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Nextio

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Everything posted by Nextio

  1. You can always try the opensource Ruth project to see if the head matches the sliders that you want. They recreated the standard default SL avatar into mesh. It comes with an alpha hud and skin hud, but i'm not sure how skins will work with it. You will probably need the UUID or something. If not, you will have to wait for the Bakes-On-Mesh project to release for SL, then you will be able to use system skins. Afaik, they don't sell it in SL, but i think other people have repackaged it for SL. Here are some links to grab a copy. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PROJECT-Ruth-20-Release-Candidate-1v2/16068068 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blumfield/116/165/28 There's also a group called Ruth and Roth Community that you can join and ask for help, but i don't know how to link group joins, so just search within SL and it should pop up.
  2. It depends what you mean by bonding. There are different types of bonding that are either sexual, intimate, romantic, friendly, or a combination of these. This will sound shallow but it's how our society currently is. If it's sexual, most people care about aesthetics & beauty in this hyper-sexualized culture, both in SL and RL, so it's not surprising when people expect a decent and upgraded looking avatar. It's just like the real world. If you look out of shape and unkempt with outdated clothing and hairstyles from the 1960s or 1990s, then you shouldn't expect to easily get a boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/spouse. Some people still have standards, and all those "beautiful" people in the real world didn't magically become pretty. They eat healthy, exercise, and groom themselves with makeup, new hair styles, etc (and the magic of camera filters 😉). Most of these people look for others who put in the same effort, just like in SL. It's not just about intimate relationships either. Friendships matter too. If your friend dresses silly, or has a dozen piercings and face tattoos, or whatever else, then don't be surprised if people are going to judge both of you, especially if you're going out to destinations and events (restaurants and meetings, if RL). There are people who are perfectly fine with who they are though, but they also shouldn't expect people to conform to their low standards of aesthetics.
  3. To be fair, there are multiple ways to "unpack" or "rez". Finding a sandbox, dropping on ground, right click, open. Wearing an attachment to auto-unpack. Wearing an attachment, then clicking a Hud to unpack. ..and probably other ways i'm unaware of. This is just another reason why SL is such a mess for newbies.
  4. That is why i haven't gone back. Green crystals are rare and i'm not going to waste 30-60+ minutes finding one. It's also a terrible introduction to people that are new and curious about the game. I'm guessing most people probably gave up once they hit that roadblock. The other Linden quests are better because they respect our time. This part of the quest adds no value to entertainment. It's just an annoyance.
  5. Here's the omega store on marketplace. The Maitreya kit is the first one on that page, and that's the one you probably have. It's a relay which means you need to have it attached whenever using omega appliers, then you can remove it after you're done. The Catwa kit works the same way. The Lelutka kit is an installation kit, so you just need to activate it once and you're done. Keep in mind, you don't really need them anymore, since most skin stores supply specific skins for the bodies and heads anyway. Just use omega if there are no appliers for specific bodies and heads, such as maitreya, catwa, lelutka, etc.
  6. VRChat got a boost from pewdiepie(?) and the ugandan knuckles meme. Their playerbase is mostly composed of the anime and meme community now. I briefly remember trying JanusVR, AltspaceVR, and VRChat before the popularity of pewdiepie and knuckles though, and they were just as empty as Sansar and HiFi. In my opinion, Linden Lab should've just kept their SL VR viewer instead of developing an entire VR world from scratch. VR should've been an additional feature, not the main product (to be fair though, Linden Lab was a unique case, because SL is an outdated platform for VR, hence the need for an entire VR world such as Sansar). Most of these VR startups got it wrong and did things in reverse. They should've developed a stable virtual world for desktop and/or mobile, then add VR as an additional component, not a requirement.
  7. Haha, that video visualizes everything so much better than my previous post could have. I don't think the UI and interface will be that cluttered at first though, but i guess it will depend on the various apps you have installed. This is the future though, especially when the headset hardware is lightweight and cheap. I just hope i'm still alive and not too old to experience it!
  8. Altered Reality (AR), will be more popular than VR anyway. With AR, you are still tethered to the real world with objects appearing in the same space as you, while in VR, you are closed off from the real world and put into an entirely different one. In AR, you'll be able to manipulate just about anything on yourself, such as makeup, hair, skin, etc. It's practically already being done with Snapchat filters. Now imagine using something similar to Google Glass instead of your phone though. That's where AR is headed and it will be outshine VR in every conceivable way (relatively speaking from a consumer standpoint). Once AR glasses become powerful enough, you'll be able to manipulate the entire environment around you, such as windlight settings in SL, or even draw distance. You'll be able to rez mini pets alongside you, or add attachments to yourself such as headbands, piercings, etc. You'll be able to change wallpapers and other textures in your room or in the real world at a park or store. It'll be just like SL. The only difference will be the "viewer", and there won't be a need for monitors, phones, or gigantic headsets that engulf your entire head. That is where i see the virtual world heading.
  9. @KathyGables , not sure if you bought a head yet, but here's some advice anyway. If you have some skin appliers, you can usually try them with the head demos. If you don't have any skin appliers, then get some skin demos and test them on all your head demos. This usually works. After that, test all the sliders on each head with different skins. It may take a couple hours to test everything, but a few hours is worth the wait, otherwise you might make a purchase you'll regret later on. Most skin stores have specific skins for specific heads, but they sometimes give you omega appliers that you can use on other heads. Keep in mind, they won't work unless the head has omega built-in. You can also buy the Omega relay for testing head demos, but it's around L$100 for each brand that requires it. For example, you only need one omega relay for Catwa, one for Lelutka, etc.
  10. London City's freebie store is a bad choice for a drop off point. They are basically introducing newbs to outdated freebies from like 2007. I went there a couple weeks ago and they still had the same stuff from when i first joined back in like 2013. 😑 It's also disingenuous to show 3rd party mesh avatars on their sign up page. It's very misleading.
  11. The problem isn't necessarily the gacha item. The problem is having to sift through 10+ pages of the same gacha item because of color and texture variations.
  12. The whole marketplace needs an overhaul. It seems to resemble a website that was constructed from the mid 2000s. 😐 Let's also not forget the "demo" annoyance that has been plaguing it for years.
  13. It probably would be less popular than other venues, but i don't see anything wrong with that. People come to SL to escape from the real world which includes philosophical thoughts and discussion. Ironically, the OP is a bit narcissistic for dismissing other people's activities as if they are somehow inferior for their choices. 😉
  14. Haha, that made me laugh, but not a fair comparison. 😉 A better comparison would be like trying to learn American, Asian, and European sizes, currencies, outlets, etc, all on the same day. When you travel to each country, you only have to learn one standard until you leave. In SL, you will have to learn all the various components developed over 15 years, then compound all that into a day or a week, all depending on how much patience a newbie has.
  15. New people aren't going to worry about subscriptions, sim discounts, prim counts, etc. It's all about the avatar, and SL's avatar system is a fragmented mess. Try getting a new person to understand the multiple layers of it and they get turned off immediately. Believe me, i know from experience, because i've tried to get around five people to stick around but they give up after a couple days because you have to waste a lot of time learning how to customize their avatar. You have to explain the classic avatar system and how it's irrelevant now, but they are still going to have to learn it anyway, because the base components are still needed, especially if/when they come across outdated freebies from 2006. You gotta explain the tattoo layers, which are also skins, clothing, and makeup layers. Then you have to worry about finding hair because the default Ruth hair looks like a helmet, but not just any hair, because there is Prim hair, Flexi hair, Rigged & Unrigged, Fitted hair. Next is clothing, and if we're talking about the classic avatar, then it is composed of multiple separate layers; upper, lower, gloves, socks, and skirt. Don't forget about shoes either. Many outdated freebies do not come with alpha layers, so you have all these shoes that are unusable with feet sticking out of them. This leads to explaining the wonky alpha system and all it's layers. There is also the height issue where everyone is 7 feet tall. You also have to learn about prims and mesh such as jewelry and accessories. The above is just the classic system monstrosity. After all that, you have to learn about Standard Size clothing, Fitted Mesh, and now Bento Mesh. Oh, and let's not forget the various mesh bodies and heads, such as Catwa, Belleza, Maitreya, etc. Make sure you know about appliers and omega layers too. Good luck newbie! You're going to need it. 😁 Ironically, Sansar's avatar customization is severely limited. They can still salvage Sansar though if they redesign their avatar system and make it more robust.
  16. SL is developed by an American company, so yes, an American culture and presence is bound to happen. It was the reverse when i played Asian mmorpgs. I expected Asian influence in their games though, so that didn't bother me. As for English, it's the de-facto language around the world for business and communication, mostly because of the former British Empire's dominance around the world followed by the United States' dominance after WW2. Before English, there was French, and before that was Latin. Nothing can be done about it until British and American influence wanes, which in all likelihood, will never happen in our lifetimes. It is, what it is.
  17. There's many, but here's a few i can remember... Pretentious and arrogant profiles indirectly describing themselves as being better than everyone else. Picks filled with family, multiple lovers, one night stands, forgotten friends, etc. Spiritual, political, and philosophical rants, or just rants in general. All the variations of RL = RL, SL = SL. I don't mind blank profiles too much since it is sometimes better to not know anything about someone. It also adds to the mystery and curiosity of someone.
  18. Sim owners ban child avatars in adult sims because it's just easier to deal with. Put yourselves in their shoes, and you'll realize you might have to deal with Linden Lab one day, about the TOS and other legal issues. It's just too much of a headache to please these child avatars who have a chip on their shoulder, so i support their bans entirely. A lot of these child avatars just want to cause trouble or prove a point. It's like, okay, we get it, you're not technically violating the TOS, are you satisfied now? They need to grow up, ironically speaking. 😎
  19. This topic is always a recurring theme in SL and it's annoying. I just don't understand why it's so important to people. Why even care this much after 15 years? Is it really that important? The system has been working fine all these years but people still aren't satisfied and they want to drag everyone else into their own utopian bubble of pro-mod. It's just a weird evangelizing obsession at this point. The color/tint argument is also invalid because not all textures will be represented as they should be. Modifying the various aspects of the product could also potentially hurt sales if others see it in a distorted modified state. I don't really have any reason to mod most things anyway, besides resizing something, or dropping animations inside an AO. If we're talking clothing and hair, resizing manually isn't really needed anymore since most items are fitted mesh now. I usually only need to resize something if the item is outdated, or if some content creator hasn't learned how to add resize scripts in their newly released items.
  20. SL's biggest strength is it's highly customizable avatar system. As much as i like SL, if a new virtual world came out that rivaled SL's avatar customization, i would ditch it in a heartbeat because it's so outdated and wonky these days. I've tried most of the newer alternatives in the past, such as VSide, Kaneva, NuVera, Twinity, Sinespace, and so on, but most of them had terrible customization options or the lack of creators willing to move from SL. The only one that comes close is IMVU, but i don't like instanced chat rooms and prefer the open world of SL (not only that but you need a subscription to use their creator program!). The newer Virtual Reality programs, such as Sansar and High Fidelity, could have been great alternatives, but they focus on VR and not so much on avatar customization, which is a shame, because avatar identity is the most important aspect of virtual worlds, or any online presence in general.
  21. It's splitting hairs to be honest. People get bent out of shape over it. It's kind of like how people argue over comics/cartoons/anime/etc. The medium used is basically the same. The only thing different is the philosophy behind it. Here's my rule of thumb though. If i'm talking to someone who has never heard of SL or the virtual world genre, then i just say it's a game. If i'm talking to virtual world residents, then i'll call it a virtual world.
  22. "Linden Homes improvements - not yet" You mean to tell me the Horizons homes didn't count? Not sure why they keep trying to force subscription based homes though. They are better off giving everyone a free home like IMVU (not sure if they still do). They could then entice people to upgrade to a higher tier with rezzing rights, or with some other similar restrictions, so newbs and the less fortunate do not lag the sims. It's a shame really, because i've tried to get at least four or five people to stay in SL but they always complain about a lack of home and never come back. I mean, what good is a virtual world if you can't live in it? Ok, done ranting.
  23. Blender's documents are usually outdated and explained very poorly. It also doesn't teach you how to be proficient, which is your original gripe in the first place. It just teaches the basics on how to use the tool. It's not going to teach you how to be better.
  24. This topic is pretentious. People come from all different backgrounds with different levels of expertise, from beginner to intermediate to expert. Some people just want to create for fun, others for profit. Some people can't afford Maya or Max, so they use Blender, and the plethora of tutorials out there for Blender, is enough to confuse any beginner. It's as if you're expecting people to find tutorials from professors with graduate degrees in 3D and Animation. As someone already stated, new SL users want to create for SL, not any other specific 3D program such as Unity or UE4. When's the last time you've searched for SL mesh tutorials though? Because it's completely fragmented with many outdated and new workflows. There's the old classic avatar creation process, standard sizes, liquid/fitted mesh, and now mesh bodies, heads, and appliers. This is LL's fault though, for not keeping the base avatar system up to date. They have completely abandoned the in-world building tools and workflow, so now the userbase has to rely on 3rd party programs for mesh creation. It was a lot easier when designers only had to rely on Photoshop or GIMP for skins and textures, because those programs were 2D, not 3D. New creators and designers have to learn modeling, rigging, weight painting, avastar, 3D texturing, etc. It would take at least 6 months or longer to learn all that proficiently. I don't see many people sticking around that long to learn all that. This is why i only see the same handful of stores from 5+ years ago, because they already have the knowledge and expertise that they developed over those years. Creating for SL was much simpler.
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