SL Designer Notes

This is a new kind of post for the blog, where I talk about some of the tools I couldn't have done without in designing and building for SL. Today I want to talk about texture changing scripts. Anytime you want to offer more than one texture option for your build, a texture-changing script is a good way to do it—it allows you to include all the textures in the same version, rather than making a unique version with each texture option. If you have more than one variable texture, this becomes necessary more than just convenient. For home and garden at least, there are a few ways to go when you want to offer texture-changing options. For some things, a HUD may be the best option. It's not part of the build itself, but is set up to interact with the build and provide the various texture changes you want/need. In other cases, a script that enables the build itself to contain the texture changing options is ideal. I tried out multiple options for both kinds before arriving at the one

Salacity History, Part 14... My friend Phen had stepped in to help with store management for a while, but had been forced to cut back due to RL circumstances (the story of my life), so I went a while without a "store manager" and worked through it on my own. But in light of my newfound determination to take Salacity to the next level, a new store/brand manager was in order. Enter Melly, whom I had known for a while due to her excellent work with Love To Decorate. After a staff shake-up with LTD, Melly was available for work and she started out by helping me re-vamp my vendor ads—a much-needed area of attention. After working with me and Salacity for a couple of months in that capacity, Melly took on the role of store/brand manager in full. This ended up being a particularly fruitful time, and I give Melly a ton of credit for the progress Salacity made during this era. Besides significant improvements on the vendor ads, Melly worked with me in setting up the store in a new bui

While we're on the subject of "original mesh" we may as well take on this issue. Frankly, it's one of the things I'm most glad to be free of now that I'm no longer "in the game." The issue is this: people in SL obtain 3D mesh content from somewhere, rather than creating it themselves, and then upload it to SL and pass it off as their own. That's the ethical problem—so-called "designers" lying about the fact that they didn't actually create this object that they are presenting as "original" mesh.  Most of the time, there is a legal side of it too: the source(s) they got the mesh models from do not allow use of such things in SL. ALL of the 3D websites where you can buy (or on some cases download for free) these models have legal terms of use—a license, if you will—that stipulates how and in what context their products can be used. All of them prohibit USE (let alone re-sale) in "virtual worlds" such as Second Life

Aha, so you sell "original mesh" creations? What, exactly, does that mean—"original mesh"? (This one is going to be a little longer than usual. Please bear with me!) I'm not sure I've ever encountered such an undefined mess as the so-called original mesh phenomenon in Second Life. It's something that means the world to some and nothing at all to many others.  On the face of it, it seems (at least to me) to be a pretty straightforward concept: if you claim that something is "original mesh" then you mean that you created it from scratch. You may have followed a tutorial to make some or all of it, and/or you may have based your idea on something else that you saw somewhere else. But when it came to making the mesh for the object you've made—be it clothing, furniture, decor, a fashion accessory, or even a whole avatar—you did the hard work of modeling the object using 3D software like Blender or Maya.  Some designers have a much broader definit

 Salacity History, Part 13... The more events you are in, the more designers you meet and become friends—or at least professional acquaintances—with. And my list of fellow designer-friends was growing steadily. As it grew, I found more and more of my social experiences in SL were focused on talking shop.  One of the things that happens when you talk shop with other designers is you begin to feel insignificant, unaccomplished, and inept. At least, that was MY experience, quite regularly. When my friends would talk about the events they were in, or the amount of lindens they were bringing in from new releases, I often questioned whether what I was doing was worth the time I put into it. It was tempting to feel jealous or even envious of them. Yet, through those conversations there were hints of encouragement too. The same friends wouldn't let me compare myself to them unfavorably, but would respond with hope. "You'll get there," they often said.  I began to wonder wheth

 Every builder, no matter what their skill level or experience, runs into problems they have trouble solving. There's no shame in asking for help when you need it. Fortunately, SL's home and garden building community is full of helpful people! It's my understanding that some groups of designers are far more cut-throat and competitive (I'm looking at you, fashion world), but that's not been my experience in the home and garden segment of designers at all. There are some strong communities that are active and filled with people willing to help. Here's a few that I've found and appreciate, and hope that you might as well. In-World Groups Builder's Brewery: a singular institution, this is far more than just a group. They have an entire sim devoted to resourcing builders. They offer classes, free sandbox areas for building, and, of course, a number of helpful groups. The main group almost always has active group chat going where people ask questions (and rece

Just as with mesh and animations, it can sometimes be overwhelming to try to find good textures for use in your creations in SL. There are a LOT of sources in-world, and sometimes you can find great textures for a bargain. On the other hand, some of these will look great on display but not work out well when tiled or used on UVs.  Finding good textures for manual texturing approaches can be very difficult at times. Some of the sources in-world and on the Marketplace are better than others. Ditto with websites and off-world sources. Below is my list of recommended sources for textures, both in-world and across the interwebs, for those who work directly with AO maps and aren't using a tool like Substance Painter. Naturally, this is not an exhaustive list of every texture source; these are the ones I've used and can recommend personally. In-World Sources Aethis Creations : GullyRivers is a very talented creator, and he offers a nice (if small-ish) selection of textures with full p