Bitsy Buccaneer

Checked while I was in world this evening (re the picture posted above). How could I forget that the hair is Pocket Mirrors? Dear dear dear dear me. Haven't tracked down the skin yet. The bracelet looks very much like one from Eclectica called "Wright" (as in Frank Lloyd), but it's hard to be certain. I was expecting the dress to get a high complexity ranking because it has flexis, several pieces and dozens of sculpted roses around the arms and neckline, but it was 33k. The hair is 11k. Jewelry is 60k. I would have been wearing Victorian ankle boots a friend made, those come in at 26k. Altogether ARC is 130k, not bad for a fancy outfit. Thanks for inspiring a wee jaunt into some good memories.

My SL time this month has to be devoted to building and scripting for a hunt, so no time for trying to get decent pics. Here's an old one though. Hair was free from a freebie place that was like a miniscule version of Free Dove, boxes on the walls from various creators. The dress is Montagne Noire. For the jewelry, I would guess Ecletica. Skin might be whatever Lumae was going by at that point. Heartsick was it?

This musketeer outfit is old school in approach. Rather than being a single mesh piece, the shirt is system with separate pieces for the collar and sleeves (like they used to do with sculpts). Same approach for the trousers, system plus extra pieces where it needs fullness. I'd like to include it because it's also mixed gender, something which is hard to pull off with full mesh clothing. It was a hunt gift from Tamiron Forge (thank you Tam!!!) The women's gift was a lady's gown, which doesn't suit me at all, but I could borrow the sleeves from it to use with the men's musketeer outfit to come up with one I love. That sort of freedom is what SL is all about to me.

If I'm understanding this correctly, SL already has the ability to switch base avatar. They're distinguished as female and male now, but can it not be extended to include improved avatars as well? Then existing content could still be used by choosing an original avatar and LL would be free to make all sorts of improvements to new ones.

You might be able to fake it by using layers and/or masking and darkening parts of the image or playing with the opacity settings for some of the layers. Good luck.

The texture variations are why I bought that particular item, one which was exclusive to an event. The plain knit ones in the store have no interest to me; my interest was all about the prints and how they well they work with the piece. The creator did a great job with choosing scale and laying out the pattern of the prints on the item. So, from my point of view at least, that's one example of something of value which is high quality, desireable, and no longer available since the event closed. The fact that it's still available in a set of textures I don't like doesn't change that for me one bit. You asked for evidence and I gave you some from my personal experience. Where did you use the words "well-established, and well-known stores/creators" and "bigger stores"? I can't find them in this thread. But since you want to use them, Sn@tch and PurpleMoon are certainly well-established, well-known and big (full sims, large groups, busy, high traffic) amongst clothing creators. Baby Monkey continues to be a bit of a legend for shoes, for all that the MM boards at another store get a lot of the fashionistas' attention. Timeless, Texture Me True and Kushi are significant enough amongst texture creators that they are in turn helping other creators get exposure through their sims. Are any of them raking in "thousands of US$ each and every month"? I've had conversations with everyone I mentioned at some point, but I don't know them well enough to ask about their finances and none of them seem to be the kind to brag about it in public. It is obvious from the way they talk that they enjoy the process of making things and have enough creative energy to make extra things for exclusives, promotions and/or gifts. Maybe if they were even bigger and more succesful than they are, they'd some how become compelled to squeeze every last linden out of every single thing they make. I think that's more likely to be a matter of individual temperament than gross profit. In other words, I see no reason to accept your arguments here. Your assessment of why other people do things is the closest you've come to 'evidence'. but the real evidence is that there are valuable, worthwhile, desireable and high quality items which are exclusive to events, and not just to the "gotta have the newest, coolest" set either. Sorry, but your argument just doesn't hold up.

I'm fond of the Genre event and they ask for new, exclusive items so I own several which would qualify. My avatar is currently wearing a poncho from the Mongolian round. It came with five or six different prints in a texture-change HUD. A friend complimented it a few days ago, so I'm not alone in liking it. It was L$100 (another Genre requirement) and I'm very glad I bought it. The same poncho base is offered in the store in plain knit fabrics. I don't know the price but it's nowhere near as interesting IMO. The base was re-used, but the texturing wasn't. Are you going to get so picky with your words again that you find a loophole to sneak through because it wasn't completely unique? I also have a cool Mongolian spiked fiddle from that round. I like the Genre event because it inspires creators to make things they wouldn't normally and also makes it easier for people like me who aren't avid shoppers to find them if we're interested. My best serious pirating trousers came from a gacha event. They were commons, so it wasn't hard or expensive to get the 3 colours I wanted. My favourite hair was from an event. There was time pressure in deciding to buy it, but I don't remember if that was due to it being an event-only exclusive or if it was discounted for the event. And that's from someone who isn't much of a shopper. For successful creators who, by all appearances, love to create and share and aren't limited to a focus on earnings, I put forward Ivey Deschanel (Sn@tch, who made the Mongolian poncho), forum regular Pixieplum Flanagan (Baby Monkey), Xzavia Yifu (Timeless Textures), Gerard Tunwarm (Texture Me True), Kushi Vyper (Kushi's Textures), Tiffy Vella (Eclectica Jewelry) and Poulet Koencamp (PurpleMoon Creations). There will be plenty more, these are just a few who came to mind straight away. Phil, do you not realise how often others in the forum point out the ways in which your thinking and reactions aren't representative of the norm? Or do you just ignore that in order to proceed with your argument? Perhaps your creation became focused on making money, Phil. Maybe that was even the norm once upon a time. But today there are plenty of people in SL who earn enough to meet their monetary needs (whether it's tier or a RL income) and still have some creative energy left over to make something special for an event, promotion or gift. Now if you want to skirt around this by saying it's below your threshold for 'many', give me a number and I'll head over to the fashion forum to ask for suggestions and see if we can't beat it.

Can you prove either of those claims, Phil? Many creators offer high quality, desireable exclusives for an event and don't sell them later. I would guess that they generally make enough of a profit during the event to justify their time and then benefit from the exposure. It seems to be good advertising. Maybe it was different in the boom years, but nowadays I'd wager that the majority of creators do so because they like to create and they like to share what they've made with others. Not all decisions will be seen in terms of maximising profits to their utmost.

Especially given the way so many merchants use a woman's name instead of anything descriptive. Probably with a slightly different spelling than the item from another creator with a nearly but not quite identical name. Hmm, is the one I want Stefani, Stephanie or Steffi? Oh wait, it was Stevie for the hair and Stefani for the jeans and Steffi for the necklace, but none of them are the one I would like to wear.

Something like that would help me a great deal. My inventory got out of control during the years when I was most ill and trying to get it cleaned up and reduced has been more than I can manage. It's a huge task now and I really need a way to break it down into smaller bits without getting distracted by a hundred other folders. With something like your proposal, it would be easier for me to do a bit here and there, or set up sorting/cleaning projects to do inworld. What I would really like is a way to put infrequently used items into a separate searchable folder structure which isn't downloaded every single time I log in. We don't have a house on the sim at present, but probably will again. Do I box it all up (and undo the nice multi-layered folder structure I spent so much time creating) or do I keep letting it add to my inventory count? Same thing with seasonal decor and such. IMO it would be nice to have the option to choose whether or not those things were loaded up at any given log-in.

After seeing the problems a friend has had with gambling in SL, I would just as soon see it gone completely. The proprietors of the places use all sorts of techniques to foster repeated use, like having to wait around or return later to get payment. They're exploiting people's tendencies towards addictive gambling. It's very worrying if you care about someone who's prone to that.

I'm curious about something. By any chance, did one of your alts have quite the role play experience with a birthing clinic last summer?

Have you spoken about this with any likely creators themselves? It matters less what the majority of SL creators might or might not do and more what a few in your niche are happy to support in some way. I would start by building up relationships amongst others who are involved in the genre and asking what they would like to see, what they might hope to gain or be able to contribute. As for the idea of voluntary donation or free rent in exchange for providing ambience, decor and a bit of traffic, that's pretty much what I bring to a friend's sim. It works for both of us because it meets each of our needs in SL. My niche has a lot of ups and downs re sales so making regular rent can be a bit daunting. My store ranks well in a few key searches though, which brings in traffic to the rest of the sim. It seems to me that the focus on mainstores and TPing to them overlooks things like the value of being able to advertise your sim/community in their groups and what any store, no matter the size, might be able to add in terms of getting your place seen via search. Likewise, an umbrella group for the stores in your sim could be a boon to those who are too small to maintain strong groups of their own. Themed shopping events are very popular today, which suggests that there is merit to bringing a collection of merchants together. Just my thoughts. Good luck with your project.

My apologies then. I'll see if I can get my posts removed from the thread. I thought looking at a rezzed object still told you something about it's geometry and construction, even if it's rigged when worn.

Which is why I advocate looking at the geometry itself via wireframe or edit and zooming in and out to see how LoD changes are handled.

post removed lest it further contribute to misinformation on the subject.

Aside from the occasional shudder when I stumble into poorly made content, I haven't changed anything really about how I dress my av and my complexity numbers run under 10k. I generally have to work to get it higher and why do that? System body, good skin, short mesh hair, my favourite shoes (which are probably simple sculpts) as standard. Current clothes are mesh jeans and a lovely poncho top with a Mongolian textile print from a Genre event. Mentioning the latter because its visual interest is from the print, at least to me. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if the low complexity of my av has offended anyone's retinal health they've been sufficiently mannered to avoid mentioning it to me inworld. I keep jelly dolls on inworld and usually have it set low. CoolVLViewer handles the jelly dolls notices via a shirt icon in the menu bar rather than a pop up window. A yellow shirt icon appears (explanatory text available as mouseover) when your av isn't rendered by someone else. It's present but not intrusive. That sort of notice in the mainstream viewers would probably reduce a lot of the social tension around jelly dolls. The only thing I miss is watching some of the amusing things mesh body parts and clothes get up to when lag makes for slow rezzing. Sorry fashionistas, all of your stuff hanging about in mid-air can be more interesting to me than the finished product. When it comes to creating, the new ARC information has further increased my efforts to minimising render weight in everything I make. (This includes wearables, decor and furniture, both pre-made FP mesh and my own work.) I'm glad to do that but unfortunately it multiplies the already complicated processes of creating for SL, at least at this stage. At this point, I'm comfortable enough with Blender to be able to make and texture most of my objects but the endless process of optimising 4 level of detail (LoD) and keeping all of them playing nicely with each other can be a bit of a nightmare. It's proven to be too much during times of poor health for me. Jelly dolls and ARC isn't the real issue here, it's how complicated the process is to begin with. My experience is that optimising render weight tends to be multiplicative rather than additive for many of those steps. In short, changes necessary for optimisation can lead to having to redo a lot of that work depending on how far back in the process you need to go, including having to remake each LoD model depending on the nature of the changes. Other people who know more about the insides of these things have suggested that LL could do better with aspects of LoDs and their side of the mesh testing/uploading process. If that's true, and LL broke form to address these issues, it could go a long way towards making it easier for SL's creators to make better render-friendly mesh. I really appreciate the ideas, suggestions and information you share with us, Penny. Seeing how someone else does something, especially when it's thinking outside the box and looking at things in a new way, is great stimulus for my own efforts. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

A Marketplace presence only tells you that the creator has a Marketplace presence. I know of a few who've sadly passed on, others who couldn't afford tier or the time required to manage an inworld store. Some of those seem to have left SL altogether (without taking the MP store down), others come and go depending on RL. Better to check the creator's profile inworld - how ancient are the pic landmarks and groups? - and last log-in dates via the store group. We've had several big changes, like the introduction of mesh, which increased the number of creators starting over with a new store name. Was that five years ago? I can't remember. Sometimes you can find out what an old fav is up to now by asking in a large shopping-oriented group. If you ask about Simone! though you might just hear ad nauseum about the mesh head of that name. Welcome back by the way. When you find an out-of-date LM, are you doing an inventory search on its name? That might help you get rid of a few more.

Anyone who feels ostracised because of their av is welcome at ours. We care more about the kindness inside a person than what he or she's done to the outside.

Yes, many creators who make different things (avatar components and houses would be a good example) keep them separate on marketplace through alt accounts. It's so much easier for customers to browse the shop for what they're interested in, especially when it has more than a few pages. IMO it's good practice to mention it in the account profiles and on the MP page, just to avoid confusion, make it easier for customers to find the right MP store, or know which account is best to contact you through.

Add a bemused, some what cheeky tone of voice to the above please. Attempts to keep it polite enough for the forums sort of trashed that. C'est la SL. :matte-motes-smile:

That would explain the behaviour of several men I've met in SL. :matte-motes-confused: I will stick with my shop, however. As hard as it is for some to believe, it's more satisfying to me than being expected to help internet strangers get their one-sided jollies.

If they are copy and came in some sort of a box that you had to either Open or was scripted to open on rez or when attached, then that box will serve as a back up and you can safely delete the versions which went into your inventory. Don't delete the box though. Anything that isn't copy won't be in that original box though. Just something to keep an eye on when you're opening boxes. If you received a folder of stuff (rather than a single box/package), then the safest course is to rez a prim and put all of the bits and pieces into it. The ones you don't want now, the ones you do. Then you will have a backup in case of mishap, like a script malfunctioning, or when you do something different with your main body. Label it with something that will give you a heads up. I append the phrase "BOXED UP" for mine because it's unique. When I see the phrase in my inventory, I know that particular box is my archive copy and probably has my only copies of its contents. The consistent wording also makes it easier to search for things. After you've made your own backup box, you can safely delete the bits you're not currently using. If you want to further reduce your inventory count, those backup boxes can go into a master back up box. Don't trash them. Things WILL change, especially with mesh bodies and how rapidly that whole area is changing.

If you haven't already - Get yourself onto the beta grid, take the mesh upload tests for both the beta and main grids and get payment into on file. Search the archives for info on what you need to do for that. Beta grid because SL mesh requires MUCH experimentation, trial and error and having to pay for each attempt tends to lead to saying 'good enough' too early. Beta grid is free. Understanding 3d software is one thing, understanding what SL needs from mesh in order to behave (as much as SL ever behaves) is something else entirely. So export as dae (rather than obj) and try uploading on the beta grid. Then come back to the Mesh section of the Creation forum (rather than General Discussion in the People forum) and start asking specific questions about the problems you're having. Or do an archive search, lots of great info already there from some very knowledgeable and skilled teachers.

I've seen my relationship with my avatar change over the years, including today while I was working on the face of my new building alt, who has turned into my 'reminding myself how to play again' project. :matte-motes-smile: Would be happy to talk about this with you and do my best to answer your questions. SL isn't a site, btw. It's a complex, chaotic, malfunctioning, crazy-making, multi-faceted, amazing world, and something slightly different to every one of us that uses it. That's the kind of thing you need to understand if you're going to represent it accurately in your study. Good luck. :matte-motes-smile: