Jump to content

Dana Hickman

Resident
  • Posts

    1,008
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Dana Hickman

  1. The necklace disappears because of changing in the LOD levels when you move your camera farther away. Increasing the RenderVolumeLODfactor keeps these attached things in view longer, as in still visible a further distance away, but won't prevent them from ultimately disappearing once your camera passes a certain distance from your avatar. The reason these objects do not REappear when your camera moves back in closer is specifically because you have increased the RenderVolumeLODfactor. Lower that setting from the 4 you have it set at and these attached objects will again disappear at a closer distance to your avatar, but they'll also REappear when your camera gets closer again... It's a tradeoff. The secret is to find a balance number that's high enough to keep those things from blinking out too close to your avatar, but low enough so when you cam back in they'll reappear. I have mine set at 3.4 on Phoenix viewer, which mostly works for me. Although I do still notice jewelry prims disappearing closer than I'd like to my avatar, they all do reappear when I cam back in closer so I just deal with it. (my personal belief is the issue of them not reappearing at higher volumeLOD levels is due to a faulty re-evaluation in the DynamicLOD routine) There is also a mouse-wheel camera zoom trick to force them to reappear when one does have the volumeLOD setting too high. Focus the camera on your avatar, then quickly zoom out the camera by zipping the mouse-wheel back quickly, and then right back in to where it was looking at your avatar closely. This has the affect of forcing the Dynamic LOD to re-evalute what objects should be showing, which will make those invisible necklaces and such reappear. The down side to this is it only works as a temporary solution, so when your camera again gets too far away, the objects will again disappear (based on your volumeLOD setting), and when you zoom back in again they may not be visible again. Another trick that has slightly better results is to set RenderVolumeLODfactor to something very high, like 8 or 10, and once things are all rezzed in, go change RenderDynamicLOD to "false". This has the effect of turning off the automatic switching of detail levels, so things will stay full detail all the time and should not try to switch by themselves. The down side of this method is DynamicLOD also affects all the other LOD debug settings as well.. so things like avatars, trees, and terrain will also stay full detail all the time. This may not be of concern if you have a high power video card, but can cause major render lag if you don't. I'd suggest NOT having dynamicLOD turned off when in a very built up sim, when using a higher draw distance, or in a sim with lots of avatars. This method also can have the nasty side-effect of screwing up screenshots, because some objects/people/trees in the distance may appear grainy, or so out of place against the background because of their clarity and increased detail levels.
  2. valerie Inshan wrote: You look lovely Dana. You made a very elaborated and sophisticated work. I wish I couldplay with new tattoo layers as I guess you did in your case, but I'm stuck to Snowglobe untill I get a new Mac, lol. Anyway, you look gorgeous! Thank you :smileyhappy: You look gorgeous as well! I really love the shape of the lips on your skin.. they have a nice pouty but sophisticated air about them that really add a lot. Yes, tons of photoshop layers that translate into a ton of uploads for each unique tattoo layer combo.. it's crazy lol.
  3. I generally only go with a natural look when the look I'm going for really calls for it, which isn't that often as it can look really out of place on a dark skin like mine. How's my makeup? It's custom.. currently I have 53 varieties, plus various blushes, blush masks, freckle masks, tone filters, and highlight/contrast masks for my Curio skin, and all are handpainted and found nowhere else on the grid. This one is the Bean Lily base, with highlight filter, medium blush filter, combo2 dark shadow, dark corner liner, system eyelash alpha map, and medium berry lip shader.
  4. In the past I've helped people sort out some of their appearance issues, but usually only as a result of having been talking to them already. I won't say or suggest anything to random people unless I'm asked. I Usually do something like Immy said, in that I just try to approach the subject and the details of it with a bit of tact, though sometimes being blunt is also needed. I don't even try to talk about such things with that "certain variety" of person who's been around a bit and has the "what does it matter?" attitude about their appearance, because they'll never get it and you'll just end up wasting time and pissing them off. They're not in SL to worry about impressions from AVs and treat it almost exclusively like a chat room and nothing more. I've also had a few newer guys almost literally beg me to tell them what's wrong and help them fix it, usually with statements like "be blunt", "lay it on me", and "just say it, I wanna know". Those can actually be quite entertaining, not just because they're open to suggestion, but because they tend to really listen and learn in the process. I don't get a lot of payback just shopping and dressing up someones AV for them, but if they learn the "why's" and "hows" that I pass on, then I feel like I've made a more permenant contribution and don't mind helping out.
  5. Kylie Jaxxon wrote: I agree...just gives us more to wade through until the mods take care of things :smileysurprised: Not only that, it gives the mods much more junk to clean up. Yes, we get spam, sometimes lots of it in a short amount of time.. we know this. There's still no need for posting of threads to act suprised or crow about it in, because it adds to the problem yet has no benefit.
  6. My AV height is governed by its proportions, and nothing at all to do with world objects or other people. Used to be a SL giant at a hair over 7 feet with heels on, because in RL i'm a giant at an inch or two under 6 feet.. the perspective is natural for me. I've settled at about 6'4" to 6'6" in SL lately and have watched over the last couple of years as everyone else kept growing taller or shorter. Now I'm definately in the middle range, and constantly seeing AVs that tower over me or barely come up to ma bewbs. To each their own, as I really have no opinion on someones overall chosen height. FTR, I dislike any AVs portraying underage in adult activity, not just the short ones.
  7. Griefing is meaningless to those who do it if they don't get a reaction from you. Griefing is rare, and not a prevalent or common problem. Abuse Report using only the facts, not the emotion or reaction. Include a screenshot showing the issue, include copy of any text involved. Do NOT write a sob story of he-said/she-said.. your report will be ignored if you do. It's spelled "griEf".. with an E..
  8. For clothing, I usually change once a log in but can be more depending on what I'm doing/working on. I used to change a lot more than I do now, so I must be getting SLold or something. Shape, I rarely touch it except for adjusting leg length for different footwear, or maybe to nuke my ears if I'm feline that day.
  9. I say the definition of a good blogger or journalist is one who can write around their own personal biases, not include them at every convenient opportunity. Hamlet cannot do that, he's shown it over and over again on this topic, and I personally believe it's because he's so caught up in the fad and hype. He makes a few decent points about his idea of facebook being some sort of "second coming" for SL, but like any experienced front man will do, he dodges any serious challenges to his stance and likes to reply with irrelevancies stated as hard-fact justification. It doesn't matter who he used to be, it's who he is now that's doing all the talking, and he does seem to be pretty much 'addicted' to social networking in the form of a facebook obsession. That's quite fine if it makes him all fuzzy inside, and it's his business how he devotes himself, but I'm not personally inclinded to value what he says on 'facebook integration' much further than the ink it's written with. Really, I mean one doesn't go ask a compulsive gambler about the risks and benefits of doing so and expect to receive an untainted, unbiased answer.. because you'll never get one.
  10. There really is no arguing.. when hair is phantom and not physical, the sim itself has very little to do with what makes up a hair because nearly all sim-side havoc physics are not applied. It's in the viewer, and the rendering burden that's placed on ones video card that can create render lag, which is not the same as the sim lag that drags down a sim or makes it difficult to move. Even very old computers will have little trouble rendering tons of standard prims, it's when you add in things like havoc computations for flexi, transparencies, sculpties, severely tortured prims, excessive or inefficient building methods that pushing all that through ones video card can become a problem for some. The biggest culprit relating to hair is scripts, and specifically super-bloated scripts or hair that has more than just a few (like the old-style resizers with a script in every prim). Nowdays things like color changing and resizing can be held in one root-prim script, so hairs with more than one or two scripts are going to be more inefficient, and some rediculously so. Any hair that comes with a chat listener or other active scripting IMO should always have the script removed, and hopefully the creator flogged repeatedly. One can get a rough idea of the burden a hair has by going to a lag-free sim and seeing how long it takes to rez after clicking 'wear'.. the longer it takes compared to other similar style hairs, the more inefficient or just plain old bloated it is.
  11. Suspiria Finucane wrote: How do you feel about your skin and shape? Does it represent who you want to be in SL? Is it a dream combination or does it reflect your RL appearance? Quite comfortable in both, and don't mind showing the results of all my hard work. I'll stay with what I have until I find something else that better conveys the sense of detail and realism that I relentlessly pursue. The result is an exaggeration of my RL appearance but at the same time very similar to it. It's that exaggeration that I choose to live in SL as, because I can. Matching skin and shape, and actually getting them to match, is very tough. What I've learned from skinning character models in other games is that the shape is more important to acheiving an intended look than the skin is, and SL is no different which is why I do things the hard way. I mold the intended shape using a blank or completely detail-less skin, so as to not be influenced by the details, and then find a skin that matches it. Only then do I do any micro-adjustments to the shape. It's easier getting matched results the other way around, starting with the skin first, but it's also the quick way to getting a finished product that looks nothing like you envisioned at the start. I'm stubborn that way, relentless too as I've probably deleted more skin demos from my inventory over the years than most people have total items. Was only a matter of time before a skin maker included what I wanted, and for me to find it.
  12. Storm Clarence wrote: Would you tell a girl her facelight is brighter than she? *I* would, sure..if it was enough to merit mentioning, but then I'm like that. But for a guy to say that... umm.. better be ready for some of the possible responses if you do.. "Someone has to light the way for you dimwits" "Consider it my contribution to your mommys dark basement" "I can turn it off if it makes you feel even more insignificant" "It's only a fake facelight... you should be used to women faking stuff around you by now" "So you're saying my attachment is too much to ignore and yours isn't, right?" "It's my way of showing people I'm not a man, what's your secret?" "You're just mad that I have something worth highlighting and you don't" "If I'm not that bright, and I know about 'Render Attached Lights' and you don't, what does that say?" "It's a prototype idiot attractor.. Yaayy! It works!!" "Yes, it uses a lot of batteries too, but not as many as your girlfriend does" "They're powered by inner personality. Did you detach yours or is it just that weak?" "These lights only illuminate the AVs faults.. I can see why you're so pissed" "The On/Off switch is in my finger.. come here and pull it" .. etc.. etc..
  13. ZenCho Balhaus wrote: If a girl asks ..Does My Bum Look big in this????? Never say Yes It's ok to say yes... just never say "no, it's your bum that makes it look big"
  14. I don't know about anyone else, but my first test of the mesh implementation when it arrives on the main grid will be to rig and upload all the parts of my AV shape model... that way I can hide the actual AV and make the mesh "me" that's seen semi-transparent and ghost-like. Always wanted to create a ghostly aparition AV, but since they totally screwed up the alpha layer implementation by not allowing actual "alpha gradients or transparencies" like a real alpha, I'll have to attempt it the more difficult way with mesh. I somewhat expect that meshes also will fall short of many peoples expectations, but that's what happens when the failure happens at the implementation stage of these sort of things.
  15. I made my zombie a little less "cartoony" this past halloween, and it didn't turn out too bad considering I started very late and ran out of time. Even looking like this though I had an old acquaintance hit me up and want pixel secks.. yeah he was really drunk, but talk about drinking someone pretty.. wow.
  16. Yes, what Nika said.. the bloating of the lower pant leg starts at length 91 I believe, so setting 90 or below will correct it.
  17. The only time I'll wear system skirt outfits is if it's some sort of poofy ball gown or formal dress, where the waistline can be hidden. I remember the very first thing I said on the old, old SL forums was to ask WTF about the goofy system skirts. My shape is so non-standard that modifying it to use with system skirts doesn't work for me. I also have the most difficult time making any prim skirts and belts even fit. I'll stick with the few heavily modified or homemade prims skirts I have until the new rigged mesh makes it onto the main grid, whereby I can make my own flowing mesh skirts.
  18. I killed my chalet on the mountainside because it never got used... so now I'm homeless and live in the forest...
  19. SID Riler wrote: Blake Sea will always be my favorite place, pic of house and outside house That's awesome. Wonderful lighting on the pic as well. Makes me miss the protected all-water lot I had several years ago.
  20. Pinky Pixelmaid wrote: Took this pic for another shoe thread...but they're still my fave shoes these days. Venezia by Similar Italian Footwear...super sexy! I remember seeing those posted before. I would sooo buy those if I could get them without the pointy toes because they're gorgeous.
  21. One more, because I can and already had it uploaded...
  22. Void Singer wrote: instead of pre-"squishing", pre-expand.... it'll up the pixel density for the final product giving it more detail. ETA: the point being, is that you lose information when you downsize and image, but with stretching it, you are actually adding (although most of the addition will be lost visually on your object.... of course if you are working with huge images to begin with, perhaps chossing the other dimension for working to the closest ratio for downsizing may help) Very much agreed. Never squish your texture, expand it.
  23. Venus Petrov wrote: You have a lovely avatar, Dana. If you would like to post photos of your favorite boots on another thread I've just created in Your Avatar, please do so! It helps if you ID the boots and why you like them. Thank you :smileyhappy: Ok sure, although I'm fairly certain that I don't even own a pair of boots I'd consider "favorites" lol. Certainly not these 2 if I did.. will have to look and see.
  24. Storm Clarence wrote: Great shots Dana; you look lovely. I like the boots in both photos, too. Thanks :smileyhappy:
×
×
  • Create New...