The Materials Viewer - Impressions

 

This is really a post about the new Materials Viewer which apparently includes project Sunshine (the new avatar baking project). This post is partially brought to you by Cheeky Pea who sent out a product not long ago which contained both regular and materials versions. Before I get to the story of my evening, I wanted to show you my favorite new release from The Garden, the Cheeky Pea Abbotsford Hanging Shelf. It weighs in at 7 which is pretty phenomenal for all these items. In the old prim days something similar -- and of course not as impressive -- would have cost 18 JUST for the pillows!  Yeah mesh.

Back to my story which I am writing a second time as I lost my first post in a fit of editing and a fight with Blogger :(.  So last eve I installed the official linden viewer, one that I only rarely use out on the beta grid when it is the only viewer that uploads that day. The process of using the unfamiliar viewer was a bit daunting, but I wanted to see what materials were all about. This was how the materials viewer saw the Cheeky Pea Chomper Shelf -- available at the Mens Dept. I thought it a bit odd, and this morning by accident discovered that it was my FACELIGHT (made with SL lighting on the build menu) that was the issue. Ah-Ha! 

As I headed to bed last night I had a lightbulb moment. I had BOTH the materials version and the regular version of the chomper and could compare. Click on the photo for an enlarged version.

There IS a difference. My first impression with the new viewer, whether I looked at a materials build or not, was that it seemed to be in higher resolution, like my 96dpi photo had become a 300 dpi one -- or perhaps a new monitor had appeared on my desk courtesy of the computer upgrade fairy.  Another thing that I noticed was that some older items with smaller textures looked really outdated. So super clear, high resolution (and possibly bigger graphics) will be ruling the world soon -- for those that want things the best that they can be anyway.

There has been some talk on the mesh board that the final release materials viewer was light years away from the beta release that people had been using to build with. I am not sure if this is part of the shine with projected lights issue, but I do know that several of the "materials viewer" examples that I had collected for testing don't look at all like they should. I feel sorry for the builders who put in the time, effort and lindens to bring items in that don't work properly. It will take some time before we are moving along smoothly, but I have seen some examples of how materials can add detail and that will be great to see.

Meanwhile this Cheeky Pea Abbotsford Bed looks fantastic. I am guessing it has materials added but it look great in my everyday Firestorm viewer too. Find it too a The Garden.

You should know my outfit by heart now, Ducknipple -- and new hair from Vanity Hair, The Meadow. This was my final outfit for my filmed interview yesterday at SL10B. It went well.

Poses by Diesel Works and LAP (nla).