Madelaine McMasters

Wynn Wrentling wrote: Hi everyone! I have the opposite problem: i don't know what I did to make these X.Y.Z. coordinates appear---how do I clear them? This simpleton would appreciate any help----thanks in advance Hi Wynn, The XYZ coordinates will be greyed out, or not visible at all, on things you can't edit, and they're visible and changeable on things you can. You don't want to clear those coordinates (by "clear" I'm going to presume 0,0,0) because that will throw the object to the corner (I don't recall which one) of the sim, below sea level (where I found a few of my fireplaces in my early days trying to decorate my home in SL ;-) Those coordinates indicate the position of the object you are editing on the sim. If you are editing an attachment while it's attached, the coordinates mark the offset from the attachment point to the attached object. The same holds for the XYZ rotations. For objects on sims, those rotational offsets are from the default new prim orientation, for attachments, it's the rotation relative to the orientation of the attachment point. I'm not in world to verify this, but I think the coordinate boxes don't appear at all if you attempt to edit something you don't own and haven't got edit rights for (given by the owner). The coordinate boxes will be visible but greyed out on things you own, but are no mod or locked, and the boxes will be visible and editable on things you can edit.

Hippie Bowman wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: YAY Hippie! So nice you can post again in the morning! Happy Monday to you! Big hugs and love! Good to be back in the mornings Val! Big hugs! Peace! I'm up, I'm up already. Val, I'll be ready for you as soon as I get the sand out of my eyes. Ummm, Hippie? Could ya give me a hand?

Nio, are you texturing terrain or a prim? If you are texturing terrain, you're never going to get realistic sand. Terrain textures are tiled across the simulator in a 21x21 grid, and are 512x512 pixels with no alpha. If you upload something of higher or lower resolution, it will be converted to that resolution. If you upload a 512x512 24-bit TGA file, no conversion will be made, the image will be stored pixel-perfect on the SL server. Now, given that the 256mx256m simulator surface is being covered by 21x21 texture tiles, each of 512x512 pixels, each pixel will be 256/21/512m or 24mm wide. That's an inch! With pixels that large, you can't make anything that looks like sand close up. The best you can do is construct a texture that contains the larger patterns you generally see in sand, like ridges, dimples and color variations. I'm recalling this from distant memory and hope it's still right.

Nio Skytower wrote: Hi, I need some advice, I'm trying to create my own photo texture to look sand-like, but it keeps coming out way too large every time it's uploaded and doesn't look realistic. I tried 1024x1024 and 512x512 and I think I tried 256x256 also! I haven't been there in years, but... http://cgtextures.com ...used to have lots of free, tileable textures. The free membership had a download quota, but I don't remember it being terribly limiting. I'm sure they'll have some tileable sand textures.

Nio Skytower wrote: Thank you, I fixed it! :-) Fantastic, now don't go locking yourself out! ;-)

Nio Skytower wrote: I finally worked it out. Thanks Again for your wonderful help. The only problem left now is when you try and flip the texture to get the doorknob on the right side, it also flips the opposite side at the same time!? You're welcome Nio. I'm glad you're making progress and that Rolig was able to answer your last question.

Nio Skytower wrote: So, it should automatically repeat, even though I only made a single image? Then what you are saying, I should crop it further before uploading it and then I wont see the transparent edges? I don't see a menu for 'face' also, so maybe its my viewer. Yep, SL will repeat any texture you upload if you tell it so via the "Repeats Per Face" numbers in the Texture Tab. Set it to two in both horizontal and vertical and you'll see four repeats of your door. The "Select Face" button is on the left side of the top, common section of the edit window in both SLV3 and Firestorm. Those are the only viewers I use.

Here's my guess, Nio... Your door texture should fill the entire image space. If there's a transparent border around it, that's why you don't think it's repeating. It actually is, but you have to scroll past the transparent part before you see another repeat of the door. Crop off that transparent border. If your door has glass in it, you'll want to retain the alpha (transparency) channel. If there is no glass, you should save the door image as JPEG so that the alpha channel will be discarded. SL works harder when it must handle a texture with transparency.

Hippie Bowman wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: Hi Hippie and Maddy! My pajamas are sexier! Hugs and love ya two! OMG! HEHEH! Hugs Val! Peace! Val, I'll admit your jammies are sexier, but I'm at my best when awake...

6-8-2013 Lost in the details of the breaking story of PRISM, the US Government's super secret internet spy program is the first known case of "cyclic robotic spying". Two algorithms, one American and running covertly on a Chinese military server and one Chinese, running on an American IRS server, were caught spying not only on each other, but through each other, and therefore on themselves. Do to the infectious nature of the spy software, each server continued to infect the other with additional copies of the code, resulting in not just single, double or triple agents, but agents to the 15,732,541th degree. Both governments have submitted claims of "Highest Degreed Secret Agent" to the Guinness Book of World records.

Oh great, the suntanned, long haired alarm clock is back. ... pulls up her sheet and goes back to sleep...

If you are using your sand image to texture a prim face, use the "Repeats Per Face" setting of the edit window's Texture tab to flood the face with multiple repeats of the sand texture (both horizontally and vertically). Adjust the repeat count up until you get the look you want. I think at least some of the library sand textures repeat well, but if you are bringing in your own sand texture from outside SL, you'll want to make sure you find one that's "tileable" or "seamless". This means that the texture was created in such a way that seams between the repeated sections won't be visible. As KarenMichelle and Rolig have suggested, try to avoid huge textures. Repeating a small one can give you exceptional detail over a large area, though that entire area will be uniform.

Nio Skytower wrote: How are door textures Made? I see the image repeated in a texture, but can't they also just be a single image also? I'm trying to build my own, but my image doesn't have that wrap around that the multiple image textures do. Mine is a single image and it looks funny on the edges. Hi Nio, Doors are typically made from a box which is cut in half (Path Cut B=0.375, E=0.875) so that it when it rotates about its center (all prims rotate about their center), you'll only see half of it turning about the cut edge. This half box has seven faces (top, bottom, front, back, two faces on the hinge side, one face on the opposite side), each of which must be textured. If you drag a door texture to a box face directly, it will texture only that face. The rest will still have the original plywood texture. If you apply the texture from the texture dialog box, it will (unless you have "Select Face" checked) texture all the faces. When that happens, you'll see your door texture on the front and back properly (though the doorknobs will not be on the same edge of the door, you'll have to flip face texture horizontally), but you'll also see that texture, all squished, along the top, bottom and edges. This might be what you think "looks funny". Rather than applying your door texture to those thin edges of the door, you might just apply the blank texture and color it to match the color of the front and back. Or you could play with the "Repeats Per Face" and "Texture Offset" settings in the texture tab of the edit window. You'll want a repeat of much less than one, to stretch out some suitable portion of your door texture, like a rail or stile, so it completely fills the edge, top or bottom. You can scroll along the expanded texture by fiddling with the "Texture Offset" setting. The hinge side of the door will be a bit trickier, as that is composed of two faces, each of which you'll have to texture to make the look you want. To get a perfect match to the opposite side of the door, you'd use half the "Repeats Per Face" to stretch the texture out to accommodate the fact that each hinge side face is half the thickness of the door, then play with "Texture Offset" on both faces to get a good look. Yes, this all sounds complicated, and that's because it is. But once you get the hang of texturing, you won't be able to stop! Good luck, Maddy

Rolls over and pinches her pillow's behind while wishing Val, Hippie and the rest of the forumainians a pleasant day...

Canoro Philipp wrote: sometimes we have intentions to do things right, but that doesnt mean that our results are gonna be the right ones. maybe storm will learn from your data, and offer it next time the topic comes out, with the intent that everyone gets the facts as they are. The facts were very easy to get. If we don't question the intent, do we question the ability? It would be dangerous to question nothing.

Canoro Philipp wrote: i appreciate your intentions to clear things up, it shows you care that everyone has the most accurate information available. Canoro, the information used to "clear things up" was wrong, as I revealed in another post in this thread. I'll leave you to consider whether this affects your understanding of, and appreciation for the intention. ;-)

Storm Clarence wrote: Yes Canoro, you just may find yourself being trolled. Trolled for veracity. China has 2 billion people... India has a billion and a half. Those two countries account for over half the worlds population, and all in Asia. Too many Manhattans, Mr. Veracity? The population of greater China is approximately: 1,354,040,000 The population of India is somewhere north of: 1,210,193,422 The population of Earth is approximately: 7,121,247,290 (at the moment I checked). China + India ≈ 2.6 Billion Half the worlds population ≈ 3.5 Billion. Have you confused veracity with intoxication? For those who question my veracity, simply Google the following... population of china population of india population of earth You'll get 2011 data that's comfortably close to the figures I cited. Canoro Philip's statement, which provoked the ever vigilant if not inebriated Mr. Veracity is: "the military power of rome decreased, but the influence of rome thru the roman state church continued to be respected by rulers, affecting their decisions. that influence has survived thru history, and to this day, this roman centered ideology is one of the largest most influential organizations in the world." I don't think there's much argument that Rome's military power has decreased with respect to the rest of the world (which is the only reasonable interpretation of Canoro's statement). Here's Wikipedia's breakdown of adherence to the World's major religions... Religion Adherents Christianity 2.1 billion Buddhism* 376 million–1.7 billion Islam 1.5 billion Secular*/Nonreligious*/Agnostic/Atheist ≤ 1.1 billion Hinduism 1.1 billion Chinese traditional religion* 394 million Primal-Indigenous religions 300 million African Traditional & Diasporic religions 100 million Sikhism 28 million Juche* 19 million Spiritism 15 million Judaism 14 million Baha'i 7 million Jainism 4.2 million Shinto 4 million Ravidassia 20 million Cao Dai 4 million Zoroastrianism 2.6 million Tenrikyo 2 million Neo-Paganism 1 million Unitarian Universalism 800,000 Rastafarianism 600,000 I see nothing in that ranking to refute Canoro's statement. Does anyone else?

Innula Zenovka wrote: The shorter the particle's life, the faster it must move between the emitter and the target. Oooh, that makes perfect sense, but as I've never emitted particles at a target, this didn't occur to me. Neat! llParticleSystem remains my favorite function, Innula. I must show you what I discovered with it some years back.

BadEddy wrote: I'm still struggling a little with this. What I did so far is to use a new rope texture for the particle, one that match some prim rope included in the built. So that part works well. Now I'm back to how the particle cut and does not give a nice long continuous line. So I play with the length and width of the particle as well as the length and width of the texture I'm using. seems like this might get me somewhere. I'm thinking that maybe the key is to set the length of the particle the same as that of the texture? Lockguard use something like that for size: size 0.6 0.6 how does that translate in pixel? The size you referenced is 0.6 x 0.6 meters, which seems huge for a li'l bit of rope. I'm also surprised to see that your particle is square when the rope is long and skinny. Is your texture mostly transparent, with just a thin length of rope visible in it? If so, you're making the graphics engine work harder, as it must think about a lot of pixels which are not visible. Given the shape of the rope pieces in your OP, I'd expect a particle size of something like 0.5 x 0.05 (or 0.05 x 0.5). The pixel dimension of a particle depends solely on the size of the applied texture. For the rope snippets you showed in your OP, I think a 256x16 texture would be sufficient. If you still have gaps, you aren't emitting enough particles. As Innula suggested, decrease the burst rate. If you make the rope snippets longer, the illusion will break as you'll start to see the straight segments and the ends of the snippets won't match well. The right combination of burst rate and particle length is something you'll have to determine by experimentation.

Czari Zenovka wrote: Orca Flotta wrote: Instead of speculating about future developments let's focus on the Here and Now for a moment: Here and Now you need a powerful machine and a big screen to really get the best out of SL. Here and Now impatient kids are crying for SL to be able to run on their tablets and not-so-smart phones. In the Here and Now I haven't heard of too many (if any) success stories about bringing these two very contradictionary demands technologically together. On the sociological side in the Here and Now we'll see a vastly diverging demography of SL users: the immersers who can really get lost in the virtual world and create content and entertain themself versus the leisurely playing consumers. The first group is content with their big immobile boxes since they believe in the right tool for the task. The second group is young and hip, upwardly mobile and don't have time/patience to learn anything and get immersed. They want to connect to SL for 3 minutes in the metro on their way to work/college. And they want to watch videos and do whatever one does on facebook as well. They are not the right target group for SL, I don't think. But they are the right target group for LL as future customers. And for them the rest of us hardcore SLers must sufffer all that nonsense we're faced with these days. In the end it comes down to a generational conflict. I conclude for myself there is no need to finally jump on the train to adhd-ville and get myself a smartphone or a tablet. Instead I shall rather spend my money on GPU and CPU upgrades for my big rig and maybe get a new lappy once in a while. I really wish I could give you a dozen HUGE "Likes" for this post!!! Except I don't do FB, but anyway....WELL SAID!!! As I've already described, I grew up in front of PCs. I now have an iPhone and iPad, as does my mother and several of my neighbors. I make fewer phone calls than ever, because it's faster to converse in other ways. When I'm at the store and see something I think Mom might like, I send her a snapshot and she tells me I've no taste, saving me the annoyance of hearing that face-to-face when I hand it to her. The neighbor kid no longer has to tell me where he is when he needs a ride home, my phone knows and gives me directions. I'm now able to tell my furnace to warm my house before I come home, not after. It's the same for my porch lights and a couple lamps indoors. I was never fond of telephones, so I'm actually quite happy the new ones aren't. ;-)

Czari Zenovka wrote: I think there are enough hard-core gamers who play MMORPGs for whom mobile devices would not work well if at all. Medhue has noted that PC gaming is growing at a healthy clip, 8% last year. SL concurrency looks to be down about 5% during the same period (WoW is hurting, too). So, even if there are enough hard-core gamers, LL isn't attracting them. If revenue is going up, as Rod claims, then we're a more tenacious customer base than I thought. I've no idea what that portends. SL is a fortress? You can only pull a rubber band so far? Dunno! I think that LL losing 400,000 potential residents a month (that's Rod's quote for new signups, of which retention isn't covering attrition) is probably more related to the trend towards lightweight mobile/social. Rapid engagment is key and mobile apps do that well... they have to. The article I read two years ago, in which it was reported that player's game depth was decreasing dramatically, also reported that game developers were moving their resources away from depth. By that they meant that, rather than designing additional plots and scenery for deeper levels in the game which were being reached by fewer and fewer customers, they were shifting focus towards the creation of new franchises. Those franchises might be based off familiar pop culture, like hit movies or off mobile game viral successes. It seems that mobile games act like trailers for movies yet to be made. If the trailer (mobile game) is a hit, they'll make the movie (PC game). There's a lot going on in the gaming world, and SL doesn't quite look quite like anything else in the constellation of participants. Maybe we should all be happy that SL seems stuck on the sidelines. Zynga shot up like a rocket and is coming down without a parachute.

Perrie Juran wrote: But before I stray to far I should get to the point I wanted to make. While we know more and more people only have their mobile devices now to connect, even though while they are mobile they may not use them for SL, when they become powerful enough, they may start using them to connect to SL when at home. It is a possibility. It is a possibility, but I wonder if it's likely. I think we're witnessing a sea change in people's use of technology. Some of us will be content to continue to stay home and focus intently on the immersive experience of SL. Some will come looking for that experience. But I wonder if a lot of people who'd been using housebound technology because they couldn't pocket it will abandon the home experience, never to return. We're creatures of habit. There are new creatures with new habits right behind us. Watch your rear!

Gavin Hird wrote: The unfortunate thing about mesh creation more or less happening in its entirety outside of SL is that it removes the bulk of the creative process out of SecondLife where newcomers earlier could watch the progress of, learn from and be inspired by the building process, they now more or less see a finished, polished product they have no idea of how was created. It is then easy to think this is not for me or I will never master it. It can be compared to most younger people don't have the skills to make RL clothes any more because it moved off to China, and they have become passive consumers of garments they only have a vague idea of how was created. It also skews the economy because builder tended to need more land for their creative process, off the shelf textures are largely replaced with custom uv-mapped textures and so on. Exactly, Gavin. If you watch/read Philip Rosedale early explanations of his vision for SL, you'll see that LL is now living on another planet. Philip envisioned SL as a giant tinkertoy set that anyone could use to build things and do so cooperatively. SL still has the tinkertoys, but they're not competitive with things built outside SL. I truly enjoyed working with friends in-world to build things on-the-fly. It was reminiscent of group projects in college or working with my parents to build things in our barn. Allowing third party viewers made teaching new residents how to work SL more difficult as each could, and often did, move menu items around and alter the functionality of various tools. Sculpties and mesh make it necessary, in most cases, to spend significant time outside SL, and therefore outside the collaborative teaching/learning space. For SL to be friendly to new potential creators, LL must curate the building experience. They've not done a good job of that. That creation now requires more time outside SL than inside it seems to be exactly the problem Rosedale was trying to address with Second Life. It's not often I get to watch a company create the problem it was created to solve ;-) SL is unique, it's got a loyal following that might keep it alive for some time to come, but I don't yet see a compelling growth story.

Tiffy Vella wrote: I've been lamenting this change too. Comparing the gaming communities that I have loved (Sim City, The Sims, Second Life) where members not only play but have a love of learning, modding, adding gameplay, being creative, bringing involved storylines to the arena, to the more lightweight styles of gaming emerging today can be sad. The technology which allows extra mobility and access also seems to erode the depth of gameplay, until players are mere consumers. Perhaps gaming is now more mainstream, and can be enjoyed almost anywhere at anytime by many more people with phones. There are countless games/apps which can be installed cheaply and instantly and requiring little immersion; they can be picked up and played at a moments notice while waiting at the bus stop. I shouldn't be all judgey as there is a place for such light fun. It is sad that this apparently comes at the cost of more immersive experiences. And not all doom! I was really heartened earlier this week when my 9 year old daughter showed me her first Minecraft skin. She'd made herself a little chicken skin to wear, and was proudly running about in it, and showing me her latest build. The spirit is still alive amongst some I don't know if I lament the change, TIffy. I don't yet understand it. I've certainly enjoyed the immersion of SL, to the point of having a romance here, but I'm also enjoying mobile technology. I've never been much of a game player, so neither console/PC games nor lightweight mobile/social games interest me, but I am finding great value in my iPhone as a means of connecting with others and with the world around me. I now routinely use Star Walk to plan my backyard astronomical observations, and to teach younsters about the night sky. These apps may be lightweight, but they're tremendously useful. Back to gaming, imagine a future in which involved storylines are somehow woven around real time activities by participating "gamers". The interface to the system might be lightweight, but the involvement might be intellectually, and physically challenging.