[Should nudity, sex and adult sims only be for premium members?]

\me wonders if the OP is trolling and decides it's not worth giving the question that much room in my head

[Should nudity, sex and adult sims only be for premium members?]

Does this mean only premium-payers will lose their clothing during TPs?

[Couple Poses in Blender using Avastar?]

I've never seen mention of this. It would be really useful so I'm going to reply in hopes of getting one of the forum regs to show up to tell me I'm wrong.

[iMac 'SNAP' and shut down on SL startup]

That's good news. I think.  Have you tried experimenting with other viewers? Kokua (Open Sim version) and Cool VL are best for my mac, but it has the nVidia problem.

[iMac 'SNAP' and shut down on SL startup]

If you just replaced your graphics card, it's probably not nVidia. From those stats, I'm guessing your old one wasn't nVidia either, probably a Radeon IRCC. nVidia in Macs + Sierra + SL is a known bork. That's my situation, symptoms were different from yours though. Mine crashes SL but not the computer.

Pretty much all my knowledge on the subject comes from Gavin Hird, who makes the Kokua viewer and recommended the OpenSim version as a substitute (page 2 of this thread). I don't know if it will help any. Good luck and much sympathy. It's a very frustrating place to be in.

 

[That GRAY mesh upload thing]

I get grey when I upload something with multiple materials from Blender, white if it's only one material. You could try changing the material colours to white if you're going to be doing lots of uploads for testing. I'm pretty sure I did something like that back in the days when I was able to manage complicated projects.

(OK, looks like I'm wrong again. Sorry.)

[You know you're an SL addict when:]

I've decided that wishing we could prim stuff for storage and take back into RL inventory isn't a sign of addiction. It is simply sensible.

[Qavimator]

I don't think it would be a shape thing. Just posting it here so someone can come along and tell me I'm wrong and you can get an answer.

In the meantime, have you tried it without the mesh body parts? Does it do what you want with just a system av?

At first I thought it might be a Bento thing, but in another thread authoritative people were saying that TMP is an abandoned project - which means it won't have Bento bones either.

Good luck finding your answers.

[The Mesh Project body]

I have no idea if this is current, so please be kind if it's wrong.

The shop inworld is (was?) called TheShops. I remember that primarily because of how long it took me to figure out how to get there myself. It's a central landing area and you need a hud to do anything, even basic browsing. The system is set up in a way that's not friendly to outside creators so it's never been well supported and never will be. To buy stuff from TheShops, you have to put lindens into store currency and use that. Whatever you don't use, you can't get back. Or at least that's what I've heard. The whole ordeal was more than I could manage.

That they called their shop "TheShops" is indicative of how internally focused they are. Their system works for them and they don't seem to care if it works for anyone else.

It might be worth persisting if you spend most of your time naked or nearly so. A friend of mine only wears shorts so he's been able manage.

[Classes3/4th June at Helping Haven Gateway]

The Learning to Script classes are really good. Did them earlier this year and they've been a big help.

[Exporting (downloading?) own shape to blendet]

7 hours ago, Manglez Resident said:

How to get the model or "own shaped dummy" to blender then? 

Getting it that theres a file whenever porting it to the XML file or where it goes, but whenever opening a file, the file where it goes doesnt come up.

Sorry for the questions too

You have the XML file, yes? Am I understanding that correctly?

If so, then open Blender first. Use Blender to IMPORT the file. If you know how to Export from Blender, it's just above that bit.

[Modeling Lowest LoDs]

There's a story behind every person and every post. Mine is that, outside of specific requests for instruction in the creation sections, the forum is a place where people pretty much never talk to me except to explain to me the ways in which I'm wrong. My experience is that I would like to give back and share what I've learned but when I do, it's usually trashed by someone who knows better. Mine is that most of the time I accept that I will only ever be a jumping off point for people to do whatever it is that they do but sometimes it gets frustrating. And my post from Tuesday, Tuesday was a difficult day for many in the UK.

The lack of information in my OP was, I had thought, the clue that it wasn't a request for information. It was a topic and what I thought was an emotion most of us have shared and the thread could be kvetching and complaining and silliness. In the mesh creation forum because this is where the people who have shared that experience are mostly likely to be.

I'm sorry I got the rules wrong. I'm sorry I let my emotions out. That was enormously wrong of me. I'm sorry I haven't managed to join in the fun that I was looking for which Maddy and a few here have offered.

I don't need any more explanations. I get it, ok?

[Modeling Lowest LoDs]

Can't find it in me to be light hearted today. Will borrow a puppy to cuddle. Am going to log off now because I'm not centered enough just now to hear how I'm doing it wrong again. Please be kind to someone today.

[Modeling Lowest LoDs]

It's a tiny paisley/buta/boteh shape for a pendant and earrings. My highest LoD model is 495 tris on the uploader and 396 verts. Download cost is .301 with the lowest LoD auto-generated at 15 tris.

The shape isn't one which can be approximated with very few tris. Anything low enough to get a good LI (which I would like for display purposes as well as reducing render weight) has quite a jarring visual jump when it hits lowest. The buta tail ensures that. It's one of those situations where the only reasonable solution is a picture on a plane. Fortunately the intended use allows it.

My OP came from one of those moments of thinking I was almost there, then realising I wasn't, even after days of tweaking the mesh and textures. I wasn't looking for suggestions, just to share that feeling all of us who take the time to make custom LoDs know very well, to commiserate and hopefully have some banter and a laugh. You know, just wanting a bit of company in it. Clearing my head of it helped me find a solution too.

All of this advice on things I already know just makes me feel more alone in the crowd. I know that's often the way of forums. It's hard to break into the cliques and register on people's radar. It's still frustrating and isolating.

[Modeling Lowest LoDs]

yes lolcats and the puppy equivalent are called for this evening.

a sledgehammer to flatten it into < 20 tri submission would be grand as well.

rootbeer gives me burps. stand back.

[Modeling Lowest LoDs]

AAAARRRRGGGGG!!!!!!

[What's with Reputation?]

7 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

I think it might both likes you give and get, because I have noticed some newer people have a considerably higher rep count than post count. Just a guess.

Not sure how that would work. I checked mine to see. Hit 54 likes given on page 3, out of 9 pages in total.

4 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I don't think I had any kudos in the old forum..I think you couldn't get them there unless you were in answers section..But I'm not sure really..

The creation sections had them, which was really nice to be able to do when someone had gone out of his or her way to help others figure out problems and learn. I liked to give them when I had found an answer through the search too, just to say that their work was still helping people two or three years on.

I wish that we could still give kudos for those kind of answers, as a way of recognising them and the help they give.

[Why does (some) mesh do this?]

22 minutes ago, Sylvia Wasp said:

So ... you're saying that when creating it, they have to provide a "model" for the four levels of detail, and in this case the person has just not provided one?  Because the thing that confuses me about this skirt is that *sometimes* it looks just fine, and at all distances.  

I hesitated to post here about it for ages, because the behaviour is so random I was sure people would just tell me I was looking at it on an especially laggy day or had my settings wrong, etc.  I know it *seems* like that might be the case, but I've tested it over and over (I bought this ages ago) and it seems somewhat random except that it does seem to get "stuck" in this mode at times.  

The reason I did so is that there are basically ZERO good full perm skirt meshes for my body type (Tonic) and the type I want to make clothes for, so I really, really wanted this to work, but sadly it just doesn't.  

Four LoD levels are required.

The mesh uploading system has an auto-generate feature which can be used to make one, two, or three of the models automatically. Sometimes these are alright. Often they are less than optimal visually. They tend to be responsible for the messes we sometimes see as mesh collapses.

A second option is to create the models in the 3d software.

A third option is to use 'the file above' (the previous lod level). In that case, there is no change between those specific levels.

-------

arton is one of two people most responsible for my managing to scale the cliff face that is Blender's learning curve. he likes the swinging people, so it was only appropriate to use that in replying to his reply to me. sorry if it confused you.

[Why does (some) mesh do this?]

1 hour ago, arton Rotaru said:

Worn rigged mesh uses the same LOD algorithm as any other object in Second Life. The only difference between worn rigged mesh and non rigged mesh is that the attachment uses the size of the entire avatar as its Bounding Box size to calculate swapping the LODs. So even some tiny jewelry will have the effective BB size of the avatar.

Maybe my previous understanding of it was better than I thought, at least until it was cough improved through the forum.

[Why does (some) mesh do this?]

Those squares look a lot like the creator forgot to use the 'smooth' function before uploading. That's a pretty serious oversight.

I *thought* worn, rigged mesh stayed a highest LoD, and running at level 4 should force most things to stay at highest LoD anyway. But other than that, it sounds like LoD issues what with falling off at specific distances.

There are four LoDs which click in at set distances. (More or less, because this is SL and there are always complicating factors.) If the same model is used for a couple of levels, then you won't see a change between them.

Conversely, poorly handled LoDs can mean dramatic changes between them, or a collapse into a mess of triangles. Or a 2d plane or whatever the creator used as the lowest LoD (or let the uploader auto-generate).

These are all things set in stone at the time of uploading. The only way to change them is to make different choices and re-upload.

That's how it works for LoD on unrigged items. I've been taken to task when daring to comment on rigged things, so I'll leave it to others to give their opinions on those.

[Definitions for my Understanding]

1 hour ago, JenniferAnneSL said:

So which of those influence the look of the face.  As I understand it, when dealing with a mesh body (assuming no Bento head), you use you classic avatar over which you ear a shape, then a skin, then you add the mesh alpha and then the mesh body, hands and feet.  Then you modify the shape.  Then use the appliers.  However, is it the shape or the skin that provides the initial features for the face.  My thought is that it would be the skin, which also provides the skin tone.  But is that correct?  Thnaks     

If you are using the system/classic avatar's head, then it's the shape and skin (2nd and 3rd in my list) which will influence the look of the face.

EVERYTHING else you've mentioned - mesh body, hands, feet, alpha and appliers - don't influence the system avatar face. Ignore those for now.

-----

The shape and skin BOTH influence the features for the face. Think of the shape like a ball of clay that you're squishing around to get a nose that you like, and so on. Think of the skin like the paint you put over the clay to bring out details - colour on the lips, some shade under the nose, a bit to define the eyes.... (or a lot, like makeup). And the basic skin tone too.

The difference is that (unless you make your own), the paint of any particular skin doesn't change. It's sort of like a cloth mask that drapes over the clay armature of the shape. So the detail on the cloth can sometimes not match up all that well with particular face shape characteristics. Maybe your av shape has full cheeks and the skin creator designed something for a narrower face with prominent cheek bones. That sort of thing. So it's all about getting the two - shape and skin - to work with each other. Since you can't tweak a skin, you can only change to another one or tweak the shape.

-----

Back to the skin appliers. Re your question above - the skin will be the skin tone + make-up, shading, etc for all visible bits of the system/classic avatar. Any mesh add-on bits will need a separate appliers to give them their skin tone, shading, etc. Matching skin tones between face and mesh bodies (and feet and hands) tends to be tricky. Those from the same store and in the same tone will be designed to work together.

I'm not the best one to give detailed advice on how to shop for that; the whole mesh body thing proved to be more complication than I'm interested in just now. There has been a lot of conversation about it in the forums and inworld groups, so try an archive search in the forums.

-----

Bottom line - if you want to use a system/classic head and a mesh body, you need a 'skin' for each. The skin for the mesh body parts is called an applier. You might have to buy each separately, or some creators might package them together. I know I've seen the first.

One shape will influence both the system/classic head and the shape of a fitmesh body. Your avatar comes with one from the beginning. You can modify that one or replace it.

[Bento hands and poses in objects]

Thanks Fluffy and Medhue. It sounds rather straight forward actually, though it will mean moving up from Qavimator to Blender for animations. I see you're using Avastar, Medhue. Can this be done with Blender alone?

What priority would you recommend? I hope to make some that are sit poses for objects but also a few that are partial over-rides, like a single hand/arm pose to carry a lamp.

[Bento hands and poses in objects]

OK, so it's not an issue then. I know I have to create for regular hands, omitting that was never a possibility. I wouldn't even be able to use them myself.

Have probably seen too many posts and group discussions from certain types who get disdainful about classic avs. Hopefully that won't extend to non-Bento hands the way it has to standard feet and bodies.

Thanks for the reassurance.

[Bento hands and poses in objects]

Some of the things I make need poses or animations. Simple ones usually, like a custom sit pose for a rideable toy. They often involve some sort of hand positioning for handlebars and such.
Now I'm looking for advice on how the new Bento hands affect this sort of thing.

I don't have Bento hands and other than testing how my stuff would work with them, don't have any reason or interest in fussing with them. I haven't seen enough examples what other people are doing to get a sense of things.

What's the best approach to this sort of pose work right now? Is it a matter of choosing to create for Bento-hands or system avatar compatibility?

[And Now We Can See Who Our Stalkers Are]

On 13/05/2017 at 6:27 AM, Polenth Yue said:

People do tend to assume stalker before they assume dyslexic person who tends to reread things many times to be sure it was read correctly. I'm not out to get you. I'm just not going to take in what you've written on a first read. And I don't like being placed in a position where I have to explain it to people, because they can see exactly what I'm doing.

I have different problems than dyslexia but I do that sort of thing too. It's just trying to increase the chances that I'm understanding what people are saying. It's me trying to give the conversation my best, but if it's observed it tends to be twisted around to be the opposite. Even worse is how hard it often is to change that impression once it's lodged in someone's mind.