Zsculpty Markus giveth

:)

Just had my first try on the new mesh ZSculpty Tools, worked really well. That's my first correctly textured mesh. I used the uv master for the first time.My normal sculpy method uses a separate texture for each shoe part the mesh way packs them all together on a single image
It took a little figuring ou, I was hoping I could take the poly-painted parts of the shoe I had, and have them appear by magic on the flattened uv.Maybe there's no way of doing that. I just poly-painted on the new combined uv version of the shoe. A little extra secret bonus of this plugin is the files open in Photoshop extended in 3d. As time passes i'm using Photoshop less and less as I keep finding out zb does all that stuff.Zb is really turning out to be the tool for the job in regards to secondlife atleast it does everything I want in a way my feeble little brain can understand.

What is it

It isn't a chat room people don't talk there.It isn't a creative melting pot those things cant happen in a vacuum.It also isn't a place for online business meetings. As i said before there are no new people there.Just a string of alts looking for the thril it gave them when it was new.But the thrill seekers went when the porn required you to hand over rl details. Who is left well a few organisers, u know the type "Everybody follow me" "come along don't straggle at the back" the rest are the mentally ill, the outsiders the lost and the lonely.Secondlife always looked like a closed theme park.
I thought I could try to make a few sl friends in a different location "Plurk" but it seems i misunderstood the point of it.My interent background b4 secondlife was over in the Mirc Chat rooms.I hung out there for years having a laugh chatting with people.Plurk isn't a chat room as far as i can gather its a location to make pithy statements into the ether.I thought the people there were like me and wanted to chat talk about what we are making discuss ideas and have a laugh.I was however wrong.The people there care more about Karma and insipid shallowness and the occasional sales pitch than they do about the people there.Maybe its me maybe its a generational thing maybe its a chat rooms aint plurk or sl thing.I like talking to friends, it doesn't happen in these places
Leaves me the question what am i doing here?
Maybe its time to go

Harumph..don't get me started...

So after a Plurk/SL friend (zbrush genius and all round great person of note etc), Siddean of SLink posted a link to an article on Second life's failings written by a person who doesn't like it anyway I was a little annoyed and took the time to respond to the piece, yup, D Adored is meeee. Below is that response:

'Today I walked around The City of London; It was empty, it was cold, it rained a bit, there were adverts for prostitutes in a newsagents window, which means it must be full of them. I will be telling everyone this is how it is and never go again. I will not ask any real residents to show me around nor shall I investigate further, there was obviously no art, entertainment or social activity because in my wander around I didn't find any. That's my well researched and deep searching article that I shall now send off to newspapers and get published. Seriously? Where to start...I agree with almost every single thing said above, the Lindens are spoling SL with their greed, the starter experience can be shaky and the UI could be better, but there is so much more to SL than you found (again, I haven't been to Zindra since it opened, I've been in 3 years). You found what you looked for, porn and boredom; A wank in a wasteland, and it's no surprise you found it, because it's there. But it isn't the whole picture. SL is an interactive environment, there are artists and content creators everywhere and I can't believe you didn't bother looking further. Just a quick google would find you blogs with news of events and places to visit. All this shows is your lack of articulacy and willingness to look beneath an accepted stereotype; The 'look at those freaks' documentaries where the fat people meet online and get married. Sneer away, we are used to it.'

Unfortunately the comments only had a 1500 character capacity so I couldn't get on to how the graphics are more than likely his computers problem and that comparing SL to consul gaming is just wrong. He quite comprehensively missed the point, and this is the impression people will have of Second Life unless we all do something about it.

Rip you a new one

If you accept stolen items, in SL, and you're over, let's say a year old, then you are worse than the copybotter. Any dick can copybot anything; it isnt hard, google it.

Yeah, stick it to the Lindens, bastards. But here's the thing the Lindens ain't hurt by this 'victimless crime'.

Second Life is a game, people play it as an enrichment activity. Before I came to SL , I'd never used Photoshop or used a computer creatively, at all. I'd played games, sure, but I never thought I would ever be able to make one. But then, bit by bit, I made friends, I talked to people who do this stuff.

You read the stories about the 'SL Millionaires' they are out there, I'm not one of 'em. I'd like to be, who wouldn't, but it isn't really why I make things in Sl. The reason I make things is that by nature I'm a creative person. RL doesn't give me much opportunity for un-restricted creativity and decorating the bathroom doesn't make my juices pump.

Making things is hell. It's hard work, detailed work, its fucking frustrating and then people can't even tell you why they don't like it. Sooner or later, with a lot of work, your shit can turn to gold.

I was reading that one of my friends creations had been copied, again. She uses the same software as me and she kicks my ass at it. Am I bitter? well yes, I am but only 'cos I can't work that hard. But its good to have a target. I can build shoes. I could rip hers, could probably even fool her with 'em. But that's not the game I'm playing.

If you can rip stuff, stop being a lazy cunt do something to actually impress me. Build something. If you buy/take/or distribute stolen gear knowingly, emphasis on knowingly, you are as bad as them, stealing someone's time, someone's effort and care.

A noob won't know. But you, dear reader, ain't a noob and you do know the difference. Let it slip by you're the lowest kinda shit.

Let the maker know if someone gives a box of ripped hair, skins or boots that you suspect ain't right. If you aren't sure ask a blogger, plurk it, facebook it to find out, but be suspicious. You don't usually get given good stuff for free, you have to hunt it, join groups or visit shops. SL is big if no one tells us we won't know and although there's not a lot we can do about it without spending big money on legal things, we can at least get them booted from SL, yeah, they'll be back in an alt, but we can all stop keep inviting the thieving little fucker to our parties.

The Last Days of Rome

As the last few Secondlife users stand on the precipice of the end of the Metaverse we’re left to reflect on how this came to be. Whilst the for the few the plentiful times were rewarding the many were left to wander what felt like a empty amusement park. The world sprawled sim upon sim were greedily piled into the verse. In rl there’s a maxim “They’re not making anymore land” in sl this doesn’t apply. Whilst expansion feels good, feels like success they were infact sealing their own fate. At its heart Secondlife is a social net work, a chat room dressed in fine clothes and architecture but at its heart a social experience .The people complained of lag so sought their own lands their own sims to avoid it to take ownership of the problem when they should have complained about the servers and game engine. Alas as the verse grew little by little the networking stopped. The chat dried up, the people left alone to lament their fates staring out from the windows of the ivory towers they created, the guilded cages to set themselves apart from the lag.

The clubs, the hub of social activity were forced into a deathly silence by the dj.boards. Firstly these prim heavy over scripted devices lag the sim to its knees. Secondly the chance of any music related discussion “ hey how u doin what’s this tune” is now greeted by someone pointing at the board. Why would anyone wanna talk about music everyone in sl knows everything…

There are no new people in Secondlife. When did u last meet a noob who wasn’t an alt? The last one I met was Jellie and she had her first rezday a month or two ago.

So enjoy these last 2 months alone. Ill see you in Plurk

Yellow Ford Anglia with Flames up the side

Today's rant.

Few things annoying me lately. There's a lotta smart people in SL but they keep themselves to themselves and bother no one. The idiots, however, are very vocal, inept and generally wrong. Don't get me wrong I'm not the smartest person in second life im just smarter than u.

Viewer wars are stupid and misunderstood, I suppose like, operating systems and to quote-grind Clint Eastwood opinions are like assholes; everyone has one. Most of the viewers used for second life lately (since Emerald cut of its own head to spite its neck) are based on viewer 2. People will have told u at length how v2 is born in its mothers ass must be hated and shunned and that no one who knows anything about Second Life should use it. The makers of alternate viewers download the source code and at the point most of us go gosh I don't know how to do that or how to compile a thingy into a whatsit. It is this natural response keeps us ordinary twats from developing our own viewer. But I had cause to look into the belly of the beast a while back. I'm not a script kid in any sense of the word These alternate viewers don't touch the engine of sl one little bit, the "incompetent Lindens" did all the hard work for us, they just come along and paint it different colours; change the handle bars, maybe a few chrome looking wing mirrors, and would have u believe its all their own work to draw an analogy- its akin to me saying I wrote Photoshop cos I trimmed a photo a bit. Have a look in the sl installation folder at the xml files, they open in word pad mostly in english tweak them a bit u can always re-install if u break it. Sl needs v2, the alternate viewers need v2, bitching about the side bar is missing the point completely.

A browser based hud radar 'who's looking at my tits' sensor isn't what anyone of us need .

What do we need Filthy?

We need everything to rez faster and let more than 20 people in a sim at a time with no lag.

Everything else is just frilly bits.

Show me a viewer that lets my shop rez twice as fast and I'll use your viewer, till then I'll use v2. 'Cos that was made by the organ grinder not the monkey.

Filthy.