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Keriwena

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Everything posted by Keriwena

  1. Ceka Cianci wrote: i'm sure they didn't come here to bother you on purpose.. Don't get out much, do you? :smileywink: Indeed, it is likely that the proportion of mis-proportioned avatars in SL will be in direct proportion to the requests for proper proportions.
  2. The trick is, don't save. It just recycles the bug. Reset to 50 and just close the edit window.
  3. At the risk of being tedious, I'll add my voice to the clamour saying, "Build it yourself!" It's really not hard, and you'll absolutely get a better machine with top quality parts throughout, rather just a logo on the front. What SL wants is CPU speed, and since the i5s are nearly as fast as the fastest i7s, the i5 3570K is probably the performance sweet spot in Intel's current line. IF most of your programs support threading, then maybe an i7 is worth it for the extra cores, but it's a big jump in price. For graphics, AMD is making some boards that are very good for gaming, but SL and Blender prefer nVidea, so that's what I'd recommend. If you get a 3570K, the HD4000 graphics onboard bests the GTX 640 (no, really, they do) so you'd need at least a 650 to make it worth spending any money at all, and I think the GTX 660 is the way to go. It's within 20% of the 660ti on some measures, and beats it on others. Not bad for 30% less money. I read one reviewer who was convinced 8Gb of RAM was essential, but he had trouble finding apps that could use 16Gigs. So again, unless you know some graphics program can benefit from more.... Speed doesn't matter with Intel, BTW, but it does help AMDs. At any rate, go with well known brands, as even they can deliver a bum stick. Motherboards.... I'm not going to say they're all the same, but there's a lot of competition and it's hard to pick a winner. I think most people over-buy, and you'd likely be happy with something around $100. The higher priced boards are mostly aimed at over-clockers and hard-core gamers. Power supplies are important. If you search the 'net, you'll find they're mostly all made by a few companies in China. Get a power supply with enough juice to add a second graphics card, just in case you get hooked on Blender (it won't help SL, at all). The guy to listen to is Gabriel Torres: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-AX850W-Power-Supply-Review/1081 And okay, I'm a neat-freak who cares what the inside of her case looks like - I will never, ever, buy a non-modular supply again! Hard drives - WD or Seagate, take your pick. I'm holding off on the SSDs, the failure rate is still too high, never mind the price. Yes, the performance is fantastic and their day is coming, but it's not here yet, IMHO. I work too hard creating what I store to risk it. No opinions on those other things - I got $20 DVD so I could load Windows. I don't do digital music and I have a TV. So, there you go. The whole shebang cost about $750, purrs like a kitten and is as solid as rock. I run around SL using Ultra with a draw distance of 320m, and only rarely does something drop the frame-rate (and the recent, infamous, Fantasy Fair wasn't a problem).
  4. Right now, these last few days, SL has been going been going through some growing pains as they update the servers and sims. Crashes, inventory problems and the like are widespread so don't despair if you have trouble with things that "should" work. Once things are settled, everything should be much better, and you won't have to deal with problems some of us have suffered with for years. While I think you'll find the best stuff by shopping inworld for group gifts and other store generosities, and second would be similar things in the Marketplace, you can use your client's Search for "Freebie Galaxy" and traipse though 15 levels of mostly free stuff. (I recommend the "Perfect" skins... around level 6, IIRC)
  5. As others have said, if the leg muscle slider isn't doing the job, then you have body fat and thickness set too high for your height. My daughter has a 5' tall faerie with knobby knees. Just keep struggling, you'll get it.
  6. Please, show us all where Penny told anyone their taste was wrong. And while you're at it, you might want to apologise to those who did go to art school.
  7. But the 'body thickness' slider makes you look "big-boned", not like you ate a lot of cupcakes. It's really not the same.
  8. The real question is, "Does Second Life make my ass look fat?" And the answer is, "Yes!" Decrying Penny's references, and claiming all she presents is merely "opinion" suggests your art school education was exactly that. Humans have a very deep-seated urge to turn the brains of those who look almost like them, but not quite, into apple sauce. That may be why you're descended from a Cro-Magnon, not a Neanderthal. Second Life is in competition with other 3D venues, and if Newbies find their avatars in other venues somehow subtly more pleasing, Second Life's attendance will suffer. That's a fact, and Penny's right. It has nothing to do with taste, whether you're pleased with your current avatar, or your creative freedoms.
  9. Oh, fiddle faddle. My i5-3570K runs in 'ultra' quite well with no graphics card. It certainly doesn't look like Mario. It only takes an FPS hit with shadows or anti-aliasing turned on, but I don't think there's a machine out there that wouldn't. Truth is, what you need is processing power to handle the clusterfoo that SL downloads - any medium level graphics card can handle the rendering once that mess is sorted. That's why the 3570's HD4000 works so well for SL, the 3570 itself does very well in of all the benchmark lists. Do however, get a CPU cooler. SL raises the CPU's temp by almost 50%. :smileysurprised: PS: A budget chip that might be suitable is AMD's newly released Trinity A10 5800K. I can't find any SL users who have tried them, though. PPS: Note that I'm not suggesting a dedicated GPU isn't a good idea, just that you can get by with a high-end integrated solution these days. And if you add a card later on, it won't need to be top of the line, as the CPU won't be a bottle-neck.
  10. Simply to address the worst case, I'm going to assume you don't want your wife to know you're playing Second Life, and that she knows more about computers than you do. Therefore, as well as the icon on the desktop, you should delete the Second Life folder in Start / Programs (Don't worry, everything there is also elsewhere - you're just deleting handy, but not essential, links). Now, if Windows is set up so your Start Menu shows recently used programs, we have to get tricky. Right click on the icon for SecondLife.exe (in C:\Program Files\Second Life) and chose 'change icon'. Where it says "Look for icons in this file:" enter: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll There you'll find all kinds of icons, you may choose anything you want. Next, you should change the name, just make sure it ends in .exe - you might call it something boring that your wife wouldn't look at, like GolfScorePro.exe While you're at it, you should rename the Second Life folder in your Program files folder, as well. Now, right click on GolfScorePro.exe, and choose Send To / Desktop (create icon). Ta da! A handy icon on your desktop to launch Second Life that your wife will totally ignore.
  11. I have yet to wander into that dark alley, but I shall heed your admonitions. Mostly, I just wanted to say that post is a marvelous piece of prose.
  12. I tend to agree with you. It's a lot like RL where on-line shopping is easier. I can even shop the Marketplace while meeting with friends; order something, have it delivered, and try it on for them; all without leaving the room. Although the Marketplace's search leaves a bit to be desired, it's simpler than solving the maze many stores contain. It's particularly frustrating to go to a "store" and see nothing but Marketplace images used as posters. What's up with that? There's often more information in the blurb on the Marketplace than in the store. How about some manikins, so I can walk around and see the hair from the back? For vendors in a 3D world, many seem to put as little effort into their stores as possible. I do understand the technical limitations, but maybe with the coming server-side baking we can have stores that aren't just hard to use catalogs.
  13. What Amethyst says is definitely true. I have a skin that works perfectly for my casual 'tomboy' shape, but looks dreadful on the face of my older 'clubbing' shape. It is, however quite realistic (not that, as a newb, I'm any authority (yet!)). I found it because I was looking for something without makeup. It's the promo [AZO] Marichka skin, and you might give it a try. Something else though, regarding realism. Most people won't see you up close and personal (unless you're intimate, 'personal space' is greater in SL than RL), and at a distance, the resolution goes down. This can change your appearance drastically, as the client tries to average the pixels for a smaller rendition. When judging your appearance, always dolly the camera out, and see it that perfect face actually works from far away. There's a good reason for "stage makeup".
  14. Great post, Peggy! Thanks so much for the info. I think setting my speed to 1000 kbps has helped my lag.
  15. My guess would be, you've been "investing" in things that cause lag, which is why it's been getting worse and worse. Due respect, do some research, Professor.
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