All posts in category Mesh

A Gorgeous Mesh Combat Sim in Second Life

I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I’m a coward. Military/war/combat sims are way out of my comfort range and it doesn’t help that I’m usually killed as soon as I land on one.

This background is my justification for staying within the sanctuary of the City of Edmond↑ church this morning and just camming around the sim. :)

Merczateers: City of Edmond (general)

I might have taken my chances on the street but the information card at the landing spot only said that visitors are not allowed in the parliament building, the rest of the material was on combat rules and weapons and schedules. I decided to stay where I knew it was safe.

Merczateers: City of Edmond (general)

This is a gorgeous mesh sim. It feels much bigger because there is so much “build” there – it would take hours to explore every nook and cranny. I love the way mesh textures and objects rez and photograph – it’s a superb example of what’s possible.

Merczateers: City of Edmond (general)

I don’t know anything about the Merczateers↑ and the “info” part of their site has a broken link. However, they have a style I appreciate. Their application form insists that recruits use ” acceptable English, including: capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, grammar and spelling.” You might think this would preclude speakers of english as a second language. In my experience it will actually put more pressure on those who consider chat and text-speak to be “the norm”.

Guns and recruitment policies aside, this is a neat sim and you should go visit. Those with more courage than I will probably leave the church of course. :)

Merczateers: City of Edmond (general)

1 Comment

by honourmcmillan on August 19, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Great Builds, Mesh, Photography, Second Life

Posted by honourmcmillan on August 19, 2012

https://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/a-gorgeous-mesh-combat-sim-in-second-life/

Solving Technical Issues, Owing Vampires & a Region of Mesh in Second Life

Mayfair (general)

I’ve spent the past couple of days alternately fussing with this new system I have and walking away in disgust. I’ve got more speed and power and my Second Life performance has dramatically improved but I had one teensy tiny issue. If I landed somewhere with a lot of sculpties or even just a few objects made of mesh, I crashed.

My level of frustration increased with everything I tried to fix the problem. I didn’t think it was the fault of my video card – although I was getting error messages from Nvidia – I mean the thing worked on my old system. I kept insisting it was Win 7 even though my friends assured me they weren’t having any issues.

Mayfair (general)

I continued googling different descriptions of the issue and finally found what appears to be the solution. I’m running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 but SL, of course, is a 32 bit program. That’s OK, Win 7 recognizes this and adjusts. However, at least in my case, I had to make one more tweak to avoid crashing everytime a mesh object appeared.

If you right click the Second Life icon on your desktop and choose properties, there is a Compatibility option to run the program as if it was in an environment which used to work for you. In my case that was Windows XP. Video problem solved? I would have to test.

Mayfair (general)

With some kind of freak metaphysical timing I ran across this photo↑ by that Androgynous, Albino, Australian Fashionisto Vampire Winter Jefferson↑. Two things struck me about the photo, the first is that he was dressed (not something that happens frequently) and the second is that he said the location he was in was a “mesh sim”.

Earlier in the day I was crashing at a Show & Tell↑ every time somebody rezzed just one mesh object. I decided that a really good test of the solution to my technical problem would be an entire region of these objects.

Mayfair (general)

I can report back from my trip that Mayfair↑ is a shopping region (home to two large stores), it is mesh, it is gorgeous and I did not crash. It’s a fabulous example of the technology and the amazing clarity and crispness of textures that creators get when they use mesh. In fact it’s so “clean” I started to look for litter. :)

Since I’m already in debt to that Aussie blood sucker let me pass on one more tip from Mr. Ilovethespotlight. If you have found that sometimes mesh objects won’t rez for you, or a mesh avatar is missing pieces on your screen, there is a debug setting you can adjust. Go to “meshmaxConcurrentRequests” which is set at 32 by default and increase the number to 64 or 100 or higher if your system can stand it. Then click on something you were having issues seeing – the rest of the mesh landscape should appear.

I’ll go back to exploring and stop worrying about hard landings. :)

Mayfair (general)

13 Comments

by honourmcmillan on March 19, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Great Builds, Mesh, Second Life

Posted by honourmcmillan on March 19, 2012

https://honourmcmillan.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/solving-technical-issues-owing-vampires-a-region-of-mesh-in-second-life/

Spirit Soars in Second Life

Spirit (moderate)

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. Leonardo da Vinci

You’ve probably already seen a lot of photos and read a huge number of words about Claudia222 Jewell’s↑ new exhibit at Art Screamers↑ and it only opened yesterday. I hope you’re paying attention because this is one of those times where “everybody” is right – you must go experience this installation.

Around the beginning of June last year Claudia and I were getting ready for SL8B and she mentioned that she planned to take a short break and learn mesh. A couple of months later I received an exquisite mesh dragon as a gift from this artist – damn that woman. Not only did she “learn mesh” in a ridiculously short period of time, she mastered it. The proof is Spirit↑.

Spirit (moderate)

I have to admit I dragged my virtual feet a bit when it came to venturing onto the sim. I had missed the preview and the entire opening day never seemed to have less than 35 people on the island (it was in the destination guide before it even opened). If you’re planning to take photos and want to avoid lag it’s a lot easier to “do your thing” if there’s nobody else there. I finally decided to at least look around and teleported in. There was no problem. In fact, I managed to take some large format, high res photos without crashing (of course I still have some scratch removal to do).

Claudia told me they’d had a number of visits from Lindens and that she got a message that one of them had moved the sim to a new server to reduce the impact of a high number of avatars and improve their experience. It seems to have worked so don’t be afraid to join the crowd. I saw no bitching or moaning in chat, just expressions of joy and wonder.

Spirit (moderate)

One of the things I love about Claudia’s work is that she learns new skills, like mesh, but keeps her aesthetic. There doesn’t seem to be any compromise required whatever medium she is using. Her work is a wonderful result of both talent and skill.

This is beautiful exhibit – the details are extraordinary. I spent a lot of time camming in close and you find more and more to admire the closer you look. Of course she has this sort of quirky need to portray what might be horrific if found in your dreams, but she stills makes it positive.

Spirit (moderate)

Claudia has designed the installation to be viewed in the standard daylight settings (I had her permission to play with windlight so no accusations of “photo bitch” thank you) because she didn’t want visitors to have to fuss with windlight. I think it’s amazing in whatever light you choose. Oh and make sure you get your free mesh avatar near the landing spot – it’s a great way to take part of this art home with you.

One last note. There is this large, attractive tree covered in flowers. You might notice movement in one of those blooms and if you look closely you’ll find it’s chewing on a foot. I said to her that she was the only person I knew who could make a carnivorous tree look beautiful. “Well,” she said, “the man was very ugly.” :)