Ayashe Ninetails

Ohhh trust me, I know. Their recommended GPU is an RTX 3070, which is what I've got. InZoi's Character Studio was pretty dang sluggish on my PC, and I've seen others on the Steam forums complaining that their 40 series cards weren't performing well, either. It's definitely in need of some more optimization tweaks, but it runs VERY heavy in general and I doubt they can minimize that. Not even a little. Totally agree with you. If you want InZoi graphics and gameplay, you'll have to go play InZoi. Personally, I'd rather play Paralives. That ultra-realistic style InZoi's going for just isn't my jam (even though you can overlay filters on top of the world to make it less realistic - meeeeh).

They have different laws and rules in place surrounding such things. InZoi uses cutscenes and fade to black when Zois get into bed and shows absolutely nothing. The Sims 4 is PG also, but adult content thrives via the mod scene. Those mods aren't allowed on Twitch, of course. People just stream without them enabled. Modders are already gearing up to make a Wicked Whims for InZoi. Adult content for these games all comes from the modding community. Even Minecraft has adult mods, but you'll never see those streamed (thank gawd). InZoi itself is full of non-sexual adult content, however. You should see the options that show up during arguments. Definitely not for kids. 😂

The issue with upgrading SL in any real way is they're adamant about not breaking old content. I don't see how we'd move to Unreal 5 while keeping 2005 SL intact. More than the character creation tools, though - I'd love to have InZoi's building and lighting system. That's never happening either. 😂

InZoi is releasing in Q4 this year, if it's still on pace to meet that deadline. It's also been in content creators' hands for a long time now. They did release a beta version of the character creation studio open to everyone for a few days in August. I tinkered around with it myself. Full access to the entire game is only in the hands of a select few content creators. You can find their playthroughs on YouTube.

I see that happening in approximately...never. 😂

A brand new SL user gets a Senra avatar and LL did recently add a character creation tool on signup. It's very basic, however. InZoi is built in Unreal 5. It's also singleplayer, requires a fairly hefty hardware setup, and is being marketed to Simmers. It's almost impossible to compare the two systems. InZoi better compares to games like The Sims 3 & 4, Paralives, and Vivaland (all singleplayer or small-scale 10 or fewer person multiplayer). It can get away with having characters with that crazy level of detail since there aren't thousands of them running around at a time. Black Desert Online might be a better comparison. It's a full-on large-scale MMO with a very similar character creation tool to InZoi's. How it manages that without catching on fire, I have no idea.

BSODs can be caused by a whole ton of different things. Drivers, software conflicts, malware, hardware failures (RAM, drives, CPU, PSU, motherboard), and overheating due to bad airflow or dying fans. I'd check drivers first. Bad, corrupted, or just plain older drivers can cause a ton of issues, especially with GPUs. Then I'd look at malware and software. If your computer's a bit older or the parts are kind of mid, it could be hardware failures. You'll have to run diagnostics or run some type of system monitoring software like HWiNFO to see what's what. You can also check to see if something's been bumped out of place or has loose screws. For a laptop, troubleshooting is more obnoxious. A desktop is easier to run physical checks on (reseating parts, checking cables, etc.).

You're welcome! If you do decide to start one (or more) of those businesses, also think about using social media to help. There are a loooot of shape makers out there (and decorators, and stylists, and photographers). At least get a Flickr and/or a Primfeed account to help advertise. For Flickr, if you intend to link your photos to a commercial SLURL or marketplace store, you'll need a paid Pro account. If you just use the account as a portfolio/look of the day/link to a personal blog without any commercial links, you should be fine with the free account.

I don't know how profitable shapes are. I always make my own, though I do see them around a lot. If you do want to go that route, maybe try some head/body combos that aren't being done to absolute death. Personally, if I were to do it, I'd focus on challenging fantasy shapes, but I always find those more interesting to make for myself in general. I don't know what the demand for fantasy shapes would be, but you could always try it and see what happens. If you want to provide a service instead of a product, which might be easier as you don't have to deal with maintaining a store or marketplace shop, I've found home decorating and/or landscaping to be profitable. There's also a commercial version of that (offer decorating services to stores or landlords for their rental units). That's a good option if you shop a ton anyway and have a good stash of furniture/decor in your inventory. If you prefer fashion, personal shopping, styling/makeovers, and/or photography services are also pretty decent.

That's nobody in this thread (I believe it was BilliJo who had that fan issue).

Yeeees, so much this! It's gotten a bit better than it was in the past (omg, I remember the total slideshow I used to deal with), but yeah. Still not great. LMAO, I do it all the time (and I'll do it again!). Listen, when SL calls for higher system requirements than most of the games in my collection, we need to have a serious discussion about SL being AAA game-like. 😂 *raises hand* This me! Side note: Your houses are lovely by the way. I once used the barn-like home that I forget the name of now to do a winter wonderland-type holiday build, and the dining area came out wonderfully in all that space. Such an adorable home! ❤️ But yes, that describes me perfectly. I go through the trouble of meticulously picking out the roomiest, chic-est, well-made-iest homes only to go a little nutty on the decorating, throwing all kinds of stuff in there because it looks delicious (Hi, I'm Aya, and I have an SL food addiction). I might be guilty of forgetting to check things like, oh, triangles and LODs because, ya know...it just looks so tasty and cozy! I think many creators are doing a fantastic job, really. I used to build oh so long ago in prims and did a little pre-bento pose making here and there, and I can't even fathom the skill and time it takes to create good mesh. I'd easily lose days perfecting just the right static modeling pose or designing a prim antique chair to pair it with. Zero chance I'd ever mess with actual 3D creation, lol. No desire to take things to that level. You guys are rockstars for doing that work for us, especially now that PBR has basically thrown yet another performance wrench into the works. Omg, right? I will occasionally hop into BD to take photos with all the bells and whistles enabled, but I limit myself to empty sims or a photography studio high in the sky just to avoid the possibility of pushing the limit.

This is soooo true. I feel like it's all so far above my head any time I try to pin down just why I'm having one specific issue or another because it really kind of is. SL is so difficult to troubleshoot. It's usually never anything too major for me, but the random TP crashes during weekend sale shopping did eventually get on my nerves so badly that as it continued happening over time, I just started giving up entirely, lol. Trying to run SL like people try to run Cyberpunk 2077 just ain't happening for me, even when I upgraded to a newer card. I'll gladly keep my settings modest if it means I don't have to keep relogging all the dang time.

Yep, but even with good hardware. Poorly optimized games/software can wreak havoc on even the best system specs. I've seen people with 4080s and 4090s complaining that their performance in some games is terrible. SL's pretty much the Wild West of game optimization. It's always been bad just given the random chaos of it all. I'm frankly surprised when I DON'T have some kind of technical issue or glitch happening (the mysterious case of the never-rezzing demos plagued me for almost a year and I still have no idea what was causing that).

If there's another solution prior to the fixes coming in the promised update, I don't know what it is. I could perhaps swap to a different viewer, but I like the features offered by Firestorm and none of the issues I'm having are serious enough to make that swap (just some normal lag in high-traffic areas, which is my standard experience anyway - PBR didn't add much to that, if anything). I've personally never run Firestorm with shadows even before PBR. It's just too heavy on the system and provides no real benefit for me (I do all of my photography in BD).

Exactly. They generally won't. All of the games you mentioned are running in a fairly stable dev-created environment with optimized performance. As we all know, SL is anything but. The whole ever-changing world filled with content made by thousands of different users makes it run pretty hard on our systems. I don't know what settings you've tried so far, but I found turning off shadows and keeping my draw distance low keeps the Firestorm PBR viewer running smoothly when I'm in crowds. I know they've been working on some performance tweaks for those experiencing issues, though. Hopefully that helps a bit.

What is the actual purpose or benefit of bringing AI into a virtual world like Second Life in the first place? Personally, there's nothing more irritating to me than the idea of AI NPCs. I've seen one good implementation of that where the bot never speaks at all and solely exists to help the player do repetitive tasks like gathering resources, chopping trees, helping in combat. Tasks are assigned via a simple dev-written command selection system. That makes sense in a game where you're planning big base-building projects on your own without other friends to help, but on a platform designed with socializing in mind, I just fail to see the point.

Who runs that page, exactly? Doesn't look like an official source. Better to go by your card's manufacturer's site. If there's nothing in the manual or documentation, you can check the official forum and there are often people discussing issues directly related to specific cards such as temp ranges, cooling, crashes, other issues. Alternatively, look up your exact card (including the manufacturer and model - MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, etc.) on YouTube and there are often very technical deep dives on it that can help pinpoint when you should start looking at solutions. 85+ is just a general warning range that some (not all) cards fall into, but some cards are designed to be able to handle that and more - especially if they have more advanced cooling technology.

All true. Seeing as how the word being used is "melt," I'm going to assume it's resulting in serious crashes and/or possible signs of hardware damage. If it's a case of the card running so hot, it's crashing out and you're actually detecting a burning smell or seeing/hearing other signs of damage, I'd shut everything down, unplug, and start doing some serious digging around inside the PC (open the PC, check your connectors and cables at both ends for damage, etc.), because that doesn't sound normal at all. If you see real damage during those checks, you'll need replacement parts. Don't even run the PC until you get them. If it's just "I'm at 70-75 degrees and I hate it," well, that's not melting, and you're within normal operating range. If you're spiking over 85+, then I'd start looking into solutions.

So much this, plus, not all 3060 12GBs are the same. Some have better cooling than others. If your card is "melting" (I don't know whether to take that literally or not - I've seen the stories regarding faulty 12VHPWR connectors with the 40 series cards), then you'll want to dig into your specific brand/model of card and see if it's known for having those kinds of issues. Is it a dual fan model or triple? Is it factory overclocked? What's the rest of your cooling setup like? Have you kicked out the dust bunnies lately? If you installed it yourself, is it seated properly with all cables in place? I haven't noticed any increased heat when using the Firestorm PBR viewer (I'm using a 3070). I do run a bit hotter with my non-PBR BD viewer, as expected (my settings are cranked to Ultra everything in that one vs. Firestorm PBR which stays on High with shadows off).

Without going point-by-point on everything you posted under this, I can just say most of that is true. PBR is an industry standard for game developers, it's built-in to game engines like Unity and Unreal, it's nothing revolutionary in this day and age but it is new for Second Life, it will increase hardware demand a bit, creators have good reason related to workflow to want to adopt it, regular non-creator users will have to make some adjustments to take advantage of it (not the case in most games but it is a thing here), PBR generally will run fine for people who have systems that are fairly current unless there's something wonky in their individual configuration (aggressive antivirus, drivers that need updating, improper viewer settings, not enough airflow within their PCs, etc.), low-end users are facing the same issues they'd face in the broader games industry as a whole (I've had to update my graphics card just to keep current with games in the past, too), etc. None of that is "hive mind." It's just how games work. Only because it's new for the platform itself and required a whole new viewer update, creators can utilize it to build more efficiently (once it's working properly), it requires some fiddling on our end to view it properly (again, that's not standard), and it's affecting performance for some users. Otherwise, nobody would think twice about it. Go bring up PBR in any gaming Discord server and see how few people even know what that is (if anything, they'll tell you about the beer). That's totally okay! You don't have to be. It's just a very industry-specific type of thing. If someone's not interested in 3D modeling for games or film, they'd likely never give it a thought. Like I said, even a lot of gamers don't know what all this stuff is unless they're interested in the backend shenanigans that goes into their favorite games. We know about it here because it's affecting how we use the platform in its current state and because our environment/lighting changes so often - it's not really supposed to work that way, but here we are.

The types of people who would be interested in a place like Second Life are already using platforms with similar features anyway. I've seen Second Life come up in discussions on Discord and Reddit, and it's usually among the same people who play games like The Sims, Stardew Valley, Palia, My Time at Portia, Animal Crossing, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Final Fantasy XIV - life sims, farming/crafting sims, base/home building games, decorating games, social multiplayer games/MMOs, etc. Stuff we can essentially do here (with the help of RP systems). SL really wouldn't appeal to the gamers who ONLY live in FPS games (and neither would any of those life sims). Light peeve: As I've mentioned, though, it's SL's reputation that generally keeps some newer users from trying it. Those who tried it years ago aren't shy about telling others of their experiences with griefers and finding negative adult content (not the regular stuff, but the very out-there stuff they stumbled into). That game is so weird and gross! That type of thing.

I've not really seen that here to be honest. I've seen some excitement surrounding it for the obvious reasons, though. Is it true that PBR is being used in the gaming industry? Yes. Does it, in combination with everything else we're supposed to be getting, help slim down a game dev's workflow and give them a standard to use across the board so they can smoothly transfer assets between projects and all that - sure. Will it help Second Life creators do the same? Absolutely. You'll see/hear creators discuss it a LOT because it makes life a bit easier for them now. Non-creator users have little to get excited about other than "ooo that looks pretty," and some might express annoyance due to our very unique-to-Second Life issue of ever-changing environment settings. Most gamers/platform users never have to even think about backend stuff like this, EVER, hence the frustration that now we need to fiddle with lighting and probes and whatever else. Plus, there's the issue of increasing hardware requirements, but that's absolutely nothing new to anyone who's been gaming in the last few years. Because nobody cares about it. In order for that type of info to be found, someone would have to be writing articles about it or there'd need to be social media buzz about it or game devs would have to be out there in the public at gaming conventions and events hard-selling it - and yeah, very little of that is happening. I watch gaming showcases and presentations and conventions and events like Summer Game Fest, Guerrilla Collective, PC Gaming Show, etc. and I've NEVER heard the word "PBR" at any of those. Why? PBR is old and nobody cares. Okay maybe I'm being a bit harsh there 😂, so lemme rephrase - game developers care. Game dev hobbyists care. The general public playing these games just goes "oooo, graphics look soooo good WHEN'S RELEASE?" and "IS THERE MULTIPLAYER???" and that's pretty much it. Ray tracing and DLSS are a much bigger deal these days. Those terms I have heard mentioned on occasion. If you absolutely must know who is using PBR and how, your best bet is probably hanging out in game studio-run Discords, YouTube channels, forums, and binging their developer logs on their websites.

That list is admittedly a bit all over the place, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got some things wrong (as it's known to do, hence why I'd never even think of using it for anything). I'm not going to fact-check its answer as it's often actually quite difficult to figure out if a game is using PBR and whatever else for a bunch of reasons - game devs sometimes create and use their own homebrew engines, you'd have to comb through tech specs and dev-made videos or logs or whatever else to see if they did a behind-the-scenes on how the game was made, those tech discussions often get super deep into the weeds and I just don't care enough, etc. If a game is built with Unity, Unreal 4, or Unreal 5, then there's a good chance it's utilizing that tech. There's at least one game on there using a custom dev-created engine (Noita) and despite being 2D, I wouldn't be surprised if it's using something snazzy just given the game's overall visual design and complexity (every pixel is simulated, according to the devs). How they did it exactly - I do not know. I'd honestly be surprised if gamers even know what PBR is. We're more familiar with terms like RTX/ray tracing and DLSS. Those show up in gameplay options and usually can be toggled on/off to help performance. PBR just exists - unless you're into game dev, you probably won't really ever see that term being used when you fire up Red Dead 2. I've been gaming heavily since the age of Commodores and Ataris and the first time I ever heard the term "PBR" was on this forum back in 2023, even though I've seen playthroughs of or played most of the games on that list. IMO, PBR just isn't a big deal. It's just very difficult to implement in a game or platform or virtual world with 100% user-generated content and personal environment settings and lighting that can change on a whim, which is why it gets talked about so much here.

Nah, nothing to do with them. It's being developed by Krafton, Inc., a South Korean game developer (the makers of PUBG). As for what it is - it's a singleplayer life simulation game entirely based on The Sims. Similar design, menus, gameplay, etc. It's just more up-to-date with a more powerful engine, better character customization, better environments, an open world with much smarter NPCs, driving, photography features, 3D object generation (take a photo of an item and upload it and it creates that object in the game to decorate with), facial capture features, and a built-in gen-AI tool for item and clothing customization. Not a whole lot to do with Second Life, and it's mostly being marketed to diehard Sims fans.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I will say it's really difficult, if not entirely impossible, to get a very skinny male avatar with almost no hint of muscles using the current bodies on the market + sliders. Now, CZ Slim is really close (but it's BOM only and I'm not fond of using only alpha layers), followed by Anatomy (I don't think that store designs for Anatomy, however - shame otherwise I'd switch to that body in a heartbeat), but the rest of the bodies - really freakin' hard. Trust me, I've tried, a lot, lmao. I used to just get the look using Maitreya + V-Tech/Lara Flat, but finding clothes for THAT combo is a whole other pain in the booty, especially these days with everyone switching over to Lara X but not as much being designed for Flat X. You're using Gianni, so you're probably used to a slightly larger shape, but this is the kind of thing I tend to go for (check mah lil stick legs, LOL), and I can't get there with just sliders + Legacy (non-athletic version). These pants cut off quite a bit to get like this: The arms, though, ugh - short-sleeved shirts are my nemesis for that reason. There's no good way to slim arms down to match without long sleeves, but I totally dig that shirt, so...here we are, lol. The store you're referring to and another shop in that sim definitely do run very skinny. Beyond those two, there are only maybe two or three others I know of that consistently design their clothes to be super slim. You should be fine shopping most other places if you want to avoid that look.