How accurate in scale is the avatar mesh compared to the actual avatar in Second Life?

[Tactical Eizenhart]

Okay if i imported the avatar mesh into the graphics program and built around that would it be to the right scale when imported to Second Life or is the scale different?

 

I like to build things accurately so it would be nice if whatever i built outside, using a avatar mesh as a size reference, would be the correct size when uploaded/imported into Second Life.

I do have the standard mesh as i have used it before but i've never really tested the size comparison.

 

Thanks ^^

[Gaia Clary]

The default avatar mesh is just a guideline and you can say it will give you the correct order of scaling, but not the correct shape. But since you can change the default shape of your avatar, you only will get the right scale if the avatar-mesh you have is derived from the avatar in Second life.

You can however export your shape as .obj when you use phoenix. So if you can get the shape from the avatar for which you build,  then your builds should be exact in scales and proportions.

Here is a small text tutorial how you can get your current avatar shape out of Second Life and into blender (or any other 3D editor):

http://blog.machinimatrix.org/3d-creation/blender-meshes-trail/rigg-your-avatar/

Note: this tutorial is made for Mesh beta, but the initial part about how to get the avatar as .obj works on main grid.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

The downloadable female avatar mesh has the same measures as the original Ruth avatar, which was quite the ugly little troll. Most SL women use a taller, leggier shape with less waist, more hip width, and smaller feet. As for the male av mesh, SL males tend to be more muscular and wide shouldered than the downloadable default guy.

[Tactical Eizenhart]

How dare you?? She's my sister!!!  :smileysad:

 

Lol.

 

Thanks for the text tutorial i'll check it out ^^

[Penny Patton]

If building accurately and to scale are important for you, it's important to note that most avatars in SL aren't made to any sort of scale themselves. Most people ignore the avatar height displayed in the appearance editor, and even when they do follow it, it's been broken since LL implemented it so they wind up much larger than they realize.

 

I believe Prim Composer, a plug-in for 3D Studio Max, allows you to adjust prim sizes to SL scale, but with the problems mentioned, building to scale in SL means building much smaller than most avatars are scaled.  This actually makes a lot of sense if you're a landowner looking to get the most for your money and willing to scale your own avatar down to do so, but if you're trying to build public spaces this presents problems.

[Tactical Eizenhart]

Well i tried this method and it seems way to small... I made a hat and the scale is like in the 0.004 range in the graphics program but that's the scale that fits the head... In Second Life this is just far too small...

[Tactical Eizenhart]

Prim Composer is what i'm actually using and yes the mesh does seem much smaller =-/

 

I figured that what i could do as a solution is this...

 

Make a cube prim around my head in Second Life.

Scale it to closely fit my head as near as i can get it.

Copy them scale co-ordinates into a box-prim in Prim Composer.

Uniform scale the head mesh to fit that cube-prim as closely as possible.

 

Seems to do the trick.

[Penny Patton]

On the up-side, considering how large most people make thier avatars it is always better to build too small than too large.   If your avatar is 8' tall, and you build a detailed attachment around that, then it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for most people to shrink that attachment down to a smaller avatar's size.

 

If you build smaller, it is always very easy to scale an attachment up.

[Tactical Eizenhart]

My avatar is only 6ft3 lol.  Same height as me iRL.

 

But doesn't the sculpt lose detail and such if scaled to be larger?

[Gaia Clary]

that looks a bit like a different interpretation of unit scale. One program might use centimeter for the unit while the other one uses meter. Hence a factor of 100 between them. maybe that ...just a guess.

[Gaia Clary]

the sculpt should not loose detail. But because the vertex locations for sculpties are restricted to only 256 values along each axis, scaling the mesh might let the location grid show through in form of ugly bumps and wrinkles. But thats not a loss of detail, but a scaling up of the inaccuracies.

[Tactical Eizenhart]

I'll work around it.  Make things that aren't too big or too small so that, either way, resizing wont be a problem :smileyhappy:

[Penny Patton]

"My avatar is only 6ft3 lol.  Same height as me iRL."

 

Are you sure of that? How did you determine your height?

Beyond that, even assuming you are 6'3", my avatar is only 5'7". Anything you make to fit your avatar would not fit mine and would need to be scaled down. If you used tiny prims, that would not be possible without a lot of work and advanced modding know-how. If you built to a 5' shape, then that same attachment could be made to easily fit both our normal avatar shapes with no difficulty whatsoever.

 

"But doesn't the sculpt lose detail and such if scaled to be larger?"

None whatsoever.