Jump to content

Scylla Rhiadra

Resident
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    22,656

  • Joined

  • Days Won

    228

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    Useful info, Ayashe (and more than I've got from the "ALL YOU NEED IS SCREWDRIVER!" crew). I'll copy it for a notecard in-world. I don't need it myself -- I'm doing just fine on PBR viewers, which I'm using exclusively at this point, but there are some who might. Otherwise . . . I am beyond bored of this particular discussion. I think we'll just accept that there is a class of people who really aren't getting it, and move on.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    But this will surely remain present in some form in future PBR viewers, no? Working in parallel with the system for reading PBR materials? Or does deferred rendering also read BP maps, but just not as well? (Sorry, I'm still rather clueless about the technical details regarding how all this works.) I don't recall him saying that he was intending to do this, but maybe I just missed it? It would certainly extend the utility of the viewer, although it would definitely create two different classes of residents: those who see SL well, and those who see it barely adequately. (Which may, in fact, be enough for some people.)
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    Just a first quick experiment with a normal. This uses a canvas texture overlaid with a paint strokes one. I'll need to play a bit to get the right balance and look, but I'm going to see how this looks in-world. (I've not compressed the width to 1024 so that it's clearer to see.) The effect is subtle, but that's as it should be.
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    Does the CoolVL viewer do this? I thought that was something Brianna was working on, using a fork of the open source FS code? I'd imagine a lot depends on how FS reads the take-up of their next iteration of the viewer. If there is any indication that FS users have been fleeing en masse to Alchemy and CoolVL (or Catznip, or even the LL viewer), they may well try to dither on deprecating the last FS 6 viewer. Or not. Who knows? I'm not paid to think about these things!
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    🙄 Honestly, I've just run out of words for this kind of blinkered understanding of what people outside of your particular little bubble are like or capable of. Sure. Let's just tell granny to upgrade her computer herself so that she can continue to go shopping and chat with friends in SL.
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    There are two related problems here: AI is capable neither of "critical thinking" nor does it have "ethics" or a moral compass. And if it ever develops either of these things, there's no reason whatsoever to believe that they will be compatible with human ethics or analytical judgment. My favourite story in this regard is one I think I may have recounted here before, about a parent who was interested in sending his child to a private school in NYC. He asked in a Facebook group for insights from any parents who had the experience of sending their children to such schools in New York. One of the responses (I'm not sure why) was from the FB AI, which recounted, in some detail, it's very positive experiences of sending its own child to a private school in New York. Its reaction to the comments it received (mostly along the lines of "What new dystopian hell is this?") was something impressively like surprise and dismay. It had been asked to reply with an "experience," so it had provided one. That it was entirely fabricated didn't compute with it, so to speak. The AI lied. But what's most frightening is that the AI didn't really understand that it was lying, nor did it understand that there was anything "wrong" with its response: it was just providing what had been asked for, using the criteria laid out by the OP. AI doesn't "get it." AI is never going to "get it," in the terms of how humans think, because it's not human: the best that can be accomplished is a simulacrum of human ethics and judgement, produced by tweaking algorithms. And, as you've noted, that means the AI isn't really "judging" at all: it's merely reflecting someone else's judgement (or bias).
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yeah, I do think there's potential, and I'd like to play with it. (I need to experiment a bit with Material Maker, as it's not worth my while to pay for Substance Painter.) One thing (over and above the technical challenges of producing normal, metallic, roughness, and emissive maps, which is not insuperable) that will have some people hesitating is that such work can only be fully appreciated in-world. For better or worse (and probably for worse) Flickr streams (and social media in general) are absolutely central to the workings of the "art world" in SL right now: without Flickr, the odds are good that your beautiful new artwork will languish unseen in a gallery somewhere. Flickr raises your profile, and it brings people to galleries. (Which, paradoxically and interestingly, is why the curator / gallery owner at the gallery I am exhibiting at in August has asked me not to put my pieces for the exhibit on social media: she wants them to be "exclusive" to her gallery and create a buzz because they are not available through the usual channels.)
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes. That was actually the point of my bringing up my education level. Great. I'll reassure my 74 year old woodsman friend that all he needs is a few tools and Google to 1) figure out the kind of GPU he should buy for his particular computer, and 2) learn how to install it himself. His laptop is almost literally his only connection with most of the outside world most of the time, but I'm sure he'll feel confident to fiddle with its internals now.
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    There is certainly no reason to believe that AI is going to be able to negotiate the nuances of race relations any better than it can manage anything else with the kind of complexity that is characteristic of human interactions. I hear it's really good at finding cake recipes though.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    Hmm, cheap and cheerful. I was going to make my own normals and specular, but this might be a simple solution! I'd want to adjust the specular, I suspect: a canvas with paint or a photo printed on it is going to be shinier than raw canvas. I might also try "adding" paint strokes. That's the ideal solution, and one that I often do use when taking a picture of a picture. But in a gallery that might have dozens or even scores of images hanging, it's not going to work as well. Although . . . I need to experiment. Only two projectors in a given scene can create shadows, BUT I don't know that there is still a limit to the number that are using directional lighting. It used to be that any additional projectors were treated by the viewer as point lights, but BD had an option that allowed one to turn the shadows off projectors, while still still using the cone dispersal of light. I have a feeling that might now be possible in the new viewers. But I need to check. ETA: Just to add that I actually own a mesh painting light that you can put on the wall above a painting, and that uses projector lighting. Extra LI, of course, but it looks nice.
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    Oh dear god. AI is lecturing us now?
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    Agreed. Exactly. Back when PBR was first introduced in the LL viewer, I bought an Art Deco lamp that was advertised as PBR, but did not make it clear that it did not have backup textures. I was using, on occasion, the LL viewer at that point, and also testing the FS PBR Alpha, so I could see, when I wanted to, what it was supposed to look like, but my day-to-day viewer was still the pre-PBR FS one. There was zero point in putting out the lamp because 90% of the time it would appear to me as untextured. And I still won't put it out, even though I am now 100% of the time on a PBR viewer, because many of my guests won't be able to see it. The point I was really making, in a sideways kind of way, is that if creators discover that their sales are slow for items that are PBR-only, they might decide it is actually financially worth their while to add backup textures. Or they might not. But this is one way in which you, as a consumer, can "vote."
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    So, on an entirely different tack, and more in keeping with perhaps the actual theme of the OP . . . . . . I've been thinking about how I might be able to use PBR maps to enhance my in-world 2D images. The "standard" for SL art, at the moment, is simply throwing a 1024x1024 texture onto a prim or, if we get fancy, a mesh "canvas," turning on full bright (which I hate), and making it as large as the wall will permit. I think it's an awful way to experience art (full bright in particular), because it divorces it entirely from the context of the 3D environment. It might just as well be on Flickr, where you'd at least get better resolutions. So, one simple thing I've never tried (and could have, using even Blinn-Phong maps) is to add a normal map that would provide a bit texturing. Most obviously it could use a canvas texture, or maybe even a normal constructed from paint strokes. And it really should have a specular / rough map, as RL canvasses (whether photographic prints or paint) do have some degree of shine. But . . . what if I were to add an emissive map to produce brightness selectively in a pic? Or even a metallic map for parts of a pic? How might I do that in ways that would produce particular visual effects? Not something I'll do yet, I think (in large measure because it wouldn't be visible to many people yet), but I may start playing with it to see if there is some potential for interesting effects.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    You do realize that a great many of us -- probably a majority -- have almost never actually seen the inside of a computer, yet alone have the foggiest idea how to change a GPU ourselves? I am, I think, a not unintelligent woman with a fair amount of education, but I wouldn't know a GPU from a motherboard from a modem if it came up and introduced itself to me.* And additionally I wouldn't know what to buy, given the possible compatibility issues (whether a particular setup can support the extra power that might be required, whether it literally fits within the case, etc.). Yes, I suppose I could run out and buy a set of computer tools (cuz, oddly, mine seem to have gone missing!), and watch a few dozen YouTube videos on self-installing hardware I know next to nothing about into a complicated electronic mechanism that I'm literally seeing for the first time when I open the case. I mean, really, what could go wrong!!?!? But this is, at the moment, my only fully functional computer, and, what's more, it's my work computer. I'm not sure I want to take that risk, nor would I counsel others to take it. * I am using first person here for rhetorical purposes: I don't need to do any of this myself, as my computer is fine.
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Then don't buy it! I'm not trying to be a smart ass, and I say that without animosity to either you or to the creators in question (see my post right above), but every creator, and every consumer, is going to have to make decisions based on their perception of the repercussions. For the moment, I am not buying PBR-mapped goods that don't have backup legacy texturing, because I know that a great many of my friends, visitors to my parcel, etc., aren't yet using a PBR viewer. That will change, likely within a year or less, and my buying habits will change accordingly. Similarly, creators who are not providing backup textures for new goods will notice a change in the buying habits of their customers based on that decision (assuming that they've made it clear to customers that the item can only be seen properly in a PBR viewer). Or they won't see any change. Either way, the decisions they make will be guided by consequences.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    Getting a little hard ass there, Qie! Actually, I do get it, and I agree that every creator has to make that decision for themselves. And I'm certainly not going to fault someone who chooses not to -- creators in SL receive scanty compensation for their hard work as is, and dumping extra on them is asking too much. That said . . . I bought a new dress the other day. It's textured for PBR (and the creator did a lovely job of it), but it also includes backup legacy texturing. As one of the main reasons I buy dresses like this is to wear them on Sunday nights when I go dancing, there is a very good chance I'd NOT have purchased the dress (which I bought in two separate copies, for two different bodies) did it not have the backup texturing, for the simple reason that, to somewhere between one quarter and about one half of the others at this club I'd be appearing in a textureless garment. And yes, actually, because this club on Sunday nights is a kind of community, that DOES matter to me. So, again, I do get it. I have enough experience producing textures and maps myself to know how much work it can be (especially for garments!). But for some creators, there may still be good financial reasons to create BP textures for the goods they're selling. At least for a while yet.
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    Mostly I dine alone.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    Big, if true! No idea how feasible that is, but it sounds great.
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    What is the likelihood of LL letting creators know that this is going to be the case well ahead of time, in order to avoid the "hard way" option? And how would they do that? (This is already starting to sound like a nightmare in the making . . .)
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    PEEVE! I'm suddenly getting a lot of "Bug Splat" crashes TPing using Firestorm. Just me?
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    Delivery absolutely does matter. I've been to some UG meetings at which angry residents essentially tried to shout down others, including the Lindens present, in order to emphatically make their points. That's a stupid and ineffective strategy. But it doesn't address the "who they are listening to" issue. And where they are listening. I'm not generally in the "FIC - Conspiracy Theory" camp of understanding how LL works and engages with people, but I do think it's likely (and LL certainly won't be alone in this regard) that 1) some voices matter more than others because of established personal relationships, the amount of "investment" in the platform, etc., and 2) not all of these resident-Linden conversations are happening in public. As I've said, LL is not a democracy, and to expect them to act as though they were is unreasonable. And mostly, I have to say, I've found the Lindens who were talking at UG meetings to be calm, reasonable and at least sound as though they were listening. (That's less often the case, tbh, when they've responded to concerns expressed here, in this forum, where there is more of a tendency to issue fiats than engage.) But I do think they could find other, better mechanisms, such as surveys, to get a broader sense of what their larger resident population is thinking. And more transparency is always a good thing. The radio silence we're hearing now, for instance, is just anxiety-inducing, whether it needs to be or not.
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    Dahling, neither your shopping habits, nor your underwear preferences, are any business of mine. /me quietly turns off her spyware.
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    Too many men looking for sequined undies, I'd imagine.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    You know, really, this would be a great marketing idea for a new company. Produce a wide variety of different undergarments, tops, slacks, skirts, jackets and accessories, all specifically designed to fit with each other. They'd need to achieve a sufficient critical mass of variety for it to work properly, but surely not an impossible task? It would certainly attract women shoppers. And if the stuff looked nice, I'd just hand them my credit card and have done with it. I tend to mix and match Dernier a lot. Last week I got the sheer top and slacks (which was MUCH more sheer than I thought it would be), and have been playing with ways to make it a little more . . . G rated.
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    Someone is selling PBR sequined men's undies on the Saturday sale. My quest for men's briefs is over! In fact, I may never need to buy another men's clothing item, ever again!
×
×
  • Create New...