Yesterday I attended a class on how to use the Artiste set rezzer.
I’ve used set rezzers before, but the Artiste has some unique abilities, including the ability to use no copy and/or no mod items.
It also offers the ability to crossfade up to 6 sets/scenes directly from the HUD.
Now, while I’ve not used fades much in routines, they are pretty standard fare in dance shows these days.
So I was surprised to learn that some dancers have encountered issues when using fades.
I’m not really clear on the exact problem, just that something with the alphas goes wonky and things don’t completely disappear/reappear as they are intended.
I was also surprised to discover that some dancers had mothballed certain routines because of the issue.
I have to wonder if it’s really widespread, given that I still see fades used on a pretty regular basis in shows.
Perhaps others have found a workaround that some don’t know?
Have you encountered this issue?
How did you solve it?
A Kat and A Mouse 
i JUST learned how to fade!!! but when i put the sets into a certain rezzer it never worked, never took the sets. drive myself nuts! another rezzer, works just fine. a freebie rezzer fine too. i dont have plans to fade my sets unless i feel the need for it. 🙂 i rather just make ’em purty 😀
Huh – I wonder if it’s an issue with the scripts in certain rezzers? Interesting. Yeah, I’ve not been big on fading sets – feels like twice the work for the same amount of reward, lol.
well the one fadeout script that’s a freebie that goes around is not that good to begin with. So finding a better one is crucial to set fading success. Another thing to do is to precache your set, rez it and let it fade in and out before your act begins. And also have troublesome pieces of your set ready to restore to last position if they don’t show up. I have obviously had a lot of issues with it, since I know a lot of work arounds. But I don’t let it stop me and my vision of how the Act should go.
Yes, I have used to Restore to Last as well, but it isn’t always an option, depending on where you are performing. I’ve seen several fade scripts, but since I know very little about scripting, it’s hard to judge sometimes what’s good and what’s bad.
Although I do think most audiences are aware of the vagaries of SL and are pretty understanding if something doesn’t go exactly as planned. 🙂
Clears throat. Well…I was urged to comment on this topic.I didnt want to come across as an infomercial but Kat felt it was for the good of the common interest.
Lilangles has a set with lots of mesh items and even a few very-high-prim items. 18 in all. She explained that every time she would rez it and try to cross-fade it into a 2nd set, that random parts of items would fail to reappear. She said she, and others, had similar issues like this before. Not the 1st time. She even had to mothball sets because of failed alphas reappearing. This is not anyone’s fault. Its a known issue confirmed by Firestorm techies and other well respected scripters.
It appears to be a ‘pipeline’ issue, based upon what i was told as well as my resolution of which I can not take total credit for.
Suffice it to say that lilangles, a recent purchaser of the Artiste Performance Suite, after reading the manual and attending our 1st impromptu class on the Artiste Set Rezzer, was able to successfully load up her 18-piece mega-set and cross-fade it into another set without any corrupted fade issues. And repeatedly. This was the 1st time the Artiste SetRezzer had been used ‘under fire’. There were a few issues that were resolved by adjusting parameters on the SetRezzer notecards and one squirly random issue that was resolved with a reset. All in all it handled this “thorn in the side” of set-crossfades.
There are some simple techniques that I can also suggest that ‘sometimes’ work. But the Artiste SetRezzer was able to repeatedly crossfade the 2 sets without failure without having to resort to any of the tricks I used to use that were iffy at best.
Other than starting an animation in the middle, the set-rezzer was the most difficult project I’ve worked on in my life. Relative rotations in 3D space are no laughing matter. And of course I added a lot of bells and whistles. It took me 2 years off-and-on. It was like a whack-a-mole…just when you think you have it…wham..another issue would pop up.
I am glad that it has finally found true utility with actual use…after me ‘talking all the talk’ it seems able to walk at least some if not most of the walk.
Of course i will be keeping a close eye on its development as others begin to stress-test it…and knocking-on-wood.
I published 7 how-to-demo-videos just on the set-rezzer. Not even sure if they helped or not.
The manual wasn’t enough to get people up and going as it seemed challenging, at best, to understand.
So the class proved to be one of the missing pieces required to get people actually using it.
The other piece was me standing by their side thru their initial real-life trial to get them thru any hurdles. The idea was/is to fast-track people to early success and confidence. Whatever it takes.
Now it seems she may know it better than me as she figured out some things of her own. LOL! All in all it was a great experience.