Linden Lab a suggestion for creation.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

It's an interesting idea, but 3D mesh design can even be more complicated that 2D photo editing. Imagine Second life with a built-in photo editing tool so you can texture objects. It would probably be easier to implement than incorporating a 3D editing tool.

I guess a simplified extension beyond the current prim torturing tool could include making and manipulating mesh tris and some simple UV mapping. It would probably not even be on par with Google's SketchUp. Maybe it would boost SL residents' creativity, but it would require overcoming a much steeper learning curve than prim torture. So it's a big uncertain maybe.

One could also argue for the opposite. Take away functionality from the SL viewer, and leave those functions to other, more dedicated apps that are much better at it, a little like that famous Unix philosophy of doing one thing and doing it well.

Firestorm is doing it. It supports editing both scripts and notecards in an external application. And many people prefer using Skype and Discord over Voice.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[ChinRey]

On 9/29/2019 at 3:19 PM, Blush Bravin said:

It's possible now to create a prim based structure/object and then save that linked object as a .dae file using Firestorm and then upload that build back into SL as a mesh object.

Don't do that!

What Firestorm's and Singularity's dae exporter produces, is exactly the same as the prim original, only with poorer quality, that is worse LoD and physics. There's nothing whatsoever to gain from it compared to simply keeping your build as prims. The mesh exporter was never intended as a 3D modelling tool but purely as a backup function and the Firestorm team is very clear to point that out.

That being said, the mesh exporter can be useful for modelling if the meshes are cleaned up in Blender or Maya or such before they're imported but that's not relevant if the point is to avoid those programs of course.

[ChinRey]

On 9/29/2019 at 3:58 PM, Alyona Su said:

There is always this: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Mesh-Generator-Convert-Prim-into-Mesh/5445477

And though I link to that one, there are other competing products, but the current support for them in uncertain, where the Mesh Gen is apparently up-to-date and still supported.

The original, Mesh Studio ( https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Mesh-Studio/2993083 ), is still very much supported and unlike Mesh Generator it's genuinely supported. That is not only does it work, you also get access to a friendly user group where you can ask questions and get help when you need it. With Mesh generator you're essentially thrown into the deep end and have to figure everything out yourself.

Another often forgotten in-world mesh creation tool is Cel Edman's Celzium. It doesn't sue prims but pre-made mesh modules that can be merged into a single mesh (or used as they are - I've done that too once or twice). There are three packages of modules:

• https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Celzium-01-Inworld-Mesh-Creation-Tool-by-Cel-Edman/3373744
• https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PL-Celzium-02ShapeOne-by-Cel-Edman/5359849
• https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PL-Celzium-03DNA-by-Cel-Edman/5363971

Unlike Mesh Studio and Mesh Generator, Celzium comes with the actual mesh creation code included (it's just a JavaScript you can run on your web browser). That means it will always be supported, if the server ever goes down, you can simply run it on your own computer.

But clever as they are and useful as they can be, all these tools have serious flaws. What we really need, is a program for creating "game asset" mesh. It would be really nice if it was an in-world tool of course but right now it doesn't exist at all and that's a huge problem not only for SL but for all game and virtual reality designers.

Game assets is just a very tiny part of the 3D modelling industry and none of the programs we have today were made with that in mind. Some of them can do the job of course but the functions we need for it are buried deep all the other features not relevant for this purpose but important for the more common uses of mesh.

[Blush Bravin]

1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

That being said, the mesh exporter can be useful for modelling if the meshes are cleaned up

Agreed and is what I do. The only real advantage I've been able to find in using one of the exports without cleaning and over using standard prims in SL is if you want to use a torus shape or a hollowed out shape that has materials applied to it then the LI count is much reduced from the standard prim. For example - applying materials, diffuse, normal map, and specular maps to anything made from a torus will make the LI skyrocket but if you save that prim as a dae and then upload it to SL and apply those same materials the LI will be significantly lower. 

I make many mixed mesh builds because in many cases there is NOTHING to be gained by replacing a standard prim with a mesh object.

[ChinRey]

3 hours ago, Blush Bravin said:

The only real advantage I've been able to find in using one of the exports without cleaning and over using standard prims in SL is if you want to use a torus shape or a hollowed out shape that has materials applied to it then the LI count is much reduced from the standard prim. For example - applying materials, diffuse, normal map, and specular maps to anything made from a torus will make the LI skyrocket but if you save that prim as a dae and then upload it to SL and apply those same materials the LI will be significantly lower.

You can achieve the same simply by changing the physics type to convex hull or, if it's part of a linkset to no physics.

[Blush Bravin]

1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

You can achieve the same simply by changing the physics type to convex hull or, if it's part of a linkset to no physics.

If it's something that doesn't need physics this is true or if you don't need to walk through the opening in the prim. Changing a cut or hollowed out prim to convex hull creates it's own set of problems.

[JUSTUS Palianta]

Quote

It takes a certain amount of esoteric knowledge to make a mesh garment. Wouldn't you also need to learn exactly as much to make a dress with in-world tools, but then find your learning useless outside of Second Life?

Much of what i have learned in Second Life is useless outside of Second Life.  I'm not sure why you are against in viewer tools.  

[Theresa Tennyson]

1 hour ago, JUSTUS Palianta said:

Much of what i have learned in Second Life is useless outside of Second Life.  I'm not sure why you are against in viewer tools.  

When did I say I was against it?

However, if you had a choice between doing a certain amount of work to learn something that was only useful in one place versus doing the exact same amount of work to learn something that was useful in multiple places, which would you choose?

[mikka Luik]

4 hours ago, JUSTUS Palianta said:

Much of what i have learned in Second Life is useless outside of Second Life.  I'm not sure why you are against in viewer tools.  

Would have to respectfully disagree. A lot of what our little group  has learned either in or because of SL has had a lot of use outside SL even to other platforms and not restricted to mesh either

And certainly not against better inworld tools - the more people getting the urge to make stuff the merrier =^^=

On the subject of prim export to mesh up - my compromise is to have made a tonne of mesh equivalent bits that i sketch with inworld (low poly as possible, maps, multi faces etc) as I still find a lot of things easier to work with using the camming tools that I have used for a decade (yeah lazy me) then export to clean up and tweak - totally replace if I feel the need.  Not the most efficient workflow but suits my pace anyway