trouble with my mesh maps , can someone refresh my memory about something

[Luxz Blessed]

hi, i've never  worked  with mesh before (not new to sl , just been away for a bit ) but  i thought  before i do , i should check out a  mesh builders kit  , it's  a shoe kit .. and  it has many maps inside it  including alphas and shoe bases .. the problem i'm having  is that i ant seem to remember how to use  mesh maps  within SL  to turn it into  an object , i dont know if it even posible to make  mesh from the  maps  within SL ...  

 

so i have to export the  maps  then re import them  to turn them into actual objects right?

or is there a way to  make  those mesh maps into the objects wth out having to  export the  maps?

 

sorry if   y question is not clear to you, i'm not the best  person when it comes to explaining things xP.

 

thanks.

[Min Barzane]

Mesh doesnt have "maps" ,it comes as finished object,it can have alpha layer texture/clothing (if its wearable item) to hide Avi body under it if needed or baked shaddowmap textures for use to make your own textures on their base but you CAN NOT make mesh object on to your own name if creator didnt include dae file download option to allow buyer to upload mesh on his own name as creator (and you wont find manny mesh makers who do that)...workaround is to link your own prim as root to virtualy change cretors name that shows on select/edit (on inspect it will still show original creators nameon parts)

[Madeline Blackbart]

Mesh does not have "maps" like sculpties do. You can't export the image and reimport to make a model. You'd need a .dae file to import the model as your own. I think your confusing the uv maps for sculpt maps. ( unless you bought a sculpt kit in which case that is NOt mesh). Uv maps are similar to the uv maps for the defualt avatar in that you can create a picture ont hem and they wrap that picture around the model itself. It hink some kits come with shadow maps and perhaps some others. I ususally find the shadow maps most helpful as they show you where the shadowing would normally show up in a light situation which really helps with creating a believeable texture.

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

Heya Luxz, 

i think (regarding the way how your post reads) that you might confuse here 'Sculpties' with 'mesh'

(Edit: and seems Madeline got on that thought too - whilst i was typing as usual a half book ; ) )

Sculpties are the ones where you have this colorfull looking image which defines the positions / height etc of the vertices in a polygonal object. With those you could create an actual 'object' from a map.

 

Mesh is a direct translation from the 3D model ( in the case of SL > DAE / Collada is the fileformat being used) into the engine.

There is no such thing as Mesh-Maps from which you create an object. 

What comes with a 'mesh-kit' (if its not a sculpty kit) is mostly either the UV Layout maps - so the customer knows how to 'texture' this object (what to paint where etc), or some Ambient Occlusion Bakes / Maps for the same reason.

I think what you got there might be a Sculpty Shoe Kit.

To use the Sculpty Maps what you do is :

> Create a simple prim cube
> in the Editwindow set it in the second Tab in Primtype  to : Sculpted
> then you will see on the same tab an Imagefield appearing
> that is the one where you then pull in your Sculpty Map to actually 'shape' that prim.


However if you'd like to edit the models them self you need to export the maps to your computer, and use any plugin that allows your 3D software to read them out and turn them back into actual geometry. And from there on go ahead with tweaking it. But then you also need to consider to turn this into a Mesh, and do all the things as UV unwrapping, Texturing, creating LODs etc, or if you just want to convert this into a good old sculpty again.

PS: It might help to post us the link of that 'mesh' kit you got, to check what it actually includes. Then giving tips might be easier =)