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A Small but Important Update on Textures
Ina Beaumont recently asked if I could include all of the textures with my items, not just the PBR materials, so that people who are not using a PBR-enabled viewer can still enjoy them properly.
I gave this some thought. I had been hoping that most everyone was moving toward PBR-enabled viewers, but Ina made a very good point—not everyone is there yet, and not everyone uses Firestorm.
So, going forward, I will include the complete set of textures that comes with the model, including the traditional textures as well as the PBR materials.
A quick note about texture sizes: please feel free to reduce them to whatever size works best for you. I have experimented with reducing them myself, but on many of the items I find that they become noticeably blurry, so the original size generally gives me the best results.
These are the textures produced with the model pack, and with the number of things I create, I simply don't have the time to resize and test every individual texture before release.
Please resize them as you wish and use whatever gives you the best balance between appearance and performance on your grid.
Thank you, Ina, for bringing this up. It was a good suggestion, and hopefully including everything will make my creations more accessible to everyone. ♥
I have added all the textures to the Hot Damn BBQ (sorry for the return trip to grab them) Also the Butterflies are Near Choker at Monentes Jewelry. Thank you Ina for helping me to realize the obvious, not everyone has or likes PBR!
Ina Beaumont recently asked if I could include all of the textures with my items, not just the PBR materials, so that people who are not using a PBR-enabled viewer can still enjoy them properly.
I gave this some thought. I had been hoping that most everyone was moving toward PBR-enabled viewers, but Ina made a very good point—not everyone is there yet, and not everyone uses Firestorm.
So, going forward, I will include the complete set of textures that comes with the model, including the traditional textures as well as the PBR materials.
A quick note about texture sizes: please feel free to reduce them to whatever size works best for you. I have experimented with reducing them myself, but on many of the items I find that they become noticeably blurry, so the original size generally gives me the best results.
These are the textures produced with the model pack, and with the number of things I create, I simply don't have the time to resize and test every individual texture before release.
Please resize them as you wish and use whatever gives you the best balance between appearance and performance on your grid.
Thank you, Ina, for bringing this up. It was a good suggestion, and hopefully including everything will make my creations more accessible to everyone. ♥
I have added all the textures to the Hot Damn BBQ (sorry for the return trip to grab them) Also the Butterflies are Near Choker at Monentes Jewelry. Thank you Ina for helping me to realize the obvious, not everyone has or likes PBR!
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I do want to clarify something: including the additional legacy texture maps is not without a cost. It means more assets in inventory, more files to manage, and additional storage for everyone receiving the item—including people who have no need for those textures because they are already using PBR.
Technology should not have to regress because some users choose not to upgrade their viewers. PBR is the direction the technology has moved, and I believe creators should be encouraged to move forward with it rather than continually designing around older technology.
Ina did make a valid point that some people are still using viewers without PBR support, which is why I am willing to include the additional maps going forward. But I want to be clear about the distinction: the PBR material and the individual legacy texture maps are not the same thing, and including both creates additional inventory and storage overhead.
I’m trying to find a reasonable balance—continue creating for current PBR technology while still providing an option for those who haven’t made that transition yet.
Hopefully, over time, that extra accommodation will no longer be necessary as PBR support becomes the norm.
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Technology should not have to regress because some users choose not to upgrade their viewers. PBR is the direction the technology has moved, and I believe creators should be encouraged to move forward with it rather than continually designing around older technology.
Ina did make a valid point that some people are still using viewers without PBR support, which is why I am willing to include the additional maps going forward. But I want to be clear about the distinction: the PBR material and the individual legacy texture maps are not the same thing, and including both creates additional inventory and storage overhead.
I’m trying to find a reasonable balance—continue creating for current PBR technology while still providing an option for those who haven’t made that transition yet.
Hopefully, over time, that extra accommodation will no longer be necessary as PBR support becomes the norm.
Come to think of it, we're currently at a point similar to mid-2020. A new graphical technology has arrived, but many still use viewers that don't support it.
Today, the technology is PBR. Many still use viewers that don't support PBR, and they see PBR objects in grey or (if they're prims) plywood.
Back in 2020, the technology was BoM. Many still used Firestorm 6.0.3 or even older which had no BoM support, and they saw the first BoM avatars in garish colours (the server-side fallback) instead of with skin textures.
However, the reasons are different.
Back in the day, it was because Firestorm 6.3.9, the first version that supported BoM, was painfully buggy. It kept crashing while building, and very few Firestorm users were willing to switch to Singularity and get used to its quirks. So they held on to Firestorm 6.0.3.
Some of them took a few months to learn why a few avatars (mostly me because I was an early adopter of BoM) were so colourful because they had never even heard of BoM. A few asked me to "turn BoM off" because they thought I could do that, and my avatar would look normal then. Technically, I would have been able to do that, but it took me a while to figure out how to keep my alpha masks while doing it.
What ended this phase was the release of Firestorm 6.4.13 in early 2021, along with more and more freebie sims offering those "Free BoM" Athena 6 and Adonis 4 boxes and more and more avatars using these bodies.
Nowadays, it's because Firestorm 7 requires more powerful hardware. And that, in turn, is not because of PBR. It's because of the Advanced Lighting Model that provides not only better lighting, but also optional stuff like shadows, transparent water, reflective water and bumpy/shiny surfaces.
In Firestorm 6, ALM was optional, and all those with weaker machines (laptops with on-board graphics and shared memory etc.) wouldn't touch the ALM switch with a 10-foot barge pole. It would have slowed Firestorm down to a slideshow for them. They were stuck with forward rendering which is much more primitive, but which requires fewer hardware resources.
In Firestorm 7, ALM was hard-coded and forward rendering removed at the behest of Linden Lab. The Lindens wanted to nudge creators into making their content less complex. They wanted them to switch to adding small surface details such as rivets with bump-mapping/normal-mapping and away from adding these details right into the mesh. And they wanted to achieve that by forcing a graphics mode with normal maps available upon everyone.
To balance this, the Firestorm developers made Firestorm 7 multi-threaded, spreading its CPU load over multiple cores/threads. On computer hardware that's fit for for 3-D stuff, Firestorm 7 actually became faster than Firestorm 6.
Those who are stuck with Firestorm 6 (or even Singularity) usually have machines that have never been fit for anything 3-D in the first place. In a few cases, they may have computers that were made for 3-D graphics - in the late 2000s.
But they, too, are paying customers for Linden Lab. I've read something about some 14% of all Second Life users having machines from 2012 or older, and you can bet that these aren't decommissioned CAD workstations. They, too, are OpenSim users. In fact, I know OpenSim users who are stuck with Firestorm 4 or 5 where you can still turn the rendering of mesh off because even mesh bogs their old machines down in unbearable ways.
Surprisingly many sim owners seem to be stuck with Firestorm 6. Just look at in-world pictures here on OSW. How many do you see with shadows? Or even shininess that isn't painted on? Anything really with more than the most basic shaders imaginable?
I mean, it hurts me to see the official pictures of Lafayette Cemetery taken at such low graphics settings. I was there with Firestorm 7 with shadows on. All of a sudden, the place had a mood which the pictures lack. And Lafayette Cemetery doesn't even have any Blinn-Phong, much less PBR. At least Luna Lunaria had a machine that could really show off what she built.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with Firestorm 6 and Singularity users and having to cater to them until nobody uses underpowered hardware anymore.
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Today, the technology is PBR. Many still use viewers that don't support PBR, and they see PBR objects in grey or (if they're prims) plywood.
Back in 2020, the technology was BoM. Many still used Firestorm 6.0.3 or even older which had no BoM support, and they saw the first BoM avatars in garish colours (the server-side fallback) instead of with skin textures.
However, the reasons are different.
Back in the day, it was because Firestorm 6.3.9, the first version that supported BoM, was painfully buggy. It kept crashing while building, and very few Firestorm users were willing to switch to Singularity and get used to its quirks. So they held on to Firestorm 6.0.3.
Some of them took a few months to learn why a few avatars (mostly me because I was an early adopter of BoM) were so colourful because they had never even heard of BoM. A few asked me to "turn BoM off" because they thought I could do that, and my avatar would look normal then. Technically, I would have been able to do that, but it took me a while to figure out how to keep my alpha masks while doing it.
What ended this phase was the release of Firestorm 6.4.13 in early 2021, along with more and more freebie sims offering those "Free BoM" Athena 6 and Adonis 4 boxes and more and more avatars using these bodies.
Nowadays, it's because Firestorm 7 requires more powerful hardware. And that, in turn, is not because of PBR. It's because of the Advanced Lighting Model that provides not only better lighting, but also optional stuff like shadows, transparent water, reflective water and bumpy/shiny surfaces.
In Firestorm 6, ALM was optional, and all those with weaker machines (laptops with on-board graphics and shared memory etc.) wouldn't touch the ALM switch with a 10-foot barge pole. It would have slowed Firestorm down to a slideshow for them. They were stuck with forward rendering which is much more primitive, but which requires fewer hardware resources.
In Firestorm 7, ALM was hard-coded and forward rendering removed at the behest of Linden Lab. The Lindens wanted to nudge creators into making their content less complex. They wanted them to switch to adding small surface details such as rivets with bump-mapping/normal-mapping and away from adding these details right into the mesh. And they wanted to achieve that by forcing a graphics mode with normal maps available upon everyone.
To balance this, the Firestorm developers made Firestorm 7 multi-threaded, spreading its CPU load over multiple cores/threads. On computer hardware that's fit for for 3-D stuff, Firestorm 7 actually became faster than Firestorm 6.
Those who are stuck with Firestorm 6 (or even Singularity) usually have machines that have never been fit for anything 3-D in the first place. In a few cases, they may have computers that were made for 3-D graphics - in the late 2000s.
But they, too, are paying customers for Linden Lab. I've read something about some 14% of all Second Life users having machines from 2012 or older, and you can bet that these aren't decommissioned CAD workstations. They, too, are OpenSim users. In fact, I know OpenSim users who are stuck with Firestorm 4 or 5 where you can still turn the rendering of mesh off because even mesh bogs their old machines down in unbearable ways.
Surprisingly many sim owners seem to be stuck with Firestorm 6. Just look at in-world pictures here on OSW. How many do you see with shadows? Or even shininess that isn't painted on? Anything really with more than the most basic shaders imaginable?
I mean, it hurts me to see the official pictures of Lafayette Cemetery taken at such low graphics settings. I was there with Firestorm 7 with shadows on. All of a sudden, the place had a mood which the pictures lack. And Lafayette Cemetery doesn't even have any Blinn-Phong, much less PBR. At least Luna Lunaria had a machine that could really show off what she built.
Unfortunately, we're stuck with Firestorm 6 and Singularity users and having to cater to them until nobody uses underpowered hardware anymore.
I understand the comparison, Jupiter, and the history is interesting. Where I disagree is that creators are necessarily “stuck” having to cater to older viewers indefinitely.
At some point technology has to move forward. We went through this with mesh, BoM, materials and now PBR. If creators are always required to package their work around the oldest viewer or oldest hardware still in use, there is very little incentive for the platform itself to progress.
There is also a cost to backward compatibility. Supplying additional diffuse, normal and specular maps isn't simply flipping a compatibility switch. Those are additional assets in inventory, additional files on disk, and additional things for creators and users to manage. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of objects and it adds up.
I'm willing to include the additional maps with my items because Ina raised a valid concern and I already have those maps available. But I don't think that means PBR creators should be expected to maintain legacy versions of everything they make.
People certainly have legitimate reasons for running older hardware or viewers. At the same time, choosing—or needing—to remain on older technology inevitably means that some newer content will eventually stop being compatible. That's true of virtually every technology platform.
Backward compatibility is useful. It shouldn't become a veto on progress.
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At some point technology has to move forward. We went through this with mesh, BoM, materials and now PBR. If creators are always required to package their work around the oldest viewer or oldest hardware still in use, there is very little incentive for the platform itself to progress.
There is also a cost to backward compatibility. Supplying additional diffuse, normal and specular maps isn't simply flipping a compatibility switch. Those are additional assets in inventory, additional files on disk, and additional things for creators and users to manage. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of objects and it adds up.
I'm willing to include the additional maps with my items because Ina raised a valid concern and I already have those maps available. But I don't think that means PBR creators should be expected to maintain legacy versions of everything they make.
People certainly have legitimate reasons for running older hardware or viewers. At the same time, choosing—or needing—to remain on older technology inevitably means that some newer content will eventually stop being compatible. That's true of virtually every technology platform.
Backward compatibility is useful. It shouldn't become a veto on progress.
I've always added a diffuse map, a normal map and a specular map to my PBR materials.
Was I really the only one who has ever done that?
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Was I really the only one who has ever done that?
I think we’re talking about two different things here. 😊 A PBR material is not the same thing as the individual diffuse, normal, or specular texture maps.
What Ina was asking for was that I include the separate traditional texture maps in addition to the PBR material, so people who are not using a PBR-capable viewer can texture the item using the older materials system.
The PBR material is still included. I’m simply going to include the additional maps as well so people have both options. What about Land Textures? Can you add both Material and Blinn Phong?
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What Ina was asking for was that I include the separate traditional texture maps in addition to the PBR material, so people who are not using a PBR-capable viewer can texture the item using the older materials system.
The PBR material is still included. I’m simply going to include the additional maps as well so people have both options. What about Land Textures? Can you add both Material and Blinn Phong?
That was what I was talking about.
If you look into the materials I've dumped at Gracie and Dexter's, you'll find
* the PBR material for Firestorm 7 and the Cool VL Viewer
* the separate maps for the PBR material, just in case
* diffuse map, normal map, specular map (= Blinn-Phong) for non-PBR Firestorm 6 and Singularity compatibility, exactly what Ina was asking for
* the odd notecard with explanations (most likely outdated; I should upgrade the materials with new and more notecards, but I've got a new freebie sim with a big material shop in the making)
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If you look into the materials I've dumped at Gracie and Dexter's, you'll find
* the PBR material for Firestorm 7 and the Cool VL Viewer
* the separate maps for the PBR material, just in case
* diffuse map, normal map, specular map (= Blinn-Phong) for non-PBR Firestorm 6 and Singularity compatibility, exactly what Ina was asking for
* the odd notecard with explanations (most likely outdated; I should upgrade the materials with new and more notecards, but I've got a new freebie sim with a big material shop in the making)
That's great! The PBR viewers are working well for me, even on my circa 2018 laptop. The latest Firestorm viewers run well for me, including modded versions from Wolf Territories Grid and Prince Amor of maze.bz.
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True, from what I've read about FS performance in general, their current minimum for the viewer still allows folks that have PC's from the last 10-15 years to experience OS and SL in PBR modes. I can't use insanely high settings most of the time, but it's OK for me to crank things a bit for photos in quiet areas. :)
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The age of the machine doesn't matter much, only how it's equipped.
Two things are important. One, a sufficiently powerful CPU with enough cores. Firestorm 7 is capable of multi-threading whereas Firestorm 6 only uses one CPU thread.
Two, a GPU with enough dedicated VRAM, at least 4GB, ideally 8GB. That's not high-end gaming gear. That's 2018 upper mid-range.
Seriously, you can have 10-year-old hardware that absolutely flies with Firestorm 7, that's actually faster with Firestorm 7, showing PBR materials, than with Firestorm 6 and normal maps/specular maps turned off. (I'm pretty sure that someone will call me a liar again.)
At the same time, you can have a much newer machine that's utterly underpowered nonetheless because it's some cheapo subnotebook with an Intel Atom dual-core SoC inside.
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Two things are important. One, a sufficiently powerful CPU with enough cores. Firestorm 7 is capable of multi-threading whereas Firestorm 6 only uses one CPU thread.
Two, a GPU with enough dedicated VRAM, at least 4GB, ideally 8GB. That's not high-end gaming gear. That's 2018 upper mid-range.
Seriously, you can have 10-year-old hardware that absolutely flies with Firestorm 7, that's actually faster with Firestorm 7, showing PBR materials, than with Firestorm 6 and normal maps/specular maps turned off. (I'm pretty sure that someone will call me a liar again.)
At the same time, you can have a much newer machine that's utterly underpowered nonetheless because it's some cheapo subnotebook with an Intel Atom dual-core SoC inside.
I use a firestorm viewer, and i prefer to not use PBR because i want the same texture options i always had.
So i do use a modified version of firestorm that someone else released that doesnt use PBR.
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So i do use a modified version of firestorm that someone else released that doesnt use PBR.
Firestorm 7 literally only supporting PBR is absolute FUD. Firestorm 7 supports all possible kinds of textures, present and past.
It supports PBR materials.
It supports diffuse map/normal map/specular map. The stuff that e.g. Aaack Aardvark of Arcadia Shop fame used. Just like Firestorm 6. Nowadays called "Blinn-Phong".
It supports only the diffuse map, only a "texture". With shading and highlights and "shiny" painted on if you want. What you have on just about everything that was ripped from SL up until last year or so. What has been used in OpenSim since 2007. With three optional levels of actual shininess. Just like Firestorm 6.
It supports just simply tinting surfaces with no texture. Again, with three optional levels of actual shininess. Just like Firestorm 6.
It does. Believe me. None of this was cut. I've actually textured stuff in all kinds of non-PBR ways with Firestorm 7.
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It supports PBR materials.
It supports diffuse map/normal map/specular map. The stuff that e.g. Aaack Aardvark of Arcadia Shop fame used. Just like Firestorm 6. Nowadays called "Blinn-Phong".
It supports only the diffuse map, only a "texture". With shading and highlights and "shiny" painted on if you want. What you have on just about everything that was ripped from SL up until last year or so. What has been used in OpenSim since 2007. With three optional levels of actual shininess. Just like Firestorm 6.
It supports just simply tinting surfaces with no texture. Again, with three optional levels of actual shininess. Just like Firestorm 6.
It does. Believe me. None of this was cut. I've actually textured stuff in all kinds of non-PBR ways with Firestorm 7.
It does not provide me with the texture tool, in the same form that all previous versions did.
It makes using normal textures harder to use from within the tool selection tool.
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It makes using normal textures harder to use from within the tool selection tool.
So you say that clicking the "Blinn-Phong" tab on the "Textures" page only once in a session is that one step too much that makes Firestorm 7 literally unusable to you?
Because that's what it takes, one click between logging in and logging out, to get the same texture editor as in Firestorm 6.
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Because that's what it takes, one click between logging in and logging out, to get the same texture editor as in Firestorm 6.