Full Bright Suggestions

Cross posted from here:

/120/19/61789/1.html#post644882

Does it seem counterintuitive to anyone else to have this under TEXTURE instead of material? Everyone is trained to set material to light (UGH) to make it "full brightness". I'd recommend the following:

(1) Put "full bright" under Material as "Light (Full Brightness)"
(2) Change "Light" to be "Light (Ray Casting Source)"

Change all current light materials grid-wide from "Light (Ray Casting Source)" to "Light (Full Brightness)", as I believe WAY over 50% of objects set to "Light" merely wish the "Full Bright" effect, and not to create horrid, client-side lag.

Then let people who have a real need for light objects change the material back to "Light (Ray Casting Source)".

This would allow us to turn local lighting back on without fear. Also, create a pop up when someone tries to set an object to "Light (Ray Casting Source)" saying, "Light sources create a significant amount of lag for people with Local Lighting on. Unless you wish this to be a light source, it is highly recommended that you set the material to be Light (Full Brightness)." with an option to "Not show this message again."

Do those minor changes, and I'd actually turn Local Lighting back on!

-Flip

Fullbright IS a texture effect though, whereas light isn't.
It's possible to set only several sides of a prim to fullbright. When fullbright is a material choice, we would lose that option, so I'd rather keep it as a texture effect.

I fully agree with the rest of the suggestions concerning the light material though.

Ah, very valid point about the sides. I hadn't thought of that!

In that case, let's set all light objects back to wood, with full bright set on for all sides. If someone wants to switch back to a light object, they can. Just on a guestimate from my experience... but I'd say about 90% of the light objects in SL want the full bright effect, and not to cast light (like every object in every mall everywhere).

Regards,

-Flip

I agree with Damien, Full Bright is good where it is.

As for your second suggestion, YES, please yes! Eltee suggested this in IRC awhile ago too and I thought it was a fantastic idea.

Some people may be annoyed/pissed but screw em!

As someone who has Local Lighting on all the time I can tell you that the grid is just FULL of un-needed light spam. I'd love to see that go away. But honestly, most people A) Won't know what Full-Bright is. B) Won't care. C) Won't know to use it because they don't run with Local Lighting on. D) All of the above. So forcing people to take it into consideration would be a great thing.

Also giving a notice when you first select Material - Light, like a little pop up that says something to the effect of "Alot of Light objects can adversly effect the area and residents around them. Please consider using Full-Bright under Texture instead." Because honestly I can see alot of people going RIGHT back and changing the crap to Light without know/caring about Full-Bright.

Correction/Addition... it should only do this for Modable items. So people don't get screwed with an item they have and can't fix it.

I'm in favor of more efficiency.

Hehe... I note Oz's last point about moddable objects. Was just gonna say that too!

BTW, since "Light" is a material, uh, how much does light weigh and stuff? @_@ The info of:

http://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=material

is not as complete as I'd like to see.

Looks like this is one of those cases where we deal with past baggage but keep moving forwards.

I agree with all the suggestions here, except of course the material thing. While were on the subject, and kind of along the lines of what Torley said, I've always wondered why light is even a material at all. Shouldn't it really be a checkbox option like Phantom? Can't a light source be made of glass or plastic or metal? If lighjt is a material, then that means light-producing objects are "made of light". If that's the case, then how can they be tangible? That might make sense for lightsabers and laser beams, but beyond that it's pretty silly.

So, how about a checkbox entitled "Cast Local Light" (complete with the apropriate popup warning when it's clicked), and then do away with the light material altogether. Keep Full Bright where it is, as a texture option.

Fullbright certainly belongs on the Texture tab, but I'd like to see "Light" removed from materials and made independent. That way you could have an actual glass lightbulb.

Although, simulated volumetric effects, light beams, glows, etc, should probably still be made of light so it's hard to say.

Ayuh... as for removing Light from Materials... I wonder if that's possible, backwards-compatibility-wise?

Having a "Cast Local Light" checkbox as Chosen suggests seems the better longterm way to go for me.

Hmm, I like the idea, can't think of any bad reasons except for light sabers and lazers.