Virtual Life Reset

It is hard to believe that I have been on SL for so long really, well over a decade and over those years life in a virtual world has been no less real than RL... in fact at times it has been a little more real.

Back in the early days, I loved the idea of how unlimited the prospects of creativity were on here and finding things to create was never a hard task. It was always made better by the friends and other creatives I had in my life. The Violet Studios build lab was always a hive of activity with everyone creating, sharing and inspiring each other.

However much as with everything in the real world, things change and I am not very good with that.

Friends move on, change careers and life as always evolves. By 2016 I have to admit I was finding myself in a creative blackout. I had done so much on here, but I was burnt out from the sheer effort and getting bogged down in ever increasingly complex projects that were reliant on other people's input and when they had moved on, it is clear that those projects started to stall.

SL was changing during that time too. With LL's focused on Sansar, Second Life was getting ignored far too much, developments on the grid were stalled and it had created a very apathetic feel to the grid, something that in combination with the more personal side of my SL, left me feeling utterly void of creative passion.

By the time 2018 arrived, I was probably at my lowest point on here and so I decided to go out in to the real world, get a job and sadly walk away from SL although not entirely. My biggest issue was "finding the fun" again, meeting new people and maybe finding some mojo. That's where I have been for the last four years.  I have been doing a real world job, although in hind sight it was not the best choice.

I have in this time done what I wanted to do though. I have had the time away from the grid and reconnect with the real world although I will say this quite frankly, it's not all its cracked up to be. When it comes to SL though I have had the time I needed to clear my head, find some fun and meet new people.  During this time I have also been pleased to see that LL's have finally decided to focus back on SL again, sold Sansar (which as I predicted in 2015 was an absolute disaster) and finally start bringing SL up to spec again. It did make me laugh that I pushed on my blogs back in 2013 the idea of using baked textures on mesh items and it took LL's 6 years to come up with the same idea with BOM. Things have changed on here and for the better.

In short, I have found myself excited at the prospect of building new stuff using the new tech and I have found my mojo again.

So I would say after a rather long hiatus from the grid, I am back.

I have probably got a few hundred products that I want to create on here and while some of them fall in to the "Big Jobs" category, most of them are fairly straight forward artistic endeavours. What are they? Well, you will have to wait and see, but VS will be taking a new direction to say the least with old products being brought up to date and ranges of entirely new products hitting the shelves.

Expect a new product or two every few days from this point on and I will say I am genuinely excited at the prospect of this.

It's nice to be back and to all those who have supported Violet Studios over the years you have my thanks.

 

Hemi Violet

Demon Studio - Gehenna Alveda Horns Released

 It has been a long time since I released something new and I will admit it is strange coming back after so long and settling in again...

However... every new journey starts with a single step and I am very pleased to say, that step has been taken now and you will be getting a lot of new products coming over the next month so watch the skies as Violet Studios is now back.

These are the first in a new line of horns. No frills here - just horns perfect for you anime style cosplays.

At 150L$ they are excellent value and come with all Unlimited 3 options on textures and materials.

Enjoy and its nice to be back!

Violet Studio LSL Issues - Please Read

 Well, looks like Linden Lab have been making SL better again by breaking loads of scripts across the grid with "security" updates and it seems some of my products were not immune from this.

Since 2010 I have been using a texture application script on various products.

These include all LTX, Headmasters and Cyber Studio Hairs and Demon Studio Wings and Classic Hooves.

After a marathon session in the lab I have repaired all the items in the stores that have been affected, however many of these products were no available to update and the hooves and wings had the Hippo Update system broken when Hippo as a business shut down.

So... what to do?

Sadly due to the sheer number of items and products and customers buying these over the years, I cannot do manual updates and I am sorry to say, I will not be doing that. It would simply overwhelm me.

However... I have put out in store the updated scripts for all these products along with instructions on how to update them yourself. It is not complex - it is just rezzing the product out, deleting one or two scripts in the item, then putting in the updated scripts.

You can find this update in the Demon Studio, Cyber Studio (where the hairs are), LTX Studio (next to the hairs again) and in the Headmasters Store too.

It is free, buy it, follow the instructions and you are all good.

I am sorry about this and as usual Linden Labs do love improving things by breaking them. All good fun.

Hemi

Scalez Micro Macro BOM Update

 It has been a very long time since I last looked at Scalez, so long in fact I had to be nudged to remember that I should do this update.

In short, the Scalez Bodies now have all had Baked On Mesh updates ready to wear out of the box so now you can easily swap between your system layers and create unique looks. As with Fusion, ADV and Omega Materials still work perfectly on the skin layer to add that little extra and the Omega Tattoo and Clothing layers also continue to operate as expected.

To get your update, just head to the Fusion main store, go to the Casper redelivery terminal and click it, following the usual routes to get your updates.

More soon!

Hemi

vString Essentials and Revo BOM updates

 No matter what you do, you end up breaking something. With the Revolutions update released on Wednesday, I thought I had hammered everything down only to find out there was another texturing glitch. Having spent most of yesterday tracking things back I re-released the 5.11 Version this afternoon.

Touching wood... these should now be stable and fully operational.

Now... second part of the release today was what this post should be about.

vString XL, XXL, X_X and X-Loons have been updated to Version 5.1. The materials glitch that occasionally happened has now been repaired and is working correctly on the Omega Versions.

However you now get Baked on Mesh versions too.

It almost seems weird to think this, but Violet Studios first released vStrings back in 2011... that is now a decade ago and I have constantly strived to keep them fully up to date with all the latest. Back then I started with sculpts, then moved to mesh, then broke ground with the first fitted mesh versions on the grid with physics in the Revos, then materials and now today we have the Baked on Mesh versions.

Thanks for being with us for the last decade on this project and as always, as it has been for 10 years, the updates are free.

Pop in to the vString Store in world, go to the redelivery terminal and grab yourself an update!

Hemi

vString Revolution 5.1 Update

 Just a quick update. A number of intermitted bugs were found in the coding for the Omega and BOM releases of the Revolutions. These issues have now been addressed.

Updates are as always free in store.

Hemi

vString Revolution Baked On Mesh

 Quick update here. This has been a really bizarre and bad year for everyone I think and sadly I am not much different in that respect. Looking forward to saying goodbye to 2020, however it is about time I started working on things again.

vStrings have long been overdue for some update work and the first out of the blocks is the Revolutions. Bringing these up to date with the latest Baked on Mesh design work, they are available to update right now.

Just head in store, go to the Casper Vend Redelivery terminal and update yours now.

Hemi

Baked On Mesh Released

Well if you are getting back to work, why not get your teeth in to something quite substancial?

What is is?

Fusion Ultima Female Bodies and Pick n Mix
Gym Bodies
Tudoto

What is available - Everything in those lines

What is this update? Well, that is a more interesting question...

Back in 2013, when mesh was just coming on the grid a small little company on SL had a really good idea. Yes, it was me and I suggested the idea to the powers that be that they use the Second Life Baked texture system to put Standard avatar textures on to mesh bodies.
We got the usual response though... utter silence.

At the end of last year though, guess what... they had a really good idea about putting baked textures on to mesh bodies...

I am really trying not to roll my eyes.

Anyhow, nice to see this system is finally being put to good use...

Now, All of the Fusion Ultima line - Pick n Mix, Bodies, Lower legs for furry and demon, etc have all been updated to Baked On Mesh.
Gym Bodies have also been converted as has Tudoto.

Grab the latest copies from the Casper Redelivery server in Fusion store. Details of the BOM update are in the boxes including instructions.

What is BOM though?
BOM is effective Baked Textures. A long time ago when mesh was a pipe dream and the height of SL design was sculpted prims, creators had to rely on the stock Second Life Avatar. Even today we still use the textures that were on that avatar - You find these in ADV or Omega Appliers.
That said, the Second Life avatar had an advantage over our versions. You could put multiple layers on - Skin, tattoo, jacket, pants, underwear etc etc etc. To stop massive texture load though from wearing so much, LL's created a way to combine all these textures in to one texture for the upper, lower or head. This is called Baking Textures.
When mesh came along, the Second Life Avatar became all but defunct as people turned to mesh bodies and creators had to work on the basis of making appliers for said bodies.
What baked on mesh does though is automatically transfers the baked textures LL's creates and put them on a mesh body. Simple really.

So, what is the basics of my version of BOM?

Firstly, Alpha Masking is set to off - don't use or wear an alpha mask of any kind. If you need to hide something you will have to use the Master Set up HUD. I did this because BOM sets the texture to Alpha - and this messes up the body with hair and other items that use alpha textures. It looks messy.

Secondly you can still use the Fusion clothing and tattoo layers if you want to.

Thirdly, if you just intend to use skin and tattoo, you can still use Omega Advanced or ADV appliers to add materials to the skin layer although trying to add skin textures will not work. In effect you can use an old skin with advanced materials from any skin creator.

There are quite a few other details to this including a new daily hud and updates scripting specs. All the details are included with BOM update.

I will tomorrow be finalising the design work on vStrings and Fusion Male, releasing those in to the wilds too.

In short though, Violet Studios is back... enjoy!

Violet Studios Redux

So, this is what 2020 looks like. Feels better.

First off, a way of an explanation over what has been going on. The truth is since about 2015, and although I didn't want to admit this to myself, I was becoming creatively burnt out. This all started coming to a head in 2018. I was stuck in a rut, unable and unmotivated as I tried to go in circles with projects and ultimately getting nothing done.

To that end, I had no choice but to walk away, a clean break to do something entirely different. I couldn't stay on here as all that would have happened would have been that I would not have been able to break free or recharge my creative batteries.

Hence I pretty much disappeared from the grid. I am sorry about that but sometimes in life you need to do these things and I really needed to do that.

It is now 18 months on from that decision and it is now 2020 and I finally feel that I have broken free of that vicious circle. I have new ideas, new directions I want to take and yes, I will be doing some updating too, but I also needed to do some remedial work.

Over the next week, you will see things starting to change around the sims.

Those changes are already underway. Back in 2015 I decided to create the Caldera Project. In hindsight that was not so much of a good idea even if it seemed like that at the time.  Those who have been around Violet Studios since we opened will know the Demon Sanctuary Castle was always a prominent feature of the sim although when Caldera opened, I moved it.

Well, the Sanctuary is now back in pride of place where it always was. I have also moved the World's End Pub down to ground level although it will need some extra work before it reopens. The long and short is that Caldera is now officially gone as I bring everything back to where it should be.

Now... I could tell you what is coming next, but to be honest I don't know. The next 2 to 3 weeks will be spent trying to bring everything up to date. After that new projects will be here.

I guess what I am trying to say is this.

It's 2020 - Violet Studios is back in business.

Hemi

vString X_X, XL, XXL & X-Loon Update

Letting customers know after some investigation work and head scratching we found these breasts had an issue.
The nature of this bug was the breasts clothing layer / tops were doing strange things inlduing turning grey. The bug has now been tracked down and repaired.
To that end, the X_X, XL, XXL and X-Loons have now been updated to version 5.01

Head in store to the Redelivery Terminal to get your free update.
If you have any issues contact me in world.