Devriv

Hello Everyone This is a picture of a medium sized stage (approx. 12x10 m) I have been working on, using Blender: It has four materials: The entire side, the steps, the top brick floor and the stone edgings. I'm having a problem with the last: The stone edgings by the steps have flat shading, and they look fine, but those bordering the top, forming the two arcs, which I set to smooth shading, create a strange vertical (“ribbed”?) shadow effect. The sides, also shaded smooth, look fine. The effect is visible only when my SLViewer's sun settings is set to midday. Also, when, under preferences/graphics I change my usual shadows option from Sun/Moon to None, the effect disappears. Adding a texture did not help. If I change the shading to flat, the problem does disappear, but then the angles become too visible. I'm not quite sue what my smoothing options are at this point, except perhaps adding more faces to the arcs to reduce the measure of the angles. Why am I getting this effect and what would be your suggestions? Thank you in for your help. Pic of the geometry: http://i42.tinypic.com/1iblfq.jpg

Hello Everyone This is a picture of a medium sized stage (approx. 12x10 m) I have been working on, using Blender: It has four materials: The entire side, the steps, the top brick floor and the stone edgings. I'm having a problem with the last: The stone edgings by the steps have flat shading, and they look fine, but those bordering the top, forming the two arcs, which I set to smooth shading, create a strange vertical (“ribbed”?) shadow effect. The sides, also shaded smooth, look fine. The effect is visible only when my SLViewer's sun settings is set to midday. Also, when, under preferences/graphics I change my usual shadows option from Sun/Moon to None, the effect disappears. Adding a texture did not help. If I change the shading to flat, the problem does disappear, but then the angles become too visible. I'm not quite sue what my smoothing options are at this point, except perhaps adding more faces to the arcs to reduce the measure of the angles. Why am I getting this effect and what would be your suggestions? Thank you in for your help. Pic of the geometry: http://i42.tinypic.com/1iblfq.jpg

Chosen Few, although this is not quite related to Spinell's post, I just want to use this opportunity to thank you (without excluding other wonderful helpers and experts on these boards) for your exemplary replies and explanations (wherein you not only explain how, but even more importantly, also explain why) many of which I have come across and helped me during the past few weeks in my own search for help and solutions as a new Blender/3D modeling student.

Thank you so much for the explanation Drongle. "The normal map is just a lighting effect. So that would be ignored too." I wish I had known.

Drongle, thank you, yes the Full Render works Why do you think that the texture bake mode is not working? Was I not supposed to choose that mode over Full Render? Shouldn't I be choosing Texture under the Bake Mode if I want a just the texture, and wish to avoid shadows and the lighting?

Thank you for the suggestion Coby. The tutorial, although instructive, pertains to baking a normal map, whereas I already have the normal map. As each face can only have one texture assigned to it, I need to bake a combination of the normal and the diffuse into a single image which I can then put on the wall face. I think it's just a setting I'm being unmindful of. I'll find it eventually, Haha! I've made a copy of the tutorial nevertheless, as I may need it at some other time

Hello everyone. I need some help learning to bake a texture in Blender. As a test model, I expand a simple cube into a wall, and want to texture one face with a bricks texture. I assign a base material to the entire wall and a different material to the face I wish to texture. I have a diffuse and a normal, both of which came in one package when purchased. Everything up to (and seemingly) including baking, goes quite smoothly, without any error messages. Yet, every time I bake them, the baked image looks exactly like the original bricks image, without any influence from the Normal! I've checked and re-checked everything but I think I must be neglecting some setting. I would appreciate your help.

Russell Eponym sings W.B. Yeats' “The Song of Wandering Aengus”. A beautiful musical video by Dawn Greymyst, with the lovely Faery Crossing sim as the location.

Thank you so much Rolig, Drongle, and Dora I finally managed to get it just right using the Sit-Target method. Your replies not only helped me resolve this issue, but clarified other points. Drongle, I am very interested in the method you suggest, as I would like to have the option of making the sits possible during the modeling stage too. After fixing the sit on that chair, it was only on closer inspection that I noticed the bounding rectangular box as Rolig pointed out, what's referred to as the “physics shape” if I'm not mistaken. I had made the chair using only one mesh cube. So I made another chair, this time using two mesh cubes (one for the seat and legs, the other for the back). I didn't even “join” them, as I don't know how, and made the Collada. After rezzing it inworld, the sit was perfect! Also it had a land impact of 1, as either the default convex hull or when I changed the physics shape to prim. (When changing the other chair to prim, it gave me a prim count of more than 100!!) But now I'm wondering if this is in fact what you meant in your reply. Reading on the subject I also saw several references to uploading one's own physical model in addition (?) to what is being uploaded, but that seems to me for the much more experienced builders.

Hello everyone. I'm just beginning to learn Blender by reading and watching online tutorials. I made a simple chair (without sculpting or texturing) and uploaded it to SL, but when I try to sit on it, my avatar sits quite a few centimeters/inches above where it's supposed to rest (This happens with or without my AOs). I wanted to know whether the cause was something I had overlooked in Blender itself, or a setting in the uploading process I may have ignored. Thank you for your help.

Thank you so much Tem! I was able to retrieve all the previous pictures, to then put them all up in Flickr. I wish I didn't have to, and hope LL changes it's (unstated) policy both here and with the picks. I think the picks limitation is a horrible idea. Thanks again for your help

Clearly not Qwalyphi, which is why I opened a thread. I was hoping for a reply by someone who actually does know, but thank you. Good idea Kattatonia. If you find out what has happened to your older posts, and how you can retrieve them, please let me know. ....

Hello Everyone, A few days ago I noticed that the older snapshots that I had posted to my profile's feed were no longer there and had disappeared, both from my Inworld profile and the my.secondlife.com page. Also, there used to be a "more" button under the feed to show older posts/pictures, but that is gone too. Is there a limit (like the picks) to how much or how often one uses the feed? If not, what has happened to my pictures, and how can I fix this problem? My feed is very important to me, a diary of sorts. I would appreciate your help.

Thank you both, very much, for your replies and help. I'm relieved that the process is as easy as it should be, requiring really no action on my part, and not as complicated as I was led to believe. My attention was wholly focused on the “parcel land capacity” (937) and “land impact”, knowing the second could not exceed the first. The parcel land capacity, of course, does not change. What changes is the “Region Capacity” (now at 1875) which I was not paying attention to and did not see. I have rezzed a few objects to exceed the parcel capacity, as you can see below, and everything is fine. Thank you again my friends

Hello Everyone, I own a piece of land (a parcel) and it has a 937 prim allowance. I've just bought a parcel adjacent to it, also with a 937 prim allowance, and wanted to know how I could combine the prim allowances into one, hopefully without having to combine the two parcels as one land (I wish to pay for them separately). I was told to "Just place the lot in the same group that the other lot is deeded to", but I don't know what that means, and do not know the exact procedure. I do not have a group, and to make a group, based on what I have read, there needs to be at least two members. I would appreciate your help.

Thank you Koltari, Amethyst Jetaime and Rival Destiny. I’m now looking into both options. I’ve posted a Land Wanted ad already, and will have a chat with my landlord too. You guys are wonderful.

Hello, I’m looking for a 12400 sq m land to buy, not to build something on, but rather above which to put my very large prefab skybox. I need only 375 Prims. I do not need or want more, because I have to keep the cost below $1800 Lindens a week. I’m currently renting, but need full rights to permanently set the sky and the streaming music in my parcel. If you have anything available, please let me know. Devriv

Thank you very much for your reply Rival Destiny. Very kind of you. I am, then, to look for a parcel, not merely a skybox? One which I need not buy, but could easily rent? Also, are there skyboxes that are parcels?

Hello Everyone, Recently, having purchased a prefab house, but not owning any land, I went to a rental agency and rented a skybox platform to put it on. Now I'm quite new to SL, and am very happy with having a place I could call my home, but I find it very hard indeed to believe that I cannot have my own music/radio inside my own house to listen to around the clock, or change whenever I want. It would be music for my pleasure, and for the pleasure of my guests. As it stands, my landlord, who incidentally is a very nice person, has explained to me that I cannot: first come first served; people must take turns in changing the land's (over which the numerous skyboxes are placed) music. The streaming music URL can't be changed. My prefab house has a control center that provides switches to various music, and even allows the owner of the house to add their own URL, but none of these are working, even with the music stream off and media stream all the way up. Although ideally, I would like to be able to change the streaming music URL --- I emphasize, for my skybox only without affecting any others close by --- so that neither I nor my guests would need to click on anything, and we could all listen to the same music, will those Media Centers that are sold in the Marketplace provide a solution? Is there anything I can do? Should I give up this platform and look for another rental agency? Being new, I would like to know, before I look for such rentals, whether there are in fact other rental agencies that would allow private music. Please bear in mind that no dispute is involved here. I am not disputing anything. My landlord is in fact a most generous person. I’m just new, and want to learn and understand. I thank you in advance. I would be most grateful for any help. Devriv