin to last in Second Life! Thanks for the link...

Ok that's extremely modest of you to claim you are 'ahead of the curve' :-) Have you had a look at what's being offered on the Marketplace? There are some amazing and well made mesh creations, the competition is fierce. Your stuff is nice too. Would you be able to send me a link to Drongle's LOD graphs?

A couple of questions: are you glad that your mesh skills brought you into second life and what's your take so far? I ask because the majority of the people who have been here for a while joined for very different reasons. If more people join to maximise their mesh skills that will change not just what people sell and buy but the overall culture and feel of SL. The next question is a more technical one. For the lower LODS I assume you don't use the uploader inbuilt ones so do you upload sepecially created models or just tweak the LOD numbers on the uploader?

Very well put and I'm glad I asked the question as it has clarified a lot of things.

I completely agree with your points. As builders we understand the need to use the best tools for the job, be that prims, sculpts or mesh as each have their uses dependent on what we're building. The issue is non builders only see mesh as the answer and for homes it may not be the best solution, reducing modability and adding in complications about how they interact with their homes.

Thanks for the advice and words of encouragement!

Thanks Drongle, some of the houses have mesh windows and doors some as you saw have old sculpts. I have already made the mesh windows and have been putting off replacing them due to the amount of time involved but needs must! My real hesitation is that all of my houses come with a built in texture changer for internal walls and creating single mesh walls makes this difficult to work properly without doubling some internal walls (extra LI) or leaving out the texture change altogether. I've tried changing the face the texture changer affects and sometimes it worked ok and mostly it didn't, it was quite random. If you have come across any solutions to this that would be useful.

Hi Chic, thanks very much for the feedback and pointers from a builder's perspective! The early survey results show a preference of 30% for prim and mesh builds each whilst the rest aren't too fussed as long as it is a quality build. I've always felt that modular is the way to go and a cleverly built prim house can still meet a need. Survey feedback so far is that the ability to modify builds is very important in some ways more important than price! It will be interesting to see what other comments come through.

It is certainly a conundrum which is why I set up the survey. Everyone wants their home to have the lowest possible LI and although this can be achieved by mesh it can severely limit the owner's opportunity to modify. That's the challenge for house builders for us to offer the the lowest possible LI, the highest quality and the ability to modify. In reality a lot of 100% mesh builds should not really say they are modifiable at all.

Yes I've had similar experiences, although mesh has been around for a while I think we are all still learning how to live with it!

The way we express creativity in SL has changed dramatically over the last couple of years, firstly with the introduction of sculpts and more recently with the advent of mesh. I recently visited a couple of sims which were around 90% mesh. They all looked really great and I didn’t notice any extra lag. Mesh is the way forward. This poses a number of dilemmas not just for myself as a creator but for anyone building in Second Life whether that be clothes, hair, shoes, house or whatever. Although prims still have their place (they rez faster, are low lag, easy to build) they lack the detail and realism that mesh can give. So does this mean everything must now be made out of mesh or be consigned to trash? This leaves me with a conundrum in that my best selling house is still 100% prim based (give or take a couple of sculpts). Whereas my mesh or part mesh builds are still popular the full prim cottage wins hands down. And I’m not entirely sure why. So I’ve set up a SURVEY to understand more about what people really want from their ideal home. Do avis really want super low prim 100% mesh houses they can’t really modify? Or are they happy with some extra prims so that they can learn more about building and make the changes they want? I conducted a similar survey earlier in the year and the results were curious and not quite as expected, so it will be interesting to see if things have changed. So, I’m really interested in your views, it’s all anonymous unless you want to leave your avi name and then I can say hi! http://www.mocoscribe.wordpress.com Moco Homes Emporium Ven River Moco Homes Emporium Marketplace SURVEY

Drongle is there no end to your knowledge in this area! I'm glad I asked the question as I've learned loads. I never really knew about the hidden triangles or textures despite reading a lot of stuff on Mesh. Thanks again

Aquila That was an excellent overview - thanks so much for your time in pulling this together. if you have a blog publish it on there as I've come across many explanations of this technique but none as clear. I'll have to have a think as to when best to use it as it is a lot of work just for a cable but it will come in very useful for so many other things. I'm excited now but my brain feels fried after all the re-building I've done today, changing all the windows on my new build cottage and many other fixes...need a lie down...now where's the wine...

Great thanks for the tips I don't use blender it unfortunately doesn't agree with me but will check the 3d system I use.

Thanks Can I just upload the image for the lowest 2 lods via the 'upload file option' and I should use this only for small items not needed to be visible at a distance. These may seem like basic questions but appreciate your help!

Thanks for the detailed reply Aquila, I am envious of your low LI cable. No idea why I added the second plug, I obviously got carried away with building! I noticed that you selected 'use lod above for the lower lods what's the advantage of using that over 'generate'? Thanks again

Thanks again Drongle

Hi Saoirse It sounds as though one or more of the scripts in your sofa are not 'copy'' hence the sofa rezzing for a bit then disappearing. Check the permissions on scripts and change to at least copy, also check that all other items in the rezzer have copy checked also. Rez faux is good but other rezzers will also give a warning if 'no copy' items are included