Codex Alpha

If I were to purchase an item of yours, and give it a fair but maybe a disappointing review, that somehow my review should be removed? What difference would it make if I am a fellow marketer, or if I purchased the item under an alt? As you can well imagine, I've had reviews deleted and flagged, under claims I was 'harassing' the store owner or giving an unfair review, as part of some campaign to undermine the store owner as a hostile competitor.. completely unfair. I had been developing an alt and purchased an item from one seller, who's LODs were so out of whack, I had to leave a review about it (I remember your specialty is talking about LODs, lol :D). This item would 'blink out' (on default LOD settings) on LOD2, and therefore was impossible to take photos of oneself with it even from 5m away... In the short term I used your advice from one post to increase the LOD setting, but that shouldn't change my review. Not only was I scolded in-game for 'leaving a review without contacting creator first' (as if that's even a thing), but when I refused to remove the fair and honest review, she went to the Lindens flagging my review as 'hostile competitor'... Umm.. no.. PS. I no longer leave reviews of any sort, or give any feedback. If I cant submit 3 star reviews, then I won't leave 5 star reviews either.

To be clear, my no-mod items are on multiple-mesh items, and usually items that are presented as machines, and really have no need to be torn apart and used as spare parts - since I assume the customer bought it for what it was intended - as a work of operational art. I am not a Lego-kit creator, my intent is to create unique and original designs for people to use in SL. If it's a simple item like a couch, or some simple replication of RL world item in 3d, then mod permission is included. I assume my customers are not buying my items because of their potential as Lego-kits, but rather because they appreciate the work of art itself. In that respect, I've done quite well for the number of item submissions I have for SL - and am currently working to add more unique items to it as I RL life obligations allow me. End use is an important distinction. A premade house design is also made up of multiple mesh parts, and the end use of the product is to be used as it was built.. Something like that may be sold for $500L. For mod permissions on the same item, which effectively turns the simple house into a Lego building kit, the end use is much different and therefore might warrant $3000L as a list price - since the customer can now create ANYTHING their heart desires. Workflow DOES indeed change depending on the intended end use of the item. Most of my items I have created and will create will be as unique as I can make them, including scripted functionality, and an INTENDED design ( tech, hobo, rustic, etc) - where having mod permissions is not useful or would only break the item's look and functionality. Workflow changes when providing multiple texture designs (or skins) for said item in lieu of mod permissions, which includes a few more hours of texture work, custom handpainting and baking shadows, AO, etc. -- vs simply creating UV layouts optimized for in-world texturing. Workflow changes when intent is to create a prebuilt item like the house example, vs providing the individual, walls, doorways, windows,columns or whatever else. The workflow would effectively end once each individual mesh piece was completed, rather than extra hours spend inworld now using those pieces to create homes, shops, cathedrals, whatever. Any perceived business loss asserted to not including mod permissions is gained back when people view and enjoy your INTACT product in-world. I'm sorry, but some garish texture applied to a mesh that I created in-world, or an object frankensteined into a new composition in world LOSES me business, because the customer won't even know WHO made it, and judgements will even be made based on how the MODDER presents your mesh... Most of my business is from people seeing my products in-world and finding the store as a result - so I'm not too worried. My original post on this topic was to defend a creator's choice of using non-Mod permissions on their products and give reasons WHY they might do that, and WHY customers should still seek such items, and not simply condemn (as was in original post or blog cited) creators that did so.

I appreciate your anecdotal opinions as responses, but in general, review sites utilizing star ratings are usually 5 star or 1 star reviews. It's either extreme, just go look up some statistics on the internet, and why star ratings are fallacious and pointless, and why many companies including Facebook and YouTube no longer, or do not continue to use such systems. Example: 5 star ratings systems are useless As for my own 'anecdotal' experience which forms my personal opinion, most ratings I get on products are either 5 star or 1 star as well, with a dash of (5 stars - "i didn't like the color so take away 1 point") style reviews that do nothing to help improve or critique products. In the end though, any rating system is pointless if the reviewer doesn't provide context or constructive feedback as to how to improve the product.

Ambient Occlusion and Shadow maps are made in a 3D program, as they use the information from light sources to calculate the darkened areas and shadows of a 3D object. The 3D software will then 'bake' this information to a texture that you can apply to the object, or use it to add and create full detail textures. Try finding out what you can from this angle.

Yes, that is true. Hopefully people can read my responses with temperance as I have read theirs. An appropriate response I would have liked to made would be too long... I can only do my best responding without sounding like a know-it-all. I am actually very good at looking at many sides of the argument, and research things on my own, as my end goal in discussion is to learn in the end. My job is not to have to write an essay with 100 citations, but rather give just enough that someone can research it on their own, and expand their search from there.

MissDeeMeanur wrote: What is needed is a virtual Saint Nicholas, who used to go around secretly giving purses of money to ugly women so that they could afford the dowry to persuade men to marry them. It had nothing to do with if the women were 'ugly' or not. Since when was 'ugly' a problem for women, as every 'ugly' woman I know actually got married or pregnant - as there is ALWAYS a man who will get with them in one way or another. What you are referring to were families who were so poor, they literally could not front the traditional 'dowry' that they were to give to the groom's family to help the couple have a stable start. "...In those days young women had to have money in order to get married. This money was a "dowry" and it was used to help the new family get started. If you didn't have dowry money, you didn't get married." "Nicholas continued helping people. He always tried to help secretly. He didn't want any attention or thanks. Years passed and he was chosen to be a bishop. Bishops look after their people as shepherds look after their sheep. And that is what Nicholas did. When there wasn't any food, he found wheat; so no one went hungry. He always helped people in trouble. All his life Nicholas showed people how to love God and care for each other." - History of St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas Center)

Pamela Galli wrote: Until quite recently, the only career most women had was wife and mother. Therefore every such woman was looking for a good situation. Accepting a marriage proposal meant taking herself off the marriage market, something not done lightly! So as a pledge that the proposal was in earnest, the prospective husband gave her something of value -- something that, if he failed to deliver, she could keep as compensation for time lost. And if she broke it off, she could give it back. It was insurance. No, traditionally women were married off in order to get rid of the expense from the origin family (one less mouth to feed - not as valuable on farm as stronger sons), to seal alliances or strong ties between families, and also to create stable households in which to raise the next generation. There also accompanied the marriage was a dowry, supplied by the family of the daughter, to provide an element of financial security in widowhood or against a negligent husband, and may eventually go to provide for her children. Sometimes it was the groom who literally had to pay the daughters family to have her as a bride. Rings were more symbolic, rather than of value, but could be made of simple hemp-like rope, to copper, to iron, to silver, to gold, and now the modern equivalent, the diamond ring. It is only a modern invention for a woman to think the ring is some sort of security, especially the more lucrative diamond ring, whose wide use in engagement and marriage was not created by tradition, but rather by a corporation, the Debeers Company. A corporation created the rules and traditions by which many engaged and married people carry out their customs, complete with their own rules on 'how much should be spent' on it. History of The Wedding Ring. Pamela Galli wrote: It wasnt really all about feelings or romance, neither of which figured much into marriage plans until quite recently in history. Marriage was a practical thing, so was the ring. Therefore all engagement rings in SL or RL should be transfer. Marriage and ring are two different topics. Of course marriage was practical. It ensured that families were stronger through commitment to each other in order to create stability in socieity so that civilization could advance. I refuse to pay for a diamond ring. I'd sooner craft my own set of rings for my potential mate, which should show my commitment to her better than any purchase from a corporation, or price point could ever demonstrate. Also anyone obsessed with the price of her engagement or wedding ring, one who plans to 'show it off' to her friends and family and one who would feel any less about her mate based on how much money was put into it, just demonstrates her materialism and should be avoided anyway.

Rather than a round-about, mysterious response many like to give, here is a free script that you can use, adapt or study that demonstrates what you would like to do. In short, it's called an Animation Override ( AO) , that is triggered when you attach an item to your avatar. Example Drink Script PS. You're a 'newb' or 'newbie', not a noob.

Chic Aeon wrote: It was stated officiall years ago that Maya would be the software they would be working with and "eventually" there would be support for other 3D programs. It will be very telling if that doesn't happen before they open. But perhaps that is what they want and I guess if people REALLY want to create for Sansar they can always learn Maya and pay the monthly fee. I won't be doing that though. I create for fun and learning another program after four years in Blender isn't going to work for me --- not even thinking about the all in one interface toolset thing ^^. But there is visiting. Always good to have a place to visit. It wouldnt be the software in question anyway, rather the format of the files required. If they needed FBX, and made it so that other software like Blender didn't provide the proper FBX format (cuz proprietary), then yes, people willl be forced to use the 'industry standard' to participate. At least with SL, even if Blender can be a learning curve, at least the barrier of entry is lowered compared to if only 'industry standard' tools could be used, so at least we have that. We'll see what happens in the future though, as plans include uploading to asset sites, and what they require as files will dictate in the end the format and software needed.

ChinRey wrote: entity0x wrote: I found out that Sansar may be using C# and Javascript as the languages. THis is something I have looked for, as proprietary languages is a waste of time, when they'r enot transferable, and all the time is wasted learning its nuances. C# actually. It's High Fidelity that uses Javascript. C# is often mispresented as an object-oriented programming language but that's mainly because object-oriented is such a buzzword these days. What it really is, is a kind of Jack of all trades that can do a decent job under just about any programming paradigm you can think of. Unity supports both C# and Javascript but C# seems to be the most popular choice and it's likely many scripts from there can be adapted for Sansar.

Yeah, I'm trying to make sense of it, especially after they were talking as though the Sansar 'experiences' were literally 'baked in', like pre-rendered game levels, which reminded me of IMVU. In that context that's why I wouldn't look to SL as being the same as an improved IMVU, since SL is rendering 'real-time'. I get the points though. It seems more locked in fo sho. Chic Aeon wrote: Even at the very beginning when Sansar was announced Ebbe stated that items made for the then just underway platform would go through a process (I am guessing this is now called publishing ) which would make the mesh item unusable on other platforms -- hence lower theft issues. While some things planned at the beginning (we know know money won't be transferable between platforms) have been lost along the way (understandably) this seems to be in keeping with the original intent. It is going to be interesting to see who goes and who stays in the content creator arena as it appears that the learning curve is kinda in that professional area and those professionals can likely make more money elsewear. It also appears from the latest videos that the "repetition" factor is in play as it was in Cloud Party. I am thinking of the grand ballroom which was a myriad of identical pieces repeated and the roses in an earlier video. In Cloud Party, once something was in the system and in use on that "experience", it was basically free. So you could have one tree or a hundred trees -- the tree being in a viewer's cache. This is all supposition on my part. I am obviously not there being a Blender gal. And since Blender is not considered an 'industry tool', I wonder what support would be for it anyway in Sansar. I hate Maya so much, I refuse to use it. LIke I said before, maybe it's just better to focus on selling game assets in general, and let people buy them from freelancers to put into Sansar.. rather than entering into some crummy agreement for pennies on the dollar. I found out that Sansar may be using C# and Javascript as the languages. THis is something I have looked for, as proprietary languages is a waste of time, when they'r enot transferable, and all the time is wasted learning its nuances. I might just move on to working with my own projects in Unreal/Unity in the future anyway. I can create my own 'experience' and market it that way - in the form of a game or app.

I just tried out Hi-Fidelity, an opensource VR environment similar in end-use as Sansar. People can get a taste for what the future holds for Sansar-like VR-centric environments, and just how much different the experience will be than SL. Not sure why they're announcing all this to us, when clearly their end goal and customer is the creator themselves, so that they buy 'hosting space' on Sansar servers, and we sell the 'experience' ourselves. As creators, why not just sell the game assets from online stores or our own sites, and just bypass this entirely. Charge $20 for a dungeon assets pack rather than 20 cents, and creators from Sansar can buy our products that way and import them into their 'experiences' themselves.

The Sansar 'experience', vs an IMVU 'chat room', both which are user/pro-created, and have similar ability to limit who can come in, how they conduct themselves, the topic of chat and such are very similar. Unlike SL, my understanding that in both cases, in order to participate in either, you must enter/teleport to each in order to see what is up. Sansar will not have islands, sims, or mainland that you can fly around in, crossing over borders relatively seamlessly. They will be separate from each other, operating more like traditional chat rooms, than how we use SL today. IMVU: "There are thousands of public rooms based on various themes -- vampire castles, dance clubs, hospitals and anything else in between -- including accompanying furniture, decorations and sounds. These rooms usually have a capacity of no more than 10 avatars at a time. Because they're user-created, there are often stipulations on who can enter the room and what kinds of actions can take place in it" - How IMVU Works Sansar: “In the future we will (all be able to) create spaces and experiences and invite people into those experiences… It’s not going to be something that necessarily someone created for you, just like we have our own homes and our way of dressing, the future in virtual reality is going to allow us to have that level of control over the environment and how we express ourselves.” - Is there a future for user-created content in Linden Lab’s new world? "Linden Lab is thinking less about having Sansar having a map like Second Life. They’re looking more at making individual creators make scalable and monetisable experiences and bring their audiences into it." "Sansar – the target is the creator as the primary customer" - Linden Lab Chat Summary About Sansar

ChinRey wrote: I think you misinterpret him slightly there. In at least one previous interview Ebbe has said that there may eventually be room for users to create their own artwork and such but it seems clear that the intention is to leave the content creation to the professionals while the regular users are there to experience the works made by the pros. One of the preconceptions we should get rid of if we move from SL to Sansar is that content creation is an important and integrated part of the activities in a virtual reality. Oh don't worry, the "I'm on the outside looking in" is my default feeling at this time. I really have no idea what their intentions are at all, or what part I will play in it, if any. I'm just guessing in the end. ChinRey wrote: But if your interpretation is correct, there are two problems LL needs to sort out. One is IP protection. That is one of the biggest letdowns for professional content creators who consider working in SL. Well how can they protect our IP, yet require our IP indefinitely in order to maintain SL's integrity? Generally, in the past, I've only uploaded IP to sites, from art to music, who's right to access my stuff for the purposes of running the site ends, as soon as I remove the material from the site, and/or I cancel the account. Of course, those sites are hosting my IP, and if people purchase anything, it is downloaded or streamed to their computers, so it doesn't matter if I disappear. With SL, they need that indefinite access to the IP we upload in order to maintain the integrity of the world and it's objects: Imagine if I delete some IP like I would any other site - Now users can't access that in their inventories. If I close my account, it's the same thing - all my IP would usually follow me.. But SL can't run like that (unless you have another idea). ChinRey wrote: The other is resource management. Inefficient content isn't necessarily a problem in itself, not as long as there isn't too much of it. Second Life has no effective way to measure how much resources an asset actually consumes. We do have the weights and the LI but those figures ignore some of the most costly aspects of a work and are so imprecise that it's quite common you have to increase the actual resource use to reduce the nominal one. With a proper resource management system there is room for both "professional" and "amateur" content since it allows people to choose: do you want this one resource heavy thingy or all those more efficient ones? This is true. I can almost upload a 100,000 vertice model on LOD1, and it's only the following LOD models that matter. Of course, in my plebe opinion, the only difference between a pro and an amateur is access to education on these matters. If SL wants efficiency, they're going to have to educate creators how. In the meantime, I'm doing my best with the information I can find, some in part from many of your posts in the forum. ChinRey wrote: entity0x wrote: Here is the context: "But to achieve all that Sansar is setting out to, he acknowledges, they will have to strike a tricky balance: Enabling people such as Hyde to create amazing content... Since you and the interview mention that, how does the Sansar video compare to this? I'm not sure what your point is, I hope this is a picture from within Second Life, because I thought the same; I didn't see anything amazing in the video, nor any improvement in looks or otherwise, that couldn't still be done in SL.. Sorry if I missed the point. ChinRey wrote: entity0x wrote: Loz Hyde is depicted in the article and video designing the cathedral using a monitor, and only using VR goggles to test what it would look like from that perspective. I'm just warning SL to make it accessible from monitors, because VR is a gimmick, and not to alienate the masses that will NOT be purchasing VR equipment anytime soon. Well, Hyde's Grand Hall wasn't made for Sansar of course. I don't know where it's from originally but I guess it started as part of a movie set. In any case, it works fairly well without a VR headset. You can check out the SL version yourself if you like. It's extremely poor quality mesh (the picture in my previous post is actually taken with LoD factor 4 and it still has serious LoD issues) but you can still get a sense how a building like that works when viewed on a good old monitor. Yeah, I'm just saying that if they want Sansar to succeed, better not lock it into VR only.

Does anyone know where I can find this shirt? Thanks.

Loz Hyde is depicted in the article and video designing the cathedral using a monitor, and only using VR goggles to test what it would look like from that perspective. I'm just warning SL to make it accessible from monitors, because VR is a gimmick, and not to alienate the masses that will NOT be purchasing VR equipment anytime soon.

Hee hee, I was posting a hyperlink to a discussion that could answer OP's question in detail... I wanted her to have full ability to manage and delete those logs, for whatever reason, and for the sake of transparency and access to all Callum Meriman wrote: I delete mine daily, I've never had a real need to rehash what people say. Oh but when you have a merchant having a hissy fit with a review you made, and making all sorts of threats, and using their personal blogs to defame you, or another pms 6 different accounts making sock puppet accusations because they have access to old and new IPS and make irrational statements breaking the TOS... then you wish you had those logs to go back to. I never used to have them on, I turned them off. Now after a few situations, I have them on now. For protection.

Here is the context: "But to achieve all that Sansar is setting out to, he acknowledges, they will have to strike a tricky balance: Enabling people such as Hyde to create amazing content, while still keeping the interface intuitive and user-friendly for the average consumer. That’s something that Second Life never quite achieved, but in building Sansar, Linden Lab is determined to draw lessons from its predecessor. We learned some positives but also a lot of ‘that’s not how you do it’ from Second Life,” said Altberg. “So we’re having a much more user-centric approach from the beginning, and try to make sure we stay away from the territory of complete geekdom.” - http://uploadvr.com/linden-lab-sansar-creators-money/ In this context, LL has learned from the mistakes made in Second Life, and their aim in Sansar is to allow experienced designers like Loz Hyde to do their (higher-skilled?) work, but also allow the same tools and opportunity to others who are not pro to participate as well. You know, the intent of SL originally. It was only mesh that truly separated people in SL, and created a learning curve to the average user in order to participate with 'advanced' mesh objects. I was apt and able, and had the desire to learn mesh myself, and tackle the learning curve, while many of my friends felt overwhelmed (and outdated) because they were still stuck with prim building. Sansar promises to open up this area to everyone, by giving the average user tools to build their own environments (by either purchasing props and assets from creators) or using their own (Loz Hyde level). They'll get rid of the 'geekdom', that means the entry bar level, and allowing more people in. Right now, I'd agree with his statements. What I would call 'elitist' he calls 'Territory of complete geekdom", because truly SL is full of complete geeks and elitists, the normal people are NOT in SL right now. It's mostly made up of fanbois and creators only. So if Sansar can inspire the 19 out of 21 of my network groups 'non-geek', 'normal' visitors to come back and participate, then that is all the better for me personally, and for everyone. Caveat: Dont require VR sets for participation.

Where Can I Find My Chat Logs?

I've had no problems with this kind of thing, as this cloth shape is similar to my 'terrain' or 'aquascape' shapes. I didn't try to use complicated physics shapes though, just a couple triangles, and set the uploaded mesh physics shape to the PHY.dae I used, with no analyzing.

This might help; Madelaine McMasters wrote: Right-click on your avatar and select "Hover Height". That should be in the vicinity of 50. If it's much higher than that, that's your problem. If your feet sink far into the ground after setting hover height near 50, there may be something amiss with your avatar, making SL think you're far taller than you appear. If you have a classic avatar shape, try switching to another one, perhaps from the Library. My hover height at default is 0.00, so if the 50 value is incorrect, 0.00 should be. - read more at the original similar post about this.

"Cinema4D Minty" Theme, by Ripley on Blend Swap.

"The value of the Sansar ultimately would be set by supply and demand of the market." "In general, Second Life, we collect very very little, you could almost say the zero, on the exchange and on the transactions. We mostly are actually charging people hosting fees for having access to simulators for Second Life. One thing we've decided with Sansar is that we want hosting fees to be much lower so that it's much cheaper for people to own experiences and to create experiences. And then, instead, for us to capture a bit more when it comes to the G.D.P." "So think of Second Life as having a fairly high property tax and an almost non-existent consumption tax, which makes for a bit of a lopsided way that we collect fees. Sansar will distribute that a little more evenly with a lower property tax (hosting fee) and bring up a consumption tax so that we can spread the cost amongst the different types the users more evenly." - Ebbe Altberg Chic Aeon wrote: Someone over there mentioned (so much for NDAs) that you would need to build things as a complete set (like with cast shadows). I did note that there were very obvious cast shadows on the grand ballroom. Also things would need to be very low poly (not too complex) in order for that framerate to stay above a healthy 90. It did look lovely. Obviously lots of repetition on the ballroom. Less it seems on the house photo. Sounds like making rooms on IMVU (not that I have, but I had looked into it), which are pretty static and then you invite people in to chat. Sansar sounds very similar, as you would be creating a 'sim' that people enter much like a room in IMVU, which is already pre-rendered. "We want to empower people to create their own social VR experiences, share those with others, reach their audience, and also profit from them" - Peter Gray My main question about Sansar is.. what the hell is an 'experience' exactly.. Nice buzzword, but doesn't help me visualize how this will work at all.. Is it an IMVU-like environment,closed off, or will it be somewhat visually connected, like the mainland is now, where you can fly around hitting ban lines everywhere and such?

Christin73 wrote: I just recently got a new/refurbished computer with windows 10. I just downladed SL and tried to run it but it comes up with my graphics card/drivers are out of date or didn't install properly. Anone reccomend a way around it or perhaps computer settings? Devriv wrote: Hello Christin :smileyhappy: Click “About Second Life” under “Help” in the menu bar (Top left hand side of your viewer), then copy and paste the information here. This will give the helpers your computer’s specifications, and they’ll be able to help you better.

OMFG this topic is a hilarious example of how to get free advertising in for your products, under the guise of trying to find a fashion item. LMFAO. Oh well, it's just too funny now.