Synjari Myriam

This is why I mentioned putting item in-store. I probably should have worded that better. Putting something in-world or in a rezzer helps people determine better about that without the need of a demo. I rarely ever see buyable demos for non-rigged FP mesh. Edit: Oop I should add here that its great that you do it and very very admirable, but its just not the norm from what I've seen of many resource creators out there on marketplace. I would say putting as much information up front for the designers to see the quality of your work is definitely important. Honestly a reliable and good resource creator can demand a higher price that I would happily pay. Its yet more reason for putting together the web directory of resource creators.. find out who is legit making FP resources (no folks ripping from games etc, and folks putting a lot of effort to give the best possible resources for their customers) and probably even putting a review system as part of it for designers overall experience with each listed person.

oops I realized the wishlist part wasnt really stated correctly on the 1st one. I feel strongly that a buyable demo isn't required for non-rigged mesh items such as furniture and decor etc. it SHOULD definitely be a given for any rigged (which I know you don't do) and I think the only reason people don't mind with really lowered price models such as Meli, etc. not proving demos is because the general FP mesh models are such a low price that its probably considered more of a writeoff if it doesnt work out lol. But generally speaking for items where you want to charge more, you definitely want access to be able to see as much information as you can. Thats why I mentioned the UV layout as one of those things. If you can put in a small in-world store where you have rezzers for people to see the 3d model itself (in real-time), that helps even more. BTW, I love that you are approaching UV Layout from the mindset of your customer and how hard or easy it would be to work with the files. Needs to be more of you folks! hehe

I've been curious too so thanks all for the questions AND the responses on this! <3 Synny

Hi! I am a designer (my store brand is Senzafine) who uses templates (and tries to champion them, lol) so I'd be happy to answer on what I look for. I actually think I may have or will be soon buying one of your products (was looking thru marketplace just earlier in fact to see what was new and coming up) ;D So two things I want to mention first. I would be happy to list you on an upcoming website I am creating with my friends to put spotlight on designers who use templates, resource creators (such as yourself) and event companies that allow template users. We're going to be concentrating on high quality materials primarily but anything legitimate and workable may be added. Its sort of a help site and directory all in one so that everyone can hopefully start building good working relationships with one another and to prove that template use is fine if the designer is really trying to work with the texturing to create a unique product. I have some criteria I look for and also some I wish resource creators would take into account. What I look for is primarily good solid quality, sane UV layouts and at the very least, solid AO's. Wishlist coming up. My wishlist would be: I don't mind demos if its not a wearable such as apparel.. especially rigged, however if that is the case I would like to see the UV(s) layout to find out the difficulty level in working with the mesh. A solid AO is required, but if additional lighting 'bakes' can be added, all the better as it will cut down on my time. If these are sold separately, I'd still buy them as a way to save. Time is money right? Cost matters less to me than most, and that's because I believe in compensating resource creators who do good work with a reasonable compensation on cost. If you offer a DAE version, that's cool too but not required. For clothing, however that IS something I look for if I am paying higher than 200-500L per model. This is because in the event the resource creator decides to quit, there is still an option for me to learn mesh to a point where I would be able to resize the resources accordingly should the market change. Example: Maitreya has a HUGE market share right now, but if that changes and some unknown brand rises quickly through the market to gain a large portion of that market share, I am left with quite a few models that I cant use and no way of trying to catch up to the newcomer brand, especially if the resource creator is no longer working on or updating old products or even making new packages of older products (with updated fitted mesh sizes, etc) available as a separate purchase.. I hope that makes sense. Bottom line, it goes back to #3, I will pay extra if I need to. Resource Creators willing to receive feedback gracefully, including fixes to meshes that are problematic if they are charging a larger price tag. This pertains a bit more towards rigged mesh clothing but you get the picture I'm sure. Marketplace can be tricky for resource designers. One of my best friends is a resource designer so I get to hear earfuls of issues with it. There arent always appropriate categories for a listing where you'd get the proper exposure plus there are a lot of scammers that flood the marketplace with their horrible listings that piss me off bigtime lol. I really wish I could blacklist names to not show up on my searches. Yanno? ;D This one I hope to help with the website I mentioned earlier so that there is a more front and center way of introducing legit and good quality meshers. I think thats pretty much it for now. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, let me know! <3 Synjari Myriam

Long post ahead, but I want to help people with information I've learned over my time owning these products or getting very familiar with them. While I no longer use CasperTech, if you need similar functionality to Hippo, moving to CasperTech products is your best bet if you want a turn-key solution that requires less involvement (ie. scripting your own, etc). Casper has Multi-vendors, single product vending capability without use of multi-vend, buy as gift, Group Discounts, profit sharing, wishlists, loyalty rewards system, and affiliate system among other things. They do have good sales analytics and connect with marketplace as well. If you get the complete package, as I did.. you do get a lot of bang for your buck as it comes with the premium vendors (no % fee taken off each sale), plus all the vending system expansions. Lotta marketing tools if you're into that kinna thing plus gift cards, holovend and texture specific vendors. The system also offers re-delivery, but they also sell a stand-alone Updater that doesn't require use of the vending system for selling. Basically a widget type script that you can pack with your products which makes use of the single in-world server DropBox technology they've created to check if there is an updated version available. The upside is that the system will cause considerably less lag on your sims and the vending system makes use of a single script which faaar better than the ton of scripts that Hippo products utilized. I admit it was a cutting edge system in its day but that's long past. This is just an aside, but MANY event companies in SL do not allow hippovend anymore and havent for a long while. In fact it took a while for CasperVend to prove its mettle with several event hosters to be low lag enough for any busy event they held. Even so, Casper has created a specific vendor mode I think.. that specifically is used for events plus multivendors in general arent allowed at many an event. The downside, and ultimately why I decided to use a different method, is due to full product setup needing to be done via web panel. They have tried their best to make the process easy for what this aspect of the vending system requires. I use e2v but its a very different type of system and isn't for everyone. Less bells and whistles, but infinitely easier for me to setup plus its less reliant on the web servers. Additionally, the same single script ideal goes for the rental system. If you want that networked renting dealio, take a look cause there are way less scripts in there too! The scripts thing for both systems I'm basing off owning hippo products (rental and vending) waaay long ago. I don't know if they changed it but I remember there being a bunch of scripts to make both of those systems work.. within each vendor or rental box. It was insane. Thats it! I hope it helped and didnt make everyone too buggy-eyed with my wordy words! <3