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Mesh goes gridwide: Create, sell, buy & enjoy all-new things in SL


Linden Lab

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Today, mesh technology is available gridwide in Second Life. All SL users can now benefit from mesh technology, no matter what you do or where you are inworld.


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If you shop, be sure to check out items built using mesh — they can sit alongside everything else you own and love in SL, but often look superslick, and may have greater detailing or design than a similar item built without mesh.

If you build, mesh is another option to help you access unlimited creativity. All the other traditional SL building options are still intact, we’ve just added to your toolkit.

If you sell things, selling objects created using mesh is one way to diversify your offering.

If you own land, well-made mesh objects can be used to increase efficiency and maintain optimum performance on your parcel.


Make sure you use the new Viewer to view and upload mesh objects correctly; older viewers will not render objects created with mesh correctly. Please check with third-party viewers; mesh support may vary.

A More Technical Look at Mesh

You’ve probably already seen mesh technology at work in modern video games, special effects and 3D animation. The term “mesh” refers to an object that consists of polygonal geometry data. That means it is extremely flexible — and it certain situations, it can be way more efficient than the existing prims and sculpties you’ll find inworld currently. Although existing building tools and techniques may still be the best choice in certain settings. You can talk with other designers about mes here.

Mesh objects are first created in external programs, such as Blender or Maya, (check here for more information) and then imported onto the Second Life grid. Once there, mesh objects can be manipulated in pretty much the same ways you would manipulate a regular old prim. Learn more about uploading your own mesh items here.



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Honestly, its a great technology, but not everyone can see it, and so far the choices of viewers to see it are limited. When there is a viewer that pretty much everyone can use and see meshes. I have no real problems with Kirsten's except the fact that the inventory pauses with each item selection, same issue with LL's viewer, oh and wearing aves makes the viewer sluggish.

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Sorry to be the stick in the mud but i like sl the way that it already is... why fix something not broken?... LLabs get more memory and boost the lag issues instead? My jeans look anough like jeans already but they really scuk when i lag halfway across a sim just trying to walk across the floor ... jus saying

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Just dropped in to say THANKS for finally bringing mesh gridwide :) I've taken a break from SL while the monkeys finished toying with mesh; now I'll make an effort to return full force! Expect MPS HUD v12 as soon as I work out the intricacies of scripting mesh (don't forget to add mesh UV touch functions IF you haven't already!!!)...

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Hello, I just visited a mesh shop in-world and apart from the fact I couldn't enjoy the sample they had on display (it was a little round disc), the only box of builder's items on sale was a box of twenty-four mesh window frames for L$999. Over a year of technical effort went into providing mesh and all I saw was window frames for sale. Honestly, I was very impressed (said in a sarcastic tone). Don't we have enough prim, sculpt or even alpha texture window frames already?

I honestly cannot see this feature taking off for the next twelve months, at the very least, until useful mesh items are available for content creators to incorporate within their goods. Only when over 50% of the in-world content is actually using mesh, people will take the step of going to a mesh viewer simply because they are frustrated with viewing little flat discs everywhere. May I suggest LL actually start flooding the world with free default basic mesh, so that content creators to experiment with and start using in their goods.

What I would rather see from Linden Labs is more attention given to solving very old and very annoying grid faults such as sim crossing handshakes. What is the point of creating a detailed B52 bomber in Mesh if it won't cross a sim line with all of the riders? Lag!! Residents have been screaming about lag for years. 3 prims per m2? Isn't that kind of low these days? Link Distance: If I have a huge mesh I still cannot attach prims to each end of the build. Its not enough to rely on script solutions to basic grid faults or shortcomings. Other grids are way ahead of Second Life in these areas. Linden Labs - youre gold plating with mesh over problems in the hope that it will enhance the world. It won't - its just compounding more problems on top of basic ones that should have been solved years ago.

 

Not impressed. 

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I've oinly been using the v3 for a few hours but have no crashed. Upon initial use I was a cloud for a long time, but it resolved itself.. and mesh clothign looks great. HOWEVER. Why is it that when I have my lighting and shadows enabled the transparent SL bald hair base shows through my prim hair?? Also when I take a photo the snapshot window is black. Believe me I wont use anything that messes up muh hairs and what good is lighting and all that crap if I cant take a picture of it...

 

 

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Viewer

Although I'm not a fan of the user interface of Second Life Viewer 2, and I didn't expect much improvements on that aspect in Viewer 3, I was curious after the mesh upload and viewing functionality, so I downloaded Viewer 3 on my Mac. I even conjured up a quick .dae file using Blender and uploaded it to the grid.

Very nice. Compliments on the job. I still don't like the interface, though. Sorry.

What struck me, was that the app name of Viewer 3 on my Mac is 'Second Life Viewer 2' (see image). Clearly, the Viewer 3 development team didn't bother to change the name of an apparent version 2 build, before wrapping it up in a Mac disk image file.

Viewer 1 saw the introduction of Sculpties and Voice without a full version number change. Only a complete (and horrible) rewrite of the viewer by some outsourced company in the Ukraine did. So why does a relatively minor software change merit a version number change to 3?

To me, the transition from version 2 to version 3 seems purely psychological: to lure in the (inconveniently large number of) Viewer 2 haters out there. Alas, the user interface still drives me back to V1-based 3rd party viewers. Maybe I'll toss in a few mesh articles to earn a quick buck from the n00bs who know no better than to use V3, but I'll spend my days in SL using V1-based (hopefully Singularity, who promised to add mesh capability as well, in the not too far distant future).

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"Sorry to be the stick in the mud but i like sl the way that it already is... why fix something not broken?... LLabs get more memory and boost the lag issues instead? My jeans look anough like jeans already but they really scuk when i lag halfway across a sim just trying to walk across the floor ... jus saying".

 

And some people liked SL just the way it was before it had Sculpties, Flexiprims, Voice, Windlight, Mono, Sound & Color ........................................

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@Kylie

Yeah, it was real possible to make a stable viewer using mesh code that was changing every other day. Yes, I'll wait for Firestorm thank you very much. LL's UI, even having been improved from the first version, is still clunky and takes up more screen space than it needs.

 

@Arduenn

It's the same codebase just version 3. It will continue to show as viewer 2. I'm guessing LL just wanted a clearcut version change for the mesh capable viewers going forward.

 

I expect mesh will make for some really nice new content eventually. In the short term, we're going to see a lot of abysmal content using mesh for mesh's sake whether or not it's the best tool for the job. And as was pointed out, it's going to be a somewhat slow takeoff given over half the grid uses viewers that can't render them currently.

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I don't think mesh will be that big that fast, most people are still using V1 based viewers thanks to the awful V2 interface, i don't think people will jump to V2 viewers until Firestorm interface gets as close as it can possible be to what you see in a V1 viewer.

And on top of that most people struggle to rezz sculpted prims which are really low polygon 32x33, imagine how long it would take them to rezz a mesh object, much much more poly heavy.

Having all that said mesh looks great and brings a hole new visual appeal to SL, but, i honestly don't see people making mesh stuff to sell much less people buying mesh stuff when you go anywhere on the grid and about 80% or more people are running phoenix.

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"It's the same codebase just version 3. It will continue to show as viewer 2"

@Crim - Huh?!? (i) Is that logical? (ii) How do you know it will keep that name Viewer 2? Why do they call it Viewer 3 in the blog post then?

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I'd just like to point out to anyone waiting for Firestorm to get mesh that you don't need Viewer 3 beta to see it. Viewer 2 works with mesh. I'd also like to mention that Kirsten's is already fully mesh compatable, and it's a lot more stable  than Viewer 2.

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I just dropped by one of the clothes shops (Jane) to see just what mesh clothes can offer me, and bought this cute dress, (a little pricey at 200L but with mesh being a new thing and all I can't fault them, it's not SUPER expensive either)

 

holy crap! I'm a convert,  seeing how this dress looks on me I am convinced that mesh, if only for what it can do for clothes, is one of the best things brought to Second Life

 

no more tops fitting your chest skin tight (on some clothes that looks good, but not something like a baggy t-shirt or sweater or something)

and no more of your legs phantoming through a prim skirt that just hangs through the chair when you sit down!

 

I will officially only buy mesh skirts now!

 

of course being that I'm 5 months pregnant would be nice to see them come out with mesh dresses that have a pregnant belly lol but baby steps for now

Snapshot_1295.png

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Good news :) . It will be great when everyone starts using viewers to view them.  I cant wait to do some rebuilding using mesh . Awesome work LL and thanks :)

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While not a ton out there yet when I looked what little profesional looking mesh I saw was absolutely fantastic.  It actually makes older geo prim and sculpt builds look like 1980s PC games that is how much better some of the stuff is.  

That said,  it will be the death of Second Life if they do not fix the V2 style interface (meaning get rid of it completely,  entirely,  not keep a single thing from it).  I have been in SL since 07 and I am telling you when I try a V2 (or v3 for the mesh) viewer including firestorm I feel like an absolute newb.  It is unusable.  Yeah the stability needs fixed but that will obviously come,  its the UI itself that is the problem.  I cannot describe how much I despise the v2 style UI.  yes,  actually I can.  Whoever came up with it should be fired,  and never ever design another UI in their life.  That is how bad it is.  How utterly unfunctional it is.  LL is like a 4 year old when it comes for this stupid viewer.  Since its inception people have been telling them its crap and here we are a couple years later and it is still the same basic UI that V2 started with.  

My wishlist?  Is for the phoenix / firestorm people to find a way to include all the functionality of V2/3 that LOOKS in the style of V1.  Foreget what changes have been made to firestomr,  I have watched the youtube of how to make it function more like phoenix.  It is not enough.  It is still way too unintuitive to see when you have a group or private IM.  The top section of the interface needs to be removed completely.  I do not want that stupid search bar up there.  Nor do I want pictures for my buttons.  Just put the darn text on them like V1,  why is that so difficult to have?  

Ok rant over,  V2 just frustrates me that much.  

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"of course being that I'm 5 months pregnant would be nice to see them come out with mesh dresses that have a pregnant belly lol but baby steps for now"

Oh, I think that full body imported clothes objects make my avatar look like 5 months pregnant so far, at least they make my avatar look as if i had six weeks of excessive chocolate orgy. And the "flowing" effect...well IMVU looks better there, cause in IMVU nothing will "flow" anyway. Obviously full body clothes only make some valid sense when crafted to fit some uniqe avatar import.

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"And some people liked SL just the way it was before it had Sculpties, Flexiprims, Voice, Windlight, Mono, Sound & Color "

Dunno about Flexiprims, Sound and Color. Because this was before January 2009. User concurrecy has been cut by a third since then. In spite of Mono, Voice, Sculpties, Windlight. We´re back in January 2008.

Shiny technology, self-serving techie progress and a few nerds isn´t what makes Second Life attractive, and never was.

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@ Rhotis

 

The next firestorm I hear will have 3 modes^^

Phoenix mode with Phoenix ui

v2 mode with v2 ui

and firestorm mode with a hybrid ui

and BTW Cool viewer experimental is a v1 ui with mesh compatibility

 

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I bought some of the mesh clothes at Jane and I have to say they are fantastic. However, the Linden viewer allowing you to see mesh is just terrible.

When Firestorm Beta was released I changed from Phoenix to that and what a wonderfrul viewer Firestorm is. Things rez quickly, lag is minimal, customisition of the interface is easy and - despite still looking like the hateful Viewer 2 - it's the most stable viewer I've ever used.

I installed LL's Viewer 3 specifically to try the mesh clothes at Jane, but as soon as I logged in on Viewer 3 (and yes - in advanced mode) it was like I was being handicapped. Rezzing is slow to the point that many things just never rez at all. Lag is crippling and the frame rate is often down to 1 frame every 5 to 10 seconds. Rarely, if ever, does it get better than 12fps. Add to that the stupid 3 to 7 second pauses when I click on anything in inventory or friends list; total freeze ups when there are more than 10 people around; an inability to TP out of almost any region regardless of prims, scripts or people, and the continual crashing, and you have a viewer that is rendered utterly useless by it's inability to perform on any level. Add to that it's awful design and layout and you have the biggest white elephant LL have ever introduced into SL.

Mesh is a great inovation and people WANT to use it, but until there is a viewer people can use and want to use, mesh is  going to be something people will have to live without - not because they want to ... because they have no choice in the matter. A few of us bought prim clothes from Jane ... which we love ... but we are all suffering the above problems with V3. All of my friends have gone back to Phoenix (because they hate the V2 interface - even on Firestorm) and I have returned to Firestorm. Our beautiful mesh clothes will just have to sit in our inventories until the mesh-compatible version of Firestorm arrives.

This should have been something great and LL should be commended for finally bringing mesh to SL, but, sadly, they fumbled the ball right at the goal-mouth with Viewer 3. So LL can be proud of launching mesh, but they should be deeply ashamed of the abomination that is Viewer 3.

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As a builder i must say I'm thrilled with the new maximum prim size of 64 m. as opposed to the old 10 m. maximum. Not only does this provide me with better flexibility in realizing my creations, but it for the most part completely eliminates the need for mega prims. As for mesh, ive yet to attempt anything in that realm yet. But the possibilities seem endless. I do however have a concern. As of late my avitar, and those avitars around me seem to be 'blipping' from normal to just attachements. I was begining to think that this was my PC, and not SL, but i've seen a few blog posts, and apparently this issue is not just isolated to me. So, what is the soloution to this problem...

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Phoebe Avro - 

 

Thanks for the info.  I hope the next firestorm does have a mode to look darn near exactly like phoenix.    I appreciate the info and appreciate the people at firestorm and other alternative viewers for not just giving people choices but literally picking the ball up where linden labs has continually dropped it over the years.  

That said linden labs is still acting like a darn 4 year old.  When the public has continually showed they do not like this viewer a company interested in growing will typically et the message after a copule years.  Linden Labs seems oblivious to this message and it is beyond me how they can be.  

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by MemberVivienne Schell on 08-28-2011 06:34 AM
 
 
 
"Dunno about Flexiprims, Sound and Color. Because this was before January 2009. User concurrecy has been cut by a third since then. In spite of Mono, Voice, Sculpties, Windlight. We´re back in January 2008.
 
 

Shiny technology, self-serving techie progress and a few nerds isn´t what makes Second Life attractive, and never was"

 

 Yeah but you got to remember the 1/3 of the "population" we lost were land bots, camping bots and traffic bots, there were more bots online than real people, we might be 50/50 now :)

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I'm a bit reserved to actually be that enthousiastic.

Mesh certainly seems a step forward to actually gain on competition when it comes to graphic looks, however i don't see the point with mesh and 5 fps or so where it was 4-10 times higher for so many... So many seem to report that problem which started with 2.7.5 for Windows, Mac and Linux with Intel Duo Cores.

All that Customer Services at LL can do with new a ticked is wait with a reply and then point to at a newer SL version. With yet another showstopper. There is simply not much else they can do.

Since the UI of V2/3 is horrid i will just wait for better days. If they are not coming it seems a way out for me then in the end since i am not going to buy yet another computer for just SL and then prey if it works.

Personally i didn't see a step forward with concurrent users in the last years. It has peaked yesterday (Sunday) at around 65k, but mostly it has been around 58k or so, where it was 85k Dec. 2007. Given that a pile of them were actually scripted that time i would have hoped at least to see SL gain daily concurrent users, however it doesn't seem to happen. The Basic login and 2/3 UI both don't seem to do the job.

Actually sign ups seem to have increased. How many of them are really new is the question as i have met many of so called newbs, but they just wanted to experience the bells and whistles all recent changes and see how it looked like. They were actually in SL since 2007. So this late slight increase of sign ups is to be further analysed by SL.

Fun inworld is also not very much progressing and improving and i strongly do have the feeling that more and more silent types seem to find a way into SL which is no fun at all. They don't chat, no IM, no voice... nothing, agressive profiles, and just being the silent individualist as in RL. I thought this was a social platform ?! Where is the interaction other than clubs where nasty IM's and chat spam are usually a garantee :(

Mesh is fine, just the majority of users also should be able to actually have joy with it, and with 5 fps... it just isn't and UI2/3 is already hardly to be accepted since it looks terrible, thick and visually bulky. 

Where does this all go... Old time users who actually have learned to understand all the misery on their SL path, however.. newer users to actually stay more... i don't know... 

 

 

 

 

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I'm sure Mesh is great... but I'm still using the 1.23 viewer as:

- All V2.xx versions are painfully slow to rez anything compared to V1.

- The new V3 version doesn't work at all on my recent, well equipped ASUS laptop (ALL textures come in as opaque black silhouettes, then simply either remain black or disappear altogether, meaning I can't see ANY object in SL...

 

Way to go LL...!

 

Stephane Zugzwang, in SL since june 2004

 

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