Sunday, June 30, 2013

Pygar and the Missing Prims

Pygar Bu, Boy Genius and All Around Good Egg, taught me a really cool trick the other day when a discussion of non-rezzing prims went on somewhere I don't recall – probably the MySL feeds. But anyway, you've been in situations like the picture below when you arrive some place and the building refuses to rez or your attachments aren't visible or both or both and then some?


Usually a good, swift right-click in the prim gives it a jumpstart and it appears right away. With a building, it's not hard to figure out where to do this ... the wall, the window, the other window, a bit of the floor. You know, the obvious. That can be time consuming. With body parts or other attachments, it's a matter of guess work and probably even more time. I got pretty good at finding my tail, ears, eyes, and ... um ... The Girls ... when trying to get things to rez with a right-click (not to mention finding them in a dark bathroom so forget I mentioned it). Pygar said he turns on Wireframe mode, turns it off, and all is right with the world (except maybe at Paula Deen's house ... I mean she's kinda screwed, huh?).


This is what Wireframe mode looks like. Handy for spotting stray prims and freaking out people trying to look over your shoulder (Oh, Frak! What's wrong with Windows now?). Follow this menu path to turn it on or off:

Develop > Rendering > Wireframe

There you'll also see your viewer's Wireframe keyboard shortcut which you will quickly memorize if you use this trick more than thrice. On a Mac it is Command-Shift-R (and the same to turn it off).

You don't have the Develop menu? Your viewer may have options to display it with a checkbox somewhere in the Preferences. But if you have the Advanced menu active, look at the very bottom.  If you don't have the Advanced menu, try Ctrl-Alt-D on a PC (or the same on a Mac, but you can also call the Alt key "Option" 'cause Macs are about creativity).

When all is said and done and you've tied your fingers in knots, you should see ...


That's right! You should see my house. I fooled you into teleporting to my lair to bake me cookies. If I had a stove. Or cookie dough (*puts that on the shopping list*). As if that's what I had really done. Actually, you should see the scene as it should be. I found out by happy-stance that turning Advanced Lighting on/off or off/on does much the same thing. Likely there are several ways to skin this gopher and if you are bored enough you just might find them. But Pygar's trick via the keyboard shortcut is fast and efficient. He really is a Boy Genius.

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