My favorite part of writing is the feedback I get from people.
So I love it when I find a topic that generates a lot of comments. 😀
I’ve been working a lot with mesh clothing lately, and my post about whether it is good for dancing showed that it’s a very divisive issue.
Some people love it, some people hate it.
I can see both sides.
But I have so many questions about mesh.
Questions like:
- Why doesn’t it appear until it’s fully rezzed?
- Why doesn’t it appear if you click on it (like prims do)?
- Why does zooming your camera waaaayy out and then back in make things appear (only sometimes)?
- Do the specular/normal maps cause extra loading time (because it’s now loading 3 textures instead of 1)?
- What is http texture loading and does it make things faster?
- Why do some mesh heads rez as ginormous at first?
- Why do mesh attachments (clothing or whatever) first rez as ‘floating’ near their avatar?
- How do you make an applier (be it for clothing, fingernails, etc.)?
- What effect do the number of vertices/polygons have on how fast something mesh loads?
- Is there a difference between mesh props/decor and clothing that cause one to load faster than another?
- Mesh supposedly improves the LI of items, so how come mesh can be worse in some instances than prims/sculpties?
- What exactly is LOD and why do you have to set it higher in order to see certain items better/clearly?
- Do mesh eyes have as many problems as other mesh (have you ever seen avi’s without eyes)?
- Other than (supposedly) improving LI, what other advantages does mesh offer that you can’t get with prims/sculpties?
If you know the answer to any of these, please feel free to leave explanations/comments!
I will be investigating some of these on my own, of course, but all knowledge is appreciated. 🙂
Do you have problems/questions about mesh I haven’t mentioned/listed here?
What are they?
A Kat and A Mouse 
Kat i started to comment on your previous post about mesh, but honestly, I was feeling not real good that day. Personally I hate mesh. Just absolutely loathe it.
I came into sl in 2011 and I was astounded at the clothing that existed in sl – the one size fits all clothing which conforms to the movements of the body.
For the first two years we were in business I had an unbreakable rule at Paramount (and I’m not a “Rules” guy) which was NO MESH.
For most of those two years almost all of the people who danced at Paramount either came to the Paramount with us from where we’d danced previously when we established it or were new dancers trained by us. We had a few experienced dancers, but until very recently our troupe had little experience beyond the Paramount, and a certain 1920’s Chicago Sim.
I had several arguments wiith dancers regarding Mesh. For a person who strips it was (and mostly still is) very difficult to remove mesh items while danceing without revealing – – – absolutely nothing. I don’t think anyone visits a burlesque type establishment hoping to see a disembodied head, two hands and two feet dancing on stage with absolutely nothing in between. And frankly, for me, ANY time on stage where skin is obscured by an Alpha is way too long.
Recently things have changed at Paramount. 🙂 Several very experienced dancers have joined us – people with longer histories of dancing than Lotta and I – and most of them use mesh to varying degrees – – including mesh avatars. So we’ve changed with the times. And we’ve learned a lot – and plan to continue learning.
I confess – I’m going to go shopping tonight for some mesh stuff for my own avi to use – on stage.
I can’t answer any of your questions. Frankly my biggest question is – – WHY? Why did someone think I or anyone else would want mesh clothes – that don’t conform to the body. Ladies having to turn off their “physics” to keep their nipples from popping out – and in as they move – – why in the name of all that flows thru “cyberspace” would someone want to wear an alpha? Ever?
Mesh has affected – Infected – other things. When I buy a car to use as a prop i only buy copy/modify so I can take the stock wheels/tires off and buy prim tires from the MP equivalent of Pep Boys, so the car body and the wheels will rez at the same time – same distance.
I’ll stop ranting. And no I don’t have any solution except to ban the stuff thereby inspiring designers to work wonders and miracles with what we had before mesh. Mess.
Path
PS no i’m not admitting what mesh stuff i’m going shopping for this evening.
I bet I know what you’re shopping for! *winks* It does seem that SL was much simpler before mesh. I’m all for technology and changing with the times, but more and more these days, I feel like I need a computer science degree to understand/troubleshoot all the tech in SL now. Remember when avatar physics first hit the grid? And now with mesh, we’re going backwards and turning it off?
Building sets is something I didn’t touch on, but using mesh and prims together can cause it’s own headache (because it can make the LI horrendous if you accidentally link them). Add in rez issues, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
I understand the appeal of mesh – it looks more realistic, like you are ‘wearing’ the clothing, rather than looking ‘painted’ on as system clothing can/does.
But I have to wonder if everyone would be so gung-ho if they had known the other issues that would accompany the introduction of mesh.
I’m sure mesh is here to stay, though, so I have to learn how to work with it/around it. 🙂
Sighs. Now Path has caved to mesh as all the other venues have. Will I have to give up being a dance groupie in the near future? Because it’s pretty boring watching dancing heads or bits of avatars dancing around on the stage. It would be fine it is was 1 dance in 10 but it’s getting to be 6 or 7 out of 10. I’m thinking about trying the SL viewer next time I go to a dance performance to see if there will be any improvement.
One big question I have always asked that you did not include here is why in a dance with three or four people in identical mesh outfits there is one whose outfit doesn’t rez or sometimes only one who does? Is it about caching? Some dancers are in multiple numbers so they are changing costumes often.
I don’t understand this caching business either. Does the texture/item have to be within your draw distance to cache? Do different “materials” take different times to cache? So if someone is in the dressing room out of your draw distance and arrives backstage just before the number, I suppose that’s when you start “caching” that outfit. We all throw this caching term around glibly, don’t forget to cache your dances right before you dance, don’t forget to hide a texture of your particles in your set for caching purposes, blah, blah. Sorry this is probably a stupid question but it’s all a mystery to me.
Jo Balogh
I have wondered about trying SLGo to attend shows to see if things rez any better for me.
As for the multiple dancers in the same costume, I’m really not sure. Yes, I agree, you’d think they would all rez or none, since they should all be exactly the same.
I’ve always heard that textures/objects don’t have to be ‘visible’ to the audience, but I have never heard anyone say anything in reference to the draw distance.
That would make sense – if they are out of your draw distance, even if it’s the same outfit, it won’t rez as quickly (or at all?). Given the enormous size of some theaters (and backstage areas that you don’t see), I wonder what draw distance you would need to set in order to combat the problem (if that is even how it all works). It would make sense, but then so much of how SL works makes no sense to me!
I will have to do some research and see what I can find out. 🙂