Another Appearance Question

Being a newbie, I keep hearing people talking about "Baking", their appearance. Is that when you just enter the appearance mode and then just exit without making any changes???

With all of the problems I hear other AV's are experiencing, I haven't even tried to change clothes yet fearing that I'll,,, screw up, my current appearance.

One last thing. Is there any area or prior posting that clearly states how to change clothes, skins, ect.? I checked the knowledge base but I'm still looking for a more detailed discription. Maybe my name should be DENSE instead of Carolyn! LOL

Hey Carolyn,

Here are a few tips/answers to your questions.

1) Baking: Essentially what this means is that when you have the multiple layers of clothing (underclothes, shirt, pants, jacket, etc.) you are dealing with multiple textures and layers. To be able to perform faster SL essentially takes a snapshot of your "complete outfit" and bakes that final texture into the system. This allows things to work faster as you are working with a temporary "baked texture" and not multiple individual textures. Some problems that can arise is if you try to do several outfit changes in a short period of time, especially if your in a high-traffic area and then don't give the system enough time to "bake" before you teleport or leave. This increases the possibility of you showing up as "missing images" to others around you.

2) Outfit changes: If it is at all possible, use these tips when you are changing your outfit.
A. Find an area that is a "low-lag" or "lower-traffic" area, the system can work better with you then.
B. After you have finished your outfit changes give the system like 10-20secs. before leaving the area (teleporting or otherwise) to completely "bake" the texture.

3) Rebaking: Finally if people start telling you that you are showing "missing images" one thing you can try is "rebaking". If possible teleport to a low-traffic/low-lag area before doing this. Here are the steps to rebake
A. Hold down Ctrl->Alt->D this should open up two additional menus in your menu area labeled "Client" and "Server" these are debug menus that are by default kept hidden as they have options that could potentially mess up your game if you aren't careful/know what you are doing.
B. Go to the "Client" menu and scroll down to "Character"
C. In "Character" the last option is "Rebake Textures", select that.
D. Once again hold down Ctrl->Alt->D to close the menus
E. Give the system like 10-20secs. (potentially longer if in a high-traffic area) to finish the process.

4) Help: Honestly the best advice I can give you about finding out answers to appearance, clothing, etc. is to ask. You can look for Mentors/Greeters in the area, if you don't find one, seek out someone who has been here longer than you and ask for help, many of us are happy to help.

Hope that answers some of the questions,

Take care!

Zarithi Federko

Thanks so much Zarithi. Your detailed responce is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!

Your welcome, enjoy Second Life...