Philosophy and Landforms - Day 6
 |
| 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.
I used it today to watch the change in the build when I uploaded some quarter sim landforms. The default skybox templates are approximate a quarter sim SL area. You can apparently link to another "scene" but I am unclear at this point the difference between scene and experience and if the total prims and calls are for one section of the experience or all.
Doesn't matter. I am so not there yet!
 |
| very happy with the atmosphere and how the sky and hills seem to coexist in the same distance plane. |
Uploading an old quarter sim sized hilly area from Avination (don't even remember building it LOL; thank you SEARCH) I found it of course too heavy for my taste. It wasn't bad mind you but I wanted something bordering on low poly (that of course depends on one's definition).
After lots of testing and fiddling and lowering the vertices by a bunch I had a pretty good looking circle of mid distance hills. I watched the numbers on diagnostics as I uploaded different versions and ended up with one that only added 12 "prims"(?) to the mix. That would do nicely. It isn't perfect but it is the FEEL of the place that I am after. I don't need to see every speck of dirt or tiny crevasse.
Going back and forth between edit and building mode I noted that even though the diagnostics would lead one to believe there would just be a small change, it was taking longer. Not tons, but longer. This SEEMS to suggest that very large items will slow down the load time -- over smaller ones -- no matter how low poly.
I am pleased with the rate of my learning in Sansar. Most things that I am doing seem pretty natural now.
Here are a few other tips for those journeying over.
**********************************
Of the things you need to think about if you are planning to upload to Sansar (currently -as we know things change) are:
The default skybox (the photo surround part of a build if you use that) is set VERY bright. So unless you are into blazing hot sunshine with washed out hues, you will want to turn that down.
Objects upload automatically with shine. This is called "roughness" for whatever reason. A small 2x2 or 8 x 8 graphic of plain blank white uploaded in that slot will fix the issue. Grayish will give you some shine --- etc.
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.
Post a Comment