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Mesh Import Open Beta Starts Today


Jack.Linden

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As previously blogged, I’m very excited to announce that the Beta for Mesh Import is now open to all Residents. Mesh Import allows you to bring models into Second Life from the many popular 3D tools such as Blender or Maya(t), using the COLLADA file format. We see this as an important step to empower content creators to make the inworld experience an even richer and more creative one than it is today. You can read more about Mesh Import here and in my last blog post.

Join the Mesh Import Beta

In order to take part, you will need to first download the Project Viewer for Mesh Import, based on the Viewer 2 code base, available below. This special Mesh viewer will take you to the test grid that we call Aditi. This is a separate grid from the one you normally use for Second Life -- so any changes you make there will not be preserved nor transferred to the main grid. Whilst the Mesh Beta is open to all Residents, it is possible that accounts created within the last few weeks may have trouble logging into the test grid as they won’t have been migrated across yet; so if you have trouble, then here are instructions for updating your account info on Aditi.

Getting Started with Meshes

So that you can get started straight away, we have prepared a few simple walkthroughs for you to follow once you’ve logged in. You can find them on the main Mesh wiki page along with various other pieces of information. They should give you a good idea of how the Mesh Import tool works before you import your own meshes. Remember that we are using the COLLADA file format, so you’ll need to use a tool that can create COLLADA files such as the free, cross-platform Blender. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to add information to the Mesh wiki page, so do check back often.

Please note, that the Second Life Terms of Service applies on the Aditi test grid, as it does on the main grid. That means that you should not import any content for which you do not have the appropriate rights. But, For more information, see our Intellectual Property Policy and if you’re in doubt over a specific object, then it’s probably best not to import it.

What to Expect on the Beta Grid

Although the base technology that drives mesh is in good shape, we still have some way to go before this is production ready. We wanted to get it into your hands sooner, versus later, to get your feedback. You should only take part if you’re comfortable with beta software that may crash or cause content that you’re working on to break in unexpected ways. In addition, the product design piece -- the user interface -- still needs some work so you can expect that the interface for mesh will change and improve over time. The Mesh Project Viewer will auto-update as we ship updated versions, so when there’s a new version, then you’ll be prompted to install it.

Another change, that many of you will notice right away for this beta test, is that we have changed the maximum size of a prim, for both normal prims and mesh prims. The maximum for each dimension is up from 10m to 64m. Our hope is that this change will also be available on the main grid as well once Mesh Import ships. But, we need to assess how these larger prims perform during the beta period to ensure that they will integrate seamlessly into the main grid environment.

Releasing the Viewer Code for Mesh

To give our third party viewer developers as much time as possible to work with the Mesh code base, and so that we can get additional feedback and support from the opensource community, the code base for the Mesh Project Viewer will be released by the end of this week. It will be made available on the Snowstorm wiki page.

Giving Feedback on Mesh Import

If you believe that you’ve found a bug, or have a suggestion for how to improve the feature, then please use our public Jira issue tracker to let us know. Before you file an issue there, please do search to ensure that someone hasn’t already filed the same issue before you. If they have, then by all means add your comments there.

Anticipating a Few of Your Questions

Yes, you have questions. Let me anticipate a few. Feel free to ask more in comments and we’ll answer what we can.

  • Q: How will Mesh objects look if you’re viewing them from an older viewer, such as those based on Viewer 1.23?
  • A: They will look like flat shapes and will not resemble the real mesh objects. See the Mesh wiki page for examples.

 

  • Q: What are the prim costs for importing Meshes?
  • A: Aspects of this are still being worked out, but the latest info is on the Mesh wiki page.

 

  • Q: Will you be charging upload fee for meshes?
  • A: Yes we will charge an upload fee in L$ when mesh launches into production. For the beta test on the test grid, there will be no fees.

 

  • Q: Will you have Mesh office hours?
  • A: We are holding Mesh Import office hours tomorrow, October 14, at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT) at the four corners of Mesh Headquarters on Aditi (SLurl: secondlife://Aditi/secondlife/MeshHQ 1/238/238/26). We will have more office hours in the future, so keep checking the Mesh wiki page as they are scheduled.


Finally, I’d like to thank you all in advance for taking part. We’re looking forward to seeing the amazing mesh creations and hearing your feedback.

Resources:

  • Download the Mesh Import Project Viewer   
  • Read the last blog post on Mesh Import
  • Read more at our Mesh Wiki Page
  • Share your thoughts on the Mesh Forum or the Mesh section of SL Answers
  • Log bugs on the public Jira
  • Twitter your feedback on #slviewer2
  • Please upload pictures of your mesh creations to Flickr with the #slmesh tag. You'll be able to view the resulting collection here.

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I highly suggest using an alt with a small inventory (if you have an older one). Making a new alt will not grant you access to the Beta Grid. Attempting to login and play with Mesh on avatars with large inventories will be a struggle for you as there is great interest in the project and the Beta Grid is getting hammered hard.

If you are just looking to see what is possible, don't fuss with your inventory and explore. You will love it.

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Great job, congratulations!!

PS. There is an uncorrect link in the post:

  • Q: How will Mesh objects look if you’re viewing them from an older viewer, such as those based on Viewer 1.23?
  • A: They will look like flat shapes and will not resemble the real mesh objects. See the Mesh wiki page for examples.

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You forgot about Non-SSE2 people!

"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000001d). Click on OK to terminate the application."

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Unfortunately, when I try to upload a mesh, nothing happens.  I have not Mesh folder, and the object doesn't appear under my Objects folder, either.  It looks fine in the preview window, but after I click Upload, nothing happens =(

I'm running it on Ubuntu 10.04, btw.

Anyone else have this problem?

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  • Lindens

The initial release project viewer is a work in progress and we're currently not able to support OSX 10.4.

 

We're investigating what it will take to restore 10.4 support. Keep an eye out for updates on this challenge.

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works with the duck (u can found in the wiki second life) but when i create a simple sculpt in format collada in 3ds max dont works =(

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What about making the prims possibly go smaller as well as larger?

Also, I really wish there was a non-viewer 2 option for viewers.  I want to play with meshes, but not badly enough to install that.

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SSE2 has been on every Intel processor since 2001, and AMD processor Athlon64 or better since 2003.  Just how old is your computer?  Sounds to me like you are running an AthlonXP2400 with an AGP graphics card.  And as hard as it is to pay the money nowdays (especially for certain programs from certain companies that don't deliver what they advertise or promise), a computer that old is ripe for replacement.

It is not like an oven.  It doesn't do the same thing today that it did 50 years ago.  A computer that's 5 years old is about out of drive space and sufficient computing power to play modern games.  My old computers get waterfalled to the kids.  The Kid's computers become my lab boxes in the garage.  By the time a computer has been waterfalled out of my garage, it's 12+ years old and not even Goodwill will take it anymore.

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First off, i hate macs and do not use them (OSX is mac's OS right?), and second of all, i can run most games perfectly with my old computer, not everyone has the money to dish out for some fancy new computer. And my comp is 5 years old aproxamatly... and I can still play COD MW2 with it's shaodws and such on...

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Hey everyone - We're already starting to see cool mesh creations (such as this one), and we'd love to be able to collect people's images on Flickr, with the #slmesh tag. I updated the blog post with that information but wanted to drop a comment in as well. You'll be able to view the resulting collection here. There are already awesome creations dropping onto the test grid. Looking forward to checking out more.

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Is there any specific VWR and info you need for jira? i crash everytime i try to upload a model. And i have been following the tutorials on wiki Mesh and still crash.

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  • Lindens

There is a problem with the attachments, and we are working on a fix.  Thanks for your patience.

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It would be nice to see some people post some numbers about the complexity of their build, how many LODs they included, and the corresponding prim count the said object came out to be.

It seems LL has waffled again and changed the way prim counts are calculated. It would be good to know what they are aiming for now.

IMHO, this is the single most important factor about mesh, as if they get this wrong, it will destroy the economy.

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You forgot about Non-SSE2 people!

"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000001d). Click on OK to terminate the application."

I met a guy on the beta grid who had exactly the same error message. It turned out he had installed the mesh viewer over an existing installation of viewer 2.

Make sure to install into a separate folder.

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Hey Darien - I agree on the importance of the prim calculation. It's something we're going to be very careful to get right. It's not so much that we're waffling, but part of doing a beta like this is to help us make those kinds of choices (and to include residents in the conversation as much as we can).

Jack

 


It would be nice to see some people post some numbers about the complexity of their build, how many LODs they included, and the corresponding prim count the said object came out to be.

It seems LL has waffled again and changed the way prim counts are calculated. It would be good to know what they are aiming for now.

IMHO, this is the single most important factor about mesh, as if they get this wrong, it will destroy the economy.

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