Macrocosm Draegonne

No, its a separate thing for sure, I do know the difference, have even been to a few of the animesh meetings. Maybe I saw some random testing, the sandbox I was in was reset or something and I was returned to one of those aditi landing zones, so I went looking for another sandbox on the map, thats where I saw a sim called fleximesh lol, doesnt mean its a thing, but it was there. Im mostly sure thats where I saw it because there doesnt seem to be an official alternate testing viewer for it like I thought there was.

If im not mistaken there is a fleximesh thing somewhere I saw, perhaps in the beta grid it was a sims name, or one of the beta viewer builds, or both. Thanks for sharing that detailed information about the calculations, it makes it seem quite possible, yet still needing strict rules if ever implemented. It could be wicked cool too! Yeah, too many triangles can be such a waste, often they're providing literally zero visual enhancement too lol, or what scant little they provide can be in the normal map and textures. That said, it is subjective somewhat, (depending on the avatar) how much tri's would be needed. Really large or multi limbed things could expand quite a lot. Seems like most of the added trouble currently is because we dont have Bakes on Mesh yet, that should eliminate all but one of the onion skins. I think thats a considerable potential improvement, also if Linden gets more strict with scores it will compel creators to optimize more when possible.

It could be so nice, it has biological as well as energy use implications. ? Heres a five min mockup with Firefox source inspector and some css tweaks lol.. ::::::Feel the relief as clicking zoom on the image below obfuscates all the evil white.:::::::: ?

Ok so its not the flexy its the tri's? I suppose that makes sense with a flexy hair they would use all prims, one for each small section that moves and that increases the tri's a ***** ton, that must be why its so heavy, its true in all viewers too, some of the classic stuff is really super un-optomized compared to mesh. I believe sometime soonish we will have fleximesh too right?

The 'Invision Community' should allow multiple themes if I remember correctly, can we please have a dark theme too? The white is blinding and painful sometimes lol like acid on my eyes, I found an app for Firefox to force an inversion and make the forums dark with light text, but it'd be nice I think to just offer the toggle in our profiles, if we want the light or dark theme, than everyone can benefit. Just a suggestion, not a demand, but it would be quite nice. ?

No reason to stress it, if they're taking the extra time to assure its all proper then that's a good thing, it will only help assure the upgrade is a success everyone will love, with FAR less trouble support tickets and customer service issues to contend with lol, thats a serious metric to contend with. After all these years they know what it takes, they know how to do all the things, I would be hesitant to question their motivations in that light, and given that in SL's whole history they've never shown themselves as monopolists. SL is a labor of love & creativity, and... don't forget, the auction upgrades are only one aspect in an array of upgrades and expansions to the system that have been ongoing since last year, they're investing millions of dollars and tons of work into SL's evolution. As for that new mainland adult grid, I have two of those lots there, I got a really great deal on them too, double prim, in horizons, you can sail from your back yard all the way thru and down around in the zindra continent, there is no overwhelming monopoly, there are many different groups and people that have land over there, its not all one person owning it, after living there for a year I can also say its become a lot more active lately too. Adding the extra land allowance to premium members was such a smart move! Ill be moving into a new private SIM soon though lol.

Wow this was a great post, I too have been working on a similar modular mesh concept for my sim, I had been planning on doing much of it with zero physics and using the ground below for that, and allow a slight offset to be nice in that it seems the persons feet are sinking into the grass, perhaps also putting in physics on the path in those, and also a copy version which actually has a physics shape to use in other areas ground isnt actually there. Im definitely going modular with a lot of things, good stuff on many accounts. Though I WISH we had mesh instancing (or is there?) The blender export even has the little checkbox you can tic for .dae, but I read SL just walks right past that mo ? I would think sharing object data among many copies of a mesh would increase performance no? Is there some sort of proprietary similar thing already happening in sl? Whens the last time the havok stuff had an enema? ?

OMG, still waiting on the transfer ticked! ? I have further eased my mind by allocating (& limiting myself to) four months of server payments in a nice block, so no pressure, and ample time to work out my mad man wild ride down the vortex hole, and see if im up to it and it works out, lol. https://www.youtube.com/embed/wlwnbcxBuzI

Im sure you already know but in case anyone doesnt there's also a flythru and walkthru feature in Blender in the navigation menu and you can adjust the height/camera angle etc a bit, its not perfect but you can get somewhat of a sense that walking thru your design would give, minimally speaking. With Blender 2.8 though that will be even better, we can mimic SL rendering in the viewport, even as we edit the mesh, all in real time with all the lighting and such. Im super excited for that!

I love doing that!, layering in all the things, only to wipe them out and try a different approach, its really a lot of fun. I do usually also make some prims and export them to colladas to bring into Blender, that really does help a ton with scale & space, though another trick is that product in marketplace which was created originally for sculpties, you can export the terrain in mesh chunks with it now (32mx32m) each and can do the whole sim pretty damn quick too. This helps me visualize the area im building out, even if I dont use any the terrain at all, for layering etc. It is tricky to use over property lines, although it still works perfectly, you wont see the visual cues provided by its particle effects, you'll have to rely on spacial thinking and math to get it right lols, its easier than it sounds though. (Edit: and in blender the resulting meshes need to be scaled up x10) I have been enjoying using the beta grid a lot too, that helps a ton figuring out best lod and li, have spent most of my time tinkering with that area, I want solid optimization and visuals, and really there is no need to upload a million copies of something to the main grid, or waste lindens on it either lol.

Ive started drawing out my plans and such, and im beginning to think the delay in the transfer ticked being completed might be a sign to wait a month as I build my build, and plan. I can virtualize the whole thing on my desktop locally first before bringing in world. I wonder if that is a better approach than jumping right at buying the SIM now? Id only save one months server cost, but I might also do a more thorough job on my plan too. Hmmm... I will ponder this as the delay continues lol, Im definitely getting a SIM, but the exact date is flexible, and there are always SIMs to get, and im certainly not ready day one as it is, lmao but that never stopped me before in many things. Hmm... Decisions decisions. At least im a lot less freaked now that i spoke with you all, and actually sat with my plans, outlining some things. Thank you everyone for giving great feedback! Its helped a ton, and made me more excited too

Yeah I can respect that, for me fun is super important, but I do enjoy working, especially creating, so its not always laborious. You make a great point though, there is a reason im relieved I dont have as much responsibilities in the business i was part of launching. You do tire of overworking, most often doing so very underpaid, for years, startups are not easy and require a ton of commitment, its one reason why 9 out of 10 businesses close in their first year in RL.

yes I agree, I have been doing some of that, it really does help a lot. It's true too, I should start from the ground up, moving to the more complex things later, ive already got a ton of ideas and things to build, and a bunch of my own mesh to work with, but being in RL business all these years (with less responsibilities now thank the gods!) I know I will need a solid yet flexible plan, and willingness to fail forward! I don't expect to make tons of money, thats not the goal, but I do expect that if im a good enough creator, I could pay for the server sometimes (or even often eventually?) with the lindens earned, and use the whole experience to expand my blender building skillset, while sharing & collaborating with others too lol. Yes my coffee is kicking in! ?

Yeah lol, it is a bit pricey, although I have paid a lot more for web-servers in the past for serving websites, in total I do a lot more now, though I have offset all that to clients and dont manage the servers anymore except one straggler server of a few old sites. Considering how much action and lindens can flow thru a sim it seems a fair price, I hear it will get some more tweaks in tier and land fee's over the next year or so as infrastructure continues to go into the cloud, not sure how they can manage to reduce the price given what a server is responsible for, but there are always new efficiencies that can be found I suppose. I will give myself a little while to pull something off, and if it doesn't work out, no harm, no foul, I can simply sell or return the server and come back the next time with a fresh more informed plan lol. This was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up, spur of the moment and all that fun stuff. I do have mesh skills, so I could sell objects to supplement the servers cost, and already have the whole casper suite n all, ive got all things... but i must also have the drive and inspiration. I am sometimes even perplexing to myself in what can bring on a good creative flow state with high output. But... seeing all the things that can be done with 3d art has always been inspiring to me, and SL too. I do know blender 3d, though im still learning the particularities of game optimized objects, and as that relates to SL. I have been studying that for about a year now, going too damn slow if you ask me, so maybe this SIM will be the needed pressure and impetus to finally put some stuff out there and have fun with it. Or I might just explode! ? lol

Wow, ten years, that's impressive! I guess its safe to say you've enjoyed it and its worked out. Im just in overthinking mode, im moody, Double Cancerian, INFJ lol... They better hurry up with the transfer ticket tho, or I might go running wildly into the woods never to return, after canceling the transfer... lmao... almost did it twice since I submitted it. Its not the money, I have enough to keep it going, but its the commitment and output of creative flow, its not something that can be forced, at least not with me, though a little pressure never hurt.

So right up front, I know, I know, I can cancel the sim at any time, and im under no obligation to do anything in particular with it... but.... did anyone else feel like a total loon for buying a full SIM their first time? Im still waiting on the transfer ticket to sort and my mind is swirling, cancel it!... keep it! You're a nutter! Have Fun & create! lol im going crazy over here thinking of which of my mesh creations will be brought inworld and what I will do with them, how will the SIM be designed etc. Its a gigantic undertaking for someone like me who gets into the fine details, and is sometimes too perfectionist to get ***** done all that timely, im a crazy artist with a million projects, what more do you expect? ? 50/50 chance I will give it back in a month, or the pressure will compel me to action towards a lot of fun and sharing of creativity. Either way im pushing forward, im not going to be scared to rent a SIM for gods sake, I have dozens of servers in the cloud lol, but this is different of course, sharing my 3d art is more personal than building websites, its my art and expression on display, but that's all probably a good healthy pressure I suppose. Anyway, i already feel better just writing this out and acknowledging my nervousness and all, so please do have a good laugh at me, its only fair. ...and if you were nervous your first time please share.

Could be he accidentally added your name to a parcel and quickly removed it? Not knowing you'd get some notice? Ive not used that interface so I wouldn't know, but it could have been a simple mistake like clicking the wrong button. Thats just as plausible as something malicious right? Or is the rental interface not that easily used mistakenly?

Thats interesting, perhaps it could be something that was borked on that particular install? did you try a fresh install on that version too? At least you've got it fixed with the latest release, ive never seen anyone complaining about that issue so it could just be a one off bug you found.

lmao.... well it was tweeked a bit from different versions, its not as bad as the first round, I was scoring over 500k in this outfit, and now 315k, I think you gave leeway for hidden invisible tri's. The same Avi in LL viewer 70k lol. I am wearing all bento rigged mesh and bento head and all the things, so im not in the millions score, you may be correct about other bodies though, I think Signature really put in some effort to optimize over their previous versions, the score has kept going down with each update. Catwa said she will update her heads for bakes on mesh when the time comes which will reduce complexity. I think BOM will reduce onion skinning somewhat, but there will always probably be one onion skin, because really cool things can be done with that. Soapy, dirty, or wet skin, or food on the face etc. Nothing drives up the complexity score like some old flexy prim hair lol, can easily double the score over all other items combined.

Yeah SL under the hood seems all amazingly complex and actually pretty damn good already, nothing else on Earth has ever had to contend with such a paradigm of content, its brilliant what they've been able to do, seriously. I would wager the lighting/shadows system getting a rework would do far more than increased texture resolution could. Or more peppy physics, those are two huge immersive qualities. Either way texture size is not a high priority for many reasons (for now), but Atlases could be cool, maybe if only limited to SIM owner, or other smart limits & controls. I was somewhat recently listening to a Linden/creator meeting and he was discussing something similar to what @Animats mentioned above, a box around the user, reducing draw calls and such. Its difficult to remember exactly what he said, though it was something they were working on already, along with some other sweet performance updates. I like the idea of the object color thing Animats mentioned, it would certainly reduce the visual disruption as textures load. If we could do something about hiding avatar mesh thats floating before loading its attachment point. that'd be fantastic too. Now that I've got a SIM (waiting on the transfer now) I will really have to work my ass off and apply all this helpful info ive found here in the forums. I want optimization to be a primary focus, equal to visuals of course. I will keep low spec systems in mind and not have everything too broken and ugly for them, but there are limits to that of course.

They could tweak the text in the documentation, and point of sales bulltpoints etc. Its really not apparent at all you will get your land instantly, and I actually read the whole doc-set which most will not do, I cant imagine how many sales they've lost or delayed because of that? It needs to be more apparent you will jump right in and have your land as soon as payment clears. I even googled and read the forums on the subject and came up with nothing. Having never bought a full SIM from Lindens before I had no previous context to go on, so I bought a SIM from another player, which ended up a little bit cheaper too.

Oh nice, it says in the Doc it can take up to 15 business days lol.

Id have to say the #1 benefit is performance, because there are no neighbors, absolutely everything is faster and usually better looking too. I spent the last couple weeks looking to get more mainland, and couldn't find anything that both, didnt have garrish neighbors, and the property qualities I was looking for. So I just bought a full private SIM instead and will be selling my mainland parcels since i've outgrown them. You can buy a private region from another user too, which is faster than a new sim setup I believe.

Sale Pending!

Great point, it really illustrates what an atlas could do though, thats 15 less calls to a texture potentially. The higher resolution is nicer though for certain things, especially mountains and terrain, but also skin or any other texture really. The issue is viewer optimization more than texture size at this point, computers are a lot more capable these days on average, compression could get faster too right? SL barely uses any resources on my machine, usually way less than max 30% of processor and gpu, and a tiny itty bit part of my ram lol. For larger textures i wouldnt want them all just downloading, the mipmapping could control so those are only seen when up really close, and/or are massive huge objects and are LOD controlled. EDIT: But I guess thats not how it works, you say it downloads the full image regardless? So it chooses to use the mip maps for LOD to save viewer stress? I have over 70gigs of mods and textures in my Skyrim build lol lots of 4k textures, but thats an instanced game and a whole different setup of course.