#phoenix viewer

[tragicstatlc]

[xjadorex-blog]

PAY ATTENTION!

I got into a discussion with someone over an issue that spiraled into a mild argument, after she was done saying what her "pet peeve" was she finally listened to what I said to fix her issue. What was the issue you ask?

She bought a pair of jeans that had Sculptie pants legs and saw the alpha texture as "see through" I've had that issue myself along with others who have purchased shoes or clothing with alpha textures on them.

There is a very simple solution that I found on my own, couldn't find it through the SL forums so decided to search the interface for myself.

When your seeing Alpha Textures as missing or see through try this;

Activate the "Advanced" menu with Ctrl-Alt-D, or Opt-Ctrl-D on a Mac.

Click the Rendering Tab

Check Fast Alpha (If it doesn't have a x next to it, click it!)

That should solve a few issues with alpha textures missing and see through, I'm not sure if Viewer 2.0 and other viewers have fast alpha cause I only use Phoenix, So just try it out and see if it works for you!

CHEERS~

[robmoonites-blog]

Exporting Your Shape from Phoenix

If you're working in a 3D Programme such as Maya or Blender it can be very useful to have an avatar model inside of your scene to sculpt or build around.

There's a number of viewers that allow you this option, but as a Phoenix and Maya user I'm going to outline the steps to export your own shape from Second Life and import it into Maya to work around.

Make sure you can see the "Advanced" menu at the top of your screen.

Select "Character" and then "Meshes and Morphs..."

Under the "Meshes and Morphs..." menu select "lowerBodyMesh".

Then select "lowerBodyMesh" again and then "Current Mesh".

Select "Save OBJ".

Repeat this process for your upperBodyMesh and your headMesh.

In Maya:

Open a new scene

Import each of the three OBJ files (Upper, Lower and Head) into the scene, one by one.

Maya will automatically line them up, you can then select them all and rotate them and move them as needs be.

[robmoonites-blog]

Using Local Textures on Phoenix

There's a really great, but perhaps little known feature for content creators using the Phoenix Viewer called Local Textures. Using local textures allows you to link SL to the texture on your hard drive. This means when working in Photoshop you can re-save out your .png or .tga file and it will be instantly updated in-world. The only exception that I have found to this is when textures are actually worn on the Avatar as layers, in this case a re-bake is necessary.

There are a couple of steps to using local textures, but thankfully they aren't too complicated so I'll quickly outline them below with the use of screen shots.

1) Rez your prim or wear the clothing layer you wish to work on.

2) Edit and go to the texture tab or edit appearance, then click the texture swatch.

3) In the texture chooser that opens up, select the Local tab. (Red arrow)

4) Inside the Local tab, select the Add button and then find the texture on your hard drive using the window that opens up. (Blue arrow)

5) Press the Browser button and a new window will open up.

6) Inside this window press the More button (this button says Less when the More tab is already opened). (Purple arrow)

7) Inside the More tab, check the option that says Keep Updating. This creates a "live" link with the texture on your hard drive and will constantly update the texture inworld to match any updates and saves you make. (Green arrow)

That's it! You can close out your windows now and get to work. Oh, and when you're done, don't forget to upload the texture in the normal way too. These are technically just temporary reference textures.

Also, this feature is available on the Imprudence viewer, but since I'm a Phoenix user I've only outlined the process for using it with the Phoenix viewer.

Good luck :)