Vulpinus

This just isn't good enough... We have three accounts in our household and none have recieved their stipend yet, just like last week. It's Thursday now. We've paid our money on time! To add insult to injury we can't get to my parcel again for the second time today due to another round of rolling restarts. So, all we can do is go shopping at the few places that seem available for TP... except we haven't received our stipend, have we LL??? </sarcasm>.

Hmm... I spoke too soon. It worked fine for hours, then I TP'd away and when I came back, my fire became erratic again. Oh well, I got my stuff made anyway.

Back after dinner... right... Nothing's changed. My Max Particles is maxed out at 8192. There are a few other sources in the vicinity but not a huge number. Is there any way to tell what sort of quantity the viewer is trying to render to see if it's hitting the limit? I really don't think it's that though. Highlighting Transparent shows me nothing more, no blank squares, so I guess the particles really aren't being emitted. Settings beacons for other sources shows a few on my parcel and around me but not loads (as mentioned above). Most people around here are in skyboxes. Oh yes, the sandbox is one of the normal premium ones, I just TP'd to it from home, so I guess that means same channel (do you mean like what I call the beta grid where we can log in to test uploads without paying for them? No, I wasn't there). Besides, I've TP'd to a few of my usual haunts (shopping places etc) and my fire works perfectly everywhere else I've been. So I'm stuck! I thought this was so simple, and was quite pleased with myself when I got the parameters working nicely. Then I went home... ... Having just types all that, while trying a few things out with no success, I though I would try TP'ing around my own vicinity again; just double clicking on the land to move around. This time, the further away from my parcel I got (a couple of sims away) the better the particles worked. I started TP'ing back again and by the time I got home, everything worked. Note that I had done the very same thing earlier with no improvement anywhere. Well, I guess it's not anything wrong with my script anyway. SL can be weird sometimes!

No, makes no difference at all. If I cam into my neighbour's parcel, my fps drops to 20-ish even with all the horses derendered, but as long as I don't do that it seems to have no effect. Facing direction, cam direction (in my own parcel) and even going up high makes no difference. Interestingly, I've just moved around the sim my parcel is in (it's mainland) and even into the adjacent sims, and the erratic behaviour continues.. I tP'd back to the sandbox and my fire worked perfectly again. Weird...

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol). I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

Good idea, but seems not to be the issue. I'm getting around 60 fps mostly with only occasional drops below 40 if I really try hard to drop it. Although my neighbour has ten of those annoying breedable horses which don't help if I look in that direction. Also tried it on my building platform in the sky and the same problem is there even at 100+ fps. I've relogged too, just in case. I'm open to any suggestions - still quite new to all of this.

I've made a very simple, wearable 'fire spine'; simply a chain of five prims run by llLinkParticleSystem with a small fire effect in each. The effect I want (and have) is a subtle line of continual fire along my av's spine. I'g guessing there is no other way to get a line of fire than linking prims like this. If there is please tell me. In a sandbox it works perfectly, but when I go back to my own parcel, the particle effect in each prim seems to be firing erratically and randomly. Fitfully, even. TP back to the sandbox and it runs properly again. I tried TPing to another sim at random and my fire worked there as well. But not at home! I have Firestorm fully ramped up on Max Particles (8192 I think) and only have a few other small particle emittors on my parcel and they are not even visible from where I stand. Any clues anyone?

Problem solved. The colours-to-the-edge bit was the clue, but... I had read the link in the second post, and had in fact already done the procedure manually before posting here as the very first thing I tried to correct the issue. Nice to know I had got it right. That's what I meant by putting a red border around the rug. Also nice to have a plugin now to do it for me, so thanks for the link. That however made no difference. The issue was a very simple one, I forgot to remove the layer that I used to generate the alpha channel. Well, not so much forgot but the instructions I read didn't say to do so, and I didn't realise that it was no longer wanted once I had used it to generate the alpha channel. So, it was being flattened with the image and that's where the white background was coming from. Shame it didn't show in the file when reloaded locally; I would have figured it out a lot sooner. Thanks for the help everyone, I now have a nice rug and have learned a few extra things in the process (like not to waste money uploading stuff, lol)

Just to clarify this: tga file reloaded into PSP: Transparency is correct, no rug-edge antialiasing, no white border. texture applied in SL: white border, due to below: texture file as shown in SL and magnified: rug edge is now antialised where the transparency begins. It looks like the image is being antialiased when uploaded to SL although I'm going to check further since obviously it isn't happening to anyone else... (I bet it's another PSP 'feature' that I'm about to discover)

Thanks for all the replies folks. I wish I had known I could test things with local textures... D'oh! I did try going on the beta grid to test but after being refused login attempts for over half an hour I gave up; I have passed the 'test' and have been there before. I'll play to my hearts content now I know though! Anyway... The texture is saved from PSP in .tga format, 32 bit with the alpha. I read up on how to do that first. Loading the .tga back into PSP looks perfect; no white border. If I put a temporary black layer behind it to show up any whiteness, still nothing. I did try the suggestion to slightly change the repeat, but then I lost the ragged edge of the rug in order to lose the white border so it doesn't work for me. The prim is set transparent on all faces other than the top, and I've re-done that several times to make sure. ...Ahh, I've just remembered to look at the texture itself in SL. Looks OK at first (I had already checked it), but when I do a screenshot and paste that into PSP and zoom in, I can see very feint antialiasing where the white border is showing. That is definitely not evident when I load the tga file into PSP though. I've uploaded four photos to show what I mean: The problem in SL: TGA file reloaded into PSP, showing transparency: As above but against a black layer to check for white: The magnified screenshot of the texture file from my SL inventory, showing antialiasing:

I'm new to this... I've made a texture for a rug, and given it a transparent border to make it look a little more natural around the edges. In Paintshop Pro, everything looked good but when I uploaded the texture to SL and put it on a prim, there was a thin white border around the rug where the transparency started. That is, around the edge of rug itself where the alpha layer changed from opaque to transparent. I thought I had not cropped (with the alpha layer that is) close enough to the rug itself because the original image did have a lighter background colour around the rug. So, I did it over and made absolutely certain (by both making the outer edge of the rug image red, and putting the result against a black background in PSP) that the final image had no light edge to the rug. None, whatsoever. On uploading again, the exact same thing happens. I see a thin white edge all around the actual rug, nicely antialiased with the rug edge but it makes my rug look rubbish. It's as if the alpha layer opaque parts (which are white in the mask in PSP) are being antialiased with the edge of the rug. So, before I waste more money uploading another version, does anyone know why this might be happening and how to avoid it?

Too high? OK, dropping the price...

Due to sudden and serious family illness (in RL that is) I need to stop spending money on fun stuff. So, this wonderful plot is going up for sale. The seafront is protected and has a wonderful ocean view, the back of the plot butts onto Linden Road so is protected there too. The ocean at the bottom of the plot can be sailed and I've navigated around the coast and off to other continents a few times. The land rises steeply enough from the ocean to have a hilltop feel, then flattens out to nice flat land. It seems very terraformable at the sea/land junction. I dropped it down a lot to make it very steep and put stairs in , but it can be raised up again to increase land area and lessen the slope to a gentle one. I have left the fencing and two buildings on there so you can see what I mean about the potential; of course just 'return owned by others' when you buy it to clear the land. The area is quiet and the neigbours are friendly. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Satellite/85/155/30 It's a pretty much perfect spot and I really hate to sell it, but needs must. Price lowered to L$16000

Thanks. I've been off for an hour and logged back in - just the same. It's been like this since I could get back on last night. Same with my wife's login. Edit to add: Same on the SL viewer as on Firestorm, same on mine and my wife's accounts, so it's not a cache issue. Half the island is missing and if I try to cross into the missing parts, it clearly doesn't work so well. Looks like someone dropped the ball... Edit again... Got support to restart the sim again, seems OK now. So far...

Do I need to clear cache? Last time I did that it took a full day for things to get back to normal again, so I'm wary. Since yesterday''s sudden forced logout and not being able to log in for half an hour (during which time I learned about rolling restarts) a lot of the land around me has vanished, or is up in the air, literally! There's a massive water-filled hole now just behinf my parcel. I thought for a moment the owners were into some serious terraforming, but if I try to walk onto it, everything goes haywire and I fly off into the uncontrolled distance. I do get the message about entering a differet sim just before hell is unleashed. The view from above my parcel, and camming long distances out, is mostly missing. So, is it me that has to do a cache clear, and is this normal after a restart?

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it isn't going to work unless I put my stream over a public IP then; I'm not going to do that. (Don't want DMCA reporting!) I might be able to con my Cisco kit into tricking things, but that's more effort that it's worth at the moment. I'll have to stick to listening to my music from my RL system then. It's a hard life, lol.

I know how to set up a stream on the internet (not that I have) but I want to just do it locally, from another server in the house. I've set up a local stream server on my domain controller in the loft, and can use it through IE and Firefox on my main PC. No problems. But, when I try to put the (local) stream URL onto my parcel, it just doesn't start and the stream server does not show any connection attempts. I'm using Firestorm if that makes any difference to things. Anyone know why this might not work? Does the audio stream get relayed by SL's servers, rather than being connected directly at the viewer, in which case my local IP address won't work...? I'm guessing there might also be an issue if others visit my parcel - I don't have enough outgoing bandwidth to support many streams but really I don't care about others being able to hear it. I want to hear it myself, that's all. Plus I won't have broadcast rights! I'm also guessing that since I'm using my private IP address for the stream URL, not my public IP block, that this resolves the outgoing issue since others can't connect to it anyway. If there's an FAQ for this, I would appreciate a link.

Thanks, your answer helps a lot. I wondered if it was just the object's origin that determined autoreturn. Makes sense from a programming point of view.

I think this is the most appropriate forum for these questions... 1. When I'm positiong things in my parcel, near the edges, is there an easy way to tell if it pokes out over the edge of my land? Especially when there are invisible bits (like with trees). Currently, I put up a high wall on the boundary and keep checking the other side for the hint of a selection highlight poking thorugh the wall as I move the object. 2. After doing one tree as above, I noticed a few days leter that the base of the tree was poking through my boundary, just under ground level, by quite a bit. The tree hasn't been returned though, even though the adjacent parcel has a 5 minute return to owner set. Why not? Cheers, V.

Thanks Indigo. I've already got a house on the plot now... just experimenting, won't be staying. I know what you mean about air pollution - I've seen that all over the place. Quck way to spoil the look of an area. I guess theey are a bit like my next door neighbours here in RL :smileymad: 512 (I actually have 560) is small; I reasiled that. It's actually about the size of my house plot in RL so that's a good guide for me to work on. Can't wait to play with my plot over the weekend. I have some good 3D software (used to do the occasional pro architectural design) so I might put my designer's hat on one day and learn to make stuff for SL. Always wanted to build my own mansion (well, more like hut on 560sqm, lol).

Edit to add: After some more help from Sassy who answered everything below for me (thank you) I took the plunge and am now a land owner, albiet only a little bit of land at the moment. I've annotated my post in case anyone else wonders what the answers were. After a few weeks, I'm enjoying life in SL, so I might take the plunge and pay for a year's premium membership, so that I can get some land to put a small home on. I can't afford much more than that though, certainly not at the moment. That's why I'm thinking of going premium and using my 512 mainland allotment, rather than spending the money renting. I get a bit of land and most of my money back. Seems a no-brainer for a limited outlay start. Any comments, help or suggestions are most welcome. I made a mistake (despite trying my hardest) buying a house in RL, so I don't want to mess it up here too, lol. So, I'm thinking: Form a group with a friend (who's not a premium member) and donate my 512 tier to our group so that I can have up to 560sq.m. of land without having to pay anything over my premium membership. Have I got that bit correct? Yep - that is right. Made a group and bought 560m. Then I have to buy some mainland... hoping that someone doesn't decide to build a spaceship manufacturing plant or giant cupcake house next door to me. (in RL, the supposedly greenbelt land next to my house got 'reallocated' by the council and sold to a 'developer' who's a friend of the counciller. Woodland felled, hillside excaveted, instant nasty prefab housing estate.Grrr. House value halved.) Anyway... I've found just a couple of suitably sized mainland plots in the land search. First question: How can I tell before purchase, definitively, if I can terraform a little? In one I'm looking at, in the Place Profile under the For Sale entry it has Terrform Limits: Off. It also has, under Parcel, Build: Off. Surely I should be able to build on it if I buy it, so I'm not sure if what is said in the Place Profile is just what I can do now, as a none-owner of it. So, how do I tell for sure? All I want is to dig a small pond in the corner and move an existing wall and path. Secondly, skyboxes. I've just learned what these are. Can I raise one of my own over my land? I could stick the house up there, and use the 'land' as a garden. (If I could do all that with 128 capacity (does that mean 128 prims? and does that include my clothes that I'm wearing?) Doesn't include clothing - good. What is 'Parcel Land Impact' of 19? There was some stuff (the walls below) already on the land that I can get rid of. Am I correct that when I buy mainland, off anyone, once it's mine I'm only under LL's general rules and covenents? Or, are there extra rules still imposed by someone else somewhere? The main parcel that I'm considering appears to have been designed a little already, with a wall running through it and the parcel ends half-way through a wide stone pathway. Nice, but could I move the wall to the edge of my property and basically do anything I want with my bit? the pathway takes a good quarter of the size on one side! Thanks for any help! V.

Aye, I'm quickly learning about mesh etc. That started by buying a great shirt (all mesh) then not being able to use a similarly great leather coat with it that I paid a lot of L$ for, because the main body of that is on the jacket layer. D'oh! (btw: the coat didn't have a demo, but I liked it enough to take the risk, and still do even with the limitation). Solution - buy another shirt that actually fits on the shirt layer! It's nice, but it's not quite a nice as the first. As you say, each type has its place. I just need to learn what and when I can mix and match. Seems obvious now I know! My fatpack of mesh 'classic' jeans from L&B look terrific - almost makes me look like I do in RL! I've not had any other issues with clothing really, apart from another shirt that came in five sizes. Strangely, sometimes it fits me and sometimes my skin pokes through, even with the alpha layer on (might be a glitch, I don't know). Other than that I've been able to resize or move little bits on clothing to make everything work quite easily.

That seems to be popular then! Thanks all. I'm about finished with the general look and aren't the sort to change much, so this is it. Other than perhaps a few alternative hair styles and less-frequently-seen attachments. @Loralinda, thanks for all those links, I'll check them out. I've found a couple of decent haircuts already than I'm considering. Need to watch the cash for a while* so I'm being more careful right now to pick just the right things. I went around at one point pestering people inworld to say whether they prefered the current hair or the Chris hair from Redgrave. It was about 50:50, so obviously the one I've got is doing OK. I'll still probably get the other for an alternative look and perhaps a couple of others. Hats are still an issue that I'll have to solve too. As for the frinedly tip, well, one just has to have a friendly tip! Piercings down there though??? That makes my eyes water, no thanks! Aeros Magnus looks good but I'll need to save up. (I'll tell you, it feels really wierd at first shopping for some things...) The notes about mesh, also scripts, etc, are well taken. I'll bear all of that in mind especially since I like Franks. *Need to watch the pennies because I've just ordered myself a 6-axis controller. Got fed up of going the wrong way or nose-diving through the floor every time I try to look around. It'll come in handy for other stuff too though; I've wanted one for a while.

LOL! Well, what can I say? I was so awestruck at some of the beauties in Frank's that I sort of just gazed in dumbstruck amazement. It took a few minutes before I noticed, or rather didn't notice, something that would normally have been going on down there! I'll get it sorted soon though. As to assassination costs, no-one's asked what I do for a living yet... all these outfits from Utopia, Class-A etc don't come cheap you know. A fellow has to eat!

Yeah, I've come across those toe (too). There's also erm, male parts too I've discovered... I'm after a pack of jeans from L&B next though, just demoing them now. I need more casual stuff as at the moment I've enough formal outfits to last a year!