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Nalates Urriah

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Posts posted by Nalates Urriah

  1. I'm not clear on what you are running. If you want actual answers rather than guesses post the tech info from your viewer's HELP->About... preferably collect the info while logged in.

    If you use a laptop, ensure the Windows settings are set up for performance. Ensure the laptop has not reverted to Intel Graphics integrated into the CPU.

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  2. On 12/25/2023 at 6:23 PM, Bagnu said:

    200 yards? Good luck with that with an air rifle.

    I understand the new models come with a fire-control computer for those  l o n g  200yd shots...

    On 12/27/2023 at 8:36 AM, Bagnu said:

    National Blab New Year.jpg

    Awesome disguise... I'm still trying to figure out who these stealthy people are... 😳

    😆

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  3. AI support is not so much a good or bad thing. Good or bad will be determined by how the Lab uses it. If they train it well and use it to assist staff then I expect it to be a good thing. If they get sloppy in or shortcut the training and use it to reduce staff then it will be a problem for residents.

    The state of most bots in SL is VERY primitive. And in general, most bot support anywhere has been primitive. The programming and computers driving them have been minimal. New chips for AI processing and massive data sets are changing how well bots do or do not work.

    Interestingly, new AI bots can lie and make stuff up. This could make for some surprising answers from support. It would be like getting 'help' from someone in a 'Safe' Hub.

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  4. 17 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

    There was a line in HBO's "The Last of Us", "Be careful of who you trust. It's only the people you trust who can betray you."

    I seldom let people have the ability to hurt me in SL. The most toxic person I dealt with in SL, was s guy who wanted to "help" the Happy Hippo building group by buying the region they were on and helping them expand their sim.

    Plenty of giving, creative people flocked to help him develop the sim. Then he had a falling out with the managers of Happy Hippo & ejected them. Now he had the region completely under his control. He had the location that previously belonged to Happy Hippo and a big portion of their group members. He had help from me to develop and manage shops that helped pay for the sim. He had talented, creative people who made the region gorgeous and fun. Then he heard somewhere that terraforming with high mountains and deep valleys creates lag, so he destroyed a terraforming project from one of his biggest supporters.

    Meanwhile, he'd been getting his supporters to give and "loan" him money to pay for the region. I gave him money because I believed his story about how he was about to come into a bunch of money soon, so he could pay me back. He saw himself as my boyfriend, even though we were not partnered, and became jealous of me talking to my male friends. He became very controlling of my behavior on his sim & forced me to publically apologize for saying something to someone that he didn't agree with. Then he also started hanging out with another woman in her private skybox on the sim. I think he was fooling around with her and getting her to give him money too.

    He eventually destroyed the sim by alienating his supporters and destroying their creative projects. When I thought he wouldn't pay me back the money I'd loaned him on his own, I resorted to dropping Easter eggs on the sim with little prizes inside and named things like "snake", "weasel", etc. as a veiled warning to him that I could hurt his reputation with his group. He paid me back my money, but others weren't so lucky. Then I picked up all my prims, including all the shop buildings, left his group and blocked him. 

    He was a manipulative, controlling, toxic person who used SL for his own narcissistic reasons. SL wasn't to blame for giving him a place or an audience to play out this drama. It was just a convenient medium, and because others believed he was altruistic and trustworthy, we fed into his fantasy and power games. He would've been toxic anywhere, however.

    Typical narcissistic sociopath in action... probably a politician in real life.

    I am glad you survived.

    I think the part that qualifies as 'toxic' is the destructive results of his actions and influence. Sadly, in this example, the toxicity is subtle and takes time to become apparent. I think the OP is complaining about the more immediately toxic personalities. Those we see and feel in current interactions. Not those taking time to develop to detectable levels. Both types are a problem.

    Google, now ABC - the umberla, wrote about Positionous People - I suppose toxic didn't work for their alliteration. In their many projects, they encountered volunteers who were derailing the projects. The article provided explanations for ways to detect and remove Persephone's type of toxic sociopath before the damage is too destructive.

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  5. I don't see SL as toxic. Nor, actually, any online game. Monopoly, as a simple example, is not a toxic game but I've seen people get angry and venomous arguing while playing. So, should Monopoly be considered more or less toxic because of that?

    The world is how we perceive it... in New Age jargon it is a reflection of our self. A story of a gatekeeper from 3000 years ago illustrates the idea. It was the gatekeeper's duty to decide who could come into the city. Numerous people came to the gate wanting to enter. He would ask then 'why'? In some form or another, they would describe how bad the city was and the people they were leaving. He would tell them things were pretty much the same in his city and tell them to move on, refusing them entry.

    Then there were those who answered with positive reasons. Like one young man said he liked the city he was from and the people were great. But his family had grown and they needed to expand their business. So, he was sent out looking for a good city with friendly people to move to. The gatekeeper told him this city was pretty much the same and granted him entry.

    In all cases, the gatekeeper's city did not change.

    I do not consider SL or the SL Forum to be toxic. There ARE some toxic people in SL and the forum. Personally, I've met very few... actually I am not sure I can remember meeting any. I've met disagreeable, argumentative, poorly educated, poorly informed, apathetic, clingy, horny, delusional... and some really ANNOYING people. But toxic... 

     

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  6. @Tarq Emor When asking for help with any technical problem post your viewer and computer information as Ceka suggests. Technical issues present symptoms that can have different causes. As a human can have a fever caused by different bacteria or viruses. A doctor has to determine what is causing the fever to treat it. And the cause varies from person to person and from time to time even when the symptoms are identical.

    The viewer tells the graphics system of the computer what to show on the screen and uses the GPU to render parts of that information and eventually draw it on the screen. That system has improved over the years but has remained essentially the same since SL started. I used to provide lots of information on how to tweak graphics for SL. (Articles) That hasn't changed and is unlikely to change until the Lab moves from OpenGL to Vulkan. The viewer gets a chair or avatar and tells the GPU which 3d shapes to draw and where and what colors they are. So the only things affected by graphics settings are those things the viewer gave it to draw. Missing things and misplaced things are viewer issues not card issues.

    Your viewer can have issues that mine and other viewers do not have. Which is why most of us have at least 2 viewers installed. We track down problems by determining if it is; a viewer problem, a computer problem (usually driver issues), a connection problem, or a server problem. Most of us use the SL Viewer for a second viewer because if we have to ask for the Lab's help, they insist we report the problem and work with them in the SL Viewer.

    Troubleshooting is a series of steps to tell us where the problem is. Your avatar is not rendering correctly for you but does for others. We immediately know it is not the servers or attachments or avatar because those work for others. So, is it your viewer? Try the SL viewer. If you avatar renders in the SL Viewer, we know it is your viewer... and so on until we find the problem.

    Attachments failing to render, showing in the wrong place, or simply missing is an old and common problem. Like Elleevelyn I would suspect you have an attachment-issue. How your viewer renders you and how my viewer renders you is different. The process is different. So I may see something different when things are messed up. When all works as intended, we see pretty much the same thing. It is a matter of different paths to the same place.

    If your driver were messed up many people would have the same complaint. We would hear about it. We know that because it has happened in the past. Within 48 hours we start hearing the screams. Since there is not a bunch of similar complaints, it is not likely a driver issue. But chase that route if you want.

    We know from sailors and fliers that having lots of attachments on the same attachment point is still a problem. Others that don't sail or fly don't notice it. Fliers and sailors see it at region crossings when viewers and servers get busy and lag bites. The stack of attachments on a single point causes problems and some attachments fail to make it into the render cue.

    Something is going on that likely triggers the problem for you at login. It is common to have lost network packets at login. The viewer and server are at their busiest at login. It is not surprising that your viewer misses some information during that period and you have an avatar render problem.

    When you capture the Help->About... info at login when the problem happens we will likely be able to see what is happening.

  7. As with many things, there is a time factor and a matter of timing. Not time as in getting old or people getting tired of the body. But time, as in elapsed time gives people time to buy clothes and accessories. Every L$ spent adds to the "investment". This makes it harder to give up on an existing body and move to a new one. As time passes any new body must provide enough improvement to be considered worth abandoning the previous "investment".

    Consider Slink's change from their "Classic" body to their new Redux body. This was a technical change, not a shape change. All the clothes for the Slink Classic body fit the Redux. So an upgrade only really costs the price of the upgrade. Plus Slink was way out in front of the competition.

    With Slink's upgrade to Cinn & Chai (C&C), there was a considerable technological advance. However, clothes from Redux bodies would not fit C&C. So, the cost was not just the price of the body upgrade. Also, there were some technical flaws when it came to making the hips into a shape users wanted. The UV Map change was made, I suspect, because of the years of user requests for improved mapping.

    The Physic Original led to the Physic Hourglass because people wanted a more curvy shape. I think the same thinking was used in designing C&C. But between Redux and C&C I've seen the interest in technical excellence in SL decrease. The result is the technical improvements in C&C, even though requested by users for years, they were not enough to make C&C competitive.

    I suspect the LaraX is somewhat in the same position C&C was in. We'll see. The LaraX comes with the original Lara. So, for new purchasers, it is a deal. They also have no prior 'Maitreya' investment.

    There is also some anticipation that designers creating for Maitreya will adopt LaraX and design for those bodies. I have that hope.

    This brings me to the unquantifiable metric of what people want. Some people are trying to figure out what is most popular. For instance, Fatal Fashion (FF) runs an ongoing poll, here. But the obvious flaw here is FF can only poll their customers. That could lead to a misleading positive feedback loop. But it is better than nothing.

    I suspect designers like Addams and Blueberry track stats on their sales and make more of what sells. That is the advantage of capitalism. People get to continuously vote with their dollars rather than try and convince a bureaucracy to give them what they want. We have no shortage of nice stuff in SL's free market.

    SL Classic to Slink Physic to Redeux to Belleza to Maitreya...  We all have made our decisions on which body we want. I know for me it is not a simple choice. Cost and appearance are my main considerations. For appearance, I prefer a slim hard body. I find it amazingly difficult to find the butt I want. I still think the Slink Original best fits my taste. But... I am looking for a body that I can make into the shape I prefer.

    ...and that is what it takes to make a body that will sell. If there are enough people like me, it will be a success. 😄

     

    • Like 5
  8. On 12/17/2023 at 4:31 PM, Bagnu said:

    You're welcome in our home no matter what colour your skin is, or what AV you're wearing. 

    OH!  And NOW you are going to insist we have SKIN!?! THAT just totally encourages racism! How dare you!?!?!

    😛

    ((You do know that no matter what you say it's the wrong thing... But while I can't say it is a gracious offer... it is :)  ))

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  9. This section of the forum is generally about PEOPLE stuff. Tech questions go in the Technology Forum section.

    When you have a tech question we need to know a lot to give an ANSWER rather than a guess. Use the viewer's HELP->About... and paste that info with your question.

    The first troubleshooting step you have taken, try another avatar. Now try another viewer. Most Firestorm users keep a copy of the SL Viewer installed for testing purposes. AND... if you do have to go to the Lab for help, they will insist you use the SL Viwer to get their help.

    Also, strip your avatar to the basic nude Classic avatar.

    These steps will reveal or eliminate most of the possible problems on your side. Also, they provide info needed by the Lab to help.

    When all else is failing and when you and those helping have no clue, look in the viewer’s log files. 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 viewer starts. You’ll find the logs in:

    Windows: C:\Users\[Win_login_ID]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs\

    Mac: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SecondLife/logs

    You will change folder and file names based on the viewer used... But, they are all similar.

    • 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 a 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. Search and read through them starting at the end of the file and working backward.

    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.

  10. 20 hours ago, Istelathis said:

    Thank you both @Nalates Urriah and @Bagnu

    I'm still playing around with textures, and have not really noticed that much of a difference other than a sheen in PBR when it comes to the textures I am playing around with.  I think perhaps it is better served for reflective surfaces, rather than trying to generate a more realistic image that gives depth, but I'm still learning.

    Snapshot_021.thumb.jpg.aab8f6e04bbfa5370eb99449e023c003.jpg

    Above is one of the materials from LL, as an experiment I removed the metallic-roughness and Normal from the texture closest to me, as well as placed the metallic factor to 0.  From my own eye's view, what mostly vanishes is just the sheen of reflective colors from the sky I believe.  

    Snapshot_024.thumb.jpg.ad6fb3b7a8dbd63f32f83c211a026d68.jpg

    The closest prim here is just a regular texture on a prim, not using PBR materials.  I tried using a projection light to see if I would notice much of a difference.  The one further out has the same sheen.  I believe I had changed the environment to midday and changed the personal lighting.

    Snapshot_001.thumb.png.1bb3f083b0843b12135b41f8a0ff79ba.png

    Here is where I changed the environment to midday again, without adjusting personal lighting.  

     

    So, most of my time in SL right now, is just playing with the environment and textures.  I have a feeling I am going to spend many days goofing around with textures before I really get the hang of it all and what PBR is capable of.

    This isn't the thread for long tech discussions. This is a thread for showing off the results of our skill, knowledge, and talent... however little or much that may be. We get to enjoy, compliment, encourage, and gather ideas.

    The Technology Forum is a better place for the technical discussion. It is common to add questions here and get quick answers. But tutorials and long discussions need their own thread. Two reasons: for some the discussions are boring and it gets tedious skipping over them and next, the discussions here are very difficult to find for those searching for the same how-to, which is more appropriately placed in the Technology Forum.

    Also, when moving to a new thread it is common to place a link in this thread.

    • Like 1
  11.  When asking about technical snags include the information about your viewer and computer. Use the HELP->About... in the viewer WHILE logged in.

    @cyrotic FS 6.6.16 has some odd inventory issues affecting how things react in SL. I didn't see any problems while I was using 16. But, I took their advice and upgraded to 17. From what you've told us, we have no idea if you have a 16 problem or something else.

  12. 7 hours ago, Istelathis said:

    But I don't think there is a height map for SL, I'm not sure this is all new to me.  I tried making different maps, but I couldn't get the Metallic map right, what I mostly accomplished was to make the texture look like shiny plastic.  I have a lot to learn regarding how this all works, I don't even know which software I should be using for it.

     

    Yes and no... for terrain there are height maps. Not for prims... For prims we use Normal Maps.

    You can find a lot of this information in the SL Wiki.

    • Like 4
  13. This is not the first time the Lab has thought they would do something with the ADULT part of SL. Since I came in (2008) they have done this a couple of times. Nothing really came from the previous efforts. We did get an Adult sandbox which is a griefer heaven and seems mostly ignored by Linden maintenance and governance.

    From talking with Lindens over the years it seems there is an in-house stigma on those agreeing to work on the Adult projects. I suspect that is still likely. If so, this will be another short-lived effort. As best I can tell anyone that ever 'volunteered?' to work on one is no longer with the Lab. So, not a good career move.

    While most corporate teams shy away from sexual and political affiliations or associations the tech world is changing as younger people enter the ranks. Plus the Woke and liberated young are more accepting of formerly taboo topics... or maybe its just that they don't know they were ever taboo.

    The Lab is data-oriented. They track all sorts of SL info and use patterns. They may see something that says this will be a good move.

    We know sex sells. Often very well. It is always just a matter of how it is presented. Does the Lab have some novel new approach for a virtual world? I suppose we will find out.

    So far the ideas people have had here seem rather limited... which I suspect is less a personal imagination problem than an opinion of the Lab's imagination. 🙄 We'll have to wait and see if they surprise us. But, since they are not working on this one in cooperation with the residents, it probably isn't going to go all that well.

    But.... I can hope...

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  14. I am enjoying the National Blab. I think if the hope is to elicit comment and discussion then it does NOT belong in this thread... and comments are part of the fun. But I don't have a good suggestion for where to put the Blab. So... here will do.

    Nal-LeMondePerdu-FS_043.thumb.jpg.1120158a03ac1e07513e26571fac7e8c.jpg

    Now that I am looking at this image... wrong dress. I'll have to borrow a dress from Victoria.

    • Like 8
  15. I would like a bit more realism. The PBR rendering will add more realism to our surroundings. However, until the Lab upgrades to Vulkan, I doubt much can be done about the unrealistic appearance of skin.

    I would love some avatar-targeting controls... so lips would meet when kissing... maybe stretch the neck for a kiss. Getting other parts to fit would be a plus too.

    Maybe something so via scripting, we could tell the system which parts to fit together.

    Movement improvements... kinetics for animation would be nice.

    • Like 4
  16. 16 hours ago, Istelathis said:

    I still haven't created a LORA, I just have too many avatars with different faces to create one with.  I prefer instead to try my best to use an existing image and try my best to convert it as close as possible to the original.  Here is one such attempt, but it doesn't quite match up right.

    Snapshot_102.thumb.png.4cc5c4537b554ce88ccdb24a85ae6e3a.png

    aniFina2l.thumb.jpg.e17e75e06f25af48dfc8080deaa4a0ae.jpg

     

    I think my avatar's lips are too puckered for the configuration I have setup.  I have too much makeup on as well, I have to find a different skin, shape my lips a bit different, and I might have better luck.  I've had more success in previous posts on this thread.  Still, I am pretty impressed with the overall pose of the image, the lines that easy diffusion tries to stick true to.

    A big part of the difference is the lighting. The ambient light in the first image is way more than in the second. Plus there is a color cast. I suggest you consider tweaking on the EEP/Windlight settings before worrying too much about a skin.

    • Like 4
  17. You kinda left us in the dark. When asking a tech question include the copy/paste from the viewer's HELP->About...

    This will most likely be a viewer problem. Possibly a network issue.

    Bounce around SL. Try the mainland regions and popular places. If this is happening everywhere. it is NOT a region that sucks but something else.

    When flying I will see this type of thing when the draw distance (DD) is at 128m. Changing to 512m DD clears it up.

    In some cases, a region is down and you will see this empty water. In Firestorm the mini-map/radar (Ctrl-Shift-M) will show the down region with red shading. You may have to zoom the map out to see several regions. Do some experimenting and testing to start narrowing in on the problem.

  18. The change from copper to fiber should make no difference. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean your provider didn't mess things up.

    Since your computer and network connection work(ed) with the old network, it means those components are good to go. It points to the problem being in the new part of the network. That will need to be worked out with the ISP/provider.

    There is an exception. If you have old network switches or OLD CAT-3 wiring in your house, they will be a problem. The older 10-100mb switches will choke on the 10-1000mb data stream.

    When I upgraded my connection I had to replace all my switches. I could not connect via the old switches. Fortunately, I used CAT-5 for my wiring.

     

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