Chic at Ebbe's Place

So it's been three weeks in Sansar now and I have had a great time and learned a lot but ready to come back to SL (not that I really left). I proved a few points and made a few waves (all good as stagnant isn't a great place to be) but ---

homemade hair and glasses

I gave myself a month and it will be almost that by the time I get all that I have made up in the store. I don't expect to sell a lot right now but it is good for folks to have choices. And that was part of my plan.

I suspect I will return in a bit to see how things are going and maybe build another experience. December (if you aren't doing the advent calendars) is fairly calm. Maybe then.
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I made my experience much like it would be in SL. That didn't sit well for some folks that are deeply enmeshed in PBR and Phong (different look to the graphics) but personally I feel like the only way Sansar will "make it" will be by appealing to a wider audience that VR.  My site is made for the desktop folks and I am happy to state that.   It seems like The Lab has figured that out also judging by some changes of late.

It is definitely a fun place to vacation for free and play and learn some new skills. No argument there.
So venture over if you want a change of scenery.

A little tardy, I am posting this here -- a copy from the forums.

click for larger photo

This copied from a post on the SL forums for Sansar folks.

Six days of work and research minus one day of redoing pivot points (sigh).  Click for larger photo.

I decided yesterday to slow down some. Redoing a dozen or more items albeit not completely was not on my fun things to do list. I typically charge forth and work frenetically on new projects. Sansar holds no difference.

So instead of completing my first experience in a week, I will take two -- or more; who knows.

One of the problems with all unpoliced platforms is that it is easy to go overboard. Too many tris, too many textures -- they add up and you get those long load times. For me, if that progress bar isn't moving along quickly, it's simply too long.

So far my experience is loading very quickly (I have a 20mbps connection which isn't super speedy these days and have three avatars on hanging around and working in two platforms).

I want to keep it that way.  I am adding normal maps to the builds as they seem to work better here and since we have the power to set the environment to our liking -- unlike Windlight which we have no control over -- it works.

I am impressed with Sansar's look and the tech. The viewer updates automatically and often but it doesn't take long. I crash now and then but getting back on is quick and easy.

I am not thrilled (meaning I will likely not use it) with the move from a regular forum to Discord. It is busy and cluttered, difficult to follow and generally very testosterone centered with that 20 something vibe.  I haven't found any help there although I have tried.

There is a spiffy little Diagnostics bar (shown optionally) that helps you keep track of your build.

very happy with the atmosphere and how the sky and hills seem to coexist in the same distance plane.

I personally don't think it is a good idea o upload normal maps at full size. I cut mine to 25% most of the time and they still look good.

There are apparently issues with alphas. I haven't seen any on my uploads, but watch for that.

There are a variety of ways to upload the textures with your mesh. Standard works for most things. Some choices include alpha which you will need if you have any glass or similarly transparent area on your texture plane.

If you find yourself with your camera ALL messed up in Edit mode, DO NOT SAVE. :D; just exit Sansar.  The position of your camera in edit is saved along with your scene.  So leave your view in a somewhat reasonable position as you will be using it as a starting point on your next working visit.


If you are planning to sell on the Sansar Store then careful NAMING of both your file and mesh object are very important. Info on that in the knowledge base. You can edit the text and pictures in any listing but you can not update the mesh. So you need to make a new listing (presumably losing any good reviews).

Sure there are MANY more things that I am happy I now understand, but that's a start.

While you CAN move object around with the widget underground :D It only makes sense to set it for easy use inworld.

After so VERY many tries I returned my EDIT MODE (rules are different in each mode) viewscreen back to ground level. Oddly in order to get there I had to grab the screen with my left mouse button and drag the complete build seemingly towards me  -- very slowly as it doesn't work all that well.

This may be something leftover from VR and before desktops were more in focus. Whatever the reasoning it is not the least bit intuitive (Really? Drag the screen towards you to move down to ground level?)

At least one navigation trigger on the official graphic available from the viewer entry screen seems to be very wrong --  I can't get anything at all to happen.

So I would say that all in all camera controls are the biggest issue for me. Day 5 and I think (THINK) I am good now. I can cam into a very tiny building around corners and such. But some hints along the way would have helped.  This could likely be a deal-breaker for some folks.

The knowledge base is very informative but there are holes now and then, big ones.

I spent most of the day redoing my uploads.  I had noted that my  items rezzed with the movement widget in some very odd places -- like under the ground a long ways. I dealt with that thinking that it was just a "beta" thing. If there is any info on this --- especially in the creating mesh object info where it shoud be -- I somehow missed it on numerous readings.

So, for those of you that make mesh, in order to have the object rez properly on the ground with the "move me" widget on top of the mesh (oh so handy) you need to move your upload object to  0 0 0 before exporting. The PHYSICS model doens't want to be at 0 0 0 of course (well that's way too easy), you want it to be placed on top of the main mesh object. That unfortunately is not necessarily 0 0 0 placement (oh my).

Anyway a long and tedious day but everything is fixed. Hallelujah.

I also found out from my mentor  that the reason I couldn't get shadows to shift by moving the sun (small arrows up in the sky that you can get to from the Scene Objects menu if you can't spot them) is because the skybox graphic is set WAY to brightly, hence the sun can't shine because it is already way too bright.   I will work on that another day.

Tomorrow I plan to write out a list of important things content creators should know. I suspect that they are already on YouTube or whatever, but still ---

I am currently, as I type, baking a 2048 x 2048 graphic which takes a VERY long time (remember only one texture per mesh :D).

Rules change. We adapt.

Onward.

I have plenty to write about today but someone asked a question on the forums and I wrote a tome about the subject and more so taking the quick way out today and pasting that info in. It was a good question and deserves to be chronicled.

Now that you've been doing some building over there, could you please comment on the level of detail system? How much of the work do you do, and how much is done for you? Could we see your building at low-LOD? Thanks.

You won't believe ALL the steps needed to get this simple vendor photo. But I now have WORK FLOW --- the key.

I am not planning on a long term diary here, but a chronicle of my first week seems doable.

It has been a decade since I had to learn how to move and cam in Second Life. Intellectually I remember the learning curve, but this week has brought those memories home in a visceral way.

The uploader looks daunting with lots of choices, but it was not nearly as hard to master as -- well, walking smoothly, teleporting  ON PURPOSE and figuring out how to get a good camera angle.

Then there is the atmosphere (think Windlight that is not Windlight).  I OH SO MUCH want to move that sun where I need it to be. Maybe there is a way or maybe that will come in time, but getting a good vendor photo is very difficult. That is easy to see really from the photos in the store. I get it. HARD.

Eventually I found a workable work flow and along the way learned how to run  -- by accident of course.  I also appear to be the first one to sell a collision mesh (thinks physics model in SL) for a build that couldn't have one automatically.  It ain't eloquent but it works and people can have their linkset and be able to bump into walls in a natural manner.

So a very good day.

Holding down the mouse wheel you can pan to find a place to teleport to -- then lift up and you are magically there!

The atmosphere is more difficult to deal with as it seems to take its clues from the "skybox" surround that is a special 360 degree photo. They are impressive, no doubt but they seem to be more limited (right now anyway) than our hometown options with all the sliders.

I have one favorite experience with a lovely sky so I can copy that over when needed and of course I will likely learn more as time goes by.   The movement controls (so very much NOT documented) are easier now and I can pan an shift and zoom fairly simply. Fairly I guess should be in quotes.

There are two separate modes in Sansar, one when you visit and experience and a different one when you work on your experience.  The RULES of movement vary (well of course they do).  I did find that in edit mode you can zoom in and cam to see details. That doesn't seem to be true in visitor mode. Hence vendor photos need to be taken while your coveralls are worn and hands and dirty.


So tomorrow I will work some more on my current experience and publish it soon!

Today was a big project day with an attempt (successful) at uploading a building into Sansar. Since I hadn't made it with the Sansar rules in mind, I had a lot of remapping within Blender, but I like this little shack and wanted it in my new space.

I learned a LOT today about what you can and can't do with linksets. I also got a bit better at hopping around my scene via the mouse wheel teleport feature (a bit like double clicking in Firestorm).

Someone messaged me this morning wondering how I was doing in Sansar. She was in both SL and Sansar and had been in Cloud Party although I don't know if we were there at the same time. Lots of conversation and info which was welcome.

I joined Discord kicking and screaming (not a social media buff) simply because the Sansar forums are now on Discord. So that's where the action is and help when needed.

I basically worked things out on my own today; logic was the key.  There are plenty of things that work well in Sansar and plenty of things that are missing -- like being able to link mesh pieces together (which would have solved my current problems :D). But patience is good and we will appreciate features when they become incorporated.  My building in the top photo for instance looks great but has no physics since you cannot upload BOTH a linkset (needed since this wasn't a Sansar build and I had to improvise) and a collision model for the same object.  So I will tackle that issue tomorrow. I have at least one idea. Sometimes ingenuity is all that is needed.


I have sold a couple of things on the store which is fun. I won't be getting rich this week, but still -- that made me smile.  The Sansar store is very simplistic at the moment with only a few steps to list something. Photos need to be VERY basic with no text or anything distracting.  600 x 600 is the size.


As mentioned by many folks, one of the high points of Sansar are the graphics. Normal maps look GOOD here and I am going to start adding them into my builds.

The UPLOADER is a dream come true. A little complex but all in one and your item comes into your inventory ready to go with absolutely nothing else to do but plop it down or send it to the store with a once click listing.

Navigation is still tricky for me but I AM getting better. There are ways I want the camera to move that doesn't seem possible, BUT I found some new angles today so maybe I will find more tomorrow.

Day two began with an attempt to upload my Cloud Party hair of five years ago.  I got the polycount low enough to upload but as I suspected hair needs to be rigged to upload and mine was not. I did upload it as an attachment but since you cannot go bald at the moment, that didn't work well. Not a biggie as it isn't wonderful hair. It would be nice to have a bald option though.  I will put that on my wish list.

I did get some earrings uploaded (also from Cloud Party but with new Cycles textures) and placed as they should be, so I guess that attachments have been conquered.  Ears, Glasses, Bracelet and Ring are the four spots you can attach to.

I did some exploring and checked out all the readymade templates which are impressive, did lots more reading in the knowledge base and made a banner for my Sansar store. A really big graphic, it was tricky to produce using my eight year old logo but I managed and it looks good.

The best part of the day was uploading my walkable hills. Landforms need to be under 5000 tris if I remember correctly, a big number anyway. Mine is 326  and 64 meters :D.  The instructions said NOT to use your main object file as your physics mesh as the physics mesh needs to be low poly. Well mine is about as low poly as you can get so I used the same mesh and have perfect physics. A simple tiling texture (not tiled) looks great on the 64 meter pad.



And 64 meters is bigger in Sansar or seems that way as the avatars are smaller. My landform covers a huge area of the empty building pad.  I am standing in the exact center of this screenshot but I am SO tiny you can't see me. 

I also changed the atmosphere and that was fun until I went to save and it took an hour to bake. Now, that was my fault as I chose the "premium" resolution rather than standard. It is a REALLY pretty sky though. 

I learned about "skyboxes" which are actually 360 degree long and narrow textures in a special format. Since you need specialized programs for those, I will need to buy one if I decide to use that feature.

I learned how to move things around better and teleport within the scene and a few other important things, so a very fruitful day.

I also made 25 Sansar dollars which is about 80 lindens :D.  Poco a poco.

It has been almost two years since I typed on this blog, one originally made to chronicle the growth of Sansar and then turned into a more universal metaverse theme.

I hadn't ventured over before because of the Creator Agreement. At the very beginning it was OMG are you kidding? and then later still not something I was comfortable agreeing to. But now BETA is in effect and also the simplifying of agreements thing has deleted a lot of lawyer-speak which is always a good thing.

I spent most of the day at Sansar and accomplished some things. The default avatars, while not pretty have some fairly nice clothes and I found a super cute Pride Overalls item for free on the marketplace.



There were ups and downs and lots and lots of reading in the knowledge base. I got stuck with uploading an attachment that was to be a bracelet. A couple of folks have tried to find the issue but so far no go. "Things may have changed with the new custom avatars" was one comment. So hopefully my "h-e-l-p" note to support will have the missing info needed.

On the plus side I uploaded that bracelet SO MANY times I have the steps indelibly etched on my memory cells.



I did manage to get some crates uploaded. That seemed fitting as my tutorials always start with a crate. These were some of the first items I made in SL but they look pretty good. I have my vendor photo all done and plan to put them on the marketplace for free tomorrow. The bangle will get there whenever that gets solved.

Marketplace vendor photos rules have them very neat and clean -- and easy actually.   This is a render and not an inworld shot as while I did get my atmospheric settings changed a bit, they are not good for inworld shots yet.  I read through all the photo info and hopefully this will be OK. If not, I will find out :D.

I really like the uploader and while there were lots of tiny issues and much sleuthing, it was all manageable and I feel like a good day could be jotted down on the calendar.

I not too keen on the movement key bit but all in all it was easier than I expected.


Early in the wee hours of the the next day I finally got the bangles working. The skeleton had some issues and the transform needed to be cleared.