IvanBenjammin

Ok, perhaps 'giving back to the economy' is a poor choice of words. Money that I earn from people buying my products is returned to the economy in the form of rent. Some of that money is profit for the landlord, some of it goes into their operating costs, and presumably some of it is used to buy things from other merchants. So whatever you call that. Re-investment into the economy? I would've thought that anyone circulating money, by buying, selling, renting etc is contributing to the economy.

Perrie Juran wrote: In your case the benefit would be not paying a middle man (the Estate Owner) who is making a profit. But you can't own a homestead unless you own a full region first. Thanks Perrie. I've got no problem with paying a middle man/woman - its the primary way I give back into the economy.

While I think the idea behind this is noble, I'm ultimately against anything that introduces any kind of class system into SL - that's a slippery slope, leading to things like VIPs who are more valued than other residents, simply because of their contribution to the economy. And frankly, I don't see why owning land is such a big deal. If you can't afford tier, then just rent. I have a homestead with more than enough prim allowance for my store and sandbox, with plenty left over for expansion, at a perfectly reasonable cost. I'd actually like to know what the benefits of owning are, if anyone could enlighten me - it seems more like a status thing than something with real benefit.

Picture ID and proof of physical address - so if your picture ID doesn't have that you need to provide something that does, like a utilities bill.

I am a non-US resident and had to do this a couple of weeks ago. Its definitely not 20K/200 transactions a year for us - I think more likely an averaging of your cash-outs and guesstimating what you'll earn in a year. The good news is it was pretty straightforward. I had to provide them scans of other forms of ID (because we don't have SSN's), but once I submitted everything my account was unlocked within 24 hours.

If you've been in the sim yourself, it can add up. Just you, for 12 hours/day is 720 minutes.

As long as someone learns something, its all worthwhile

Artifacts like this are usually a result of the high poly mesh lacking enough normal data to bake correctly. Often, the quick fix is to fix it in PS/Gimp, but sometimes (depending on the topology of your HP model) you can simply increase your subdivisions to fix the issue. Alternatively, you can do it the arduous way of beveling/chamfering all the relevant edges. Here's a really basic example. Its similar to your mesh I think - hopefully it illustrates what's going on The High poly mesh, without subdivs is just a plane with an inset and extruded face in the middle. The Low poly is a single plane. All baking done in Xnormal. The 'hard' and 'smooth' bakes are self explanatory. The artifacts are even worse on my mesh than yours, but completely disappear with hard edges. 'Smooth w/ Beveling' has smooth shaded normals, with a simple double edge bevel around all internal edges. This seems to eliminate some artifacts, but makes others more obvious. 'Smooth w/ Subdiv' is the original mesh without beveling, subdivided several times without smoothing. Looks better, but the shading in the corners is still a little ill-defined. And finally, 'Smooth w/ Beveling and Subdiv' is the beveled mesh, subdivided without smoothing. Its not a great example actually because the bevelling isn't strong enough (needs more than 2 edges to really define the hard corners), but artifacts are gone. I should mention that I'm not using Blender so I can't help with how to smooth and bevel stuff, though I'm sure its straightforward.

Nice! I just gave it a try and it works well. Not quite as clean as Xnormal, but it does the job

Yes, the Mac thing is a complication. I was all set to post about another tool (nDo), then realised it wasn't Mac either. Sorry about that, if I do find/recall anything I'll let you know.

That's a good definition. I've always treated cavity and AO maps as complimentary and use them together in most textures. SL's in-world AO (and any in-engine AO in games) is seldom to be relied on. It helps with intersecting geometry and where you can't bake it into your textures because of tiling etc, but that's it IMO. People complaining about the minimal effects of normal maps is partly because you have to consider all 3 maps as related to each other, so cavity maps are a part of that. The other part of it is that normal maps are at their best when they have been baked from a high poly object, so your geometry and normal map are working together. They can definitely work well on flat surfaces, but at the end of the day they're an illusion, and one that it doesn't take much to break.

Cool, glad I could make a convert

So, cavity maps. I'll reply to your IM here, MistahMoose, so I can post pics. Basically they're similar to ambient occlusion, but they pick out detail that AO typically misses. I don't know if blender does cavity maps, but the best results I get is by creating them from your normal map. For this, I use Xnormal. Its my high-low poly baking tool, but it has a bunch of other features as well. I can't recommend it highly enough, and its also free. For just the purpose of cavity maps, you need your normal map to start with. This can be created in Xnormal (along with every other kind of baked map) but since you've already got that I won't go into it. So, Xnormal: On the right hand side of the window is a button that says 'Tools'. In here, you want 'Tangent Space Normal Map to Cavity Map' Load or paste your normal map into the left pane by right clicking in it. There are several values to set but the only one to really watch is 'radius.' Cannot remember what the default values are but I have Brightness: 0, Contrast: 1.0, and Radius between 10 and 50. Best to experiment with this one. Method: This is the type of cavity map as there are several types, useful for different purposes. Your 'swizzle coordinates' should be X+, Y-, Z+ Here is the normal map I'm using: With me so far? This is the fun part. I use 2-3 different cavity maps and layer them in Photoshop to get the final effect. These are usually 'EMB', 'SPD', and sometimes 'EDT' - don't ask me what these stand for as I have no idea Once selecting your 'method', right click in the right image pane and 'Generate' After each one, right click and save or simply copy and paste into PS. EMB generation: This is my favourite kind of cavity map - it gives you really deep shadows but also highlights around normal map edges. By tweaking the brightness/levels of this you can use it as part of your spec map and also your diffuse (at a very low opacity) to make it pop. SPD generation: This one isn't much good on its own, but really helps compliment your ambient occlusion and the EMB cavity map above. You can see how it shades the edges of the brick pattern, but doesn't put shadows between the bricks themselves. Photoshop layers: To keep things simple I haven't adjusted any levels or brightness for this. The SPD layer is set to multiply on top of the EMB layer. There is no ambient occlusion in here, and in this case its hardly necessary. The EMB layer comes out with 50% grey background, so by setting it to 'overlay' you will only see the highlights and shadows. Its beyond the scope of this tutorial, but my typical process is to combine all my cavity and AO maps into a single smart layer, which when then gets overlaid over the rest of the diffuse. I really hope all that makes sense. I've never tried to explain it before

Welcome to the materials party You've got a good UV unwrap on that, looks great! I'm not sure what tool you're using to make your normal but I recommend you look at cavity maps. I don't want to bombard this forum with info that's not relevant (done that before...) but cavity maps are a bit like ambient occlusion. Combining them with your diffuse really helps to make normal maps pop, especially when used in a spec map. Feel free to IM me if you want more info.

Yeah, what I meant was, if its 54 LI because of physics (meaning the physics weight is higher than the download weight), you could probably reduce it.

Good first build. The LI might be a little high if its mostly flat surfaces, but that depends on the scale of it. Also, depending on how many mesh pieces its made from, the physics LI might be a bit high. You need to fix the texture on the brown trim areas. It looks like a tiling texture but it would be better off without the lines in it.

*badum tsh* Interestingly enough I thought I'd try the healthcare.gov website. Not even in the US and it definitely loads faster than Marketplace

Check what your max bandwidth is set to: Preferences>Setup - adjust the slider. Its possible its set too high and hogging your bandwidth? Marketplace etc being slow is probably a separate issue. I've had that happen plenty of times and just put it down to peak traffic. Skype can be even worse for sucking up bandwidth and its the first thing to have problems, so that's not really a symptom of anything except that skype sucks bandwidth. And yeah...seriously...bad way to ask for help. There's my attempt at helping because I just had coffee #1.

Yeah, that's definitely not a chicken. Its has floppy ears.. I agree absolutely with the OP. This creator isn't even trying to pretend its their own work. Basic posters, little to no description - its like they know its going to get taken down so are just hoping to make a few bucks beforehand. I think LL is managing the MP to their own standards. Since its only copyright infringement when the copyright holder claims it, LL can keep making their 5% commission on every sale - in effect they'd be spending resources policing the MP in order to reduce their own revenue. So yeah, that sucks.

Seriously? 'The United Socialist States of America'? With a picture of Obama, even. :rollseyes: Alrighty, then.

Consider it future-proofing. Also, for working with/testing out normal maps, it helps to remove your diffuse texture, set the object's color to something quite dark, and then use a few light sources in your work area - It can be difficult to see the full effect with just the sun.

You can try increasing the size of your cache as well, if this happens regularly - Seems to have solved the issue for me.

Perrie Juran wrote: You can begin to recognizes quickly the difference between cheap dumped (not necessarily stolen) mesh and well done work. For instance you constantly see the invisible line at a waist line. But it seems sadly that many are too willing to accept the flaws in the dumped products. One of my friends had bought the weekly discount item from a Merchant and while I was dancing with her I could see through the jacket collar from the inside. The inside of the jacket was NOT textured! My friend asked the Merchant privately about this. The Merchant asked in her group what everyone thought about the outfit. Around 20 people responded that they thought it was wonderful! There were no negative comments. That to me was very discouraging that people would accept that kind of work. Fortunately there are a lot of people who won't settle for slipshod work or SL would start to look trashier than it already does in many places. I'm a perfectionist, especially with my own work, and I agree its a shame that people accept shoddy work. I see it all the time, even with some of the most popular merchants out there. I try to keep my judgements to myself after being scolded by a friend for putting others down . I figure most people don't know any better, or simply don't care. But that's their business. I'll keep building to my own high standards and count on the people who do care finding me and buying my stuff! Another year or two, when all the major viewers support Materials, and creators have come to grips with them, SL will look fantastic

Not entirely the same thing, but I've been modelling and texturing for so long that my first thought upon seeing a dirty brick wall isn't 'that needs a wash' but 'wow, awesome grunge!' Just the other day I was looking at a freshly mown sportsfield. First thought: 'that texture doesn't tile very well' And in the past when spending a lot of time modelling I'll see wireframe overlays on RL objects... In a decade or two when every home has a 3d printer, you will be able to buy a piece of SL furniture for your RL house

All good points Perrie, thanks for your reply. Its a fair assumption that mesh creators are a minority, simply because its a specialized skillset that takes a lot of time to get proficient in. Texturing is as well, but the learning curve isn't quite as steep. The symbiotic relationship you describe is just good business, regardless of a merchant's motivations. I can't see anyone making a sustainable income by dumping their products into MP and not engaging with their customers. Most people I've spoken to have similar shopping habits to you. Admittedly I did come into SL because of mesh - its what I do. But I do have an in-world store, a group and mailing list, and engage with my customers. It is business to me, but I support the economy by buying clothes and paying rent etc. Oops, slight thread derailment.