Nalates Urriah

Getting a perfect match requires a number of things be just right. Since one of the factors is in how the designer made the seams for head and neck it may not be possible. Start with lighting. Set your Windlight to CalWL or one of the Optimal Avatar or Skin choices. This will minimize the problems from the SL lighting system. Also, enable ALM. Clear all the materials settings from body and head. You can add them back later. From the image, I think the body has a material applied and the head doesn't. That is likely the ccause of mismatch. Make sure all tints have been removed from the head and body. Hopefully you can use the same skin on head and body. If not, you'll have to tweak the TINT until you get a match. It is tedious and requires some knowledge of color in computer systems and a bit of skill. If you can use the same skin on head & body the seam should disappear. However if it is still there, it may just be the neck seams aren't that well matched for that head and body. Several head and body makers make adjustments for that problem. Look through your HUDs for something to adjust neck size. Matching head and body is a common and persistent problem. It seems no matter how well you match them in some lighting the seam shows up. I used to wear collars to hide the mismatch in various lighting. BoM has greatly reduced the problem. My Slink Redux and GA.EG Jennifer head with a YS&YS skin make the seam invisible.

...and all 62 of those layers get baked into a single layer. 62 x 1024x1024 x 3 (head, upped, lower) is something like 600+MB of texture data baked into 9MB.

The reason monopolies work in RL is a thing named 'start up costs'. The acquisition of manufacturing machinery, staff, licencing, training... make startup in some fields expensive. At that point in time the established company can drop prices, often below cost, to drive a startup competitor out of business. Once competition is eliminated then prices can be raised to any level as they are the only ones that have the product. In the 20th century AT&T monopolized telecommunications and was broken into the Baby Bells. With the advent of the Internet lots of people started communication companies. AT&T has been buying up the Baby Bells but there is no chance of them ever becoming a communications monopoly. In SL there are essentially no start up costs. A hobbyist is not concerned with training and labor costs. The RL factors that allow monopolies in RL do not exist in SL in way that could lock out a new competitive start up. Market share in SL is determined by users' preferences. It is an almost pure free market scenario. Something that never happens in communist or socialist systems. I've had the Slink Dev Kit for a long time, 5+ years. Never got a request for RL info. I looked at getting a Maitreya Dev Kit. I don't recall any exclusivity clause... I would never have agreed to such terms and suspect many others would not have.

First step check the minimum requirements for running SL https://secondlife.com/my/support/system-requirements/index.php? Next post the viewer/computer specs from the viewer's HELP->About... You don't need to log in. Just start the viewer and click HELP

A number of TVs and theaters in SL have stopped working recently because of the problem.

It appears you are trying to do things with RLV without having any idea of how it works. A collar and leash are not going to help you walk through a laggy sim. If you can't walk through a sim, figure out why. RLV can't stop you if it is disabled. Everything RLV requires RLV to be enabled in a viewer that supports RLV. Configuring RLV requires RLV... The idea with RLV is it allows scripts within the world to control the viewer. Normally that is a security risk. RLV is designed to give you control or allow you to give control to another. So, doing teleports without lots of clicks (the Stargate network relies on RLV. New networks use Experiences.), adding or removing clothes, dragging someone around on a leash... A collar manual is here https://www.opencollar.at/manual.html My a little longer explanation of RLV is here A longer explanation is here http://blog.nalates.net/2016/06/27/second-life-tutorial-rlv-mesh-and-folders-how-it-works-how-to-use/

@BriiScarlander See if this explanation helps: https://slinkstyle.com/2019/08/29/introducing-slink-redux-bakes-on-mesh-slink/

Gotta look in the demo... some are making stuff that is BoM ready, which is often thrown in with an applier.

So... is there to be a housewarming party? I've been playing with this image. Still didn't get the arm right.... These are the doors in the ShuiMo Gallery.

No... but sort of. Slink provided an adapter for their existing heads, the BOM applier thatmost head designers have. Slinks heads I've seen are non-Bento. I'll have to go look. The remake of the heads is sort of in the works. I agree. Redux is nice. But I don't see any difference between it and Physique. I don't understand the support for Hourglass and the lack of Original support. Once the Original version has been made the changes for Hourglass are minor and easy. Going the other way, H to O, is tricky. So, I would think most would support Original. But, maybe they don't read directions... I am a great fan of freedom and the free market is a great expression of freedom. Voting with L$ is influential. Also, asking for what one wants. I send requests to designers now and then asking for versions made for Original. I think if we want to see it change we hard body girls have to speak up. Otherwise the big butt babes win. True. But BOM was instituted to improve performance overall. Many have missed that point. Seems you did. Like ACI, many ignored it and wanted to turn it off. But, overall the effect has been as intended. Most of the ACI 800k avatars have disappeared. So it worked. I think the same will happen with BOM when ARCTan arrives, another non-killer-feature. People want to look good but performance is a factor for users too. BOM gives performance without sacrificing avatar appearance. The old-school alpha layers are way simpler and way more flexible. I am already starting to see more alpha layers included with clothes. The 'newer' alpha cuts were a render expensive kludge to replace alpha layers, a feature missing from mesh and prims. Alpha Cuts require designers to limit the clothes they make to a brand's cuts. Occasionally you'll run into that problem when a designer designs for one brand's cuts and then makes a version for another brand without checking the new target's cuts. I've bought a few things for my Slink Original that did work because of that. With alpha layers the designer has complete freedom and the alpha will work across all brands. Since it is easier for designers and users expect to layers adopted quickly and support for cuts to be slowly dropped. One of the tricks with alpha layers that Slink added is the ability for the user to adjust the alpha layer, tweak the size of the alpha. We can adjust the layer for a better match something we cannot do with alpha cuts. Enjoy the cuts while you can. I know that for now it is often a pain to switch over. I so often want to just click and fix that poke through. But, as time goes by we will see designers adopting and including alpha layers with all their stuff. If there is no alpha layer in the demo, many are not going to buy it. Plus I am making my own alpha layers for my existing non-BoM-in-mind clothes. Tedious. But, it is a one time thing for that garment and the layer can be easily used in all the outfits. Often I can design the layer to be general purpose, like my open-toe thigh-boot alpha.

Heads are a different case. Some are on board for BoM and some aren't. I'm not a big fan of BoM for heads. I want the onion skin heads where I can put BoM on the skin layer and use appliers for the makeup. That way I can have very fine control of the makeup. I can adjust transparency of makeup by a single percent. To do that with system layer makeup I would need 100 layers because there is no transparency adjustment/slider. So far it seems that is the case for most people. I think the designers haven't really decided. I haven't talked to Siddean (Slink) about what she is planning for her new heads. I think she did a great job with the Redux body. Redux has way fewer polygons, textures, and scripts. Also, there are no materials for BoM. So making glossy lipstick with system layers takes us back to the days of painting in the reflections (highlights) which of course never move. With the onion skin heads I can still have a materials glossy and textured lipstick that highlights using the scene lighting (moves). To a degree we can use materials on a BoM body and/or head. But, it gets tricky. We could do shiny water drops but to add shiny lipstick gets complicated. Onion skin heads simplify that materials thing and allow multiple materials on the head. The challenge with a single mesh with multiple things (skin, tats, etc.) baking into it is we have to figure out how to bake the materials in. There is no good way in the industry to do that, much less a simple way that would make sense to most SL users. Since we can only put one material on at a time we are limited. Way too much I think. So, I'll take a head that has a skin-BoM layer and still has the tats, makeup, and other layers (hair tat, eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush...). I can control all those and turn them on and off as I need. But, I'll be curious to see what Slink comes out with. Also, there is ARCTan in our future, the new ACI/ARC. I expect it to make a serious dent in the onion skin heads and bodies. We will start to see the realistic, or at least 'a more realistic' value for avatar render cost that those bodies and heads incur. The cost of my Physique Original now versus my Redux Original pushes me to go with Redux. WAY lower ACI, body and HUD, and script load without any significant loss of appearance or features. Will the same happen with the new Slink heads? I'll have to wait and see, but I doubt it.

Slink Redux is the only body I know of that has been completely rebuilt for Bakes On Mesh.

What happens is they are getting all the other stuff in the region downloaded while you are away. When you come back the region has less info it has to hand out to these people so all your stuff is more likely to make it through and they see you render. Since you are new in the region the server sends out a new set of information on how you look. Often a second try fixes everything. You can check your connection to SL (Shift-Alt-1). Look for packet loss. If you are having problems, you may be getting out of sync with the region server. That usually only affects what you see. Everyone else gets your appearance from the SL system. Your current outfit folder is on the SL servers. That is what the region server sends to others. So, if your appearance is messed up the places where it can go wrong are mostly between those observing and the SL system. But... if your connection confuses the data SL has it can propagate to everyone else, but that is rare. The fix is in pushing the SL system into updating your appearance. A relog does that. If you press Ctrl-Shift-Alt-U (Show Updates) You will see colored dots rising form avatars and things in SL that the region is updating. When you TP or login you see a rush of dots. If these updates are lost (they travel the UDP side of the network without error correction) then whatever the viewer is supposed to update per that dot never updates. When you come in after a relog the server sends a new set of updates for your avatar. Everyone updates and things tend to work out.

Those seeing you are not having BoM problems. If they were they would be seeing yellow, red, and blue body parts. The problem is on their side. For whatever reason they are being slow downloading all your parts. You "might" be contributing to that. If your alpha layers are made from 1024 size images rather than 512s they could be slow downloading and cause the problem they see. They should be able to click on your avatar and do a Texture Refresh to get you rezzed. If the region is lagging, it may be slow telling them about your avatar parts.If they are losing network packets or have a weak connection to SL (not the same as having a good Internet connection) this can happen. When people first come into a region there is a lot to download. Even if the material is cached it has to be checked for updates. So, if you do eventually rez you know it is their system catching up.

This was taken in the In ShuiMo Gallery. There are two participatory art pieces in the gallery. This is from within one of them. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dreams/145/52/2554

Privacy has different meanings. Privacy settings make it possible for avatars to be hidden. But, one can still cam through the area. They still won't be able to see an avatar. So, you can hide someone but not a 'something' from cameras flying through. As Qie points out, you then have to set access. Otherwise one can walk into the parcel and see everything, avatar or thing. In general, there isn't a lot of privacy in SL.

Things that have a see in-world link will get you to a vender in-world and editing that vendor will often let you get the properties of the contents. That doesn't work with some vending machines. Also, if you can no longer find the merchant in search or their shop... then it is likely old.

Yeah... nice. I had to go get a copy.

Use of CalWL means it is very UNlikely the lighting. ALM on and off makes it even less likely the lighting. Mesh body on and off and there are still creases... not the body. So don't trash the body. Different skins and you still have a crease... not the skin. You have eliminated the basics. That means the crease has to be coming from the tats, underwear, clothes, or material layers. But, if the body comes off so do those layers. So, is the mesh body using BOM? The crease would remain even when you take the mesh body off. If so the tats, underwear, and clothes could be system layers causing the problem. So check those. That is about all you have left to check. You can take a picture. If you aren't used to posting pictures in the forum, save the image to disk. Find the image in the explorer and then drag and drop it into your post. (which is one way)

The newer way to accomplish attachment locks is with RLV folders. Older RLV relays lock attachment points. THe mix of old and new toys on the grid means no single method is going to work flawlessly everywhere. But, the new folder setup comes close. The OC manual is here: https://www.opencollar.at/manual.html this is the Peanut branch of OC, which I prefer. I think the folders are easier to work with and pretty much legacy compatible.

Basic SL: You cannot remove skin. You can only REPLACE skin. Fortunately it is possible to replace skin with a transparent skin (alpha layer) and totally hide the avatar or parts of it. Then you can wear a furry body unobstructed.

To sort out which is the problem (skin, avatar, lighting) change the Windlight setting to CalWL. I need to know which viewer to explain how to change Windlight. Assuming you use the Linden made SL Viewer, Top menu->World->Environment Editor->Environment Settings->Customize my envir...->Fixed Sky: [CalWL or if you don't have that, just change the setting and see if the creases go away with some settings.] Next, if you are using a mesh body, take it off. Are the creases still there? Go into Preferences->Graphics->(checkbox) Advanced Lighting Model and enable or disable it. These changes should help you decide if it is the light, mesh body, or painting on the skin that is causing the problem. Then we can sort out how to fix it.

I think BOM makes things WAY easier. But, I am a pre-mesh SL baby. YES, you will need to ask the designer if they have an applier for BoM. GA.EG made my Jennifer head pre-BoM and retrofitted it with BoM using an applier, which she supplied for free. BOM is a system that collects all the system layers and composites them into a diffuse texture. So, the four system (classic avatar skin, tat, underwear, and clothing) layers are baked (composited) into a single texture. It is possible, via script, to predict the name of the composite texture for any avatar and build an applier that applies that texture to a mesh or any prim. This is how designers are quickly sort of adapting their products to BoM. So, your head can be adapted. You need a BoM applier from the designer or Omega. I totally disagree. I've been making outfits and trying demo skins looking to get my YS&YS tan lines back. (They were only in the applier for my skin.) Using BOM I put on a BoM adapted head. Then I can wear different demo skins and see how they work with the existing makeup. I put on the skin and it slides into place UNDER the makeup. Nothing else to do. Doing lots of skin changes quickly is much easier with BoM. I can mix how I do the make up know. I can use the GA.EG makeups or turn off (hide) the GA.EG makeup layers and use the system makeup layers via BoM. I prefer the GA.EG makeup because I have very fine (granularity) control over the % of transparency. With the non-BoM version I have to dig out the applier for that head and skin, if I have a set that works, to add the skin to the head. So, put on skin, chase down details for how to apply it, hope I have the parts, and try it. In some cases I don't have the right Omega relay. It is tedious and a pain to test.

Yes and no. If ALM is disabled only 6 lights will render. If ALM is enabled as many lights as your specific graphic card will handle will be rendered. The 6 light limit (an OpenGL thing) ended with the addition of ALM. Reference: PRIM_POINT_LIGHT see the caveats. If, in SL, you want everyone to see you a certain way, you are out of luck. But, people try. Yes... this happens often. In the example lights I sell I have the falloff set to make a splash of light on the floor. I think one of them in the set is adjusted to avoid that. It is possible to limit the light to pretty much just the avatar. There is always some spill but the light can be stopped before it reaches the floor. A visible cone of light requires some special effort. Usually a prim cone is used. There is no atmospheric dispersion of light in SL, no matter how bright the light is. So, if you could see the cone, someone was deliberately adding blingy stuff. Facelights are no certain way nor are they uniform. Painting all facelights with the same brush is inappropriate as things are more complicated. But, the majority of facelights create a PITA problem and the less knowledgeable lump them all together. In clubs people like to show off and be noticed. Plus, we have lots of fun accessories for dancing. I have bunches of particle toys for dancing. Some are awesome looking and provide fascinating light displays. But, particles are trigger for some. Rather than adjust how their viewer renders particles they go all fascist and demand we turn off our particles. Sort of the same thing happens with facelights. I suppose one has to choose whether the prefer being an easily triggered victum snowflake that has to be accommodated or a competent enough person to deal with their environment on their own.

...you are a really bad guesser...