ValKalAstra

Without some structure, this might devolve into everyone just posting pictures and attempts to solve them are drowned out. West Baden Springs, Indiana? If it is, this was by pure chance. Few months back I looked around for buildings in the panoptical style and this one kind of stuck out. Pure guess but my mind instantly went Chicago.

Performance and Second Life is a bit of a difficult topic. I've been in the same position: It did not run well for me at all and searching for help unearthed a lot of rather snarky threads that were not exactly helpful. In case the above doesn't help you, let my dive down the sass-pit be to your help: Temper your expections: A modern system does not equal great performance in Second Life. The "game" is old and its engine clunky. The greatest boon is also a bit of a curse as all that user created content hasn't undergone much in terms of optimization. As a result, getting about 15-20 FPS in a highly detailled Sim or one with a lot of people sounds about right. Shigata ga nai. Shadows kill your performance: The most frequent suggestion is to outright turn off your shadows. You can do this by switching the lighting from Sun / Moon + Projectors to none. The general look does suffer from this, yeh - but it's a significant speed boost in places that are bordering on unplayable otherwise. Avatars kill your performance: Aren't we all a bit vain? Yeh, yeah we are. As a result just a small handful of blinged out avatars can really drive the performance into the ground. Moreso when people attach so much stuff that you can hear your fans spin up when they load in. Lowering the amount of rendered Avatars naturally helps with that. Firestorm Update: On the off chance that you're using the Firestorm Viewer, the most recent version has trouble dealing with water refractions. Some say enabling occlusion helps - it did not for me but if your performance tanks near water, this is a potential explanation. See also here: Nvidia and SL: So this was a big boost for me. Some of the tweaks and settings in the Nvidia Panel seem to get into ugly brawls with Second Life. Even settings that by all logic shouldn't cause performance hits, can absolutely soak it. For example even just enabling the ability for DSR without using it, made my SL go crazy. Once I deferred ALL settings to Second Life (Application Controlled) - performance got better. So now I only flip these on when I am ready to make a screenshot.

Debauchery. --- Rats? Rats.

One: It's a yes from me, if that counts. Two: You need Jesus.

If you're on a budget - group gifts could be an option as well. When I started out, both Scandalize and Hilly Halaan have been an absolute blessing with the amount of group gifts they have in their Inworld Stores. These offered a wide array of looks and styles and by the power of mix and match, there are bound to be curious and unusual combinations to be had. There's also the sYs Fashion Store which offers a bit of a more curious style for basically next to no L$. I am not even sure how to name it - it could show up in Neo-Renaissance Cyberpunk just as well as some fantasy Sim.

It's interesting how these filter bubbles can lead to unexpected results. For example I can't remember spotify ever recommending me a single EDM song. However it seems to think I need some Jesus in my life, because it keeps recommending me some deeply religious christian metal. Yeh I think that is a miss. On the other hand I have found some wonderful music falling down the YouTube rabbithole. Just leaving it on autoplay for a bit and it leads to such wonderful things like Mongolian metal with throat singing, a Japanese band of retirement grandpas rocking the hell out to cosmic themes, a sudden glimpse of electric swing and... Honestly, the filters can work in your favour if you feed them right. They can also fall apart miserably. As for indie music, bandcamp and YouTube served me best there.

In terms of price you will likely get vastly different answers that range from basically free to a couple of thousand linden. It also scales with the type of post editing you are looking for. Basic shots with a base level of editing I have seen around the 1000-1500L$ mark. The photographer more or less puts you in their studio, let's you pick from a few poses or you bring your own, they adjust light and shadow, then take the shot and do some small touch ups if needed. You then get options that quickly scale upwards with a number of factors such as complexity of editing, if you need a very specific pose that needs to be made first and such things. My shots for example go through hours of post edits and that would theoretically reflect in the price, depending on complexity. That, however, might be completely out of scope for what your actual needs are. You said you wanted these as drawing references, aye? That reads like simple shots to me, clear lighting in front of a simple background. Those should not be too expensive and dare I say - might even be worth it to quickly do yourself. Portraits, well here a normal one might do unless you want all bells and whistles. The action shot is the one i would expect the highest price tag on and the most work put into. Finally, where to find photographers: Mostly three places to my knowledge. One, check the avatar threads here, see if someone strikes your fancy and style, then poke them. Two, social media. Personally I know that Flickr is a hotspot and just browsing through the official photo group or any of the unofficial ones puts you into contact with plenty. Three: If you see someone with a nice portrait in game, ask them. Edit: Currently on mobile so i will edit the links tomorrow when I am back at my PC.

Lime turned out to be a rather challenging colour for me. My first attempt ended in something that pretty quickly turned out to not include a lime outfit - at all. Just a lime, uh... accessory. So back to the drawing board and the result is posted below. The byproduct with the... accessory is behind this link instead https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50813896208/in/dateposted-public/

Thank you, that puts things into perspective. From an outside glance, they looked identical to me. Yet the information about there having been some forum battlegrounds makes it clear how things became the way they are. As for the double posting, agreed. It does make for occasional moments of déjà vu. @Marianne LittleThank you as well for pointing me to the challenge forum. I managed to miss that and I'll be sure to poke around at some point soon.

The price of an avatar also scales with what you've got in mind. If you crave a very specific look, you will quite likely need to pay a substantial sum to achieve it. However if you're more flexible and enjoy the idea of mixing and matching, you're spoiled for inexpensive and even free choice - and you'll even connect with other people on the grid. Skins, shapes, clothes, gift cards - entire houses, interior, pets and cars, top quality too and all can be had for very little if you're a bit patient and keep an eye out in the various freebie groups. Every couple of weeks a new hunt will start, some are a bit simple, others incredibly intricate and entertaining. From riddles to prop hunt and there too, you get wonderful gowns and dresses and curious items. And like before, it's also fun and connects you to other people. But if you want a specific look? Yeah, it's going to cost. Personally my advice would be to grab a decent mesh body, mesh head - a skin from the same designer for both and then a beautiful hairstyle you enjoy. That's a good base to start with and will run you around 10k to 15k, depending on what you go for and whether there's a sale going on. You will also want an AO but if you're willing to tinker, you can save Linden as well. For example there are various free AO on the market and with minimal work, you can tweak and expand on them. Instead of buying a whole AO for 2k, you buy individual animations for much less and unless you really need a hundred standing animations, you come out not only for less cost but also more individual.

Aaaand I've finally had time to work on my fairy outfit. I think it's high time I stop making fancy avatars and head into a RP sim already. It's gonna happen sooner or later. Either way, here it is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50810231666/in/dateposted-public/ P.S.: I am genuinely not sure which of the two avatar threads to use? Do they serve the same purpose? Is there a slight difference in what image goes where? Posting in both seems kinda - yeah no to me.

Some songs are just strangely hypnotic.

Been a while. Found a new dress I love in... *checks notes* a lingerie store?! Welp. The picture is a bit of a self deprecating ironic jab at my smartphone blinders. No offense intended to anyone but me. https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50777653453/in/dateposted-public/

Slim chance, but let me mention it, just because I've bumped into this user error on my own Genus Head - are you selecting the colour, followed by brightness? Early on, I've always had white eyebrows, white hairbase, etc despite trying all the colours, until I realized you need to set the brightness as well (the black bar under the colour picker in Orwars picture).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50683696906/

A lot of these options I wasn't aware of. These guides you write (the DOF one too) are quite helpful to a newbie like me. Thank you for taking the time, it's appreciated.

Thank you for the warm welcome - has it really been a week since I've last posted? Time flies at the moment. Recently got myself a proper winter coat and while wandering around a snowy landscape, inspiration suddenly struck. Well, it was more the Piano on a frosty hillside that struck. https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50675368372/

First post here - heya! If I missed some guidelines about ettiquette, let me know (I did go looking!). So, either way, I'm absolutely in love with the current look of my Avatar and wanted to share what she looks like. https://www.flickr.com/photos/191119559@N02/50642132036/