Terrain Raw File to Mesh

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Hi all

I have run out of space on my sim but not prims and was thinking of downloading my terrain raw file and creating a copy of the terrain into mesh then uploading it so I can create another level to my sim in the air....  I may not have thought this all through properly yet and a lot of optimisation would need to occur, physics and then I would need to create "fake" water at the base.

Has anybody done this before and if so any best practice to share / things I should avoid/is this a terrible idea?    I would not need normals underneath.

Even better does anybody offer this as a service to save me probably crashing my sim and breaking SL and making something 203902930290392 LI?  I looked on Marketplace but haven't found one yet.

Thanks

Charlotte 

Edited December 8, 2017 by Charlotte Bartlett

[ChinRey]

I would recommend the JVTEK Landmapper for that job. That's much easier than messing around with those quirky RAW files. It generates fairly accurate sculpt maps and dae files of the ground in bits of up to 32x32 m. The dae files are in 1/10th scale but that's easily fixed in Blender or Maya.

Sculpt Studio can do the work too but it only generates sculpt maps, not dae files so you'll have to convert them and also do quite a bit of trial and error to get the dimensions right.

It's essential to simplify the model before you upload. What you get is a grid with 1x1 m resolution just as the ground is. That's over 130,000 triangles so both the land impact and the lag will be epic. The land impact you end up with, depends on how much you can simplify. Typically I calculate with 100-300 LI for a full sim landscape. If it's an almost flat one with only slight curves, it may be possible to get it all the way down to 13, if it's very uneven, you may have to accept 1000 or more.

Two examples:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coniston/131/127/3001 (191 LI)

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coniston/183/123/1017 (Probably around 200 LI - not sure since many of the houses and plants are linked to the ground)

I'd love to do the job for you but I don't think I have time before christmas, I would have to charge quite a bit for the hours spent simplifying to get the LI down and of course, it's hard for somebody else to know exactly how much detail you need to keep.