Looking for some help with Jewelry

[Chrissy Ambrose]

Hi I am looking for some help with mesh jewelry. I am fairly new to creating with mesh being a blender newbie though quite used to creating sculpt items for my pieces.

I wanted to know initially about uploading jewelry and how I can reduce land impact and upload cost. I made a diamond bracelet using 3 ways, all of which prove expensive or unsatisfactory compared to sulpties, though the result is lovely.

Ist I created a single diamond and setting with med and high lod as options got them down to 1 prim land impact for the gem and 2 for the setting, but they disappeared from view when not too far away. I figured they need to be High Lod so re-loded them with that option and found the land impact for the bracelet to be 429. (a simple necklace was 770 using the same objects).

I then made the whole bracelet in blender, planning to upload them in 2 parts one for the gems and one for the settings. Using High Lod again , and scale to 50% the cost for gems is 150l with land impact of 139 and the settings 220 to upload with a land impact of 250.

I am not really saving myself a lot on land impact, but paying a lot more on cost.

I was under the impression that creating a whole item to upload was more efficient, saved land cost and helped lag. I must be doing something wrong .

Can anyone help me with this and also can anyone help with a general jewelry help in blender, a group perhaps to join or mentors willing to give advice.

 

Thank you in Advance

Chrissy

 

[Drongle McMahon]

1. What do you mean when you say "they need to be High Lod so re-loded them with that option" and "Using High Lod again" ?

2. Can you click the More Info lonk in the edit dialog and tell us whether the high LI is because of high download weight or high physics weight (whichever is the higher).

If the jewellery is going to be worn, it doesn't really matter what the physics weight is because attached items have no physics, but if it's going to be displayed statiucally, then it does matter because it can make a high land impact.  It should be possible to make a very simply physics shape, avoiding curved surfaces, for that purpose.

If you are using the default convex hull physics shape, that can have very high costs if the mesh it is made from has lots of surface detail and curved shape. If you don't specify a physics mesh, it is made from the low LOD mesh, so what you set the low LOS to can have a profound effect on the physics weight of the default convex hull. A simple ncustom physics shape will always be better.

With mesh, you have complete control over the detail shown at each LOD. I would not recommend using the automatic LOD meshes as they will rarely produce acceptable results. For small items like jewellery, the download weight (and oftyen therefore the LI) will be dominated by the lowest LOD. Therefore you should use as simple a model as possible for the lowest LOD.

The camera distance where the lowest LOD becomes visible, for a circular object, is something like 20 times the diameter of the object for those using low graphics settings. That would be 2m for a bracelet 10cm across.

[Chrissy Ambrose]

Hi, you can tell Im a newbie with mesh lol. When I first uploaded my diamond and settings I generated High and med lod to upload, and I did not choose any physics. Land inpact for a gem and setting was 3 prims.

Realising th items disappear only a short distance away, not good enough to take photos say, I uploaded both again using just High Lod, and no physics. Land impact of both settings and diamond was 13 prims. I connected to a cube root prim and set to prim, in fact I tried them all convex hull and none and each time it said I cant select the root prim to have no shape. Not sure what this means, but it made no difference to the impact of the bracelet and necklace.

[Chrissy Ambrose]

Just an update, on progress I think Ive worked out where I was going wrong on the uploads. I think it was a mistake to set high LOD for every distance, which is what I selected. No one needs to see tiny prims from far away lol. I uploaded the same bracelet and settings with High Lod for close middle and low and furthest away set to only a few tirangles. when linked the same bracelet worth 329 land impact is now worth 6, in fact I went mad and linked 3 together making 16 prims. I was so happy.

 

I would still like some info about groups for help particularly with mesh jewelry in blender or anyone who is prepared to help with questions on jewelry making from time to time. Ive searched the internet for tutorials or just general info with regard to SL and mesh jewelry but I can find nothing of help.

Chrissy