tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71673001944755585662024-03-17T02:28:00.611-07:00The Digital PasturePenny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-29629692180569799352022-12-18T15:53:00.001-08:002022-12-18T15:54:46.225-08:00Fediverse/Mastadon<p> A while back I created a Fediverse account. What's that? You might know it as Mastodon, the less musky alternative to Twitter.</p><p> Seeing as how the musky boy is now banning links to other social sites, I'm just going to link my Fediverse page right here.</p><p><a href="https://snowdin.town/PennyPatton">https://snowdin.town/PennyPatton</a></p>Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-62514651804953444652021-03-09T23:18:00.002-08:002021-03-09T23:18:57.003-08:00Applying EEP to Your Parcel<p>Here's a quick tutorial on applying EEP settings to your land parcel in Second Life.</p><p>First, open up your inventory and scroll down to the "Settings" folder, if you've created your own settings, or received settings from another SL resident.</p><p>If you want to use one of LL's default settings, scroll down to the Library and open the "Environments" folder.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yj7Litjc-mY/YEht2OwHDJI/AAAAAAAAA0k/PIvvuzDDaEw8tu7vtL1BIV8_1U6Nvoy7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s624/library%2B-%2Benvironments%2B-%2Bdays.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="336" height="406" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yj7Litjc-mY/YEht2OwHDJI/AAAAAAAAA0k/PIvvuzDDaEw8tu7vtL1BIV8_1U6Nvoy7QCLcBGAsYHQ/w218-h406/library%2B-%2Benvironments%2B-%2Bdays.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><p>Next, open your Land information panel (World > Land Options > About Land) and go to the "Environments" tab at the very end.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dbdbtYclanE/YEhupTmrJBI/AAAAAAAAA0s/QT9izx1SLpk-29JZGJcQ2hsFlfK7Tf1rQCLcBGAsYHQ/s546/about%2Bland%2B-%2Bbd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="546" height="287" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dbdbtYclanE/YEhupTmrJBI/AAAAAAAAA0s/QT9izx1SLpk-29JZGJcQ2hsFlfK7Tf1rQCLcBGAsYHQ/w391-h287/about%2Bland%2B-%2Bbd.jpg" width="391" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3xaE1-j1gg8/YEhu7K5-xhI/AAAAAAAAA00/hkxH_YoFdzY46pKsiEwSofZzbw-ja4fuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s498/about%2Bland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="498" height="342" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3xaE1-j1gg8/YEhu7K5-xhI/AAAAAAAAA00/hkxH_YoFdzY46pKsiEwSofZzbw-ja4fuwCLcBGAsYHQ/w394-h342/about%2Bland.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><p>Now, let's say you want to have the default mainland day cycle at ground level, always midday at 1000m up, and a custom sky setting at 2000m up.</p><p>To set the default day cycle at ground level do the following:</p><p>In your inventory window scroll down to the Environments folder inside the Library folder. Go to Days and look for "Default".</p><p>Click and drag the "Default" day setting to where it says (region environment) next to Ground. This will change every sky setting for the entire parcel to use the Default day cycle. Always remember that whenever you apply a setting to one of the parcel heights, it will affect the heights above it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sItwGJx6RVY/YEhvyX-IMtI/AAAAAAAAA08/abr57sHPUkca7x6FMu4oC300-OlNvNSTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s972/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bdefault%2Bday%2Bcycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="972" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sItwGJx6RVY/YEhvyX-IMtI/AAAAAAAAA08/abr57sHPUkca7x6FMu4oC300-OlNvNSTwCLcBGAsYHQ/w497-h300/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bdefault%2Bday%2Bcycle.jpg" width="497" /></a></div><p>Next we'll apply our default midday setting to 1000m and up. Still in the Library's "Environments" folder, close the "Days" folder and open the "Skies" folder. Scroll down until you find "A-12PM", this is the noon setting for the default Linden day cycle. Click and drag this to where it now says (Default) next to Sky 2 1000m. Now this midday setting will be applied to 1000m and above, but Ground will still have the full default day cycle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nOjUCyQmPs/YEhxZvMpsPI/AAAAAAAAA1E/mhkqGPn6jIYlGj9LMAzKkUQ8uzRSJFKPACLcBGAsYHQ/s969/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bmidday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="969" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1nOjUCyQmPs/YEhxZvMpsPI/AAAAAAAAA1E/mhkqGPn6jIYlGj9LMAzKkUQ8uzRSJFKPACLcBGAsYHQ/w498-h303/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bmidday.jpg" width="498" /></a></div><p> Again, the newly applied setting will affect both the sky level you apply it to, and all sky levels above. So when applying a new setting to a parcel height, you will have to re-apply your settings to the heights above that. This is why we started with the ground level and work our way up.</p><p> Finally, let's apply a custom sky we created to 2000m and up. Close the Library folder and in your Inventory folder look for "Settings", there you will find all of the environment settings you've either created yourself or received from other residents. (If you've purchased settings off the Marketplace, or received a box or folder of settings from another resident, you will need to find the folder containing those settings.)</p><p>In this example we're going to apply the setting "Anime Moon". Click and drag your custom setting over to where it now says (A-12PM) next to Sky 3 2000m. This will apply your custom sky setting to everything 2000m and up. Again, the settings you've applied below that will remain unaffected.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-skW5yoX2if0/YEhyZWIZTWI/AAAAAAAAA1M/Uo4rDPauTLwXAqUDvMbVtg6ujC9ybkhHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s969/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bcustom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="969" height="321" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-skW5yoX2if0/YEhyZWIZTWI/AAAAAAAAA1M/Uo4rDPauTLwXAqUDvMbVtg6ujC9ybkhHgCLcBGAsYHQ/w528-h321/click%2Band%2Bdrag%2B-%2Bcustom.jpg" width="528" /></a></div><p> And that is how you apply custom settings to the different environment heights on a parcel.</p>Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-92024141095307605312019-08-16T15:47:00.002-07:002019-08-16T15:47:37.263-07:00Pixel Factory Debut!After a long, long hiatus I am relaunching my Second Life store as Pixel Factory. I've retired all of my pre-mesh content except for my free shape set and camera HUD.<br />
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The first brand new items are these four hair styles, designed for anime type Second Life avatars!<br />
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Each hair style is only L$150, comes in rigged and unrigged versions, including a colour HUD as well as full perm textures and UV guide for modders! <a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/4531" target="_blank">You can purchase them from the Pixel Factory marketplace store now!</a>Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-60674406128654580382019-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:002019-08-01T21:13:53.491-07:00Blender for BeginnersDo you want to create content for Second Life but have never touched a CG modelling program in your life? Are you an SL pro, but have absolutely no experience beyond making content for SL? In either case I highly recommend the Blender Guru channel on YouTube. He does fantastic tutorials. He doesn't waste your time, but neither does he go so fast that you feel rushed. He doesn't skip steps and he's good about repeating tips to get you used to them rather than assuming you remember everything perfectly the first time you hear it. And he breaks everything up into bite sized lessons that never drag on too long.<br />
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Give the tutorials a try for yourself:<br />
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The beginner tutorial start here:<br />
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The intermediate tutorial start here:<br />
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Even if you've been making content for SL and consider yourself a pro, I do recommend you check out at least the intermediate tutorial. Making content for SL there are some important aspects to CG modelling that you're not likely to be exposed to, such as proper UV unwrapping.<br />
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If you believe you know all there is to modelling, at the very least I'd encourage SL users to check out this part of the tutorial, dealing with UV unwrapping:<br />
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I hope all of this helps and happy SLing!Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-485378468754419192019-07-29T00:20:00.001-07:002019-07-29T00:20:20.671-07:00The Best Building Tip Nobody Knows!<h2>
Use skyboxes for building interiors! </h2>
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Turn doors and other entrances into teleporters so people can enter and exit. This frees you up from the constraints of the environment and also makes sims less laggy by moving a lot of content out of rendering distance!<br />
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For example, if you have a house at ground level, make the door into a teleporter that takes people to a skybox 400-500m up! You'll see a huge FPS increase doing this because your computer will be rendering far less at once. And since you can build up to about 4000m up, you can space out your interior skyboxes. So if you have an enormous interior area you can split it into sections, spaced out to keep framerates high.<br />
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And if you use an Experience key on your land, you can make it so people can just walk into the doors and be instantly teleported to the skybox, for a relatively seamless experience.<br />
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If you have limited prim space you can also use this trick with a holodeck style rezzer system so building interiors are only rezzed when you're using them! This way you have virtually infinite prim space.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-23982244622936879032019-07-29T00:09:00.000-07:002019-07-29T00:09:17.268-07:00Textures and Lag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l7CIP6vEL9o/XT6bGsLXsRI/AAAAAAAAAus/JGuWx5hLb9Y8i56ASbP9OF0ZNbwBLKy3wCLcBGAs/s1600/ed27812d-ec4d-0750-24e5-92b6b9aeacfa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l7CIP6vEL9o/XT6bGsLXsRI/AAAAAAAAAus/JGuWx5hLb9Y8i56ASbP9OF0ZNbwBLKy3wCLcBGAs/s400/ed27812d-ec4d-0750-24e5-92b6b9aeacfa.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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A lot of people never consider the correlation between textures and lag. Fact of the matter is, most of SL's performance issues are due to texture bloat. Videogames rarely use textures larger than 512x512, games like Crysis and Skyrim are often using 128x256 textures on surfaces SL users leap straight to 1024x1024 to texture!<br />
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Gamers know those 4K HD texture mods come at a big performance hit if your machine doesn't have enough memory to handle it, and even games running those mods are typically rendering a fraction of the amount of textures Second Life throws at your videocard.<br />
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Many attachments, such as hair, even have 512x512 or 1024x1024 store logos plastered on a hidden root prim you never see, that texture is still eating up VRAM and SL only uses 512MB of VRAM for textures before your framerates start to crawl.<br />
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A good rule of thumb is that unless a surface is 10x10m or larger, you should use a texture smaller than 512x512 and avatar attachments almost never need textures larger than 256x256 unless they're full body mesh.<br />
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There's never a reason to texture hidden surfaces and you should always try to combine textures and use the entire texture map where possible.<br />
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Texture responsibly and happy SLing!Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-82389717161876026232019-07-29T00:03:00.001-07:002019-07-29T00:05:15.807-07:00Tips for a Larger, More Detailed and Less Expensive Second Life!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sqx6PzHI3Rc/XT6ZIV3c5bI/AAAAAAAAAuU/jp556hLYEQgr3OdVdkLwV-Kkm7XL20SDACLcBGAs/s1600/mEpEBs4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sqx6PzHI3Rc/XT6ZIV3c5bI/AAAAAAAAAuU/jp556hLYEQgr3OdVdkLwV-Kkm7XL20SDACLcBGAs/s400/mEpEBs4.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sadly the sim is gone, but this entire city fit into 1/4th of a sim. Including the trees and hills in the distance. All of the buildings are 1=1 scale instead of 2-3 times larger like most people in SL build. When you build smaller, the amount of space you have to work with is larger!</td></tr>
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<ul>
<li>Larger mesh objects use both more space and more Land Impact. If you pay $300/mo for a sim but you scale everything up way too big (which most people do) you're essentially throwing away $225 every month because if you scaled everything down closer to 1=1 you'd be able to fit 4x more content in your sim.</li>
<li>Size is relative. If you make your avatar larger, everything around you appears to shrink. Make your avatar smaller and everything around you appears larger.</li>
<li>Animations can work with small size differences, but not large size differences. Take a dozen average adults and you'll get less than a foot difference in height compared to SL where the average adult human avatar is anywhere from 5' to 8' tall. This is why your animations & furniture rarely work well.</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5-hTSVsxi4E/XT6ZzKEl-4I/AAAAAAAAAuc/iPt9EsFAvNc1o6S-glg1wtQN09T3OGwBgCLcBGAs/s1600/tn1vIhL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="500" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5-hTSVsxi4E/XT6ZzKEl-4I/AAAAAAAAAuc/iPt9EsFAvNc1o6S-glg1wtQN09T3OGwBgCLcBGAs/s400/tn1vIhL.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bunch of furniture at typical SL sizes. My 5'7"(6' in those shoes) avatar for scale.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpmLlpeduEc/XT6aAxkZb3I/AAAAAAAAAug/Eo5asqVjGuYIYGmDIvXTx5F4GcNe46lKACLcBGAs/s1600/SKfBShR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="500" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpmLlpeduEc/XT6aAxkZb3I/AAAAAAAAAug/Eo5asqVjGuYIYGmDIvXTx5F4GcNe46lKACLcBGAs/s400/SKfBShR.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The same furniture reduced to 1=1 scale. The prim floor is to show how much space is saved.</td></tr>
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Here's a more detailed article about scale in SL if you want to read more.<br />
https://tinyurl.com/yan4thme<br />
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Happy SLing!Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-39982060733738902452019-07-28T23:48:00.002-07:002019-07-28T23:53:07.676-07:00Tips for a Better SL Avatar!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">Here are some tips to help you avoid common proportion mistakes and create a more attractive avatar!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yuNKxPY6APw/XT6U5mryy0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/-zWT8GNYlfcC3ukc7iyXop26sIG8OLNxwCLcBGAs/s1600/668381d1-d00e-ed4b-058a-f012ed924127.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yuNKxPY6APw/XT6U5mryy0I/AAAAAAAAAuA/-zWT8GNYlfcC3ukc7iyXop26sIG8OLNxwCLcBGAs/s400/668381d1-d00e-ed4b-058a-f012ed924127.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the older starter avatars. The original is on the left. On the right is my altered version. The only things I changed were the shape and the skin, but what a difference that makes!</td></tr>
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<ul>
<li>Most avatars are HUGE but due to the slider limits it's easier to make an attractive human shape if you stick between 5' to 6'4".</li>
<li>Measure your head w/ a prim then see how many "heads" tall you are! Should be 7.5 to 8 heads. More means your head is too small!</li>
<li>Groin should be at half your body hight. </li>
<li>Hips are roughly as wide as chest. </li>
<li>Arm "wingspan" is about equal body height.</li>
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Here are free shapes to use as a better starting point:<br />
http://tinyurl.com/pbyqktg<br />
Here's a detailed look at proportions, shape making and the appearance editor:<br />
http://tinyurl.com/3rq5uxq<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XJQwIkKsBEc/XT6VM4P8e4I/AAAAAAAAAuI/9-5wjzwBwgobbpHoveaafi2HExMi5qTpQCLcBGAs/s1600/oBTA77K.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="844" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XJQwIkKsBEc/XT6VM4P8e4I/AAAAAAAAAuI/9-5wjzwBwgobbpHoveaafi2HExMi5qTpQCLcBGAs/s640/oBTA77K.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the left is the default shape that comes with the Aesthetic avatar. On the right is a shape made using the proportions guide linked above. You can see that it looks less goofy and a lot more human!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If you're using a giant beast avatar (minotaurs, werewolves, trolls) reduce the size to about 7 to 8' to make it compatible with most furniture and animations even with human sized partners.<br />
<br />
It's generally a good idea to keep your draw weight as low as possible. "Draw weight" or "ARC" isn't a perfect means of knowing what avatars are difficult to render, since it doesn't account for everything that results in a laggy avatar, so basically a low ARC doesn't always mean your avatar isn't laggy, but if your ARC is high then that is definitely bad.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-29346422164908074672019-07-28T23:31:00.001-07:002019-07-28T23:32:46.733-07:00Tips for a Better SL ExperienceHere are just a few tips that can help make SL more enjoyable!<br />
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<h3>
Better Camera Settings!</h3>
Tired of the SL camera sitting several metres above your head? Feel like you're actually right there in the world with these alternate camera settings!<br />
<br />
https://tinyurl.com/h7qhoft<br />
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<h3>
Minimize Your Lag and Framerate Problems!</h3>
<b>Try to keep your draw distance under 128m!</b> Higher draw distance lowers framerates and increases lag!<br />
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<b>Keep your Object Detail at or below 3.</b> Some people who sell content will tell you to go into your debug settings and set Object Detail far higher than it's supposed to be able to go. They do this because they're trying to sell you broken content without proper LOD models.<br />
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<b>Try to keep your avatar texture use under 100MB (100,000KB).</b> You can check how much VRAM your avatar is using through the <i>object inspect panel</i> in the Firestorm viewer. Select all of your attachments then open the inspect panel. The VRAM use will be listed in KB. Even 100MB is a lot, but SL content creators tend to use lots of large textures, even when they shouldn't. So 100MB is a more realistic goal.<br />
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<h3>
Don't be shy! Be social!</h3>
Talk to people! Don't be discouraged if they don't reply! They're likely busy or AFK, not ignoring you.<br />
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If you're IMing a stranger to say hi, try saying a bit more. <i>Introduce yourself and let them know why you're messaging them.</i> You'll get more responses that way.<br />
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Join Groups and say hi in group chat to meet new people that way! This is a way more effective way of meeting new people than sending an instant message to a stranger.<br />
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I hope these tips help! Happy SLing!<br />
<br />
~ Penny PattonPenny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-59414216719884063442019-07-07T07:53:00.001-07:002019-07-18T06:27:22.773-07:00Unoptimized Content is a Huge Problem, But How Can LL Fix it Now?Like clockwork, whenever the problem of unoptimized content in Second Life is brought up, there will be people saying "There's nothing to be done for it now! Changing the rules will break too much existing content!" If you've never heard any potential solutions it's easy to see why someone would come to this conclusion, but is it an accurate assessment of the situation? Not entirely, and I'll explain why.<br />
<br />
<b> If Linden Lab haphazardly released "new rules" for content tomorrow, such as a hard cap on avatar complexity or a complete change in the way Land Impact is calculated, there would be chaos.</b> Almost all existing SL content would be returned and people would find they could not wear most of their favourite avatar accessories. This is the "Content Apocalypse" most people conclude will happen if LL makes any attempt to reign in unoptimized content so late in the game, but this assumes LL rushes in blinded and with a heavy hand. The fact is, LL could take a more nuanced and long term approach to the problem.<br />
<br />
<b>Up until mesh importing was introduced to Second Life, object complexity for environments was kept in check with "prim limits"</b>. Every object was made of prims. Each prim counted towards land's "prim limit" Make a chair out of 10 prims, it counts as 10 prims towards that land's "prim limit". But there were three problems. First, not all prims were created equally. A torus uses far more polygons than a cube, for example. The second problem was that textures were not taken into consideration. Textures play a huge part in rendering performance and prim limits ignored this entirely. The third problem came with the introduction of mesh, because mesh could not be calculated this way. You could create a highly detailed, high poly mesh object and it would only be one object. It wouldn't do to have it count as only one "prim".<br />
<br />
<b> So Linden Lab introduced "new rules", "Land Impact".</b> Now the complexity and size of an object would determine it's land cost. Existing prim content was unaffected. If you build a 10 prim chair today, it will still only cost 10 prims. It is only when you link prim objects to mesh that the "new rules" will be applied to the whole link set. This is why linking prim objects to mesh can result in an increase or decrease in the "Land Impact" cost of said prims.<br />
<br />
<b> To further push the change from "prims" to "land impact" all new features released after mesh would use the "new rules."</b> Keyframe animations were introduced around the same time as mesh, shortly after I believe. You could use this to create much more believable elevators and moving platforms in SL. But, if you built an elevator out of prims and applied a script using keyframe animation features, the prim elevator would use the "new rules", land impact instead of prims. The same was true with materials and pathfinding and any other new feature. If you wanted to enjoy the newest features SL had to offer, you would have to use the "new rules". And over time more and more new features and new content using those features appeared, after only a few years almost the entire grid had adapted to using Land Impact instead of prim limits.<br />
<br />
<b>You probably see where I am going with this. </b>LL could introduce "new rules" to content creation yet again, using the same approach. Let's use animesh as our example starting point. Animesh already calculates LI differently than existing mesh content, and if you link a static mesh object to an animesh object it will change how it's LI is calculated.<br />
<br />
<b>Animesh can also be worn, it would not be a stretch to make it so if you want to wear animesh you have to adapt to a hard cap on avatar rendering impact. </b>It could work much like land impact already does. In order to be effective avatar rendering impact would have to take texture use and polygon use into better consideration than ARC currently does. Avatar rendering impact would also need to be universal, not different viewer to viewer like ARC currently is.<br />
<br />
<b>Legacy content would be preserved in that to revert back to the "old rules" you would simply need to detach any content using new features like animesh.</b> People could continue using their old, laggy content as much as they liked, but over time the draw to adapt to the "new rules" would get stronger as more and more features were released. In fact, I'd argue that retroactively applying this change to animesh now would still be feasible. Animesh is new enough and rare enough that most content would remain unaffected. There'd be grumbling, sure, but it would be a drop in the bucket and quickly pass.<br />
<br />
<b>"But that would just mean people would refuse to adopt new features!" </b>This is the argument some make. It's rubbish. You only need to glance around SL to see how many people have refused to adopt mesh, materials, etc to see the folly of this argument. People like new features. As long as those features add to the SL experience, people are willing to make the compromise. And the more such features add up, the stronger the case for adapting becomes. The fewer the holdouts remain.<br />
<br />
<b>To be clear, this approach would not solve SL's performance woes overnight. </b>This approach takes the long view. Preserving legacy content and allowing the userbase to adapt to the "new rules" at their own pace. It would likely be 3-5 years before we finally saw widespread improvement, and that's perfectly fine.<br />
<br />
LL can afford to take the long view. SL isn't going anywhere.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-74073908829655628042019-06-23T21:42:00.001-07:002019-08-07T16:02:06.919-07:00Just How Much Does Unoptimized Content Affect You?I often talk about the need to optimize content in Second Life, and frequently I find people underestimate just how much that would improve SL for everyone. People seem to think that because SL is so old it must just have a badly aged engine and optimizing content would only improve things a little.<br />
<br />
They are mistaken.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Here is the reality:</h3>
If your computer was made in the last 10 years and includes a videocard, you should be able to run SL at around the max settings, never experience texture thrashing (when textures in SL are constantly going blurry), never experience stuttering (when SL freezes up for a moment), and if you have a reasonably decent net connection then everything in Second Life should load lightning fast.<br />
<br />
Second Life should look this good for you at all times:<br />
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And I'm not just talking you, by yourself, in a sim that looks as good as these screenshots, I'm saying you should be able to hang out in a sim with that level of detail, surrounded by about a dozen friends, and still keep your framerate around 30 FPS, if not better.<br />
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That's with deferred rendering, depth of field, shadows, and all the shiny features turned on.<br />
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If you have a computer made within the last 10 years that includes a videocard, what would today be a low to mid range videocard it doesn't matter, and that is not what Second Life is like for you, it is 100% the fault of unoptimized content.<br />
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Here are the specs for the computer all of the above screenshots were taken on:<br />
<br />
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<ul>
<li>Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit</li>
<li>Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz</li>
<li>System Memory: 12GB RAM</li>
<li>Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960</li>
<li>Video Memory: 4GB RAM</li>
</ul>
<br />
In sims I made myself, or the handful of other locations in SL created by people who put in the same amount of effort to optimize their work, that is my SL experience. In terms of graphics, SL runs <b>like a dream</b> on my 10 year old computer.<br />
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If you have a computer with equal or better specs than this, and Second Life does not look like this for you ALL THE TIME, with no "visual lag" whatsoever, no long rez times at all, no blurry textures or any other graphical issues, all with 30-60FPS <b>or better</b>, then compare what you do experience to this because that is how much you, personally, are being affected by unoptimized content.<br />
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<h3>
What about people running on much less powerful computers?</h3>
What about people running SL on laptops or other computers with no dedicated graphics card?<br />
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For some reason, a lot of people seem to draw the crazy conclusion that optimizing content won't help people running SL on a toaster. I shouldn't have to point this out, it really should be obvious to anyone, that the less powerful your computer, the more you are affected by unoptimized content.<br />
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So, I tested each of those sims on a Microsoft Surface Book from 2015. The version without the optional graphics card, so it's running Intel onboard graphics.<br />
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At low graphics settings I got a comfortable 30-40fps in all of the pictured sims. No texture thrashing. The only stuttering I noticed was when scenes were still loading, which did not take long even on a wireless connection.<br />
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I was able to turn on everything short of deferred rendering (Advanced Lighting Model) and my fps still remained in the 20's. Turning on deferred caused my FPS to tank down to 8fps.But I was still able to run SL with shiny, glow, bump mapping, local lighting, everything short of deferred rendering at a comfortable 20fps. No texture thrashing. No stuttering except during the (very brief) times it took each sim to load.<br />
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I had a Toshiba Portege from 2007 that I used before the Surface Book. I actually kept SL installed on that laptop because it actually ran SL better than the Surface. If I can find the power cord and spare batteries, maybe next I'll dust that off and give SL a go, but I think I've made my point.<br />
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If SL content creators put in the minimal effort to optimize their work, everyone would be enjoying the substantial benefits. That is a hard fact.<br />
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<h3>
Aren't you expecting too much from hobbyist creators?</h3>
<br />
No. Full stop. If you're asking that question I can only assume you are not a content creator. Optimizing content is easy. Extremely easy. Anyone who has the skills necessary to create content in the first place already knows enough that optimizing their content would be simple for them. It adds a couple extra steps, and may cause a project to take a little bit longer to finish, but it won't be difficult for them at all.<br />
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<a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2018/09/optimization-tutorial-creating-your-own.html" target="_blank">Here's my guide for creating your own LOD models</a> so you can have fantastic looking content with a low Land Impact cost, without telling people to murder their framerates by forcing everything to full LOD by cranking object detail way up.<br />
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<a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2018/08/simple-performance-tricks-anyone-can-do.html" target="_blank">Here's my guide featuring a few simple optimization tricks anyone can do,</a> regardless of your skill level.<br />
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If you're a content creator who already has a basic grasp of Blender, here are a couple of guide series I highly recommend you check out. They will teach you all you need to know to create better, more optimized models.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT5oZndzj68&list=PLjEaoINr3zgHs8uzT3yqe4iHGfkCmMJ0P" target="_blank">For Beginnings: The Donut Tutorial!</a><br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/yi87Dap_WOc" target="_blank">For Intermediate Blender Users: The Anvil Tutorial!</a><br />
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The Donut Tutorial gives a brief introduction to UV unwrapping, but the Anvil Tutorial goes in-depth on how you can create models with no wasted texture memory. You want to fit all the details you can onto as few texture maps as possible. Always.<br />
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Both tutorials are super easy to follow, Blender Guru doesn't skip or gloss over important steps, but he also doesn't drag things out, so the tutorials move along at a quick, but not too quick, pace. I highly recommend them to anyone creating mesh content for Second Life.<br />
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<h3>
Optimization Benefits Everyone</h3>
In short, everyone would benefit if content creators optimized their work. You would. I would. All of the content creators would. There is literally no downside. We'd all get higher framerates. Most of us would be able to run SL at higher graphics settings and still get higher framerates than we do now. Stuttering and texture thrashing would be a thing of the past.<br />
<br />
Linden Lab would benefit probably the most, because it would be a lot easier for them to draw many new Second Life users into the fold. And that would mean healthy growth, and LL would be able to afford to put even more resources into making SL even better for everyone.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-1903368868626825072019-06-17T13:47:00.000-07:002019-06-18T10:32:26.373-07:00Why Anticipated Second Life Features Go Unused Once ReleasedLinden Lab as a usability problem.<br />
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They cater Second Life towards a general audience of hobbyists, but then make the tools more difficult to figure out than similar tools found in programs aimed at professionals. For a good example of this, let's compare creating an NPC in Bethesda's creation engine compared to creating an Animesh NPC in Second Life.<br />
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To create an NPC in Skyrim or Fallout 4, you open up the creation kit and you're met with an interface like this:<br />
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From this interface you can easily and quickly set up the NPC's skin, bodytype and other physical features. You can assign them to a specific cell in the game, choose the actions they can use, the equipment they're carrying, create dialog trees, their voice type and much more. Once all that is set up, all through the simple interface pictured above, adding the NPC to the world is as simple as click and drag. You've finished setting up an NPC that will wander around, interact with furniture, has all their animations, audio clips, everything.<br />
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This is a tool used by professionals, and serious hobbyists, and yet to do the same thing in Second Life takes substantially more work. To keep things simple, let's focus on just one aspect, creating your NPC's appearance. Now, as of this writing, you are unable to change the appearance of an animesh NPC. Shape support is coming, and apparently soon, but to apply a shape to an NPC you will need to write a script. That's right, no sliders, no preview, just you and a text editor. You need to apply the script. Height, bodyfat, head size, arm length, hand size, each of these is a line of code in the script you'll have to write.<br />
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Imagine for a moment you were making a character for a videogame, the character you're playing, one that gives you a lot of freedom with regards to your character's appearance. You'd get something like one of these interfaces:<br />
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Imagine if in any of these games, instead of the appearance editor you were met with this:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P8vLsN2ttI8/XQf1il65z8I/AAAAAAAAAr4/uR1XeFW8gZEnj8CGlvo-YpXaeZze21o0wCLcBGAs/s1600/7867244aeca4054ee0a70022473d9580.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P8vLsN2ttI8/XQf1il65z8I/AAAAAAAAAr4/uR1XeFW8gZEnj8CGlvo-YpXaeZze21o0wCLcBGAs/s320/7867244aeca4054ee0a70022473d9580.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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No appearance editor. No sliders. No preview so you could see your changes in real time. Just a text window in which you would have to use C++ or some other script language to write a program to determine your character's appearance. How far do you think you'd get?<br />
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THAT is what Second Life expects of you, when you want to create an NPC. According to the lead developer on this project, there are no plans to ever provide an interface. They expect it to all be done via script, and they think that's good enough.<br />
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I don't mean to single them out, it's not a decision they should be in a position to make. The problem is that Linden Lab has plenty of programmers, but no designers. At least not when it comes to developing SL and its tool set. That is why it's not just this one feature. Everything in Second Life is this overly complicated. Want to apply an animated texture to the face of an object? You write a script to do that. Want to have a boat sail around in a circle? Get ready to write some code! Want to make a chair people can sit on? You need to write a program that will play the animation, and position the sitting avatar with the correct position and rotation.<br />
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It is because of this complete lack of end user accessibility that many of Second Life's features go entirely ignored. Years ago we got the ability to create paths for objects to move around, as well as behaviour patterns and interactions, but you'll probably never see anyone in SL using these features. If you tried, you'd likely find it easier to boot up Unity and make your own videogame.<br />
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This is Second Life's usability gap, and it has consistently been one of SL's biggest obstacles to success.<br />
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Look, Linden Lab. Ebbe. If on the off chance this blog ever catches your eye, you need to hire some design people. I'm not talking programmers, you have plenty of those and I'm not disparaging their talents, but what you need to compliment those programmers are people who understand what the end users need to actually make use of Second Life's features and tools. People who can communicate those needs to the programmers. People who can write a design doc, then work with the programmers to make it a reality.<br />
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Maybe you already have people like that but don't put them in a position where their expertise makes a difference. Maybe you don't and you need to look elsewhere to bring that kind of experience and talent to the table. Whatever the case, until you recognize your company's blind spots and hire the right people to shine light on SL's real problems, you won't be able to substantially turn around SL's decline, and you won't be able to create a next generation platform that people will actually embrace. You'll just keep tripping over the same problems Linden Lab has been blindly stumbling over for decades.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-70015651751385616622018-09-20T16:00:00.000-07:002018-09-20T16:00:11.269-07:00Feature: Visual Size Display in Appearance EditorOne of my very first posts was about avatar size. It's an issue that's been around since the beginning of Second Life.<br />
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<a href="https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-225513" target="_blank"> After a discussion with Vir Linden at today's Content Creation group meeting, I've submitted a Jira requesting a new feature for the SL appearance editor.</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Everything below just recaps everything already in the Jira.)</span><br />
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I submitted a Jira in 2011 pointing out that the height currently displayed in LL's viewer is incorrect. Like, not even close to your avatar's actual height. Unfortunately, there are some problems to consider here:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Deformers and attachments can alter an avatar's size in ways the viewer and server cannot account for.</li>
<li>SL's own broken existing system for checking an avatar's size is tied to too many other features to be fixed this late in the game.</li>
</ul>
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<br />
So rather than fixing the inaccurate height currently display, why don't we just get rid of it entirely and use a visual scale. An inworld overlay just like the object editor uses.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JELJaJg1Cy0/W6Qh9_4VLZI/AAAAAAAAApQ/Zvkm5oAymYAAr_p0pJnBWEq29kxGRchWgCLcBGAs/s1600/height%2Bmockup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="1216" height="295" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JELJaJg1Cy0/W6Qh9_4VLZI/AAAAAAAAApQ/Zvkm5oAymYAAr_p0pJnBWEq29kxGRchWgCLcBGAs/s400/height%2Bmockup.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Put height information right there, next to the avatar.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This completely circumvents the issues that make fixing AgentSize impossible, and it works for all avatars, even those who use attachments and deformers to alter their avatar's size.<br />
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<h3>
But why even worry about this?</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
<b>It's a visual design issue.</b> </h4>
When creating any content in Second Life, from a house to your own avatar, it helps to have this information in front of you otherwise you end up with visual inconsistencies that negatively impact how good Second Life looks and how you interact with your environment.<br />
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<h4>
It is also a content creation issue.</h4>
Nearly all content creators use their own avatar as their sole point of reference for scale when creating content. This is true whether you're talking animations or houses. This can result in houses where the windows are way above the average avatar's heads, or staircases where each step comes up to their knees. Or animations created for specific avatar sizes but incorrectly labeled when sold due to the existing confusion.<br />
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We see problems like the above every day in Second Life. Fixing this now would lead to generally better consistency for new content going forward.<br />
<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-76584482285056505012018-09-17T15:12:00.002-07:002018-09-17T17:03:29.981-07:00Optimization Tutorial: Creating Your Own LOD Models!<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Creating Your Own SL LOD Models</h2>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Before we begin, this is <b>not</b> a "how to learn Blender" tutorial. You should already have a basic grasp of Blender to get the most out of this tutorial. If you're looking to learn how to use Blender, there are many of those tutorials online which already cover that topic better than I ever could! If you're a Blender Beginner, or someone who has never even touched Blender before, then I recommend </span><a href="https://youtu.be/JYj6e-72RDs" style="font-size: small;" target="_blank">"Blender for Beginners" by Blender Guru</a><span style="font-size: x-small;">. It's a super friendly, super easy to follow tutorial that will have you creating your own mesh content in no time!</span></div>
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A lot of SL users are worried that if Linden Lab ever attempted to reign in unoptimized content, it might push content creators away. So beginning today I want to start showing you just how easy optimization is. The first thing we're going to look at is creating your own LOD models using this milk can model I created.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zCRd8Xo-Qak/W6AV2-fLdlI/AAAAAAAAAmY/iDzlFP9zWU0JDgxZjCHuvFKoGhMuvjc5wCLcBGAs/s1600/milk%2Bcan%2Bexample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1022" data-original-width="1016" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zCRd8Xo-Qak/W6AV2-fLdlI/AAAAAAAAAmY/iDzlFP9zWU0JDgxZjCHuvFKoGhMuvjc5wCLcBGAs/s320/milk%2Bcan%2Bexample.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
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<h3>
What is LOD?</h3>
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"LOD" stands for "Level Of Detail", it's a trick game engines use to reduce the rendering load by swapping out your close up, high detail models, with increasingly lower poly models the further away the object is.<br />
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<b>Bonus Tip: </b><i>Smaller items transition to their lower LOD states over shorter distances than larger items, which is why mesh uses less Land Impact when you shrink it! Smaller objects are easier to render!</i><br />
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Of course, in Second Life LL provides the option to let the mesh uploader automatically generate LOD models Unfortunately it's not very good at this, leading people to try and use their highest detail model for High, Medium and sometimes even Low detail settings, while sacrificing Low and Lowest to offset the LI increase. The results are not pretty, worse yet content creators often tell customers to increase their object detail to compensate for the poor LOD of their creations.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7X2PAgg6n3k/W6AYBmspJTI/AAAAAAAAAms/7qI3TA9Gmegr0DQwLPqQuiT5dojJ6jCwQCLcBGAs/s1600/mesh%2Bupload%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="977" height="163" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7X2PAgg6n3k/W6AYBmspJTI/AAAAAAAAAms/7qI3TA9Gmegr0DQwLPqQuiT5dojJ6jCwQCLcBGAs/s320/mesh%2Bupload%2B01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Medium detail, the uploader generated model is already falling apart!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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No Second Life user should ever <b>need</b> to set their Object Detail up higher than 2.5-2.75. When you tell others to increase their object detail to see your work properly, you've done something wrong and you're basically telling them to sacrifice their FPS to cover for it.<br />
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But this does not mean you're stuck with awful pre-generated LOD models, or forced to increase the Land Impact cost of your content! SL also gives you the option to upload your own LOD models!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vjfXg3wFsNU/W6AZI8Nt3FI/AAAAAAAAAm4/TWj9-gR0VbkHVgXGVf8ZmwMiQyBN8YqCwCLcBGAs/s1600/mesh%2Bupload%2B02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="979" height="162" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vjfXg3wFsNU/W6AZI8Nt3FI/AAAAAAAAAm4/TWj9-gR0VbkHVgXGVf8ZmwMiQyBN8YqCwCLcBGAs/s320/mesh%2Bupload%2B02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nearly half the triangles and it still looks great!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Done well, no one will even notice the transition between detail levels! Here's my milk can at every Level of Detail!<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VY9hJ5erwM4/W6AblZhc3WI/AAAAAAAAAnM/GEuRpgBdgv4lfqrW_GPvW88qhUrLuABCACLcBGAs/s1600/milk%2Bcan%2Blod%2Bcomparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="1600" height="71" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VY9hJ5erwM4/W6AblZhc3WI/AAAAAAAAAnM/GEuRpgBdgv4lfqrW_GPvW88qhUrLuABCACLcBGAs/s320/milk%2Bcan%2Blod%2Bcomparison.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It more or less holds it's shape until the lowest LOD when it becomes a box. And that's fine because at Low and Lowest levels the milk can will be far enough away that you shouldn't notice that it's beginning to lose it's shape.<br />
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And if you're wondering, the Land Impact cost of the milk can is 0.5, meaning you can link two together and it will still only be 1 LI.<br />
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<h3>
Creating Your Own LOD Models</h3>
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How much extra work is it to create your own LOD models over letting the mesh uploader generate them for you? Not nearly as much as you might think. Let's hop over to Blender to see how it's done!<br />
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1. I started here, with my full detail model.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8mZVB8VY_70/W6Aff-cZ6KI/AAAAAAAAAng/-WIH6M8cNpQLiWesUIFT_zS1iL1ZbWrQgCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-31-42.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8mZVB8VY_70/W6Aff-cZ6KI/AAAAAAAAAng/-WIH6M8cNpQLiWesUIFT_zS1iL1ZbWrQgCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-31-42.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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2. In Edit mode I make sure no vertices are selected to start. Then, holding down the Alt Button I begin selecting vertices down a line, until Blender selects the full line of vertices I want. Blender can be finnicky, and it might take several tries before the row you want is selected. Just keep holding Alt and clicking on vertices along the row you want.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jiGMyXiiBIY/W6Af3Hq-Y_I/AAAAAAAAAno/NvNghW7NwXYhilSpmBszhCsQusXJoVhNQCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-33-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="182" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jiGMyXiiBIY/W6Af3Hq-Y_I/AAAAAAAAAno/NvNghW7NwXYhilSpmBszhCsQusXJoVhNQCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-33-01.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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I decided to start vertically, the blue line shows the vertical row of vertices I've selected. This row of vertices is called an "Edge Loop".<br />
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3. Now I press the X Key to bring up this menu shown below.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8TAJcxq4ako/W6AgUq-tzsI/AAAAAAAAAn0/Hbt1eB5pg5IZWdwXcxpFj3r0ZtC3wef3gCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-33-12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="182" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8TAJcxq4ako/W6AgUq-tzsI/AAAAAAAAAn0/Hbt1eB5pg5IZWdwXcxpFj3r0ZtC3wef3gCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-33-12.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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See at the bottom where it says Edge Loop? That's what we want. (Dissolve Edges can also work, but sometimes leaves stray vertices behind.)<br />
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4. Selecting Edge Loop removes the entire row of vertices but leaves the model itself intact. (As opposed to deleting triangles or vertices, which would have left an enormous hole down the side of our model.)<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KTx_nhLOYDc/W6Ag2JEUobI/AAAAAAAAAn8/5088ivpeK8cxZ5MlVhj2e7enMjBPIXnlwCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-33-27.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KTx_nhLOYDc/W6Ag2JEUobI/AAAAAAAAAn8/5088ivpeK8cxZ5MlVhj2e7enMjBPIXnlwCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-33-27.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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5. I did this all the way around the model until I'd deleted half of the edge loops. Then I did the same to the two small side handles. This effectively cut the triangle count of the model in half while retaining the overall shape.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1occy6SgW1w/W6AhanhPL2I/AAAAAAAAAoE/fZFuv7DpUTglBm71tRn42zLqQUWKPwY7ACLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-35-07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1occy6SgW1w/W6AhanhPL2I/AAAAAAAAAoE/fZFuv7DpUTglBm71tRn42zLqQUWKPwY7ACLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-35-07.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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That gave me my Medium LOD model. As a rule of thumb, you generally want each LOD level to be about half of the one before it. That's not a hard rule, of course. Use your judgement.<br />
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You can do horizontal Edge Loops, too! Which is how I reduced the can further for my Low LOD model.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jAdFJah6GIw/W6AjL3fuHzI/AAAAAAAAAoY/OXkPAUijnccnLiv8z4MPepS66qZKkFEGgCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-52-48.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="182" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jAdFJah6GIw/W6AjL3fuHzI/AAAAAAAAAoY/OXkPAUijnccnLiv8z4MPepS66qZKkFEGgCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-52-48.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hold Alt, select vertices until the row you want is selected, then hit X to bring up the delete menu.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpkGQS9Me4c/W6AjjkReGpI/AAAAAAAAAoo/DgvX0HuSv5sNfn5T3XuHY3OZeHzy5JhNgCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-09-17_17-52-52.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="182" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lpkGQS9Me4c/W6AjjkReGpI/AAAAAAAAAoo/DgvX0HuSv5sNfn5T3XuHY3OZeHzy5JhNgCLcBGAs/s320/2018-09-17_17-52-52.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delete the edge loop to simplify the model.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Again, <b>use your judgement!</b> This is what separates you from the automated LOD generator. Where can you remove details that won't be noticeable at that distance? Again, keep in mind that larger objects will retain their higher LOD levels over greater distances. It may even take a little trial and error before you get the hang of it, but once you do then creating your own LOD models won't take long at all! It only took me minutes to create the LOD models for this milk can.<br />
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<h4>
Physics Bonus!</h4>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DdVwLadu3nw/W6Aly_wiKAI/AAAAAAAAAo8/CJAUyJutAMoNWhlo_8VvCtxFzyLgKtI8gCLcBGAs/s1600/physics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="976" height="162" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DdVwLadu3nw/W6Aly_wiKAI/AAAAAAAAAo8/CJAUyJutAMoNWhlo_8VvCtxFzyLgKtI8gCLcBGAs/s320/physics.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As an extra benefit to handling LOD this way, when setting up the physics for your mesh object you can use one of your LOD models as the physics box, which can result in a yet lower Land Impact cost than using Mesh Uploader model generator.<br />
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And there you go. That is all there is to creating your own LOD models for Second Life. Now get out there and start creating content that doesn't fall apart the moment someone moves a few feet away from it!<br />
<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-88778296633630129272018-08-23T17:31:00.001-07:002018-08-25T16:28:29.470-07:00Simple Performance Tricks Anyone Can Do When Building<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<strike>
Two</strike> Three Simple Tips to Increase FPS and Reduce Lag in a Sim.</h2>
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A lot of the tips I give on building and optimization can get a bit technical but I wanted to share two simple tricks anyone with even the most basic modding skills can do to make a sim where people can enjoy higher framerates and less lag.<br />
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<h3>
1. Turn all alpha textures from "blended" to "masked".</h3>
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Use ctrl+alt+t to reveal all objects in a scene with alpha textures. As long as you have Advanced Lighting Model (Aka: ALM or Deferred Rendering) enabled, "blended" alpha textures show up red, "masked" alpha textures show up blue. If you have ALM off, all alpha textures just show up red, which makes it harder to tell masked from blended at a glance, but you can still use this trick. (It's just a little more work!)<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pT1YOifSGZA/W39M_9gdYkI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/L5Htr3h51dkG0zgOt_T9i036QS7n5_7ugCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_030.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pT1YOifSGZA/W39M_9gdYkI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/L5Htr3h51dkG0zgOt_T9i036QS7n5_7ugCLcBGAs/s400/Snapshot_030.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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As you can see in this example, even a lot of the solid building walls with no windows or anything have an unused alpha channel and it was left in blended mode. Blended is a big strain on rendering, simply getting rid of all of the blended alpha, save a few water and light effects, will result in a noticeable FPS increase on most computers. Plus, most of the texture glitches people experience in SL, from weird lighting behaviour to the infamous "alpha sorting bug" are all due to blended alpha. Get rid of the blended alpha and you get rid of the bugs.<br />
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How do you do this? Simply edit the object, selecting the appropriate faces if necessary, and in the Texture tab change "Alpha Blending" to "Alpha Masking".<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OZ6V2e9h1iI/W39NZZehWRI/AAAAAAAAAlY/t43uZYN2GbkneWYXGjXumAtAtf82dN2MQCLcBGAs/s1600/alpha%2Boptions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="114" data-original-width="217" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OZ6V2e9h1iI/W39NZZehWRI/AAAAAAAAAlY/t43uZYN2GbkneWYXGjXumAtAtf82dN2MQCLcBGAs/s1600/alpha%2Boptions.jpg" /></a></div>
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This will turn your texture completely solid, but don't panic, all you need to do is change the "Mask Cutoff" from 0 to 100, then increase or decrease the cutoff value until the texture looks how you like it. For most textures like those in the example, you can usually just leave it at 100, it's only those with feathered edges where you may need to mess with the cutoff value to get the best result.<br />
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<h3>
2. Put building interiors into skyboxes.</h3>
Often, most of the detail in a sim is in the building interiors. Whether you're talking castles, office buildings, or people's homes.<br />
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Do you really need to see all of that from the sidewalk? Move it to a skybox placed well out of draw distance and you've greatly reduced the amount of content your visitors need to render all at once.<br />
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<b>How do people get inside the building?</b><br />
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Simply put a teleporter inside the door. If you have a premium account you can create a sim experience so that people can open a door and walk right in to instantly, almost seamlessly, transition to the building interior. Don't have access to an experience? <a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Curio-Obscura-Anywhere-Doors/615009" target="_blank">The "Anywhere Door" from Curio Obscura is a popular alternative predating experiences.</a><br />
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You can find lots of building facades on the marketplace, too. From fantasy to urban to sci-fi. They're often very light on Land Impact. Otherwise you can use the buildings you have now, simply set the windows from blended to "no alpha" and instead make them shiny and reflective. Using skyboxes for building interiors also makes building a sim a lot easier, as you're no longer constrained by the ground level landscape, or even the exterior size and shape of your building. This allows you to be a lot more creative.<br />
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And, of course, there's room for exceptions. The rare foyer or small building that is open to the outside world can remain and you've still managed to move most of the sim's content out of draw distance, making your sim load and render much faster.<br />
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<b>Does putting interiors into skyboxes mean I need to rez two copies of every building?</b><br />
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Not necessarily. Here are two ways I approach it:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Use a faux exterior building (a building with no insides), these are usually very light on LI. Then I build the skybox independent of the exterior. Either from scratch or using skyboxes I find on the marketplace. Sometimes I use multiple skyboxes and link them via door teleporters.</li>
<li>Use a building constructed so that you can basically take it apart. Some buildings will let you remove a significant amount of exterior/interior, allowing you to rez a ground version and a skybox version of the same building at a reduced LI cost.</li>
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The first option is easier, I think, so I'd suggest that to most people. But the latter option allows you to utilize buildings you may already have.</div>
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<b>Some of us want to be able to see our neighbors, landscape, roads, etc when we look outside our windows!</b><br />
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Fair enough. The reality is nothing is free, you pay not only with your framerates, but the framerates of everyone around you. So keep that in mind. However, this does not mean you can never enjoy a good landscape view from inside your home!<br />
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You can have a foyer or even a room with an exterior deck that are at ground level, with the rest of the building interior in skyboxes. And certain types of buildings you may want entirely on ground level (like a small gas station or coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating). The idea is that the majority of the sim's building interiors are separated to their own skyboxes so that the sim as a whole is easier to load and render.<br />
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For those skybox interiors I sometimes just turn the interior windows solid and apply a glow to suggest lighting coming in from outside. (Projected lights from one direction of windows can add a lot of ambience to a room!) Other times I create a tiny window diorama, which can be as simple as a screenshot applied to a curved face (like the inside of half a hollow cylinder) that extends past the window enough that you can't see the edges from inside, or as detailed as a surrounding landscape object around the skybox and set it up to look similar to the actual surroundings, just simplified and often using forced perspective tricks.<br />
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<b> Penny! Bad builder cow! You forgot a super easy tip!</b><br />
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I did, I'm sorry! Here's one more!<br />
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<h3>
3. Set Physics to "None" on objects that don't need physics!</h3>
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Ok, so a good build needs physics, otherwise your visitors will fall through the floor! But not everything in a build needs physics!<br />
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Here's a great example! A shelf full of decorative beverage bottles in a club/bar scene. The shelf itself is physical, so you can't walk through it, but the bottles on the shelves have physics set to "None" to save sim resources. This means the sim has to do fewer physics calculations. Where it's most helpful is items on the floor/ground. Tiny stones, small plants, a stray pizza box or pile of clothing, set objects like these to have no physics and you'll see less lag in your sim.*<br />
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*If you're sharing a sim with others your mileage may vary. I have a mainland spot, too, and I know how bad things can get if your neighbors aren't aware of how their resource use is affecting everyone else in the sim! But this kind of lag reduction has to start somewhere! Do it with your own builds and share the tips from this article with others!<br />
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Keep in mind, these suggestions aren't hard rules you must follow at all times, just guidelines to help make a sim better for yourself and everyone else who lives in, or visits the sim.<br />
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The important thing, as always, is to have fun. Happy building, everyone!<br />
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<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-23679355580450764272018-01-30T06:43:00.001-08:002018-01-30T10:07:42.735-08:00Smaller Doors Anyone Can Fit Through<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Or How to Enjoy the Benefits of Building to Scale Without Making it Impossible for Others to Explore Your Creation!</h2>
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A lot of people tell me that they want to scale their builds down, but feel that if they do larger avatars will not be able to fit through doors in their sims. This is a very valid concern, but one with <i>several </i>very simple solutions.<br />
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Before we get into the solutions, first remember that you can only resize a building that is either modifiable or includes a resize script (most no-mod houses do not, at the time of this writing, include a resize script). So your safest bet is to avoid buying no-mod.</div>
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<b>If you build mesh houses/buildings yourself I'll say right away that the best solution is to leave the wall over the door phantom. Bam! Done! You've made a building that is more accessible to all sorts of SL users and a bit easier to rescale to better suite for your customers purposes.</b><br />
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For those of you who have purchased your buildings and need solutions to the small door problem, read on!<br />
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<h4>
The Physics Solution</h4>
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Here is a mesh house I've shrunk down to about 1=1 scale. For reference, my avatar is 6'1" and the door frame is about a foot and a half or two feet taller.</div>
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So how is an 8-9' tall avatar going to fit inside that? EASILY!<br />
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First you need to find out how the physics for your structure are done. Many mesh buildings use a shell of some sort, separate from the mesh model. Not all structures do this.<br />
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If your building has no separate physics box, a quick solution is to see if the wall over the door is a separate mesh item you can simply set phantom. Even if it's connected to the wall on either side of the door you can set it all to phantom and put two invisible prims in its place.<br />
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If the building is a single structure that can't be separated you may have to set the whole thing phantom and build the physics with prims, I'll explain that a bit more later.</div>
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In the meantime, let's reveal the physics prims for this house!</div>
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The prim physics boxes are blue! Notice how there's no prim covering the wall above the door! That wall is completely phantom so avatars of any size can fit. All of the interior doors for the house are the same! Leave that space blank and you have doors anyone can squeeze through.</div>
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So what if your structure doesn't use prims for the physics? Set the building phantom and build a physics shell out of prims like I did for this house! If you also set the house itself to "no-physics" you can often reduce it's land impact considerably! The root object of a linkset must have physics so you may have to link the house to a prim first, set the whole structure to "no-physics" then set the prim itself to "convex hull" for minimum land impact.</div>
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Remember to set the physics prims to "convex hull" to reduce their own land impact. After you've done all this you can often link the no-physics house to the convex hull prim shell for even more of a land impact reduction. The entire house in this example is 21 land impact.</div>
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<h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Teleporter Solution 1</h4>
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Another solution to the small doors problem is to place a teleporter above the door! Just rez a prim above the door frame, where the physics for the wall over the door begins, like so.</div>
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And one for the opposite side of the door as well.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wj3GF9Avzjk/WnB_Hfuu4WI/AAAAAAAAAjc/YtdQDUnfeL8ZOMZbrnRAxap31-5u6qZ8wCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_014.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="1600" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wj3GF9Avzjk/WnB_Hfuu4WI/AAAAAAAAAjc/YtdQDUnfeL8ZOMZbrnRAxap31-5u6qZ8wCLcBGAs/s400/Snapshot_014.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then you simply make the prims invisible and put a teleporter script inside each.</div>
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If you want this to be completely seamless you'll need an Experience Key. This way when an avatar collides with the prim they will automatically be teleported to the other side of the door frame. They may not even notice the teleport.</div>
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If you do not have access to an Experience, you can put a script inside the prim which informs the avatar colliding that they need to click above the door to "duck". Setting the prim to "sit when touched" and an old fashioned sit teleporter script will then be enough to achieve the effect.</div>
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Success! A door anyone can pass through!</div>
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<h4>
Teleporter Solution 2</h4>
<div>
There is an alternate way to use teleporters to create doors anyone can pass through. That is to make the entire doorway itself a teleporter!</div>
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I like to put building interiors into skyboxes (reduces lag, increases framerates, and gives me more freedom in building) and the entrances/exits for these skyboxes are teleporters disguised as doors.</div>
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You can script your own or use a an existing door teleporter <a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Curio-Obscura-Anywhere-Doors/615009" target="_blank">like Curio Obscura's "Anywhere Door".</a></div>
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The "Anywhere Door" is a sit teleporter. You click the door to open, then click the open doorway to be teleported to the door's destination.</div>
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My own sims now use an Experience based teleporter for a more seamless experience. You click on the door to open it and then simply walk into the open doorway to be teleported.</div>
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<b> And there you have it!</b> Three solutions to the problem of doors being too small for giant sized avatars! I hope these examples help you out in your own sim building adventures, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below!</div>
Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-9164166507910463782018-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:002018-01-28T10:42:40.562-08:00Reducing the Cost of Land by Scaling DownThe topic of land pricing in Second Life is a popular one on the forums and in everyday SL chat. Most people agree that land simply costs too much.<br />
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First off, hey, we'd all like land in SL to be cheaper! That would be great! Hell, I'd love for it to be free! That'd be awesome! But, in order to keep the lights on, LL has to cover their expenses and, according to statements from LL, land cost is where they get most of their money. Not the marketplace. Not premium accounts. Land ownership.<br />
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Now, there are arguments to be made for lowering the price of land to get more people buying land. I've made those arguments myself, but that's not what I want to talk about right now. <b>Right now I want to point out that if you own land in SL, chances are you're wasting most of it without even realizing it!</b> That's right, you own more land than you realize!<br />
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<b>Here's the thing, from prims to mesh to avatars, everything in SL can be made larger or smaller...except land.</b> If you want more land you have to buy more land. You can't go into "Edit Land", grab the little white box in the corner and stretch it all larger like a prim or mesh object. There's no "Land Size" slider you can adjust to make your land larger or smaller like an avatar shape. If you're paying for 512sq.m. of land that is all you get. If you make all of the content on that land larger, you are making your land smaller in relation.<br />
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Don't believe me? Here's an exercise, rez a cube and make it 10x10m. That's the size of a 33x33 foot room. Don't make any walls yet we're just doing an exercise here.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T37maPI_qu4/Wm4YbeIS7XI/AAAAAAAAAiU/RsJfkJtkUf8t9uvHKpM_kI8g9lFdy58aQCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="500" height="174" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T37maPI_qu4/Wm4YbeIS7XI/AAAAAAAAAiU/RsJfkJtkUf8t9uvHKpM_kI8g9lFdy58aQCLcBGAs/s320/Snapshot_001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Ok, so there's are 10x10m(33x33') room. For reference, my avatar in this scene is 6'1" in those shoes. So slightly taller than average for an adult man in the real world. Now let's decorate, but we're first going to decorate with furniture at the typical sizes furniture in SL comes at out of the box.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2WGMAlEO3Y/Wm4Yv1pjrZI/AAAAAAAAAiY/nKTV3ts9PpcyUNmF2hS8IkbpHXIota4QwCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="500" height="174" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q2WGMAlEO3Y/Wm4Yv1pjrZI/AAAAAAAAAiY/nKTV3ts9PpcyUNmF2hS8IkbpHXIota4QwCLcBGAs/s320/Snapshot_002.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Looks comfy, right? Keep in mind most men in SL are 7-9' tall, so significantly larger than my avatar in this picture. That's why I seem so small despite being 6'1". You can find women of all sizes in SL, tall and short, but it's extremely rare to see a guy shorter than 7' in SL, so most furniture in SL is made to accommodate men 7-9' tall. So let's see what happens when we resize the furniture to be 1=1 scale. That is, how large these items should be if we're assuming realistic human sizes for avatars.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DraBdjDPlJQ/Wm4ZApurP-I/AAAAAAAAAic/Vvusc3NStjgCND_pPokt8C3xgzNrgEynQCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="500" height="174" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DraBdjDPlJQ/Wm4ZApurP-I/AAAAAAAAAic/Vvusc3NStjgCND_pPokt8C3xgzNrgEynQCLcBGAs/s320/Snapshot_003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Wow, my avatar doesn't look tiny anymore, and look at all this extra space! It's as if we suddenly have more land to work with! Almost twice as much space it looks like! I'd recommend avoiding no-mod furniture since you obviously won't be able to scale it down like this if you can't modify it.<br />
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Now, with smaller items like furniture, you don't typically save much Land Impact by scaling it down, you're mostly saving space. A couple points here and there, but it's not usually a huge savings. But with buildings, on the other hand, if we reduce the typical SL house down to 1=1 scale we're often going to see huge Land Impact saves. <b>I usually manage to cut the LI of a house or other structure down to half when I reduce it closer to 1=1 scale.</b> Buildings also tend to be scaled up much more than furniture. Again, furniture is scaled up to accommodate 7-9' tall avatars, but buildings have to accommodate SL's awful default camera placement so people tend to make buildings, vehicles, etcetera more like double scale. If you make a room much smaller than 10x10m you're going to have a lot of issues with the camera, <b>but we can fix this!</b><br />
<a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-improved-sl-camera-revisited.html" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-improved-sl-camera-revisited.html" target="_blank">Click here for an article about the camera settings I've been using since at least 2007. </a>They solve every camera issue you're going to run into when trying to build smaller. Better still, LL will be adding these settings to the official viewer in an upcoming viewer update, along with tools to change and save your very own personal camera placement settings! So look forward to that!<br />
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And I'm not even saying we should all be building to 1=1 scale, so please don't misunderstand. Even with my improved camera settings I would not recommend making rooms much smaller than about 10x10 (but be honest, 10x10 is already tiny compared to most rooms in SL buildings) and I'd even suggest making ceilings a little taller than you'd find in real life. The key part of that is "a little", not a lot.<br />
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<b> By doing all this you should be able to free up about twice as much space and anywhere from 1/3 up to about half your Land Impact.</b><br />
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And this is just one trick to getting more value from the land you're paying for. Just one trick that allows you to build more using less land. There's other tricks to, such as using rezzer systems that allow you to save environments as rezzable packages that are only rezzed on your land when you're using them, and using skyboxes connected via teleporter doorways to build vertically instead of horizontally to take advantage of the 4000m of space above your land.<br />
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I think LL should do more to showcase these tricks to people so that they can see the true value of the land they're paying for and maybe not feel quite so much like SL land is overpriced.<br />
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<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-3016276447442614222018-01-19T04:39:00.000-08:002018-01-21T00:39:49.457-08:00Better SL Living Through Modding - CRAnQ Scrapper's Retreat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I do a LOT of modding. It's safe to say I have modded every modifiable item I've ever purchased in SL, and so I'm going to be posting a series of articles where I showcase some of the items I've modded, how I did it, and what the benefits were!</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FQ055DFOrdk/WmHbFlgfT1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/qDGPlbTqjoYxhrTTIk6T9lJtkaq0b1_yQCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_036.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="1600" height="216" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FQ055DFOrdk/WmHbFlgfT1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/qDGPlbTqjoYxhrTTIk6T9lJtkaq0b1_yQCLcBGAs/s400/Snapshot_036.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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This first article features a wasteland shack in a sim I was commissioned to build.<a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CRAnQ-Scrappers-Retreat-100-MESH/11889671" target="_blank"> It's the Scrapper's Retreat from CRAnQ.</a> A gorgeous looking piece, but out of the box it has a few problems. Namely, it's 241 LI cost and the fact that it uses about 360MB of VRAM in textures alone.<br />
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Up front I want to say that none of this should be taken as a negative view of the creator's work. It's a gorgeous looking building and, sadly, these issues are not widely discussed in SL's content creator community so a lot of people simply don't realize they're issues at all. <b>What you should instead take away from this the awesome thing CRAnQ did, selling the building with modify perms!</b> That is what allowed me to take this great wasteland piece they put together and make it even better, and I thank them for giving me that option.<br />
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In addition, I hope that if they see this article they are able to see what I've done, see how it improves the SL experience, and are able to work these improvements into their future creations!<br />
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<h3>
Reducing Land Impact</h3>
<b> Now, Land Impact cost is easy to understand for anyone who owns or rents land in SL. </b>You only have so much so you want to reduce LI wherever you can so you can fit more content and more detail in your sim. Luckily, this shack is copy/mod so I was able to do exactly that, and easily!<br />
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<b> First,</b> the shack comes with an array of light sources. They're scripted and add a really great effect but a nearly identical lighting effect can be achieved by replacing the 40 light projectors with 4, and giving the side projectors a light map that mimics multiple sources. (Maybe I'll show how to di this in the future!) I went the simpler route for now and just got rid of the light projectors and did some simple local lighting, but recreating the original light effect is on my to-do list.<br />
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<b> Second, </b>the lightbulbs strung along the side were each individual objects. Even worse, they're sculpted prims! If you're not aware, each sculpted prim costs 2 land impact points when linked to mesh! <a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/The-Retro-Bulbs-PROGRAMMABLE-party-lights/5509384" target="_blank">I replaced those with a string light mesh I bought off the marketplace. </a>Took seconds to swap them out. Saved a bunch of LI. In addition, the wall mounted lamps on each side of the roof used a prim sphere overtop a mesh lightbulb, possibly because they didn't know how to script fullbright/glow changes to only the lightbulb part of the lamp mesh. I got rid of the prims and just set the mesh bulbs to glow manually.<br />
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All of this means I lose the scripted lights on/off feature but I don't really need it.<br />
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<b> Next,</b> I realized that by setting the entire building to "no physics" and replacing the physics with an invisible shell of box prims set to "convex hull" I was able to save yet more land impact. This doesn't always work, but it works often enough to give it a try and here it ended up saving me a tonne of Land Impact points.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3WVyr5LBmBI/WmO1ugK2sKI/AAAAAAAAAh4/f4BHM7AM3gkYAltF-OuvIg85AaZBtRhIQCLcBGAs/s1600/Snapshot_037.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="1600" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3WVyr5LBmBI/WmO1ugK2sKI/AAAAAAAAAh4/f4BHM7AM3gkYAltF-OuvIg85AaZBtRhIQCLcBGAs/s400/Snapshot_037.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> And finally, </b>the building was way too large so I shrunk it down to proper scale for the sim, reducing the land impact even further. Larger mesh objects cost more LI because they retain their higher LOD levels over greater distances the larger they are. Most content is made around twice the size it should be if everything is to scale with inworld measurements. <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2012/01/pennys-shape-making-guide-abridged.html" target="_blank">Shrinking your avatar to human sizes</a> and <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-improved-sl-camera-revisited.html" target="_blank">adjusting your camera so it doesn't need so much more space for you to see properly</a> really helps you save a lot of space and money. If you ever thought land in SL was too expensive, this is the easiest way to cut the cost of land drastically.<br />
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<b> Doing these simple things I reduced to LI cost of the structure from 241 to 123. About half.</b> Still a lot for a single structure, but given the sheer amount of detail I'm a lot more comfortable with it.<br />
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<h3>
Reducing VRAM/Texture Use</h3>
<b> VRAM/Texture Memory is less common knowledge in SL but I'll try and summarize. </b>Your graphics card has a set amount of memory to use rendering what you see in SL. <b>All the textures you see have to be in that memory to be displayed</b>, but so much more relies on that memory so you cannot max your card's memory out on textures alone or you see massive framerate losses and "texture thrashing". Texture thrashing is when you see textures going blurry and re-rezzing. You also have to download all these textures, which contributes to lag and slow rez times.<br />
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<b> 360MB might not sound like a lot of memory, but it's only one building in an entire sim and then you throw avatars and their memory use into the mix. </b>My videocard only has 2GB of VRAM. It's a midrange card, a few years old. Newer, more expensive cards have up to around 8GB. Onboard graphics have very little, if any, dedicated memory.<br />
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Following so far? Ok, good!<br />
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<b>This scrap house is covered in various unique corrugated metal panels.</b> They're not identical. Out of the box there's like 6-12 different panels each with it's own texture, spec map and normal map. All of which are 1024x1024. Each texture uses 4MB of memory on its own and it's simple arithmetic to see how that adds up.<br />
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<b> What I did was remove every type of panel except 2. </b>Then I copied the remaining 2 panels to replace each of the panels I removed. Not difficult, but a little tedious and time consuming. But worth it! <b>I was able to reduce the memory load of the house from 360MB down to 207MB. </b>Here's a screenshot from the marketplace listing showing the original texture variety so you can compare. Yes, it's a little more detailed, but that detail comes at a cost in framerates, lag, and texture thrashing. What's more, are people going to notice the difference? Those who saw this building in my sim before and after did not notice the change until I pointed it out to them myself.<br />
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<b> You might be able to do the same if you notice items in your sim are similar, yet use different textures! </b>Many SL buildings, for example, will have nearly identical textures for walls, floors, etcetera, where the only differences are slight variations in shading or colour that most people will never even notice! You can compare textures in the preview window of the texture chooser tab of the SL editing panel and see if this is the case, then it's a simple matter of unlinking pieces, and copying the one instance to replace the pieces with the redundant textures! In some buildings this is easy, in some buildings all of the walls may be a single mesh object which means you'll have to look for an alternative solution, such as replacing the textures entirely with one of your own.<br />
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I also noticed that this house used the same stair kit as another building I have in the sim, but different textures. I swapped out the stairs with the identical stairs from the other house to reduce the sim's VRAM load further! And other buildings in the sim also use corrugated metal panels, I replaced them all with one of the two metal panels from this house and probably cut another 100-200MB of memory out of the sim. <b>All of this means visitors to the sim get to experience higher framerates, less lag, little if any texture thrashing and fast rez times!</b><br />
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And I hope the rest of you are able to implement these ideas into your own homes, clubs, RP sims, and other environments and improve your own SL experience! I'll be posting more articles like this, showcasing modifiable content that I've purchased and found ways to improve. Until then, take care and keep fighting the good fight!<br />
<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-48225984933038633402018-01-15T18:07:00.000-08:002018-01-16T04:56:43.583-08:00The No-Mod RebuttalMy opinion on no-mod content is no secret. I will almost never buy no-mod and neither should you if you value your money, your land or your avatar.<br />
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<b>Okay, okay, there are exceptions. </b>Scripts totally need to be no-mod or they are effectively full perm. When I talk about no-mod I'm referring to objects. The prims and mesh. I'm not suggesting scripts need to be full perm. Another <i>possible</i> exception would be items for closed gaming systems where modding could open them up to abuse and cheating. I'm not 100% sold on this as a simple examination of items in a game would reveal if they'd been tampered with but I'm generally willing to give this a pass as such items typically aren't used outside their game context. As for the rest...<br />
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<b>When you buy no-mod you are giving up the right to personalize the object beyond whatever meager concessions the creator allows.</b><br />
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<li> <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2017/03/draw-weight-revisited.html" target="_blank">Do you see an easy way to reduce the Land Impact or Draw Weight of the item?</a> Too bad, you're not allowed to take advantage of it!</li>
<li> Do you see a problem with the item that is easy to fix? Too bad, you're not allowed to fix it. Better hope the creator is offering support!</li>
<li> <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/07/matter-of-scale.html" target="_blank">Is the object horrifically out of scale and there's no resize script? Well, you're out of luck.</a></li>
<li> Do you need to retexture the item to make it fit the scene you purchased it for? Well if it's no mod, there goes that idea! <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennypatton/39459178262/in/dateposted-public/" target="_blank">What about VRAM use? Could some simple retexturing help boost your framerates?</a> TOO BAD! Those framerates you lose are part of the cost of your no-mod item.</li>
<li> <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2016/09/virtual-spaceinfinite-space.html" target="_blank">Do you utilize a rezzing system so you can easily swap out environments and add more to your land? </a>Well, I hope you're willing to give up the freedom and value that type of system grants you. That no-mod couch you bought is totally worth the extra $5-$300/month the tier is going to cost you, right?</li>
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You give up all of this and more when you buy no-mod and get nothing in place of it. Oddly enough, the seller gets nothing by selling you no-mod items either so why, then, is so much content sold no-mod? Well, there's been a few reasons given over the years and we're going to look at each of these reasons one by one and see if they hold any water.<br />
<h3>
"It protects my work against content thieves/copybot!"</h3>
For over a decade this was not only the most common reason given, but the only reason given. There's one major flaw in this argument however: It is entirely, 100% false. It is simply not true. At no point was it ever true. The people who cling to this justification for no-mod simply do not understand how SL or "copybot" works. Some of those still clinging to this justification today know it's not true but are unwilling to admit they were wrong.<br />
<h3>
"I don't want my customers ruining my artistic vision!"</h3>
This isn't an argument. It isn't a justification. All it is is a declaration of the sellers own professional immaturity. If you're trying to sell anyone on the idea that no-mod somehow benefits the product this is certainly not going to change any minds.<br />
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"It cuts down on customer support I have to deal with from customers who break their purchases!"</h3>
Or, you know, you could box the content so that your customer always has a backup copy. You can also put in nice big letters "If you broke something, get a fresh copy from the box it came in." at the top of your customer support page. This achieves the exact same goal without crippling the item you're selling.<br />
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<b> And that's pretty much it.</b> These are the only three justifications I've ever seen for selling content no-mod and I always point out the fallacies in these attempts at justification but the person I'm trying to discuss the issue with either doesn't reply at all, or simply restates their original argument as if repeating themselves will somehow lessen my rebuttal.<br />
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<b> How about you?</b> Have you heard other justifications? Do you have some of your own that I might have overlooked? As no-mod becomes more and more prevalent (just try to buy a modifiable mesh body that isn't furry/anime these days, not to mention some of the frightening conversations on the topic over in Sansar discussion boards) I think it's more important than ever to make this a public discussion.<br />
<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-88201147473272320142017-11-15T14:19:00.000-08:002017-11-15T17:18:59.142-08:00"Hi"I was wandering SL and I ran across an avatar with this in their profile:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Why is it that some women in SL think their vertices and polygons are so much better than everyone else that they wont accept an Im if it is just "Hi"</i></span> (sic)<br />
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Considering how often the women of SL receive such messages I figure it's worth taking the time to answer that question.<br />
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Would you send an unsolicited text message to a random woman you've never met?</h3>
I want to say right off the bat that approaching someone in open chat is different from Instant Messaging them. A guy walks up to me and says hi in regular chat I'll say hi back every time.<br />
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I know not all women in SL feel the same but as far as I'm concerned, it's less invasive, more casual. Like someone walking up to you in a party and saying hello as opposed to getting a text message from a stranger. I screen my calls in RL due to telemarketers and SL isn't really different in that regard.<br />
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Just be sure to have something else to say after that. Too often I'll say "Hello" back and the person who initiated the conversation just repeats the greeting, as if expecting me to carry the conversation they're trying to start. Don't be that guy.<br />
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Women in SL get unsolicited Instant Messages constantly. </h4>
As most women in SL will tell you, we get unsolicited Instant Messages from random strangers a lot. I mean a lot a lot. If I'm wandering a sim I will get IMs from guys in that sim. Even if I'm currently, obviously, involved with someone else at the moment I'm sure to get an IM from some guy lurking halfway across the sim. If I'm sitting alone at home in an empty sim I'll still get IMs. Some from people in groups I'm in. Some from people in neighboring sims. Some from people I cannot find on the map or in my groups and with whom I have no connection whatsoever.<br />
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<b>As I write this, sitting alone in my mainland home, I have just received an Instant Message from a
stranger on the other side of the sim. </b>Blank profile. They followed up
the IM with a teleport offer, which I'm very pointedly ignoring.<b> </b><i>That is how frequently this happens.</i><br />
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<h4>
It's always about sex.</h4>
It's constant and what's more they are always from people trying to come on to me. Not have a friendly conversation or talk about some common interest, no, it's always someone looking for digital sex.<br />
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<u>Always.</u><br />
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While I can imagine every unsolicited IM being a lazy pass at them puts a lot of SL ladies off, <i>that's not even what bothers me.</i>
I'm fairly libertine when it comes to e-sex and I'll admit that if the
person messaging me like that is cute, then I'll probably roll with it.
However let's be frank here,<i> most guys in SL don't have great avatars.</i><br />
<i> </i> <br />
<h3>
Most male avatars in SL have severe proportion issues and other problems.</h3>
I'm sorry, I honestly don't know how to put it any more gently, but it's true! Most guys in SL, nearly all of them*, feel they need to be 8 or even 9 feet tall for some reason, and the SL appearance editor simply does not allow for proportionate bodies at those sizes, so the guys end up looking like stretched out victims of Willy Wonka's taffy stretching machine, or Slenderman's hipster cousin. Tiny heads, super broad shoulders, wasp-like waists. T-rex arms are another all too common trait. And many guys in SL stumble around without an Animation Overrider, instead using SL's super awkward default animations which just scream "newbie" no matter the rez date in your profile. There's also no shortage of guys so bad at making avatars that they forget to hide or detach their digital penis when clothed and wandering around. Just letting it jut out from their pants as if it were leading them around wherever they go.<br />
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The above describes almost every guy I've seen in Second Life**. There's very few exceptions.<br />
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So, if someone is going to make an awkward pass at me I at least want to see what they look like. If they're cute, I'll be far more inclined to overlook the awkwardness and give you a chance to impress me. If you have a bad avatar, sorry but I'm going to quietly close the chat window and go about my business. If you're not bothering to put any effort into either your appearance or your pickup attempt then you've given me no reason to give you a chance at getting into my digital panties.<br />
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Again, many of the unsolicited IM pickups are from people not even in the same sim as me. Often with a blank profile or at least no pictures of their avatar. Like I said, if the guy is cute I'm more likely to go with it, if you're not even in the sim and have a blank profile you don't get that chance.<br />
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How to pick up women in Second Life.</h3>
Look, if you want to pick up women in SL it's really not difficult. You just need to take that voice in the back of your head telling you "If you're not the tallest man in the room all of the ladies will laugh at you!", punch it in its non-existent not-face, and get yourself a proper, decent shape. If you can manage that much then you're well on your way to having a good looking avatar.<br />
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Yeah, it should be easy to get a good shape in SL without even trying but it's not, even the makers of great looking mesh bodies tend to suck at making shapes. The starter avatar shapes are terrible. The appearance editor gives you no help at all. <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/08/matter-of-proportion.html" target="_blank">You're just going to have to bite the bullet and learn about proportions.</a><br />
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Also, try not messaging a woman you don't know who is deep in conversation with a bunch of people like you're some kind of sex offender trying to lead their prey away from their friends and into a dark alley. Rather than be a creeper, try joining the conversation.<br />
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Say hello in regular chat now and then instead of always trying to single women out with an instant message. Sure, some people in SL react to open chat like the rest of us react to IMs but it's worth rolling those dice now and then.<br />
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Talk to some of your lady friends and ask them for their honest opinions on your avatar. Don't get angry if they tell you it's bad, instead try and figure out why it's bad and fix it. No one owes you e-sex just for existing, put a little effort into it!<br />
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What it comes down to is you can either be angry at all those women who won't give you the time of day, or you can try and make yourself an appealing catch <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* When I say "nearly all" I'm referring primarily to human men. Guys with furry and anime avatars seem to suffer this problem far less. Fantasy beast-men on the other hand seem to have it worse often sporting 12'+ avatars.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">**Again, talking the human population. </span> Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-4466417434491008142017-04-16T23:52:00.000-07:002017-04-17T10:26:40.285-07:00Second Life vs. World of WarcraftA picture is worth a thousand words. Here is a height comparison of the various WoW races, with a typical, maxed out SL avatar superimposed into it. The SL avatar is in scale to the WoW characters.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-akiEtLWGJHo/WPT5o_lyPaI/AAAAAAAAAfI/ASIYjV7Xjowt6fUDTpT2pu9nsjsDI0JPQCLcB/s1600/wow%2Bv%2Bsl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-akiEtLWGJHo/WPT5o_lyPaI/AAAAAAAAAfI/ASIYjV7Xjowt6fUDTpT2pu9nsjsDI0JPQCLcB/s400/wow%2Bv%2Bsl.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Actually, after I made this, I realized that the Aesthetic, <i>I believe</i>, uses deformer tricks to be larger, so it would probably actually be over 9' tall with the height maxed out.<br />
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The odd things is, more and more women avatars in SL are actually human sized, and it's pretty common to see SL women who are about 5' to 5'10", wearing 6" heels so they don't look quite so short. Not all of them, of course, but definitely a lot of them. More and more as time goes on. So I've added an example of such an avatar as well.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-49348729827556405762017-04-11T12:49:00.000-07:002017-04-14T06:37:19.832-07:00The Penny FAQ Over the years I've said a lot about SL, but when I post in forums or talk to people in SL I keep running into people who put words in my mouth instead of listening to what I actually say. I end up repeating myself a lot in correcting these people. <a href="http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/124516-jelly-dolls-six-months-later-4.html#post2376504" target="_blank">So much so that a poster on SLU wrote up a "Penny FAQ".</a><br />
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I've taken that and rewritten it slightly and will add to it as I come across more constantly repeating questions and accusations.<br />
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<h3>
<b>* Why should the average SL user have to be an expert on digital design?</b> </h3>
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</h3>
I frequently talk about how optimizing content can greatly benefit your SL experience and this has lead to some people mistakenly taking this to mean that I believe the average SL user should be doing these things.<br />
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I do not. My position has always been that the average SL user should not even need to think about optimization or any other digital design issues. Good content should be made available by proficient builders.<br />
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* So then you believe only those who are experts on digital design should be allowed to create content?</h3>
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</h3>
Again, no. I believe there are things LL can and should do to make it easier for the average SL user to follow some basic practices which result in a better shared experience for everyone, without SL users even thinking about it.<br />
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* Why should LL force people to do things according to what you think is best?</h3>
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</h3>
LL should not force people to do anything. They should make it easier, though, to create content that conforms to standards which result in a better experience. LL should also make it easier for people to find information to support their efforts. Having said that, if people want to sell things on the LL hosted marketplace then they should be open and honest about what they are selling.<br />
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<h3>
* Are you saying that lower resolution textures and fewer details look better? What the hell are you smoking, Penny?</h3>
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No, I am saying that higher resolution textures and more details will not look "better" in some circumstances and the trade off is not worth the degradation in the viewer's and network's performance.<br />
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* But Penny! My customers are very discerning and demand the most biggest textures and most finest details imaginable.</h3>
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Fine, but what you do impacts others. You should consider communicating with your customers and offer them choices and alternatives. If you want to deliver the very best quality and experience to your customers you may discover there are ways to deliver a high quality appearance without such a heavy toll on performance.<br />
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<h3>
* Dammit Penny, I just want to build stuff and not worry so much about all these technical details. </h3>
<h3>
</h3>
Me too, but this is not about you. It is about a few basic practices and ways to make it easier for us to just muck about and have some fun. This is also why the emphasis of my arguments is always on the fact that LL should provide us with better tools.<br />
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<h3>
* Penny, you are a cow. I mean, you are literally a cow. Does that not imply that you a furry and your opinion means nothing?</h3>
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</h3>
Moo.<br />
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<h3>
* *Sigh* Not THIS again? Why do you have to bore us with this over and over.</h3>
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</h3>
Because what you do impacts me. Unfortunately, this is a community, and we have to share SL. Also, nobody is forcing you to read this. Seriously, just move on and let me rant and get over yourself.<br />
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<h3>
* My products are most precious, and I cannot let those savages change them. Why should I make them mod when those bastards will ruin it?</h3>
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Those "bastards" are giving you their money in exchange for a little entertainment. If you let them change things in ways that make it a little more enjoyable for them then they will be happier with you.<br />
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* But Penny, those idiots will ruin my things, and then will expect me to fix it. What kind of drugs are you on, Penny???</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
Yeah, some of them will. That is what people in the real world call "customer service," and yes it sucks. Most people are better than that, but people ruin everything. If you do not want to deal with people then maybe selling things to anonymous people on the Internet is not your best option.<br />
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<h3>
* Maybe so, but my things are wonderful as they are. I cannot imagine those savages ruining my pretty things. </h3>
<h3>
</h3>
Then put your things in a museum behind glass. If you do not want people to touch your things then do not let others have them.<br />
<br />
<h3>
* Sell my things modifiable? But that will let people steal my content, won't it? Penny, is this some sort of scheme to ruin the livelihood of every SL content creator? I read this on a blog somewhere!</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
No. Letting people copy and modify content will not also somehow let them steal it. The people telling you otherwise don't understand how SL's permissions system works.<br />
<br />
<h3>
* Penny, why are you trying to force everyone to shrink their avatars?</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
I'm not. I just point out how a consistent sense of scale can make SL more immersive, more engaging, and better looking. I understand that for many their priority is simply fitting in, and if the places they go are filled with 8' tall avatars they will feel more comfortable in an 8' tall avatar. I also understand that some will choose to be giants specifically because they want to be a giant. They benefit from a consistent sense of scale in that it allows their 8' tall avatar to feel like an 8' tall avatar.<br />
<br />
<h3>
* But what's wrong with scaling things to 8' tall avatars? As long as the scale is consistent, what's the difference?</h3>
<br />
<br />
An 8' tall avatar is 1/3 taller than a 6' avatar. Don't forget that when talking about land, everything is squared. That 1/3 linear difference when squared scales out to a 6' avatar having almost twice as much space on a 512 plot as an 8' avatar would. Instead of just a house, you can have a house, an outbuilding, a garden, and a boat dock. Given the price of land in SL, using a 6' avatar puts money in your pocket.<br />
<br />
<h3>
*More space is good and all, but won't I run out of prims/Land Impact faster by scaling down and trying to put all this extra content on my land?</h3>
<br />
<br />
Mesh costs less prims/LI the smaller you make it. Already smaller items like a chair or book probably won't cost fewer LI points, but larger structures like a house, outbuilding, garden, or boat dock could end up being reduced to nearly half their original LI cost. Again, using a 6' avatar instead of an 8' avatar puts money in your pocket.<br />
<br />
<h3>
*Even if that were true, it's impossible to make a 6' avatar that doesn't look like a dwarf!</h3>
<br />
<br />
If you only use the height slider you'll ended up with your avatar looking like it's been squashed down. Unfortunately LL doesn't provide us with an Avatar Scale slider, so we have to adjust a whole bunch of proportions manually to achieve normal proportions if we make any significant changes to our height. <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2011/08/matter-of-proportion.html" target="_blank">Luckily there's a guide that helps you do this.</a><br />
<br />
<br />Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-2499937265630205762017-03-08T13:20:00.000-08:002017-03-08T13:20:57.705-08:00A Tale of Two Content Creators<h2 style="text-align: center;">
A Tale of Two Content Creators</h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666;">A short story of two ways content creators can</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666;">respond to criticism and what their decision</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666;">means for you.</span></div>
<br />
I can be rather blunt when positing a marketplace review. When I was in art school, the value of blunt, honest criticism was drilled into me because if you can't accept criticism you'll never improve and your career won't last long. <br />
In Second Life, the rules are a bit different. You don't need years of school, decades of training, to become a content creator for SL. Anyone can put their creations on the marketplace and become a seller....and that's fantastic!<br />
<br />
There is, however, a downside. Since the Lindens themselves lacked any sort of background in 3D rendering when they set about creating SL, they neglected to develop the tools in such a way as to discourage the bad habits common in inexperienced artists which can be harmful to performance. Lag and poor framerates are not the result of "old, badly written code", they're the result of unoptimized content.<br />
<br />
There is a lot of unoptimized content in Second Life.<br />
<br />
When I purchase such content I try to shine a light on these issues where I see them in the hope that more people will begin to understand how 3D rendering works, and why they need to reduce their polygon counts and texture use as much as they can.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it works, sometimes it backfires.<br />
<br />
Years and years ago I was building a fantasy sim in Second Life and I purchased a fantastic looking set of viking style buildings. These buildings looked great. The creator clearly had talent and I told them as much. However, their texture use was death on framerates.<br />
<br />
A single small house, the smallest of the buildings available, used around twenty 1024x1024 textures. Twenty! Many of these textures were nearly identical. The walls for the building, interior and exterior, were nearly identical, with only the slightest of differences in backed shading. These textures were so similar that they could have used the same texture on every wall and no one would have noticed the different.<br />
<br />
In addition, many of these textures were filled with blank, unused data. A 1024x1024 texture where half the texture went unused. These textures could have been condensed into a single file at no loss to visible detail.<br />
<br />
When I reviewed the item on the marketplace, I mentioned all of this. In retrospect I should have contacted the creator directly, but at the time I felt these issues were obvious and should be treated as such. The creator did not take the review kindly, accusing me of setting out to destroy their business and banning me from their sim.<br />
<br />
Currently, they are a very popular content creator indeed, but their content still suffers from the same overuse of textures that their old village set did. They seem to have gotten better about wasting texture area with unused space, but there's still a lot of room for improvement and they still do not use repeating textures to increase detail without driving up texture memory. For some of their creations this has meant very blurry, N64-ish looking items even with their high texture use. They seem to be trying to get around this by throwing yet more textures at their creations which is not the way to go.<br />
<br />
I'm not naming names because I'm not setting out to shame anyone. That's not the point of this. The point is that abusing textures in this way, filling up content with what amounts to gigs of unnecessary files, is why everyone has such terrible performance in SL. I want to see creators like this succeed by recognizing this problem and learning to create better looking items that don't kill framerates.<br />
<br />
And sometimes it works.<br />
<br />
During that same period, I was also putting together a fantasy look for my own avatar and purchased some items from a store that had the exact same problems described above. I purchased a body harness where each strap, although appearing identical just mirrored, was a separate sculpt map and texture. There was a chain across the front, each link in the chain was it's own 1024x1024 sculpt map and 1024x1024 texture.The whole thing had to be like 30-50 sculpted prims, each with its own 1024x1024 sculpt map and 1024x1024 texture.<br />
<br />
It looked fantastic but was murder on framerates, and I said as much in my review of it.<br />
<br />
This creator also sent me a message. This one was a positive message. They said the information I'd provided was eye-opening and that they would be using this feedback in creating their next product. As they switched to mesh they began releasing content that was far and away better looking than their old sculpted work, but also much lighter on textures.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DPD-Weapons-Harness-II-Reborn-Roman/6315233" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="449" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VTsq_XwggYE/WMBznweX6OI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/Q88hE0LdbOgCxoUAxzddnFjLwjksbYb7gCLcB/s640/Weapons_Harness_Reborn_Roman_Poster.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<a href="https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DPD-Weapons-Harness-II-Reborn-Roman/6315233" target="_blank"><br /></a>
They released a mesh version of that same body harness and despite looking far more detailed than the old one it uses only 3 textures, total. And that's only because it includes spec and normal maps. I will name this creator, Dais Abonwood, because everyone should shop at their store, <a href="http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Steelridge/160/160/502" target="_blank">Dark Prophet Designs.</a><br />
<br />
And that's why I speak up about these issues. Not because I'm out to destroy someone's business, or try to humiliate them or whatever. If I comment at all it's because you're doing something right, and I want to see you improve.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-40949878936383555372017-03-03T23:46:00.000-08:002017-03-03T23:47:30.543-08:00Draw Weight Revisited<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Draw Weight Revisited</span></b></div>
<br />
<a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2015/02/draw-weight.html" target="_blank">About two years ago I wrote an article showing how, with some modding chops, it was possible to drastically reduce avatar draw weight.</a> I posted this image, showing how I cut my fantasy style minotaur woman avatar down to about a quarter of the original draw weight.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGE6bTnxZ7Q/VNWZC2F26HI/AAAAAAAAAXs/w8SWzbA67AIaFKYDphXF9Su8O-3KO8w2gCPcB/s1600/draw%2Bweight%2Bcomparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGE6bTnxZ7Q/VNWZC2F26HI/AAAAAAAAAXs/w8SWzbA67AIaFKYDphXF9Su8O-3KO8w2gCPcB/s400/draw%2Bweight%2Bcomparison.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Recently, I got the fantasy bug again and decided to dust off that old avatar and update it.<br />
<br />
I purchased the Nana fitness body from ::dev::, the creator of which was willing to sell me a modifiable version when I asked, which included hands and a mesh head using Bento, and had a couple of features I've been constantly astounded are lacking from other mesh bodies. Namely, the left and right arm are separate texture faces, meaning they can have two different textures, and the mesh hands are separate attachments!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9fTW7Rpqd68/WLpjMOU3FfI/AAAAAAAAAd0/-Ta9D81OuBUERpLDZ7UVmV7xETnxmqCWQCLcB/s1600/Snapshot_207.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9fTW7Rpqd68/WLpjMOU3FfI/AAAAAAAAAd0/-Ta9D81OuBUERpLDZ7UVmV7xETnxmqCWQCLcB/s400/Snapshot_207.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Because of this, I was able to put an underarmour texture on the right arm and while I used the included bento hand for the left arm, the armoured right arm instead has a heavy mesh glove. I've always been going for this ancient gladiator style armour look to my minotaur outfit and these details made it so much better.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sfi4fJKzI4A/WLpjVHVPl1I/AAAAAAAAAd4/iTOdig-v44ohEL1ZokfkWb1RkNLgi5seACLcB/s1600/Snapshot_210.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sfi4fJKzI4A/WLpjVHVPl1I/AAAAAAAAAd4/iTOdig-v44ohEL1ZokfkWb1RkNLgi5seACLcB/s400/Snapshot_210.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
On top of that, there was a fitmesh bikini top I was able to mod into a scale mail top, I don't think it looks as good as the PFC scale mail bikini, but being fitmesh it fits perfect and I can use physics with it. And with the texture work I put into it, I don't think it looks bad.<br />
<br />
So lets put a draw weight to these improvements. As my avatar appears in these screenshots my draw weight is currently <span style="font-size: large;"><b>34,740</b></span>, which means I've made my goal of getting my base avatar, fully dressed, under 35,000.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>So what's my point with all of this?</b></span><br />
<br />
Mainly, I wanted to show that having a good looking, detailed avatar does not require a high draw weight as so many people believe. I also wanted to show that it's not mesh, that drives up draw weight, and that the newer mesh features like fitmesh and bento aren't to blame, either.<br />
<br />
I think it's important to say that I'm also not trying to say that optimizing content you've purchased in SL is easy. It's a lot of work, and you need to have some fairly advanced chops when it comes to modding. <br />
<br />
<b>What it comes down to is that the biggest, perhaps only, reason any avatar in SL has a draw weight over 50,000 is because content creators aren't optimizing their work.</b> So many content creators in SL either don't know enough about 3D rendering to understand why optimizing is important, or they're just lazy and don't want to put in the extra effort to optimize. Some believe they can't optimize without sacrificing quality, which isn't true.<br />
<br />
If content creators did optimize their work it would be easy for anyone to keep their draw weight low with off the shelf content, no modding required.<br />
<br />
<br />
I don't want to sound like I'm placing the blame solely at the feet of content creators, either. Many people came to SL to have fun and discovered that they enjoyed creating content. Everything they know they learned over the course of creating content for SL, and let's face it: Linden Lab could do a lot more to encourage better content creation habits.<br />
<br />
LL ignores, or is ignorant of, the impact heavy texture use has on framerates. LL placed no real restrictions on the render weight of avatars. None of the tools in SL really try to encourage good building habits because the Lindens themselves never bothered to learn about content creation.<br />
<br />
Of course now we have the "jelly dolls" feature which renders avatars with excessively high draw weight as a brightly coloured pixel figure and while some just turn this feature off, a lot of people do keep it on in order to boost their framerates, so there is some incentive now towards having a lower draw weight.<br />
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<b>Content Creators:</b> Start optimizing your work. Reduce your texture use. Don't release content bloated with hidden surfaces. Utilize LOD.<br />
<br />
<b>Modders:</b> Only buy moddable content then look for all the ways you can reduce the draw weight of that content. Unlink hidden pieces. Replace oversized textures. Set alpha textures to masked instead of blended. <a href="http://pennycow.blogspot.com/2015/02/draw-weight.html" target="_blank">Check out that previous article for more tips on how you can reduce the draw weight of items you've purchased.</a><br />
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<b>Lindens: </b>If you're reading this, start encouraging your userbase to be smarter about content creation. Hire someone who knows how all this works and can help your programmers create tools that discourage bad habits and push people towards creating better content. Don't be afraid to be firm where you need to, like finally putting hard restrictions on avatar draw weight. You can tie them to new features, like Bento, so you're not breaking old content. Ultimately, you're the only ones who can solve SL's performance issues by addressing the issue of bloated, unoptimized content.<br />
<br />
<b>Everyone Else:</b> Just keep enjoying SL. Like I said, reducing draw weight isn't easy and it's unreasonable to expect everyone to learn how. So don't fret about it. That said, when you buy something, take a moment to see how it affects your draw weight. If it causes your draw weight to go way up, make sure you tell the content creator so that they know customers are expecting low draw weight content. Let them know you don't want to be a jelly doll on someone else's screen.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167300194475558566.post-38439135395804763792016-12-10T22:42:00.003-08:002016-12-10T22:42:35.996-08:00Are Rigged/Fitmesh Items Impossible to Mod?<h2>
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"> No.</span></u></b> There's plenty of ways you can mod rigged/fitmesh items. <b>Stop making them no-mod.</b> </h2>
<br />
Ok, so there's this trend going around where content creators are making their rigged mesh items no-mod, explaining that since you can't resize or reposition rigged mesh, there's no point to it being mod. We're going to put this misinformation to bed and explain why content creators should not be releasing rigged/fitmesh content as no-mod.<br />
<br />
First: Resizing and repositioning are not all there is to modding. They're not even half of what there is to modding. Here's a list of ways you can mod rigged mesh.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Adding scripts</li>
<li>Removing scripts</li>
<li>Retexturing </li>
<li>Tinting the colour</li>
<li>Adding custom materials</li>
<li>Adding custom alpha masks</li>
<li>Changing the objects alpha textures from "blended" to "masked"</li>
<li>Making parts fullbright</li>
<li>Removing fullbright</li>
<li>Linking the object to others so you use fewer attachment points</li>
<li>Unlinking parts to use individually</li>
<li>Renaming</li>
</ul>
<br />
This isn't even a complete list. As you can see, resizing and repositioning barely scratch the surface of what it means for an object to be moddable in Second Life. Every single piece of rigged mesh clothing, every single rigged mesh hairpiece and bodypart I own is modded in some way or another. <br />
<br />
<b> Here are some specific examples of how I've personally modded rigged/fitmesh items:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Replaced multiple 1024x1024 textures on a hair piece with custom 256x256 textures.</li>
<li>Changed the alpha textures on hair from "blended" to "masked" to solve a variety of rendering issues.</li>
<li>Scripted fitmesh shirts to change my shape, physics and add/detach nipples when worn/removed. </li>
<li>Added custom materials to mesh body.</li>
<li>Fixed issues with a mesh head caused by the applier leaving alpha skin texture as "blended" by switching it to "masked" manually.</li>
<li>Linked multiple rigged/fitmesh items together to be worn as a single attachment.</li>
<li>Removed the unused clothing layers from my mesh body to greatly reduce my draw weight.</li>
</ul>
So whenever you hear someone claim "rigged/fitmesh cannot be modified anyway" you set them straight and tell them that's just not true.<br />
<br />
Another explanation I've heard for making rigged mesh no-modify is to protect it from content thieves. The problem with that explanation is that making something no-mod offers no protection whatsoever from content theft. None. It's not even an inconvenience. The tools they use to steal content don't care what permissions the content has.<br />
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So there you have it. There is no reason to sell rigged/fitmesh content no-mod. None. It provides no benefit to the creator, and it only has downsides for the customer. If you are a content creator who sells no-mod hair, bodies, clothing, I just want you to ask yourself, "Why am I selling these items no mod? Is there a reason, or is it just habit? Am I just doing it because everyone else seems to?"<br />
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If you're a customer, I want to encourage you to support those content creators who do release moddable rigged/fitmesh content and I want you to encourage more content creators to do the same.Penny Pattonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07707742298693174730noreply@blogger.com2