I've notice SL is missing something....

Has anyone noticed the odd absence of MIRRORS in SL? Are the avs all vampires? Why are there no mirrors? I want to be able to check out facial gestures but I can't!
Can someone explain?

Thanks,
Yirrk

Because actual functioning mirrors are not possible with the technology we have currently.

If you want to see your face, just move your freakin' camera. Hold down ALT on your keyboard and click and drag on an object or yourself.

Try bravo bravo in search under 'places' you can find mirrors there. It's in Garmish, forget coordinates.

Looks like you are a new player; welcome.

At this point, they just dont have the technology to do true reflective surfaces.

However, there have been some very good simulations. I think it was Bedazzle did a wonderful build called Chinatown back in February of 2005. (I think that was the timing.) Buildings reflected in rainwater ... that sort of thing.

Was truly amazing.

Alternatively, IM me in game as I have one of these in property...

I have the answer!

Get a good friend to use the same skin and body as you and mirror your movements behind an empty frame.

To do real reflections in SL would more than double the image calculation work load for every mirror in your line of sight. The client would have to calculate both the actual position of every prim PLUS the reflected position of every prim, then selectively show you only the reflected parts in the mirror. You can imagine that even a couple of mirrors in the same field of view would rapidly blow that to impossible proportions, as the number doubles with each visible mirror added.

The reflections of the sun and moon in 'Linden water' are fairly easy to do, because they only have to reflect one image each, and it's an image that comes from a stock server resource, whose position is controlled lock-step by the server.

The 'reflections' seen in-world, such as reflections in rainwater puddles or in a reflecting pool, are actually duplicate, mirrored builds below ground level. Quite a nifty trick, if you can throw away that many extra prims...

I agree with the comments posted, in the main.

However if you are looking for a 'mirror' which will allow you to look at yourself, your gestures and 'reflect' these back to you, without having to manually position a camera, I am in possession of a 7 prim 'full length mirror'

The technology may not be a truly 'reflective mirror', but you wouldn't notice the difference if you are looking at yourself in the mirror and it will allow you to check-out your gestures and appearance in a 'mirror' framed area and does what you are looking for.

You can do different levels of reflectivity in Mirror shaders.

avatar only
avatar and "nearby" objects only
avatar and world only (ground, trees, etc)
reflect everything (major load on the GPU but looks pretty)


It all depends on how many passes you do on the Shader engine.

Saying that the technology isn't there yet is a cop-out. OpenGL does support High Level Shader Language.

Mirrors can be done. It's in GW.
Water reflection and distortion even.
All client side.
That game runs better than sl lol
ArenaNet = Bad managment thou.

IMO

it run better cause the content is made by professionals who know what they are doing when they make an object especially.
Can't expect that from the average content creator in sl

i just dont get why you need a mirror to look at your face... learn how to move the camera, you can move it all over the place at many angles, all over the freaking place... learn the camera controls really good, its important in SL.

*imagines some kind of mirrored rendering surface in SL and that given out to general populance and a part of him dies*

The world is also pre-rendered in something I'd reckon has to be similar to a BSP tree, and thus is pre-compiled to have all possible mirror reflections carried out. SL doesn't have that luxury, and thus would have to calculate rendering 15,000+ prims within one mirror on the fly from any angle, all the time.

You'd basically have to double your video card's processing power for every mirror in a sim.

I think it's just ray tracing or mapping. Because you can move the camera in any direction and mix and match stuff. I never looked at the technical side of it to be honest.
There are other applications that do the same with live video feeds that reflect by mapping the image on something like a glossy table or the windows in the room. I can't recall what that was exactly. It might have been an xbox 360 demo or something.

But ah well.
It wouldn't have a lag on the sim itself as I think someone said. Becuase it's all client side so it's only done on your computer. If it lags down you can turn it off.
Kinda like Flexy prims. Which GW has too.

It would be cool to have reflections in SL, not just for mirrors, but for water reflection such as swimming pools or what have you.
Maybe working mirrors in mouse view ships or cars.

I'd bet its in the deck of cards at LL. Another toy to give us like the flexy prims. When we get tired fo that toy they'll bring it out proabbly lol
Personally I think there are more important things that need attention though.