Toysoldier Thor

Thanks Maeve for the support and telling me the ocean isnt that large a body of water to cross And yes you are right... Instead of boiling the ocean... I am just gonna practice going through the topology, UV, DAE conversion process now. hopefully as i keep doing it - something will click each time. So here is an interesting puzzling question for you and any other SL Mesh Import Experts or maybe even LL Staff themselves.... I have been able to do this a few times and successfully with no errors and the Rezzed model looks clean. As I write this posting, I am in the SL Beta Grid and floating over a natively rezzed 9.9m x 8.6m x 8.6m simple deformed sphere with 308,384 vertices & 154,192 Triangles (as reported in the Upload Model import tool). It has a rezzed LI of 428 and 2 prims. I was told its impossible for me to SL Import a model greater than 64000 vertices. Well clearly it seems 64000 is not a limit - not by a long shot. And in the beta grid it did not even take long to rez cleanly. Actually it looks smooth as silk

Made, you started your post by saying I was talking about a TODAY situation (i.e. I was being a realist). You say she was suggesting a future (i.e. wishful thinking). Then you could see how her idea would be a good idea... (ponderin her wishful thinking). Then your last couple paragraphs explained all the reasons that brought us back to .... TODAY... the current situation with your admission that the wish for a better world in SL's market is not realistic. So answer to your last question in your post.... "Who are we going to get to do the job?" THE CUSTOMER being active and diligent in how he/she shops and buys.... THE CUSTOMER rewarding those SL merchants that perform best practices and offer the Agreement and help customers THE CUSTOMER that punishes neglectful Merchants that do not believe in customer service by not buying their products. Funny how your post actually drew the line of this thread as a full circle back to "Today".

OK... Well you keep hoping that LL will some day be motivated to put in SL TOS regulations to protect you from all the evil Creator Merchants that are trying to "rip you off" and until LL comes to your rescue, you keep buying SL products without taking your own initiative to look out for your own interests. Most SL shoppers - specially buyers of full perm building products - are fellow creator merchants that already have an awareness of the importance of Creator IP and how it could impact their planned use of this content. They know that if their intent is to buy full perm content to be used as input to more complex builds for resale, to make sure to understand the creator's usage agreement. If they find out the agreement is not workable for them or that one doesnt exist or that the creator doesnt want to provide it.... these customers will likely not buy from this creator. Why? Because they are actively looking out for their best interests and trying to avoid future potential problems with this creator ... and they dont want to be RIPPED OFF. Strange how they dont seem to feel ripped off. sounds more like you made a buying mistake in the past because of a confused or less than upstanding creator/merchant and now you want to scream at your perch how all us full perm sculpty creators are out to rip you off and LL should protect you from us evil creators. Sorry you had a bad experience in the past. so to protect you from future pain... try considering the advice I first gave you instead of getting all upset because I dont believe in your knee jerk reactionary solution of more LL regulations. Good Luck in your future purchases.

Thanks Made.... Your suggestion is a reasonable option for LL to provide to the Creator / Merchants of SL regardless of the content they provide to the market (not sure why the OP picked on Sculpties). If a creator/merchant wishes to use a common type of ULEA that LL has pre-authored, it would be a great Merchant tool for a them to consider using (almost like the Creative Commons options that art and photo website offer to members that they can opt in on. But I am totally on board with you that this cannot be a mandatory obligation that LL imposes via TOS regulations upon the merchants. Its not in their rights to do so. As for Veronika's response to my advice to her.... Based on your postings, its clear the type of person you are in RL... You fall into the "I want the Government to wipe my butt for me and protect me because I dont want to be a well informed buyer / customer". As such, I am not surprised that you are so astonished when it is suggested that you should be responsible to protect your own interests as a buyer. I assume you have never heard of the famous saying "BUYER BEWARE". As LL's TOS, an Made and others and myself have told told you.... the responsibility of IP rights for his/her content is that of the Creator to create and it would be wise of him to make his IP rights and instructions well known. BUT it is the responsibility of the BUYER / USER of the Creator's content to understand these rights and abide by them. It is NOT LL's responsibility.. PERIOD. Therefor, since the person that could get in trouble for violation of a Creator's content is the person that bought, has gained access to, and is the custodian of the Creator's content (i.e. the customer), then it would be well within your interest as a Buyer to make a well informed and wise decision on what you buy, what you decide not to buy, and to be fully aware what you agreeing to when you buy a creator's content. I know this freaks you out Veronika and I am sorry that you are angry at me for telling you that the Government (i.e. LL and its TOS) is not there to wipe your butt when you buy something in RL or SL, but that is simply the way it is. And to be frank about this... its not a difficult effort on your part as a buyer. You as the buyer of SL content, Online ebay content, or products and services in RL have all the power. If you as a buyer look at a SL Merchant's content and your questions or concerns on addressed or satisfied.... WALK AWAY AND DONT BUY THAT CONTENT. Its as simple as that. Merchants that refuse to tell their customers what the Usage Agreement will quickly go out of business when buyers like you pass them by and go to merchants that do provide you the information you need. Also, each buyer has potentially different planned needs for the Creator's content. Sometimes they all fall easily into the hard set permissions of the content. But for full perm content this is not as much the case. I have sold full perm content for 2.5 years to well over a 1000 different customers. 99.99% of the time my customers never contact me. Of course I do provide Usage Agreement info on my listing AND I ask customers to contact me before they buy if they have any questions. but even when I have it spelled out - I do get the rare person that IMs me and asks for interpretation of my agreement. This is a well informed Customer that wants to know his/her rights BEFORE they buy and I have no issues with this at all. So, you can be all upset at the blunt message from me that the responsibility on protecting your interets fall in your lap... but thats the way it is. And trust me when I tell you that LL will not even take a second to ponder the idea of setting addition TOS regulations to dictate how a Creator should protect his/her content or to take on the responsibility for you the Buyer.

Thank you Kwak and Drongle for your clarification. Yes Drongle that one line I missed on how it could severely impact LI if there are way too many islands. The few tests I did on 3DCoat to auto-UV created a UV map with a few large chunks and then like 20 smaller islands. Looked like a real ugly UV with flattened compared to when ZBrush does the UV mapping via UV Master. Basically it was a ball with a few snakelike tenticals pulled out from it - just as a test. PS.... sorry if my postings sounded "angered". I guess i get a bit frustrated when so much of the 3D modeling world is so hyper geekoid and technical when I am just trying to grasp the more basic needed components. After a month of trying to wrap my head around how to make a reasonable textured mesh for SL...your super tech postings me feel like I get into a lake and start my swim across a large lake .... and then in the middle of the swim people in a boat near me inform me that I am not swimming in a lake ... its an ocean!! Not your fault..... So sorry for sounding harsh.

Kwakkelde Kwak wrote: 1) Generally less islands is better. It's not the islands themselves though, it's the "shoreline" that makes the difference, make them as compacts as possible. 2) Are you asking if quads are better than triangles for LI? If that's the case..no, quads are two triangles, so there's no difference at all. All models are made out of triangles, quads are not something your compter understands. Thank you! Related to answer #1.... how would one make a "shoreline compact" in the 3Dcoat or Zbrush tool? Is there a button to press "Make shores compact"?

MY goal is to learn enough about the advanced yet minimum required 3D modeling technologies and techniques to be able to express my creative talents in creating great 3D organic models (land terrains, art statues, etc.) that I can already create inside the Sculptris and 3DCoat and get them somehow into SL is a form that looks somewhate close to what I see in these tools. If I can do this in a way that the SL MESH is somewhat efficient when rezzed in SL - all the better. But at the end of the day... if my SL MESH MODEL is efficient or not in sl when rezzed - it will still sell to the SL community because unlike building a prefab home or furniture or even clothing.... an art piece is unique and has no direct competition. As such, if my SL MESH Art Statue has a LI of 2 or 20 really will not be a major factor to the buyer. If they like it - they will buy it regardless of the LI. As long as I dont create an art statue that could with very simple topology reduction have an LI of 5 and I dont take these steps and I upload it with an LI of 40. That is why I so far like the Sculptris mesh reduction tool and mesh reduction brush. The reduction of the polygons in Sculptris is as simple as hand brushing the poly count under the brush in areas where the count needs to be less (like the thighs and back of the human model) and dont brush in areas where there are a lot of corners and curves. THAT MAKES SENSE TO ME and its very simple to understand.

OK Drongle and Kwakkekde I read both your posts a couple times and you might have well talked greek to me. I am glad you both have the intimate technical depth understanding of what drives / impact LI.... but its conversations that this depth that scares away a lot of new SL Mesh Creators - even ones that were successful as Sculpty creators. I sure do not mind that you say all you said in there to explain what you were trying to explain.... but since the forums (especially this thread where the OP... me... mentioned that I am trying to grasp and understand the basics) is to learn and educate those noobs of mesh like me.... it would be a great idea to at least finish off your posting to make a 1 line summary of what the heck you were saying. What I really loved about Maeve's postings were that even though she got somewhat technical she tried hard to translate to layman's understanding of the 3D modeling industry. So let me ask you both... related to the question I posed and that you both responded to... IN GENERAL... to the question initially asked: 1) Does a model with a lot of UV Islands significantly impact the LI of a SL MESH? (Generally YES or NO) 2) Does a model being developed outside SL significantly impact the SL MESH LI if it quads or triangles were used? (Generally YES or NO?) I dont really care if an SL mesh is 2-10% less efficient on LI if I go one way or another on UV Islands & Triangles if its easier for me to develop the way I understand it. If the bad ways ad one or two additional prim counts to LI but its far easier for me to develop and understand then thats ok. But if having multiple UV Islands will surely increase LI by 50-200% then I better spend time to understand what the heck you both were trying to say. But basically, what you both posted - I had no clue what you said and its these kind of posts that really takes the wind out of my sails in thinking "maybe mesh is just not for anyone but the real tech geeks in this world".... and I am a tech geek in RL which really frustrates me.

ohh i got one more question.... Says mesh can have multiple sides/surfaces that in SL can be independently applied with texture? How is that stated on a model? or is it that if the corner is sharp enough - its a new surface? I am sure its much more complicated then that.

lol WOW Maeve!! Thanks again for all your knowledge and input! and your boots look frikken awesome!! I wanna see that texture in sl even if i have to fake it with PS. So you got those boots in SL with that level of textue look?? As for 3DCoat... just as I think i was starting to figure it out a bit the damn trial ended. I am gonna now see if i can do as much with Sculptris. So far even with all the cool tools with 3Dcoat... I have had more success with the hugely ugly workflow of: Sculptris to shape and create the reduced polygon mesh (sculptris's hand brushed mesh reduction tool is cool), then export it to Zbrush by OBJ, Use Zbrush UV Master to apply a real simple UV Map, export OBJ back to Sculptris and paint it. Export mesh and all the textures out. Use photoshop and blend the normal, bump, texture, shadow maps together to make it look somewhat close to the image in sculptris, the import to blender and export to DAE and into SL. I might re-install 3DCoat again on my laptop to get another 30 days and hopefully feel comfortable with it. I dont wanna buy 3Dcoat until i feel that it is the tool I want to use. But all you mentioned really is helping my sink the terms concepts flow into my lil brain. I will admit some of what you said was a "whaa" lol but i will read it again. Most of what you wrote was perfect as u even explained what most of the terms meant. A lot of the mesh experts dont. You r awesome! thanks!

Maeve..... thank you so much for your response and the time it took to write it. Many parts of what you mentioned and suggested I already knew or discovered, BUT, it also was valuable because it told me that for the most part the limited texturing quality and lack of the quality of texture map I created in Sculptris or 3DCoat is normal for SL. I thought the poor quality of the texture I got into SL for my model was just because I was doing something wrong. Since I am not familiar what to do with the normal , texture, bump map images that Sculptris or 3DCoat can output (i.e. I dont know how they are embedded into the OBJ or DAE for import into SL) I simply tried to blend the 3 layers toegether in Photoshop and get them to look as good as possible as a single texture map layer then import this PS texture into SL seperately from the model import. In one case I stumbled thru Blender enough to add this texture onto the imported OBJ mesh and exported it to a DAE. It actually showed up in SL with that texture although not that great quality. So I still think there is a trick on how to merge the imported OBJ and the texture,bump, normal maps in Blender to make it look a bit more high quality in SL. I have seen some of the other SL models with texture and they look much more high quality and accurate than mine. SO... I am still not there on this. As for VOXEL.... ohh yes.... I love this form of modeling. I am very much a fan of the ORGANIC models and sculpturing. That is why I have made a lot of money on Landscape sculpties like water rocks volcanos terrains... these all fit what I love to make. Now with me wanting to make artistic statues... Voxel modeling is AWESOME! And in the past couple weeks I am really learning the differences between voxel and mechanical / polygon modeling. With VOXEL modeling you are dealing with a real clump of ever expanding clay. Unlike Polygon modeling where you are only working with the SURFACE/SKIN of the model, with voxels you are literally working with countless 3D cubes that not only make up the surface but also full the inside of the model. I did also learn just recently and thank you for confirming my underestanding - that voxels do not have a mesh of polygons around them. This was the fact that was missing for me and why I couldnt understand why modeling in Sculpris was so different than Zbrush... With Zbrush the model has polygons right from the start and voxels dont. SOOO I just learned you have to actually topologize the voxel to lay a skin of polygons around the shape. I have not by any means perfected how this is done effectively in 3Dcoat although supposedly it very powerful. QUESTION: So about UV-Mapping.... is it ok if the UV has a lot of islands? In Zbrush when I take a Sculptris model and UV MASTER it, I often get one UV Flattened layout. With 3DCoat it always creates many islands. I was told islands are bad for SL efficiency. Is this true or does it matter if the UV has a lot of islands? QUESTION: Are quads or triangles the better mesh for ultimate import to SL? I dont know where I heard this but I thought someone said avoid triangles if you can and stick with quads. I will say that triangles are easier. Also, is it ok if a mesh has both? POINT FOR OTHERS: I have talked to the 3D Coat staff (they are very quick to respond and help) and although they do not have DAE export - they are working on it but the creator said it is a complex export to develop. So sometime in the future 3DCOAT will have DAE directly and then no more need for Blender!! QUESTION: I have been using Blender for exactly what you mentioned. Its the only DAE converter I know. I can get the OBJ into blender but I am completely lost on how to attache the textures to the mesh in Blender. I somehow did it once - so frikken confusing - but not sure how i did it. Is it better to figure out how to attach the texture, bump, normals in blender and export these textures into the DAE or to create the texture in Photoshop and import it independently into SL? Suonds like this Materials Project from SL is the major missing peice to make my life easier and to let SL see the amazing texture painting i can create in Sculptris and 3DCoat. But I suspect this is a lont time away. The one reason I like 3DCoat over Sculptris is that sculptris cannot render images in the tool beyond the resolution of the screen. 3DCoat can. I not only create 3D models for SL but as much to create 2D art and I need high resolution image renders from my 3D model to create my 2D art. here is an example of my 2D art from a 3D sculptris model (that was subsequently brought into 3DCoat for rendering)... thank you again so much for your invaluable input!!

Veronika Garzo wrote: TOS on sculptie maps and packs need a total review by Linden Labs. There are many issues associated with the way they are presented and sold, in addition to the limatations imposed on what is primarily described as 'full permissions'. I become increasingly frustrated with creators who wish to protect the integrity of their product, yet have no regard for their customer base in the way in which they market and sell them. I see several frustrating and questionable practices in the marketplace. Firstly, often limitations are not stated at all in the sales pitch and you only discover how little you are allowed to do with them once the pack is opened. One seller only alluded to the limitations on a texture within a pack of more than 100! One might be forgiven for missing it entirely. Either that or the terms are 'hidden' in the policies section in the sellers profile, a place many purchasers would not even think to look when shopping. Further, when they feel inclined to change their terms of service, you have no way to prove how it was at the time of your purchase unless you have the foresight to make a copy of the listing for future reference. Does anyone else feel that they are being ripped off by such practices and can anyone tell me why Linden Labs don't clean up the practices of those who are less than inclined to be clear about their policies. I feel it should be clear and openly displayed within a product listing. With lists of revision dates to any terms they use to restrict useage, so as to defend those who purchased prior to it? Is it legal to move the goal posts half way through a match? So speaking as a creator / merchant of full perms Sculpty Map packs.... a few responses. Based on your arguments, these would not be reasons for a LL review of TOS. What needs to be re-considered is you as the buyer changing your practices when buying Sculpty Map packs or really any other content on SL that has and stated "Conditional Use" licensing associated to it. This is not only Full Perm content (although this would be the most common type of content with this licensing), it can also be content whereby it is relatively easy use the content beyond the Creator's intent (i.e. I create art and sell it in SL with MOD TRANS permissions and I still have an "Agreement" included in my art). The reason I say that the responsibility rests in your hands is because your buying power speaks larger than any imposed regulation. So lets look at what I mean based on your concerns. If a creator has a listing up in MP or at his store for - lets say Full Perm Sculpty Pack - and after a lot of shopping around you decide you really like this Merchants pack. You look through the listing on MP and he doesnt make any mention of the terms/agreement/license. Maybe he says that the Agreement is stated in a notecard in the pack. Well regardless of the situation, if you really like the pack, you should contact the creator directly and ask what the agreement is and that you want him to send you a No-MOD / TRANSFER only Notecard from him of this agreement. If he gives it to you and you agree to his terms, you have a copy of the license set in a state you received it from him that has him as the creator of the notecard and you with a non-changing single copy of the agreement. You cannot give it to anyone else for them to pretend they had the agreement at that state as well. Also, ask the Creator if this Notecard is also in the pack and in the state you just read. He should say yes. If the Creator was reachable and the Creator did give you this Agreement notecard and he said the same version of it is in the pack itself.... Then reward him and give him your business. You might also be proactive and suggest to the Creator that he spell out his terms on the product listing or somewhere that is easy to access and read so that customers like you should not have to contact him in the future. Remember that countless Creators / Merchants in SL are new to being both a creator and a merchant. They may make awesome stuff but they are just starting to learn all the countless ropes of the business. Dont assume all creators and merchants in SL are experienced SL business people. In most cases they often are not. BUT, they are also in most cases not out to screw you. So, as a good SL Citizen and experienced shopper in SL - you might want to help the new Merchants out with your suggestions and advice. Most will be more than happy to talk and listen to you and even implement your suggestions. IF ON THE OTHER HAND, the creator's content listing shows no licensing info and you try to contact him and you get no response and/or you get a response but its more of non-transparent "I dont have a license" or "leave me alone" or "trust me and just buy it"...... here is where you wield the most power to regulate and change the creator's and merchants.... WALK AWAY and DONT GIVE HIM YOUR BUSINESS. In fact, tell him that you are walking away because he could not provide you what you asked for. If you feel you are being ripped off.... It is really more so because you were a buyer that did not take the time & effort when you were shopping to make a wise buying decision. Dont buy anything from anyone that after you tried to get the information you needed to feel comfortable owning it, it was not provide. That would be like going in to buy a car and knowing a warranty was important to you but the dealer didnt openly present it to you and you not asking the dealer to spell out the warranty and then going forward and buying the car anyway. Then stating to all that "the government needs to step in and review the car dealer industry because I didnt understand the warranty of the car I bought until after I bought it". Who's at fault in this situation and who had the ability to avoid this situation. YOU HAVE THE POWER..... USE IT .... BUT USE IT WISELY AND FAIRLY. Reward the merchants that meet your needs and answer your questions Be willing to provide "customer's opinion and advice" to a merchant to help him grow Punish the merchants that are non-transparent and do not offer good PRE/POST Sales Service by not giving him your business. That is my response to your concerns.

Actually Drake, the reason that the concept of CAMPING inworld would be a viable practice to return is because the initial reasons for camping and why it was so terribly gamed in the good ol days has poofed away. Camping and armies of Avi Alt Bots on a commercial sim was done to increase the traffic counts which hugely impacted where the sim showed up on SL's inworld search. My understanding is that traffic on a sim is now not a factor for search results order. As such if my understanding is true, there would be no reason for a mall or club owner to have a farm of Alt Bots at 2000M in a box to create high traffic counts for this reason. Camping to attract real noobs could return and it did have a value inworld for both the commercial owner and the noob. I know back in 2008 in my first 30 - 60 days on SL, camping was a critical source of income for me.

If I do or dont vote on a JIRA does not change how LL will action a JIRA. LL action's JIRAs moreso based on if the JIRA is tied to enough frustration, anger, ranting, etc that is posted in public forums like this or twitter or elsewhere. LL had proven time and time again that they generally dont work on JIRAs that dont make any airtime in a respective forum. As such, the JIRA you are talking about and trying to promote that everyone should click on and vote / watch in order to get your personal Merchant issue resolved is likely already higher on LL Commerce's "to try to fix" priority ONLY BECAUSE IT IS BEING TALKED ABOUT IN THESE FORUMS by enough merchants with the problem. NOT because the jira has 10 or 150 votes. If you respond back tell me that this is also not true... then I dont know what SL planet you have been living on. I can show you jiras with a lot of votes and watches and that are 4 years old and LL still has done nothing to resolve it. Secondly, and especially because my entire career has been in the I.T. industry where problem ticketing systems are in place, I do not vote for a jira whereby the problem does not directly impact me. Why dont I do this? Well its simple. If you are voting for a problem that doesnt exist for you then you are skewing the actual importance and scope of the problem. If the problem exists for only 4 people and you were able to call all your friends and relatives to get them to vote and bring the jira up to 300 votes.... how does this help LL determine which problem has a higher priority when there is a jira with 100 legit people voting? I will vote on a jira that is a feature suggestion I would want or if the jira is a problem that I could see it has the potential to impact my operation in the futures or it risks my business environment. But I dont vote on jiras that in no way impact me. Nor do I expect anyone to vote on a jira I want to see get LL attention. I will promote a jira and try to explain how the jira can or does impact the user population. As for my MP business operations not using shopping carts more fully??? Again what planet are you on Mickey? Do you understand how a shopping cart works?? I have no control on when a customer decides to use a shopping cart. They decide it. If Mr Shopper adds two of my landscape packs in his cart with 3 of your items and 4 of Rene's.... then my MP store has used the shopping cart AND my sales deliveries would be impacted by the shopping cart if there was a problem with it. I cant believe you somehow think I am controlling how a shopping cart is used. again...... Step awayyyyy from your computer for a couple hours .... Take a Pill.... go have a Yoga session.... and relax. The sun will rise tomorrow. I promise.

WOW Mickey.... 1) Take a pill - posting a response to me in Size 4 font bolded doesnt make me read your post any more carefully 2) I have no issues with my business in SL - inworld or MP. Not sure where you read that I have an issue with my sales. 3) Problem is that you read but you do not understand what you read. I am talking about the BIGGER PICTURE... the MACRO ECONOMICS of how MP is impacting the SL economy as a whole. But you already openly admited that you do not understand macro economics and how what might seem like a trivial situation to you and maybe even a good thing to you can have huge negative impacts to the larger economy. Want another poster child of what I am talking about? MIDNIGHT MANIA & HUNTS. Devastating blow to the SL inworld economy yet countless Merchants still blindly and happily use it as a desperate attempt to bring traffic to their inworld stores. 4) My customers can and do shop from my store any where they like and I do not stop them in any way from buying my products. My business runs at around a 93% profit margin (when I look at all the costs I spend inworld & MP vs my revenue). My products - even though they are 1.5 to 2.5 years old - keep selling well each week and feeds my RL Bank Account each week. And my time and effort to run my store is pretty much autonomous as I only monitor sales and support the ocassional customer that contacts me to resolve their problems. If life as a Merchant is hard for you... sorry to hear that. Now get back to poking at LL to solve your magicbox problems.

Alicia Sautereau wrote: Because they make money from the sales and not when people actually get off their butts and go to the stores instead True Alicia on that theory and as a possible reason why LL is trying to hide this Transaction reporting problem. BUT, of all the countless problems on MP that are talked about on this Merchant forums.... delayed deliveries, failed deliveries, bugs with filters, poor search... etc etc etc... which are not removed as threads by the moderator... why has Mike the Moderator been told my LL Commerce to gag any talk about this one problem. This problem does not even directly impact the MP shopper... it only directly impacts the Merchants. So your theory starts eroding why they are gagging this one topic. My guess is that we have all started to expose symptoms of a much bigger flaw in the up coming DD deployment and Brooke and company want to shut down any fears of DD.

LOL Mickey.... I have sales each day. I checked my MP transaction log. My Magicbox has been pretty much working 100%. Some deliveries between midnight and 5am have long delivery delays but they do generally get delivered. Dont know why you have such massive problems when I do not. It must be something unique to your magicbox and/or the sim that the box is on. Everything else in making a sale is the same between us. My experience with my one magicbox that has sat in the same place for over 2 years and I cant remember the last time I upgraded the code on it - if I ever did. It works great. That is why I will be one of the last Merchants to switch over to DD.

Drake1 Nightfire wrote: If a merchant on the MP has a link to their inworld store, that is where i will 99% of the time buy an item.. 1. I don't have to wait 3 hours for my item to be delivered to me. 2. They don't lose 5% to LL. 3. I'm more likely to buy more items if i can see the actual item. 4. I like to explore SL. Going to new stores is fun. Drake, you are preaching to a believer. i would love nothing better than to see SL shoppers do more of their shopping and activities inworld. Here was my blog posting on the top 10 reasons why shoppers should shop inworld. http://toytalks.weebly.com/1/post/2011/04/10-big-reasons-sl-shoppers-should-window-shop-slm-buy-inworld.html I like that we have a marketplace and for my business, over 70% of my customers seem to like buying my products from Marketplace. If thats the case... great. But it would be good if they came to my inworld store and shopped and bought so they could see how my products work together and what else i have to offer and all the other reasons in my blog. Its generally better for the SL inworld economy if these shoppers en masse shopped moreso inworld. But... shrugs.... we are where we are.

braylasana wrote: I did some testing on this. Here are my results: 1. Prims made of Boxes or Cylinders receive the savings when grouped as convex hull. It halves their total cost. e.g. 40 boxes cost 20 prims. 2. Scripts negate this benefit. Scripted doors, etc. 3. Sphere, Torus and Tubes do not benefit from convex hull. Rings double land impact when linked as convex hull. Leave them as prim. 4. Sculpties may go up. Leave them as prim. 5. Boxes which have been hollowed cannot be walked through as convex hull. 6. You can group sculpties (set to prim) and boxes set to convex hull in one group. the items set to prim will count as one, and the convex hull set items will calculate accordingly. e.g. 10 items set to prim + 10 boxes set to convex hull = 15 prims total. Leave scripted items out of the group, even if they are set to prim. thanks so much for this posting. This is very valuable. I was gonna make my own home and gallery more efficient but based on what you are saying, Convex Hull is not going to save too much or even work. For example, I use mega Cylinder prims that have been hollowed out and my 6 floors of my gallery are inside of these hollowed out or cut out cylinders. From what you say - Convex hull will simplify the physics and not allow me to walk inside my gallery or home. I was gonna take my gallery to the beta grid and rez it so I grouped the entire build up and took it into inventory and went to the beta grid. But on that grid this grouped build was not available. I guess they only copy my inventory once a day or week.

Lasher Oh wrote: Is it just my imagination or has a short thread about Magic Boxes not working and or suddenly failing, been deleted?. I've looked up and down and inside out but can't find it. maybe the post I contributed to it yesterday was just a dream. ^L^ Its not your imagination. For whatever reason LL Commerce team seems to be real sensitive to the reporting problems that they somehow created over the past few days. They removed my thread earlier this week where Arwen and I were talking about what we were seeing and they removed another Merchant's thread that has seen similar issues. The Moderator informed me that he/she removed my thread and LL has escalated my reported problem and would get back to me. Why LL is gagging our discussion on the topic is pretty scary. Our threads are not violating any TOS and it helps gather how big the issue is and helps inform other merchants that the problem they are seeing is not just their problem. I am not sure LL is gagging this. LL Moderator.... why have you been instructed to remove all threads related to this issue?

So Mickey, Do you think LL is lying to all of us and wants to tell us how bad things are when they report over 1200 sims have been abandoned with no revenue going back to LL in Teir fees? Do you ever sit have and suck on a Stogie on the porch of your Sim home in SL and just ponder what the reasons are for LL losing 1200 sims in 1 year? Do you try to come up with your logic on what big picture is playing out here and the root cause why? Or do you think its just a phase and its no ones fault that 1200 sims of lost revenue left LL's RL cash flow? Its just some kind of trivial magic but in the end it will all go away and the glory days of SL will return? If so, you are thinking like LL Executive Management. They dont worry how their poor strategic decision making has impacted the economy of the grid that has made them the success of the past. But I will say that Rod Humble isnt stupid and he see the writing on the wall and that the SL Grid as we all know it and loved it... is sadly on a slid to eventual Internet history. That is why he is spending all his time on non SL new ideas. Because even if SL ends up dying - Rod's responsibility is to find ways for LL to exist and make money. It doesnt have to be with SL.... A new SL resident friend of mine who came from SIMS and INVU about 4 months ago to try to start a business in SL was chatting with me this week. She is very driven to try to make a successful business in SL. She has tried 3 plans already and most were centered around the concept or renting. She was thinking maybe she should buy a sim and try to go into it bigger. I told her.... do not get into any SL business whereby you are investing any $RL cash into SL. i.e. do not invest real money into SL to create your business where the investment is not highly liquid. If you need land - RENT. But the better idea is to focus on creating some line of product and only sell on MP. I told her that SL's current economic state is clearly declining. hundreds of sims have been abandoned in the past year and growing and you will get stuck with land you bought from LL that you will end up throwing away. Rental revenue on sims is declining as land lords need to be reducing weekly rent to attract renters to the glut of empty parcels. Summary of my advice to her.... STAY LIQUID and keep your cost of doing business in SL to a bare minimum. Sadly that means - no inworld stores. Just MP and products on MP. If LL is looking for new non-SL straegies to keep LL alive.... SL Customers should strongly listen to what LL is doing and where LL is not wanting to invest anymore.

Throughout January I have been trying to figure out the best workflow to get a 3D Model frmo being sculpted to being textured to getting into SL with what was sculpted and textured. I have been experimenting wirh many tools and different workflows. I love Sculptris and thanks to some advice from this thread I have even been able to learn how to use Sculptris's polycount reduction tool and reduction brush tool to make some really cool artistic models to bring into SL. But I have learned that the ZBrush UV Master has become a critical part of getting the Scultpris model ready for exporting to Blender which in turn can create the DAE file. So I decided to take a serious stab at 3DCoat. It uses the same Voxel modeling that Sculptris uses and has a lot of additional modeling tools that Sculptris doesnt have. I also have been hoping that 3DCoat could do in 1 tool what I now rely on two tool to get ready to send to Blender for DAE creation. Well after several emails back and forth with the staff at 3DCoat (and they have tried to be helpful), I am pulling my heair out is getting through 3DCoat's workflow steps from VOXEL to a texture painted model that can cleanly be exported to Blender. Its a bit of a confusing tool. Sadly the 3DCoat staff dont know much about SecondLife and their intructions keep assuming I fully understand the UI and have a deep knowledge of 3D modeling, retopologizing, UV, and their 3 types of painting. QUESTION.... Are there any 3DCOAT SL Mesh creatiors that have some basic easy to follow workflow steps on moving a voxel to SL DAE with the textures?

I created 3 mesh models in the beta grid. I was playing with some of the mesh parameters.... I noticed that none of the models allow me to enable the Flexible Path. I thought mesh supports flexi like a real prim. Is there some trick to making a mesh go flexy? On another note on newer viewer features in EDIT... What is the Features called" Gravity, Friction, Density, Restitution?

Mickey, You can come up with all your thoeries and excuses and live in a fantasy within a virtual world (lol hey thats funny even) but all of that does not hold a candle to the real facts.... Last year over 900 sims closed. Malls and stores are shrinking in size or closing all together. Shopping $'s are shifting to MP and LEAVING INWORLD shopping. You will need to wake up if you are following a merchant strategy that is based on INWORLD is the cornerstone and MP is just an "ADD" to your main inworld store. Its not an add... its a SHIFT to MP. All this being said and as much as the facts are screaming at everyone.... I am surely not one that is happy to see MP has taken over inworld sales and that the inworld economy is collapsing because of it. Why do you think in 2010 I made a strong active move to promote my customers shop and buy my products inworld by offering an inworld shopping rebate. I wanted to see more of my 90% of MP sales to shift to inworld sales. But I ended the campaign last year - even though i got my inworld sales to 30% from only 10%. I knew that ultimately I was pushing a rope up a hill. shoppers dont want to buy inworld. And Mickey.... all your hopeful wishes will not change what is already happening. But if you understand Macro Economics, shifting that large a percent of shopping out of the inworld to MP will force a shift of the economy. Most merchants are not stupid and start realizing "why the hell am I paying so much inworld rent when MP costs only 5% of sales... and no more" but ohh well... you believe what you want.

Pamela Galli wrote: Guys, for cryin out loud. Really. I put Jenni's link right there in my post and here are two creators who evidently have not read it. Whatt? I did read it this afternoon when you posted the link in this thread. And what my concerns were after reading her blog was proven to be true by Gavin. Using Convex Hull does not always reduce prim count. As Jenn said - it can also increase prim count. But as Gavin said... more than double - even 10 fold. Jenn might have warned readers to be careful changing to convex hull's on large prim groups - specially if your available prim count on your land is low. I admit that I only read Jenn's blog post .... nothing more. Guess I should have read through the links but I was at work and ran out of time.