Aristotle Smit

Thank you Rowan. I am using the SL Client and I had wondered whether I should try a different one. I'll lok into Firestorm and see if it has the answer for me Many thanks

I wonder if anyone can help me with this. It's a question I've had for years. When you walk forward, your avatar stroll along nicely, but when you touch the left or right arrow, it turns sharply. I've always wanted a more fluid and slower turn. For example, if you are walking along a forest path, the landscape moves towards you very realistically, but as you adjust your direction left ad right to follow the path, it swings left and right dizzyingly. Sometime, I even end up feeling quite queasy !!! (Don't laugh!) There's either a really simple fix or I'm the only one who's ever been bothered by this. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate them. I may have been in SL for 14 years, but I only pop in and still very much a newbie. I do love it though, hence subscribing for fourteen years despite using it only as a visitor. Many thanks, Brian

One more thing. It's great to see male-focussed content. Understandably, most is female orientated so it's great to have help directed at men.

Hello Skell, Apologies for not replying sooner. I just wanted to say thanks for going to the trouble of compiling this extraordinarily comprehensive and understandable post. It's helping me a lot and I know it will be helping others. When I first posted my question, I thought I might get a reply or two but the discussion has been quite extensive and I'm reassured that it wasn't just me who was confused. I'm also delighted that it prompted so many interesting and helpful comments. Thanks to everyone. Aristotle x (RL: Brian Smith, Stamford, UK.)

The first two replies to my question (by TDD and Natales) were helpful when I first read them, but my understanding was very poor. I'm finding that, as my knowledge grows, they make more sense. For example, I've just noticed that Natales did explain BOM and SSB. It's just that they didn't make sense when I first read them. This time round, they made much more sense. I've a long way to go but I'm getting there with your help, everyone. Looking at SL history, is this summary about right? :- 1. There's the classic avatar, then there's Mesh, then onion skins and then Bento . . . and nothing will fit very well if you're not careful? 2. Classic clothes looked like they were painted on (true - that always bothered me) whereas mesh clothes look like clothes. 3. "Fitted Mesh" is a later, improved mesh body? 4. Mesh products are created by many residents but it's best to stick to one seller if you want everything to fit? Do those four makes sense? They're an oversimplification I'm sure but am I on the right lines? Thanks 🙂

Wow! Thanks Marianne. It just shows how confusing it all is. I could have sworn I'd bought a Mesh body (even though I didn't know exactly what one of those is). I'm getting clearer in my mind. It's interesting that I do have Mesh clothes but not a mesh body. I had to wear an alpha layer because skin was showing through the clothes. I assumed that was the classic avatar which (I think) we all still have. Thanks to Natales and her excellent blog page, I now see what the icons and boxes mean in the inventory. It's all a learning adventure!

Thanks to you all, again. I'm in a situation like many I suspect. I love SL but my RL wife simply doesn't get it and sees any time I spend inworld as a waste of time. Ah me! So my exploration of Mesh is proceeding extremely slowly. But I'm grateful to you all. I'm gradually getting my head round the concepts. One (probably silly) question: what does BoM mean? In fact, I know it means "Baked on Mesh" thanks to Natales, but I actually don't know what "MESH" is exactly nor what baking on means. And then there's BENTO. This will probably make you all shake your heads in despair and say there's no hope for me . . . but read on . . The problem with almost everything is that when you're involved in it, the terminology becomes second nature. A newcomer to the subject can be thrown by the simplest expressions. I once read that in order to begin learning Astrophysics or nuclear fusion, you need to start with the Ladybird book (a UK children's series - very simple and pictorial). You get the idea. So when Natales said: "As a solution BOM, bakes on mesh, was made as an enhanced SSB", I sort of saw she was getting at . . . but what's "baked on"; what exactly is Mesh, and what's SSB?" And when she said "add Normal and Specular maps to our mesh" I was, sadly, lost. But I'm getting the overall idea and I shall explore all the links that people have kindly included. Despite the icon by my messages, I have had a Mesh body and outfit (I think) for some time but it's all a bit random and mostly luck. I'll attach some screenshots. I kept the original glasses and hair because I liked them and didn't know how to set about getting replacements. It seems to work but isn't ideal. I'd appreciate any comments if anyone is willing to critique my online presence. You may of course be as rude as you like. I shan't be offended and all feedback is useful including the very negative. Thanks again, Brian

Thank you, Nalates Urriah, for the link to your "Things and Stuff". It's very useful and full of information. Looking back, I must have joined fairly early on, but I don't remember Ruth and Roth. I do remember a lot of free clothes etc. some of which referred to the "boy next door" and the "girl next door" as well as some other characters. Perhaps these followed on from Ruth and Roth?

Hello everyone. A million thanks to you all for your comments. I'm going to go through everything and hopefully become a bit more competent. I'm grateful to you all. I'll report back on my progress soon. Best wishes everyone and stay safe IRL.

I'm 12 years and 8 months old in SL so you'd think I'd be an expert by now. I'm not. To be honest, I'm still a bit of a newbie. I'm a regular but infrequent visitor so I don't get time to immerse myself. I just love to pop in and dance, or wander through a beautiful sim, or ride a tram in a steampunk world. It's a bit of escapism for me. That's not to say I take SL lightly. Back in 2007, it seemed to have limitless possibilities. And in 2009, I jointly ran In-service training courses for UK teachers - in Second Life! Instead of travelling to the professional development centre, they joined in a six week course from their own homes. We sat on beanbags beside the sea and had presentations, videos, discussions, etc. In those days, you had a basic avatar and could buy clothes or get them free. The focus was on what you could do in a virtual word. But nowadays it's confused by higher quality graphics and I'm just left behind . . . My question is about Mesh and Bento - two words that mean very little to me so I'm looking for a real beginners' guide. I typed "Mesh basics" in search (you'd think that would do it, wouldn't you?) But I got a list of topics that included these words (which are, to me at least, pretty meaningless: "dev kits, canmesh, bento, Maitreya, Belleza, MAV_BLOCK_MISSING, Blender, Mesh Multi C&T, Mesh body requirements on RP Sim, Bentomesh head, rezzing, catwa meshead" OK, I do know what rezzing is, but what if I didn't? How do newbies ever get started and how does an oldie like me even begin to understand what's going on? I need a pointer to a basic guide if anyone can help please. Many thanks Brian Smith (Aristotle.Smit) (PS. you'll see that the icon by my name is still an old style avatar. I do have a mesh? bento? avatar, complete with AO but I've no idea what I'm doing with it)