Firestorm's Bakes on Mesh Reportedly Confusing Many, So Here's a Tutorial

Here's a valuable tutorial from Novata for using Bakes on Mesh with the Firestorm viewer. The volunteer Firestorm team recently released a version that's compatible with BOM, which optimizes mesh-based attachments in Second Life. According to reader Mondy, the update's left a lot of SLers confused:

As predicted and expected, every group, forum and blog is awash with confused users and pleas for help from Firestorm users needing guidance, despite BoM being available in other viewers for some time and in the official viewer for testing even longer. Every day the Maitreya groups are asked when their body will be updated with the same response they've had for months "When it's ready". Some third party viewer devs knew it would boil down to Firestorm to generate any kind of excitement, if excitement and interest are the right words.

Another right word there would be "relevance". I was recently told that Firestorm is used by 80-90% (!) of the active Second Life user base. Which effectively means any new Second Life feature created by Linden Lab the for-profit company is essentially irrelevant unless it's supported by the efforts of a volunteer non-profit. A situation which is (to use several other right words) fucking crazy pants. But more on that later.

Comments

[Jk]

Why is this not titled Second Life's bakes on mesh reportedly confusing many so here is a tutorial after which a statement of we used firestorm for this tutorial in the video. Bakes on mesh isn't an exclusive feature to firestorm

[Alex]

I downloaded the new version of Firestorm, I started working with the update of my Gianni body at the same time I saw a tutorial ... until I realized that I was going to lose my skin (it works with an applicator) my tattoo (also with an applicator ), my scars (applicator), Halloween is coming and I have an applicator with blood that will also stop working because if you don't have the texture you can't apply it to the body. It took me less than 10 minutes to realize that I am not going to upgrade to BOM. And if I had, would I have to redo my 80 outfits with skin that I don't like, without my favorite tattoo, without everything I'm going to lose? BOM is not for me

[Summer Haas]

One thing to realize is that BoM is not going to work well for now just like owning one of the first mesh bodies didn't work out for most people. Having one outfit is not sufficient.

Eventually though, most creators will move over to making BoM skins and Tattoos and then most people will make the transition. Expecting this new feature to immediately be good for everyone overnight is a bit of a stretch.

I think some of these body makers are making a huge mistake in removing all onions layers. The way to go would be to have 1 extra layer instead of 3. Maybe leave the topmost layer, which is more of a clothing layer that doesn't exactly wrap with every curve of the body, intact. Wearing a texture shirt should not really be skin tight and would not necessarily be a good match for BoM, but a tattoo that is skin tight would be.

[anon]

I think in the end Bakes on Mesh is just a consumer downgrade, but a creator upgrade. getting people to re buy everything that worked yesterday, but doesn't today. Having to make people upload for 10 linden a piece that you didn't have to do yesterday.

This isn't a leap from system avatar to mesh body, its the same body, bakes on mesh should of been a great add-on, not a replacement.

Appliers work better then adding individual layers, they are faster and can pin point where they go with scripts, you can have one file show 15 colors. in the end the system layer and the applier both use the same uuid.

Yes now i can add 32 tattoos on my body, but at the cost of not being able to isolate where it is on the body if the creator said`s its no mod or i dont understand paint, or feel i need to buy a tattoo then pay upload fees to break it apart to use it like i did before.

what happens if i like a chest part of a shirt, but hate the sleeves of the shirt i used to be able to block parts from showing. now i wont be able to with out editing no mod work and uploading what i just paid for.

If now i got to take a tattoo layer that has a upper and lower part, i have to then separate it 4 or 5 files anyway using asymmetry harness and what not as well files. then upload the chest part, the pelvis part, the arms part, and the legs part. then add them as system layers tattoos, arms, legs, to a bom body just to block the pelvis.

How is this easier and more consumer friendly then before?

This all comes down to Second life pass the buck culture. Linden wont update rendering in sl or do a little work and smooth the system avatar to compete with mesh bodies, but want the lag to stop. so they pass the buck to mesh body creators, that pass the buck to clothes makers, that pass the buck to the consumer, then dont understand why the consumer just gives up,leave sl, or starts doing their own work a rounds to make things work taxing the system more.

Mesh body creators and linden should of work together , instead of saying yea screw the consumer, let them buy it again. With actually working together maybe Linden and the creators could of found away to have appliers and system layers config in a hud and then create the one layer temporary as long as the hud was on. At the end of the day its just making everyone pay again to go back to 2003 when we just bought to get away from it.

[Blaise Glendevon]

Anon - you know you can use one of the many Omega relay HUDs that support BOM to use BOM functionality without switching from your applier body, right? You can have it both ways. Literally

[Anon]

With the slink redux body all appliers don’t work they were cancelled out .

Except for materials and nails , everything else was locked .

Alpha cuts were canceled out , I don’t think omega does a alpha cut relay .

I’m pretty sure If a mesh body now works like a system body , what I just said above is still valid and your picking straws.

It’s not about switching a one to one that the biggest problem with bom , it’s the lost to target where it goes on the body alone . I’m sure the omega relay won’t let you just have the texture only apply to your pelvis and right leg and block the other parts like older bodies did.

With the lost of that feature alone your pushing a generation of mesh body owners to have to obtain their uuid in ways they didn’t need to before.

[Bet]

I can't understand the voice on the video, that tone and the way the end of sentences drop.

[Lysana]

If the designer of your skin or tattoo is still active in Second Life, they should be currently madly updating their stuff to work with BoM if it didn't already come with system layers. And expecting to be able to do a 100% migration with a viewer release that's less than two weeks old (!) is honestly ridiculous. As for alpha cuts on SLink Redux bodies, that's what alpha layers and the slider on the HUD are for. As for where it can or can't appear, I direct you to the layer editor we all forgot how to use when we got into mesh. It works on BoM. And Siddean also designed her Redux bodies to allow for shirt layers to pooch out where they should as well as smoothing nipples and crotches for outfits that need it.

Bodies that require appliers are higher in script count and ARC, both of which cause lag. And once again, SLink leads the way while most other body makers run to catch up with relay HUDs. Siddean was one of the body makers who did speak with the Lindens early and often about Bakes On Mesh. They didn't act without speaking to many more than her. If the Lindens upgraded the base avatar, they'd hamstring so many designers the screaming would be audible in both worlds. Just because they didn't make it immediately perfect for your capacity to work with it doesn't mean it failed.

[Mondy]

I love how a comment I make just based on observations among friends and what I see in user groups is taken to be something...more?

I myself don't have any problems with BoM, neither do friends who've taken the time to read up on it and experiment. Nevertheless, yes there is confusion, but it's nothing to do with Firestorm, more to do with Firestorm being so popular and more people updating that there are now more people having problems getting to grips with it. It's just a simple fact that if you have probably the most popular viewer on the grid and unprepared users, for whatever reason trying to using BoM, then it's going to happen. And btw. it's nothing to do with BoM not being ready needing to mature as some are saying. People just need to get used to it and learn how to use it! (I have a friend who spent a few hours experimenting, having a few mishaps but is using it every day with all sorts of things)