Want to make only a little post about that technology that recently LL added to SL. Because I'm very excited about my first experiments about, and was thinking about how our period worlds can look in the future if we advance in that way!

Only two little examples - I made an old fashioned marine cap and apply normal maps and specular maps to give them 3d wrinkles and diferent shine effects depending the part of the cap... take a look of the diference between using normals and specular and only a texture layer:

And as second example, I applied normal layer to one of my recently mesh coats... take a look to the sleeve wrinkles...

And they looks better in "movement" remember that normlas are affected by light so are not as static textures!

Looks very promising all the possibilities that these technics bring to us, I think that all the time spended learning about them and experimenting can give a new horizon to SL!

updated by @trasgo-beaumont: 28 Oct 2016 09:21:55AM

Thanks for starting this discussion, Trasgo. The addition of Materials is indeed an exciting milestone in Second Life!

For those of you not yet familiar with this new functionality, Materials Support and Tips is a good place to start.

I've been playing with it for a while now and my observation is that the results are pleasantly subtle as well as dynamic. It makesthings "come alive" depending on changes in light making the whole scene more realistic.

I have been playing with building materials andI now have floors with just the right amount of gloss (not the horrid "shininess" that we were previously limited to), damask wallpaper where the patterns appear & disappear in the lighting, glinting metal on furniture etc.

I can just imagine its use with fabrics, as Trasgo has shown.

I'm working on a new house that takes advantage of both mesh & materials & so I'll post some pictures when I get a moment.

I would love to see & hear about others experiences!

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

I have also been playing with Materials on my mesh gowns! It is a wonder to see what is coming... Just switching the settings and looking about.... One can see where this technology is going! The subtle changes in light...giving textures a responsive quality to environmental light... Every designer in SL should be playing with this now...as it evolves. Thanks Trasgo for posting this! We seem to be heading toward more realism "in world" everyday! Can't wait to see where this technology is in two years.Can't wait to see your building, Tatiana. I will see if I can find the pic I took of one of my gowns to share, too.

I've found that It's actually much easier to tackle than mesh

It's out in the latest version of the LL viewer now.

--
Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

I agree with Tat, is more easy that work with mesh itself, if you made the mesh work, you have almost all the hard work. And as Tat said, this was added to the latest release of the oficial viewer, the pictures that I shown here are from it. You must remember that to could see normals and specular you must have the advanced lighting model check in your graphics pereferences.