Skye Arbizu

Of course it is a scam or fraud. No one would go through the trouble and costs of setting up a company and website to sell Lindens to others for less than they could simply exchange them for real currency on the Lindex. It doesn't matter where they got the Lindens from, if the Lindens are legit, they would simply sell them on the Lindex. If you beleive this, I will sell you fresh one hundred dollar bills for the low low price of $85 each. Just give me all your payment information and I'll get right on it.

When people try to help, arguing with them doesn't make them want to work with you to find a solution. When asking for help, it is usually better to provide a screen shot that shows more rather than less - such as posting a screen shot of your PS workspace with the image and layers areas shown. This can be especially helpful when you use terms that are incorrect - such as stating there are gridlines all over your image when no gridlines are shown. Looking at the image (the checkerboard background indicates transparency in PS) and reading what you wrote (using Gimp to remove portions of the image), it appears you have removed the background and have an alpha layer with transparency. To get rid of the transparency, simply add a base layer and fill with whatever background color you want, or go to channels and delete the alpha channel, or just save in a format that does not retain the alpha channel (.jpg). Also note that most preview / thumbnail image viewers and even some image programs will not display transparency, so this is why your image appears different in MS Photo Viewer than in PS.

The problem has nothing to do with your viewer or anything you are doing OP. The problem is LL implemented mesh with no way for it to conform to avatar shapes / slider settings. Instead, your avatar shape must be adjusted to conform to the mesh you wear. Good news though, after only two years of this LL are finally testing a reasonable solution that will allow future mesh to better conform to an avatar shape and adjust based on slider settings. The bad news is the new method won't affect current mesh already uploaded, and I'm sure many 'designers' will continue selling old mesh, items made from old mesh templates, and / or items not using the new method, so fitting issues will still persist for some time to come.

Late to the party...but my $.02. If I knew I would never need to edit a build, I'd prefer a well made mesh (e.g. great detail for the LI) with reasonable poly count, good textures including baked lighting and shadows, and good use of normal maps. This holds true if you are designing a sim from the ground up, especially if you can build externally in a 3d application and then import most of the build into SL as optimized mesh. However, if I foresaw a need to edit in-game - I'd prefer sacrificing a bit of detail for a mixed build with some modular detailing in mesh (e.g. Architectural details) with the main portions in prims. This is the situation a lot of your buyers most likely fall into, as they may need to incorporate your build with other elements of their own or purchased, and may need to fit the build to a specific piece of land that could require editing. I've already been burned with builds that had really nice texture work pre-mesh, but because the textures included baked lighting and shadows, were impossible to edit even moderately without retexturing and losing all the detail. I also agree that one of the things that drives me crazy these days are the people with the 'If it is mesh it must be great" attitude. Just as there are bad builds and bad clothing items made of non-mesh, so to are there bad items using mesh (not to mention all the mesh that is ripped from outside SL and uploaded as 'original' like giant dragons from Skyrim), and sometimes the bad has nothing to do with the quality of the work, but with its inability to meet the needs of the user.

Short answer....no. Ads are not designed to be accurate reflections, but rather to evoke emotions that drive sales. Look at any fashion magazine or catalogue or web site and you will find images that are impossible to recreate in real time in a natural setting. They are stills that have been produced in controlled environments through a combination of professional models and photographers, with backgrounds, props, make-up & styling, using advanced lighting, and finally lots post processing editing and composition in programs such as Photoshop. The same things happens in SL. Anyone telling you to just 'play with your Windlight settings' to recreate ads is delusional. Most ads are created in SL by using static poses in positions designed to flatter the subject while hiding or minimizing problem areas, along with very specific backgrounds, props, and in-game styling in controlled environments. They are shot using very high graphic settings (which may not work well in say public or high traffic areas) and Windlight preferences to capture the best in-game image possible, and many times will use additional lighting set up specifically for the shot. Images captured from SL are then edited in an external program such as Photoshop, where anything from adding some simple text to cleaning up smudged or jagged pixels to using complex fiters to completely retouching everything in the original image can be done easily. The sad reality is it is very easy to take a decent captured image from SL and pass it through a few simple filters and effects in Photoshop and output an image that is impossible to recreate in SL. The best thing to do is get demos or ask freinds for advice to find quality items while also realizing no matter how great the item's quality is in SL, it can be made to appear even better in a still image edited outside SL.

Linden 'allows' this as long as the rights holder does not make a claim (DMCA) that someone is infringing upon their work. They do so as it is part of how they maintain their safe harbor status as a service provider under the laws of the United States that govern their service. Quick overview on safe-harbor: In 1998, Congress passed the On-Line Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA) in an effort to protect service providers on the Internet from liability for the activities of its users. Codified as section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), this new law exempts on-line service providers that meet the criteria set forth in the safe harbor provisions from claims of copyright infringement made against them that result from the conduct of their customers. These safe harbor provisions are designed to shelter service providers from the infringing activities of their customers. If a service provider qualifies for the safe harbor exemption, only the individual infringing customer are liable for monetary damages; the service provider's network through which they engaged in the alleged activities is not liable. If LL got into the business of making judgments, and made bad ones either way (removing content that was not-infringing or allowing / not removing content which was), they could lose their safe-harbor status and open themselves to liabilty for damages. So while the way LL acts with regard to possible (or as some like to say - obvious) infringement seems to make little sense and is frustrating for legitimate content creators, the alternative would be no Second Life as we know it as there is no way LL could afford to keep the service running as a user based content platform if they were liable for any and all infringement that occurred.

ANYTHING save a script that is no-mod is basically worthless IMO, and with the ease at which people who wish to steal stuff do so with no regard to perms, is pointless as well. Maybe I'm just old school, but if there is a strand of hair that just doesn't quite fit, I much prefer to use edit mode to fix it fast rather than futzing around with some crappy resize script which may or may not give the same result. I do not like all the shoes, hair, and jewerly (mostly - some clothing items as well) that come stuffed full of bad scripts I won't use, don't want, but which will lag everything and yet cannot be removed. And all of this is before getting into my personal pet peeve that I should be able to re-texture, re-color or heck destroy anything I buy. My shoes or jeans or furniture and such in real life don't keep me from making changes to them, so why should my virtual equivalents? And yes, for gods sake there is no reason alpha layers should be no mod. Making something we shouldn't have to do, such as modifying a bad alpha layer to get our clothes to fit, much more difficult by requiring us to start from scratch, just shows a high level of ignorance (which hopefully can be overcome) or contempt towards customers.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Having no idea why your main's SL turned sour, I offer these thoughts If any of the reasons lfe went bad for your main were her own fault, running away by switching to an alt will not solve them in the long run as the human operators are the same. You are bound to repeat the same mistakes unless you have learned from them, and if you have you can be as happy driving the main account as driving the alt. If the reasons were the fault of others, why are you letting some low life that hurt you run you out of your avatar? Move on, enjoy life, make new friends. It will require the same effort regardless of which account you use to do this. By doing it in the alt your allowing the 'bad' guys to win. By doing it in your main, you will be triumphing over them. Living happy and well with no regrets is the best revenge on people that hurt you. In either case committing virtual suicide by deleting the account is the same as doing it in RL. It is a irrevocable long term solution to a short term problem. Everyone that I know that deleted an account simply because of bad experiences eventually regretted it. With time bad memories fade and wounds heal. This is very good advice. I abandonded an old account but never deleted. And while I will probably never do more than log in to dig through heaps of inventory for something long lost, the option is always there. But I've had freinds who have deleted their accounts, usually because of some momentary hurt or a bad experience, and all of them now regret it. And is it just me, but I'd pay (such as a premium feature) for the ability to link a couple of accounts together under one primary account with the ability to 'share' inventory and even friend people at the primary account level (while accepting limitations like only one account being logged in at a time).

As others have said, the lips are textured onto the skin, and unless the tattoo lips you buy are drawn exactly the same as the ones on your skin, your original lips may show through. Start by checking with the skin creator to see if they sell lips or concealers that are fit to the skin. Also you might want to try someplace like Mock cosmetics that makes a number of different shaped and sized lips and uses different levels of transparency to blend the tattoo layer and the skin layer together. Sometimes having the two blend together works better than trying to cover up the old lips completely. And I'd second asking the shape maker about selling you a mod version, or start looking now for a mod version you do like. Once you start buying more clothes (especially mesh) or swap skins, you will inevitably need to tweak your your shape to get the best look.

A simple reply to the OP that supplemented the first answer of 'ask the merchant' with a "by the way, be sure to explain what you are asking for when contacting the merchant, such as noting the Marketplace ad, and note that offering to pay for their time and assistance may make all the difference in getting what you want" would have been a much more positive message. A little friendly encouragement of attitudes we'd like to see from others usually gets much better results than negative comments and arguments back and forth.

Very interesting. I haven't been able to use the Merchant Outbox with my active store for several days now, so I tried the same exact experiment with creating a new account and a new store, and tada, it works (who knows for how long). So wtf is wrong with the system that I cannot get my account to sync up with my store so I can actually upload stuff to sell? Do I really need to create a new account with new branding every time Merchant Outbox screws up? Seems pretty ridiculous to me. Oh and I've tried all the suggestions both on the forums and on the jira page and none have worked thus far.

I'm having the exact same problem, that is no matter which viewer I use I'm stuck with the 'Anyone can sell items on Marketplace' along with a link to create a store splashed across the Merchant Outbox with no ability to upload folders to my already existing store. I have tried all the solutions posted under the jira entry, posted in this thread, and posted in others. Not sure why it seems so hard for LL to make this process works, much less work in a user friendly way so we can set up and sell stuff quickly and easily. As it is now, I've spent more time trying to figure out how to get an item listed on marketplace than it took to create it and all the photography and ad-copy in the first place, and I still haven't been successful. Direct delivery and the 'new and improved' Marketplace are total failures.

Darker skin, your own setting, under the same lighting conditions you probably used when you matched then...yes they look good. Lighting in SL does have a different affect on the SL avatar (and any layers baked onto the avatar mesh) than objects (prim, sculpt, mesh). What matches using your current settings may not match with other settings and may not match what others see based on their set up and settings. I agree though, it isn't a huge issue. I have a windlight setting I rarely change and I can match very closely save differences in the texture detail between the skin and feet. What everyone else sees on their screen isn't my problem. I also agree that like a lot of things in SL, it would be nice to see the Linden's work to improve how our avatars appear using default settings, starting with a much better base avatar mesh and UV maps. As I like to change skins alot, I'd much prefer a better avatar where my feet looked realistic than have to continue with this system of using alpha layers to hide part of the avatar while relying on clunky huds and someone else's textures to try and match an attachement to my skin every time I change.

Rigged mesh items today will not conform or adjust to certain setting of your shape in any way (and the butt is one of those areas). The model is made external to SL, using whatever shape model the designer chose to use. Many designers are using so called Standard Sizes (search marketplace for a free pack of shapes / notecard on the shape areas that affect mesh along with the settings used for each Standard Size). Even with Standard Sizing, you most likely will have to change your shape to fit different mesh items and even then may have occassions where it looks like certain portions of the mesh are significantly larger or smaller than your actual shape. The deformer is an ongoing project that will attempt to adjust rigged mesh to conform more closely to user shape settings, but the results I've seen thus far seem to suggest that while we'll see some improvements in fitting, it isn't going to be a magical tool that will make all future mesh fit perfectly on all shapes. Short Answer: Demo demo demo...find clothes that fit or look right, change your shape to fit the clothes, or keep looking.

Several times a week. I have loads of skins going back to when I first started, though I tend to stick with just a couple for day to day use, with my variations coming more from makeup or skin tone options that an entirely new skin. I also have shapes I've made to fit each skin, and I am contantly teaking and making shapes while always looking out for good ones. I used to do shape work before I took a long break from SL, but I still have loads and loads of shapes in my inventory. Some days if I'm bored, I'll pick up skin demos of something I've seen in the feeds and work on trying to make a shape I like. Sometimes it works out and I end up going back and adding a new skin, sometimes I just file it away under my demo folder for another day.