Madeliefste Oh

Pamela Galli wrote: LL has never given me any kind of report. But you can download your account statements from each month. That is what I keep in my administrastion, because that is the interesting part for the taxes. It shows how and when L$ become USD.

To me it does not feel as something that is NEW. It feels like going back in time... like it is a mix between twenty year old text adventures and a power point presentation, with a bit of activity possibilities added.

For example this bench... I could not get it both with low LI and LOD resistent at the part of the small bars. Or they started to behave like triangles, or the primcount was to high. There I came with the solution with two textures, that was the best solve in this case I could find. The mesh has two faces, at lod 1, 2, and 3 the helping texture is hidden in the bars of the model. At Lod 4, the model is hidden, and the texture takes over. Now I can have it scripted, sitable and all with LI of only two. The very small pic in the upper corner is the long distance look.

Chic Aeon wrote: I am not sure exactly what you make. I just remember a post you did with a kitchen. But do you test from FAR FAR AWAY? I do that a lot on the Aditi grid and find that for most things (honestly I can't remember one that it didn't work for) turning down LOD 4 and often 3 to as low as they can go STILL keeps the shape swimmingly. Now, I might be making things differently than you, but for me that is true. It depends on several things, for example what size your objects have, and how many prims you want to use. I am often to ponder whether I choose for more detail or for less LI, and try to combine best of both. The lower your last LOD level can be, the lower the LI will be. I experiment a lot, what works for one model doesn't work for another. But I found out my problem... it was caused by my solve I had put the plane right in front of the mesh, while it is suppoosed only to work on level 4, it did something to the texture. When I have done now is shift the plane a bit backwards so it fall into the model instant of in front of it. The upper locks is the new mesh, there under the problematic ones to compare.

A lot will depend on the quality of your work. This is both for the full perms market as for the end consumer market. I think the main difference is, that to be succesful for the end consumer market is that you much specialise in something, best would be a niche where is not much mesh available yet. In the full perms market you can concentrate on a niche or a marketsector, but it is not necessairy to be succesful. I don't have time to watch close what all my collegue merchants do, but my idea is that there is still a big market for meshes that come with just shadowmaps. When you are really good with modeling, but only so so with texturing, I would consider to look for a good texturer who likes to work with mesh but is not able to make it him/herself. Taste the water of cooperation, do a few project together. When the results are good, en you both enjoy to work together it might lead to a strong brand.

Picture might make it more clear then words

My idea is that a lot of people use the default LOD settings, and I want to be able to see the meshes in a away my potential customers might see them. That is why I run it with default. This mesh is made with 2 different shapes en uv maps, shape one is used for level 1,2 and 3. For level 4 I use a only some planes, that are uv mapped for the texture that is used for all levels. Now the strange things is, when I look at it from a much further distance I can see the point where the planes shapes start to become active. At that point I see the texture again. So it seems that only in level 2 and 3 or maybe only in 3 the textures is not showing.

Sounds familair, I too come across problems that take me hours sometimes. I try to find out myself first, but when I really cannot bend my head around it, I ask as well. The problem is this case is that a cube in C4D has an inside and an outsite. But this same cube has in SL only the outside. You can flip normal, but then it has only an insite. A plane in SL will also have just one site that can be textured, the other site non existing. So you need to make the other site in C4D, before it can exist in SL. And now you know how to do this

Rez a cube, make it the size you want it to be. Make it editable. Make a copy of your this. Select all faces, reverse normals (in functions menu). Select both object in your objects panel now. Right click, choose connect and delete. Export as dae file, and ready to upload to sl

I'm using v3 viewer with the default LOD settings. Picture one is what I see when I look within a distance from about 4 meters. When I look from a further distance (picture 2), the shape is ok, but the texture has gone. Did anybody come across this that the texture dissappears while the shape is still okay? Is there a difference in shape LOD and texture LOD? Any idea how to prevend that the texture dissappears?

Porky Gorky wrote: In the eyes of the tax man (in the UK) they have no interest in what I do in SL or how I go about earning L$. In their eyes it's irrelevant. The only part of my business operation that they recognise as being tangible is the sale of L$ for USD via a currency exchange. They wanted to see a record of every L$ to USD sale I had made as in their eyes, that is the point at which I am generating income, everything else is just playing games with a meaningless currency. Its pretty much the same in the Netherlands, with a just a little difference. They are not interested in L$ at all, L$ are not taxable, and business expenses paid in L$ are not deductable. The difference is: As long as the USD are on my SL account they are not taxable either, because the money is not available for me to spend outsite SL. But the moment I transfer the USD to my paypal account, then it is taxable income.

Perrie Juran wrote: Can you (or someone who knows) share your tweakings? Thanks. It is a greasemonkey plugin scripted by Cerise See this thread

weena Janic wrote: --> no one can see or read that name brand in my listings <-- cause search words dont apear in your listings That depends on how you tweak your browser, I can see the keywords of all listings in the markeplace

Czari Zenovka wrote: Thanks Drake. I know *just* enough about PC hardware to understand specs and I have installed a HD before, but no idea how to install a new graphics card and set it up. Installing a new graphic card is easier then baking an egg. I did so two weeks ago. Look how the old one is connected, take it out, put the new one in, connected it the same way as the old one. (Though the card came with new connection wires, it was more easy to use the ones that were already in my pc.) Run cd with the driver, look at vidia site if there is a newer update available of the driver, and it's done. I spend much more time on choosing the videocard. I knew I wanted a nvidia, but which one? I browsed some shops, tried to find buyers reviews, but didn't get much wiser there. Then I found a hardware info site with an excellent article about graphic cards. It was as a site from guys who test all kind of hardware that is currently or just new in the market. It was very informative, I had no idea there is so much you can test in graphic card. There was explained how the cards are build up, what techniques they use and how they perform. Some general tests where done, things like how is the speed, how is the temperature after running the card for two hours, how much noise do they make. And then they tested for about 30 very populair games (SL was not one of them), how each card performed (at several points). Besides it was very educative it helped me very well to make my choice. Unfortunately the site was not in English, so I think that is not going to help you much, but you might find something like that in English as well.

Thank you, Melita, for being our customer.

Since the day his Marketplace Team appeared out of the blue, they were already off color.

NealCrz wrote: Cool couch. Using Blender? I used to work in Blender, till I took a course in Cinema 4D and could become a cheaper license. But I when it comes to create for Second Life I think Blender is as good as C4D, and as good as Studio Max or Maya as well. For me the advantage of C4D is for things besides SL. Like the name says, the program is specialised in 4D, which is time. So it is smooth to work with when it comes to animating mesh.

Pussycat Catnap wrote: Refusing to adopt mesh is like refusing to adopt sculpty back in the day... Its a normal thing, and it makes one look silly when they intentionally avoid it. Though I'm a mesh maker myself and I see many advantages in using mesh, I don't agree with your statement. There are people who are very skilled with prims and still enjoy very much to build with them. Why is that silly? I do consider building with prims as an art on its own. I see it more as a difference between painting and photography. A photo is a more detailed, realistic image of a landscape or a persons portrait then a painting. A painter who uses paint to create a landscape or a portait is not silly or walking on a dead path, by chosing the medium he likes to express himself. However when you are in the commercial field, where it is all about qualtiy, prim count and price, you must conclude that mesh is hard to beat on prim count. Depending on what segment of the market you are active in, mesh should be a consideration for your business.

My latest one is mesh furniture set

I would not start a full perms brand in clothing at this time. I would wait till the mesh deformer is finished.

Iren Tinkel wrote: i used marketplace redelivery and she got same item that other customers get You cannot be 100% sure. I have experience, not often but once in a while, that not all components of a package are received by a customer. With full perms items a customer has no advantage at all by getting a new copy from me, so they will only contact me in case one or more components did really did not arrive. I'm not sure it still happens since I'm on DD, but when I used magic boxes it surely happened a few times. Though 99,99% of what you experience with this customer points out she is trying to get some free copies, you still cannot be sure...

HisaDrug wrote: In this particular topic, my point is how come this customer still questions no-mod when it's already on the description. The product page clearly states it's no-mod, and the model is human. So why is he still upset it's no-mod. That's my point whether or not I could give him a mod version. He could simply not purchase it when the product doesn't meet with his expectation. You are right about that. But what does it bring you or your business to be right, other then angry customers? From your postings I get the idea that the designer in you dominates the merchant in you. It is your proud as designer, that won't let others 'mess around' with your design, that you so carefully put together. Therefor it is almost impossible to sell your items with mod permission. The merchant in you should have the aim to sell as many items to as many avatars as possible, but he cannot. He cannot brothen the shopping audience for your business, because he is held back by the designer. So he has to send away potential customers or dissatisfy existing customers, because you as a designer feel you need to defend your design. Or do I get you all wrong?

Our shopping audience, builder and creators, do not often go out to make fun. Many do hardly leave their building platform, so adding entertainment to the shop surrounding won't have much impact in our case. Still we do want to make it attractive to visit the in world shop, we do offer something extra there. For our shop it is important that this extra is not time consuming for creators. And the item or activity must add a value for creators and builders. At the moment we have two things: an education package and a contest. The educational package is our only freebie. It contains an item, that is both made as a sculpty and as a mesh. It contains a notecard in which the main differences between sculpties and meshes are explained. People can play around with the free example to experience these differences by themselves. The contest we have is a 'Suggest a mesh', in runs on monthly base. We invite customers to drop their ideas for items they would like to see in our shop in our suggestion box. Once a month we pick a winning idea, we make the item, and the winner gets a full perms version for free.

HisaDrug wrote: Imagine a furry customer bought one of your hairstyles that was designed to be worn on humans. It's no-mod period, because it was the creator's decision to make that way for humans only. The furry customer is angry with your product. It doesn't fit on his feline head, not to mention it's no-mod. Now he writes you an angry notecard about no-mod. He complains you're supposed to make a hair modifiable. And the comparison with the other designers begins. He lectures you how to do business. He's asking you more questions about yer personal SL residency, and swears off your shop forever. Also he forewarns you you'll lose your business because he's going to tell people your customer service sucks. Just because you told him it's no-mod and you're sorry you can't provide him otherwise. And his angry review peppered with hate-speech that hints false facts about the creator's customer service appears, as if he was in total shock that the product was no-mod. Now, This kind of hassle with customers continues monthly basis. You can't help but become callous toward their common complaints. No matter how hard you hold your ground and business principles to do your artistic activities in SL, people expect you to be a professional seller and they think they can close down your business if you don't respond to their aggressivenss. And they can. All because merchants do not have the corresponding powers to protect their virtual business due to their inevitable position as Resident just like all your customers. We don't have alternatives to put a stop to their so-called tantrums. And trust me, as a customer myself, I have the mindset of a customer in SL from acknowledging merchants couldn't do anything if I threathened them. Other customers would look at his angry review, and you can't do anything about it. Even though it's unfair and aggravating. This is an example where the merchant has more power then the customer. The merchant is the one who set the permissions. The customer asks for mod permission, because the item is worthless to him when he cannot adjust it for his specific avatar. You don't want to have him a mod version. Did you offer to refund him at this point? When I read this story, I see a customer who is trying to give you feed back on your permission settings, and how a change in that might improve your business. But you are not open for this feed back, because you don't want your customers to be able to mod your creations. You think this is reasonable, and the customer thinks this is unreasonable. And there you have your conflict. The customer cannot win the conflict, you are the only one who can permit him to mod the item. And you won't. Now he can do two things: let it go, or pay you back with anger in one way or another. This conflict will happen over and over again, with every customer who likes your products but who feels he needs mod permission to enjoy it. You can get rid of all this drama and time waisting customer support when you allow your customers to mod your items. What is the exact reason to make your items no mod?