Let's check the Linden survey

Okay, I don't want to accuse Linden of manipulating the survey on Windlight aesthetics. But, as mentioned in the blog, only 100 entries were allowed. And I found the way of questioning somewhat... predictable. It's obvious that LL wants more contrast in Windlight than some content creators (like me), who find their hard worked bright textures washed out at noon default settings. But clearly LL thinks it's okay that bright textures get washed out and have to be remade and uploaded again.

For example: in question one the first and second possible answers are highly suggestive: "I like my world flat!" and "It’s still not like the old Second Life". And then there's Pastrami's quote in the blog:

"Yes, this means near-white textures like very bright cement will become white at noon.. But COME ON! It’s what’s supposed to happen to bright materials in direct sunlight. We have to start moving away from the flat shaded look."

So again I'm not saying that the survey is false. But I only want to check if I'm the only one who's not happy with the washout.

In this poll I only have question one from the survey, because that's the most important question on the washout issue. But I made the possible answers less suggestive. Please respond.

Lots of contrast is the right thing to do for outside, though it's true that sooner or later something needs to be done about shadows so there can be an inside.

Actually I voted (in the survey) for somthing (including in my comment) that you do not have.

"A bit more contrast but LESS brightening at the high end leading to texture and detail killing hotspots."

This is EASILY acheavable with small changes to the ambient level and the gamma sliders, I have my settings this way now.

The /defaults/ should look better that the main client, slightly more dynamic lighting, but should not drasticly kill anything that exists and looks good in the 15,000 sims that currently exist. It will then be up to individual sim owners to tweak away, but the main client release of windlight should not DESTROY current content by default as it currently does because of the extreme clipping in bright areas. And (previously) extreme levels of contrast.

Sandy beaches, snow, sidewalks, anyhing that is already light with subtle texturing for 6 "hours" of the day are 10,000 watt beaming pure white now.

If SL were releasesd like this on the main viewer, there would be insane amounts of screaming.

WindLight really should look exactly like the current main viewer does by default, there should be no visible changes at all. If someone *wants* things to look different, then they can change their local settings, or the estate ones for sim owners.

The WindLight team needs to be forced to do all of their testing in a "normal" setting as well. Make things look right under normal conditions first, and worry about how things look with red skies, purple clouds and fluorescent green water when that's done with.

That includes actual testing on the main grid, inside and outside of structures, with skins that people actually use and not simply as a newbie avatar on some internal Linden barren sim.

And it wouldn't hurt for Pastrami to come down from his throne and listen instead of dictate his singular vision of what SL should look like. "Realistic" does not necessarily equal better.

I wonder who the 100 persons are who replied to that survey?

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/12/24/windlight-survey-preliminary-results/

Anyone with a bit of experience in photography can see that windlight overexposes a lot, washes out white and black colors and has the dynamic range of a cheap digital camera. Besides that Avatars look "old" because of shadowing in the face, prim attachments glow and the skin is too dark. See in Jira for the issues.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3125

Well I wonder who the other 99 were, as I was one of the 100....

You're either saying that the survey is rubbish, or that people don't actually appreciate what is happening so the survey is meaningless. Otherwise I don't understand what this thread is about.

Just read JIRA and some blogs. Many people hate the way Windlight makes them look. It ages the human faces and makes furries look like the Michelin tyres guy. This is not reflected in the survey at all.

Who was that addressed to?

I don't understand the second part of your sentence to be honest. But first: I just wonder if the survey is representative. Obviously with only 100 responses chances are it isn't. That is also the reason that LL wants to do a second survey with more responses.

But what's worse: I have a strong feeling that LL likes the latest Windlight settings themselves, or even more the settings in the First Look viewer before that. See my arguments in OP. Again I won't say that the survey is rubbish/manipulated. I don't have any proof of that. But it seems odd that there would be so few people who don't mind about the high contrast and washout of textures. Because, if this high contrast (at noon default) is going through in the main viewer, then almost ALL content creators will have to invest much time and uploads to adjust their bright textures, products, billboards, vendors, ads, listings on slex etcetera. Let alone sim owners with their nice sandy beaches who get litterally washed out by the high Windlight contrast. I don't even dare to predict how many adjustments and uploads that would mean.

From what I've heard around me, content creators AND shoppers, I just can't imagine that so many people agree with the current washout/high contrast at default. This topic is to check if my gut feeling is all wrong or not.

I think that ideally any WindLight survey would be comprised of pictures only where each question focuses on a specific aspect with side-by-side pictures of different WindLight settings, along with the current main viewer and without any sign of which is which.

For example:
* 4 close-up snapshots of a row of three prims with a bright, medium and dark texture, once per time of day (sunset, noon, sunrise, midnight), with and without local lighting
* the interior of a house
* the exterior of a house
* a landscape scene
* close-up of an avatar
* etc

Since it concerns visuals, it's a bit silly to answer text questions that only give a vague indication of what each person really meant since each person that answers will be basing their answer on what they consider to be important (I care more how avies and the interior are lighted than how landscapes are lighted for instance).

Forcing everyone to consider every different situation where lighting makes a difference would provide a far wider and more accurate result of what people want/think.

Is that sarcasm? Maybe I'm just being lazy but I'd hate to have to go in and mess with all the settings just to get Windlight to look nice again. With the first version all I had to do was turn down the intensity at 12pm and 9am, now with this version I have to turn up the lighting intensity, the scene gamma, and the blue horizon and blue density on all the presets except for the night ones to get it looking good for me. If it went back to being the same as the normal one I'd have to adjust every one of them individually. o.0

I also voted on the survey, I voted for a bit more contrast than the latest viewer with the flat looking shadows, but less that the old one that made sand and snow textures blindingly white.