Warning: Texture bug in Emerald

I've had two people report this bug to me recently. It seems that when viewed using the Emerald viewer, the textures on the sculpted prims are changed.

A week or so ago, Archis Writer contacted me about the color of her tail changing everyday. It was she who thought it was the Emerald viewer because when she met with me, she saw that the tail I was wearing had the same problem and I was seeing both of us just fine. I wondered if it might also be her Windlight settings, but I didn't pursue that possibility.

Today, Gavin Wrexan sent me this photo of his tail:

(Published with permission from Gavin Wrexan.)

Thinking it was a corrupted inventory, I sent him a fresh copy, but he said that even the new copy had problems. So, I met with him and he rezzed his tail. We both took pictures and the tail looks different between the two pictures.

What I saw:


What Gavin saw:
(Published with permission from Gavin Wrexan.)

He is using Emerald and he had already tried clearing his cache, so I'm now convinced that it's Emerald. If I hear from someone having texture problems using the latest SL client, then it might be the SL API that Emerald is based on. I'm still on the 1.22.11 version of the LL client, since the newest version of the LL client and the Emerald client are making me lag down to 4 fps.

I'm not sure how to file bugs for the Emerald client. I've asked Gavin to report the bug and I can't remember if I've asked Archis as well. I'll post more information here if I find out more.



2009 Dec 8 UPDATE

Aviendha Vayandar encountered the same problem and she tested it on the latest SL client (v1.23.5). It looked fine there, and when she returned to Emerald, it was fine in Emerald again.

I wondered if the bug was caused by the texture being on sculpted prims or by the texture being tiny (32x32 pixels). Aviendha noted that when the texture was corrupted, what she saw in the texture box of the edit window is a small yellow spot in the top left corner (she has the Byzia tail) and the rest of the texture box was red. When the texture was fixed, the entire texture box was the correct yellow texture. So, it's more likely that the bug has to do with the tiny size of the texture.

Aviendha has graciously filed a bug here, and I sent an email to the developer.

And I thought I was helping cut down on lag by using small textures where I could. Who knew I'd trigger an obscure bug? :D

Mer Betta Series 4 tails are here!

And you thought I only made tails once a year. :D


NEW TAILS: SERIES 4

The following tails are now available at the Mer Betta main store:
- Mer Betta Chryseis Rose Platinum Halfmoon v3.1c
- Mer Betta Nemertes Green Patina Halfmoon v3.1c
- Mer Betta Simoeis Blue Gold Super Delta v3.1c
- Mer Betta Zeuxo Black Copper Halfmoon v3.1c
Also available are the matching Mer Betta Intimates ~ Crescent add-on packs.

Zeuxo is my favorite in this series. It's glamorous; it's sophisticated. It's your fabulous little black dress interpreted as a mermaid tail.


A close second is Nemertes, which has caudal fins that look like satin.


Each of these have scales in two colors, so you get almost twice as many pieces. The second scale color gave me an excuse to add a male model in the ads (that's my male alt HiHo), so mermen don't think that Mer Betta is only for mermaids.


EXPANDING ON THE WEB

Since the inception of Mer Betta, I've kept the prices the same both inworld and on XStreet, even though XStreet charges a commission on each sale. One reason for that is because I depend on XStreet for the gifting process, so that people can buy a Mer Betta tail for someone else.

Recently, XStreet announced additional fees for listing items on their website, on top of the commission they already get.

I'm already in the process of setting up Mer Betta in alternative e-commerce sites and I'll post those sites here and on the Mer Betta website.

I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm considering using a different price structure for commissioned sales to encourage people to buy inworld instead. However, I won't do that until I have an inworld gifting process in place.

Let me know what you think.


PHASING OUT OLD TAILS

I had to reconfigure the main store to make room for these new tails. As I make more products, I'll have to reconfigure the store again or make the vendors smaller. However, I have already been thinking of phasing out the old tails (Series 1 and Series 2). I haven't decided when yet, but it will be before the end of August 2010. By then, they'll be three years old. In SL years, that's ancient. :)

Mer Betta Kalypso in Avilion machinima

Tira Bigboots sent me this link to an Avilion machinima in which she wore the Mer Betta Kalypso. See if you can spot her.

Yay, Tira!