Guilliaume

The community also needs to get over its fear of resolutions higher than 512. I am pretty sure the majority of us have computers that can display resolutions in the 1000's just fine, but it is still taught everywhere that textures need to be 512.

Nah. My friend didn't rip the texture to be mean or steal from me. She only did it to prove to me that she could.

So I just learned about a program that can litterally steal textures from the SL cache. A friend of mine found it and used it to rip the texture I use for some flexi-wings for herself. Is there any known way of preventing this kind of texture theft?

You do not make very much money, do you, or perhaps you are bad at managing money? I am only saying this because, no, even $295 a month is not expensive. My free spending money for the month is somehwere around $400 and my combined household income is almost $50,000, which is like the lowest tier of middle class for the U.S.A. Maybe Second Life is expensive for people who do not have the money, but in the grand scheme of things, the fees are really chump change according to average household incomes. Sure, you can buy a car for lower than some of the fees, but that point is also ignoring the fact that buying a car is not hard to do. My first car was only $1000 and my second was only $5000. I paid for my first car on the spot with cash and I paid my second car off in 25 months with $200 payments with no previous credit history. If you want to talk cars, then allow me to point out that gas and car insurance alone are more expensive than $295 a month. Do you think one basic necesity is expensive? Regardless of prices though, Second Life's fees are there to show commitment to your ideas and support for the company that allows us to use their virtual world. The fees themselves and whether you view them as expensive or not is purely objective and nobody is forced to pay them. In fact, there are plenty of ways out there to create your own free open sim.

Just for the record on all of this. I still cannot change my passwords. On different computers and even using a different opperating system.

I disagree. Second Life is not expensive. It merely puts forth the illusion of being expensive in our minds because each Linden, Euro, Dollar or whatever we spend on it has an impact on our real world lives. When you compare the price of Second Life to any other hobby or game out there fairly, I am sure that Second Life’s rates are more than fair and even profitable in some situations. One must only acquire the heart to put in some labor hours, really, or at least have the maturity to understand the impact versus other things in life that require money. But seriously, have you even taken the time to explore Second Life’s rates? Or have you just been blinded by the fact that it takes money period? Even the most expensive tier of land ownership in Second Life requires $195 a month. That is $6.50 a day. I personally spend more than that during my lunch break at work… In Lindens it is about $1625L. The third highest tier, $75 a month, is a joke really. $2.50 a day is only $625L. But those two land tiers are more than enough to turn your land into a profitable business model. Even if you cannot make a profit, you would at least make some money, if your idea was at least okay, to get a huge discount. Let me paint a picture for you. Right now I have a friend in Second Life that pays for the $75 tier of land. In total for Second Life, including her tier, she pays about $100 or so in fees. However, she uses her land to also generate Lindens and makes about $60 or so. That means her hobby is only costing her $1.30 a day. I’d waste more money than that simply driving downtown to a bar just for the atmosphere once a week. Second Life is nowhere near expensive and there are plenty of options out there to help you pay for it. Aside from options in game already such as Bletaverse or retail, might I also suggest taking a look at Amazon’s Mechanical Turk or creating a website/blog and using Google Ads? Both are more than enough to cover costs with a little time and effort.

Thank you for the replies. I tried using both the e-mail reset and a different browser with the same results as before. I do not want to try changing my password at a different computer because that may result in my account being locked. Oh well. I will try calling support or something.

Seriously. For the past two days now I have been trying to change my password on two accounts (main and alt). I like to change my password every two months or so as a security measure. However, when I try to change the password on my two Second Life accounts, I keep getting, "Uh oh. It's buggy. 404 The requested page was not found on this server." after clicking the "Save Changes" button. Am I the only one this is happening to?

I do not even see, from this description, how an AR is relevant. Was urinating on people against the rules of the sim? Even if it is not a defined rule and the avatar was causing massive disruption, shouldn't it be up to the sim staff to ban the offender? Linden Lab is not a virtual babysitting service after all and sometimes it is up to sim owners to ensure peace within their sims.

valerie Inshan wrote: Let LL do their business. You are not FORCED to see these ads: *adblock link* Just a forewarning, adblock is against the ToS of many websites and it is just wrong. People who use adblock are essentially robbing their favorite websites of revenue which is needed to keep going. Of course there is a boundary between tasteful ad use and what not, but there is nothing wrong with a few banner ads or square ads to the side. At least the Marketplace isn't throwing pop ups and sound files in your face or forcing you to answer surveys with each download.

You only have two options. One is to take the piercing off and the other is to put an alpha texture on the piercing to make it invisible when you do not want it to be seen. The former option is the ideal one; if the piercing is not going to be seen you should just take it off, not just to solve your problem but also to reduce lag for others having to load objects they are not supposed to see. When you want the piercing to be visible, just open your inventory real quick and hit wear. As for piercings that you want partially visible and partially hidden, I do not know what to tell ya. You'd need an alpha layer to hide parts under clothing without having them poke out, which can be a rather complicated process if you cannot mod the piercing or you are not familliar with texturing objects.

Medhue Simoni wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Guilliaume wrote: I am fairly certain that the future of sucessful virtual worlds does not include us controlling a computer with our brains. Google, Nintendo, Android and a handful of of other companies are already working on real life HUDs that are interfaced with wearable glasses, handhelds, or windows that superimpose virtual environments over the real world. The future of virtual worlds is not necessarily imersing ourselves even more in virtual reality, but more rather bringing virtual reality in to our reality. I agree. That shift is already happening as the console gaming industry suffers at the hands of mobile. Increasing the richness of our RL experiences is (at least to me) superior to attempts to mimic them from the isolation of our own homes. And the moment someone extends that lightweight, social experience into the home's big screen (which itself is under attack by small screens), I think the console game market will be kneecapped. We are social creatures. Now that technology can go into the wild with us, there's no going home. It really depends on where you think the future is going. People running around all over the place will stop very soon when gas reaches $6 a gallon. It is unsustainable for people to keep living these hectic lives running everywhere. When I started making stuff in SL, all my running around stopped. Now, during the summer, my son has softball games, but other than that, and grocery shopping, I don't use my car. I live outside of a small downtown area and I walk down there for lunch a few days a week. On the rare occassion that I have to drive, I continuously shake my head at all the zombies driving back and forth to work, wasting hours a day in their cars. Most people that work in an office can easily do all of that from home now. Plus, you not only get your work done, but all your house work too, in a normal work day. Personally, I feel sorry for all the slaves stuck in traffic wasting their lives away. To me, mobile games is a total sign of just how pathetic their lives are. I get up when I want. Maybe go for a run/walk. Check some online stuff. Do some animating. Chat on FB for a bit. Check my garden. And so on. It's my life. This is the 21 century, while most people are still living in the 20th. It is only unsustainable as long as people continue to rely on fossil fuels. The smart people in society are already well aware of this and are trying hard to make changes in green energy and other such renewable resources to fix this problem, but are being met rather harshly with conservative thinking and business. It is only a matter of time before the progressive, liberal thinking becomes mainstream and people adapt, just like when people were first trying to accept the fact that the Earth was not the center of the universe. And then you talk of wasting time in cars or even working on your garden. That is exatly the reason virtual relaity will expand into reality, rather than the reverse. While people are busy doing menial or solo tasks, they can also use virtual reality to spice up the experiences or even work on other tasks. The thing is, while you think people will grow lazy and tired and retreat to something that is easier, I am certain that the majority of people understand that THIS reality is the only real and permanent thing in their lives and a sane person would never forsake that. Therefore, actions and experiences in this reality will be valued higher than those in a temporal one.

lol Thanks. I am still not familliar with using the coding of this board.

It is pretty simple and works just like layers in regular photoshop. I am not sure exactly what problem you are having, but here is some simple solutions to problems I had when first learning how to draw on 3D models in Photoshop: 1. Your version of Photoshop has the be Extended to work with 3D models. I cannot stress this enough. Look at your version of Photoshop, it has to be CS6 Extended to work. If you do not know how to check this, just downlad the avatar .OBJ files from the wiki at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials. It is the top download on the list. Once you have the file, if you have the correct version of CS6 Extended, the .OBJ file should open in photoshop in full 3D just by double-clicking it. If you get some sort of error, you do not have the correct version. Photopshop CS6 and CS6 Extended are two different things. 2. Once you are sure that you have the correct version of Photoshop, all you need is the official Avatar .OBJ and .MTL file to start drawing on it. You can learn about how to do that here: http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/PhotoshopTuts/PhotoTutPages/CS4-3D-1_Open.html. Though this tutorial uses an older version of Photoshop Extended, the basics are all there, you just have to learn the UI differences by yourself, which are not that complaicated. 3. If you need a 3D model to draw on, first download the official Avatar .OBJ file from the link in point 1. Upload the Avatar .OBJ file into Blender first and then export the the Avatar into a new .OBJ file to your computer. Then you can open the new Avatar .OBJ in Photoshop to set up and work with. If you do not do this Blender step and just directly open the official model in Photoshop, it will be broken and cannot be drawn on effectively.

It seems odd that you are confident in Mesh Shirt creation, but cannot even grasp a starting point for pants in Blender. Just saying, but oh well. I cannot really give you a starting point or a tutorial link, but I can tell you that a lot of "Mesh" Pants are not really mesh at all. it is much better to just use regular Second Life pants with a texture template as a base and make mesh attachments (like chains, belts, or pockets). Perhaps that can help.

When you have done things right, most of the time people would not be sure if you have done anything at all. Oh, and I think it is cute that you believe a Blizzard employee had fun with that ticket reply to you. More often than not, customer service over the phone or over the internet is regulated with scripts that employees have to follow as a legal precaution to prevent lawsuits and other issues. It should come as no surprise that a company such as Blizzard would color their customer service scripts to relate more to their clients.

The Machinima and Snapshot policy is merely for copyright purposes. It says it right in the text if you read it. There is no way to stop people from taking pictures or video of your land short of expulsion from your land on your own part. Even then, that wouldn't help because if somebody REALLY wanted pictures or snapshots or your land, there are ways of getting it without your knowledge at all. It works the same way in real life. If an image is available to the public (people can see it and record it somehow), you have no rights to the image and the only thing you can really do is ask them to stop.

And of course it could be argued that anyone speaking in local chat is giving permission to use their chat anyway. If you speak in local chat, ANYONE who is in range can see it and this includes any number of individuals who may have cammed to your location and have the option set to view chat based on camera position. There are also scripts out there that grab local chat and automatically repeat it to the entire sim or specific avatars. In other words, it is impossible for us to know exactly who is seeing our local chat logs anyway, so how is it feasible to expect control over that information?

I am fairly certain that the future of sucessful virtual worlds does not include us controlling a computer with our brains. Google, Nintendo, Android and a handful of of other companies are already working on real life HUDs that are interfaced with wearable glasses, handhelds, or windows that superimpose virtual environments over the real world. The future of virtual worlds is not necessarily imersing ourselves even more in virtual reality, but more rather bringing virtual reality in to our reality.

FYI, most clubs run in deficets. It is rare to find a club that doesn't. Clubs in Second life are more like hobbys to their owners rather than actual businesses and at that point, who cares about customer service?

When it comes down to it, I do not even think Linden Labs HAS the jurisdiction to step in on Customer/Vendor disputes if they wanted to, since the Linden is a real tradable currency. That Jurisdiction would lay with a Small Claims Court of some sort. It is the customer’s responsibility to protect themselves when purchasing goods or services from a vendor and nobody else’s. It is this way in both Second Life AND the real world. If a customer is unhappy with their purchase, there is absolutely no legal obligation for the vendor to provide a refund or exchange. Of course, under certain legal circumstances, a customer can try take a vendor to court over a dispute, but who is really going to do that for $8k Lindens (like $35)? The best thing you can do is protect yourself and be careful about what you purchase. If the product seems weird in the slightest or not enough information about the product is given, then don’t buy it. In the event that you are scammed, unless the amount of money you lost is significant enough to take somebody to court and you are sure that you will win, just chalk up your money as lost and be careful of that vendor in the future if they do not provide an exchange or refund. This is where customer service steps in and it can make or break a vendor’s success.

That "Official" Linden Labs policy on Snapshots and Machinima is only a guidline for keeping copyright licenses in Second Life and has nothing to do with personal snapshots or recordings. Read it. People can take all of the personal snapshots and recordings of you and your property they want and there is nothing that you can do about it unless their snapshots and recordings contain copyrigthed material and they try to use it for their own benefit. Now if your land has a no-snapshot policy and you have banned an avatar for violating that policy and the avatar keeps trying to circumvent the ban, then maybe there is something that you can do, but I still doubt it. It is impossible to impose a ban on snapshots and recordings in Second Life in general because you cannot prove somebody is taking snapshots or not period. Second Life can neither dtect if a computer is using screen capture technology outside of the viewer nor can it block that from happening. EDIT: On a side note, just think of the paparazzi and celebrities. There is absolutely nothing a celebrity can do to stop paparazzi from "stalking" them just to get a pictures to sell later for profit.

If you think that a Security Orb and sim access is going to protect you from hacking, I think you need to do some more research about protecting your assets on Second Life and on the internet in general. Other people can only do so much to help protect you, but part of the responsibiliy lies with yourself and being responsible with personal information.

I second just learning how to make your own AO. Vista Animations offers a free HUD that comes with a notecard that explains EVERYTHING. It is really easy. Once you have you HUD together and organized, you can collect different animations you like and add them individually, instead of using a copy and paste set.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: I am very sorry for the loss of your two friends and hope you find some peace and comfort in remembering them and the good times you had together. As far as your SL friend, that was out of line IMO under most any circumstance, but especially since you had told them the reason for it. This attitude of "if I contact you, you better drop everything and get right back to me" is something I've encountered before and it strikes me as selfish. But hopefully they reacted that way because they were worried that you were not talking to them. I'd let it pass for now, but if the demanding 'its all about me' attitude continues, I'd re-evaluate my friendship with them. I think you are the unreasonable one, actually. There is nothing more worse in the world than for somebody to feel ignored by the people they care about. If a "friend" is reaching out to you, then there is almost always a good reason why they are doing so and it is never okay to just ignore them. If you consider yourself their friend and you are able to respond, then you should respond. If you cannot respond, then you respond when you can. That is what being a friend is about; being there for somebody. You describe them as having an "its all about me" attitude, but they are probably just thinking you have the "my life is too important for you" attitude. None of it matters because friends are supposed to be there for eachother.