Alright...
...
Officially...
...talk about being "lost in the mail..."
RL:
Officially, RL had me choked. But I knew it would be good to keep this blog active, especially for when I had finally worked through some of my challenges. So thank you for letting me do that artistically. I bet if you read between the lines, you could see what kind of death grip RL had on my emotional and mental well-being.
Usually, the duality of
SL & RL will balance me out. Like, if one reality sucks, the other will carry me through. But sometimes, when things are so uncontrollably devastating in one world, you almost give up all hope. I spent many weeks living in my bed, and I couldn't even tell you half of all the programs I zoned out to on the television! :p
I'm fine now, tho. I've come to terms with it and given it up to the powers that be, as well as healthy distraction.
Also, as another cool uplifting side-note... one of the problems I had with some gov't agencies and going back to school has
finally resolved itself (after a year), so I have my auto mechanic opportunity back now. YaAaAaAaAAaayyy! :D
...So hopefully, my reality can be salvaged and I can finish completely pulling through the mess I refer to as my RL. :p
SL:
I have a multitude of subjects to catch up with you on (I will highlight the different topics in
red, so they're easy for you to spot)! Links will be
bold red.
...So we have all discovered there is nothing to fear from
Tilia? :) I asked the Premium Chat Help, way back when this was first announced, if I would need to send in a bunch of proof, since I already had a
PayPal account connected... And they were like, "Nope, you're fine! Seamless!" And I think I verified my information from my
Dashboard > Account > Process Credit once ...So it should be good now, for whenever I want to cash out some L$ into real $! :)
And, yes, I unfortunately & completely missed out on
SL16B! :( ...I tried to go...
(...love my updo, too...)
...but there was too much lag even for my lowest lag avatar, and I just very simply ran out of time!
Which did bring me to developing this JIRA for Firestorm. And yeah, the answer from Willow Wilder is pretty darn cool -like, nobody from the FS Group told me this shit, as they were prolly all too busy trying to not crash in SL16B, themselves, LOL! ;)
Hopefully, you got more than the 2 & 1/2 sims worth of free gifties + demos that I was able to tackle! ;) ...Unfortunately, I did miss out on the Premium SL16B giftie! :( But oh, well, I got the
Halloween Decorating Kit, and that's all that matters, as Halloween is my
favorite holiday! :D
At some point, I'll have to show you how great
BOM (Bakes On Mesh) is for me.
FS just came out with a BOM update, but
Maitreya is still in the process of developing an upgrade (and so is CATWA - there's a relay HUD in their gift section inworld) ...Actually, I think
SLINK is the only mesh body on the market that has completed a BOM product so far. I am very excited about it! Maybe my tattoos and make-up will finally look correct (as Photoshopping my skin + tattoos with Developer Kits =
ugly seams)!!!
I'll share with you this Notecard I got from the
Maitreya Lara Friends group (18MAY19), as to why BOM is so important (a layered mesh body is sorta like a bunch of linked Russian matryoshka nesting dolls: clothing, underwear, tattoos, & skin/body itself - although, a lot of you are referring to this as an "onion" *rolls eyes and cries about the simple
Shrek reference*) ...And then there are the silly slights about
old skins and how BOM isn't necessary... I simply think it's because you might not appreciate the value or empowerment this gives us to our identities regarding layers and not needing to use Mask Mode (which distorts & compromises the integrity of fine detail in tattoos & lacy underwear, for example):
Understanding Alpha Mask Mode v2
A very common thing to see in group chat is the mention of Mask Mode on layers. I'll try to explain what it is, what it does, and why we need it, without lapsing into speaking Geek or using acronyms. I know this is long. It's a complex subject. You should have seen it before I edited it. ;)
When our video cards process the scene in front of us, they have to decide what is visible and what is hidden. Normally they do this very well. If everything were either transparent or opaque with nothing in between, there would be no problem. But our world is not that simple. We like things that are sheer, and shaded. That's where it can get tricky.
The problem we have with layers disappearing is not new at all. We used to see it with things like a wall that has a window in it - all on one prim and done with texture. If you put a tree outside, sometimes that tree would appear to come inside. You would see it between you and the wall, not outdoors where it belongs. That should not happen any more with rezzed objects. But that does not apply to attachments.
Second Life does not sort alpha on attachments. Our mesh bodies and heads are attachments. If they did 'flip the switch' and allow the video card to try to sort alpha on attachments, nobody would be able to do anything if there was someone wearing hair in the vicinity. There is a solution in the works at Linden Lab, but it's in its infancy and there is no clue about when we will see it. Fortunately, we do have a workaround.
There are 2 kinds of transparency in use. First we have Alpha masking. This is an all-or-nothing thing. Think of alpha layers on the classic avatar. It's either opaque or it's invisible, there is no in between. This is perfect for some things. But things like tattoos and sheer stockings need something more. For that we have Alpha blending. This is built in to the texture and called an Alpha Channel. This channel has 256 possible values ranging from fully transparent to fully opaque. That's where shadows, sheer fabric, and tattoos come in.
** SIDENOTE ** You can wear multiple tattoo layers and stack sheer clothes over them until the cows come home on a classic avatar and this glitch will never happen. The reason is because your card is not rendering those individually as it is with a mesh body. No matter how many clothing layers you have on your classic avatar, it's all one texture, baked on the server and sent to you.
OK, so what is Mask Mode for? Remember, your video card gets confused with stacked Blended Layers since there is no 'guidance' in the form of sorting. But adding a Masked Layer between them acts like a full stop for the calculations. Think of it as dividing a pile of white papers by slipping a sheet of red paper into the middle of the pile. With that marker in there, you can easily tell where the upper half and the lower half of the pack are. A Masked Mode layer acts like the red paper, telling the video card what is what with the layers.
An example of how to use the Mask Mode is to wear a tattoo on the tattoo layer and sheer stockings on the pants layer. Chances are, the tattoo will disappear. Add something on the Underwear Layer, and turn on the Mask Mode on your Lara HUD. Your tattoo will now show up beneath your stockings the way it's supposed to. That Masked Layer in between the two worked like our red piece of paper in the pile of papers in the last paragraph, allowing both blended layers to render properly.
This glitch has been around for years, no video card, no software, and no product is immune to it. SL gives us tools to combat it, but those are not something we as end users can employ. The best thing we can do is choose our applier layers carefully and plan ahead to overcome the problems that can crop up. Once you have done it a few times, it will become routine. The Lara body lets you choose which layer to wear an applier on, and that helps in the battle against the alpha glitch.
There is light at the end of the tunnel though. LL has recently announced a plan to (in time) allow us to "bake" textures for layers on mesh bodies. This will allow us to, for example, combine a tattoo and stockings into one layer with the skin, which will resolve the problem.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in world and I will do my best to help in any way I can!
gяуρнση (gryphon.ronas)
Maitreya CSR
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Maitreya%20Isle/174/192/23
It's true... tho, as a builder, I can tell you that alpha blending (for a transparent/.png/alpha texture) looks much prettier than alpha masking. Alpha masking is a great tool if you need to use it... But yes, detail will end up getting distorted. :(
---> Check out what this all means.
---> Original SL Wiki link.
I will attempt to show you:
Here, I have a skybox with the side-walls and roof as transparent textures.
Perhaps you can see the skybox seams, with an experienced builder eye.
Notice how you can see the trees, but the sky is transparent (except for the clouds).
This is to let the regular SL sky come through, and to perhaps give off a more realistic feel/effect.
Now I'm going to stand in the middle of this skybox and edit my flexi hair.
You can see that my flexi hair is made up of multiple faces of transparent textures (as otherwise, some type of picture would come up in the checkered square looking "Texture" part of the build window).
Notice how the Alpha mode is "Alpha blending."
Okay, now keep it in mind that my hair is made up of transparent textures.
And remember earlier, I pointed out that the skybox is made up of transparent textures as well.
Now, I put some thought into building the skybox...
I used an Alpha masking technique on the wall textures.
Brought the Mask cutoff up to 100.
See how pretty my hair normally looks when we do that?
Why did I go thru all that trouble with the Alpha masking on the skybox walls?
Why didn't I just leave it on the Alpha blending default?
Because it's easier to adjust the Alpha masking on the walls of a skybox, than every little linked piece of my hair (which is prolly in the 100+ prim range). ...And besides, I've deduced that the original creator of my hair knew what they were doing when they made my hair (as they are very well known + successful)!
But just for fun, let's watch what happens to my hair when I turn the skybox walls back to the Alpha blending default...
Uht, ohs...
...Look by my ear...
It looks like my hair is very greasy, to say the least!
...Where did all the fluffy thickness go?
Here it is from another angle, in case you missed that...
^ ...How my flexi hair (with a lot of prims + using the Alpha blending technique for its transparent/.png/alpha textures),
looks against a background that also uses a transparent/.png/alpha texture with an Alpha masking technique
-versus-
that same background with Alpha blending... v
Especially right by my ear and the immediate start of my left wing, you can see that in order for my flexi hair to look normal, I have to adjust my skybox build to where the transparent/.png/alpha textures of the skybox walls are set to Alpha masking & with a Mask cutoff of 100. Otherwise, it is like the 2 different objects with transparencies (my hair and the skybox) are competing with each other to be rendered (and inevitably, one loses).
Now we can make that the equivalent to such a thing as a mesh body and its multiple layers of clothing, underwear, tattoos, and the skin/body itself (especially with many transparent/.png/alpha textures layered on top of one another) ...And why my tattoos disappear (whenever I wanna wear things like lacy underwear), which really pisses me off (and why I had to take my skin into PS & put the tattoos on it myself... which still pisses me off, because I cannot get them to line up correctly, as they do show inevitable mesh body seams)!
...Now let me show you why Mask Mode (at least on the Maitreya Lara mesh body, if not all mesh bodies) sucks and doesn't solve the issue of having, say, tattoos + lacy underwear on at the same time...
Let me take you back to my skybox example...
Here is the transparent/.png/alpha tree/cloud texture on regular/default Alpha blending mode...
Notice, to the left, how you can see the regular SL skyline and regular SL clouds behind the wall texture I have, here.
Look what happens to the detail/blending of the wall texture's clouds when we change this to the appropriate Alpha blending mode with a Mask cutoff of 100.
Now you can really tell the difference between the skybox texture and the regular SL sky!
Perhaps I should've tried an Emissive mask + regular transparency %, but my comparative example here is fine (as there's no fine-tuning control for transparent/.png/alpha texture layers on mesh bodies anyway) ...But can you imagine how this affects tattoos/lacy underwear in Mask Mode on an actual mesh body? ...Especially when how one looks in SL weighs so heavily on the consciousness of all SL residents? I mean, the market relies so heavily on either land or personal identification... And if everyone is going to get so persnickety about how they look and jump on the expensive mesh body bandwagon, well, then shouldn't the texture layers of the mesh body have the right to look fucking fabulous right off the bat without a lot of dicking around?
I know, I'm outraged too! LOL
...So this is one of the most important reasons why BOM is so very important and why I am officially looking forward to my personal success with this project! - I fully believe that if you simply take all these layers (clothing, underwear, tattoos, skin) and allow the SL server to work with your mesh body, by baking them all into *one* simple texture that goes on (in the correct layer order, nonetheless -which is adjustable)... Things will line up (no seams), and you can wear *all* these things perfectly without anything disappearing!
Other reasons can be found here ---> SL forum
And also, I thought it would be fun to point out that in the "olden days" of SL building, one would put multiple face textures into *one* uploaded texture (and know how to adjust the one texture for each face of an entire object, or even multiple objects), to save on rendering texture cost
...This may be why it takes so long for everything to rez from gray objects to their actual textures...
One baked texture for mesh bodies = terrific!
So yeah, thank you, LL
!
...Finally:
- Be the sexy you, that you desire to be in SL!
- Justice for all the mesh body creators who work so hard to put something so elaborate & wonderful together!
- Justice for all the creators who painstakingly design fantastic clothing, tattoo, and skin textures!
...After sleuthing from FS's BOM page, this is the best blog I've seen so far (that really holds your hand through the whole thing), as you attempt BOM for yourself:
---> Virtual Bloke "Get Baked – A Quick Beginners’ Guide to Using Bakes on Mesh" from Skell Dagger (quite a well-read guy with a personality I can appreciate!) ;)
---> And this is a great video on how to make BOM happen for you (FS, Maitreya, CATWA, and a few other options), by Novata!
BTW, congratulations to Strawberry Singh (an infamous Blogger) ---> Strawberry Linden!
I never thought it would be possible to be so professional, thorough, and thoughtful that one could ever be held in the Lindens' highest regard, enough to actually
be recruited! What an honor!
...Maybe I should start taking SL more seriously now! LOL
I keep missing them when they initially air, but one of these days I might be able to catch them & actually participate!
We're currently on episode 3, which talks about official blogging for SL!
-But make sure you read the
Terms & Conditions + the
Content Guidelines.
...Now, I've given it some thought (as this certainly has been somewhat of an inspiration to call me back to the awesomeness of updating my notes, here)...
...I mean, sure, I would love to put this badge on
my page. To be a part of a network of officials that get heard and mean something amongst valued SL residents...
But I honestly think that their end decision might be that my point-of-view is too raw & "in-your-face" to meet their approval standards. ...I mean, I've thoroughly wrapped my notes up in the First Amendment and sealed it with George Carlin spices, just perfect for Cheech and Chong (or something, you know? LOL)! ...If something unfair is happening, I point it out (I don't want to be afraid to call a spade a spade). But also, if something is great, I like to thoroughly nurture that too... I like to put as much information in these as I can (even with links and such); geared for someone who isn't necessarily familiar with SL (who might even be possibly inspired to join the platform), or for those who are veterans and would like to know it from a somewhat amusing proficient's POV. Not everything is bad. Not everything is good. I just like to present facts with some personality. ...And I don't want to be afraid to be me.
I
might submit this site for only some
specific, selected posts? ...that would be cool and totally fine with me. I
do have the capability to write like that *swats some of the curse words off the screen* ...Or I could totally put a NSFW parental advisory logo on every entry, LOL! ...Maybe,
maybe, if cool ppl like Skell get on there, then perhaps I have a chance too! ;)
...But if in the end, I'm too "uninhibited" or whatever, that's fine with me as well. I advocate that it's more important to not feel artistically stifled or constrained with the messages one is trying to communicate ... Because if we worry about the hoity-toityness of it all, then perhaps anxiety will consume us and we'll lose our voice completely --And a passionate, thriving world deserves to have an equal match [in it]! ;)
In the meanwhile, I have
some other important updates I'd very much like to inform you about!
...But I think this particular note is getting long enough, already...
So stay tuned for updates on my
official family status ( <---may link this later) and some really
officially fun things I've been up to in SL (like Blender, Alienum, maybe more detail on BOM + Dev. Kits, and even church *
gasp, yes*) ( <---may also link these later)! ;)
Good luck to you in your endeavors, and remember to be true to yourself ...
the universe conspires to carry you!
