Glow and Full-Bright Sins

It needs to be said that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and tastes.  I would never try to enforce conformity to a single individual’s preferences.  However, it is often helpful for Second Life content creators and merchants to receive feedback on their products, or to gain insight into the needs and desires of consumers in order to make products that are as appealing as possible.  Having said that, allow me to guide you through what I would consider proper (and improper) use of full-bright and glow features.

(Click to view this image in original size.)

First of all, make sure you can see glow in the first place!  Sometimes the reason we find items that are glowing like the sun itself is because the creator of that item couldn’t even see that it was glowing.  Without “Basic Shaders” enabled in your graphics preferences, you won’t be able to see glowing objects, no matter how high you set the glow setting.

Both objects in this picture have the maximum glow setting, 1.00, but it does not appear to glow if “Basic Shaders” is not enabled.

(Helpful hint: if you can’t enable “Basic Shaders”, try ticking the “Custom” box next to the “Quality and Performance” slider.  Now you should have the option to enable “Basic Shaders” and therefore see glowing objects.)

Darker-textured objects appear not to glow as much as light-textured objects.

Glow is like make-up; less is more.  If you must make a glowing item, keep it tasteful.  Where the threshold of “tasteful” is depends largely on the lightness or darkness of the object’s texture.  Light-textured objects appear to glow much more than darker-textured objects, and it is often necessary to decrease the glow level on light-textured objects.  The Full Bright option also affects how bright an object appears, but use it wisely as it also “flattens” the object.  (That is, Full Bright removes all object shading, creating a flat, uniform, unrealistic shape.)

There are certainly many situations where it is prudent to use glow.  As a few examples, one might use glow:

• in light sources (lamps, neon signs, light bulbs, spotlights, flames and fire)
• in magical items (fairy accessories, magic potions, staffs and wands, mushrooms)
• in jewelry (specifically on the gemstones themselves, rarely on the chains or bands)

Too much glow completely obliterates the texture.

Remember, less is more.  Even in cases where it makes sense to use glow, cranking the glow level all the way up to 1.0 can be disastrous!  Using maximum glow will result in the texture of the object becoming impossible to see; so if you’re using a beautiful texture, don’t negate it with too much glow!

As you can see in the picture on the left, even a glow level of 0.50 (that’s half the maximum!) is enough to blanche the texture to the point where it cannot be recognised.  The use of Full Bright also contributes to the whitewash effect that strong glow has on a texture.  Avoid using Full Bright unless you’re sure that it is absolutely necessary!  Now let’s take a close look at what Full Bright actually does.

Full-Bright objects appear the same at both night and day.

Objects in Second Life will be shaded according to sunlight, moonlight, and (if enabled) local lighting.  Using the Full Bright option makes a texture appear as if it were evenly lit from all sides, thus removing any natural shading from the object.   Case in point: the full-bright spheres at the bottom of the picture on the right could be flat cylinders.  Without shading, there’s no way to tell the difference.

Full-bright objects will appear the same at all times of day; for this reason, full-bright objects will stand out at night time! Sometimes this is a desired effect… but not always.  Here are a few examples of items which should never be made full-bright without an exceptional reason:

• Hair
• Shoes
• Trees, grass, flowers, and other landscaping items
• Houses and buildings (the lack of shadows inside a building can be very disorienting!)
• Items made of wood

Is there a good reason for this?

The above photo was taken at night time.  Everything else in the area was dark as it should have been, but these trees and the giant bird were illuminated by Full Bright.  If they were magical trees, or in some way special so that they should draw one’s attention, it would be understandable.  But these were just ordinary trees, standing out against the scenery rather than blending into it.

Does everything in Second Life need to conform?  Not at all.  In fact, using Full Bright and glow are excellent ways to make an item stand out against the background, to draw attention to it.  Just don’t use Full Bright and glow arbitrarily.  Make sure there is a good reason for using these tools, and keep it reasonable and tasteful.  Misuse of Full Bright and glow is one easy way to spot the work of an amateur, so use it wisely!

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