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Cathy Foil

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Everything posted by Cathy Foil

  1. You could create your own alpha layers in Photoshop or Gimp. You might want to look into this little program sold on the Marketplace: AvPainter - SL Clothes Design and Preview Tool - Full Version It lets you paint directly on an avatar mesh. I don't know if it does alphas but if not you could paint the entire avatar white and any place you want to be invisible paint black. Then open it up in Photoshop and use the black and white image and create an alpha. I bought this program years and years ago. I don't need it anymore since I have Maya and 3D Coat which allows me me to paint directly on the avatar mesh and are much better at it and have more tools and options than AvPainter. But if all you wan to do is paint simple alphas for your clothes AvPainter is a very good choice. Hope that helps. Cathy
  2. Unfortunately I really don't know much about Blender. I am a Maya user. Gaia Clary has a wonderful blog that has many tutorials and some free download stuff like her Avatar Workbench. If you download her Avatar Workbench at least you will know there is nothing wrong with the skeleton or blender file. Link: Avatar Workbench Gaia also has a wonderful plug-in for Blender named Avastar which you can buy. Here's a link to some articles she wrote about both Avatar Workbench and Avastar as well as a number of other rigging related articles. Link: Gaia's Articles Lastly here is a link to a bunch of videos Gaia made for Avastar users: Avastar Videos I wish I could be more help than that. There are a bunch of Blender users on this forum. Now that the weekend holiday is over some of them will jump in here and be able to help you better. Hope that helps. Cathy
  3. What program are you using? Maya, Blender, 3D Max? To me it looks like your skeleton is messed up but it could really be any number of things.
  4. I've heard people rigging mesh anywhere from a few thousand Lindends to 40 or 60 thousand Linden Dollars. Some mesh clothes are harder to rig than others. Fitted Mesh is more difficult than traditional rigged mesh. So there are a lot of variables that can go into how much it will cost. I would, in the Wanted forum, post a few photos of your mesh with some in wire frame mode and ask people to give you an estimate. Once you get at least 3 estimates throw out the highest and the lowest estimates and give the job to the person who gave you the middle estimate. Don't be tempted to hire the lowest estimate person. You normally get what you pay for so the quality of the rigging from the lowest from the lowest bid most likely will not be very good. My Dad used to say "There is good, fast and cheap. You can have any two but never all three." This means if it is good and cheap it isn't going to be done fast. If it is fast and cheap it isn't going to be good. If it is done fast and good it isn't going to be cheap. If by some miracle you find someone who will do it good, fast and cheap you just ripped them off. Sooner or later they will realize this and either not work for you again leaving you back at square one looking for a good rigger or they will get pissed and want to get even somehow. I hope that helps. Cathy
  5. Unfortunately I am a Maya user not a Max user so I don't know how much help I will be but I will give it a go. Open up your DAE file in a world processor program like Notepad. In it scroll down till you see a list of bone names. Make sure all the mBones are there and that they are all spelled correctly and the upper and lower cases are correct. Here is the list of mBones: mPelvis mTorso mChest mNeck mHead mCollarLeft mShoulderLeft mElbowLeft mWristLeft mCollarRight mShoulderRight mElbowRight mWristRight mHipRight mKneeRight mAnkleRight mHipLeft mKneeLeft mAnkleLeft mSkull mEyeRight mEyeLeft mFootRight mToeRight mFootLeft mToeLeft If you are doing FITTED MESH you must have all the mBones in the DAE file along with any COLLISION Bones that your mesh is weighted to so if your mesh isn't weighted to the HEAD collison bone then that bone doesn't need to be in the DAE file unlike mBones which all the mBones have to be in the DAE file even if they don't have any weight to them at all. Here is a list of all the COLLISION Bones: HEAD NECK L_HAND L_LOWER_ARM L_UPPER_ARM L_CLAVICLE R_HAND R_LOWER_ARM R_UPPER_ARM R_CLAVICLE CHEST LEFT_PEC RIGHT_PEC UPPER_BACK BELLY LEFT_HANDLE RIGHT_HANDLE LOWER_BACK R_FOOT R_LOWER_LEG R_UPPER_LEG L_FOOT L_LOWER_LEG L_UPPER_LEG PELVIS BUTT You shouldn't need to export animations in your DAE file so I would turn that off in your export settings just to be safe. Have you been able to upload any mesh that is rigged? Try startring off fresh and in new scene with nothing but the skeleton create a cube and rig it to the mBones but then adjust the weights of the vertex to be weighted only to the mHead bone and export it as a DAE file and try to upload it to SL. When having trouble uploading mesh it is always best to use LL's most current default veiwer instead of a 3rd party viewer. Sometimes LL makes changes and it take takes the 3rd party viewers a little time to update their viewers. If Max can let you export out as FBX you might want to try exporting out as a FBX file and using AutoDesk's FREE FBX Converter program to convert your file into a DAE file. Here's a link to where you can download it: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?siteID=123112&id=10775920 I would try FBX® 2013.3 Converter. A lot of older converters work OK except I believe someplace around 2011 2012 the converter's DAE file became incompatible with SL until 2013. Lastly and maybe I should have done a YouTube search first watch this video I found on how to use 3ds Max for SL: I hope that helps. Cathy
  6. Awesome! Thanks for sharing the info Drongle.
  7. I wonder if it is in your export settings? When exporting a DAE file you only need "Polygon meshes, Joint and skin, Normals and Texture Coordinates" set to export in your options. Could it be you have other things set to export as well like Cameras, Lights, Invisible Nodes, Geometric Tangents or a whole host of other things turned on in the options? (NOTE: You don't need Joint and Skin if you are exporting mesh that isn't rigged.) This probably woudn't have helped but since you create jewelery there is a relatively simple way to create any size and shape bounding box you like. This is great if you want to make super small or thin geometry smaller than 0.01 meters or if you want to offset the apparent pivot point. 1. After creating your mesh create a rectangular box and make it the size and shape you want it to be. (So if you want your mesh to be smaller than 0.01 in SL make the box much bigger than your mesh jewelery or if you want the pivot point to be offset make the box so your mesh inside the box is off to one side) 2. Create a mesh triangle and duplicate it 7 times so you end up with 8 triangles. (You can do this with fewer triangles but it is just 24 vertices.) 3. Make sure that in the "Move Tool" settings that "Retain component spacing" is turned off and that "Move:" is set to "World". (Sometimes "Retain component spacing" will act like it is on if "Move:" is set to anything else other than "World".) 4. In Vertex Mode select the all three vertex of one of the triangles and with "Snap to Point" turned on or hold down the V Key move your mouse cursor near one of the corners of the box you made for the bounding box and hold down your middle mouse button and drag it over the corner of the box. (All three vertex will snap to the corner of the box collapsing the face of the triangle making it invisible in Maya and will be invisible in SL no need for an alpha.) 5. Repeat the process for the other triangles snapping them to each of the other corners of the box. 6. Select just the box and delete it. 7. Select your mesh jewelry and all 8 triangles and combine then into one mesh. 8. You are now ready to export your mesh. (NOTE: You don't need to do this bounding box method for rigged mesh only for mesh that is not rigged) What we are doing by adding the vertex of the triangles in this way is changing the overall size of your mesh. SL doesn't care that the vertex is of the triangles are collapsed on top of each other making the faces of the triangles invisible in SL. If you are doing different LODs just make sure that the 8 corners of each LOD are in the same positions as the original box and that your mesh jewelry or what ever you mesh is is inside the box completely. Hope that helps. Cathy
  8. I can't give you specifics for which computer to buy but I can give you my option and general advice. I think it is a good idea you had to go with a desktop instead of a laptop because you can easily upgrade and replace parts on a desktop yourself way more so than a laptop. Plus parts for laptops cost way more and generally last way less because laptops are super hard to cool with the one or two little fans they use which get easily clogged. I would go with a windows machine over Mac or Linux for Second Life simply because LL puts way more of an effort for windows compatibility than either of the other two though Mac is a good choice too. I have no experience with Linux. I would get at least a quad core processor and you want as much ram as you can that is the fastest you can afford. You are also going to need to spend at least $200 USD for a decent graphics card and you want at least 1 GB of ram on the card if not 2 and you want it to be the fastest ram possible as well. Power supply you probably want at lest 500 watts or more so that isn't going to be cheap. I would go with two drives. One SSD (Solid State Drive) as drive C and one regular hard drive as drive D to back up drive C everyday. SSD drives are way faster and will really speed up the performance of the computer but when they break they give no warning at all unlike regular hard drives which usually give you some warning that something is wrong but not always. I would go with a Mid Tower to Full Tower case. You want a full size motherboard so there are plenty of expansion slots and room to add things. Smaller than a Mid Tower desktop case will make it hard to fit everything and have to use a smaller motherboard which will probably not have as many expansion slots. I am finally getting ready to get a new computer myself after 10 years with my current one. Really the only reason I am getting a new one is that a new program I got in January that I need to use is 64 bit only and my machine is 32 bit. Yea I can get a different operating system but it is time. Despite being 10 years old she still keeps up very nicely with most of the new computers today. I get frame rates in SL in the 50s and 60s. I had her custom built and spent $2000. I told the guy I know there is usually a huge price leap going from second best to the very best and to give me just below that price leap. I have upgraded the graphics card 3 times and increased and upgraded the ram once. I have tweaked the heck out of XP but didn't over clock the CPU. Overall she has been a great machine and I am going to keep her as my backup. Don't buy a Dell or other name brand PC. Dell especially makes it hard to upgrade parts from what I hear. I wouldn't by a computer off the shelf. I suggest finding a local computer guy who builds computer and tell him exactly what you want the computer to do and how much you have to spend. Believe me his knowledge is worth the several hundred dollars you will be paying him to build it for you. I am a Maya user myself and regularly have Maya, SL, Photoshop and several web pages open all at the same time while I am working with no problems. Not bad for a 10 year old machine. Hope that helps. Cathy
  9. I would move to InWorldz since they have the Mesh Deformer or move to whichever OS grid has the largest number of people. InWorldz by no means perfect and has its own share of technical problems and management issues but what grid won't?
  10. I think I may know your problem TheMoreYouKnow. It is very possible that you didn't do anything wrong. The problem is most likely in SL it is very common for the default animations to also rotate the mCollarLeft & mCollarRight bones instead of just rotating the mShouderLeft & mShoulderRight bones when the arms are hanging at the side of the avatar like most of us would think they would. To test this in 3Ds Max try rotating the mCollarLeft & mCollarRight in the X axis a bit like 5 degrees. Of course this means the mShoulderRight & mShoulderLeft bones will not need to be rotated in the X axis as much. If you get the same deformations you see in SL then that is your problem. There are several ways to fix this if that is the case. One create your own animations or buy animations that don't rotate the mCollar bones. Two while your mesh is in the same pose to reproduce the deformations you see in SL adjust the weights around the shoulder area till you find a good compromise. I would try giving the area around the upper shoulder area of your mesh weighted more to the mChest bone so it doesn't deform so much. Of course this means the shoulder won't bend as much giving it a more stiff look when it moves. The third way I guess would be to do a bit of weight adjustment like I just mentioned and to move the mCollar bones out closer to the mShoulder bones and when you upload the mesh to SL check the option to upload the joint positions. I don't use 3Ds Max I am a Maya user so I can't tell you exactly how to do this. I hope that helps. Cathy
  11. For the most part sellers of full perm items can not do anything about resellers selling the items or giving the items away for free. The reason is because it is illegal for a full per seller to set a minimum price in the first place. It is against US law for them to do so. Google the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 which was amended by the Clayton Act in 1914. These Acts were written quite a long time ago and do not take in account the new technology of the digital age. Because there is really no real world cost to digital information and digital products there is nothing stopping the price dropping to zero decimating the value of the work put into by the original content creator. This is just not happening in SL markets but also in other markets such as publishing. There was a big law suit between Amazon and Apple that I believe went all the way up to the Supreme Court. Because full per seller in SL can't really set a minimum price or enforce it buyers of full perm item uncut each other eventually bringing the prices down lower and lower. In the past few years I have seen full perm prices themselves drop down to the prices we used to see for the same type of non full perm items. It is a horrible cycle of downward prices devaluing original content creators works even works by content creators who do not sell their items as full perm because there is no real world costs to selling an infinite number of digital copies of full perm items. IMVU has a better system for their version of full perm. In their system the original content creator selling full perm must be paid the original purchase price for each copy of the item sold by the reseller. This means if the reseller wants to make any money they have to sell it for more than the original price they bought it for. To compete with other resellers or to get significantly more money than they bought the full perm item for the reseller has to put value into the item by adding something creative such as better textures or adding mesh they created or combining several full perm items together creating a unique combination. This does mean full perm items in IMVU sell for pretty cheap but it does keep the prices from dropping and those content creators who do not wish to sell their items full perm do not see the value of their items dropping because of undercutting by resellers. There is a very interesting article from Duke Law School: THE APPLE E-BOOK AGREEMENT AND RUINOUS COMPETITION: ARE E-GOODS DIFFERENT FOR ANTITRUST PURPOSES? by MICHAEL WOLFE You can read it here: http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=dltr I am not against selling full perm. I just see the problems how LL has implemented it here in SL and hope that in the next virtual world LL creates they do it differently more like IMVU does it. Hope that helps. Cathy
  12. I agree with you EmiElissi. Fitted Mesh is a flawed system in the first place. It was implemented so fast and Oz given so little time and resources which just compounded those flaws. Adding more sliders would just compound the confusing mesh we have today. The custom sliders were an attempt to make a broken poorly implimented system work better. The sad thing is had LL gone with the Mesh Deformer instead of compounding the confusion and complexity it would have simplified so many things. No more need for 5 standard sizes. Way way less works for content creators than Fitted Mesh. The end user average consumer resident would not have to think about anything just wear the mesh clothing. Yes the Mesh Deformer has some flaws but those could have been fixed in the Mesh Deformer 2.0 which would probably not cost LL anything since the original Mesh Deformer was paid for by a small group of residents who hired Qarl to write it. I am sure 2.0 could have been paid for in the same way. Mesh Deformer 2.0 could have had a smoothing feature. It could have had the option to deform from the faces of the mesh instead of the vertex position which gives a better smoother deformation of the mesh clothes. It would have had a relax UV by World Space and Pinned UV border to remove texture distortions. An option to deform from a secondary worn mesh would mean that custom mesh avatars could wear any mesh clothing and it fit all without the customer having to think or do anything more than just wearing the clothes or avatar. This is what we could have had with the Mesh Deformer not the mess we have now. I am doing my best to make a bad situration better with my MayaStar. Cathy
  13. I have videos I made for my plug-in MayaStar which is for Maya. One of my videos specifically deals with the different options for Collada with Maya. It all depends on which version of Maya you have and what you are exporting as to which one might be better for you. Installing Open Collada for Maya is easy once you have the correct EXE file for you version of Maya. Basically double click the file after downloading and following the on screen instructions. You then have to start Maya and go into the Plug-in Manager and put a check mark next to it so it loads and a second check mark if you always want it to load every time you open Maya. I have links in the description to all the Open Collada download pages for the different versions of Maya. I also have a link to Autodesk's FBX Plug-in Archive. If my memory is correct Maya 2012 built in Collada doesn't work well with SL but I know the 2013.3 one works just fine. I hope that helps. Cathy
  14. There are relatively simple solutions that would be fairly easy to implement for Fitted Mesh that wouldn't break any existing content. Let's take the broken ankle problem. Unless people have an Knee Angle setting of 50 pants, long dresses, long skirts and boots rigged as fitted mesh look like they have broken ankles because while the upper and lower leg collision bones move in and out, like they should, they don't rotate to follow the avatar's leg mesh angle they stay straight up and down as they move in and out. The simple fix to this is to add four more leg bones. Two new upper leg bones and two new lower leg bones but this time beside moving them in and out have them rotate. It is a simple bit of code in the avatar_lad.xml file and of course adding the bones to the avatar_skeleton.xml. This would give mesh designer two options to rig to without breaking existing content. The second relatively simple solution would be to add custom sliders that just affect the Collision Bones. This the actually put forth by RedPolly the person who discovered it was possible to rig mesh to the Collision Bones. Here is a post I made quite a while ago where I made a few custom sliders and posted photos to show such an addition would indeed work. Custom Sliders for Fitted Mesh a Solution The biggest problem for rigging Fitted Mesh without a plug-in is you are adjusting the weights blindly. In order to see how your weights affect your Fitted Mesh one has to keep uploading mesh to either SL or the Beta Test Grid. This could easily mean uploading 40 or 50 times or maybe more. It is a bit like writing an email with no monitor to see what you are typing and having to print what you wrote in order to see it. Then trying to edit your email and having to print it again to see if your changes were correct. Luckily there is now Avatstar for Blender and MayaStar for Maya that makes this massive multiple uploading unnecessary. I hate to sound like a broken record but the Mesh Deformer has none of these problems and is just sitting on the shelf complete ready to be implemented in SL. The Mesh Deformer has worked side by side with mesh rigged to the Collision Bones with no problem because it uses an entirely different way of making mesh fit the avatar body as it changes shape. Custom mesh bodies using the Mesh Deformer are totally compatible with all the Appearance Sliders including the face and all animations including facial and physics require no more effort to work than just rigging your mesh to the mBones / Normal Bones. This means totally custom faces and bodies who eyes blink and mouth open and close. Here again is my video showing the Mesh Deformer works: Yes I know I am promoting the Mesh Deformer which if implemented would certainly hurt the sale of my plug-in for Fitted Mesh but I am thinking of the greater good. It would be best for SL if LL would let us have both the Fitted Mesh and the Mesh Deformer.
  15. Amethyst Jetaime wrote: I know you were talking about the new grid. I just don't agree with your "solutions" as they don't solve anything. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ That is fine that you don't believe my ideas would work but you can't say for sure they wouldn't solve anything because they haven't yet been tried. At best all you can say is you don't think they work. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Amethyst Jetaime wrote: I don't see any problem with the way full perm works now and apparently most people who sell full perm don't either or they wouldn't be selling things full perm. Plus it's ok with me that people sell there stuff for 1L or give it for free. LL won't do anything to stop that either, as they want some free content available to new people. __________________________________________________________________________________________ So you speak for the vast majority of people who sell full perm? I have a good number of friends who do sell full perm and who do see a problem with how full perm is currently done in SL and a good number of them who also believe that limiting those who can sell to premium members is a good idea. I have no problem with people who sell full perm give or away for free or sell what they make for L$1 either. I just propose that those who buy the full perm items can not sell it for less than they have bought it for and that for every sale of that item no matter who sells it the original content creator gets the same amount. This would put an end to the constant undercutting by those who buy full perm items that end up destroying the markerplace. Have you not noticed that price of full perm items has dropped dramatically? It is a horrible spiral downward. Original content creator, who does not sell full perm, creates a high quality item and it sells well and becomes popular for a decent price. Lets say it sells for L$2000. Full perm creator sees this and makes a similar product and is able to sell it for ten times the price at L$20,000. The first people to buy the full perm can sell it for L$1800. More people buy it and start to undercut each other. The price starts to dramatically fall. Within a fairly short amount of time the price has fallen to L$100 or even less. The original content creator sales dry up for two reasons either people just won't buy it because why buy it at L$2000 when they can buy basically the same thing for L$100 or two because now there are literally hundreds of basically the same item up for sale on the marketplace no one even sees that original content creators item so even if they lower the price it doesn't help. In the long run this eventually hurts the person who sells full perm items because the only reason they were able to get people to buy their things for L$20,000 was because the original content creator was able to sell their original work for L$2000. So the full per seller has to start to lower their price which mean more and more people can afford the full perm item watering down the market even further. It is a horrible cycle. I have been in SL long enough and selling in SL long enough to see this happen over and over again. You may not see a problem with this but I an many other full perm sellers I know do because they have watched their incomes dwindle because they can no longer get the same amount per full perm that they used to. Like I have said. I have no problem with full perm. I just have a problem with how LL has full perm set up in SL and hope they takes steps to make it better. I would suggest looking at how IMVU does it. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Even having a staff of experts check everything that is imported in SL for IP violations may cut down on the obvious stuff, but it won't stop it from happening. No one can recognize everything that comes from another game as ripped off. Even if that were possible, it would take a huge staff to do that with the rate things are imported into SL and is not economically feasible. As I said before, it is not LL's job to do this anyway. It is up to the person that owns the IP rights to enforce them. _________________________________________________________________________________________ I have never suggested LL have a staff of experts check everything. This is not an idea I put forth so I have no idea why you bring it up here and now. I would agree with you that such an attempt by LL would be most likely not economically feasible. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Amethyst Jetaime wrote: You haven't given any proof that requiring everyone to be premium to sell things is a solution at all since plenty of Premium Members are involved in ripping content already or see nothing wrong with passing full perm things to a friend. There are also plenty of Premium members that make things that they sell for cheap or give away. _________________________________________________________________________________________ I can't offer proof until my ideas are put into action and tested. Just like the Wright Brothers couldn't offer you proof that their plane would fly until they built it and flew it. Yes I am sure there are premium members here in SL that have ripped contend and see nothing wrong with passing full perm things to friends but I bet of those who do are probably in the minority and that the vast number of people who do are not premium members. I also have no problem with premium members, in SL or the new virtual world LL is making , selling things cheap or giving them away. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Amethyst Jetaime wrote: As far as offering my own ideas, that isn't possible for me to do at this time since we don't know what LL's economic model is going to be and how the world will be structured. The only thing that I do know is that Ebee said they were going to try to give us inworld creation tools much better than we have now and everyone will be able to create content with them and that LL considers the content creators and their primary customer on the new grid. That is fine that you don't want to offer any original ideas for the new virtual world LL is creating but it doesn't mean that I or anyone else shouldn't. I think it is great that Ebee wants to create better tools for everyone to be able to create content. Like I have said before I don't want to restrict the ability to create in the new virtual world I just want to restrict the ability to sell to those who are premium members. Ebee could do this without breaking his word that everyone will be able to create content. Creating content and selling content are two totally separate things.
  16. Charli Infinity wrote: It was never the topic of this thread to discuss solutions to copybotting. It was you that brought up "the biggest problem I see in SL..." out of the bue and jacked this thread. but copybotting or just piracy is a difficult to control we all know that. There does not seem to be a solution and what you suggested is just another suggestion that is not very well thought out. first in creating sculpt shoes and feet...wow such value. sorry never heard of you. other creators can do without your plugin. you have not created anything of value in world that people would want to steal. are you one of the people that like to comment first on youtube videos? Sometimes threads take a turn the OP didn't indent to that is just life. I would say the vast majority of the replies in this thread have little to do with your original post it is just not my replies. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Your Original Post: The new virtual world Linden lab is working on..what's it called now? Is it still SL2?... Will it use the same Linden dollar currency we use in current SL? or will Linden dollar here be transferable there? and extra: what exactly are the next gen platforms? _____________________________________________________________________________________ My Original Reply in part: It will not be named SL2 or Second Life 2.0. Linden Lab's has been very clear on this. They have also made it very clear that this new virtual world, while very similar in many ways to SL, will be a its own product. I am sure LL did this so the new virtual world can have its own TOS and limits that will be different than SL's. I sure hope it will in anycase. I am hoping that LL has learned from its past mistakes and successes with SL. The biggest problems I see in SL is not the technology or code or graphics. In my opinion it is the rules that govern how SL can be used that is the biggest problems. The managerial decisions that have been made in other words. ________________________________________________________________________________________ As you can clearly see I responded directly to your post question. Your line of questions all dealt with the differences between SL and the new virtual world LL is creating so my responses was on topic and appropriate. I simply supported my response with well thought out logic and reasoning despite what you claim. I am sorry if others repsonded to my post with arguments and I guess according to you I should not have defended my ideas or replied to them. I sure like to see anything you have created. I have never heard of you either. Other creators are free to use Maya without my plug-in if they wish and that is not a problem with me. LOL I have been stolen from in world on several occasions so you are wrong again. According to your definition I have created value. I have yet to see evidence that you have created anything of value. Asking if I am one of the people who like to comment first on YouTube videos? Now I can accuse you of jacking this thread. I do not make it my mission to reply first on YouTube videos but if I was what does that have to do with anything? You do know the whole point of comments feature on YouTube and here in the Forums is to allow people to express themselves and communicate with each other right?
  17. I understand your logic and reasoning but you are taking my proposal farther than I said. It is if there was a very busy that was very dangerous and I had voiced the idea the speed limit be lowered by 5 miles per hour to make it safer. You then say why 5? Why not 10 or 20 miles a hour lower or why not close the street that would make it totally safe? As a counter argument against my idea. While the over all questioning of lowering the speed limit effectiveness to help make the busy dangerous road safer is valid taking what was originally proposed farther than the 5 miles per hour lower is not a valid or fair argument against the idea. My original idea to limit who can sell and transfer objects from one account to another that is it. I never said or suggested in the new virtual world that the ability to create should be limit. Others responded to my ideas and misunderstood and had thought my idea was to limit who could create so I responded and corrected their mistaken belief. Getting paid to do a job such as DJing isn't selling therefore my idea doesn't come into play in this situation. Nor does it come into play in any of the other examples you have put forth. My proposal was to limit the ability to sell items in world or on the Marketplace and the ability to transfer objects from one account to another account to premium members only.
  18. I have long found the way LL has setup the Full Perm system problematic at best and economically devastating at worst. A system that allows reproduction of an item copy after copy to be sold at any price including free with no inherent cost for the seller inevitability sees prices to reach the bottom. The way full perm is setup in SL just magnifies this and increases the speed of the race to the bottom. Some full perm sellers have tried to keep prices reasonable by requiring in their license agreements a minimum price. Some here have pointed out that such minimum price agreements appear to be illegal. I assume they are referring to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 which was amended by the Clayton Act in 1914. It looks like it may be time for another amendment for these acts where written during a time when all goods had real world costs to bring them to market. In the digital copy age there is no real costs. I just read a very interesting article from Duke Law School. The paper primarily deals with E-Books and how Amazon and Apple along with almost all the Publishing companies where battling it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. I must say that at lest Amazon was paying the publishing companies a fee for every ebook. Unlike SL which once sold with full permission the original content creator gets nothing and the item can be sold for very little or given away for free. Amazon was selling many titles at a loss but this was apart of their marketing strategy. It is a very interesting read the title of the paper is : THE APPLE E-BOOK AGREEMENT AND RUINOUS COMPETITION: ARE E-GOODS DIFFERENT FOR ANTITRUST PURPOSES? by MICHAEL WOLFE You can read it here: http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=dltr Unfortunately the sight is down for maintenance as I write this Feb 19th 9PM. There is an interesting quote from Justice White on page 9 which, if I am reading it correctly, suggests that an intellectual property right holder may have the right to require a minimum price for the reseller. Below is an exert from page 9: [The Supreme Court precedent on the interaction between intellectual property and antitrust suggests that Congress’s election to enact an intellectual property scheme receives some antitrust deference. In BMI v. CBS, a price-fixing case where the Court eschewed the per se rule in part because of its own unfamiliarity with applying antitrust law to the music industry,36 Justice White left the door open to intellectual-property-based justifications for anticompetitive behavior, though just by a hair. He wrote: Although the copyright laws confer no rights on copyright owners to fix prices among themselves or otherwise to violate the antitrust laws, we would not expect that any market arrangements reasonably necessary to effectuate the rights that are granted would be deemed a per se violation of the Sherman Act. Otherwise, the commerce anticipated by the Copyright Act and protected against restraint by the Sherman Act would not exist at all or would exist only as a pale reminder of what Congress envisioned.] Personally I like how IMVU handles their version of full perm. Items there can not be sold for less than the reseller has bought them for since on every sale the original content creator gets the same amount that the item was originally bought for by the reseller. In order for the reseller to make money have have to raise the price up and in order to compete with other people who bought the same item they have to add value to it by either creating new better textures or adding mesh they created or other mesh items they bought. So if you are a house builder you may buy a bed from one original content creator and a sofa from another. If the bed was L$500 and the sofa was L$200 the minimum price for the house would be L$700. But of course you wouldn't sell it for L$700 or the reseller wouldn't make any money so they might sell it for L$2000 and pocket L$1300 for themselves. I don't know if IMVU is technically breaking the law or not by not allowing reseller to sell at any price they want. Anyway just some food for thought.
  19. In my second video I show how to easily make the UVs just like they are in Marvelous Designer so no need for Blender. I am sorry I don't know Blender so other than exporting your mesh as an OBJ I am not quite sure what to tell you. You could try exporting it as a DAE or FBX and importing it into Blender that way as well. Just be sure to check the exporter options for each and see if there is a triangulate option you can turn on or off. Hope that helps. Cathy
  20. I have a YouTube tutorials using Maya on how to convert Marvelous Designer mesh into quads you might want to try. I don't use the cookie cutter method. With my method if you are careful and use the same number of spans the seams usually match up quite nicely with only needing a little bit of tweaking. Instead of using a cookie cutter approach to make the quads in my video I use curves and lofts. I have refined my technique since making the videos and now use Birail more often than lofts now to create the flat quads. Birail can be found under the Surface menu just a bit lower than Loft in the same menu. I should make another video on how to handle scoop necklines and such. Part 2: Hope that helps. Cathy
  21. You would need to learn how to rig mesh to the SL skeleton. The mesh itself would be easy since you can just use the default avatar mesh provided by LL and then just make it slightly bigger so it sits just above the avatars skin. The hard part is rigging. You probably do it as Fitted Mesh. Problem with Fitted Mesh is as the avatar body changes shape Fitted Mesh can never change shape exactly the same way so parts or all of your tatto's mesh may either move too far away from the avatar's skin or worse sink into the skin making the tattoo disappear. Now had LL gone with or allowed us to have not only Fitted Mesh but also the Mesh Deformer custom mesh tattoos would work perfectly. See the video below which demonstraits the Mesh Deformer in action. The Mesh Deformer was in beta testing for two years and is just sitting on the shelf bought and paid for already by a small group of residents. It could be fully implemented in just a day or two. It would certainly open up the door for many new industries here in SL custom tattoo mesh is just one of them. LL is really denying themselves a lot of money by denying the residents the Mesh Deformer. Hope that helps. Cathy
  22. If you are trying to upload mesh to the Beta Test Grid there might not be anything wrong with your DAE file. At least several times a week perfectly good DAE files will not upload to the Beta Test Grid randomly. When I get an error from a DAE file I am fairly certain should upload I then try to upload another DAE file I had already successfully uploaded to the Beta Test Grid. It it also fails I know it is a glitch in either the viewer I am using or on LL's end. This isn't surprising since it is a Beta Test Grid meant for LL to be testing out all sorts of code and hardware so instability is to be expected. When this happens I log out and take a break. Usually within 10 minutes to an hour I can log back in and upload the very DAE file that was getting the error. I primarily use the Singularity viewer though it is always an excellent idea to use LL's most current default viewer since it will always be kept up to date by LL. Hope that helps. Cathy
  23. Dresden Ceriano wrote: Cathy Foil wrote: Dresden are you as clueless as you appear to be? If you knew anything about IMVU you know the owners of IMVU overly encourage or require very low poly mesh creation. IMVU exchange rate is horrible and they have no in world building or script language. Every mesh that has a different color for texture has to be uploaded separately in IMVU thus each variation cost a considerable amount of money to bring in world. That is why overall there isn't as much higher quality items as compared SL. It is not IMVU's full perm / Derivation system they have that makes the overall amount of high quality items lower in IMVU less than in SL. Dresden Ceriano wrote: You are correct... I am pretty clueless where the creative process in IMVU is concerned. Nevertheless, I still contend that your idea would definitely stifle creativity in SL and in LL's next VW as well. Not only that, but I firmly believe that should LL set such restrictions, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot. _________________________________________________________________________________________ My ideas can't stifle cretivity in SL because I am not proposing them for SL. The only thing I am proposing restricting in the new VW is selling not creating. Those who want to create and sell with free accounts will still be free to do so in SL. I happen to respectfully dissagree that LL would not be shooting themselves in the foot. Neither of us can say which one of us is correct till the idea has been tried in the new VW. Man I wish LL would just give it a name already. Kinda like saying "He who must not be named" instead of just Voldemort. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Dresden Ceriano wrote: What I said is that the system in SL is encouraging of creativity... and, by that, I don't just mean in contrast to IMVU, but in contrast to just about any other platform out there at the moment. One of SL's biggest draws for, at least amateur, content creators is the ability to make money off of creations with virtually no investment costs. While not everyone takes such things into account, most reasonable people certainly do. It's simply logical to expect that people would be more likely to invest their creative energy into something which might eventually garner them a monetary return on such an investment, rather than a simple pat on the back. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Yes but again my ideas have been put forth for the NW LL is creating not SL. I agree with you that yes indeed for SL what you put forth is one of the big draws for content creators in SL. Hurray I must be a reasonable person! SL isn't going anyplace. A reasonable person would realize that for those armature content creators who need a market to sell their creations for monetary gain to make it worth their while will still have one. Cathy Foil wrote: I never suggested that creators for IMVU were less restricted than those in SL Dresden. The only restrictions I have proposed is selling be limited to Premium Members only. Free memberships should be able to create anything they want for themselves just not be permitted to sell it or transfer it to other residents. This would not restrict creativity. Dresden Ceriano wrote: Perhaps you're right that it wouldn't restrict creativity for those already creatively inclined. It's the people who didn't even realize that they could be creative until they gave it a try and, encouraged by the thought of being able to make a bit of money off of their work, decided to continue developing their creative skills with whom I'm concerned. ________________________________________________________________________________________ That is great and SL will still be here for that . It is great that you are concerned for them. Cathy Foil wrote: Now to be clear I am talking about this for the new virtual world Linden Lab is creating not for SL. It is way too late in the game to change the rules for SL. Dresden Ceriano wrote: Unfortunately, I have no confidence that LL won't take this very approach (knowing how blindly ignorant they can be), but, as I stated above, should they be delusional enough to do so, they'd only be shooting themselves in the foot. __________________________________________________________________________________________ You can't say that for certain if LL were to put my ideas into practice would be shooting themselves in the foot. The best you can say is you don't think my ideas would be successful if the NW were to use them. To claim that it would would mean you can see the future and that would be delusional. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Dresden Ceriano wrote: Ebbe has already stated that, within the new platform, LL intends to monetize content over the tier-based income upon which LL relies in SL (look it up). Surely, they'd be cutting out a huge portion of their profits by implementing your ill-conceived suggestion. They'd be stupid to place such restrictions on the selling of content, when every bit of content sold would mean revenue for them. __________________________________________________________________________________________ In the short term yes keeping free accounts from being able to sell in the NW would most likely mean less profit. In the long term however more stable pricing, higher quality content, less stolen merchandise and less copybotting would make for a much more stable marketplace. You may disagree with my ideas for how to achieve these things but surely you can't disagree that more stable prices, higher quality content, less stolen merchandise and less copybotting would be a bad thing? _________________________________________________________________________________________ Dresden Ceriano wrote: I fully support setting restrictions as to the way content is made and, yet, vehemently oppose restrictions upon who can create that content. I may be clueless about some things, but I'm no idiot. ...Dres Then you should have no problems with my ideas for the NW. I have not said free accounts should be restricted in their ability to create just restricted from selling or transferring / giving items to other accounts. I have also made it clear that this would be for the NW and not SL. Selling and creating are two separate things. While the ability to sell may be a modivation for some creators who other wise would not create it is by no means the only reason for all creators. SL will always be here for those creators who need some sort financial reward for creating however small. I don't think you are an idiot. I only asked if you were clueless because you asked if I was insane.
  24. If my ideas for the new virtual world LL is creating isn't going to help curb or minimize the copybot problem or this organized criminal group you speak of please put forth some of your own ideas as to how they can be dealt with in the new world. HMM haven't created anything of real value? I guess creating Maya plugins for SL or creating the first high heel shoe with a sculptie / prim foot in it, 5 months before Stiletto Moody mind you, couldn't be considered of anything of real value.
  25. Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Cathy Foil wrote: Another reason for allowing only Premium Members to sell would be to help stop the practice of ripping mesh from games and other online sources and or for that matter reselling copybot items. Since premium members have to give a credit card or bank account information people engaged in such practices won't because now their real life identities can be easily tracked down by authorities. It won't stop it completely but it will sure keep it to a minimum. Being premium doesn't give LL any more of an edge in tracking someone down in RL than free accounts that have payment information on file. Marketplace now requires PIOF to open a new store. Inworld most owners of in world shops would need to have PIOF to pay tiers on their in world store either directly to LL or to buy L's to pay an estate owner as well as to cash out their earnings. Cathy Foil response: I don't know if you have read my earlier posts here but the ideas I have put forth are for the new virtual world LL is creating not for SL. If free accounts can't sell then they can't cash out. The payment on file information to buy linden dollars would not be necessary because those could be purchased on a secure website using a credit card or paypal. You bring up a good point in that just having a payment information on file is probably not enough. Though it looks like LL is headed in that direction in that even though I don't really make that much money in SL I was required by LL to fill out an on line document and a current photo ID not long ago. Not a bad idea to require it of anyone who wants to sell. Secondly, it is not LL's responsibility to track people down violators of IP rights in RL to prosecute or sue them. That is the responsibility of the copyright owner that files the DMCA. LL's only responsibility is to give you the accused's RL information if they file a counter claim. A counter claim requires that the person filing it give RL information. Cathy Foil response: When did I say it was LL's responsibility? Many content creators on SL are not premium members. I am not premium and I bet I have paid LL more than most Premium Members ever will in region tiers (you don't need to be premium to own an estate) and fees and I am not alone in this. Cathy Foil response: That is nice. Again I am talking about the new virtual world LL is creating. New world means new rules. It is possible that land will be free and no in world sales. It might be where if you see something in world you like to buy you simply right mouse click on it and select buy and in a browser it takes you to a MarketPlace like sight to purchase it. This would make the entire world basically a showroom. Many people use the money they earn in selling things to pay tier and buy items from other residents. It would have a significant negative effect on the economy to deny them the ability to sell things. Cathy Foil response: Again I am talking about the new virtual world LL is creating. I have already stated that the ideas I have proposed are not for SL that it is too late in the game to change the rules for SL. Having to be premium in order to sell things has been beaten to death on this forum over the years. irihapeti is right in what she said about who is responsible for copybot and who rips people off. Many premium members that want this just want to cut back on their competition, IMO, because they can't or don't want to compete in a open market. Cathy Foil response: Just to make sure this is clear I am talking about I am talking about the new virtual world LL is creating. I have no problem with competition or a free market. All markets have rules, costs and restrictions that influence the economic viability of them even in SL and the current MarketPlace website. Again you must not have read all my earlier posts. There are problems I see in SL market. One being the way Full Perm works currently. Two no RL costs to keep items from being sold for L$1 or even L$0. Three stolen content being sold in SL with no real consequences to the perpetrators. The new virtual world LL is creating gives LL a great opportunity to address issues like these that simply can't be implemented in SL. I love to hear your ideas Amethyst on how to make the new world LL is creating better or not have the same problems as SL.
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