Bitsy Buccaneer

Just when I thought I was maybe getting the hang of things..... :-) I have no idea what I've done, but it's now LI of 1.099 with a handle on top. Am considering being happy with that for the moment. Took me twelve hours to get up the courage to test my texture attempt inworld and it actually looks mostly alright. Hurrah. The thread you posted is a bit too advanced for me. Hopefully I'll be able to use the info some day soon. Thanks again.

Am hoping someone can share some tips besides 1) arrange the islands in the highest LOD sensibly and in light of the others and 2) eyeball it from a screen shot (of the highest LOD UV) for the rest. :-) TIA

Thank you so much Drongle. All of that is taken on board, even if it did take me two days and about seven reads. :-) I'm trying an 8 point cylinder as medium and low, and maybe a cube as lowest. A .01 m cube for physics (.360). I get a 1.219 LI & download cost for the complete piece (one object including a handle on the lid), which might be good enough for now. Am going to attempt texturing it to see if that distracts from the shape change. A 1 profile on the beveling gives what looks like a right angle. My current version has a deeper round to the bevels and I can't come close to approximating it with 2 segments. Will keep experimenting with all of this. Am off before I confuse myself. Writing about mesh and blender is even harder than using it. :-)

My apologies. So far on the beta grid, I've just set the physics to lowest and it pretty much always comes out to .2. I did make a .01 m cube to try as the physics upload. I don't need 'physics' for it. It's just an antique to sit on a table. So if I'm understanding things correctly, the physics is low enough it won't be affecting the LI. Other aspects of performance perhaps, but not the LI. I've been uploading the jar lid at .1 m x .1 m by something smaller. 8 vertices to start with in the cylinder gives a good LI (.5), but a less than round shape. A cylinder based on 16 vertices is better (but still not great) and gives .8 or so I think. Since this is only half of the piece, I'd really like to get that down. I'm also trying to learn best practices on easier pieces. (Working with two bits in a mesh object is causing all sorts of problems that I haven't gotten the hang of accomodating yet. The one I posted shows a bit over 400 triangles, don't remember vertices (everything I've read has been focused on tris); it won't upload on the beta grid cause of something I don't understand yet that's probably related to it being two separate pieces in Blender. I haven't gotten to the seams or UV map yet because I've just been focused on the shape. I did take a peek at it on one trial and it was a twisted mess. Could that be causing the problems? I'll improve that tomorrow. Eyeballs crossed, B

I've been reading as much as I can, experimenting in Blender and the Beta Grid, lowering physics, adding simple shapes for low and lowest LOD, and my attempts are still coming in at higher LI than objects I've examined inworld. Mine have fewer tris too, so I'm at a loss. What I'm trying to make are some small, rounded bottles and jars. I've started with the simplest shape - a lid (no inside faces), straight sides and some beveling around the edges. Something like this: I'd love to make more complex shapes like others are doing too. Any tips much appreciated. TIA.

Thanks for the help Aquila and Uriah. Both of your posts helped with different things. I wanted to reply earlier but blender unwrapped my brain or something. :-) It turns out that the step I was missing was Solidify. That doubled my tris and upped the LI from .5 to .86. Acceptable but I want to learn best building practices from the start so I rebuilt using a different method. My ancient Roman baking tray is now solid and .5 LI. So some success even if my carefully planned out measurements didn't quite work. Thanks again.

So I managed to get the hang of the extrude and scale technique to build a simple mesh object (start with a plane, extrude up, scale out, etc and then back down for the outside). Think baking tray and you'll have a clear enough image of the shape. I even managed to figure out how to seam it so it UVs into two tidy pieces which fit well one above the other in a square UV/AO texture. (The final piece is going to be all about the texturing, especially the top, so keeping that as neat as possible is important.) The thing is, it doesn't have a bottom. I added another plane but it compromised the UV. Before I try cleaning all of that up manually, am I going about this in a reasonable way or is there a better approach to the whole thing? Thanks for any help. I'm using Blender 2.7 and still get lost quite easily in it.

So I managed to get the hang of the extrude and scale technique to build a simple mesh object (start with a plane, extrude up, scale out, etc and then back down for the outside). Think baking tray and you'll have a clear enough image of the shape. I even managed to figure out how to seam it so it UVs into two tidy pieces which fit well one above the other in a square UV/AO texture. (The final piece is going to be all about the texturing, especially the top, so keeping that as neat as possible is important.) The thing is, it doesn't have a bottom. I added another plane but it compromised the UV. Before I try cleaning all of that up manually, am I going about this in a reasonable way or is there a better approach to the whole thing? Thanks for any help. I'm using Blender 2.7 and still get lost quite easily in it.

That was it. CTRL N worked. Thanks so much. :-)

A couple of days ago, some prims starting showing up as red. It looks similar to the View > Highlight Transparent effect, but a bit lighter. The difference is clear when I turn Highlight Transparent on. As far as I can tell this is limited to scripted objects. It's only on one viewer (Singularity, cleared cache, reinstalled), so I'm wondering if I accidentally ticked something. Can't find what though. Alpha and other texture characteristics don't seem to matter. If two objects with the same texture are next to each other, the one with the script has the red cast and the one without is fine. Some scripted objects are fine. Don't know enough about scripting to figure out what the common factor is there. Any ideas?

Dillon Levenque wrote: I saw someone in that polka-dot outfit and said, "Oh, I really like your dress." Eeewwwww. :-) xx

I wondered what that strange thing sticking out of my hips was for most of a week. Somehow I figured out it was that awful greyish-mauve polka dot skirt. Had no idea 'replace outfit' didn't replace everything. %-)

My guess is that the free furniture is primarily about retention. A few months ago, a friend introduced me to a friend he'd met somewhere. She was brand new, had a linden house, and was putting a lot of effort into slogging through freebie places. She was happy enough with the furniture she'd found - she didn't yet know enough to realize how very 2006 it looked - but it was chewing through her allotted prims at a furious pace without filling the space. I don't know what's happened to her, but I haven't seen her logged in since her first month in SL. So my guess is that the new free furniture will damage the market for obsolete pre-menu pre-sculpt prim monsters first and foremost. If it is decent qualtiy, then it will teach noobs a bit about what to look for. And some of them will want to get better stuff to go alongside their linden sofa and later to replace it. SL's learning curve is immense. If making the beginning easier means more people enjoy their first month and get hooked, that''s going to benefit everyone. Furniture creators especially - cause that sofa is going to make the pre-sculpt bed from the easy-to-find freebie place look a bit shabby.

A lot of stores closed during August, some citing poor sales. The ones I heard about were mostly women's clothing. I'm wondering if certain types of items were more affected than others too? It seems like things are picking up though.

Quinn Morani wrote: @Bitsy, I like to dress my avi too, but haven't had any time at all lately to devote to window shopping for new clothes. I certainly need to carve out some time for a little shopping expedition soon! How people who aren't creators manage to be so busy in SL is beyond me. Doll-dressing is something to do when I log in. That's all. I'd gladly trade that for friendships that weren't one-sided.

Something so basic shouldn't require inside knowledge. This new set-up doesn't work.

For anyone under 14 days, use Search to find a store called Amacci's and teleport there. Look for the "Poses and AOs' building (signs on the ground will point you in the right direction). Once in that building, look on the right hand wall for a sign that says something like "Free AOs for Under 14 Days'. Then click on either the male or female sign underneath. (Or both, if you're flexible that way.) You'll need to find a place (like a sandbox) to unbox it. After that, you can wear it and it will give you a nicer walk and stand. From what I've seen, it's by far the best free walk/stand AO (animation override, don't worry about understanding that yet - just get the gadget :-) ) in SL, but you have to get it within your first 14 days. Otherwise it's 400 Lindens. If you can't figure this out, feel free to look for me in search and send me a friend request or IM. Welcome to SL. (If anyone knows of a better one, would you kindly let me know? I have the Fab Free card already. Thx.)

WhiteBoi360 wrote: for instance, I got this hat.. but I selected the attach to option.. and I selected my nose, just to be silly to see if he would wear it on his face.. but he didnt.. it just positioned it weird above his head.. now everytime I select wear, it places it there.. how do I get it back on his head properly? If it was a freebie and you have a vague idea of where you found it, go back and get a new one to 'wear' normally. That's often the simplest fix. Any information on position has to be set by someone. Creators usually do this when they're testing out a new creation. The object can only have one set position at a time. 'Wear' retains the object's last position information. With a new-to-you object, that will be whatever position information the creator or last owner left it with when s/he boxed it up for sale. With an object you've changed the position on, it will be the last position you had it in. 'Attach to' removes all of that information. The object floats some distance away and you have to position it correctly. (It's better that the default position be farther out because small objects can get lost inside the avatar body and are tricky to locate when you're not used to the controls.) In your case, the last position information is that floating in space position (or wherever you moved it to). So when you 'Wear' it, that's the position it uses. It attaches automatically to your nose and floats in space. "Wear' it, then move it in any direction. Take it off, then re-wear to test - it will stay in the last position you set it to. If the last position is in front of the face, that's the position it will appear in when 'worn' again. So now you have two choices - reposition the hat to wherever you like or get another one. For the future, many items can be copied. Look for a 'Copy' option in the same menu as the 'Attach to', click on that and then 'Paste' the copy into an inventory folder. This way you'll have one copy with the creator's position information and one that you can move around however you want.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: Details about specifics (such as one type of hunt over the other) would be appreciated as well. My RL best friend lives in another country and is an avid hunter. So hanging out with him involves a lot of that. These comments are drawn from my observations of both my behaviours and his. Hunts can definitely bring in new customers, not just freebie-junkies. My friend is an impulse buyer; I shop sales. Turning each of us into a customer depends on the same basic premise though - make hunting in your store a pleasant experience. Grid-wide hunts tend to be monstrous affairs. At some point, even the best ones will feel like they go on forever - especially if there's been a string of frustrating locations. Decoys and other tricks might keep us in the store longer, but they create a lasting bad impression. If we leave saying "Let's get out of here, we've given them enough of our traffic already", we won't be coming back to shop. And if I've had to switch to wireframe to find the hunt prim, I'm not seeing your products. On the other hand, there's a 'postcard' in my profile picks from a fountain store we had a great deal of fun larking about in. The hunt item wasn't too difficult to find and its location amused us, I still remember where. So if either of us ever needs a fountain - or if anyone ever asks for a rec - that's the place which will come to mind. There's a huge difference between people staying because they're enjoying your sim and people being forced to by a tedious, frustrating search. Relevance to the theme of the hunt matters a lot as well. I'm not going to spend money in a conventional clothing store just because they made something vaguely steampunk and put the Steam gear next to it. But land me in a vintage store with a sale on and that's a different matter altogether. (Quality can trump relevance though - my go-to non-vintage party dress came from the Gothmas by Gaslight hunt. Wasn't relevant to the theme, but the quality made it a keeper.) The prize/gift is a sample of your goods. Give me something I value and I'll be back to see what else you have. (Oh, and put your store in your picks - it might be months before I get around to using your gift. With search being odd, going through the creator's profile is an excellent way of updating LMs.) The prize from the fountain store above wasn't very good. If it had been, it would likely be rezzed in the public part of the sim. That's a relevant conversation starting opportunity lost - Where did you get that great fountain? Oh, it was a hunt prize - brilliant store, let me give you the LM.... If you feel the need to hobble your gift, take care how you do that. If we end up feeling cheated because the item is very nice but unusable, we're not likely to return. Think about it from the POV of the hunter as well as your own wishes/needs. Have a group joiner/subscriber visible. On a hunt, I won't accept a group join when I land, but if I like your stuff I'll subscribe before I leave. If I really like your stuff, I might free up a group slot for yours. Then you don't have to rely on me remembering that I liked your place. :-) So pick hunts which are actually relevant to what you sell, respect that hunters don't know your store as well as you do (and won't get that clever pun in the clue which will only make sense once we've found the item), remember that we've got miles to go and a deadline, and put out a prize that represents the quality of your work. (Most of the underlying principles are also relevant to using MM boards, lucky chairs and freebies. Whatever you do, consider it from the POV of the hunter/gatherer/customer. Some challenge is fine, but don't set the bar so high it becomes frustrating or impossible. And make sure that the reward is worth the effort. You only turn people into customers if you make a positive impression.)

It's gone from optimism to a bit of why bother? The few friends I have managed to make have all wandered off or started sleeping better. Not having much luck at making new ones either, so I'm essentially back to playing dress up with my doll, only with proper vintage instead of freebie ball gowns.

Willow Danube wrote: @Dillon: I must say he was getting on my nerves a little bit... I was aware that he was pretty much a noob and was going to give him an advice or two about SL when he said I was 'pretty enough' to be his GF in this game. I may not be much of a looker compared to other girls in SL but dammit if I'd let a guy thinks I'm 'pretty enough'! hehehehe... I guess that was my trigger point.. At that point, I would have very politely offered him an LM to a sim with lots of very pretty, um, girls. Your restraint is commendable. (Note to self: get said LM for future)

While you're still young, use Search to find Amacci's and teleport there. Then go to the Poses & AOs building and look on the right wall for a sign that says something like Free AO for Under 14 Days. Click on the female one, the male one or both, as appropriate. Then find a place like a sandbox to open the box and wear the AO. You'll still be walking into walls, but you'll look far less clumsy as you do. :-) (AO is an 'animation over-rider'. It's how people get their different walks and standing around animations/poses. If you stay in SL for long, you'll probably want to upgrade but the free Amacci one (for avatars less than two weeks old) is an excellent starter.)

From Rodvik: "Lastly, we know that the Basic mode is very lean, and we’re only at the beginning of developing the minimum feature set--keeping it simple and working on the basics of usability first. We anticipate adding additional capabilities to Basic mode, so your feedback is important before we make this version of the SL Viewer the default download for new users." The date of that is 18 March. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/Introducing-SL-Viewer-Beta-with-Basic-and-Advanced-Modes/ba-p/758329 This Basic/Advanced approach is very close to a suggestion made on the old forums several months ago. I think the idea floated then was to have three modes in one viewer - one for noobs, one for builders/knowledge users, and one for folks in between (gross over-simplification, it was far better presented). If LL is following up on that suggestion, then perhaps a third mode will be developed which allows for inventory and money. Or maybe they'll come up with a way to integrate that into Basic. Either way, I'd be surprised if they didn't create some sort of non-Advanced mode which included inventory and money. Personally, I'm hoping (but not expecting) that they're looking at ways to better organize and present inventory. That would be a huge help in making viewers more noob-friendly (the problem isn't in getting stuff, it's in managing it once it's gotten) and benefit the rest of us as well.