Janelle Darkstone

My true name is in an archaic mermaid language and, if I pronounced it openly, would break the glass out of all windowpanes and television sets within a four mile radius. ... just kidding. My name is Gertrude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0u50g3v7I

Yes... yes. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: 1: The County event is easier to navigate. Some parts of the show have been in the same place for decades, because they use specialised buildings and other permanent features. .. SL8B .... after a few minutes of walking around at random, I felt confused. I felt the same way. I dropped in to SL7 and was extremely unimpressed at how haphazard everything seemed to be. No signposts, no guide, no little Disneyland-type map booklet. Confusion. Boring, haphazard, senseless, meaningless confusion. But if you spend any time on the Mainland you should be used to that by now. :smileywink:

Two things I'd check: One, are your regional settings set correctly in Windows? (US English?) Any keyboard/language modifying applications active? And two, how about fonts? I don't recall which font SL uses but that might be part of it as well.

I certainly hope you kept the receipt.

Just remember, if someone comes up to you and asks, "Does this handkerchief smell like chloroform to you?", it probably does. And on the realistic side, you're as safe in a "rape sim" as you are anywhere else on the internet. The mute, TP and 'File > Exit' buttons are there for a reason.

Valentine Rexen wrote: You+Me Dating Agency is hosting a Photo Contest with a 10L Linden prize that will be awarded to the person with the most votes to their entry. This photo contest has no theme behind it so there is no unfair advantage given to anyone. All you need is a full perm pic and you are ready to go! How it Works; 1. Pay 100L to sumbit your favorite photo of yourself into the contest. 2. Get all of your friends to vote for you. Each vote costs 50L. The more votes you get, the better your chances are at winning! Easy enough, huh?! I don't have anything useful to add except that, as a businessperson, I suspect you'll go far. Are you sure you don't work for the lottery? :smileywink:

I like voice. How else can you make a grand fool of yourself at karaoke? :smileytongue: And for those who leave their mics open, or eat Cheetos, or yell at their dogs -- you have to be patient and gently explain the hows and whys to them. Once they understand what they've been doing wrong they'll never do it again, and you'll have another unique voice in the conversation.

Marigold Devin wrote: My voice is awful. I don't want to hear it. Neither will anyone else. Nonsense! I like your voice. :smileytongue: As a matter of fact I'm practicing your accent right now.

Nice work!

Wolfbane Baxton wrote: Voice Chat Logs would only make my friends even more paranoid that the illuminti are listening in on them

You could always stand out in the middle of the voice crowd with a glazed expression and a tape recorder. (Glazed expression optional unless they're chatting about the usual nonsense they always seem to in voice chat.)

I fully expect one of the more technical forumites to come along and correct me, but I'm estimating your upload connection might send an average 50 meg file to YouTube in about 8-12 minutes. Or so. :smileywink: Now, if you're not sure about the size, how long (in minutes) is the avi file in question? If it's an uncompressed avi format, it could be very, very large and take a long, long, long time to upload in any case.

The one time it happened to me I was using Chrome. I switched to Firefox and sent it up moments later without issue. The next question is; how large is the avi file? (if it's a *huge* file, depending on your connection it might be a long time before you'll see 1%...) Try speedtest.net to get an idea of your download/upload speeds and let us know the result?

I've had that 0% bug happen (once) before. I just used a different browser and it uploaded fine... I don't believe it has anything to do with file size or type, but how tempermental YouTube's flaky uploader is that day.

I'd also suggest turning down all graphic settings before you log in, then bringing them back up slowly once you're stable. I had some strange things happen in SL when I tried an unnecessary update to my Nvidia drivers... maybe neither viewer appreciates the reinstalled drivers?

I think they modified the permitted size a bit. If I had more time (and energy) I'd figue it out, but at least signature banner images are allowed again. :matte-motes-big-grin-evil: Just make a banner, upload to a hosting service (like tinypic) and img src link it. Simple and easy.

Ishtara Rothschild wrote: Can you imagine how it feels to see something like this with 30+ fps on an old dual core PC with a GeForce 8800 video card, complete with shadows and state-of-the-art 3D effects... and then come back to SL and experience something that looks like Everquest back in 2001, only with 15 fps? Part of the reason EverQuest was so fun, however, was that it also had content to back it up. All the pretties are fine and all, but if that's all it is, nobody will come back. If I want to see a computer-generated tree that looks just like a real tree...! .. I'll go outside and look at a real tree. :matte-motes-agape: George Lucas said something a long time ago about flashy special effects vs. having a good story, but I don't think anyone was listening.

Suella Ember wrote: I've also used this to some effect where there are issues with long flexi hair buried into the avatar body. In some cases I just tilt the pose stand so the hair falls (or blows) as I need it. Depending on how things need to react to "gravity" I'll sometimes rotate the entire set. :smileytongue: This is some good jiggerypokery at work here! Rotating the pose stand so the avatar is facing up is also a good way to get more detail from the avatar (if you then shift 90 degrees and snapshot from above using the entire screen width as "height"). Depends how much you need detail, I suppose. :smileywink: ^^ That's a not-so-subtle attempt to get Mari to post about the pose HUDs/stands we use.

Rhonda Huntress wrote: The same technique is often used to fix the "hand through skirt" artifacts. Take one picture normally and the second without the skirt. Then layer them with the normal shot on top, the erase just enough to expose the hand from the bottom layer. That is a neat idea! :smileyhappy: It never occurred to me to try that with uncooperative hair. :smileysurprised:

(Johnny Awesome, a level 20 blood elf, rides in on a [Celestial Steed] and fully equipped with heirlooms.) Johnny Awesome says: Johnny Awesome has arrived, philistine. Present me with your menial tasks so that I may complete them with only mild enthusiasm and most likely a complete disregard for any directions that you provide that are more complicated than what my map is able to display. "Look at me, peasant. Heirlooms cover my body from head to toe, gifted to me by the greatest heroes Azeroth has ever known. Now look at yourself. Quickly, look back at me. Yes, this horse IS made of STARS. What pointless series of tasks befitting a mentally deficient orc have you prepared for me?" You: "Well, we are having some problems at the Sludge Fields, located northeast of here. Warden Stillwater could use your help." Johnny: "Fine, fine, what else?" You: "That's all." Johnny: "That's all? One quest? Surely you jest. Are there not bear asses to collect? Perhaps a rare flower that I could pick from which you will make some mildly hallucinogenic tonic which you will then drink, resulting in visions of a great apocalypse? Perhaps the local populace of mildly annoying, ill-tempered gophers are acting up and need to be brought to justice? No? Nothing?" You: "THAT'S ALL, JOHNNY AWESOME. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!" Johnny: "I will do this ONE thing that you ask of me, quest giver. Pray I find more menial tasks to accomplish or you will be hearing from me again and I assure you that my commentary on forums of public opinion will be most unkind." You: (*sigh*)

Combining facial expressions Here's an example of a quick and easy method for combining SL's default avatar facial expressions. Find a good pose and lighting, then lock your camera and take one or two snapshots for each facial expression: I like using the "mouth open" expression, then cancelling it and capturing a screenshot so the mouth is somehwere between wide open and fully closed. Paint in some clenched teeth. :smileymad: Then grab the "sticking out tongue" expression for the narrowed eyes. Erase the mouth area from the "sticking out tongue" layer, and... ...drop in the "clenched teeth" layer behind. Then drop in the background and resume fighting dragons in some faraway land. Or something. :smileywink:

I'm not sure if it's been discussed before (my apologies if it has). One of my favorite tricks is using the zoom controls: View > Zoom In, Zoom Default, Zoom Out (or ctrl 0,9,8 respectively) when taking pose stand and greenscreen shots to drop into a background scene later. It flattens out the subject nicely and makes for a more balanced figure and silhouette. It also works very well for correcting some snapshots; for instance, your subject is standing in a room inworld and the converging lines gives a sense of imbalance or vertigo. Zoom in a couple/few clicks and the problem goes away. :smileywink:

It would be so much fun... if RLV wasn't so easy to turn off. People might then think twice before leaving their keys out. :smileywink: