Allowed File Types

- - -

Conductor,

I've never seen .pdf supported. If you want to upload text, open a new notecard and cut and paste the text from your word processing application.

The other main format supported is .png, which is actually better than .jpg and .tga because it supports transparency and is lossless compression.

See what a few classes on textures at NCI can do?

Actually tga is better than png, it is lossless and support transparency too

Everything is converted to jpeg2000 once uploaded, which is a lossy format so better to upload from a lossless than re compressing a second time an already degraded picture.

Oh goodie! A real technical imaging format debate! LOL

You may be right Kyrah, i prefer .png. Either one is better than .jpg.

See the sticky at the top of the texturing forum, entitled Texture Size, Pixel Counts, Video Memory, and File Formats. It's got all the information you'd care to know on SL-usable images.

As for non-image formats, they are as follows:

Audio - WAV format with PCM encoding, 44.1 KHz sampling, 16-bit stereo or 16-bit mono, under 10 seconds in length

Animation - BVH format (must describe a properly setup skeleton, can't be just any old BVH)

Streaming Audio - pretty much any audio format that is streamable will work

Streaming Video - anything that is playable by Quicktime



PDF is definitely NOT supported. If you want to use one as a texture, first convert it to an appropriate image file format. I recommend TGA.

Be aware that the maximum image size is only 1024x1024. If your PDF has a lot of fine text in it, that might not be enough resolution for the text to be legible. You might want to instead just put the PDF somewhere on the web, and then put a URL launcher script in a prim, so people can click on the prim and then have the PDF appear in their browser. It's not quite as elegant as putting the PDF right on the prim as a texture, of course, but it works.

Once we have "HTML on a prim", this will all become moot. You'll be able to put web pages directly on object surfaces. Last I heard, the only thing standing in the way from its implementation was they weren't able to get Flash to work with it. I keep saying screw Flash for now and work with what we've got, but the powers that be don't agree with that for whatever reason.

nahh, not really, all formats are converted to TGA once uploaded, once they are in the servers, its really up to you what you want to do with it, not to mention they cHgre you one cent to upload, i think

nto sure what the L$ to $USD is.

why would we want that?, the asset servers are stressibng enough to run at full-throttle

to download and run sl, you need a wbe browser, the latest i have seen is prims with textures on them of that website, and wqhen you click that prim, a dialog box pops up with the URL, and when you click yes it opens your default browser which is chosen in your control panel (if you are on windows vista or XP)

How are they ever going to control where adult content is permitted if they allow prims to act as conduits to web pages? I'm just imagining the visual griefing we'll see under that system.

I see that QuickTime still image formats are: BMP, GIF, JPEG/JFIF, JPEG 2000, PDF, MacPaint, PICT, PNG, Photoshop (including layers), SGI, Targa, FlashPix (including layers), TIFF .

Anyone tried a PDF file in the SL media viewer?

I'm really not looking forward to seeing what the ad-farmers do with the technology. >_<

On the server, they are stored as JPEG2000, which can be lossy or lossless. I am not, mind you, sure whether anything is stored lossless or not. Certainly small textures (below 256px minimum dimensions?) are stored in a very lossy fashion, but larger do not seem to be, or else the compression is very good. JPEG2000 also has free licences available.

Sounds are stored as Ogg Vorbis, by the way, which is an open format.

You know, at this rate, I am not sure whether we will ever see it at all, so I wouldn't worry too much. At the least it will be very restricted, as media textures are today - otherwise, everybody and his or her dog would be using HTML-on-a-prim to texture every part of their build. Which would make temp rezzers look like nonphysical cubes when it came to lag.

I am toying with a product idea, but it is in a text form.

As an additional question can a notecard have permissions like an object?

If I can create a no copy / no mod / no transfer Notecard then I am in business!!

"CX"

Notecards do indeed have permissions.

Note that there is no way of uploading text to a notecard by script. One in fact cannot write to a notecard at all with LSL. A bot could theoretically do it, though (I am not aware of anybody who has made a bot which could do this, but in theory it is possible I suppose).

Cut and paste is fine for what I am doing. I know if the cards are copy / mod. I will only sell one of each and that will be the end of the deal.

"CX"

It's possible now to select lossless JPEG2000 image compression during upload for small textures (i think upto 64x64). The checkbox for this is on the upload preview window.
It's mostly done to allow for better (less bumpy) sculptmaps.

At a side note:
Where HTML on a prim is probably a long way off, if ever implemented. There's almost complete support for 'in viewer' browsing.
I would really be supportive of having the options to open up an in viewer browsing window with a specific url (and preferrably window dimensions), initiated by a scripting call.
Combined with the http and soap/rpc lsl instructions this would allow for custom UIs and extensions to the SL viewer that would blow the socks off any HUD or other current solution.
(Esp. as the SL browser is fully XUL compatible.)

Not sure you can get one that has neither copy nor transfer permissions, though. I think on the notecard itself, it will automatically enable one if you disable the other (and AFAIK, any inventory item embedded in a notecard has to be full-perm).

Another thing to keep in mind is that a script can read the contents of a notecard, even a no-mod/no-copy notecard (which is not shown if you try to just open it in the viewer). This can be defeated, though, by embedding an inventory item into the notecard.

If the prim is calling the asset from a web page, then the asset servers don't need to bother with it, just as they don't need to bother with media streams now.

As for why we'd want it, there are too many reasons to list. The possibilities are simply endless. I'm sorry you can't envision any of them for yourself. For some examples, how about vending machines that show your SL Exchange or OnRez page right on them, for starters? How about signs that constantly update with realtime content, like newsfeeds or stock prices? How about enhancing interactive experiences by allowing users to click buttons on virtual touch screens that actually work? When all the interactivity and data delivery of the entire Internet is available on the surface of a prim, SL will become thousands of times more useful for everyone, instantly. Need I say more?


How do you see this as any harder to control than polcing textures? If you spot a prim with an inappropriate website on it in a PG area, report it, just like you would an inappropriate texture. The fact that the imagery is originating from outside SL doesn't matter. In-world display is in-world display. That's it.


I've never tried it, but if you wanted to tie up a parcel's media stream for a one-page PDF, in theory it should work. I'd be interested as well to hear if anyone's tried it.

I can not find a way to upload a text file---word .doc doesn't work and nor does PDF.
Any suggestions?

Highlight the text outside of SL. Copy it. Switch to the SL client, create a new notecard. Open the blank notecard. Paste. Save the notecard.