May 19, 2011

EEEK!! More Bare Rose Madness!

Lilin Outfit from Bare Rose
My infatuation with Bare Rose just HAS TO STOP!!!! Sigh. I went back there yesterday to find a costume for an event and yeesh, ended up buying three more outfits. And I didn't end up with anything for the event! The funny part about it was that I wore a different BareRose outfit --- which everyone loved. And then when I mentioned it was from BareRose, it was like -- ohhh, the "Wal-Mart" of Second Life.

Well poooh on that. BareRose items are all originals, they aren't copybotted, they are exciting and they are reasonably priced. OK they are actually very inexpensive for what you get. That's just fine with me!

On to the outfit details. This one is called "Lilin" and, like most B@R fantasy costumes, it comes in several flavors -- black, red and purple -- all in the same box. Woot!

The red version is absolutely fabulous with wonderful details such as the skeletal fingers reaching across your tummy and the fire-y ribbons dangling off the breastplate. As my friend Lalo noted, it sort of has a barbarian Viking look to it. ("What's in YOUR wallet?")

Lilin also comes with risque options that expose your nipples and nether regions. Sorry, this is a PG blog so I'm not gonna show ya piccies of those!

Anyway, you'll find this somewhere on the massive Bare@Rose wall of stuff for only $150L.

Hair: Bewitched "Izzie"
Skin: Snickers
Boots: Lyra Knee Highs

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bare%20Rose/147/12/41

May 18, 2011

Alpha sorting and masking in Second Life

Oooooh, sounds fascinating doesn't it? Yeah right! You're probably saying to yourself -- WTH Snick??  What's this got to do with fashion or anything else in my Second Life experience?? Let me try to explain.

Second Life Alpha Masking and Sorting Illustration
Have you ever noticed when looking at an object in SL that you can't quite tell what part of the object is in front or in back? Here's a quick illustration I made in SL to show you.

Alpha sort demo

This is supposed to look like two disks crossing each other. C is how it should look. A & B show how it actually looks in Second Life from two different angles.

I made the object using two flat, square prims with a filled circle texture applied to the front and back faces. The circle texture has an "alpha mask" which effectively hides the unwanted parts of the image. 

Second Life renders the masked part of the image as transparent. Without the mask, the square corners would typically show as white. (D shows how the texture itself looks in Photoshop. The dotted line is the outline of the mask.)

What's happening in A & B is that Second Life can't decide which part of the object should be in front and which should be in back. So you get that weird flashing look where parts of the object normally in back will suddenly jump in front depending on your viewing angle. You'll see this problem in everything from prim trees to prim skirts and outfits. Even worse, try standing in a building with lots of windows. Sometimes it will look like objects that are physically OUTSIDE the building will look like they are inside and vice versa.

We need answers!

So why am I writing about this? Simple. Linden Lab has known about this issue since forever; they seem to have the ability to MOSTLY solve it; and yet, they haven't done so. A simple case in point is that Linden trees do NOT show the sorting problem YET Linden trees use alpha-masked textures. I won't bore you with all the technical details (frankly, I don't fully understand them myself), but I will point you to the JIRA issue that was created almost 3 years ago. I got involved in the issue because it affected my fashion designs and dammit, I wanted it fixed!


Three years and still NO Lindens assigned to work on it. Three years and numerous solutions offered by residents but no action. In fact, reading between the lines from some posts by Lindens participating in the JIRA discussion make it sound like one of their proposed fixes could be worse than the original problem.

So if you'd like your Second Life builds, outfits and general experience to be better, please view the JIRA issue above, log in and VOTE for it. You can also drop in a comment such as "Fix this now." Maybe then the Lindens will take it seriously.

May 13, 2011

Tiny Empires in Second Life

OK, I'll admit it up front. I'm hooked on Tiny Empires. For those who don't know, it's a HUD-based MMPG you play inside Second Life. There's not much to it. You buy/sell land, earn gold, build on your land, answer riddles now, read info texts, take part in polls -- all with the goal of trying to accumulate land so you can move up in your kingdom's hierarchy.

It's kind of like Amway where the more people you sign up as your subjects, the higher and faster you can go up the chain. I am a fallen princess in Tiny Empires. When I left Second Life for about 4 months to take a RL break, I lost about 6 subjects and all the land they had. So I went from being a Princess to a lowly Marquise. Now I've worked my way back to Duchess and am probably a month or two away from being a Princess again.

Depending on what kingdom you belong to is key to enjoying the game. I've been in three different ones now and each had its own personality. One was very focused on recruiting and snagging as many people as possible without much social interaction. Another was back-stabbing and crazy. My current kingdom, White Horse, suits my personality perfectly. The people (and King Tremor Trefoil) are mellow, kind, generous, fun and really interested interested in helping people along.

If you find a good kingdom, the chat, activities and friendships can be as good as anything you'll find in Second Life. And it's not like raising rabbits or chickens or doing an intense role play thing (although you can if you wish). TE is very light in its demands on your Second Life time -- which makes it perfect for a busy chica like me. You can get as intense about it or you can float merrily along. :)

Getting started

If you are interested in playing Tiny Empires, feel free to contact me in world (Snickers Snook -- send me a notecard if I'm not on) and I can get you started with the free, 14-day trial HUD. If you decide to continue playing and wish to join our kingdom (or hopefully my line hehe), depending on your situation, we can help with a discount on the full HUD ($799L regular price).

Here's the website for the game: http://tinyempires.com/

You can also pick up the free HUD in my store at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cherry%20Park/95/230/24
It's on the wall to your right. However, if you do go straight for the HUD, please IM to let me know you've started. You'll need a liege so we have to make sure you are tagged to the right person. :) I also want to make sure you have the latest tips & tricks etc.

Happy empire building!

UPDATE: -- I've left the old blog post intact but things have changed dramatically since I posted this. I'm no longer in White Horse and was pretty naive about realities when I was there. There are good people in the kingdom but suffice it way, I'm no fan of the king period. Regardless, I have since worked my way up to Vicerine of the very fun Queendom of Hirilorn and am pleased to call Queen Aabbi my friend.

May 5, 2011

Ultimate dog tease!

This has been flying around the intertubes all day. So far, four different friends have sent it to me. It is funny and totally cutes. :)

New exclusive outfits from Inga Wind!

Inga Wind has created four new outfits for a contest called Claim the Fame. As usual, they are all scrumptious! What's different is that each comes in a male/female pairing.

I'll show you just two of the outfits. First is Penelope with yours truly as the model. Aww poor me, I look so unhappy in this shot. Oh well. I'm definitely not unhappy about the outfit -- it's wonderful. As usual, the textures are amazing and the prim parts match perfectly with the system pieces.

The second on the right is the matching men's outfit "Bartleby". Now I can't vouch for her guys things since I've never tried them on. :) But if they're anything like her ladies outfits, it should be divine!



For a look at the other outfits, check out Inga's blog at http://ingawindclothing.wordpress.com. Then hop over to http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kult%20District/56/80/27 where you can pick any of them up for just $400L each (that's 1/2 her normal price).

May 2, 2011

A mini treasure hunt at Latex Station

OK, first let me say that I am not really into fetish wear! ("Yeah right Snick, uh huh, sure.") Really I'm not!! But occasionally things jump out at me and I have to check them out. Today, a notice came in from "Latex Station" in one of the fashion groups I belong to announcing a mini-hunt for "Best in Black" $20L outfits. I opened the notecard, looked at two of them and thought, wow, these are actually very cool (in a slightly naughty way).

Sooo, off I went. First thing I noticed was the store's build. Fittingly, it's a space station with tubes, glass and steel everywhere. Very well done. I likey. Second thing is that while the items being offered at the $20L price are scattered throughout the store (4 women's and 1 men's outfit), they are not hidden in totally obscure places like some hunts. You just have to find the regular version of the outfit, locate the tiny black ball below it and buy the black ball. After about 20 minutes I found all 5 outfits. Don't try to cam the place and buy that way....you'll run into glass walls that prevent you from selecting or in some cases, seeing, the black ball.

Anyway, all five outfits are all very well crafted with their regular items priced around $700L. There are lots of very unique designs so take your time looking as you hunt!

UPDATE - The store owner just IM'd me to say she is planning on doing these hunts for the next few weeks and not just through May 9! My avatar stands coyly corrected.

SLURL to Latex Station: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meincassel/182/192/636