The Eyes Have It

It has been a very very long while since I posted anything here. I was learning so much I didnt have time to keep notes. I've got some amazing creations and really love my building experience.  Then I was on hiatus from SecondLife (SL) for a very long time and so much has changed. It is a lot like learning it over again.

I popped in this week for a bit of fun.  I have been working on photographing the Iris of someone with hazel eyes. After a lot of photographs, various experiments with lighting and a lot of Photoshopping to remove glare, and eyelash reflections and eye lash shadows and then to slice and rescale it so it fits into the SL mesh correctly... I finally had something I could import into SL.

I discovered several months ago the temporary upload for images.  That was fantastic for collaborative work.  I used it to get some advice while I was creating a portrait avatar of Jang Keun-suk. Sadly, I discovered this week that they have removed that feature. 

Not all is lost however, they have replaced it with a new feature that lets you use 'local' images. There are a couple advantages with this. They are right there on your computer, so no waiting for downloads, as soon as you make changes in Photoshop (or your image editor) and save them, they are immediately updated in your SL. This is great for working quickly alone but it shoots collaboration in the foot.  The disadvantage is, only you can see the local image.

I am still hoping they will bring back a version of the temp image.

So back to the hazel eye...  I tested it out with local and am very glad I did.  I had to flip it several times to get the reflection hot spot in the corner I wanted it in.  Silly how Linden gives you a template but never points out that you actually need to rotate it 90 degrees counter-clockwise.  I made a few other discoveries and tweaks and made a second lightened version that would be better tint-able.  I discovered (well maybe rediscovered as this was a little familiar once I realized my mistake), the blue eye example with the eye white and red veins is misleading. You need to leave the eye white out and save your image as a transparent png.  If you save it with the eye white intact or as a jpg (which fills in the background), you end up with tintable eye whites. Not usually what you want when you are just trying to modify your eye color.

Now I have an amazing pair of hazel eyes on my avatar.

Permissions Experiment

I think I need to set up a bunch of example objects to test with.

Permissions Settings:

• Mod, Copy, Transfer
  
• No Mod, Copy, Transfer
  These settings pretty much are best if you are making something you want to see widely dispersed and passed from hand to hand.
  
  
• Mod, Copy, No Transfer
  
• No Mod, Copy, No Transfer
  These would be the most common settings, especially for wearables.
  
  
• Mod, No Copy, Transfer
  
• No Mod, No Copy, Transfer
  Maybe for Furniture or Gifts, things that are more of a one off nature.
  

Object Test Perameters:
Maybe use my genie bottle with a script and a notecard.


• 1 prim object
  
• Multiple prim object with different permissions for each prim
  
• Nested prims
  
• Temp rez prims
  

Things to try with each:

1. Can I rename it in my inventory?
   
2. Can I copy it to another folder? (That should be straight forward obvious)
   
3. Does it come out of my inventory when I res it?
   
4. If it is put in a copy transfer box, does it come out of the box when opened?
   Scripts:
   
5. Can I view the script?
   
6. Can I edit it?
   
7. Can I copy it to a folder in my inventory?
   

Notes: Copy/Mod/Trans

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/content-creation/11628-script-permissions-does-no-copy.html

"No Copy/Modify/Transfer - When you pass the script to someone else, they cannot see the script code when they open it, so it is effectively No Modify as well." - Briana Dawson

"The difference is that if your scripts are set to No Mod then you cannot edit the object, go to the Tools menu and then stop the scripts from running in the object. If the script is Modify you can use the Tools menu to stop the scripts from running in the object." - Briana Dawson

"mod/no copy scripts cannot be opened/viewed. they are only mod in the sense that they can be recompiled, started, stopped, etc." - prinţesă nină


http://secondview.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/permission-to-sell/
This covers the meanings of the three aspects pretty well but not what happpens when and object has mixed settings.

Just setting up.

So I have been playing on Second Life for a few months now. I am learning a ton. I have a fair grasp of the prims now, though still learning some of the subtler tricks of prim torturing. I am starting to get a descent grasp of the scripting language and am having a lot of fun creating and decorating scenes. I need a space wehre I can keep track of a few of the things I am learning along the way.

In particular this morning I was wondering....does someone have a good low down on the various permissions options and how they all interact. I mean, yes, I understand the basics of copy/mod/transfer, however, I am interested in the more subtle nuansces of complex objects, like an object that has multiple parts and scripts and contents.

Sometimes, you have an object that you res, the original stays in your inventory but when you go to delete the ressed object you get a warning that there are 'no copy' items inside it.

Sometimes, an object shows as no copy/no mod in your inventory and yet that is just because of one script in the object and really you can manipulate the object quite freely.

What about an object with a no mod texture?

These are some of the questions I want to sort out for myself through reading and experimentation.