Nalates Urriah

There are some problems. Avoid using Last Location when logging in. Use Morris or Ahern for a destination. When you do get in collect some region names from the World map. You'll need them from t ime to time. The preview grid is the Linden test bed. It is common for regions to be down. So, unless you get a password error message I assume it is the region server that is the problem. There is a new way of sync'g inventory in the preview grid. It is a problem for some third party viewers. The Linden made viewer uses a seperate cache for AGNI and ADITI. Some thrid party viewers, Firestorm, have to have a special startup icon to change caches. In the process I'm not sure how that Last Location is saved. But, after having Support fix my problems, I've only used the Linden made viewers on ADITI and always give it a login destination.

Rolig gave you a guess. Her guesses are pretty good in general. But, they are still guesses. When you ask a tech question include information about your viewer and computer. Collect it from the viewer's HELP->ABOUT... and paste it into your post. Without that information all we can do is guess. Then you have to work through our guesses trying to find one that is right and a fix.

Check the minimum requirements. Things change. We need computer spec and viewer model/version. The viewer has various log files you can read to get an idea of what has gone wrong. Look at the log immediately after you crash or exit the viewer. Logs are replaced the next time a viewers starts. You’ll find the logs in: C:\Users\[Win_login_ID]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs\ .crashreport.log – This log is generated when the viewer crashes, the previous version of the file is overwritten. Rename this file if you plan to restart the viewer before examining the file. Otherwise, just read it with a text viewer (Notepad is good). .debug_info.log – This file is internally formatted as an XML file. I never find it of much use. It is mostly the specs of your machine. .SecondLife.log – This is the main log file. I find it the most useful. Start from the end of the file and work toward the beginning. Search for ‘WARNING’ and ‘ERROR’. With any luck the messages there will give you an idea of the problem. Recent changes have added section heading to parts of the file that can identify the general nature of the problem. There are lots of performance stats included. At the end of a non-crash log there are secession stats; Run Time, Average Packet Size, Dropped Packets, Resent Packets, etc. The file is replaced and recreated for each viewer secession. .SecondLife.error_marker – I don’t know what information is inside. I don’t have a copy to examine as I write this. The presence of the file indicates where, when, and what error happened. I think this is a disaster backup file for crash reporting in which information about the crash is retained in the event the crash handlers are destroyed before they can create the other more complete crash files. .SecondLife.start_marker – There is no information inside. The presence of the file indicates how far into the start process the viewer has gotten. Whether the file exists or not is the pertinent information. .SecondLifeCrashReport.log – This is another file internally formatted to XML. It is created when the viewer crashes. I think this is the new version of the crash log. It is mostly text. .stats.log – This is a short file containing network statistics. Similar information is in other log files. It is an easy to read set of stats that show how many packets were dropped and resent in a secession. I find the SecondLife.log is the most useful file for tuning and troubleshooting the viewer. It is verbose and reasonably easy to understand. There is a Debug Setting that allows you to increase or decrease the level of reporting. Most of these files are erased when the viewer starts. If you plan to send the files in with a trouble ticket or bug report, place copies in another folder before starting the viewer. Marker files are temporary and may or may not exist at any given time. Entries in the files associated with errors and warnings are labeled as such. That makes them easy to find by searching. Warning entries are common and do NOT necessarily mean there is a problem. Some warnings are a part of normal operation. Some errors are trivial and do not indicate a ‘noticeable’ problem in the viewer’s operation.

Patience. Try logging into a region like Morris or Ahern. Some people have a problem with Last Location or Home.

Lindal points out the Avatar Attachments Limit. A new limit that has just come into play (last week) is the Attached Script Limit. It is 2,500. So, it is hard to run into that limit but, it is possible with some hair, genitals, and shoes or jewlery. So, if you strip down to the test avatar or your basic nude classic avatar you can eliminate those limits as being the problem. You can also try attaching other scripted items. If they to fail to attach, it isn't the AO's that are a problem. You can try anothere viewer. If you prefer a third party viewer you should still keep the Linden viewer installed for troubleshooting. If you only use the Linden viewer you need a third party viewer to do the troubleshooting. It is the fastest way to decide if a problem is viewer related or not. When you have a tech problem copy and paste the the viewer and computer information you can get from the viewer's HELP->ABOUT... screen. Without that info all we can really do is guess. Seeing that info eliminates a lot of guessing.

With clothes we now have Avatar Complexity and Jelly Dolls. It will likely have as much an effect as Land Impact does. So, catch up on that news and adjust your design goals. The classic avatar has a little over 7,000 polygons. The new mesh bodies I'm not sure about but, they do have more polygons. My goal is to keep clothes to fewer ploygons than the classic avatar. A blouse in the 2,000 to 4,000 range. But, my design side model have WAY more polygons then the model I upload to SL. I can transfer that detail into a normal map and reduce poly count. But, poly count is really a matter of what you are trying to accomplish. Use what you need to accomplish your goal. But, render efficiently is important and awareness of Avatar Complexity is growing. Some fashion review sites are now discussing Avatar Complexity as part of their fashion review. So, just as 1 LI furniture is desirable so too will be low Complexity clothes.

As pointed out, you can cancel and there is no cost to you. Limit buying or selling is the best way to get a deal. You do need to understand how currency exchanges work. Today I see buy orders willing to pay US$1 per L$258 for L$2.8k of them, L$267 for 24.8k of them, and L$268k for L$24 million of them. Those will be filled from those willing to sell at those prices. Transactions are stalled as the current seelers have stacked up L$53million to sell at L$257/US$1. If you look at the INSTANT BUY it is currently at L$257/$1, which is what the Buy/Sell order show is pending. So, you can buy L$ at L$257/$1 instantly. If you are willing to wait, you can probably get L$267/$1. That is L$10 free per dollar spent. At L$268 you and a lot of other people will be waiting some significant time. Sellers are holding out for L$257 right now. When one of them has to pay rent they'll make deal and give up more L$ per US$1.

Mesh modeling for games is complicated. It isn't hard to understand. Nor particularly complex. But, there is a lot of information and the tools used to make the models are complex, complicated, and hard to understand. In Second Life we mostly use Blender. You can visit YouTube and look for Blender tutorials. You'll see how it is done and decide if you want to tackle it. I don't find the newer versions of Blender any harder to learn than Maya or 3D Max. The simpler programs like Sketchup just don't provide the control you will want and for SL create high Land Impact and Complexity values (inefficient models that render slowly). Maya and 3D Max are the high-end modeling and animation tools. Blender has about everything they have and is free. Second Life has a number of gotcha's for those starting to make clothes. To reduce your learning curve spend a bit of money and get the Blender add-in AvaStar or the Maya add-in MayaStar. They handle many of the minor but tedious and annoying gotcha's related specifically to SL. Entity gave you good links and advice. Check it out. In world Builder's Brewery (BB), the Blender-AvaStar group, and Mayastar groups can provide more information. BB provides live instructor classes from time to time on both Blender and Maya. Check BB's schedules. If you want to get a sense of how complex the modeling can get search for Drongle McMahon's posts in this forum and read through them. There is great detail, extensive testing of the concepts for building more efficient models, and the complexities of rendering in the SL system. It isn't all stuff you need to know. For instance you may read 5 of 6 lengthy posts with illustrations and complex math and only need to take away one needs to do a good job of building their own LoD models and the fewer polygons in the 2nd to 4th LoD models the better... There are some people doing some nice modeling that I wonder whether or not they can tie their shoes... The only real requirement for 3D modeling for SL is patience and persistence.

You can test your connection to see where the problem is. Use this information: http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ In Preferences set your maximum bandwidth to 1500. This is a setting that has way more to do with what the server is doing than what your actual connection speed is. Generally use 80% of your spped or 1500, whichever is smaller. DNS problems can prevent connection. I explain how to deal with those in the article. You haven't given us much to go on. When asking questions open the viewer's HELP->ABOUT... and copy paste that info with your question.

The two main sources for news on Project Bento are Inara Pey's blog and my blog. Inara's most recent artile is here: SL Projects Update. My series of articles is here: Nal on Project Bento. As for a release date... expect 3 to 6 months. But, it could be longer. The Lindens design the project and then let SL developers play with it. The feedback then generates changes. The changes are implemented and a new version of the project is provided to the designers. Wash, rinse, repeat. We think we are nearing the end of the process. The Lindens think the current skeleton is the final version. While it is possible that it will change once more, that is unlikely. Current problems are in the realm of how sliders work for shape. It was mostly non-Linden programers that got the sliders working with the new bones. I have a number of videos in my articles made by a designer showing what he was working on and how to get animation, shape, and viewer sliders all working.

This is a problem that is usually caused by your anti-virus program. The slplugin does things that are similar to what viruses do. So, ignorant AV programs often give it a false positive and quarantine it. Turn your AV off for a few minutes and reinstall your viewer over the top of the existing install. Then before your AV restarts try launching the viewer. Hopefully all is well. You may need to whitelist the viewer's install folder or list it as an exception to make your AV leave the file alone. You can also list your viewer's cache folder as an exception to improve performance. These are safe steps as all uploads to SL are scanned for file format and content. It is way unlikely a virus will make it through and get into the SL assets. That doesn't mean there are not any griefer tools, scripts, or objects that aren't dangerous. But, your AV isn't going to detect those, so... may as well not bother.

A point you can check is your teleport history. It is stored locally and is viewer specific. The TP history in your Firestorm can be different than the TP history in Linden or Alchemy or whatever other viewer you might use. This will show if it is a local or SL side problem. Your problem is almost always a connection issue. If that is the problem then clearning cache will aggrevate your problem. Save that step until you are certain it is necessary. Try an install over the top of the existing installation before going for the clean install. While you may have a good Internet connection, that is not the same as having a good connection to the SL servers. Test your connection to SL. http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/

Bots are run by a specialized viewer. such viewers often have added in artificial intelligence. Some are retail products. The SL Wiki has an article titled: Second Life bot software comparison. It was last updated in early July 2016. The page appears to get frequent updates. You'll learn bots can hosted from your local computer or by a commercial host. Another group of bots are named SmartBots. Check them out. If you want to keep your avatar logged in indefinitely, you need to change a setting in Preferences. It is the viewer that times out and logs you off. Look on the GENERAL tab for Away timeout: You have choice of 2, 5, 10, 30 minutes, and never. When you are logged in you are using resources. So, if you aren't accomplishing something while logged in, the rest of us would appreciate it if you logged out. Thanks you.

When you ask a question like yours include your computer and viewer information. In the top menu open HELP->ABOUT... and copy paste that info with your question. Otherwise we make assumptions and our answers may not apply to your scenario.

As others have poiinted out, your problem is likely a connection issue. Having a good Internet connection is not the same thing as having a good connection to the SL servers. So, test your connection to the SL servers. http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/ Depending on the age of your router/gateway, restarting it can solve many connection issues. Also, having Chrome running while running the viewer can cause problems. My thinking is any browser using CEF will conflict with the viewer. Why doesn't the Lab leave well enough alone? Because more people want things fixed and improved than want things left the same. And... it isn't anythng the Lab has done that created your problem.

slplugin is subject to anti-vrus false positives... White list the file in your anti-virus. Or white list the install folder. Also, try turning off your AV while you install. You should be able to turn off AV and run the install without having to uninstall.

The Destination Guide lists places to meet people. There is a web version and in-viewer version of the guide. There are groups for meeting people with similar intersts. Fill out your profile. List your interests. People do look at them and avoid or contact you based on that info. Finding a faithful bf... well... good luck with that. SL is like a cruse ship. You bring a lover with you or you deal with the players. ...and there are SL dating sites... for avatars.

I think Freya gave the most precise answer and provided links to the pertinent parts of the ToS agreement you accepted. With legal documents there is what it sounds like you can do and what people do. Chicago has strict gun-laws and LOTS of killing and crime. Go figure. If you look through the SL blogosphere, you find a number of blogs that are like travel magazines, they cover places in SL. You could contact those people and ask what they do. I suspect everyone that has built a region appreciates having their creation publicized. Those that may not, have access closed off to keep people out. When I cover some region, I just do it. I don't go looking for permission. Most of the ToS stuff only kicks in when you do someone harm. Understand slander and liable law and you understand the type of harm that is problematic in a technical/legal sense. If you decide to do product reviews, you get into a more complicated scenario. If a product crashes your computer, you can state that fact. But, you may be challenged to prove it. Remember. This is a game, real money is involved, and people have feelings.

There are a couple of possibilities. Since you didn't give us your computer information, I can't tell you if the answers given so far are right or wrong. Does your laptop use HD Graphics? If so which version HD 2000? You are doomed... well not completely. Go to nVidia and get an older Win7 driver and install it. Yes, it is a pain, but people have gotten the viewers running on HD 2000. If you have an nVidia graphics GPU then open the nVidia control panel and create a profile for your viewer; SecondLife, Firestorm, whichever ones you use. Set the profile for PERFORMANCE. Otherwise the laptop may not recognize SL as a graphics intense app and turn of the graphics chip forcing the viewer to try and use the CPU's HD Graphics... and thus the error. To tweak your nVidia settings see: http://blog.nalates.net/2016/06/05/nvidia-settings-2016/

The viewer's biggest consumption of disk space is the cache. You can move that to another drive. To do that open the viewer and Preferences->Advanced just point it to a new location. I suggest you create a folder just for the viewer cache. Exclude it from your antivirus. Then change your viewer. Creating a new cache does not erase to old one. You will need to manually delete it to get your disk space back. C:\Users\[Win_login_ID]\AppData\Local\[Viewer_Name] Some third party viewers will allow you to move the inventory cache and chat logs also. I just bought a 512gb M.2 SSD for US$120 on eBay. You may want to consider upgrading. After all it is the cache the viewer needs fast access too. In the forum you see that most people talking about setting up SSD's for SL are talking about getting the cache on the SSD.

What do you mean by selling Lindens? If you mean do you have to be a Premium to cash out, exchange Lindens for RL curreny, then no. But, you do have to have your tax ID info on file with the Lab.

I suggest you ask this question in Blender-AvaStar in-world group. If you are certain the normals are good, my next guess would be a problem with the UV Mapping. But, if a JPG looks good then it can't be that. There is no difference between using a JPG and a PNG as far as where the pixels appear on a mesh/prim. What happens if you put that same texture w/alpha on a prim? Does it have problems? I don't have any idea how this can be. When I have these types of problems I usually find I am looking in the wrong place, trying to fix the wrong part... Does this happen in all viewers? Does this happen on a different computer?

There is a key to avoiding this problem. First, I can't tell why you have a layer under the skirt that is facing outward... in-ward sure. In SL faces are ONLY visible from one side. To have a face visible from inside the skirt and outside the skirt you have to have 2 faces... one with a normal pointing out and one pointed in. The black poke through has a normal pointing out. Why? What is the purpose of that? I suspect that whole layer of black faces/polygoons can be elminated.

You haven't given us enough information to address your problem, which is probably why I'm to only one to have responded until now. We need computer operating system, viewer and version you are trying to start, whether you have EVER been able to login... If the viewer will launch, click HELP->ABOUT... before logging in. Copy that info and include it in your post.

You haven't given us enough information to say with any certainly what the problem is. The error message is presented for a couple of different scenarios. The easy place to get the information we need is from the viewer. If it will launch, don't log in. Just open HELP->ABOUT... and copy that info to your post with your question. You can add it to your post using OPTIONS in the upper right, which has EDIT in the drop down. If you are on a laptop... make sure the nVIDIA control panel has a setup/profile for your viewer. http://blog.nalates.net/2016/06/05/nvidia-settings-2016/ and is set for PERFORMANCE. Otherwise the laptop may revert to using the Intel HD graphics in the CPU. Even if you are on a desktop, it is wise to have a SL profile in the nVidia control panel. You can roll back your computer to a previous state if you had System Restore enabled. Google to see how to do a roll back to a previous state. If you didn't have the system restore feature enabled, enable it. Then go get the previous driver version from your video card maker or nVidia. Try the card maker first.