Nalates Urriah

Make sure you are not tryiing to upload in a pathfinding region. I can't get mesh to upload in a PF region. The exact same DAE file will upload in a different region. 3 main viewers... do you mean stable release, beta, and development? I have been using the stable release (main viewer on DL page) without trouble. I have had problems with the Dev viewer (Second_Life_3-3-4-258816_Development). I get the look in log error message. When you read the log (secondlife.log) look for errors and warnings. They should give you an idea what is wrong.

Yes... we do know what is wrong. Sort of... It mostly depends on when you last changed your password and which viewer you are using in which region. See JIRA item: SVC-7727 and please click watch and add your information. Make sure you are NOT in a Pathfinding region. I can't upload mesh there at all. I can upload the same mesh DAE file Morris. Avoid using the latest Development viewer (Second_Life_3-3-4-258816_Development). I can't upload mesh anywhere with that viewer. IF YOU CHANGED YOUR PASSWORD since April 2012, you are screwed. You won't be able to change clothes or attachments. Each time you log into ADITI you will be wearing whatever you were wearing when you last changed your password. Anything added to your inventory 30 days prior to your pw change will rez in ADITI. Anything added to your inventory in AGNI in the last 30+ days that transferred to the ADITI copy is not going to rez. Anything you make in ADITI and save to inventory will be gone the next time you log into ADITI. Last Location does not work... you always rez some place other than your last login. Often you can not login unless you type in a destination region name. It is a royal PITA!!!!!!

We usually refer to Blender as 2.49 or 2.63a... I'm not sure if you mean a 2.49 version. I've been using 2.63a and doing pretty well, provided I change the object's name in Blender. If I have a problem, I drop back to 2.62. There is a naming problem that Gaia Clary talks about here in the forum. There is also a Bone Handles problem. They are made from empties. They have to be removed before you can use version 2.59 to 2.62 to create the export file. There are a bunch of gotchas. They are all explained here in the forum. Presumably you are using SL 3.3.2 (258114), now the main viewer. I've used it to upload several mesh items today. HOWEVER... if you are in one of the Pathfinding beta regions, it won't work. At least I have not been able to upload mesh to PF region. You can look in Help->About... to see whether you are in a PF regions or not.

Using seach inside the viewer can be a problem. There are some glitches. When searching for people be sure you select PEOPLE in the search drop down. It does a better job of searching than just typing in a name and hitting search.

Everyone is considering this a video problem. Since that is not fixing it... lets look at something else. First... When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. Get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post. I gathered that you are on a Mac. Mac's have DNS problems and that create connection problems. So, run through these steps and consider changing your DNS settings as the article discribes. Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection When you download a texture, SL send yous a version of a JPEG2000 image. As you get closer to an image, say a pic on a vender in a mall, the viewer requests a more detailed version of the picture. The system has to connect again and request a higher rez version. Your problem may be coming from the viewer not being able to get the higher rez image. Since Phoenix and Firestorm use separate caches the problem is likely to be inconsistent across the two viewers. It will be dependent on what your connection is doing at any given time. Also, it can be dependent on which server addesses your computer DNS system has cached and which it can't find. You could test whether it is DNS by clearing your DNS cache, you'll gave to Google as I don;t know how that is done on a Mac. Then clear your viewr cache. This shouls change what is happening in your viewer, if it is a DNS/connection issue.

Your SL Profile is also available on the web. Visit My.SecondLife.com to see it. Login and you can edit it. You can also set your privacy settings to control what shows on the web. To check your privacy settings, you must logout to see what others see or use a different browser without the cookies SL adds when you login.

When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. If the viewer will at least show the login screen, get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post. Your problem is almost always a connection problem. Use these steps to TEST your connection: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection. If your on a Mac, it has the DNS fix they need. You should always look at Second Life Grid Status Reports to see if a grid wide problem has come up. It can take a couple of hours for a problem to appear there. So, keep checking while you try to resolve the problem.

When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. If the viewer will at least show the login screen, get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post. The chances are good this is a video driver problem. Without being able to see the drive version and video card type all we can do is guess. But, try updating your driver. You can also try the Beta version and the Development version and see if they make a difference. The Beta and Dev version are pretty close together right now, so it may not be worth installing both. They install in different folders. So, you can run all three at the same time. Also, before logging in, go into Prefernces and set your graphics settings to LOW. Then try logging in. If you get in, its defenitely video. Also we need to know if it makes it through Init VFS before it crashes. If it does, it is more likely its video driver issues. If not, it could be a cache problem. You can look in the SecondLife.log file for errors and warnings. that may give you a clue. I think the logs are in: Users/Username/Library/Application Support/SecondLife/logs/ --- I'm not a Mac person.

The part of the system that catches high Land Impact mesh objects BEFORE they rez is creating the problem. The "interceptor" tries to anticipate what the Land Impact will be before the item rez's and all the script and partical prim calculations are done. This program is apparently simplified for speed and miscacluating Land Impact values. I have some potted plants I was given that show as 90 items with a Land Impact of 1. With 80 prims available, they will not rez. I can go to a sandbox with 10k prims availabel and they rez just fine. This failure is a bug. See: SVC-7392 The JIRA item is incomplete and the Lindens cannot reproduce the error. If you can provide them a Step-by-Step that will reproduce the error and a copy of the problem model, they will look at it. If they can reproduce the problem, they'll get it fixed. You can submit the file privately so only the Lindens can access it. You can also bring the model to Monday's Content/Mesh Creators User Group meeting. The Lindens there are always interst in problem meshes.

The revised new prim/Land Impact accounting should arrive with the Pathfinding Project. When that is going to be is uncertain. Listening to Falcon and Lorca Linden... it sounds like it is getting close. May be 2 to 4 months, is my guess.

With mesh products some people make a base mesh which they sell as a text or Blender file. They include a template. This allows people to upload the mesh and show as the creator. They can use the template to texture the item. It is hard to know if something has been copybot'd or otherwise stolen. If you know the original creator, check with them. Otherwise buy from vendors you know to be reputable.

Yes... within limits. If you make the mesh with different weighting, you can minimize the stretch. When you pose the avatar in Blender with legs spread or mid-stride in a walk animation you can see the problem. Most tutorials show using the avatar legs (lowerbody) to weight clothes. You'll find that a very small area between the legs gets all the deformation when the avatar's legs move. You can extend that area with weighting and add more vertices in the area. You run into problems getting the weighting to work well but it can done to a point. So, to a degree you iminmize the stretch. A problem comes in when you 'sit' the avatar. The change from standing and walk to sitting is rather extreme. It is much harder to get the sit-weighting to work with the standing-walking weighting. To get around the problem the clothes must be loose fitting. Or one must alpha layer the legs out. This makes short (mid thigh) and mini skirts look rediculious. It is concevable one could make s skirt with folds and weighting to reduce stretch even farther. But weighting is already tedious enough. This leads to the discussion on STORM-1716 where people are asking for a better weighted avatar to start from, which spins off into discussion avout Avatar 2.0. We may see a better weighted avatar. I doubt we will see Avatar 2.0. http://blog.nalates.net/2012/05/26/the-great-sl-deformer-debate/

I'll add Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial. It has information about installing Blender for easy update and running multiple versions. Blender is updaing quickly. Some updates don't work so well with SL. So, it is common to design in one version of Blender and use another version to export the Collada file needed for SL.

For now it is a problem. We hope the Mesh Deformer or AKA: Parametric Deformer Project will correct the problem. There is some debate about how the Deformer will work. The Great #SL Deformer Debate #SL Mesh Deformer Debate Update A problem is existing mesh objects will not work with the Deformer. They must be uploaded with the new Mesh Uploader to turn on the Deformer active feature. Right now that can only be done with the Deformer Project Viewer. There are Deformer Test Clothes in Hippo Hollow. When the Deformer is in use, mesh clothes jiggle with Avatar Enhanced Physcis. With any luck we will see the Deformer come online this year.

That is why they call it a bug... its broken. I suspect the Lindens thought the new tp function would only work in the Magnum RC. Appreantly that is not the case. Scripts made in Magnum then taken out apparently work and because the premissions system hasn't been changed outside of Magnum. Oops. They'll get it fixed. Might be a bumpy week.

When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. If the viewer will at least show the login screen, get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post. Rendering the avatar is a special case. It is a more complex process than rendering in the rest of Second Life. The idea with avatars is to save CPU cycles on users' computers and the SL servers. The idea requires your viewer to download all the textures that make up your avatar and its clothes; a shape, skin, top, pants, hair, and shoes textures. The viewer ‘bakes’ those into a single composite texture. You see your avatar render nice and sharp when that bake completes. Then your viewer uploads that composite texture for all to see. That saves others downloading all the individual textures and baking them. Your avatar goes blurry as it downloads and decompresses the composite texture you just uploaded and it becomes sharp when that process finishes. You are the only one that sees the double blurry for your avatar. If that process hangs or fails there is a problem. Where it fails affects what you or others see. You can try the old standby quick fixes for avatar rez problems: Change your active group or group tag. Press rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R) once a minute for 3 minutes. Change your bald. Change your shape. Move to another region and try 1 to 4 again. When those fail, check your connection as it is the most likely problem: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection There is a longer explanation of the problem here: #SL Clouds, Grey, and Blurry Avatars. More in depth fixes are here: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth.

Run through these steps to find your connection problem and figure out what to fix or who to call: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection. Another way to describe SL is: a cooperative developement platform. You can use SL to build your own virtual world, a role play game, a first or third person shooter, a golf game... it goes on and on. You are only limited by your imagination. You can do whatever as a single person or as part of team. I think the only downfall of SL is it does not cater to the TV kids lacking imagination. It doesn't entertain you, but it gives you a nearly infinite range of possibilities for being engaged. The shiny new What Is SL page is here: http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Satine is right about memory leaks, but they are not limited to Firestorm. Expect memory leaks with any viewer based on the new viewer code. Cool VL Viewer is made with the latest V3 code base, with Henri's fixes, and a V1 user interface. You will likely find it the most V1 like. Cool and Singularity are both good viewers. The Singularity team takes some time to make new releases. Lately they have released a new version about every 3 or 4 months. So, you'll have a stable platform for months at a time. Cool updates more frequently, roughly monthly. Firestorm is a good viewer if you want to start getting framiliar with the new V3 interface. It allows you to change to a V1 user interface simulation. It is pretty close. So, I think you'll be able to find most things in framiliar places. Also, more than half the people in SL use Firestorm/Phoenix. So, there are plenty of people around to help you find things and explain the power user features. We have a load of new things coming to SL. We know about Pathfinding, Advanced Creator Tools, Auto-Replace and Spell Check and I am expecting other things we seldom hear about. Many of these things require new controls and panels. New features require user interface changes. So, regardless of what viewer you use, you are going to have user interface changes. The problem with V1 UI changes is those making the new V1 UI's don't always do things the same ways. So, I'm finding the V1 UI's more and more confusing and fewer people that can help. I expect the V1 user interface to disappear in a couple of years as people move to the V3 UI to get new features. While I like Exodus and Nirans viewers, those have non-standard UI's. Niran is always changing the Interface. He changes it so fast I have problems with it. I think he is in search of the best UI. Otherwise it is a great viewer. Plus the fast update cycle means things get fixed quickly. If some problem interupts your daily work/play activity, grab a copy of Niran's and it is likely it has a fix. ...and these are my opinions from using the viewers. You can find viewer reviews by searching Google. I thin Inara Pey and I do the most viewer reviews. On my site look in the menu for VIEWERS.

Try opening the Search Filters, in the gear lower left, and setting a date for the day you made the upload. If you made an unnoticed typo in the name this should find it. Before clearing the cache I would relog to a place like Furball or Pooley, deserted and empty. Then open Inventory and type single letters in search to simulate loading. Forego cache clearing until you are certain you have a cache problem. If the viewer is downloading a ton of stuff and the servers gets behind, the Inventory download is more likely to stall and lag behind.

If you are new to Blender you'll find that it updates frequently. Some versions work well with the SL Mesh Uploader and some don't. You'll need to have multiple versions installed. Read about that in: Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial. That tutorial helps you get setup for mesh clothes and explains away the confusion over Default Avatar and Default Shape that will be used with the Mesh Deformer. Gaia Clary has a collection of tutorial on YouTube. They are a mix of Blender version from 2.49 to 2.63.

Before you start re-installing and changing things check your connection. You go through numerous devices to connect to SL. Any one of them may be failing or overloading. You can test your connection and check the region servers to see where the problem is using this information: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection.

Kwak is probably right. Leashes are made from particles. The setting for them is in Preferences -> Graphics.

Clearing your cache is mentioned by Kwak. Clearning the cache was an easy first fix thing to do prior to 2011. The protocol for downloading things was UDP and it is prone to losing packets and not recovering them. So, it was common to have corrupted files in the cache. That is no longer true. The protocol was changed to HTTP and is much more reliable, in a pass/fail sense. Cache corrupt is rare now. Also, the size of the cache was increased and the Lindens added cache indexing. So, it is not as sensitive to full-cache-syndrome, which is where things slow down as the computer has to select thngs to delete from the cache to make room for new things. That removes that reason to empty the cache. Now clearing the cache is a last resort fix. Clearing the cache can make avatar render problems from connection issues even worse. The viewer has to download all the cached material again. ONLY clear the cache if you are certain you have a cache corruption problem.

The nVidia cards do shadows better. AMD/ATI does not support OpenGL as well as nVidia does. With the Radeon you're fighting an uphill battle. When you ask a tech question include information about your computer and viewer. Get the info from the viewer's Help-About... and paste that into your post with your question. To add your info to an existing question use OPTIONS->EDIT. It’s in the upper right of your post. The video driver versions are important. As is the OpenGL version and the viewer version. All of these are updating. Was your viewer on auto-update? There are versions of the viewer that have broken anti-aliasing. The current versions are running AA as far as I know. One can force AA on via the nVidia control panel. If you do, disable it in the viewer. Other versions have a problem with the high rez photos. Check the standard photo against a high rez. You should be able to tell if the AA quality is the same. If it is a viewer version issue, you can get older versions here: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Old_versions I think the Singularity Viewer is the only viewer using older Snowglobe code. You might try it to see if it does better. Nirans Viewer is for photographers and machinamists. Niran is into images and videos. If it is having a photo problem he is likely to provide the fastest fix. Since you have changed video cards it would be more likely the viewer. Since most viewers use the same render engine you could see the same problem across several different viewers, which is why I suggest Singularity and Nirans. The current download for the Exodus viewer is from December 2011. So, it may be worth a try.

Run the install program as an Administrator, generally right click and Run as... Disable your anti-virus before starting the install. You may have a bad download. Download another copy. Save it with a different name and compare the sizes of your previous download. Get a copy of the Beta Viewer while you are at it. Peggy makes a good suggestion about placing the install file on the desktop to make it easy to find. I'll suggest you save the download in a place where it is easy to find. After the install save the file. Keep it until the next upgrade. When the next upgrade installs and WORKS... then delete the old file. It has saved me a bunch of times. If you decide to run more than one brand of viewer, as many of us do, read: Second Life Clean Install. It will explain somethings and help you be sure your install is CLEAN.