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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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Mesh.. well.. the idea of it.. is great!  Awesome even.. however.. Linden Labs, in their infinite greed.. have made the mesh more prim hungry than sculpties ever were.   So, pretty much mesh is good for one thing.. clothes.   Otherwise.. you are still much better off with sculpties.

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@MasterEdward

You might want to play with the LOD settings and physical shape. I think you'll find out the mesh is not at all that prim hungry. When you say you're better off with sculpts, you can set the physical shape to near zero. LOD low and very low can be VERY simple aswell and still look a lot better than any sculpty ever did. ( I discarded LOD very low completely on a 6x2x1.5m mesh and it takes a very long draw distance to make the object go poof)  I'm sure in some cases the sculpt will be better, but saying mesh is only good for clothing doesn't do the technology any justice.

_

One problem I faced today was in the primcount when you start linking items. A 7 prim equivalent mesh linked to two normal prims cost 11 prims, even with the physical shapes set to none. Now that is annoying.

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"This would be AWESOME news!  Except I can't log in with any viewers other than  V1 based ones and Firestorm.  I get a DNS failure error message and none of the posts in Answers are working for me.  I've got my fingers crossed that 3.0 will work (eventhough the BETA version did not), but I'm not holding my breath.  Can anyone help me with this issue?  "

 

I've had exactly this same problem and have long ago given up getting any help with it.  I've submitted several reports to JIRA and then had my knuckles wrapped for having done so.  It seems to depend on your system as my low-end laptop runs 2.8 and better, but my higher end desktop is stuck at 2.7.   My only suggestion is Phoenix and Firestorm and quite frankly the idea of going back to LL viewers makes me shudder anyway.  I'll give v3  a try, but like you my faith is so low that I'm not sure the effort is going to be worth it.

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I have to say I am NOT a convert.  I do believe mesh has a place in our world, but clothing is not it.  Hair? maybe.. if they can make it lay on your shouders instead of go thru you.... shoes? sure... hats.. of course... but anything that makes me change my shape to something that a clothing designer thinks I should look like .. NO thanks!  I tried on every demo at Jane and even the plump size was too narrow in the hips for my avatar.  And if I have to put on an alpha layer to hide MY shape then why bother making or buying a shape?  Why have avatar physics if its all hidden with alpha's?  And all this talk of your skirt moving "with" you?  Um.. I think i prefer the "swish" of a flexi skirt that sways when i walk or dance.... not one that turns the way I turn.... that is not much different than just a straight sclupted prim skirt!

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Mesh is incredible and sooooo easy. I've created my first couple of skirts, a really simple project in blender and the upload was painless, thanks to the tutorials poppiing up all over the place. 

One thing to keep in mind is that many people cannot yet see mesh. With the alpha I wear under my skirt, it just looks like I've left part of me behind to those poor folks still in viewer 1.x, Phoenix or Firestorm.

Give it a month or so and everyone should be caught up.

I am running the latestLinden viewer and I actually found I had great frame rates...there is an incredible lag on start-up, I believe that's because they've changed how things load. There was a problem when Linden switched a bunch of the load to viewer side...things like bumps and lag with friends coming on, or inventory loading or friends loading. I think that has all moved to the start up when you first come inworld...still annoying, but, at least we know when it is happening.

I'll take mesh, it's going to open things up to lots of people...with incredible builds...a shot in the arm

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Where is the thingy to shut off the way my av's head follows the cursor?

I DO NOT NEED everyone knowing where and when I am looking in my inventory, etc.

 

It looks VERY unprofessional.

 

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It  obvous what the technology can do and to what extent it has taken tour world. Who would have thought the world could get up to this satge in our own era. I finf it amazing the society at large try to invent more important things to gear us towars reaching the best goal. However i suppose the best can never be reached. I still find it hard though to understand this mesh stuff.

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hey, i woundering if u could add a way to import models from simple programs like Hexagreat3D or 3dACE that use diffrent files types like rox

cause most of the ones i can are too hard for me to figure out

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Mesh is nice and all but there are no good viewers for it. Mesh content is useless until that situation changes. It's a shame that LL refuses to acknowledge that the user interface design in V2.x is a total disaster and keeps insisting on adding features that people do not want (web profiles that are broken.) LL: Please. fix the viewer. Stop being so stubborn and admit you screwed up. It's OK, companies screw up all the time. BUT - it's time to admit it and to begin to address it. A proper viewer design would divorce the rendering and basic management features from the UI anyway. There have been thousands (tens of thousands probably) comments written about what the people really want. You have feedback. Please listen to it and act.

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Firestorm is somewhat promising, but still suffers from some of the UI disasters of 2.x such as the notification system, broken status bar, and defective sidebar behaviors (yes, it still has them in places.) Maybe, MAYBE they can resolve these things over the next couple months but it really needs a total re-write of the UI rather than "tweak this, adjust that." I think it's wise to be ready for mesh as a content creator, but from a content consumer viewpoint we are still months away from adoption. What good is content that 95% of the residents can't see?

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Sharie Criss, I love V2 interface, it is way more functional than the old interface (in my opinion), and I just can't go back. You got firestorm, so whats your problem??? Just be grateful that LL watered down the viewers to suit those that stubbornly refuse to keep up, forgetting that this has held back an ever increasing number of people from experiencing SL's fuller potential. 

There are many of us at the higher end of the scale that have had to suffer because LL is using depricated "ancient" OpenGL code, just to keep the whiny wingers like you happy that refuse to keep up with the times, are you Armish???.

Some of us are happy to move along with the times and upgrade our pc's/graphics cards, and thankfully LL is working on addressing the needs of us at the other end of the scale. We share the vision of LL, and we want to see the viewer taken up to its "fullest potential".

I personally think LL is doing a fantastic job, and whether you are stuck in the past, or look to the future, LL's are addressing issues for all of us at both ends of the scale.

Issues take time, and time must be taken to get things right. I am personally having to use a driver that is a year out of date just to use second life, and I believe and trust LL's are addressing this issue, because for months they had to write code for the likes of you (so ungrateful), just to keep you miserable dinosaurs happy while the rest of us have very patiently had to wait, held back by your selfish needs.

Just be grateful they did not leave you behind with the rest of the dinosaurs - because it would have been a hell of a lot easier.

Show some gratitude!

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@ Kwakkelde Kwak

I fully understand the benefits of Mesh which is why I like the concept. but if it weighs 5 times more than a sculpt for the same amount of vertices then it would be impractical to use inworld unless you have absilutly no concern for prim counts. And 99% or Sl users strugle with prim counts on thier sims and homes. Yes the mesh looks amazing but your couch took up all the prims lol. Assuming you could even rez it "Could not rez [object] becasue the parcel is full" yet you have 113 left to use. and a mesh vehicle? forget it. the driver seat and the hood is all you get =\

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@ Decro

Maybe you should be glad that the rest of the "dinosaurs" had patience, and didn't leave SL right away when the pest... ehmm... I mean Viewer 2.0 was introduced!

Yeah, you are really "Avant Garde", aren't you? But how would you feel if you look around and find only TEN other rezidents online who are "gratefull" and "state of the art" like you are?

I'm more than 4 years old by now and I've been online almost every day since I was created, and I'm a premium member for more than 3 years. But ever since LL came up with that dreaded V2 interface, I've been fighting for my survival!

I've tried it again and again, but never felt comfortable with it, even after months and years! If it wouldn't be for 3rd party clients, I would have dropped SL more than a year ago. Currently I'm practicing SL on Firestorm with an Alt an hour per day, and I still feel not comfortable enough to play my premium account on it! And more and more it looks to me like LL should be gratefull that the Firestorm team keeps people like me still around, people who hope that SL might still be accessable with an interface that's halfway acceptable and useable!

I don't give a damn about mesh. I've come to a point where I'm glad enough when the Lab does nothing at all! I'm tired and sick of a their messed up search, that displays "fancy" looking self scrolling classifieds, no matter what I'm REALLY looking for! And that's just a hint. I'm still not sure if I'll still be here in a year from now. Since they introduced Windlight, which was great, the Lab hardly comes up with anything that REALLY enhances my experience. More likely than not, they deminish my experience. I've come to a point where I not even consider to use their client anymore!

I hope I gave you an idea how SL looks from a "dinosaurs" point of view. Look at the data that tells you how many new users stay in SL, and you might appreciate that some dinos still fight for their survival. If we turn our backs to SL, "your imagination" might find not many rezidents whose company might enhance your vision. And by the way: Some of those dinos are still paying the bills for your imagination...

With kind greetings - Your Dino - Millennium Sands

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Woohooo! Thx LL! Mesh is cool! I've just started making stuff and scripting the stuff i made and i am going to learn to work with mesh too! 

All you old dinosaur moaners, please leave already. Nobody is going to miss you! Please don't tell us how you are keeping Seconlife going with your few cents of premium fees. hahaha! Just leave and don't come sneaking back with an alt! Yeah, you guessed correctly, i don't care how long you have been in SL ;p

I spend thousands of L$ every month just tipping DJ's or the places i go to that have cool music. Never mind the cool stuff i find to wear! I don't plan to make money from the things i made. I made them just to see if i could. If i do make any SL money ever, it will be spent in SL. I use only the latest beta viewers. SL viewers  seem to get better all the time. I hardly have lag unless there's like 30-40 people in the clubs and i run SL on Ultra graphics settings. If SL lags you, maybe it's time to stop using that crappy 10 year old laptop and invest in a decent pc since you are after all "gaming".

I have tons of friends in SL and make new ones every day. Hell, i even manage to make friends with griefers, who then turn out to be pretty cool people who were just upset or angry for a while! ;p If SL is empty for you, think a bit about why....Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone. 

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"I personally think LL is doing a fantastic job, and whether you are stuck in the past, or look to the future, LL's are addressing issues for all of us at both ends of the scale."

You're kidding right?  Then why do I and several others still receive DNS errors upon logging in for any viewer newer than 2.4, including V.3?  And why has this issue not been responded to or even acknowledged in JIRA at all for almost 6 months?

 

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  • Lindens

We Linden Lab Editors are looking for mesh awesomeness for our Destination Guide! We even have a special Mesh Showcase. We want to be sure to have you listed so other Residents can visit and rock out, so if you or someone you know is making mesh magic, submit your place to be included. And if you want to discuss more of your fave destinations — maybe even share some photos & videos 'cuz we're visual like that! — come visit our forum. I say thankee-sai.

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@icon allen

I can only repeat myself here... I am working on some vehicles and without patting myself on the back I can say they look a hell of a lot better than all the sculpted cars out there. Just make sure your lower LODs aren't too heavy in prims and make a clever physical shape. Staying under 33 prims isn't all that hard plus you have the benefit of being able to finally texture the thing properly. There is no need to see mirrors and carseats and tire valves from 200 meter away.

In fact I doubt a shape with as many faces/vertices in mesh or sculpt has a factor 5 difference if you count all the LODs and at least with the mesh you have control over LOD so from a distance your item doesn't look like a bunch of sticks or some weird blob.

 

@whoever thinks v1 users are dinos... this isn't about upgrading the hardware, the v2 viewer performs better on my mediocre pc. It's about the worthless UI.

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Mesh. Finally.

As for those complaining about polycount, this is something I worried about when installing cars for Viper Racing on my Pentium III computer with a GeForce 2 MX graphics card. Back then, in 2001, "High" polycount was over 2,000 triangles per mesh. And of course, the GeForce 2 could do that in a breeze. In fact, some car creators were making uberdetailed models nearing 5,000 polys, which were still playable quite well. And that card is way slower than today's laptop's Integrated Graphics. If SL has a problem with rendering a 2,000 polygon mesh, there needs to be a SERIOUS rewrite of the graphics engine, 'cause DAMN.

For reference, ships and stations in EVE Online are around 3,000 to 6,000 polygons each. With brackets turned off, most puters can render a few hundred of these in one place, with shadows and lighting and refections and stuff, quite smoothly.

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