Redefining Avatar in Second Life

Pirates Keep (moderate)

I’m starting with the same photo I used at the beginning of yesterday’s post. I’m doing that because there is a glaring error in it that has been bothering me ever since I clicked “publish”. You see it right? You recognized my incompetence, I’m sure.

I went back and fixed it this morning. If you’re having difficulty distinguishing the one problem that has obsessed me over all the other issues in the image – look at the reflection in the near foreground. Now look at the one in this version.

Pirates Keep (moderate)

In the first image there’s no reflection of the ship – and there should have been. The mistake I made was to tell the graphics to show reflections of all static objects – I forgot to include avatars. This matters if the objects are mesh – the system treats them as avatars. I could probably figure out why, but it’s enough for me to know it does, trying to psychoanalyze some code is not necessary. :)

This little quirk in the viewer trips me up frequently – you’d think by now I’d remember.

Edo Japan Kitamachi (moderate)

It sometimes happens that I’ll spend an excessive amount of time lining up a shot. I’ll get the angle, light, composition just the way I want it and then some innocent avatar will arrive.

To fix that I would tell the system not to render avatars. Problem solved. Until the advent of mesh. Now look what happens – same shot, just no avatars.

Edo Japan Kitamachi (moderate)

You don’t lose all mesh constructs. Buildings, for example, seem to stay. Objects, however, can vanish along with the resident you’re trying to ignore.

I’ll have to figure out workarounds for some of these things and put giant notes to myself around the screen saying “Avatars are Mesh, Some Mesh = Avatars”. In the meantime I’ll follow the arrow and go visit Romy Nayar’s↑ new exhibit. I’ll bring you that tomorrow. :)

Tims Dreams by Romy Nayar (moderate)

Posted by honourmcmillan on October 15, 2012

https://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/redefining-avatar-in-second-life/