iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

alex @lightling.space · 29/09/2026

custom tagging added :3

entrance disclaimer and disclaimer admin panel open side by side, there is a new field for custom tags in the admin panel which has My Tag 1 and My Tag 2 comma-separated; the custom tags appear next to a couple of preset ones which are toggled in the admin panel.

alex @lightling.space · 29/09/2026

In order to work on the custom labeling, had to refactor the system once more to make it more friendly to being dynamic. There still exists a synced fixed-length array for presets, but now they are no longer two scene-hardcoded arrays of UI elements, instead the UI is fully templated from one array.

view of both entrance disclaimer and disclaimer admin panel; a set of preset tags are listed on the admin panel, and a few of them (chill, music, event, group) are toggled and reflected in the entrance disclaimer.

previously two arrays of equal length and indexing
with pre-defined labeling that were referenced
in the disclaimer system script, basically hardcoded
and linked together

now unified into one array of separate objects
defining preset tags; toggle and tags in canvases
are now fully dynamic in placement and creation/destruction
(as opposed to fixed toggles and tags hidden/shown and repositioned)

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alex @lightling.space · 23/09/2026

several hours of my time, half my week, wasted, because i needed to put this at the top of my button press callback. actually consider fucking yourself, grater et al.

if (!Networking.IsOwner(gameObject))
{
Networking.SetOwner(Networking.LocalPlayer, gameObject);
}

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alex @lightling.space · 23/09/2026

anyways this brought to you by me having added yet more custom styling cuz now bttv is copying 7tv and doesn't have a setting to disable it

$@-moz-document domain("twitch.tv") { .chat-author__display-name { filter: unset; background-image: unset; -webkit-text-fill-color: unset; } }$

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alex @lightling.space · 20/09/2026

i found the lightmapper was merging the path as one singular UV, which takes up a ton of empty space on the map. sliced up the mesh in chunks & now everything's packed better. i was already near the limits of two 2K (10MB ea) maps before private rooms, now there's space leftover even with 4 rooms

a thumbnail of a lightmap where the entire bottom third of the image is just a very elongated path, with lots of empty unused space around that uv map. below that is a thumbnail of two lightmaps (and their directional maps), which now feature a much more normal grid of various light tiles and no elongated shapes wasting tons of space

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alex @lightling.space · 20/09/2026

mentioned previously that a lot of the assets made for the private rooms also apply to the base world. spent today going through and replacing a bunch of stuff (kitchen, sofas, beds, lighting, etc). still got some more stuff to make/replace but it's definitely feeling more tied together now.

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alex @lightling.space · 18/09/2026

been a bit since i've shared world progress. this is a double-purpose structure i'm setting up at the moment. i want to re-create a more optimized, multi-platform version of a world me and friends liked (might look familiar: shoegaze, it's featured on the vrc login screen slideshow)

screenshot of unity of an apartment with a convo pit and kitchen in view

screenshot of unity of an open-concept bedroom, entrance, dining, and living room in an apartment

screenshot of unity of a deck attached to an apartment with a dining table and some chairs

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alex @lightling.space · 04/09/2026

love when ffz has a setting within days to disable or reduce whatever nonsense of the week twitch has made (immediately did the one to disable gigantified emotes and other message effects back when they did that)

Display GIFs in chat. New

Twitch subscribers (Tier 2 and 3) can post animated GIFs. When this is disabled, those messages are shown as a link instead.

GIF Size. New
How large GIFs should be, in pixels, as their maximum height.

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alex @lightling.space · 03/09/2026

surprised after the buyouts that this based-AF blurb from bandcamp's help articles is still here get.bandcamp.help/en/articles/...

While we have your attention, we would like to discourage you from doing one-penny-off pricing (e.g., $0.99, $9.99, $11.99). Though it may be an effective tactic for selling waterbeds, when we see that sort of pricing, we do not think “wow, this is a good deal” but rather “what we previously thought was a person/band is actually a marketing department, and they’re subtly telling us they think we’re idiots.” Present a straightforward price, let fans pay more if they want, and they’ll reward you.

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alex @lightling.space · 03/09/2026

not me digging through my nextcloud archives to find this fake splash art i made a couple years ago and still manages to come up every now and then in convo

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alex @lightling.space · 03/09/2026

my os drive which it says is ok for comparison

smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-linux-7.0.5-arch1-1-bsb] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: WD_BLACK SN850X 2000GB
Serial Number: 23405T802716
Firmware Version: 620331WD
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x15b7
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x001b44
Total NVM Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 [2.00 TB]
(rest is trimmed since it's just info about the drive)

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02, NSID 0xffffffff)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 38 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 10%
Percentage Used: 1%
Data Units Read: 79,192,403 [40.5 TB]
Data Units Written: 136,635,655 [69.9 TB]
Host Read Commands: 767,070,789
Host Write Commands: 1,320,303,470
Controller Busy Time: 1,195
Power Cycles: 1,365
Power On Hours: 13,438
Unsafe Shutdowns: 165
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 1

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged

Self-test Log (NVMe Log 0x06, NSID 0xffffffff)
Self-test status: No self-test in progress
No Self-tests Logged

100

alex @lightling.space · 03/09/2026

got a random warning when i logged in saying my nvme was degraded and may fail soon. doesn't elaborate at all where it's getting that claim, just shows stats that don't really mean much to me.

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: WD_BLACK SN850X 4000GB
Serial Number: 23135R800616
Firmware Version: 624311WD
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x15b7
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x001b44
Total NVM Capacity: 4,000,787,030,016 [4.00 TB]
(the rest is trimmed because it's just very specific tech stats about the drive)

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
- NVM subsystem reliability has been degraded

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02, NSID 0xffffffff)
Critical Warning: 0x04
Temperature: 32 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 10%
Percentage Used: 0%
Data Units Read: 37,831,870 [19.3 TB]
Data Units Written: 46,048,589 [23.5 TB]
Host Read Commands: 192,562,679
Host Write Commands: 188,609,115
Controller Busy Time: 329
Power Cycles: 1,354
Power On Hours: 13,484
Unsafe Shutdowns: 159
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 1,408
Error Information Log Entries: 1,408
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 1

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged

Self-test Log (NVMe Log 0x06, NSID 0xffffffff)
Self-test status: No self-test in progress
No Self-tests Logged

200

alex @lightling.space · 25/08/2026

forgot to mention it yesterday but i re-did the styling a fair bit on my site and also finally got around to adding the latest avatars i've worked on for myself. lightling.xyz/avatars

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alex @lightling.space · 18/08/2026

(slight spoiler warning just in case, tho it's not really tho) ain't no way outer wilds gettin posters from someone deadass chargin $300 for 5 8x11 pieces of standard screen-printing paper i may go hard on getting game merch but even i gotta say hell fuckin no somewhere lmao

outer wilds new posters available announcement on steam with 5 posters pertaining to the planets in game

the posters listed on cook and becker, individual ones are $80, full set $300

130

alex @lightling.space · 16/08/2026

the map menu now features a list which informs where different players are. i opted not to include the ability to TP directly to a player because i/others have found that to be jarring in other worlds. instead the locations will match up (with a bit of extra verbosity) to the TP buttons on the map.

screenshot of a map teleporter with a scrollable list of player locations listed below, matching players to house upper bedroom, walkway center paths, bathhouse sauna, and other locations. above the list is a screenshot of the world in isometric view, with labeled buttons on top of key locations of the map.

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alex @lightling.space · 16/08/2026

finished up the bath house last night~

screenshot of a locker room in a vrc world

screenshot of a shower room in a vrc world

screenshot of an onsen and a room with pools in a vrc world

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alex @lightling.space · 10/08/2026

started working on the bath house today~

screenshot of a vrc world in unity of an unfinished onsen

screenshot of a vrc world in unity of an unfinished room of 3 bathing pools

screenshot of a vrc world in unity, overhead view of a bath house with labels for sauna, hallway, locker rooms, private/general/rain showers, onsen, and pools. a cafe is connected to the other side of the bath house, and some dining seating is located outside

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alex @lightling.space · 09/08/2026

and now they have been prefabbed and added to the world

view of the bar in the cafe with a bunch of drink bottles on shelves behind the bar

view of some seating/tables in the cafe with plates and utensils and cups on them

view of some dishes added to the kitchen in the world

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alex @lightling.space · 07/08/2026

with a little somethin somethin for alternative versions~

kobodal laying down facing up in latex with a cutout for balls out

kobodal presenting rear in latex with a cutout for butthole out

pupper laying down facing up in latex with a cutout for balls out

pupper laying down with rear visible in latex with a cutout for butthole out

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alex @lightling.space · 07/08/2026

made a little somethin for my kobodal and pupper :3

kobodal laying down facing down in latex

160

alex @lightling.space · 06/08/2026

textures (including normals/metallic/specular/roughness) done

close-up of some of the dishes, pup cup written on the side of some to-go cups

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alex @lightling.space · 05/08/2026

blocked out the colors for everything.

a set of dishes in blender with flat color textured on them

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alex @lightling.space · 04/08/2026

some progress on some dishes. many of the dishes were meant for the kitchen in the vrc world (later milestone), but a few models would be useful in the cafe, so i decided to work on that now since the dishes set would be one atlas. bottles/their labels were a separate plan & are thus their own maps.

a bunch of dishes (pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, mugs, and utensils) uv unwrapped to a single grid texture in blender

the uv unwrap of the dishes, all packed into one single atlas, organized in different sections so that islands are near their respective dish and dish types are within a section of the atlas

glass bottles and wine glasses in blender. highlighted are labels overlayed on top of the bottles, each with two variants. everything is currently untextured. the uv atlas shows the highlighted labels all packed into an atlas.

the glass bottles and wine glasses; the glasses are uv unwrapped in a cylinder/cube wrap which means overlapping uvs because they are meant to share a singular glass material instead of an atlas-based texture.

120

alex @lightling.space · 01/08/2026

finally got around to writing july's blog post, which in turn is primarily an AC recap. i also pushed a small change to my SSG and thus the site which renders markdown image titles as captions under the primevue image embeds. been meaning to do that for ages but kept forgetting.

100

alex @lightling.space · 29/07/2026

new lighting fixtures (with aggressive LOD (bulbed/ringed chandeliers go from 1800/970 to 470/220 tris when viewed from across room, even the emissive wall rings go from 190 to 60)

view up close of a chandelier in a cafe with many bulbs inside glass cups hanging from straight metal poles

view from floor of cafe looking up at two styles of chandelier, one has many bulbs, the other comprises of three metal rings stacked and scaled like a cake with LED in the middle

view of the back wall of the cafe with three stacked/staggered/scaled marble semi-circle blocks with an emissive light going around the center of the rim of each block

view of the lower LOD versions of the two chandeliers, the bulbs and emissive parts of the meshes are gone and so are some of the redundant bottom faces, much of the remaining mesh is also decimated for the bulb-based chandelier with much more square cones/poles instead of round.

040

alex @lightling.space · 28/07/2026

system shock 2 finale perhaps?? www.twitch.tv/itslightling

100

alex @lightling.space · 27/07/2026

obsessed with the look of this model like dog damn woof hi. also just the way it moves in vr like barkbarkbark growl woof. it's giving twink androg/semi-masc rock star.

141

alex @lightling.space · 27/07/2026

apparently just hit 1000 hrs of steamvr last night

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alex @lightling.space · 27/07/2026

got some work done on the bar and tvs the other day, and today got work done on dining tables and chairs, bookshelves, and remaking the round sectional booths to fit in the spots where the original base's were.

screenshot of the inside of a cafe/bar in a vrc world

screenshot of the outside of a cafe/bar in a vrc world

020

alex @lightling.space · 20/07/2026

completely rebuilt the other building for the vrc world. the railing, outermost left/right walls, and cafe sofa insert wood are from the original file (with modifications), but all the windowing, doors, and floors/ceilings/walls are rebuilt from scratch. view in unity doesn't yet have baked lighting

screenshot of a large circular two-story building in blender

high-up view of the same building in vrc world unity scene

closer lower alternative angle of the same building

view of the building from the inside on the "cafe" side of the lower level

101

alex @lightling.space · 16/07/2026

Forgot to write about it last night but I added new sound isolation zones to the world. The world base came w/ one that was coded to only really work with one, so I wrote my own version that works with many. Being outside a zone defaults to global volume, & individual ones can overlap with priority

screenshot of the parent audio zoning script/object selected with zones assigned to its script and parented to its object, and default global values set for when players aren't inside any of the zones

screenshot of two audio zones for the lower and upper floors selected in scene with an audio zone class on each with values and colliders set on them to define the zone

snippet of code that is unfortunately too long to paste in alt text itself, but basically has a refresh mechanism with SendCustomEventDelayedSeconds that gets players, figures out what zone they are in if any, and calls SetVoiceDistanceFar based off of if they are inside or outside the local player's zone if they are in one (or defaults to default values on the main script if they aren't in one). zone determining comes from Collider.bounds.Contains player position, takes priority into account if they were found in more than one.

audio zone script that holds serialized fields and wrapping getters for collider zone, voice distance outside/inside floats, and priority (should be an int but i wrote it as a float out of habit lol)

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alex @lightling.space · 16/07/2026

returning to stream with more system shock 2 and hoping my internet isn't acting up~ www.twitch.tv/itslightling

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alex @lightling.space · 15/07/2026

exterior walkway refresh for the vrc world - smoother trail, lights and glass rail for said trail, cutout the cafe base for the trail, an added door from the primary base for immersion, and more obvious glass in primary base (alternate shader with frosted blurring, normals, and darker blending)

screenshot of a vrc world in unity with an elevated curvy walkway going between two buildings and a lower level, view from the primary base

screenshot of a vrc world in unity with an elevated curvy walkway going between two buildings and a lower level, view from the lower level

screenshot of a vrc world in unity with an elevated curvy walkway going between two buildings and a lower level, view from the cafe base

a door instead of a pane of glass in the primary base

140

alex @lightling.space · 14/07/2026

and i have vr set up on the capture pc now~ still need to figure out how audio will all work out and test all that but for now the hard part is solved.

screenshot of obs with vrchat open on a separate capture pc to a stream camera showing my pupper model in game with full body tracking

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alex @lightling.space · 05/07/2026

the final day fit, assuming i ever make it out anywhere. really feeling weak and low energy, with an agonizing ingrown nail on my foot flaring up real bad any time I walk.

me in a skirt, stardew junimo shirt, fox arm socks, blue mask, and straw hat

050

alex @lightling.space · 01/07/2026

It's wrath month so a word to all my haters~ :

130

alex @lightling.space · 30/06/2026

most of this month's blog post was focused on the world here lightling.xyz/blog/view?id...

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alex @lightling.space · 28/06/2026

dotfurry's almost at 100% btw dotfurry.org

dotfurry.org website
$87,185 raised out of $90,000 (96.9%)
campaign ends aug 1 (33 days)

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alex @lightling.space · 28/06/2026

And with that, after 80h or so of work over the course of a month and a half, i've finally finished the first real legitimate milestone is done. (only 69 (nice) is tracked here, 1st 2 milestones were basically "buy the world, delete the blankets everywhere, get a barebones disclaimer system done")

clutter - frames 10h 30m complete 5/25
clutter - books 5h complete 6/9
clutter - candles, tissues, incense, art supplies complete 6/17
1.0 vibe check system 6h complete 6/19
clutter - pots and tropical plants 21h 30m complete 6/25
world audio 4h 30m complete 6/26
LOD 6h complete 6/27
1.0 portable menu 4h complete 6/27

230

alex @lightling.space · 28/06/2026

used kenney.nl 's adventure ui kit to give the world UI a nice theme that fits it~

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alex @lightling.space · 27/06/2026

oh my gods please this COUCH has SO MANY POLYGONS. and so does this blanket. which is also DOUBLE SIDED (it's straight up 4k tris)

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alex @lightling.space · 27/06/2026

every now and then i find some new silly thing about this world i need to optimize away at some point such as this entrance floor having so many polygons despite being mostly flat (only a few have like a couple spikes jutting up on the floor near the logs and even that's barely noticeble)

vrc world entrance, the floor has many quads, but is otherwise mostly flat

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alex @lightling.space · 27/06/2026

even lower poly plants for distant LOD~ 6.2K down to 1.7K, almost a 75% decrease, from a distance only a few will be fairly apparent, the rest look very similar tbh, especially considering their size in-game.

two versions of palm trees, top is normal, bottom is decimated (lower poly)

two versions of pots, top is normal, bottom is decimated (lower poly)

two versions of plants, top is normal, bottom is decimated (lower poly)

table of tris for models comparing original to reduced

| model | original | reduced |
| :------------------------ | :------: | :-----: |
| tree | 230 | 100 |
| plant a (just the leaves) | 120 | 31 |
| plant b (upright leaves) | 216 | 48 |
| plant c (all the leaves) | 456 | 120 |
| plant d (ferny leaves) | 468 | 107 |
| plant e (big ol leaves) | 132 | 45 |
| plant f (red leaves) | 572 | 107 |
| vines (*all 5 combined*) | 1397 | 236 |
| pot 1 (black plastic) | 572 | ~170 |
| pot 2 (wood) | 284 | ~84 |
| pot 3 (clay) | 332 | ~146 |
| pot 4 (blue painted vase) | 572 | ~216 |
| pot 4 (blk painted vase) | 524 | ~222 |
| pot 4 (ylw painted vase) | 284 | ~46 |

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