Who else is disappointed with new Texture Preview?
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kaia Ennui
Registered User
Join date: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 349
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03-20-2006 12:23
hi fellow designers  i'm not happy with the invisible avatar that clothing is being previewed on. I don't know what in the world inspired them to remove the flesh avie, but it's making previewing clothing more difficult for me. I am wondering if others feel the same way and if perhaps we can get LL to put it back how it was. Here is what i find negative about it. Say, I am uploading a tattoo that is placed on hip and i want to preview prior to uploading to see if the placement is aesthetically pleasing or if perhaps i need to nudge it a few pixels to the left or right. With the new preview i will simply see a tattoo floating in air. How is that a preview? It tells me nothing. The other day I was uploading texture for this shirt (Clawed) it has many "scratches" throughout the texture where it is sheer black using alpha. Well, to view it in preview I could see through the sheer parts to the inside of the back of the shirt. It looked like a plate of spaghetti and was not helpful at all. I had to just upload, try on av and see if things lined up. As for viewing seams I suppose i can still see if it matches up on both sides, but not as easily as i could before. Having to upload to truly preview is costing me more money ( not a fortune, mind you) and time. It's the time factor that is a nuisance to me. I often hit preview several times and adjust before i do the official upload and try on the clothing. I may still need to adjust, of course, but those first initial previews really save me time and effort and quite often once i upload into game the item is just as i wanted it. My guess is LL thought this new preview would somehow be helpful and perhaps some of you find it is. I have yet to see how. If I'm missing some amazing use for this new preview, then by all means enlighten me. If you are also finding it cumbersome, please post here and perhaps we can get preview back to normal. i am not usually so verbose nor do i like to read lengthy posts, so ty for your time and i look forward to hearing your comments.
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Nyx Divine
never say never!
Join date: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,052
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??
03-20-2006 12:39
I may be WAAY off here 'cuz I just started farting around w/ clothing....but we NEVER had a 'flesh AV', did we? Everyone was talking about having that as a preveiw option would be loverly.
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kaia Ennui
Registered User
Join date: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 349
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03-20-2006 12:43
O.o
since i joined about a year ago when previewing textures i would choose from the drop down - upper body or lower body and yes there was fleshy tan avie upper body or lower body - skirt did not have flesh. it just floated in the air. now so do the upper and lower male and female options.
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Nyx Divine
never say never!
Join date: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,052
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03-20-2006 12:47
hehe 2 seconds after I posted above I found this thread /108/6f/94816/1.htmlSo I see what U mean.......lord there's a lot for me to learn 
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Osprey Therian
I want capslocklock
Join date: 6 Jul 2004
Posts: 5,049
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03-20-2006 13:23
Fleshless Previewer:
I don't like it either - it makes things much more difficult.
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PetGirl Bergman
Fellow Creature:-)
Join date: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,414
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03-20-2006 13:28
...here are a pic of me at start up - I HATE IT!!! It takes my breath away.. its not me I feel not the same. its not fun.. its uggly and making me feel bad.. /53/0e/94919/1.htmlPLS stop this. LL - P L E A S E /Tina |
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Rayne Ghia
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 28
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03-20-2006 13:40
Doesn't really effect me.
I have the meshes rigged up in 3dsmax so I do my previewing before uploading.
Helps with quick tweaking.
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Dianne Mechanique
Back from the Dead
Join date: 28 Mar 2005
Posts: 2,648
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03-20-2006 13:46
From: kaia Ennui O.o
since i joined about a year ago when previewing textures i would choose from the drop down - upper body or lower body and yes there was fleshy tan avie upper body or lower body - skirt did not have flesh. it just floated in the air. now so do the upper and lower male and female options. I dunno, I am with Nyx. I have rarely used the avatar preview as the zooming in on it rarely works and its more useful to see the texture flat than it is at that microscopically small size wrapped around an avatar. When I have used it though, there is no avatar, never has been as far as I have been able to tell. Always just the clothing hanging in space only. |
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Anastasia Armistice
Join date: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 0
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Please Fix It
03-20-2006 14:25
Yes there most certainly was an avie shape and now it is not there. This was a great tool and it simply makes no sense why it would be removed. It serves no purpose to preview clothes floating on air. LOL is this a 1.9 marvel?
I think this is just a start to issues that I personally have found in the latest update. It would be nice to see this one resolved soon.
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kaia Ennui
Registered User
Join date: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 349
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03-20-2006 14:29
yes diane there was upper body and lower body "av". zooming works fine if you use ctrl shift you can manipulate the preview in different directions and view preview from different angles. this isn't a debate as to whether it was there. LOL for goodness sakes i used it multiple times a week for a year and i was only on hallucinagens like 25% of the time  , so i'm pretty sure i didn't imagine it. the point of this thread is to say yay you like new way because X or no, you don't and would like it back to original way. if it ends up we are all on the same page, i'll post a pointer to this thread in feature feedback and ask LL to please consider rectifying.
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Trinity Cole
Akasha Owner
Join date: 26 Apr 2005
Posts: 57
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Need this fixed!
03-20-2006 14:30
kaia - I totally agree. Having this issue is more then a problem. I rely on that during uploads as well and now it is pointless. Why on earth would that feature be removed? and was this intentional or another glorious bug to sort.
I can not see why there would have been a logical reason to remove it.
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As a friend once said about honey:
"...but I hate honey....it makes me feel creepy from its sweetness"
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Melyissa Glitterbuck
Registered User
Join date: 27 Feb 2005
Posts: 65
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03-20-2006 14:35
I agree, change it back!!
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Namssor Daguerre
Imitates life
Join date: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 1,423
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03-20-2006 14:36
This doesn't really affect me. I can see how this would be annoying to those that use this preview feature though. I stopped using it a while ago in favor of other preview methods, so I never realized it was changed until reading the forums.
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Melyissa Glitterbuck
Registered User
Join date: 27 Feb 2005
Posts: 65
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03-20-2006 14:42
From: Namssor Daguerre This doesn't really affect me. I can see how this would be annoying to those that use this preview feature though. I stopped using it a while ago in favor of other preview methods, so I never realized it was changed until reading the forums. How else can you see where the shirt or straps are falling if there is no body to see it on, unless you pay the $10 which can get expensive after a while. I dont see why they bothered taking it out wasnt hurting anyone. Waste of dev time.
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The Glitterbugz Boutique
Where you can find a full line of; Maternity, Womans, Mens, Formals, Swimsuits, Lingerie, Pj's, Costumes, Birth Announcements, Eyes and Nailpolish and now Shoes!
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Nyx Divine
never say never!
Join date: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,052
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03-20-2006 14:58
From: Namssor Daguerre This doesn't really affect me. I can see how this would be annoying to those that use this preview feature though. I stopped using it a while ago in favor of other preview methods, so I never realized it was changed until reading the forums. OK I'll bite.....what other preview methods? And where can I maybe, possibly, hopefully, avail myself of this option?
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Yes Virginia there is an FIC!
If someone shows you who they are.....believe them!
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is!
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Rayne Ghia
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 28
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03-20-2006 15:15
From: Nyx Divine OK I'll bite.....what other preview methods? And where can I maybe, possibly, hopefully, avail myself of this option? I dunno about Namssor, but as I said, there's the 3dsmax option. LL have given the mesh's for the bodies away, and i've put them into 3dsmax, tinkered a bit. The following screenie is an outfit i'm working on, the flesh isn't visible, but turning it on is easy, it just requires turn the opacity value for that texture to 100  |
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Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
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Fixed!
03-20-2006 16:07
This just in. It looks like your cries have been heard, Kaia. Here's the relevant exerpt from Karen's latest announcement: From: Karen Linden * Upload Texture preview once again contains avatar "mannequin" So there ya go. Now to answer this question: From: Nyx Divine OK I'll bite.....what other preview methods? And where can I maybe, possibly, hopefully, avail myself of this option? This is a popular topic today. I just answered the exact same thing on the General Forum. Here's the relavent portion from this thread, which was actually about upload fees, a topic which is obviously closesly related to previews. From: Chosen Few there are lots of ways to previw your textures for free. If you're talking clothing/skins, you can preview them in the preview window, in any 3D application (Poser, Maya, Blender, Tattoo, etc) by downloading the avatar mannequin files, or right on your own avatar by replacing a few files in your SecondLife/character folder. Here's an exerpt from another thread in which I outlined how to do it: From: Chosen Few There are several applications in which you can preview clothing on an avatar, but keep in mind, you'll be seeing it on the generic av, not on yours in particular. Viable programs range from freebies like Blender, DAZ Studio, and Tattoo to low-priced apps like Poser and Bryce to high end multi-thousand dollar platforms like 3DS Max and Maya.
The first thing you want to do is download the avatar models from the downloads page of this site. They come in Poser and OBJ formats. The Poser models will work in both Poser and DAZ Studio. The OBJ's will work in almost any 3D modeling program, although they generally take some tweaking after import (OBJ's are practically universal, but the methods for saving them unfortuately are not). Then just follow the instructions in whatever program you're using for applying textures to geometry.
All that having been said, you can also cheat in SL to use it as a previewer. It's not exactly convenient, but it can be done. If you look in your SecondLife/character folder, you'll see a bunch of TGA files. These are the files that control how your av looks when naked. The 3 files in particular you want to look for are called head_color.tga, lowerbody_color.tga, and upperbody_color.tga. Make copies of each of these so you don't lose them, and then replace the originals with the respective clothing or skin files your testing. Then go into appearance mode in SL and take off all your clothes. This will force the system to rebake your av textures. As long as you saved your test files are named appropriately, SL won't know they're not the base skin files and it will use them to bake the naked av. The result is you get a preview. SL thinks the av is naked, but what it's actually showing you is your test clothing files. Just make sure you don't save when you exit appearance mode, and make sure to replace the files with the right ones when you're done.
Like I said, this is not a convenient or "neat & clean" way to do it, but it works. Someone else discovered this and posted it a while back, but I couldn't find the original post to give credit. Hopefully whoever it was will see this and chime in so they can be properly thanked. It's not quick, but it can save a fortune, and you get to see the texture on YOUR av, not the default mannequin. If you're talking about non-avatar textures, then the most common preview issue has to do with making sure your alpha channel is right. This is simple to do. Just copy the alpha channel to a layer mask. You see, Photoshop (and other raster editors) don't automatically inrerpret alpha channel data as transparency because alphas can be used for all sorts of things. Most 3D and video apps (like SL) do consider a single alpha channel in a TGA file to mean transparency by default, but technically it could mean any one of thousand different things from transparency to specularity to reflectivity, etc, so good raster editors like Photoshop treat alpha channels just as extra data with no definite purpose. Layer masks then are good tools to serve as "interpreter" to tell Photoshop that you want to see how the alpha will affect the image as a trasparency map. If you're not sure what all that means, head on over to the texture forum and ask away. I'll be happy to explain in more detail. My apologies for making this reply into a linkomatic, quote within a quote thingie, but I didn't really see any other practical way to do it. Hopefully it's not too hard to follow.
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Nyx Divine
never say never!
Join date: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 1,052
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03-20-2006 16:23
TY Chosen I noticed that folks are just starting to title thier queries....'Hey Chosen I have a question' hehe I jest, but I HAVE noticed U've been a helpful 'lil AV
_____________________
Yes Virginia there is an FIC!
If someone shows you who they are.....believe them!
Don't be afraid to go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is!
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kaia Ennui
Registered User
Join date: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 349
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03-20-2006 16:51
thanks chosen, you beat me to it. and thanks LL for bringing back our flesh...hooray!
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Namssor Daguerre
Imitates life
Join date: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 1,423
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03-20-2006 17:10
From: Nyx Divine OK I'll bite.....what other preview methods? And where can I maybe, possibly, hopefully, avail myself of this option? Previews work great in 3DS Max, or any other 3D applications capable of accepting the SL avatar mannequin. My method of choice is linking Photoshop up to SL as directly as possible. This allows avatar shape changes to be applied as well as textures to be previewed without L$10 fees. Here is an explanation of that method from a previous post. I was unable to find the original post (it was so long ago). From: Namssor Daguerre How can you preview a skin, clothing item, tattoo, or any other texture on a full size Avatar, in-world, without having to upload (not the tiny window located in the file preview window in the upload dialog)?
Here's how
1) Open the texture you want to test in Photoshop (this will preferably be a clothing item or other texture that maps to one of the 3 Linden supplied templates for the various body sections)
2) Create a PS action set to save the texture to it's corresponding color layer in the SL install (for PC and Mac users this is one of 3 files, either head_color.tga, upperbody_color.tga, or lowerbody_color.tga). PC users can find these files in the character folder. The action should include New File, Copy Merged, Resize, and the appropriate directory path if you are running the action on a layered master file. MAKE BACKUPS OF THE ORIGINAL SL CHARACTER FILES BEFORE YOU OVERWRITE THEM!!
3) Create duplicate actions for the other 2 color layers (you can run these actions on any texture you like as long as they end up as 512x512 textures on the color layers)
4) After you have tested all 3 actions in the set for each color layer, open SL in a split screen mode with PS, so you can switch between applications on the fly. Run your Action(s) on the appropriate color layers.
5) Enter Appearance mode to preview your texture on your full size Avatar.
6) Exit Appearance mode (WITHOUT SAVING) to return to normal.
7) Repeat steps 5 and 6 (after texture updates) as many times as needed.
With this method you can edit and preview skins, clothing items, tattoos, or any other textures on a full size Avatar, in-world, without having to upload, within a matter of seconds!!
I hope some of you find this method useful. It has saved me countless hours of frustration, not to mention a lot of L$!!! |
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Keitaro Fisher
100% Yiffable
Join date: 12 Jan 2006
Posts: 29
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guh, pain in the... well you know^_^
03-22-2006 21:53
it was nice having an actual model so you could see how it looked BEFORE you spent the money to download it, is this a scheme to get us to screw up the textures and have to pay to download more than once? somthing smelling kinda fishy dontcha think? change it back... pretty please? T_T
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Torley Linden
Enlightenment!
Join date: 15 Sep 2004
Posts: 16,530
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03-22-2006 22:41
From: Keitaro Fisher it was nice having an actual model so you could see how it looked BEFORE you spent the money to download it, is this a scheme to get us to screw up the textures and have to pay to download more than once? somthing smelling kinda fishy dontcha think? change it back... pretty please? T_T As mentioned earlier in the thread by Chosen, it is fixed. The mannequin again has flesh. Please continue to see Known Issues for the latest and greatest updates on Second Life. |
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kaia Ennui
Registered User
Join date: 30 Apr 2005
Posts: 349
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03-22-2006 23:38
its fixed, silly. i already said a big thank you to LL for resolving it so fast.
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