Codex Alpha

I just read this topic and it gave me a good laugh. Other than one suggestion to use Maya convertor, there were no answers to the OPs question, and it all went on a tangent of random accusations and speculations. I'm not always sure why people bother posting if they can't answer the question - I guess its more fun for them to accuse people of doing wrong without even knowing the particulars. As far as the OP explaining why they need to convert from *.obj to *.dae, its irrelevant. You don't need to know why someone wants to borrow your hammer - either say yes or not to letting them borrow it. A very off-topic topic, but funny.

I am only guessing here, because you haven't included much information about what you have tried, checked and ensured before posting. However, I have had similar message when I did something very simply wrong. When exporting to the *.dae Collada format, make sure that you have an actual mesh selected - be in object mode and have a mesh highlighted as being selected - or Blender saved the house.dae as 0 bytes. In your directory you will may see a list of exported LOD models you have created, eg., house.dae 102 kb house_med.dae 88 kb house_low.dae 0 kb house_lowest.dae 12kb However if you happened to save one of these LODs, without actually selecting a mesh in your scene first, it will be saved as 0 bytes. Not sure if this solves your problem based on the information - but it is the message one will get in the SL uploader if they try to upload a 0 byte sized mesh. Good luck!

Onix1997 wrote: Thank you. So sorry I wrote it unde YOUR AVATAR forum but still not familiar with a lot of stuff. And the answer service sounds amazing. Alwin, you are rude, maybe you need to put on other people shoes. Thanks to the ones that gave advices, is not easy being new on SL. Xoxo I apologize on behalf of these two. They do this to pretty much any new person that comes to SL, or anytime they're not happy with the question being made. There are a few helpful people around SL, and you will learn the names quickly. Good luck and welcome to SL, and don't hesitate to ask a question. ANY question, and there will be someone to answer it. Alwin Alcott wrote: why ask when all is explained at your accountpage? in my opinion it's really a bit too easy to just dump it on a forum. log in, click "account".."premium" and no.. it's not rude or blunt... just logical and straight forward answer. If you don't want to answer a question, then don't post at all. You are out of line. You and many others need to stop attacking new people to the forums and SL in general. Freya Mokusei wrote: Onix1997 wrote: rude Eeeh. I understand Alwin's frustration. You're posting in the People forum about something that clearly doesn't relate to Your Avatar, and posting subjects in all caps. Both of these are [somewhat understandable] strategies to get more attention than this question deserves. You're new here, and you feel your questions deserve prompt answers. Okay, I can get on-board with that - I bet Alwin can, too. But maybe there's a better way to do this that doesn't annoy the folks looking for interesting and fresh discussion about avatars. You can use the Search function in the top-right to see if people have asked these questions before. The Answers service is designed specifically to resolve simple, often-repeated queries about accounts, avatars, pretty much anything so long as it's not asking about specific products, or asking for recommendations. Questions asked there are more visible already, and they're typically seen more-quickly by folks specifically interested in helping new users. Hopefully a new approach is all it needs. You too, don't answer at all. That will be a good policy for YOU and others who seem to get bent out of shape over new people posting questions.

I'm still learning all the intricacies and terms used in SL. I appreciate having know-it-alls like you around to correct me, thanks.

There are plenty of resources in SL to teach you how to build You can start here with the basics from SL itself; Building Tools in Second Life You can learn how to build and script all sorts of things by attending classes at; The Builders Brewery Helping Haven Gateway There are tons of free (but sometimes verbose and old) scripts you can pick up from freebie stores and sites that you can study Freddie Frederix Free Scripts or you can access the Linden Scripting Library online for descriptions of any and all functions you may use. If you still want to make some 'newb' or 'newbie' friends ( you dont want to use ''noob' or 'n00b' ), check out the sandboxes, there are plenty of people there also starting out, and you can chat at the same time. Good luck

Sassy Romano wrote: entity0x wrote: Yes thats why I want to find out how to work with SL avatars, rigging, animations within Blender without relying on Avastar - for those who are not concerned with saving time, but learning how to actually do things. Surely you don't devalue such a position. Nope, continue but most people don't tend to first forge all their tools before carving masterpieces. It's generally easier and accepted practice to buy the requisite tools, thus you don't find a wood craftsmans tutorial on carving starting first with how to dig iron ore, smelt it and forge it into a chisel! If you wish to start from first principles using only what is provided in Blender, that's absolutely fine but then equally, don't complain when you cannot find the tutorials on how to do this when others are using blindingly obvious toolsets available to them. Similarly, i'm still curious to know how you'd have answered the OP initial question without referring to either the TOS or how to create the item himself without referring to any tools, which is what I believe was implied by your earlier post. Although you have made a valid point, you kinda went to the extreme with it. Let's rein it back a little into something more realistic and comparable. If one wants to become a master woodcraftsman, one may not want to start with power tools, power tables, nor power saws. In fact, I know carpenters who started out their Apprenticeships in what are called 'Foundation Programs" where they DID start with chisels and handsaws - in order to get experience with the most basic of joining two pieces of wood together (even more so for Joinery/CabinetMaker apprentices). Of course they wouldn't learn how to smelt ore to make the chisels, you're just being silly. Hey, one day I may check out Avastar, and I'm not against it. It's just that its all I have found in tutorials and such is Avastar, Avastar, Avastar. It doesn't teach me how to use the chisel - which will allow me to use the learned skill for a variety of projects in the future in Blender - whereas Avastar is SL-Centric. Also some of us DO want to use the chisel to start, because we DO want to become masters. There are so many plugins to be used in Blender and 'add-ons' and 'themes' and 'formats', and thats fine if thats what you want. But as a student and wannabe Master, I want to learn the basics first, how it all works bare-bones, THEN i can program the Python script to save myself time. Many people's solutions in life is to simply 'throw more money at it", and though I'm sure Avastar is good for some, it may not be for others (monetarily or otherwise) so promotion of non-Avastar links can be appreciated too. Its not complaining, negative or demeaning to Gaia Clary to want to find a non-Avastar solution for the reasons I have mentioned. We all have different needs and learning paths, so why make it an issue.

Original: - being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of ( with reasonable expectation of inspiration) - not derived or copied or translated from something else - being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of An original work (with the assumptions that you are inspired by other works of art, or influence) is your brain child. It is an idea of many ideas you have; perhaps visuallized with sketches and thumbnails, concept art you painted,etc. This work should have never before been seen; or perhaps a new fresh approach based on Art Deco influences.. but not replicas of existing real-world items. Sketching, conceptualizing and implementing your own dress design for SL, developing the mesh would only qualify for 'original content' but how would you go about proving that - who would decide what is legit or not? If 'original content' qualifications only need be 'Well, I made it myself", then there is no need for a special group, tag or symbol since EVERY creator in SL is 'original' then. There is a difference between creating 'orginal' music, writings and poems vs doing a 'cover' of an existing music, writing or poem. Creating a mesh of a 1956 Chevy Bel-Air, though requiring skill and some sort of unique interpretation that comes out of any artist - it is not 'original' at all. It is a replica. Same as all the Marshall guitar amps for sale on the MP. Or the Roland and Rhodes pianos. Someone made the mesh for them, but they are not "100% original" in any way. If you want to wear a badge like that, or promote it - then please follow it seriously, and let it dictate how you make your designs. Don't sell copies of the Pioneer DJ Mixer Station that already exists in RL, but come up with a unique design that is NOT a replica or copy, so that you can TRULY claim it is yours.

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Gadget Portal wrote: So, I know we have ways to flag individual listings for violatons, but how do you do it when it's an entire store, every single listing has the same violations? brew up a pot of coffee and start flagging items.. Gonna need a huge pot of coffee, and some bandages to keep the fingers from bleeding from all the clicking that is currently needed on the SLMP in regards to all of that.

Pamela Galli wrote: entity0x wrote: Everything prior being said to this, the Second Life economy is open to all with minimal starting requirements. Unlike RL, with red tape, licensing, accreditation, and other bar-raising measures to keep the majority of people out, anything you can attain in SL is based on your creativity, innovation, and originality and the skills you develop to communicate them. At one point I could only use prims in SL, and dreamed of a day I could enter the world of 'mesh' and start designing my own stuff. Having no income for an official education in 3D Modeling, I instead set out to use the amazing world library called the Internet to learn and implement anything I wanted to, now I'm on my way contributing content to SL myself beyond simple blocks. Everything I create in SL have been self-taught, and with guidance from other helpful SL creators. Some things still exist - such as not being able to afford land rentals or ownership, but as I progressed I could fund such efforts creating an income selling content in SL. SL has been good to me that way, and the only obstacle to my success is how I utilize the opportunity. Unlike RL, where there are many things that can stop you, SL is open to anyone interested. What does this account of how you learned to make content have to do with a discussion about what economic system(s) operate in SL? In the respect of your own post, what does it also have to do with what economic system(s) operate in SL? The OPS question (because you can't read) was " What Type of Economy is Second Life?" My answer is an 'open to all' economy - anyone can enter the arena. Now go pester someone else - you're really getting desperate constantly attacking every post I make.

Pamela Galli wrote: Entityox gets off on filling the forum with wrong advice and FUD, usually attributed to "the elites" that exclude him from their inner circle and have armies of alts, and based on one of his many negative encounters with one of these elites. The fact that he knows nothing about Avastar doesn't mean he's unqualified to provide incorrect information about it. You're great at making accusations against other members in SL, and misrepresenting their position and even their intent. Your appeal for allies is quite pathetic, and you should really stick to speaking for yourself. This is what a forum is for - to voice and hear other opinions on a variety of issues - you seem to get upset at this kind of thing so I wonder why you're here participating. My experience in SL is clearly different from yours, and I can recognize that as a possibility. Instead of attempting to discredit or defame me on here - perhaps you should recognize that other people's experiences in SL may be quite different from yours, and perhaps you should work to a solution for these issues, rather than adding to the existing toxicity. I am 1 of 20 people left currently in SL. I stay because of its creative outlet mostly, and because I appreciate other's creations. Everyone else has left for a variety of issues - which I have outlined in other topics and posts. I vocalize my opinions and concerns and observations because I care about the future of SL, the integrity of merchants and of the SL Marketplace, as well as to foster and encourage open and uncensored discussion of topics in SL IN ORDER TO IMPROVE THE EXPERIENCE FOR ALL. Being an elitist, condescending or outright hostile is only going to demonstrate to new users that SL is not the place to be. Your continued ad hominem attacks in every thread I participate in is very pathetic and rude. Perhaps it would suit you better to discuss the issues brought up, rather than the person behind them. Good day to you. Pamela Galli wrote: People do not recommend Avastar "to get another sale" but because it is a time saver. Do you even know how much its creator has freely given to SL? Or even who its creator is? And some of us want to learn how to work with the SL Avatar without the prerequisite to purchase Avastar, and want to learn how to do things from scratch (if possible) so we are learning how to do things directly, rather than using someone's plugins. It's like a guy on YouTube who promotes his own 'Blender Format" and set of plugins, which alienates more new Blender users - and the result is he gets 138 views instead of 100,000 - because he's trying to sell a product and rope users into using his system. I am aware of the creator of Avastar, and her videos from almost 10 years ago making a simple hat and other items got me started in the right direction. I am also aware of how much the creator has freely given to SL as well - and is greatly appreciated. She's not the only one, as there are many others, including myself that contribute back to SL in any way they can. Sassy Romano wrote: I don't believe that's correct. Gaia has been instrumental in keeping the Collada export alive and integrated into Blender. I just downloaded Blender 2.77a and in there is the Collada export with export to SL/Opensim option. LL have always made the avatar files available. Yes thats why I want to find out how to work with SL avatars, rigging, animations within Blender without relying on Avastar - for those who are not concerned with saving time, but learning how to actually do things. Surely you don't devalue such a position.

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. "We experience SL and form an opinion about it based on where we are, where we go, the people we see and interact with, and what we see. This is unavoidable (and of course the same applies to RL as well!), but, because SL is so extremely complex and has such diverse groups of people, our own ‘opinion’ is always biased and limited to our own world-view. Meanwhile, just across the grid, there might be a completely different group with a radically different view of SL. Both groups, of course, will claim ‘their’ view is the correct one, even if they defend the opposite view…" - https://gwynethllewelyn.net/2014/03/28/understanding-second-lifes-culture/ "Interpersonal Disputes or Personal Negative Commentary: If you have a personal disagreement, do not post about it on the Second Life community pages. Residents who have personal differences have other channels of communication available to them — private messaging in the forums, IM within Second Life, or chatting within Second Life." No Flaming: "Flames" are hostile or disruptive posts, or messages intended to incite an angry response. Spirited discussion and constructive disagreement are welcome, but name-calling and airing of grievances are not appropriate in our discussion areas. Off Topic Content: Please keep your commentary relevant to the discussion and within the format that the forum, board or question and answer area require. Please ensure your future posts on this forum adhere to these guidelines, and keep it civil and inpersonal - http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Discussion_guidelines

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter.

It is clear from your posting history that you rarely comprehend the words that people type on these forums, which causes you to react in the condescending and hostile manner that you do. Most posts you make are accusatory, some pathetic attempt at making anyone out of your elitist circle to defend themselves. Now you want to add the accusation of 'deleting posts' to the queue.. you are a piece of work indeed. I'm sorry you are upset with my opinions and observations of many merchants and their practices on the Marketplace. If the statements don't apply to you, (or your alternate store accounts), then it shouldn't concern you. I wouldnt communicate anything that I didn't experience firsthand. Maybe you're better off ignoring my posts and account in general, to spare you the evident stress it seems to cause you.

You truly are a snide and bitter one, aren't you. It is my opinion that Gacha and its use of images is spam, and that will never change. Dakota demonstrated to me that it is legal to do so, as long as the individual item is outlined in the image. It is my opinion that it is a crappy system, and I've already had to report purchases I've made myself where the images were actually wrong (due to the uploader's fatigue at creating 30 listings and uploaded the wrong image). I'm sorry you don't like my opinion that Gacha needs its own category, and that it's current implementation on the Marketplace equates to visual spam. Add to that the misuse of keywords in many of the same listings, it is a blight on the Marketplace. in my opinion. Its okay to have my opinion is it not.

Don't worry, you are right. I"ve dealt with many people here since I started myself a few years ago. They are quick to condescend and point to any TOS violations, long before responding to the actual OP. They seem to assume everyone is up to no good, and enjoy pointing out any mistakes. There are several 'policy enforcer' types on this forum that seem to appear only when it suits them, and they are rarely seen posting actual answers or help to OPs. If you can weather those users (you'll learn their names quickly), and keep patient, a few usually show up later in the topic with some real answers. Your original question could have been answered without the concern about IP infringement. Learning Blender or Maya to even get to that point would take you months to learn and perfect - so I personally wouldn't even have addressed that at all at this point. That being said, there is no specific learning path for avatar creation/rigging and importing of avatars into SL. The elitists keep the knowledge a very closely guarded secret - and refer to Avastar to get yet another sale, when probably it can all be done in Blender alone. Some people are very helpful in SL, others rely on their avatar creation income to pay their mortgages and bills so don't like sharing their knowledge or secrets with other people - you will just have to find other ways to figure it out. The times I run into SL users who make great tutorials and generously share their knowledge and experience through YouTube or other means - I always ensure to thank profusely - since it is so rare.

Basically it means you can't wear anything cool. If I have any sci-fi pieces on my avatar, it skyrockets too.

I havent' found a single mesh that fits my default avatar "base male shape" Linden Labs shape without making me look frumpy or wearing big brother's hand me downs. Even those that are close still have issues, just bought some mesh pants that looked alright, except there is about the equivalent of 2 inches from my stomach to the edge of the mesh pants. Close, but not close enough. Going back to my old style "Canada Jeans" skinned texture mesh pants that I got at a freebie store when I first joined SL. Must always try a demo. Cannot buy mesh without a demo, but I got sloppy.

Everything prior being said to this, the Second Life economy is open to all with minimal starting requirements. Unlike RL, with red tape, licensing, accreditation, and other bar-raising measures to keep the majority of people out, anything you can attain in SL is based on your creativity, innovation, and originality and the skills you develop to communicate them. At one point I could only use prims in SL, and dreamed of a day I could enter the world of 'mesh' and start designing my own stuff. Having no income for an official education in 3D Modeling, I instead set out to use the amazing world library called the Internet to learn and implement anything I wanted to, now I'm on my way contributing content to SL myself beyond simple blocks. Everything I create in SL have been self-taught, and with guidance from other helpful SL creators. Some things still exist - such as not being able to afford land rentals or ownership, but as I progressed I could fund such efforts creating an income selling content in SL. SL has been good to me that way, and the only obstacle to my success is how I utilize the opportunity. Unlike RL, where there are many things that can stop you, SL is open to anyone interested.

5 kudos say many agree, and many more if they knew these things were even available in Second Life. Too much I have seen exhibits by the same artists, and it feels like I'm not really part of Second Life at all, that I'm on the outside looking in. I'm sure there are many creators like me that feel the same way, and we need to hear about these events, these galleries and in-SL magazines much more than we are.

0THELLA wrote: Incase there is some confusion about the nature of MAGE Magazine, it is not a business. We distribute the magazine for free in the form of a 3D book / slideshow and the artists affiliated with MAGE Magazine are volunteers. Occasionally we will place an advertisement or accept donations to help cover the cost of producing the magazine. It costs 10 lindens per texture upload and as each page of the magazine is a texture this adds up to between 300 to 500 L per month. It is not a large sum but most of this comes out of pocket as does the cost of furniture and props used to create our sets and the cost of purchasing costumes. My reason for co founding and promoting MAGE Magazine is to create a community of artists who help each other to learn and inspire each other and help each other find opportunities in the virtual world of Second Life. I don't understand why anyone would object to this, however if you do have a problem with the content of my posts please let me know. Thank you 0THELLA - Editor for MAGE Magazine http://0zymandius.wix.com/magemagazine Thank you for your magazine and your idea to include SL artists (some which are never heard from because only the same top elitist names do) Anything that promotes art and artists, paid magazine or not, that is open to all is a benefit to SL. We need more of this, not less, and I rarely hear anything about this kind of thing, so thank you for doing so.

You're not too far off. Many of my fair and constructively critical reviews have been removed through sheer intimidation and harrassment of the seller and their various alt accounts. Some will stop at nothing, even posting private conversations on their internet blogs, using names and such in order to blackmail the take down of a less than 5 star review. Rather than have drama like that or the back and forth between the reviewer and seller on their store page - which they try to make you look much like a villain and oppressor - its sometimes better just to remove it. Another seller would simply harass me in game, offering to give back money for the product, instead of fixing the issue that caused the original review. Another seller harasses all my alt accounts and friends accounts associated wiht the groups we belonged to, rebroadcasting the original reviews and using their Land Admin powers to find shared IPs and such which brought about the accusations to start with. Another threatened to simply report the reviews (and discussions) as unfair to LL - making a point of threatening that I would lose my own store. I don't write any reviews any more for the most part, since unless you're willing to give a 5 star - you're just asking for trouble. This hasn't been the case for ALL my reviews, but certainly the large majority, which has since discouraged me giving any feedback, good and bad on any product. This is why you only see 1 and 5 star reviews. The 5 stars are for people who absolutely are thrilled with the product, and the 1 stars are by people so mad that they dont care if the seller gets upset. The 2-4 mid rating reviews you will rarely see, as it is a trigger for the seller to contact you in-game, usually with a lot of ego and anger attached - wondering why you left such a review.. 'Are you stupid? Cant read instructions? Didn't read the details? Won't take money back? Why not contact me first before review? You're a jerk", etc.

Please ensure that you have the normals on those faces pointed the right way. Notice on the wireframe how the faces aren't showing. Edit Mode, hit N go to Mesh Display -> Normals-> Select the Face option to see the lines. This can happen if you used "Solidify" modifier or extruded a different way than you expected and the normals on the faces flipped for some reason. If you did not ensure this on the original mesh, then your LODs will follow suit.

On a sim, my avatar complexity is apparently 220980 or so, and I recieve a warning 'avatar may not be seen by others'. I haven't changed my avatar from the default avatar I signed up wiht 5 years ago, as well as the main mesh props I wear (NeuroLab :D gasmask, gloves, goggles) haven't changed for at least 3 years. Why am I getting avatar complexity warnings now, and what changed? I can't strip this avatar any lower, since my clothes are the old style body skin types no mesh... Thanks

Sounds like an inexperienced, new sim renter/owner who is experimenting. Best to find somewhere else, because with numerous reboots and such - must be testing and experimenting features, loading up landscape terrain files or w/e and messing with your inventory listings or w/e on the sim. Thogh I have never rented a SL sim, I have rented game servers and i have messed up regular players' things, houses, builds, etc tryhing to install plugins or testing or w/e. It happens.

Plenty of stores like that about. My latest favourite is the female sock account of an eltie SL seller, (who apparently has access to all SL accounts on this IP), who likes to sell textures on prims, but advertise them as 3D. She spammed my 1 alt along with other existing SL accounts at this multi-user IP address in a bid to shut down the reviews. Most of the images are also copyrighted images she has stolen from other sites. To make it even more heinous, her use of keyword spam clogs up many categories on the SLMP. My only response was to make a cup of coffee, and flag each and every listing that was misrepresented - the only real flag that could be used was the spamming of keywords (as no option exists for misrepresentation of a product). A 100 or so clicks later, after my finger was breaking off - all the product listings and store still remains. Most of the items are $0 to $1 listings, which leads users into purchasing items $20 to $50L for exactly the same one-prim- textured non-3D item.