StoneDwarf

I am not sure if that would work. Physics shape tend to stretch with the model it is attached to it seems. What I could do is uploading the very same mesh with just one material applied to it, plus the physics shape, then make it transparant in-world. That should work. However ... if I would do that I basically end up with the double amount of prims. Do correct me if I missunderstood you. And thanks for the tip!

Hello everyone, I'm a Maya user and running against some issues whenever I apply multiple materials to one single mesh, plus a custom physics shape. In-world, the “calculate Weights & Fee” button grays out the moment I select my custom physics shape.I want to use multiple materials to utilize the maximum amount of texture resolution, and splitting everything in separate meshes, each with one material, is not an option. Any advice?

The information I supplied is further explained and based on the link below. Display weight isn't covered there, though. And my technical knowledge in what goes on behind the screen is little, apart from what I learn here on the forums. But I was mistaken about the display weight vs download weight, luckily you pointed that out. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Calculating-land-impact/ta-p/974163 I misunderstood this line: Download weight: Calculated by determining how much bandwidth is required to download and view the object. Larger and more visually complex objects have a higher download weight. You can reduce the download weight of complex objects by generating or uploading less complex meshes for differing levels of detail when you upload a model. I thought that with 'view' they were talking about the actual rendering cost, the amount resources needed on your PC to render an object properly. Or, in proper terms, the actual 'display weight' According to Nyx Linden: "Display weight" is really just a relabeld "render cost". That's our new term for it and its currently displayed for informational purposes only. Before we can start to limit display weight, we will need to switch to the new algorithm, get the new algorithm on the simulator, and do a fair bit of tweaking so that the numbers are scaled appropriately. Currently "display weight" should just be the amount your ARC will increase if you attach the object. If this is not the case, its a bug, and let me know about it. The minimum for a single isolated mesh is indeed the server weight. If you look at the documentation you can see we charge 1 prim for the object as a whole and 0.5 prims for each piece. So an isolated mesh object will cost 2 if its streaming cost is low, but the per-prim cost is only 0.5. The values are rounded to the nearest prim.” - Nyx Linden, source: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/What-is-quot-PE-Weight-quot/td-p/939537/page/3 Thanks again!

Pamela Galli wrote: This is all pretty confusing to me -- like I don't know the difference between a server weight and a download weight. Download weight = costs on your side, Server weight = costs on the server's side. Imagine having a particle script. The server in which the particle script is stored, is responsible to get the particle script working, to read and execute its code. If, for example, a particle script is running and suddenly you crash, it is very unlikely that the script suddenly stops. Your PC's hardware however, is responsible for the visual effects the particle script creates, The server creates the effects of the particle script and the viewer and your hardware renders it. If you crash, you won't see the particle effects, even though it is still there and going on in Second Life. Another example would be a flying arrow with physics enabled. To get the arrow flying from point A to point B, physics are required. These physics are calculated by the server in which the arrow is flying. And your hardware is needed to render the object from point A to point B on your pc. The more visually complex the arrow is (where complexity is simply a synonym for amount of triangles used) the more difficult it will be.to render it on your PC. The more physically complex the arrow is (again, complex = more triangles) the more complex the physics caculation will be, which is done by the server. If you'd crash while the arrow is in mid-air, it will keep flying and eventually fall down, whether you are there or not, which is because the physical calulation is on the server's side, not yours. It wouldn't be visible though, and thats because you aren't receiving any data when you are crashed, which is, because its on your side, download weight. Thus we know that, A more complicated LOD(s) means more work for your PC, and tots of triangles will result in a higher file size, which requires more bandwidth to send the mesh from the server all the way toward your PC. This all together, is the download weight. A more complicated physics shape will require a much more complicated calculation regarding physics, done by the server. Your PC doesn't make any calculations to calculate the effects of the physics shape. Easiest way to explain this is to compare a square box with a round ball. If the box falls down, it will lay still, where as the ball will roll, depending on many other factors, thus a more complex calculation will be made, which is part of the server weight. So the effects, costs and all that complicated stuff done by the server, is server weight. Then we have physics weight as well, which is basically the amount of trangles used to create the physics shape, but thats it. When in doubt, ask yourself the same thing as I did with the particle example. What happens if you crash? Will the effect/subject/event be still there? If its a yes, its on the servers side, thus part of the server weight. The download cost of an object is basically the work that needs to be done, on your side. And physics weight is the amount of traingles in the physical shape.

:matte-motes-silly:

Complete rewrite every month? Wow, that's impressive. Those programmers over at the Blender Foundation must have one of those nifty time bubble devices from Stargate, so they can spend years writing a new program from scratch inside the dome, while only a month goes by outside. Actually, you are incorrect, Chosen Few. It's called a Time Dilation Device. :matte-motes-sunglasses-3: A device capable of altering the speed at which time passes in an area around itself. The first Ancient time dilation technology was in the Pegasus galaxy, where the Lanteans had constructed a refuge on a planet known as the Cloister, which had one entrance. The entire 'valley' region was engulfed by the time dilation field that accelerated time within its position in order to allow the inhabitants to learn how to ascend. The field was a potent defensive mechanism as it prevents objects from entering the bubble from orbit, as they would be destroyed from the stresses generated by the field. The device is powered by a ZPM. A second form was later seen in the Milky Way, used by Morgan le Fay as one of her tests for persons searching for the Sangraal. This model had a set field around the location of the mountain, which almost froze objects that entered the field and was the reason why many human villagers were lost on the quest as they had become trapped in the field. However, as part of the test, a set path is present that allowed movement without being compromised. And a third was installed by the Asgard into the Odyssey, (along with an Asgard core and many other systems) which Colonel Carter used in Unending to protect the Odyssey from the Ori, while she could find a way to isolate the Asgard core from the hyperdrive and shut the core down as it was giving off a signal the Ori could trace through sub-space. A similar device was discovered a few years earlier. This was much larger, which dialed several planets through the Stargate to form a subspace bubble. The machine was flawed, as it only creates a short-term time loop, which forces the planets that the device dialed to relive the same ten hours again and again. It is powered by the ionized atoms in the atmosphere caused by the geo-magnetic storms on the planet. Two capacitors start to hum and emit static electricity that is channeled to the Stargate. The Ancients originally created it to stop a plague that was wiping them out, although it eventually only forced them to keep doing the same thing over and over. In the end, they were forced to shut down the device.

Heya Kate, Mirroring a mesh like that only works if you throw a 'freeze transformations' behind it, Modify -> freeze transformations. However, because you used a -1 value with scale, your normals will be reversed. To check this, go to "render" in the view port, switch to 'default quality rendering and turn :two sided lighting" off (by default its on) which can be found in the view port under "lighting" After you have followed the steps above, you will have a black mesh. Select the mesh in object mode and go to "normals" (polygonal shelf) then "reverse" That should do the trick and your mesh will be visible in SL as how it is in Maya. But, there's one more problem ... The UVs are, if I remember correctly, flipped due to the reversed normals. This can be solved easily by selecting all the UVs (each and everyone that is) and choose, in the UV texture editor panel, "polygons" -> "flip"

Ah, my bad. You are right, yeah. Thanks for pointing this out.

Hiya Paul, Did you set the object's correct physics type? Right click on the mesh and choose "Edit" Build menu pops up with five tabs. Choose tab "Features" With the "Features" tab open, look for "Physics Shape Type:" and left click on "Prim" After clicking on "Prim" a drop down list appears from which you can choose 3 different Physics Types Choose "Convex Hull" Basically the only thing you have to do after uploading a mesh file with a physics shape, is 'enabling' the actual physics mesh. Goodluck!

Hello Dragonlady! My advice: assuming you would like to do this as a Second Life job, something you will be doing for a long period of time, I strongly advice you to make your own clothing templates. Later on, when you are more experienced with texture painting (which is basically what its all about) purchase some templates whenever you feel lazy. If you buy them because you lack skills, you will get stuck at some point and won’t be able to create the clothing you specifically had in mind. To get started: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=second+life+clothing+template&oq=second+life+clothing+template&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2373l5424l0l5576l29l26l0l16l16l0l163l989l5.5l10l0 Master the techniques you see in those videos, in combination with the experience you gained by doing photography work, and you will have a solid base to create whatever you had in mind. I will point out some key features below which I think are important. I speak from a 2D point of view and I assume you don’t use 3d programs to your disposal. 1) How to create the illusion of depth, in 2D textures. This is always, always, and always, done with shadows and highlights. Shadow = black. Highlight = white. It really is that simple. Learn how color blending works with overlay and soft light and it’s basically a matter of trial and error.Try to understand how grey scales effect colors. For example, when using 50% grey on overlay in Photoshop, it will be invisible. Use 50% grey and boost the slider up toward white with an additional 10%, and you will end up with 10% white on your picture. Not 60%, but 10%. The 10% white you get from the grey layer I just described, is the same 10% white you would get from using a bright white layer on 10%. With this in mind, try to see how colors interact with each other. The higher the 50% grey value in a color (also known as the grey scale of a color, and, in Photoshop, also known as: “the more desaturated a color is”) the better it will blend with a new color - thus optimized blending results. The higher the black or white value (for example, dark grey, light grey, basically everything between 0% - 50% and 50% - 100%, where 0 represents pure black and 100 represents pure white) the brighter the blending results. Same applies for color blending. Grey scales are responsible for ‘perfect’ blending results. When you figure this out (or you already have perhaps) the easier it will be to predict certain color blending results. Imagine you are a chef and colors are your ingredients. You want to cook this great chicken steak, but in order to do that, you must have the right ingredients! The steak is your ‘goal’ and your ingredients are ‘colors’ The more familiar you are with the ingredients, the easier it will be to achieve the desired results. 2) Level of realism. This is considered to be the hardest part and includes creating wrinkles, highlights and shadows and texturing. I don’t know how comfortable you are with Photoshop, but it’s not that difficult. Check the video link above to see how other people do it. Once you fast forward to the final result, it might be kinda overwhelming (Oh no, I can’t paint like that!) However, all they are doing is painting little bits, step by step, and eventually these little bits will result into something bigger. 3) Work in a nondestructive way. Layer masks, adjustment layers, and smart objects. No eraser tool, but layer masks. Don’t change the levels, curves etc, of a specific layer, but use an adjustment layer instead with a clipping mask. Don’t use blur on a specific layer, but instead turn your layer into a smart object and throw a blur filter on it. Pretty straight forward. By working like this you can adjust and fine tune your results throughout your project. 4) Explore the possibilities of 3D texture painting, inside Photoshop. It’s an easy and quick way to get rid of not matching seams. However, without the 2D fundamentals I described above, 3D texture painting will be useless. 3D texture painting makes life easier, it offers a solution to certain scenarios you might have problems with in 2D (texture distortion, painting on the outer edges of the 2d templates, etc) I am not sure what else to write up, except that creativity is usually harder to learn than graphical software. Learn Photoshop by doing tutorials from real life professionals, even if they are not clothing/fashion related. The little bit of color theory I gave above is often explained during photo manipulation tutorials. Also, looking at the outfit you made, it looks pretty good for an aspiring clothing designer! If you made one in deep purple with pink’ish hearths, one that matches my beard, I’d wear it with pride. Good luck!

Hello Shadow, I have no particular interest in any of the positions, but I would like to know in what kind of business you are interested.

Thanks!

Hello Amethyst, The avatar meshes can be found on http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Creation_Portal I believe Photoshop CS3 extended, CS4 extended and CS5 extended support 3d models. Import the model and paint directly onto the avatar mesh. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as one full body template, because the avatar is made out of three separate parts - head, upper body, lower body. This is why we use different UV layouts (the templates we use to create clothing, with all the lines and squares, also called faces and edges, are also known as UV layouts) to texture different parts of the body. The reason why I am pointing this out is because it is important to understand how these things work before you start with 3d texture painting. There are three different approaches one can take when doing tattoos, or any other form of texture painting on the avatar. 1) The old-school way, in 2d. The results are considered to be ‘good enough’ However, distortion here and there is inevitable. 2) Painting in 3d, in Photoshop. Some people like it, some people hate it. You can texture your models in 3d and most Photoshop tools are still available in 3d mode. 3) Painting in 3d software, kinda like what you would do in Photoshop. The difference however is that Photoshop is made from a 2d point of view, where as programs such as mudbox, zbrush and body paint are designed to this kind of work, together with sculpting fine details on high poly models. My advice would be to learn one of the 3d programs I mentioned above if you are having ‘serious’ plans about making tattoos. Once you know your way around you can easily texture meshes the same way as how you would work on the default avatar mesh, which leads to new opportunities. I hope this helped, Goodluck!

Hiya, I was wondering how to make a hard edged sculpty box, in Maya. I was being told by a friend there is an old forum post here somewhere with an explanation, but I can’t find it. I’d appreciate it if somebody could post a link to the old post, or gave me some directions. Thanks in advance. :)

Thanks for pointing this out, Kwakkelde. I had the same problem as Siddean had on random moments and wasn't sure what caused it. I changed the materials and it worked. Cheers,

Heya Chosen, I have heard about filter forge before, but never actually checked it out – up until now! It is indeed a piece of spectacular software. I thought you had made a typo with 'ambient occlusion maps' in Filter Forge haha, but you are right! I didn't even knew it was possible to render ambient occlusion on 2d maps. The countless amount of user generated filters seem to be pretty neat as well, it's quite overwhelming. Unfortunately the discount coupons I have can only be used for Alien Skin software. However, they have a 40% discount going on at the moment, which is always useful haha. Going to download the trial and see it for myself. Thanks a lot for your your suggestions. I can't wait to give the program a try.

Hello Chelsea, The main reason why I want to use a plugin, is because I don't want to spent too much time on each and every individual texture. The mixer brush tip options I can use in CS5, in combination with my tablet, basically allows me to paint whatever and however I want, but it's a time consuming process. A decent plugin however, allows me to get the desired result with only a few clicks of my glorious finger! Not that it would be as good as how it would be if spending a fair amount of time on it, but I don't want to spent 10 minutes on one texture either. I want click click, done, click click done, click click done. Hello Chosen, I really appreciate the information from both two comments, but like I mentioned above, (and perhaps I should had given more information to be more precise) the main thought behind my question is time – that's all there is to it! My apologies if you misunderstood me. I have 2k+ textures on an usb stick and some of them I want to 'cartoonify' These textures will eventually be used on 3d models. And in order to get an impression of how my models with look with textures applied, I want to use a plugin. What I absolutely don’t want is spending 10 minutes every time I 'might' use a specific texture because it will majorly slow down my work flow. When I have a clear idea of which texture comes where, when I know if it will be the center of attention, how much detail is needed etc, I will work them out and probably paint them from scratch to make sure it meets the requirements.But it doesn't make sense to make something without knowing what you need – good planning is half the job done! So my question is not how to archive a painted effect, but what's the fastest way possible to archieve the effect. Most plugins are made to take care of all the work for you which is why I was asking for one. I am not saying the results are as good as how it would be when doing it yourself, but in my case, in my pipeline, it's an excellent solution. It's kinda like how one uses a paper and pencil to sketch out an idea, to throw out proportions and to visualize an idea. The sketch isn't the final result, but it can be used as a visual guide and as reference material during the creative process. About the plugins, I think I will go for Alienskin and finally turn in my discount coupons. Although I like Exposure and Eye Candy as well - they would be a nice addition in my graphic design arsenal. Do you (or anyone else for that matter) happen to be familiar with Exposure or Eye Candy? They cost 250, each, which is pretty pricy for a plugin imho, but I have to turn in my coupons anyways … Also, about the brushes from CS5 (I assume you talk about the mixer brush) there is a (free!) plugin for cs4 and cs3 which allows you do exactly the same. Its a program you need to instal in the default PS folder and it has exactly the same options like the brushes from CS5. Even the window that pops up looks like the default PS window. If you are interested, Google 'Mixer brush plugin for CS3' The guy who made it made some other PS-related plugins as well such as the old pattern maker from cs3 (I believe its in cs4 as well, not sure) for CS5, content aware scaling (CS5 function) in a standalone application and lots of other things. Most of them are free. Might be useful if you don't have CS5 at the moment. – Thank you both for your ideas and suggestions! Its much appreciated.

Hello everyone! I am looking for a photoshop plugin that creates a (oil) painted almost cartoon-like effect. Most of the ones I tried gave crappy results and have little customalisation options. I will be using the plugin mainly on wood and stone textures, thus no specific portrait plugins, although if it does the job, its fine of course. If you know or use a plugin similar to what I described above, please let me know!

Biggest drawback that I encounter is that when you bake out a normal map and apply it into your texture map and use the texture map in-world, it's just static information, if that makes any sense. The interaction with light, goes to waste 

Heya Adriannesuz, Cool. Several friends of mines brought this up as well, this will probably be one of the first things I will start with - complicated selections.

Heya jjccc, Perhaps you misunderstood me or I am not clear enough, but the idea behind my post is to get an idea of what interest most people. That's it really.

Hello SL photographers, I will be making Photoshop video tutorials when I have my new pc and I would like to know which topics you find most interesting and/or need help with. For example, have you seen a photograph with a certain effect and would you like to re-create it? Perhaps you are an experienced in-world photographer and would like to know how 10 minutes of Photoshop can spice up your photographs? Perhaps you don't know how to blend several images into one composition while maintaining the correct light setup, or how typography can bring your design to the next level? The (free) tutorials will be on youtube, with audio and video, and newbie friendly. Depending on what the tutorial is about, I will try to brake a subject down into several parts and learn you how to work in a non-destructive workflow, how to visualize your ideas and inspiration into photoshop, show you where to get cool and free resources and how to apply those into your work, etc. I would appreciate it if you left a comment here (I am barely online in-world at the moment) and gave me your thoughts. Newbie or advanced requests, I would like to hear it, as long as it's photography-related. 

Oh cool wasn't even aware of this. Thanks for the tip!

Is it a must to create a physic shape for every mesh one uploads in order to lower the PE? I know that structures require a phsyic shape in order to walk in, but what about prim attachments? If you dont create a physic shape, will SL make one for you instead? I'm not sure if I understand above posts right.

I'm confused here. I am not familiar with SL violations and the like and I always thought that flagging an item means reporting it. However, after I checked the FAQ specifically for the flag option, I saw various options you can choose from. However, I could not find the IP infringement option besides IP infringment on your own rights. So what I'm wondering is, lets say I want to report a merchant to LL because he/she is selling stuff from which I'm 99% sure he/she doesn't own the proper rights. Can I do this, or will LL only take action when the person who actually has the IP rights takes action? edit: Nevermind, found my answer "To submit a notification, you must be the intellectual property owner or an authorized agent of the intellectual property owner. Do not submit an abuse report. Requests to remove allegedly infringing content are not handled through the abuse process. " Source:http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Intellectual_Property