[What are you listening to?]

 

[Oh hell yes! -- Pet Delights!]

   When you're about to buy a sofa for L$699, but you feel the store seems strangely .. Inconsistent. Upon closer inspection I found the sofa was a full perm prefab, which is L$599. And, the animations in it were so bad I was going to swap them anyway, and they used the default textures - soo. Saved L$100 and supported the original creator instead!

   .. Although now I'm going to have to muck about with AvSitter and figure out what animations I want in it ..

[Share Your LaraX Updated Items]

   Not really 'updates', but .. Some stuff I got today/last night.

   Top & skirt from Rebel Pill on sale. Boots from Utopia@Design.

   Denim shorts and top from Erratic, shorts on sale.

   Outfit from Lowen at Level.

[Quirky Cars question?]

1 hour ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Umm babies can't drive!

   Are you sure?

[How does your avatar look today ?]

   Can't remember what made me feel like waring a toga today. But it led to some playing around, and, poof. Picture.

   And a little 'behind the scenes' pic of the pose making part, because why not. 

[What are you listening to?]

1 hour ago, CaitlinParker said:

So, how did Doro Pesch and Rob Halford do with their version compared to the original?

   Covering Bonnie is a bit of a fool's errand, even if you do a great job, her voice is just unbeatable.

 

 

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

   It's much too early for me to think about retirement. I never open my orange letters, I'm not half-way there yet, I don't need to be told that my pension would be awful if I'd retire today. 

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

34 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

I was in and out with demos in 15 minutes today.  There just seems to be less and less I'd even bother demoing.  😕

   I grabbed a bunch of demos. Then I went home and swore a lot. A few timed demos that were rejected. A few no-colour demos that were rejected (I'm not risking ending up with a black blob with 0 definition). Some that did come with colour HUDs where the black was literally like looking at dead space on your monitor, rejected. One particularly egregious offender which had such a tight triangle density in one single button that you could read the fricking 'subtitle' of the logotype in wireframe mode, rejected. 

   .. I did find a cute top though!

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

   All right, well, now I have a peeve. Apparently it's a thing that ads don't specify 'LaraX' (or 'MaitreyaX', which peeves me too). Saw an ad on Flickr, in the description it said 'LaraX'. So I'm at the event, find the stall, and here it just says 'Maitreya / Petite'. Strange, I though, but I guess I'll grab the demo? And yeah. There's LaraX in there. And by now I've found like, 4 stalls where it's the same thing.

   Buuut now I have to go back and run through again to reconsider peeking into the ads I skipped past because it just said 'Maitreya', because there might be LaraX in there? Gah.

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

9 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Lemme guess...you also own Supermarket Simulator. I think that's the only recent release most people have heard of and play regularly (obsessively). 😂

   Haven't tried it, but .. Two games that are totally immortal: Cooking Simulator (can't wait for the upcoming sequel with multiplayer!), and Viscera Cleanup Detail.

9 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

No but really, BeYou is popular. I think MyStory is as well? I never actually tried those out, but I imagine both earn a bit of monies.

   Only tried BeYou. I went to the MyStory store, there was a display of something, I was curious about what the animations were like so I sat on it - got automatically permabanned from the system for 'cheating'. Oh well, saved me some money, I suppose!

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

1 minute ago, Sid Nagy said:

Make those events  with time slot reservations only. Problem solved. Time expired and still there: booted and no time slot next time.
Drama ensured. The 1000 pages in sight soon. Win-win.

   Or, y'know, instead of first come first serve, a queue when the region is full. Also probably 'you got 30 minutes to browse' in addition.

   But then who doesn't love it when a shopping event is moving at the speed of pitch because of it being full meanwhile a small army of shopaholics are trying to TP hammer their way through!

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

2 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

If a person wants to earn more money in Second Life, following the trend of "do all of the chores!" and charging well for a functioning system is certainly one way to accomplish that.

   Tries to stand in front of the hundreds of BeYou produce elements in the inventory.

   I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

11 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

(I'm looking at all of you in the [sim full] Anthem even right this moment. Sheesh.)

   Mmm .. Just a few more moments .. Still trying to decide whether or not I actually like the architecture around here ..

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

8 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Well, there's a system you can buy that lays down "dust" that you can then sweep up with an animated dustpan and brush. 

   In a similar vein .. Someone recently released a lawn mower. Which cuts grass. That grows. 

   And just the other day, someone was giving me a tour of their place, and she had to stop and clean the swimming pool because it had gotten leaves in it.

   .. SL is starting to get a bit too adult, it seems.

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

16 minutes ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

You mean there is a limited amount of people that want a dumpster with adult animations? Who knew?

   Not a limited supply of people. It's the bad onboarding experience's fault! Or the wages? Or what was it again. There's much too many obvious reasons the sky is falling down around here.

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

   I fail to see how capitalism is somehow the 'issue' here (in fact, I've yet to see any actual issue at all). How much you can earn by doing things in SL is very much a question of supply and demand. Supply is entirely on your end; what are you trying to capitalise on? How is the competition? For demand, well, SL has a finite userbase (unless you do stuff so good it brings people in just to buy them, I guess?), and any given creation in SL will only appeal to so-or-such big a portion of that userbase (and then there's the whole 'getting seen' bit, but that's another question). 

   For hosts and DJs it's just tough luck, everyone and their dog has had the idea to make some pocket money by torturing themselves for 2 hours every few days and hoping to get some tips out of it, it's usually the first 'professions' most people will try (particularly hosting, as it has absolutely zero prerequisites other than 'can u english?' at most venues, and maybe being 30+ days old). There's so much supply of doe-eyed 'I can make moneys?'-types, so many venues, and a lot of  them thinking 'oh we'll become the new top place if only we can cram our schedule full to cater to people 24/7'. Trying to make it so everyone who chucks themselves into that ring earn a 'decent wage' for their time is just not feasible, nor do I think it's even something we should aspire to; SL DJs and hosts shouldn't be compared to service profession staff in the real world - if anything, maybe, they could be compared to the types who'll strum a guitar in a subway station or shopping mall. Live performers, same thing, really - but they're not 'entitled' to it just because they put time or effort into it. Especially not the 'local open mic club rejects'.
   Charge an entry fee and pay your staff if you want some fair distribution of income (of course it's quite likely it'll just kill your venue and send your patrons packing to a different one - unless your place is niche enough to still be interesting to a limited clientele; and, what, should LL monitor these venues' incomes and ensure the staff is being paid 'decently'? I've worked at such places, the distribution of wealth isn't exactly 'fair' - but my service wasn't indentured or anything, and it didn't take me that long to figure out it wasn't worth my time and that I wasn't enjoying it enough to consider it a 'fun pastime', and so I quit - not very complicated stuff, this).

   For creators, it becomes a question of supplying something unique (which often means it'll be niche, which reduces the potential customer base, because whilst most virtual barbies want to stand out, they don't want to actually stand out to stand out - but hey, at least you can raise the unit price a little bit without too many complaints?), or you can try to cater to everyone, and compete with thirty-eleven other stores creating the exact same 'generic jeans no 34 with the current trend-flavour of being unbuttoned', at which point people will ask 'which one did it best' or 'which one did it cheapest' - because no one needs thirty-eleven pairs of no.34 generic unbuttoned jeans. Glares at some of our resident shopping addicts. Right? Right. If income is your primary concern, then probably try to find a balancing point between the two. But also, if income is your primary concern, maybe don't look to SL for it.

   No one in SL is being exploited, everyone are here voluntarily. It's not like someone has monopolised some natural resources (well, maybe some land barons inflating prices of coastal/roadside land and holding it 'hostage' - but trying to fix that by changing the value of the L$ is a bit like going in with a bucket of paint and a paintbrush into a burning house; and LL doesn't 'really' have any incentive to fix it, because whoever owns the land pays tier anyway). There's of course very little regulation within SL's markets, so there absolutely are cartel-like structures and a whole lot of nepotism (which certainly isn't a concept unique to capitalism, though). Who gets to be in my super-cool event? Who gets a dev kit for my body? And I don't really see how LL would regulate that sort of thing without getting involved in some very deep resident-to-resident drama. I mean, sure, they've legally covered their backs so that they could just go in and say 'your creation is now ours and we control and distribute it as we please', but 28 days later there'd be 13 people left on the grid wondering where everyone went.

   Either which way, changing the value of the platform's currency wouldn't solve anything. But it would cause a whole lot of trouble for everyone, then it would mean people would just adjust their prices to the new levels, unless they left the platform completely because of the bother of it all.

[Creeped out as f. Profile copying bot? What's going on?]

15 minutes ago, Jordyn McGregor said:

Worse is seeing pics of yourself taken from Flickr on someone else's profile.  Been there!!!

   Perks up at the newfound means to tick off Jordy and sneaks off with a maniacal giggle.

[llLoopSound kill script?]

   So I had this thing with a looped sound, and I went and just deleted the script and the sound thing in it. But it's still noisy. I know the same thing has happened with hover text on occasion and someone gave me a 'kill script' for those - anyone know where I might find something similar for getting rid of the sound? I've blacklisted it in my viewer, but it's just annoying to know it's still there.

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

15 minutes ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

Imagine if a woodworker made a beautiful table and it just multiplied by magic without having to lift a finger besides making the initial table.   I bet they'd be happy.

   As a former carpenter .. Yes. Although I do enjoy the whole production process, the only thing I felt got monotonous was when we were making batches of coffins (very plain ones) or that one time I had to sand wheels for a few hundred wooden toy elephants. 

   But it would certainly let us push the prices down. Who knows, might even get comparable to IKEA's prices - couldn't buy the timber to make a table for the money it costs to buy a finished table there.

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

2 hours ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

Hey, some of these folks are PROFESSIONAL Peevers!

   .. Throws some belated page-901-confetti on the PPs.

[How does your avatar look today ?]

4 minutes ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

Black Dragon is not ideal as a general purpose viewer, but it is fantastic for photography. Part of that is the pose tool, which lets you precisely pose every single bone to the smallest of degrees. I use it all the time to tweak existing poses for pictures, and to make my own. Once you learn the pose tool, it is not that complicated, even if the UI is awful.

   I don't disagree at all, I think BDW has some amazing features. But the time it takes me to set up a shot in it is a lot longer than it would be for me to just throw together a pose, do a shoot in Firestorm, and run it through Gimp to tinker with it (having post-process things like noise in-viewer is nifty, but it's also a 5 second process in Gimp, so, eh, lol). 

   If I were wanting to do Machinima, however, I'd probably force myself to wrap my head around BDW. I'm curious to see what those QoL changes might bring though. 

[Revalue the L$ -> $1US = L$100]

   I've known a lot of people who ran pirate radios on the Internet before SL was a thing, they had no means to take any kind of tips from their listeners most of the time; they did it because they had a passion for music that you wouldn't hear on 'real' radio stations, some of them made forums so that people could then discuss the music or make requests for certain bands or songs to be played. Some of them also made fake commercials for the whole 'radio' feel and just had fun with it. 

   Most DJs in SL wouldn't know what music is if it bit their face off. Most of them seem to take their playlists straight off of mainstream radio stations. Now they're supposed to earn a decent wage off of it? 

   Hosts are largely pointless. They can easily be replaced with a group joiner and a greeter (although personally I think the whole greeting thing is overrated). I'm not going to tip someone for saying 'hi' and gesturbating/info-spamming local chat away.

   Creators, as in, people who actually make assets that we use in SL, is a little tricky. If a video game development cycle takes a team of 20 people 18 months, does the price tag of the game then represent a fair wage for all the people involved and all their work hours? No, of course not - it's a digital product, you pay maybe $20, they're banking of selling enough copies. So saying that a mesh top priced at L$250 is 'not representative of the amount of time the creator put into it' makes no darned sense; their goal is obviously to sell more than one of them, not for each individual customer to compensate them for their work. If they don't sell enough copies for their operation to be 'worthwhile', then raising the price of their product isn't going to help.

   It's better to sell 100 tops for L$250 a pop than to sell 10 for L$500.

[How does your avatar look today ?]

4 hours ago, ValKalAstra said:

I can't say much about qavimator but I am sure others here can chime in.

   Aside from that there's no option to get your avatar's individual shape, it's extremely simple to use. Particularly by 'demoing' the animation, it's easy enough to tab back and forth to adjust it until it looks right in-world. Also the bento version not being finished is too bad, the bento beta has worked fine the times I've tried it, but it also only has a male model in it and I more often find myself posing female avis. 

1 hour ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

Black Dragon has an integrated posing tool, and you can use it to create poses from scratch that can be imported back into SL as animations. No better way to iterate than using your own avatar.

   Yes, but I also immediately feel like gauging my own eyes out when I see the UI. Switching from FS to BDW is almost as bad as switching from FS to Blender. 

   I think it's a huge miss on LL's part that they haven't given us more in-world creation tools over the years, and that their efforts to tell people what third party software works for making SL assets are pretty minimal. Animating your avi through the viewer and uploading poses/animations directly should have been a thing 16 years ago, at least.

[Warm Animations Deformer]

27 minutes ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

This may be a stupid question but could you use a deformer on a Maitreya 5.3 to make it look like Lara X?

   Nah, that'd be a bit like taking a sledgehammer to a SUV to reshape it into a hatchback. Deformers affect the skeleton, the differences in Lara and LaraX are in the geometry. Particularly the shoulders need something more than deformers.