Let me get lost in your eyes (GIMP tutorial)

New book in the store! Do you want to learn a technique to create eye textures by using GIMP? Then don't miss this one:



Available, as usual, at Marketplace and my store inworld.

New scripting book: Notecards

The "Class in a box" series, book format, adds a new title with this medium-advanced scripting course: Notecards. If you have followed the whole "Speaking LSL" course (or have equivalent knowledge), you'll be able to do this.


Reading notecards is a process widely required as soon as we begin our career as professional scripters. Configuration notecards aren't but the norm in basically any application we may think of.

Notecards, available at Marketplace and my store inworld.

Updated courses in book format

Now it's the turn for the "Particles" and "Music!" classes to be (improved and) updated in the new book format (87 and 28 pages respectively, plus all the supplies and scripts full perms required). They're available both at my store and at Marketplace.

Take a look at what you're missing!

Updating Courses in Book Format

Courses are a living creature, as well as many, many others. So I decided to develop a book engine, similar to IntelliBook or iThink, and rework my courses to box them in this, more convenient, new format.

I'm alternating this with working on new items for the store so, right now, the following items have been completely updated in this new format:

• Speaking LSL 01 and 02, Anatomy of a script, Variables
• Speaking 03, Functions
• Speaking LSL 04 and 05, Flow structures and logics, Lists
• Animating Textures and Cell Animation

It's not only a new format: I'm adding more and more information to them, as the pictures show:



























More books coming soon!

Mesh

LICENSE TERMS FOR "BLACK TULIP" FULL PERMISSIONS MESH OBJECTS

Full perms mesh objects created by Auryn Beorn are intended ONLY for content creators so they can USE them in their creations.

By purchasing any of these mesh objects you HAVE NOT purchased the ownership of them, nor does your purchase grant you full rights for their use. What you're purchasing is a LICENSE for LIMITED USE, ONLY as outlined in these terms and license conditions. By purchasing this license for use of Black Tulip mesh objects, you are agreeing to follow the terms of this license, and you agree that these mesh objects you have been given permission to use will NOT be distributed to others in their full permission-copy/transfer, unprotected state.

The specific terms of Black Tulip mesh objects' license for use are:

• You are NOT allowed to transfer Black Tulip mesh objects to anyone else with both copy AND transfer permissions under any circumstance, regardless of whether they are being sold or gifted.
• Mesh objects should NOT be sold or gifted as-is. Black Tulip mesh objects are to be used solely for the purpose of enhancing products by legitimate content creators.
• You must change either the transfer or copy permissions on Black Tulip mesh objects before they are distributed as part of your creations.
• You must take steps as outlined below to help ensure that Black Tulip mesh objects are never transferred to anyone else with full permissions by mistake.
• You may not reverse engineer the mesh objects in order to obtain a .dae file. Access to the original .dae files is NOT included in the license of the mesh objects.

This license is valid only for Second Life.

By purchasing and/or accepting these full permission mesh objects, you agree to abide by the specific terms of this licensing agreement. If you do not agree to these terms or if you are unable to comply for any reason, you must delete all Black Tulip mesh objects and retain no copies of them. Because of the full permissions state of Black Tulip mesh objects, I DO NOT OFFER REFUNDS FOR ANY REASON.

Violations of Black Tulip's License Agreement will be reported to Linden Labs; further legal action may also result.

Protect your investment and the integrity of Black Tulip mesh objects by making sure that you NEVER FORGET to change the permissions before transferring an item.

The best way to abide by the license is to take care of it immediately after purchase:

1. After unpacking the mesh objects into your inventory, please locate the folder where the mesh objects are stored.
2. REZ the mesh item. Right click to choose "Edit". Click the "General" tab and look for the permissions for NEXT OWNER at the bottom of this tab.
3. Uncheck either "Copy" or "Resell/Give Away" (Transfer), depending on what permissions most of your products are transferred or sold with.
4. Delete the mesh object *in your inventory*. Now take the rezzed mesh object with the permissions changed back to your inventory.
5. Repeat this for EACH Black Tulip mesh object you have purchased or received.

Of course, you will be able to change the permissions later if you need to, but if you have them set from the moment you unpack, you will never forget to set them later.

Please feel free to contact me, Auryn Beorn, if you have any questions about the mesh objects or this license agreement.

[DOC-SCULPT] Using your sculpt maps

Guide to use the sculpt maps you've purchased

• How to use the sculpt maps
• Ok, now I have applied the sculpt map. How do I texture it?
• Broken sculpties? LOD settings

How to use the sculpt maps

New to building? Then follow this very simple guide to learn how to use your sculpt maps.

To use a sculpt map, you have to begin by making sure that you are in an area where it is allowed to rez. Then click the "Build" button from your viewer or, alternatively, click CTRL 4.

Now, click on the ground. This will rez a box (unless you had another shape selected from before.)

Right click on this box, and select the "Edit" option from the menu.
Click the "Object" tab from this window, and look at the parameters on the right side of this window.

You may see a drop-down menu labeled as "Building Block Type". Other viewers won't show but the pull down menu itself. Click the little arrow to open it, and then select "Sculpted". The right side of the "Edit" window will change, showing us the following: a "rainbow" texture and a few options below ("Mirror", "Inside-out" and the stitching type.)

This "rainbow texture" is what defines the shape for the sculpted prim, and it's called "the sculpt map." You will find sculpt maps that are not a "rainbow" but transparent. This is okay. Those sculpt maps are "alpha protected" but will work too.

You should click on that "rainbow." This will open a menu that will allow you to select a sculpt map from your inventory folder. You would select one of the sculpt maps you've acquired.

Check the samples provided to know how to fill in the rest of fields: "Mirror", "Inside-out" and the "Stitching type." Usually, you will have to worry only about the last one. All my sculpt maps specify which stitching type you should select in its name.

An example, if you see one of my sculpt maps named as:

[Black Tulip] Shelf 5 - Stitching_PLANE

that means that, for that specific sculpt map, you should select the stitching type "Plane" (or "Plane/none" for some viewers) on the "Edit window" under the "Stitching type" pull down menu.

Ok, now I have applied the sculpt map. How do I texture it?

Apart from the sculpt map itself, which defines the shape for the sculpted prim, we need also to apply a texture on the sculpted prim, as usual, under the "Texture" tab in the "Edit" window.

Some sculpties will need that you define a very specific number of repeats and offsets. Specially, those that have the stitching type "Plane."

At times, those repeats may go over 100. Some viewers won't allow you to type such a number over 100. So in order to help you, your purchase has also several scripts that will change the repeats for you, and after that they will self delete. If you find yourself in the situation of not being able to change the repeats over 100, by all means use the scripts. They won't cause any lag at all, as they get immediately deleted from the primitive after completing their task of changing the texture settings.

Those scripts are:

[Black Tulip] Change Repeats 4x256
    [Black Tulip] Change Repeats 4x128
    [Black Tulip] Change Repeats 2x256
    [Black Tulip] Change Repeats 2x128
    [Black Tulip] Change Repeats 1x256
    [Black Tulip] Change Repeats 1x128

Use the one that better suits your sculpties. Begin by trying out "[Black Tulip] Change Repeats 4x256" and if you don't like how those repeats look like, then try with less repeats.

Broken sculpties? LOD settings

If you see your furniture like "breaking" for you as you get further away from it, by changing your LOD settings should fix this problem for you.

For this, go to your "Advanced" menu (click CTRL ALT D if you don't have it -COMMAND key instead of CTRL for Mac-)
Then, scroll down to "Debug Settings..."

This opens a little window.
Type in it the following:

renderVolumeLODFactor

and then change the suggested value to 3 or 4.

Going over 4 won't make basically any difference and may be overkill if you don't own a powerful graphics card.
Set it to 3 in that case.

You will find also this text under the notecard "[Black Tulip] Broken Sculpties? LOD settings". Its purpose is for you having a notecard with a text ready so you can deliver it to your customers, explaining about the LOD settings.

I wish this information helps you in using sculpted prims in your creations.

-- Auryn Beorn

[DOC-MESH] Materials enabled? How does this work?

Materials enabled? How does this work? Is it optional?

When the mesh package says "materials ready/enabled", it comes with normal and/or specular maps.

Is it a special kind of item? Yes and no.

All objects in SL (even prims, yes) can be "materials enabled". This means that when using special maps called normal and specular maps, and seen with a current viewer that has Advanced Lighting Mode turned on, they will render some detail and effects more realistically.

You can see objects in a non materials enabled viewer, or with the Advanced Lighting Mode turned off. You will not see the extra rendered features, but the object will render correctly anyway.

This means that materials are OPTIONAL. You can use this mesh model without any of the supplied normal and/or specular maps.

If you want to know what normal and specular maps are, and how to use them, then continue reading.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• WHAT IS A NORMAL MAP?
• WHAT IS A SPECULAR MAP?
• HOW DO I USE THE NORMAL/SPECULAR MAP IN SL?

WHAT IS A NORMAL MAP?

In easy words, a normal map is a texture that tells the 3D engine, SL in this case, how to simulate "bump" detail that would be otherwise too resource consuming (LI and rendering time) if modelled. For example, cracks in walls/floors/rocks/etc. , tiles, cloth detail, skin detail and many more can be added without our mesh having dense geometry that takes quite a while to render, thanks to using normal maps.

If you like the "bump" effect achieved with the provided normal maps, then feel free to use them. You can create your own normal maps to be used with your own textures. You can do this within Blender, or using other tools:

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Creation_in_The_GIMP
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Creation_in_Photoshop_or_Paint_Shop_Pro

How do we use them? That's explained on the HOW DO I USE THE NORMAL/SPECULAR MAP IN SL? section.

WHAT IS A SPECULAR MAP?

In easy words, a specular map is a texture that tells the 3D engine, SL in this case, how to simulate the way the light should reflect over a surface. Instead of having SL calculating the reflections over all the surfaces, which would be very (VERY) resource consuming, SL emulates how the light should reflect if the object provides this information in a specular map.

If you like the specularity achieved with the provided specular maps, then feel free to use them. You can create your own specular maps to be used with your own textures. Following there's a tutorial discussing this for SL:

http://www.lelanicarver.com/2013/05/gimp-texture-normal-map-tutorials-specular-spectacular/

How do we use them? That's explained on the HOW DO I USE THE NORMAL/SPECULAR MAP IN SL? section.

HOW DO I USE THE NORMAL/SPECULAR? MAP IN SL?

In order to use these maps, the first we need is being in a current viewer. When we do this, the Texture tab of the Edit window changes, from what it has been... all the time! (Before materials were introduced to SL.)

Instead of giving us a texture box, to drop the texture we want to texture our item with, it shows the color, transparency, full bright and glow, and below, there's a drop down menu with a "Materials" option, then a texture box plus three options:

TEXTURE (DIFFUSE)
    BUMPINESS (NORMAL)
    SHININESS (SPECULAR)

When we select "Texture (diffuse)", the texture we drop under the "Texture" box will be the texture we'd use to texture our object. When we select "Bumpiness (normal)", the texture we drop under the "Texture" box will be the NORMAL MAP. Finally, when we select "Shininess (specular)", the texture we drop under the "Texture" box will be the SPECULAR MAP.

Check the provided sample object to see how this is done.


I wish this information helps you in using normal and specular maps for your objects in your creations.

-- Auryn Beorn