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The best .obj to . dae converter for Second Life ?


Dolores Rossini
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I've been in Second Life for over 6 years and am fully respectful of creators stipulations . I'm prepared to spend a fair amount (in relation to SL items @full perms costs) in order to purchase a mesh item that I can't find in SL full perms . I've come on here to ask Mesh experts some advice as I don't want to spend the USD to find I can't use the item in my SL build . I would of thought it's obvious by asking this question openly in the forum that I'm not hiding anything . Any good experienced advice will be most welcome . Thanks :)

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I am jumping in here with Drongle and others. Since August if you didn't make an item or own the copyright to it, you cannot upload it legally into SL. So according to the lawyers commenting on the TOS, that means no one else's goods, even creative commons or free to use items.

Since you are having issues uploading, perhaps that is a "sign" you should not be :D.

The folks in the mesh forum will be happy to help you learn how to make your own original mesh.

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I have noted a few texture sellers in SL using gaming texture creators work by having paid for and selling by a license of use .I don't see the difference regarding mesh or textures .The mesh I wish to purchase is free to use as you wish by licence as per purchase . In any court of law I know of ,at least by the law of the United Kingdom where I reside ,I would not have any issues regarding use as per stipulation . The comments from the lawyers sound like doctors over prescribing medication, just in-case . When I was questioned by LL regarding uploading mesh I passed the test fully , answering all questions honestly .Meanwhile it seems I should consult further with my solicitor before I consider any mesh uploading  .Thanks for all the input .

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Indeed, it all depends entirely on the terms of the license you purchased. The far-reaching changes in the LL terms of service made last year caused some third party texture sellers to forbid the uploading of their textures to SL, when they had previously explicitly allowed it. These changes have led to a great deal of confusion and some disagreement about the inplications, for textures, mesh sounds, animations etc. So you will not be alone in taking whatever view you settle on. For myself, it is a matter of great regret that the new terms seem to place such extreme constraints on the use of third party content. I think our purpose here is only to make sure you (and other silent readers) were aware of the issues. The IP questionaire for mesh upload was written before the ToS changes. So it can't really be assumed that it addresses the new issues.

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The main problem is that the August TOS allows them to, if they wanted, bundle up all the textures and models and everything else and sell/redistribute that content. This goes against virtually every content site's licenses that I've seen (free or pay), with the exception of stuff that's fully CC0/Public domain.

 

Anyhow, to answer the question, Blender almost always works for me. Sometimes I even import other daes to clean up and export it from Blender (SketchUp daes for example are always twice the size they should be).

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...


Scooter Hollow wrote:

I feel like I should point out, even though you asked us not to, that it is actually illegal to use materials from Turbosquid in Second Life.

 

Anyways, I'll just repeat my earlier answer, try Blender.

Don't you just love it when people tell us what not to respond to?

But in the event anyone else reads this thread wonders:

May I use TurboSquid products in virtual worlds?

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Autodesk has a good free converter.  Google Autodesk FBX Converter.

My guess is that your problems isn't the converter program you are using.  Meshes that aren't specifically created with Second Life's mesh limitations will probably more often than not upload to SL.

Some of the limitations for SL mesh is that there can only be 8 materials/textures applied to each mesh.  A mesh can only be so many vertices and there are a few more limitations.  

Here's a few links to where you can read up on the limitations: Wiki Mesh Limits , Wiki Mesh Limits Tests

Another issue you may not have considered is LODs.  If you purchased the mesh or found mesh that has the correct royalty free license it probably didn't come with LODs that are setup for SL.

Each LOD has to have the name number of textures applied to it as the highest LOD (Level of Detail) or it won't upload.  SL is very picky with physics shape.  If the vertices are too close together or on top of each other it simply won't upload.

My advice is if a mesh won't upload after converting the original OBJ to a DAE is to bring it into a 3D modeling program like Blender or Maya and look to see if it is within the limits of SL mesh.  You may have to make some minor modifications to major modifications.

Often major modifications will be so much work you are better off just creating something from scratch yourself.  If you are not willing to learn or don't have enough time to learn how to make your own mesh you could always advertise in the Wanted Fourm for an experienced mesh designer.  You will have to pay them or course unless you have a skill that you can trade on. Good script writers are in high demand.

Hope that helps. :)
Cathy

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Wiki Mesh Limits Tests: Note, however, that the following tests fail...

There is not a maximum # of triangles a model can have, however the number of vertices is limited to 65,536.

In fact, that limit is implemented per material, and becuase the uploader secretely starts a new material after every 21844 triangles, you can successfully upload mesh with much larger numbers of vertices.

Confirm that importing models with up to 65,536 vertices works without error (assuming no other limits are exceeded - 8 MB asset size)

It doesn't work without error, unless you consider the secret creation of extra materials not to be an error.

Confirm that attempting to import a model that exceeds 65536 vertices fails and a descriptive error message is given in the viewer outlining the limit. (Need to obtain models to test.)

It doesn't fail (see above) You can upload 174752 triangles. In fact you can upload more, and still no error message is given, but then you will have holes in the mesh.

 

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Well, it seems to me that people have a limited understanding of how things are being sold in the internet. There are literally thousands of items that people can buy or get free, legally, and upload to SL. Even on TurboSquid, notice the answer is "Generally, no", and not a flat out no. It's up to the creator. I'm actually surprised there isn't more stuff out there that is completely free to use. I mean, just imagine how many 3D modelers there are in the world. Why wouldn't you eventually give away your earliest creations? Why would you care what people did with them after that?

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not 1 of these people that don't believe in copyrights. I'm all for them, but I also support the right of a creator to give things away to use freely without worry. Both ways can produce profits, and help people. Just look at Blender. It's free, and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it, even make your own version and sell it.

So, that is my advice. Learn a little Blender, and every single problem is easily fixable.

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The "Generally, no" is for virtual worlds in general. Second Life in particular falls squarely in the no section.

 

The problem with using a lot of 'free' content is the difference between money-free and license-free. Even artists who'll give away their stuff without asking any money for it, will still reasonably include terms like "don't try selling this yourself" and "tell people I was the one who made it". Which is enough to run afoul of Second Life terms.

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Scooter Hollow wrote:

The "Generally, no" is for virtual worlds in general. Second Life in particular falls squarely in the no section.

 

The problem with using a lot of 'free' content is the difference between money-free and license-free. Even artists who'll give away their stuff without asking any money for it, will still reasonably include terms like "don't try selling this yourself" and "tell people I was the one who made it". Which is enough to run afoul of Second Life terms.

Yeah, but there are also many thousands of people that don't care at all.

I'm not advocating for anyone to use or seek out free items. Anyone can learn to model in a matter of weeks, and most would do a better job than most of the free stuff that is out there. My point is, that there are lots of different creators out there, who have different business models, or simply don't care. You should not assume that anyone is using someone else IP improperly just based on your general knowledge. If you do suspect, than ask the original creator. Don't accuse people just because you think you understand something. Warnings are welcome, but accusations should be based on actual facts, not pure speculation.

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  • 1 year later...

I happend across this thread while I was reading. After listening to a finger pointing battle between creators in sl ( why they have to dissolve into back biting is beyond me, it's not impressive) I decided to do some research on my own. There are several creators of mesh models who offer unlimited no restriction use. I didn't just take that on face value. I read the accompanying defining documentation. I looked further and was amazed at the sheer amount of unrestricted license product available. When I think back to what I've seen available in SL it was an eye opening endeavor. 

I'm not a purist who thinks you have to make everything from scratch. My only concern would come when someone violates the license but theres plenty enough available that can be uploaded to SL without doing so I wold say it's not wise to jump to the conclusion someones rights are being violated.  

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Not sure if I should post in a necroed thread but here we go:


bahiRD Oyen wrote:

I'm not a purist who thinks you have to make everything from scratch. My only concern would come when someone violates the license but theres plenty enough available that can be uploaded to SL without doing so I wold say it's not wise to jump to the conclusion someones rights are being violated.  

Yes jumping to conclusions is something that should be avoided. But what else could they have done when the OP flatly refused to answer some very apropriate questions? I mean, all the OP had to do to clear any possible misunderstandings was to tell where they got the obj file from and what its license said.

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I just read this topic and it gave me a good laugh.

Other than one suggestion to use Maya convertor, there were no answers to the OPs question, and it all went on a tangent of random accusations and speculations.

I'm not always sure why people bother posting if they can't answer the question - I guess its more fun for them to accuse people of doing wrong without even knowing the particulars.

As far as the OP explaining why they need to convert from *.obj to *.dae, its irrelevant.

 

You don't need to know why someone wants to borrow your hammer - either say yes or not to letting them borrow it.

A very off-topic topic, but funny.

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