08.04.08
Buckaroo to reopen
Just to make sure this blog does not go stale… My store will be reopening soon.
It’s going to be something like .. objects are free, no xfer. Commercial uses should make a donation.
I will charge for support (but I will also improve my written documentation). I need to be clear that I am not a free internet help desk, and that people need to respect my time.
In any case, look for an announcement soon on my RL blog :)
06.16.08
Defragmenting Identity :)
Bucky is Daniel, which is why I posted about it on my RL blog.
I figured after two years it makes sense to point SL folks at the things I do in RL, and vice versa. The idea of defragmenting appeals to me. I’d rather just have one main blog for now.
There is a good chance Buckaroo will resurrect soon. I need to find a good storefront…
I’ll keep this content here for a while, but, really, go to the other place ;)
(and check out my resume — I will be pointing it to a page of selected SL projects soon)
04.27.08
Buckaroo Closed for Time Being
I have closed the Buckaroo store for the time being. I may resurrect it at a smaller place with the idea of donations + support fees for answering questions.
04.19.08
How Not To Do PreFab Houses In SL
I needed to look around for a prefab house recently. I wanted something different than a Cory Edo, Barnesworth Anubis, Juro Kothari, Botha, or Kongo design (to name a few of my favorites).
Oh my …
It had been a year so since I looked around at prefabs. It’s amazing what people put out there and charge money for. In some cases creators want over 10,000 Lindens for a house that’s full of mistakes.
Like what, you say?
Glad ya asked :) Here are some handy things *not* to do when you build a prefab that you are going to sell:
Fit and Finish
- Flicker – caused by overlapping prims. Tuck prims slightly behind each other to avoid this
- Gaps – c’mon – just pay attention here …
- Walls sticking out of sides
- Lots of obvious ‘by eye’ building – walls at 88 degrees etc …
Doors
- Too big – no, you dont really need a door 8 meters high for a McMansion
- Too thick – I see doors .5M thick all the time. It’s amazing.
- Same texture on side of door as front and back, but compressed
- Doesn’t quite line up, is not as wide as opening, etc
- Door Textures – doorknob at neck height or higher
- Door Textures – doorknob at knee caps
- Door Textures – really stretched out and/or cut off or repeating
- Doors that are next to each other, where one opens one way, and the other one goes the other way
- That’s enough about doors …
Windows
- Using the right texture, but starting it way too high off the floor
- …or way too far down
- Tinting – tinting the inside instead of the outside for privacy …
- Tinting – tinting the outside, but then tinting the inside as well so that you can no longer see out
- Running a separate script for every single window in the house
Stairs / Ramps
- Each step really high? – test it. Now test it with 5 of your friends.
- Ramps that are narrow and easy to fall of of (hint: use an invisible guardrail prim)
- Spiral staircases and ramps look nice, but are almost always painful to use in practice
- Suggestion: Use a one touch TP to go between floors
Textures
- Really stretched out
- Dont match up
- Different repeat pattern on the same wall / floor / etc.
- Way out of scale
- Compressed on the thin side of something (like the inside of a window or doorway
Spatial
- Room too small, camera angle goes outside
- Spaces fine for RL need to scaled up for the average sized Avatar
- This bathroom is the size of Kansas
Summary
Going to charge for the prefabs you put out there? Look around at the good ones first. And… look at the not so great ones. There is a lot to learn from out there. Keep building and keep smiling :)
04.03.08
VidMon Fun in New SL Client … (parcel settings)
04.02.08
Thought for the day, re: pricing
03.31.08
Join Buckaroo Group Updates, Get Reimbursement Sale!
Alrighty You Wonderful Avatars Out There!
I had fun doing the Easter sale. There was one problem with it though …I neglected to use it as an opportunity to get people subscribed to an update list!
So it is time for the “reimburse people who sign up” sale. Up to 500L back!
—- Look See Do —–
1) Go to Buckaroo
2) Find the group signup kiosk. It looks like this:
It is Subscribe-O-Matic,not the silly Linden groups. I’m not going to compete with the Social Currency of being cool enough to be in Your 25! Click and get the occasional blurb from me. No big whoop. You will be given a notecard when you join. Hang on to it.
3) Buy Items. You can get reimbursed for up to 500L. One reimbursement per RL person. See the notecard for details.
4) Update the notecard with your name, and send me a copy. Get the notecard back to me by 11:59 PM SL Time, April 6, 2008.
5) I look it over to see if it qualifies for a reimbursement. There are certain things that wont fly well (dont “New Note” me, dont IM me your demand for reimbursement, etc). Most people are pretty groovy about it, so I am not worried.
That’s pretty much it! Get to my store by Friday, join, buy, save, and be happy!
03.16.08
Ready, Set, Go VidMon!
VidMon is available at my store.
Per-Person Video with menus. What does that mean? You and others can see:
- same or different videos
- same or different screens
- same time
- you only see one video at a time
Menus, searching, notecards, and more..
300L
Documentation: VidMon 3.x Documentation
Go to my store: Buckaroo
Giddyup :)
