Chic at Ebbe's Place

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.