• Open Sim - Second Life

    Future Projects in OpenSim: TJ Texture Junction Textures #SecondLife

    Thank goodness for generous EULAs. Whee! TJ-Texture Junction’s policies allow use in any world, so the textures I already bought (and love) can be used on my projects in Open Sim. “You are free to use my textures in builds in SL or any other world just please do not resell them as textures…” – Texture Junction/Philomena Steampunk This is a huge help. Just looking at these textures helps me “see” what I could do with my Expo project. I also got some templates that will spiff up the basic ones that are widely (too widely) available in OS. This…

  • Asides

    Open Sim: Medium Splendor Skin on Bento Head with berry lipstick

    flic.kr/p/25t59jR This is the result of playing around with the basic Splendor skin files (which has minimal layers but allows using soft light and overlay to vary skin tones). The “fair” option was too pale and had harsh makeup; this is an overly on a darker option. The darkest option, by the way, is gorgeous. The outfit is one of Hyacinth’s clothing shells. I like the coverage. I may offer this skin for Ruth 2.0 and make a more detailed one with more realistic “peaches and cream” shading later. I’ll use this look for one of my Expo NPC characters…

  • Asides

    Beginner Blender Tutorial With A Written Recipe

    My mouse skills in Blender are a challenge, because I usually use a Marble Man trackball mouse. I have a wireless trackball with a scroll wheel but there’s a bit of lag. I have conventional mice, but desk space and chair height don’t work ergonomically. I struggle to find the sweet spot between comfort, convenience, and convention, as I’ve switched Blender’s maddening right-select behavior. Even though this is Cycles, I might be able to follow this and finally train muscle memory beyond the brink of my current impasse. Tutorial: How to model a medieval house – 3D Low-Poly Game Modeling…

  • Asides

    Cycles For Haters

    I’m one of those “remaining users” that hates Cycles. When I see it mentioned on a help forum, I stop reading. When I watch a help video, I stop watching. Yet thanks to reading Blender site feeds, I’m tolerably familiar with the latest developments… and I KNOW the old Blender Internal engine is going away in a coming release. All I need is the ability to bake out AO, maybe normals, and possibly a basic materials map with painted on details. Ugh. “How to use cycles even if you hate cycles(as I did)” – BlenderNation — Read on www.blendernation.com/2018/03/24/how-to-use-cycles-even-if-you-hate-cyclesas-i-did/

  • Asides

    Ebbe and Oz talk Second Life in the cloud – Inara Pey: Living in a Modem World

    It’s a huge effort. Right now the Second Life grid is a proprietary set-up in a hosting facility that we have customised for the purposes of what we’re doing – which made sense a decade and half ago. But these days, with the services from Google and Amazon and Microsoft with cloud infrastructures, it makes… — Read on modemworld.me/2018/03/24/ebbe-and-oz-talk-second-life-in-the-cloud/

  • Asides

    Replacements and Alternatives to Second Life

    Nice overview by Lindal Kidd. She should try Hypergrid Safari if she can work with their scheduled Wednesday start times. Across The Grid With Lindal Kidd!: Replacements and Alternatives to Second Life — Read on acrossthegridwithlindal.blogspot.com/2018/03/replacements-and-alternatives-to-second.html