Nix Manx

Vivienne Schell wrote: "In this case Art is defined by the tools" No. You only think so because you obviously are so focussed on your Blender UI that you missed some elementary lessons on the history of art and culture. Art is *never* defined as art by the tools the artist uses. And Ann is right, you frankly insult every artist in SL, and therefore entire Second Life. "if you dont adapt you get left behind and SL will get left behind" Your social darwinism is amusing, but people like you miss the point if it comes to intelligent adaptive behavior: YOU must adapt to Second Life or you will not even be let in. Why is it assumed that artists are somehow superior to 3D content designers, were not in a cathedral here painting a roof, we are using computers to create our designs, if those designs are overly complex and excessive then what should take 2 seconds to look at takes 2 minutes to load or in many cases never. Whats the point of 'art' if you cant view it? In terms of rendering and streaming content which is basically what SL is, is a major factor on lag and as pointed out there are many types of lag all of which are undesirable, rendering lag which is common is caused by inefficient designs which use far more prims/sculpties than necessary which also results in streaming lag due to the number of individual textures and script lag. Then add server lag due to poor coding. It all results in an unpleasant experience making many beautiful and breathtaking sims out of bounds, it doesnt matter what the history of art is, it doesnt matter how you define it and an insult can be given but it must also be taken, in some cases they are taken far too easily from a simple factual statement.

In this case Art is defined by the tools, prims, sculpties and meshes are all tools, limits would define what people can wear, want to wear your 100 prims hair, your 100 prim jewelry, your 200 prim shoes, you should have to pick and choose or buy premium to raise the limit or god forbid, buy something will less prim usage. If we continue at this rate there wont be a Second Life because Lindens wont be able to afford super servers and thus the SL experience will be a virtual slideshow limited to those with nasa super computers. You cant say that an artist should have no limits, because when you get right down to it, people in SL are not artists, they are 3D content designers, with 3D constraints. Im not saying that legacy content should be outright broken, but if you want to wear the above said shoes you are going to have to pick and choose or buy new content (which happens all the time btw) with more conservative server weight, like meshes for example. Like everything, if you dont adapt you get left behind and SL will get left behind, social platforms are in thier infancy, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and a serious company will come along and do what second life does but loads better (i'm not talking about these amateur copies out there)

From what I understand, Mesh wont be flexi, but mixing mesh + prims i expect will be a common practice.

(argh what no quotes?, come on Linden is 2011!) The difference is that planet earth doesnt have a prim limit nor do the eyes have computer component restrictions. Its not really a realistic comparison. The current problem with sculpties and avatars is the apparent lack of restrictions which just cause massive amounts of lag and as a result create a very unpleasant experience within SL, I went ot an awesome furniture shop the other day and the designs were fantastic however, due to the sheer number of sculpts and the number of avatars on the sim with elaborate and complicated outfits I literally couldnt move, my screen was frequently frozen, my internet was a peak usage and to top it off I have a very good computer, in the end I just left and didnt buy a thing. To break legacy content wouldnt be a viable solution due to the reasons that have been mentioned in this thread, however, avatar prim limits would be a viable solution, a good idea would be to increase the PE of sculpties and require people to have a premium subscription to exceed say 150 prims per avatar, this would result in more subscriptions for Linden yet provide a very strong incentive for designers and users to restrict prim usage and also encourage mesh clothing to be used instead. Its a win win win situation.

I have to agree here, me and a friend were discussing this last night, funnily enough the conversation came about because there just happened to be a 'prim + script' weighing machine in the shop we were in. I have 11 scripts and something around 30 prims on my avatar (and i still look as good as anyone else). My friend had 42 scripts and a shocking 298 prims on her scantily clad avatar, when she took off her shoes she went down to 79 prims!! There needs to be a better prim limit to avatars and sculpties should be raised in prim costs, there is no excuse to making a pair of shoes with over 200 prims worth of sculpties, its totally irresponsible and an incredible drain on sim resources. Costs should be proportionate else noone is going to buy meshes when someone can build something with x amount of sculpties, have less prims and more load for less cost. It doesnt make any sence.

I must admit I too was wondering if we could get some more information, I understand that everyone is hard at work and a great job has been done so far but is there any chance we could get abit more detailed info on which regions will get meshes enabled first or some kind of time line of how its planned?

I must confess, I left SL just after they announced Meshes, I realised at that point it would be wiser to wait until it was released and enter the market as a builder with a new product rather than spending a year making builds the old fashioned way and competing with everyone. Mesh upload costs are a major factor in determining if I feel this is a viable venture, If I have to 'invest' alot of money to upload my creations before I have even tested the market along with spending more money renting land it may not be viable, with this in mind and the factors posted in this thread with regards to the technical costs of meshes the price needs to be fair but also be encouraging for people who want to exclusively create meshes. If this becomes apparent that its a marketing tool for Linden rather than a significant update to SL in general then the question of time and energy = profit would be important.

Would be very greatful if reviews could be fully migrated over asap, as a consumer the reviews are essential in deciding if i intend to purchase somethin or if i should stay a million miles away from it. Until then unless there are reviews on the products (which in 90% of the case there is not) ill refrain from purchasing.

Great news about the grandfathered prices remaining as they are, an increase to $125 per month would have been a deal closer for me as I currently pay more than enough for the 1/2 homestead that I rent if not too much, however, with prices remaining as they are I am prepared to stay rather than pack up and leave. Personally I believe that prices should be lowered to actually increase sales, there is a reason why certain shops and services are thriving in a recession and they all have 1 thing in common.... lower prices, while those companies who have bitten the bullet and raised thier prices in a feeble attempt to keep their head above the financial tidal wave have had noone around to throw them a life jacket. Helping us to help you Linden is actually profitable.