Obsession with facelights?

Interesting. When you said "step," you really meant "step": Somehow I'd always understood which lights appear to be a function of where the cam is, but actually it's where the viewing *avatar* is, regardless of where the cam roams. And you're right, it is some function of the lights' relative radii, but not a function that's obvious, at least not to me. Still, it's true: a 20m radius "area light" will shine past six 1m highlight lamps (unless those little lamps are selected); until I tested it, I wasn't so sure that worked.

The problem isn't with one light on one person. The problem is that *everyone* thinks the same thing and it ruins whatever ambient lighting is present in the build since the 3 people around you are hogging all the lights.

If bling is bad, a face light is 10 times worse. You can at least turn off bling on a per-avie basis, you can't do the same for lights. It's all or nothing.

Are face lights popular or aren't they?

If they are, perhaps there is a reason for it.

Dismissing people as narcissistic really isn't going to solve anything.

I predict with Windlight it will be getting worse.


Maybe if people were to look at the reason face-lights have become so popular, there might be some ideas.

Interesting that I am using 1.19.1 RC and have been using windlight for some time now and have never had a problem with my AV looking bad. Nor has my partner ever mentioned that my AV looks bad and she uses windlight exclusively.

Whether I got lucky on my choice of skin or some other reason, I have never felt the need to use a facelight.

But if you want to use one, that's fine. But I really think 4 or more light prims on a single AV is just unnecessary overkill.

*gazes at self, admires klieg induced smooth rendered face*

*bbbzzzzzzttt*

*gazes at self more*

I think different people have different opinions of what looks "bad"

And the conditions are independent of the skin used, really. I own skins by about 10 different designers I can think of of the top of my head.

Nah, the really funny part is that your whole post finds fault based on personal return..
YOU (the wearer) can't see it here, or there, or there, so it's ZOMG unfathomable that someone would have one because there's not a lot of YOU in the return.
Fact is.. as a dancer, model, competitor, and showoff, it's there to enhance how OTHER people see me closeup. If a few choose to superficially label someone they don't know because of that, then I say great.. have fun with that



You're missing how it works though... Here's the key.. It's NOT, repeat.. NOT the 6 nearest light sources to you that your client renders. It's the 6 nearest one's WHO'S LIGHT RADIUS YOU ARE STANDING IN AT THAT TIME.

Experiment: Make a light with 3m(~10ft) radius and walk 15 feet away. You can't see it.
Now add another light on the other side of it farther away with a 10m(over 30 feet) radius. That one you see. Local lighting is entirely dependant on it's radius as to whether you see it or not... that's why they call it local.

Six dim 2m lights at 1m apart at the widest, centered on my AV is about 8 feet from center of AV to edge of radius. If you're not closer than 8 feet to me, you don't see my lights and they don't interrupt any other lights for you. I hardly call that hogging. What you're seeing is people with full radius on their lights... thats a coverage of over 30 feet in every direction (60+ foot circle).. THAT i call hogging and rude.

Yes Qie, the AV location is used to determine which light radii you are in, thus which lights to render. It's just like if you disable cam restraints and zoom out near the end of your draw distance. Stuff beyond draw distance doesn't rez and lights don't show. It's also based on the AV position.. the cam just flys around within that area.

You may want to just build your own facelights, then you can adjust them easily as you need to for a photo. There is nothing easier to build than a facelight - just make a small sphere, turn it completely transparent, turn on "light" on the features tab, and voila! Attach it to your nose or chin. Don't bother with fancy shapes, light appears to emanate from the center of a prim, not its surface. If you need light from multiple angles, add more spheres and link them together. My most useful one is a single light at something like 10%, falloff at 2 meters. It suffices to mitigate noon shadows, doesn't bother a lot of surrounding folks, lets me take impromptu shots without messing with the sun all the time.

The absolute first thing I do upon login is hit <ctrl><shift><N> and point my avatar's back to the sun. This is the only position in relation to the sun that will allow my skin to be rendered as closely as possible tonaly to the flat texture it is created from. It is very subdued because of no direct lighting, but sure enough, if I take a snapshot and run it through a levels adjust to correct the histogram I get a very close match to the original texture. If I flip the sun around to face directly into it. I get the skin in all it's washed out glory. Of course, there is the abrupt and choppy angular drop off of light as it hits each polygon on the sides of the avatar. What does this tell me about SL's rendering engine? It tells me that the rendering engine does very little to enhance the dimensional realism of the avatar because it compresses the histogram by almost half, causing overexposure under one extreme and underexposure at the other extreme. There is no middle ground. Middle gound is what face lights attempt to regain, and the reason some face lights have more than one source. A single light source is not going to take care of both sides of the avatar. 3 light sources are even better because one can actually be used to illuminate the front while the other two cancel out the unwanted choppy shadows.

Now...it is true that all the issues mentioned with face lights exist, and they really do suck the enjoyment out of other visual elements in SL as well as create performance issues! The direct problem, however, is not the face lights, but the rendering within SL. The poor rendering is why the face lights exist. Windlight is not an improvement where avatars are concerned. It compresses the histogram even further. If windlight becomes the standard, then expect face lights to also become the standard because a realistic avatar is what most people want.

Not silly, plain stupid is more like it. Same with these idiots who are blinged out from head to toe.

QFTEATAW!

I like my little facelight, and I'm not taking it off. With so many people using crappy hardware, I'm pretty sure most can't see me anyway. I just wear it for me. Vanity? Of course. Some people take pride in what they build, script, create, etc. Some take pride in the avatar they've created... Do as you wish but as in anything, just don't go over-board.

My alt without Facelight
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23909201@N06/2339169133/

With Facelight
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23909201@N06/2340001336/in/photostream/

Afar at night. Am I glowing?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23909201@N06/2339167521/in/photostream/

What it looks like in 'highlight transparent' for those not familiar
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23909201@N06/2339166753/in/photostream/

I've tried a facelight before. It came with a skin and made my nose disappear. It also helped me see in dark rooms.

I honestly can't see facelights as improving anyone's looks. At best it makes you 'not ugly' and at worst it makes you 'really silly'. It doesn't take a pretty girl and make her prettier.

I mean when was the last time you noticed a person wearing a facelight in a good way? I've only noticed it when it made them look really bad. So you have the effects of a facelight ranging from 'not noticeable' to 'craves attention'.

And I'm not belittling people as being narcissistic. It's just that a facelight makes you look more narcissistic than the rest of us.

It helps eliminate shadows for pictures, Bree. If you're doing a lot of shots ... say a quick bunch for a fashion ad? You can dink forever with your studio setup to get the lighting so your subjects face doesn't appear shadowed, or you can use natural light and a facelight. Easy peasy.

Also, many folks don't like the way that noon light makes avies faces look like small pig's faces due to vertical shadows (thank you avatar mesh?). I have a tendency to just change my viewer to not be noon in these situations, but a face light can help there as well.
.

/me wanders in, takes a look around, continues not to give a rat's ass about other people's overly judgmental attitudes regarding something so minor, then wanders back out

My forums pic was taken with a Face Light.

Hahhahaha Yes they are funny seeing people walk around with 6 of them on. Some think that they offer skins shades and shadows even more true to life. But do they? If you fell they do then why not. But seeing on someone makes many laugh. One or even two ok. But anymore is over kill.

Gee, thanx Bree! LOL
Right after I post my pictures...
You could have at least waited for a post in between to cushion the blow



There are many 'creations' I find 'not to my liking' in SL. (A lot!) The thing is, I won't post a thread about it. It's a matter of taste.

Is it vain to pay attention to detail when creating a furry avatar, a treehouse, a car, a dog in SL? To spend days, sometimes weeks staring at your 'creation', tweaking it here and there. Why is it _more_ vain when it comes to your own avatar? For some, dressing-up their 'doll' is half the fun. Why not highlight what you're proud of?

Unless you walk around as a Ruth, hopping with no AO, I simply do not believe someone in SL who says they're not vain. Nope, don't believe you.

Frankly, I haven't seen that many people glowing with 6 lights on. Where do you all see these peeps?

Hmm, 6 facelights ? Pffft!
I'm thinking of having 1024 hovering orbs of angelicness, rotating around my head using temp rezzers to shine football stadium bright spotlights engineered and individually set and colored to highlight individual 20mm square spots all over my $200L furry face textures.
I will literally _MAKE_ everyone stop what they are doing to look at me

as a poster put it a while back..."you'll take my face light when ya pry it from my cold dead avatar hand!!!"


i too have a few hairs from "the well known hair designer" and i like them. they are subtle, not garish, and it does soften my avas more none flattering features. i have yet to have anyone tell me to turn it off, and its prolly very unlikely i will. if i am wearign them its part of the outfit i chose to wear. deal. have a happy sl!!!

I use them for photos but tend to forget they are on, how about someone script face on face off..like bling...

or is that available somewhere> I haven't seen anything at least like that or I would be buying it..you know some kind of even hud rig, low light, high light, soft, warm etc...

be a big seller I tell ya...

Face lights are wonderful objects to usebut as someone said they should be taken off after they are used for photo shooting. Leaving them on just seems to show some just love extra attachments just show off without really knowing the usefullness of them

Usagi

....But evry so often you DO run across someone who is pretty close. Maybe the AO is there, but they are pretty basic. It is usually guys it seems. *Our own beloved Har for example , I don't think has changed his white shirt since I've been here..... *

Now now Ann. Remember that some people have no Second Life, and are to be pitied ...

Do they get their own grid? "Third life" and then get teased by Second and First lifers for having no lives!