Bitsy Buccaneer

A friend will love this, will drag her over as soon as she's back.

Does it really matter if one knows that, Chin, as long as uses the right one in the end? I would see the different tags, not know which to choose and go look it up. So I would get the correct one even if I didn't know a thing about the history. That might not be good enough for you, but can it please be good enough for people like me?

OK, so I do understand the file size issues correctly, at least as presented here. Now to work on how to communicate in such a way it might one day be recognised by forum regulars. As for the OP, I'd just start to convert to JPEG in GIMP and note file size (along the way I might wonder which JPEG, consult the wiki and run across the charts). My apologies for thinking your question was about the things SL does on upload.

OK then, would someone please kindly explain to me how file size matters for optimization in SL? Everything I'm aware of has pointed towards dimensions and scaling (and related issues) and using smaller textures.

Click on the texture to get the pixel size. It will be visible on the texture window and also in properties from inventory. SL textures are constrained to powers of 2, so 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 are the target numbers. A larger texture will be scaled down to the closest power of 2 for each dimension (vertical and horizontal) - if you upload something that's say 768 x 1030, the result will be 512 x 1024. Photoshop and GIMP are better at scaling than the texture uploader so use them to get to the right size. Memory skyrockets with size - a 1024x1024 requires 4x the date of a 512x512, so optimization is all about using textures appropriately and keeping the large ones for when it really counts. Sticking to the powers of 2 numbers helps in getting the clearest image for the size. Check the wiki, forum archives and blogs for other ways of phrasing this. Some might even have pictures.

Shrugs. I wonder what that whole group of people are doing wrong then.... Plus Leonard. As for myself, I have such a long list of possibilities the question is which ones are actually relevant.

How much space on the AO/shadow layer is this part of the coat? Given the way most FP creators lay out their work, it's probably crammed into a corner so the actual size is more like 256 x 256, which will affect resolution. AFAIK, there isn't a whole lot possible other than trying to make separate textures for each of the faces (if it has multiple faces). Sloppy layout is my pet peeve with FP mesh, so I might be imposing that on what you've described, but it does sound very familiar. Maybe someone will come along and give us both a better solution. Fingers crossed.

Friends have been talking about their sales being down too, both inworld and MP, and how friends of theirs are struggling as well. I didn't get the September/October upturn I sometimes see, but that could be down to vagaries in RP tastes and such. Are we not overdue for another Roman epic blockbuster? So not much to add, except that some others have seen their sales drop too. Hoping things improve for all of us.

If all of that is true, Tari, then it's true. I don't have the raw data to dispute it and you're very very certain of it so it seems my attempt at a contribution was a waste of everyone's time. Sorry for that.

(replying to Tari) Traffic, yes. Meeting new people, probably, depends on how talkative they are and if you have a language in common. (And I definitely recognise the value of that, it's a significant part of why I continue with my shop.) But the rest of the gains you mentioned come from attracting people who are part of the SL community. Will outsiders coming in for the primary purpose of removing lindens from the world buy much more than a few things for their avatar? Advertise the venue as somewhere to spend lindens rather than take them? They will certainly be competing with customers who do the valuable word of mouth advertising. (I've used Realms to get myself through lean times when I was too unwell to create, and saw some of the bots waiting for the green and blue gems. It was fun getting a blue or green before they did, but their presence did mean that it was harder for me to earn my target for the day.) I understand that collective pockets are deeper than individual ones. It's the basis for organised charities and government spending. It also provides much of the benefit for give-away investment. The person who receives the lindens likely spends them elsewhere and that venue or shop owner re-invests them in SL in some way (even if they take the lindens out and bring content in), which gives other people reason to bring lindens in, and so on. Farming breaks the cycle though, because it's all about taking money out of the system. And I do contend that there are important differences between the well-off gamers who support gold farming and venue owners in search of word of mouth promotion and attracting customers. How much can the latter sustain? Gold farmers aren't likely to differentiate between sources and I wouldn't be surprised if many venue owners had to find other means of promotion. That in turn would shrink the supply and put more pressure on the pockets of those who continued. Maybe the collective community could manage this for awhile but I don't see how it would be sustainable in the long term.

Medical role play is advertised from time to time in the forums. If the props and animations created for that are realistic enough for your purposes then it might be. Otherwise you'll have to create your own or find someone who will make them for you. This is assuming that the interaction is on both sides. I would guess that any sort of scripted chat bot which is sufficiently complex would have to rely on an external server. My knowledge of scripting doesn't go that far and I don't know how well it could be implemented. Perhaps one of the medical RP groups might be willing to offer advice or let you borrow their facilities to see some of what's possible.

The money has to come from somewhere. With gold farming, the money is coming from the entertainment spending of other players. That's a pretty deep pool in some games. They also get something they value from it - easy gold for their game. They're paying someone to do work for them that they don't want to do. In SL, the outgoing money will be coming from landowners, store owners and LL (who have certainly banned some types of farming in Realms). In most cases, that means it's coming out of their incomes. I doubt that's anywhere near as deep a pool. And since their lindens will be leaving SL, what will they get from their investment? Is anything of value (other than helping people in need) being created through farming lindens? From the post Tari put up while I was writing this, I guess she's certain there is something of value being created. What is it?

I don't bring money into the game. When I'm healthy enough to manage, I make content which fills a particular niche and encourages other people to bring money into this virtual world. How much I was able to do without bringing money in played a significant role in getting me well enough hooked that I started creating content. I don't take money out either, mind you. Everything I earn stays inworld and is recycled to other creators. Perhaps you don't see value in that Surge. I do.

Nothing beats being comfortable enough in your own skin that any compliments are extra. If you like what you're wearing and it makes you happy, go for it.

I didn't read it as a "we're special" thing at all, Qa. A bit of frustration, but that's it. Your special spelling suggests you may be at least slightly inclined towards reading it into things.

From what I've seen, the current 'on trend' (or whatever they're calling it this week) hype is all about mesh bodies so if following that is important to you, you might have to succumb. But if you just want clothes you like and you can find a few creators whose work suits you, there's no need to change at all. As for longevity, mesh bodies probably are here to stay in one form or another - but that form may well change at some point. Remember when the hyper-inflated mesh boobs with nipples that could impale you were all the rage? Brands certainly will; brands always come and go eventually, even the most lucrative. Do what makes you happy.

Would you consider breaking it down into smaller pieces? Learning to make good mesh is hard, but you can buy quality full perm mesh clothing to texture yourself. Then you only have 1,694 more steps to learn in order to sell things in SL. In getting to grips with making mesh for SL, I'd really suggest starting with simple, static projects like decorative items. Living with your completed projects will help you figure out what aspects you most need to improve on. For software, GIMP (for textures, custom textures with the shadow layers from FP mesh, plus vendor pictures, signs and advertising) and Blender (mesh, animations, baked textures if that suits your work) are both free and very useful. It can feel overwhelming if you dive in at the deep end, but fortunately there are other approaches. Taking it one step at a time gives the buzz of finishing something with a manageable amount of frustration. I heartily recommend it.

Prok, I think you're right in the importance of letting others know so they don't reward the griefers and inadvertently keep the cycle going. To that end, have you enlisted the help of the owners of the other rental groups? Their groups are adversely affected so they'll want to put a stop to it as well. I recognise that telling your story is important to you, but I would suggest requests for help from the owners of the other rental groups be succinct. They don't need to know the whole story, which can be overwhelming and takes a while to grasp. My suggestion is that you present a simply summary of the situation (griefers are impersonating you and posting racist things in other people's rental groups) and make a simple request that they put out a group notice advising their renters to AR the posts and not engage in arguing with the griefers. This approach will target the information to those who need it most. Forum folk can't do much, those who are receiving the dreadful posts in their group chat can.

I think I am going to come to the conclusion that I am not the only one with too much time on my hands.

It does to me. There's a rule of thumb in RL architecture that if you've built to your maximum usage, you've probably over-built. Over-building means greatly increased running costs, even when it's not needed. The money you want the organisers to spend so you can have it your way isn't virtual. So yeah, I do think it sounds more than realistic for consumers to have a bit of patience to get their pixels. Meanwhile, there's a very easy and straightforward solution to the problem of HOURS of running an auto-tp script. Just wait till it's quieter. Remember, it's only pixels. Your question works better when it's reversed. Does it really make sense to demand the organisers increase their costs substantially so you don't have to wait a few days?

Some things to try - different viewers - Firestorm is reputed to use the most in computer resources ('heavy'), while others like Singularity, Cool VL and Kokua are said to be lighter having a clear out/box up on the main's inventory. too many items in a folder seems to cause problems even more than a high inventory count in general. a low inventory building alt for Aditi. I really like having an alt with an inventory structure geared towards building. It's akin to having a clear desk instead of trying to work in a jumble sale. ---- If any of these help but can't be a permanent solution for whatever reason, they might help you narrow down the source of the problems and find better fixes.

Friends with health problems have left SL for reasons like hospitalisation and haven't returned. I don't know what happened but there's no way I'll ever remove their names from my friends list. Because there was no physical memory, and nothing in the physical world to remind me, the digital one becomes more important. There are things from friends still living that I treasure, wee gifts, photos and things they made, that I'll keep as long as SL is going and will stay in Bitsy's inventory long after I'm gone myself.

My point in asking about the competing system was if they have something equivalent to a points per soul system without needing a HUD on the victim, then Bloodlines wouldn't necessarily need the victim to have a HUD either. I still wonder if perhaps Phil, Dillon and BilliJo might not ALL be right, just for different periods in time.

Try asking Gerard Tunwarm of Texture Me True. He understands fabric better than most and started working with materials when they were first introduced. How high can contrast be turned up on for materials? I'm far from expert in their use, but that's where I would start experimenting. I think I would also focus on trying to get the effect in strategically located parts of the object/garment rather than over all, so a bespoke texture for each rather than a multi-purpose fabric texture. But then I'm looking at the gorgeous rumples of that picture and thinking oh the tris!!! The LI on that will be deadly.

Thanks for looking me up Billi. I appreciate it. Does the other vampire system, the one where people can be bitten without having any interaction with it at all (from their side) not work on points then? I thought their vampires wore HUDs which collected the equivalent of points too. The bitten don't even have to accept the bite request in their system, let alone wear a HUD.