Mesh

[Syle Devin]

So I am trying to find out if it is worth it to make a whole building is mesh or just use the textures on prims. to give the look of a mesh. I really want to make the whole building in blender and then upload it but do enough people see meshes, and are meshses stable enough to make it worth it? It is also a lot less prims which I love but if people won't see it then it's pointless.

Any advice?

Edit: I am no where near new to the 3d world so I know what I am doing but I am newer to second life mesh. I have no real idea if meshes work well enough in world for buildings and such. I know they work well with clothing but not sure about naything else.

[Jenni Darkwatch]

They work well, but depending on where you want the building to be it might not yet be worth it. More and more people can see mesh, but nowhere near enough to make it feasible for a public place. There's a few mesh buildings on the MP already. The last "official" number given by LL was 16% adoption rate around christmas, which seemed about the same as my in-world experience. These days it "feels" like more people can see me in my mesh avis.

[Knowl Paine]

I build because I enjoy building. If SL only had cubes, I would build with cubes.

If you can make an entire house in mesh, you should do that. I would be interested in that.

I have hundreds of pointless builds; what's your point?

[leliel Mirihi]

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

They work well, but depending on where you want the building to be it might not yet be worth it. More and more people can see mesh, but nowhere near enough to make it feasible for a public place. There's a few mesh buildings on the MP already. The last "official" number given by LL was 16% adoption rate around christmas, which seemed about the same as my in-world experience. These days it "feels" like more people can see me in my mesh avis.

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That was 16% of sims that had mesh items rezzed, that number is now up to 29%. The number of daily sessions with a mesh viewer is 64%, in other words the majority of the grid can see mesh.

LL publishes these number every week at the mesh usergroup, the transcripts are posted here.

[Syle Devin]

Well thanks for that info. Seems it is ok enough to keep buildign with mesh. I am working with someone on making a working bowling alley. Right now mesh can make it look the best but if no one could see it than there would be no point fo rit to be mesh. So thank you for the info, gonna keep going ahead with making it in mesh. Seems enough will be able to see it at this point.

[Pamela Galli Member]

Mesh adoption is slow. People are suspicious of it, have heard various rumors and myths about it.  LL has done nothing to educate or promote.  I am doing everything I can, but my reach is limited.  It is slow going.

Which is to day I will not be making any all mesh buildings until adoption is much more widespread.

[Coby Foden]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Which is to day I will not be making any all mesh buildings until adoption is much more widespread.

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Isn't it so that if there aren't lots of mesh objects to see, then those who still are using non mesh enabled viewers may not be very interested to upgrade their viewers?

If everybody would hold back releasing mesh items, then the adoption surely would take forever.

Anyway, the latest info (6th February 2012) from the Lab tells that 71 % of unique residents have used mesh viewers. So the majority can already see mesh.

Is there any point still waiting for the remaining 29 % of residents to upgrade their viewers before releasing mesh buildings? I see it this way: the more mesh items there are in the grid, the more eager the remaining old viewer users will be to upgrade their viewers.

[Syle Devin]

I agree. If you force it upon them by turning something they may want into mesh than of course they may be more interested for mesh. If you cater to them and build non mesh items than I do not think there is much room to complain that people aren't adapting mesh as much as we would like.

[Maeve Balfour]

I say go for it! - Residents capable of seeing mesh now are in the majority, according to Charlar Linden's statistics (roughly 70% currently). Sooner or later, it will only be a tiny minority who cannot see mesh at all - it's just a matter of time.

Keep in mind that there is a little bit of skill involved in keeping your mesh Land Impacts down to a reasonable level. It's definitely possible with a bit of experimentation, but be prepared for a lot to testing to get an instinct for it (make use of the Aditi test grid to save on upload/test costs). Whatever you do, don't let it frustrate you, just be aware that it may take a while for you to get your head around the technicalities of mesh optimisation. Once you achieve it, the savings of mesh over prim builds can be quite surprising!

So yah, go ahead with your mesh builds for sure... if nothing else, you will have a headstart in mesh for when everyone can eventually see it.

[Syle Devin]

Ah yes, I understand the capabilities of saving prims with mesh. It is basically the same as trying to keep poly count low on a 3d model. If my understanding of the system is correct it seems the lower the poly the count the less $L the mesh needs to be uploaded and less land weight. So I havea basic understanding of that I just haven't messed around much with the upload quality and that. The balance between size, amount of polys, and having a far view distance. Thank you again for mentioning that test grid for mesh. I didn't know there was one, it will really help with making this building turn out.