Caledon Oxbridge General Q&A for 2019-11-03

15:00	Carl Metropolitan	Welcome to this Sunday's Oxbridge General Q&A. Andrea and I are here to answer any of your questions about Second Life, Caledon, Oxbridge, Steampunk, Linden Lab, and anything vaguely related to any of the above. I'm also good at trivia questions.
15:00	Carl Metropolitan	If we don't know the answer, we can Google it.
15:00	Carl Metropolitan	(i.e., we know where to look)
15:00	Carl Metropolitan	Or we can probably put you in touch with someone who does know the answer.
15:01	Carl Metropolitan	First, Andrea, did you have any announcements?
15:01	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	The Halloween carnival will be open til the end of the week
15:01	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	then it will be closed
15:02	Carl Metropolitan	Such is the nature of time!
15:02	Carl Metropolitan	Hello Iris
15:02	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	There will be a dance this Tuesday night at the new sky ship landing in Steam Sky City.
15:02	RossMetzger	Only one more week of having an insane asylum across the street from me :D
15:02	Ujanum	about the carnival... umm what it does ?
15:02	Calla Iris Waydelich (callidus.waydelich)	Good afternoon Mr. Metropolitan, and Caledon at large.
15:02	Soup Jonson	lol Ross
15:02	Larky (larkylouz)	Hi Calla
15:02	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	A notice to go out tonight
15:03	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	It is a creation of Amy I Wish
15:03	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	has a mediation garden, forest, bar, library
15:03	RossMetzger	The carnival has games and rides, haunted houses, that sort of thing
15:03	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	it is intended for those that want to land and take a break from their flying
15:03	Soup Jonson	I visited it this morning very fun
15:04	Soup Jonson	Jorge!!!!!!!!!!
15:04	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	Sadly prims are low so no leaving the planes.
15:04	Larky (larkylouz)	Jorge! Hi!
15:04	Carl Metropolitan	On a much smaller scale, I have finished work on the Newsstand section of the Train Station. It has kiosks or weblinks to all the non-adult, and still published SL newsblogs, podcasts, magazines, that I could find.
15:05	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	I hope everyone had a chance to visit the great pumpkin Halloween night
15:05	Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter)	Is Linus there?
15:05	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	no he was home
15:05	Carl Metropolitan	I need to go back to work on expanding freebies next.
15:05	Carl Metropolitan	There is still a lot more to do there.
15:06	Carl Metropolitan	Hello Jorge
15:06	Carl Metropolitan	Hello Badger
15:06	Carl Metropolitan	Let's move right along into the questions!
15:06	badgerofzen	hullo
15:07	Ujanum	OK, my first Q is ...umm does SL have jobs?
15:07	Carl Metropolitan	Yes.
15:07	Carl Metropolitan	But they are usually not worth the time you spend on them.
15:08	Ujanum	ooh
15:08	Carl Metropolitan	In general most SL "jobs" pay you less than you would make at a RL minimum wage job. So unless you are doing something you just enjoy.
15:08	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	Many jobs that are of a modeling nature, you often can keep the clothes.
15:08	Carl Metropolitan	Or are building an in-world business, I would suggest just spending the time on RL work, and buying L$
15:08	Larky (larkylouz)	For the record, except for teaching professors, who get a small stipend, all the positions at Oxbridge are volunteer.
15:09	Carl Metropolitan	Just be aware that many more jobs of a "modeling nature" are done naked :)
15:09	Carl Metropolitan	Be sure you know what you are signing up for and be ready to say "no".
15:09	RossMetzger	If you learn to stream music, you can make some money as a DJ
15:10	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	In clothing stores, not modeling in general.
15:10	Ujanum	ohh thx
15:11	Carl Metropolitan	What is the stipend for teaching a class here?
15:11	Larky (larkylouz)	It used to be L$250/class? I think [ed. It still is 250 $L per class taught.]
15:11	Carl Metropolitan	Welcome Lyban
15:12	Carl Metropolitan	I don't know for sure either. I don't teach right now.
15:12	RossMetzger	250 L$ doesn't go very far :)
15:12	Carl Metropolitan	No.
15:12	Carl Metropolitan	Remember that 250L$ is just about 1 US Dollar.
15:12	Larky (larkylouz)	I believe it was offered due to the need to upload graphics for teaching materials.
15:12	Oxbridge Donation Coin R1 (Alternate Lecture Hall)	Soup Jonson gave a generous donation to help support classes and tutorials at Caledon Oxbridge Gateway.
15:12	Carl Metropolitan	Yes. That's my understanding.
15:12	Larky (larkylouz)	Uploading a picture is L$10/shot
15:12	Soup Jonson	For the instructors!
15:13	Carl Metropolitan	Thank you Soup!
15:13	Carl Metropolitan	On the other hand for ten dollars (US) you can do a lot of virtual world shopping.
15:13	Oxbridge Donation Coin R1 (Alternate Lecture Hall)	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko) gave a generous donation to help support classes and tutorials at Caledon Oxbridge Gateway.
15:14	Larky (larkylouz)	$10 USD monthly donation to Oxbridge makes you a patron and goes to pay tier.
15:14	Larky (larkylouz)	Talk to Andrea
15:14	Carl Metropolitan	We have a more in-depth tutorial on how money works in SL works in the Hall of Money and Commerce below at Oxbridge.
15:15	Carl Metropolitan	Good point Larky. I need to make a Patron Donation for November myself.
15:15	Soup Jonson	Oh I want to be a patron Andrea!
15:15	Oxbridge Donation Coin R1 (Alternate Lecture Hall)	Carl Metropolitan gave a generous donation to help support classes and tutorials at Caledon Oxbridge Gateway.
15:15	Gronk Seriman	If you really like SL, a Premium Membership is always a good idea to check out.
15:16	Carl Metropolitan	Please talk to Andrea after the Q&A.
15:16	Carl Metropolitan	She is always happy to find new donors.
15:16	Carl Metropolitan	Okay... Next question?
15:16	Carl Metropolitan	Hello Kara
15:17	Kara2016	Greetings all.
15:18	Carl Metropolitan	While people are coming up with questions, I would also like to mention that if you do have money in SL, a great place to spend it is on a home in Caledon. Smaller parcels start at 450-475L$ per week. Click the poster on the right wall for more information. Right in front of the spinning coin.
15:19	Carl Metropolitan	Okay. Time for more questions!
15:20	Oxbridge Donation Coin R1 (Alternate Lecture Hall)	RossMetzger gave a generous donation to help support classes and tutorials at Caledon Oxbridge Gateway.
15:20	Carl Metropolitan	Thank you Ross, and thank you too Sajiko, who I missed while typing earlier.
15:20	Gronk Seriman	Has something changed in SL's loading of textures? It seems to be a lot slower lately.
15:21	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	oh you're welcome ^^ it's a very worthy cause!
15:21	Carl Metropolitan	I don't know of anything. Are you on a viewer other then the Second Life viewer or Firestorm viewer?
15:21	Gronk Seriman	It is frustrating to arrive at a new location, and there is a sign I should probably read, and I can't see it for a long time.
15:21	Gronk Seriman	Firestorm.
15:22	Oxbridge Donation Coin R1 (Alternate Lecture Hall)	badgerofzen gave a generous donation to help support classes and tutorials at Caledon Oxbridge Gateway.
15:22	Carl Metropolitan	Well, LL made some changes a few months ago that really impacted some of the smaller viewers, but Firestorm was not affected.
15:22		Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko) smiles
15:22	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	ty badger
15:22	badgerofzen	:)
15:22	Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter)	No, Firestorm has its _own_ problems...
15:23	Larky (larkylouz)	I've noticed things load much more slowly than usual, in both viewers. But my bandwidth speed tests are slow, lately, too. I'm trying to track down the issue.
15:23	Larky (larkylouz)	Elf, do you care to elaborate?
15:24	Carl Metropolitan	I would check your internet speed online. Then I would check your "Connection" tab under the "Networks & Files" tab of the Preferences window. Make sure you don't have "Maximum Bandwidth" slider set too high or too low for your connection.
15:24	Larky (larkylouz)	I find FS much better for lack of crashing and speed issues.
15:24	Carl Metropolitan	Then I would try switching to the Second Life viewer rather than Firestorm (or the other way around) to see if that fixes anything.
15:24	Carl Metropolitan	Hello Rita
15:25	Rita Marin (ritamarin)	Sorry!
15:25	Carl Metropolitan	Thank you Badger for that donation.
15:25	badgerofzen	:)
15:25	Carl Metropolitan	Here is an article from the Firestorm wiki on troubleshooting slow loading textures:
15:26	Carl Metropolitan	https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/slow_rez
15:26	Carl Metropolitan	It has a lot of steps you can check.
15:26	Gronk Seriman	Ooo! Thank you!
15:27	Carl Metropolitan	Did someone suggest reducing the maximum number of avatars fully rendered under the Graphics tab?
15:27	Carl Metropolitan	That will often help.
15:28	Ujanum	yes I did that..and it's better for me.
15:28	Carl Metropolitan	Coolness
15:29	Carl Metropolitan	Okay. Time for another question. Don't be reluctant; there is really no such thing as a dumb question. Everyone has stuff they don't know.
15:30	Carl Metropolitan	Anyone?
15:31	Ujanum	Im just wondering about how this world is big... and somehow I still visit the same places. and also I would like to try a new places but I don't know how to find it.
15:31	Carl Metropolitan	I can help there.
15:31	Gronk Seriman	What is a sculptie? are they still viable in SL? Would it make any sense to learn to make them?
15:31	RossMetzger	What sort of places are you looking for?
15:31	Larky (larkylouz)	They're definitely still visible to me, Gronk.
15:32	Carl Metropolitan	Two resources: 1) go down to the poster wall at the end and the beginning of the tutorial walk and get the notecards there in the posters about places to explore in Caledon, the Steamlands, Second Life, and Education
15:33	Carl Metropolitan	2) go to the Destination Guide on your SL viewer and look through the categories there.
15:33	RossMetzger	Sculpties can be nice, they may not look quite as good as mesh but you can usually do a lot more with them
15:33	Ujanum	ooh thx
15:33	Carl Metropolitan	The Destination Guide can be accessed from the Search field or from clicking on the "Destinations" button.
15:34	Ujanum	thx carl
15:34	Carl Metropolitan	Lastly ask people you know. Look at profiles of people—their Picks area for other places.
15:34	Carl Metropolitan	Gronk's question.
15:34	Gronk Seriman	Ujanum, there is also a Destinations web page at Second Life's website. It is huge and encyclopedic. It's fun to use.
15:34	Carl Metropolitan	The tools you use to make sculpties are the same tools you use to make mesh
15:35	Carl Metropolitan	Sculpties are just an earlier "cheat" implementation.
15:35	Carl Metropolitan	The only advantage a sculpty has is it is always one prim. [ed. Unless one activates the new accounting via linking with a mesh prim or using texture "materials", in which case a sculptie can become very expensive in Land Impact.]
15:35	Carl Metropolitan	No matter the size or the complexity.
15:35	RossMetzger	That, and often easily modifiable, unlike a lot of mesh
15:35	Gronk Seriman	Ah!
15:36	Carl Metropolitan	The resolution and quality are lower than mesh due to the limited amount of information that can be conveyed in a sculpty texture map
15:37	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	but do sculpties distort at range like some mesh?
15:37	Carl Metropolitan	Ross, Mesh and Sculpties can both be set to "no mod" by the creator. The lack of modifiability is a decision of the creator and not intrinsic to the format.
15:37	Carl Metropolitan	Yes, Sculpties do distort at range.
15:37	Ujanum	another one—I’m annoying, lol—about building and these stuff. Where can I find the materials to build/make things?
15:37	Carl Metropolitan	Unlike with Mesh, you have no control over how and when the appearance degrades with sculpties.
15:38	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	Oh good to know...
15:38	Carl Metropolitan	Ujanum, are you trying to build in world using prims?
15:38	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	wb larky
15:38	Carl Metropolitan	Or build mesh objects to import in an external 3D modeling program?
15:38	Larky (larkylouz)	ty. Crashed.
15:38	Carl Metropolitan	Prim based building is built into the viewer.
15:38	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	i only know how to use prims.
15:39	Larky (larkylouz)	Inara Pey's blog: https://modemworld.me/
15:39	Carl Metropolitan	Just right click, select "build", and rez a prim.
15:39	Carl Metropolitan	We have a weekly basic building class that covers an introduction to prim building.
15:40	Carl Metropolitan	As do Builders Brewery and NCI.
15:40	RossMetzger	The only real materials you need are textures, and there are plenty of free ones available.
15:40	Carl Metropolitan	Lots of free textures in the freebie area of the train station.
15:40	Ujanum	yeah yeah. I got all of them lol
15:40	Carl Metropolitan	And we have multiple tutorials on using textures in the tutorial building by the Sandbox.
15:41	RossMetzger	Or you can upload your own images for L$ 10 a pop
15:41	Gronk Seriman	Oxbridge's sandbox has a neglected, but useful building attached. With lots of old prim-building tutorial books on the walls.
15:41	Ujanum	I will visit sandbox after this and try.
15:42	Carl Metropolitan	If you want to work in Mesh, there are a number of 3D modeling programs that can create the DAE files that Mesh is uploaded to Second ife as.
15:42	Phrynne	Not that neglected—books have been updated when updates are available.
15:42	Carl Metropolitan	The most popular is Blender, it is free, but complex.
15:42	Larky (larkylouz)	The beginning building class that Prof. Samm Florian teaches alternates a building workshop with a session on Textures, IIRC.
15:43	Soup Jonson	It's all Mesh these days isn't it. Probably best to focus on that if new to building?
15:43	Carl Metropolitan	The building could probably integrate into the sandbox better, but we had to cut out a whole lot of prims fast way back when Oxbridge had to downgrade to a homestead. And that was a feature we had to drop
15:43	Gronk Seriman	And tonight, after this Q&A, Sandie's Time to Make a Clock class is chock full of building tips and tricks.
15:43	Carl Metropolitan	Not necessarily. Some basic things work well with prims.
15:44	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	that's a good class. :)
15:44	Larky (larkylouz)	And prims have other uses, too. Like as storage containers in your inventory.
15:44	Carl Metropolitan	Yes, i have taken that class and can recommend it.
15:44	Phrynne	Prims are also good for thinking about shapes, and making preliminary versions of things to be meshed.
15:45	Carl Metropolitan	You can also build something in prims, then export it as a DAE, bring it into Blender and optimize it there, and re-import it as a mesh.
15:45	Ujanum	nice.
15:46	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	oh sweet.
15:46	Carl Metropolitan	Texturing is not as simple with mesh versus prims, but there are classes in world that can teach you, and a lot of free tutorials on that (and all other aspects of Blender) on the web.
15:47	Carl Metropolitan	Okay. Next question?
15:47	Ujanum	thanks you all for your help
15:47	Carl Metropolitan	You are welcome. That's what we are here for.
15:47	Ujanum	I need to go now, god bless you
15:48	Carl Metropolitan	Goodnight
15:48	Carl Metropolitan	Does anyone else have other questions tonight?
15:48	Carl Metropolitan	Announcements, comments?
15:49	Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter)	Still hosting the Writers' Meeting in Thursdays...
15:49	Carl Metropolitan	I don't see anyone else typing, so I think we can close a bit early tonight. Stop me if you do have one!
15:49	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	The Mausoleum tower is open for a brief time in the village.
15:50	Soup Jonson	Lovely
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	In honor of the Day of the Dead.
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	Feel free to stop in.
15:50	Carl Metropolitan	Oh. Thank you Andrea. That is an amazing build.
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	There is a tombstone at the entrance.
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	Takes a min to rez.
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	Click it for a notecard.
15:50	Soup Jonson	Oh. As it should.
15:50	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	On the build.
15:51	Andrea Jones (andreajonesms)	OK, I'm done.
15:51	Carl Metropolitan	Thank you all for coming tonight..
15:51	Sajiko Kasumi (sajiko)	good night all :)
15:51	Larky (larkylouz)	Thank you, Carl, Andrea, everyone.
15:51	Carl Metropolitan	We will be back next week at 3PM Sunday for another General Q&A session. [Carl is wrong here; next week is the 2nd Sunday of the month, and will instead have the monthly "Q&A With the Deans" session.]
15:51	Gronk Seriman	Thank you, Carl and Andrea!
15:51	Carl Metropolitan	Goodnight!