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Pierre Ceriano

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Everything posted by Pierre Ceriano

  1. Contrary to what is indicated in the title of your thread, InstaMAT is not free... if you want to compete with Substance Designer (you need at least a Seat License)
  2. Thank you Sid and Alwin. I was somewhat expecting these answers. But on the other hand I'm not starting a landbaron business
  3. Hello folks If all goes according to plan, I will soon add a region to the one I already have. Which will form an estate of two regions. There is a pricing for the mainland which decreases the more mainland you have. So I have two questions: - Is there the same principle for private regions ? (The more regions you have, the cheaper each region costs) - If so, do you have a link to this pricing ? Also, if you own several regions, I am delighted to read your feedback regarding the cost part. Thank you all ! Pierre
  4. If I allow myself to read between the lines: L / Does the creation or provision of assets by Linden Labs pull the rug out from under the feet of creators? Does having a Linden home or a Second Life avatar limit sales of creator-created homes and avatars? We saw above that this could also boost the interior decoration market, just like that of clothing. M / Won't improving the graphics create other problems? And in the same vein, this makes me think that 12 / I must adapt my textures to the new graphic improvements already made. L bis and M bis / Could a terrorist squirrel be behind Second Life's supposed weaknesses?
  5. D / Customers who come and make huge bulk orders are basically gone. Same here. E / More low cost items selling more than higher end products. Not to mention : F / Objects imported from various asset libraries without respecting the Second Life Content guidelines : "Examples of Prohibited Content include: (...) Infringing or unauthorized content, such as content that you did not create or do not have permission to use." G / Poor search placement, older products being shown more. Even results when just searching my own store aren't what I expect. There's something wrong with the algorithm, that's for sure. The subject has been discussed at length in other forums without a real solution being provided. H / High end products aren't selling and instead it's very cheap builder's kits or older builds. I / The real world economy is also very bad. I think we don't need statistics here... and I think it's easy to point the finger at LL and SL but there's a bigger picture here and I really don't think it's very good. I think people are struggling to pay for food and dropping $20 on a mesh body or something isn't really a luxury a lot of people can afford. Although other statistics in the real world (and at least in France) tend to demonstrate that consumers tend to want to keep their spending in the "appearance" to the detriment of essential things. And is the reason I will 9 / Continue to create both cheap and high end assets. Although I completely understand that this idea is questionable. G bis / I will make one complaint about SL and LL, and it's the reliability of the grid and SLMP, which completely reduces user's ability both to find and purchase content as well as to use it. As an ecommerce site SLMP is horribly outdated, slow, and shows irrelevant stuff way too much. I always say that people should consider if Amazon worked like SLMP. Sometimes pages throw 500 errors, sometimes your order doesn't go through for 12 hours. You search for NIntendo and get SNES games instead of Switch. But I think a lot of people have lost patience with trying to buy things and being able to use the things they've bought. There's so much fighting for people's attention on the internet and honestly their dopamine receptors are fried. They have zero patience now. And if things aren't working they just leave and don't care. Is there a driver in the Second Life marketplace algorithm? The G spot is no longer a source of pleasure but a nest of problems! J / People from developing countries have found SLMP is a way to make money and they have driven down the prices of content. This joins point F. There is absolutely no quality policy on the part of Linden Labs, whether in the choice of "creators" or in that of the objects put up for sale (Also point K). I think that here we touch on the very origin of Second Life: a beautiful idea managed by hippies at heart. Anyone produces anything. And so 10 / We have to find the right balance between the hippie spirit and respect for the work of real creators. K / And guess what? All these people being shown old, outdated stuff think that's what SL is and that's all that exists so they get discouraged. True, and I hope that Linden Labs' decision to clean up the SLMP will have beneficial repercussions. And also 11 / As a creator, we absolutely must clean our SLMP of anything that is old and dated, or bring it up to date.
  6. Thank you for sharing your opinion Polenth ! C / The issue with monthly events and hunts is everyone is trying to get in on the act, so there are far more events than people to visit. Merchants burn out. Customers become much more selective. Everyone ends up spread out very thinly. A and C evoke the same trend. 6 / The biggest event for me is Fantasy Faire, which doesn't look like slowing down anytime soon. Sales were up this year there. 7 / Shop and hop comes in next. Sales and gift handouts were about the same this year, but at good levels, so nothing to worry about. 8 / For hunts, I do ones connected to those once-a-year events or Twisted (though that's been taking a break).
  7. Thank you for sharing your feelings with us. I note down a line of thought and two ideas for something to try. (Letters and orange font = thoughts / Numbers and green font = Ideas to explore. A / Perhaps there are many more merchants and creators now than there have ever been, so the money that everyone has to spend gets spread across more merchants and creators. Here the idea that the more the merrier, the less rice there is. As with many observations that we will make on this forum, we will not have conclusive statistics to support them. Which should not prevent us from formulating them: there is no smoke without fire. B / I too think that the number of creators has increased and that a significant portion of them no longer need to use full perms assets created by others. 1 / Do you participate in things like the 55 linden dollar Thursday or anything like that? No I don't but the idea is under study. 2 / Word of mouth is always the best form of advertising and these note cards which are sent out weekly are helpful and I will add 3 / The use of a subscribing and posting system. 4 / The use of groups. 5 / The newest Linden Homes - for quite a few years now - have caused an increase in sales of home furnishings, I am sure. There is indeed a thread running on these forums that acts like a showcase for the creativity of the residents of Bellisseria, and the merchants who supply to same.
  8. Thank you Sid for your very philosophical intervention, which I completely share. Second Life is a hobby that I self-finance with the sale of my creations. If tomorrow my activity completely collapses, my hobby will change: no more simulators, less attendance on my part; perhaps an escape to a cheaper grid, also with fewer interactions. It would be a shame because apart from earning a few kopecs, selling my creations also proves that they are popular and have a use. The subject of this forum goes well beyond financial questions.
  9. And here I must point out that I may be having ideas because we do not have regular official statistics from Linden Labs, particularly regarding sales. Suddenly the temptation to generalize my weaknesses to the entire economy of Second Life. Hence this forum topic: distinguishing between what is my errors and what is due to the "Second Life system".
  10. I'm getting old and probably becoming a pessimistic old fart. But it seems to me, however, that things are changing profoundly on Second Life and the purpose of this forum topic is to understand how and why. I am not going to talk only about business but also about the attendance of Second Life in both qualitative and quantitative terms. I don't need Second Life to make a living but Second Life is my main hobby and I finance it through my sales. From an economic point of view, I have never made so many things, I have never participated in so many events. I also organize events. And yet my sales remain stable. Sometimes anarchic: one calm day, the next day explodes. I sell old stuff on the Marketplace and new stuff almost exclusively in-world. Strange, no? I participate in events such as hunts, with things given free of charge. Well here too visitors are decreasing. Generally speaking, I find that Second Life lacks punch, and this has been the case for at least 6 months. So I would be curious to know your feelings and your experience. Not just "I'm fine, thank you" or "It's total *****...", but what explains your optimism or pessimism. I too will come back to my experience through your comments. I would also like to point out that the aim here is not to shoot red-hot at Linden Labs. Let's try to sort things out and be constructive. Thank you in advance and hugs ! Pierre
  11. Hi everyone As I consider Second Life as a hobby and not a source of income, I just noticed today that there were more than 600 product sheets missing from my MP ^^ I had seen that sales had dropped on the MP while they normally continued in-game; but I thought it was due to the summer period (it's always quiet during this period). Until I valiantly decided to put an item up for sale today... Ok so I submitted a ticket to the technical team but ALSO to the management team, because I consider that MAJOR BUG, occuring at least since Jully, will impact the incomes of the Linden Labs and jeopardize my favorite hobby. I also asked them if they want us to do a crowfunding to buy them memory sticks (That said, you still have to find some on the component market, which is at half mast) Good luck everyone and be patient ! Pierre Ceriano
  12. The April round is ready ! With Aquatica Mesh, Clutter for Builders, Comptoir des Tissus, Isaak Vasiliov, Ondine Sweetwater, Pierre Ceriano, Tool Shed and Tranquility. Taxi : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mieville Verne II/63/34/1501 Link for large pictures of the new and discounted items : https://buildersdigestnetwork.wordpress.com/ Be welcome ! (As creator of Full perm assets, this way if you wish to participate the May round !)
  13. The Factory event is a themed event occuring 8 to 28th each month. Actually recruiting full perms creators for its first round : 8 to 28 March. It gathers creators of full perm assets and their customers. March theme is "Historical Americas"; What makes the event special is the theme : it aims to fuel our creativity ! If you need more infos, please read the website, and the Exhibitor guide. I stay at your disposal, Pierre Ceriano
  14. Hello Cole, To upload your own avatar needs to accomplish several steps : First, if you did not create the avatar by yourself, using modeling tools, you might check if the creator allows you to use it in Second Life, to modify it, etc Then you will have to learn the process and as usual you will start by reading the "Knowledge base" tab just up here on this page. Or here. In the knowledge base, there is a section "Uploading a mesh model" from which you will have other links such as "Model Upload UI reference" and then "Uploading and wearing a rigged mesh". It will be long and laborious to explain the entire process in a thread because many explanations will depend of the specifics of your avatar ; a good idea is also to find a learning community in-world, just search for dedicated groups. Good time creating ! PS : Ags Falconer started a thread named "My journey making myself a mesh avatar".
  15. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Indeed there was an adjustment with the 3.1 version regarding the location of the distance setting. Also I add a modest contribution : if you use other models in the scene (lower models for sample), to hide them is not enough. Put them in an other collection and uncheck the "Exclude from wiew layer" square, unstead it leads to a weird AO map, like objects are overlaying. I started weeks ago to try different settings but without your help I would not had the idea to choose the GPU editor and even to keep the image selected ^^ Now I need to adapt the distance and samples, and to use the Math node too. Also I'll have to understand the AO with multiple materials. Today I have made great strides and it is thanks to you all. My greetings ladies and guys !
  16. Hello everyone ! Know what ? I went from Blender 2.79a to Blender 3.0 (and today 3.1.2). For me it is like moving from a vintage biplane to a Boeing 747 cockpit I sure have fun with the modeling part in 3.0 version but I'm completly lost when it comes to bake an ambient occlusion map. I watched few tutorials but I'm not satisfied. Most of them are using too much steps and include bump maps and other things I don't need, such as in that thread. Maybe some of talented pilots would share their settings with the community of creators, I will be very grateful. Thanks and have fun ! For sample these are my settings in Blender 2.79a for the ambient occlusions I create :
  17. (Warning : assumed unconstructive answer) Hum, guess I'm going to cry :) Can someone please explain the models bought (or ripped off) external libraries are mostly never upload-ready ?... And indeed 250 U$ for a 3d model is in short a lot of money.
  18. Guess around 570 years with a Nasa's computer... Something to win ? 😎
  19. Hello ainst, you may have some tips and trick at that thread : Good time in Blender
  20. Maybe not all the best but here are some stuff that helped me a lot, and still help me (no specific order) : How to use a specific offset pivot point with SL mesh Texturing your mesh without having black lines or seams Strange white line in AO Blender - Pixelisation on bake Blender - Bake shadows with a transparency alpha Blender - UV unwrapping, pinning, pack islands... Blender - How to stitch multiple vertices in UV map ? Blender - Bake settings Blender - AO mapping closed interiors Texture optimization From Blender 2.79 to 2.80 : Daily Blender tips 25games
  21. Bonjour Lemickeyyy Tu te rends sur la page Internet de Second Life : https://secondlife.com/ En haut à droite tu click sur Login Colonne de gauche, tu déroule Compte dans la section Accueil et tu choisis "Modifier les paramètres d'emails" L'email est partiellement cripté d'astérisques mais il peut te donner une piste.
  22. I share this point of view indeed. From a technical point of view, persons who master building in-game have good prerequisites to create maximised meshes. And to understand how materials work : a good proof is the way the water will work on a mesh, with the usual scripts. Primitives in-game are our mother-meshes, we should not forget it
  23. I had this one time. I had an oldest duplicated version of the model, superposing the final version with the eye off in the outliner. Didn't remember I had made this duplication ^^
  24. Hum.... For me a builder is someone using prims in-game. And so, for me a master builder and over is someone mastering so well his/her build that I may doubt it's prims made
  25. Maybe I don't understand all the scope of your issue but there's a thing drawing my attention : your lowest model is 3 triangles and your object owns 6 materials. Your lowest model should own at least 6 triangles with one different material each triangle. Same for the other levels : you must check they all have the six materials named after the original mesh's. I always create the lowest models from a duplication (SHIFT D) of the original mesh because sometimes the uploading window generate engine won't do the job well. Also, if I use the Decimate modifier, I always check the operation didn't eat a material, by selecting each material. To resume : Material of model is not a subset of reference model : the sub models don't own the same number and/or the same names for the materials. Missing required level of detail : the materials don't repeat on the sub model because not enough triangles. Or some faces haven't been assigned a material.
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