The Museum of Fine Mesh - proposal

[animats]

SL has long had the Linden-run Ivory Tower of Prims, where you can see all the things prims can do. Most creators have probably been there. There's nothing similar for mesh. I brought this up at Creator User Group, suggesting a "Museum of Fine Mesh", and Vir Linden sad, "That's a good idea."

We've had a long-running discussion on "Why don't new users learn the basics?". Here's an in-world way to help new users out.

So, a proposal. The Museum of Fine Mesh, near the Ivory Tower. A mole project, perhaps with help from Caledon Oxbridge and Builders Brewery.

Start with the Hall of Basics. It all begins with a cube. There's a prim cube, with its faces labeled, and an identical-looking mesh cube. For the mesh cube, the texture, UV map, a picture of the wireframe, and all the level of detail models and the physics model are all on display, so anyone can see all the pieces that go into making a mesh object.

Repeat this for the basic forms - tetrahedron, sphere, etc. People can see how those are texture mapped and what their reduced levels of detail look like.

Then some simple objects, probably borrowed from the Bellesaria kit. A beach chair. A lamp post. A door. A rock. The objects should be simple and done very well. Again, for each one, all the components are on display, including all the LOD models shown as separate objects. The museum takes viewers behind the magic.

You can see where this is going. Good examples of simple mesh objects, with all the details on display.

Over time, the museum could be expanded. The Hall of Buildings. The Hall of Avatars. The Hall of Clothing. The Hall of Vehicles. Always with all the pieces that went into the model clearly visible. This is a museum of How It's Done.

Exit through the gift shop, where you can buy copies of most of the items on display, usually as full perm with all the components editable.

For someone with access to the mole-built models, this isn't a big effort. Such a museum may get big in-world, so it would be best as a Linden project.

There's a start on this in New Babbage, at the Academy of Industry. Something to look at for ideas.

New Babbage level of detail display. Used for building classes.

Comments?

 

[Anna Nova]

5 hours ago, animats said:

SL has long had the Linden-run Ivory Tower of Prims, where you can see all the things prims can do. Most creators have probably been there. There's nothing similar for mesh. I brought this up at Creator User Group, suggesting a "Museum of Fine Mesh", and Vir Linden sad, "That's a good idea."

......

Comments?

 

Brilliant idea.  And, eventually, we need a Museum of Fine Scripts too (to teach the non-laggy ways).

[Drayke Newall]

8 hours ago, animats said:

SL has long had the Linden-run Ivory Tower of Prims, where you can see all the things prims can do. Most creators have probably been there. There's nothing similar for mesh. I brought this up at Creator User Group, suggesting a "Museum of Fine Mesh", and Vir Linden sad, "That's a good idea."

A good idea in theory however, how big a space will this museum take up or are we talking a very basic display showing the unreliable LOD SL upload system and a couple of objects that look near identical? I mean a prim cube textured looks no different to a mesh one. The Ivory tower is rather small and tall but not only does it show what prims are but also shows how to use the basic prim system and create something.

A mesh one though would have to be insanely big if it was to be the same as the ivory tower or offer any valuable optimisation information. For example, which software are you going to showcase as part of this tutorial in the museum? Wouldn't this then bias against those that don't know that program. How are you going to showcase the correct way to optimise mesh? Will you show how to correctly UV map or Texture create accordingly? Which you will also have the issue of which program do you use as the tutorial etc.

Don't get me wrong I like the idea and think something is needed in world to explain mesh in relation to SL, but I think it would be better if a substantial chunk of the museum was about how to create optimised content which isn't just LOD or here is a nice cube. This brings its own issues regarding software etc.

3 hours ago, anna2358 said:

Brilliant idea.  And, eventually, we need a Museum of Fine Scripts too (to teach the non-laggy ways).

Script one sounds good to as I would love to learn LSL.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Drayke Newall

[animats]

8 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

A good idea in theory however, how big a space will this museum take up.

It would be good to have a lot of space. There are several underutilized Linden tutorial regions like this one.

That region has a texture tutorial on top of a mountain, a second Ivory Tower of Prims, and still has enough open space for a Museum of Fine Mesh. Looks like it hasn't been updated in years. Nominally run by "Cyan Linden", whom I suspect left a long time ago.

 

[ChinRey]

1 hour ago, animats said:

It would be good to have a lot of space. There are several underutilized Linden tutorial regions like this one.

That region has a texture tutorial on top of a mountain, a second Ivory Tower of Prims, and still has enough open space for a Museum of Fine Mesh. Looks like it hasn't been updated in years. Nominally run by "Cyan Linden", whom I suspect left a long time ago.

Some background info and to give due credit, The Ivory Tower was created and hosted by Lumiere Noir and the texture tutorial by Robin Sojourner. Both made them on their own initiative and paid tier for the prvilege of having them in SL. The reason LL copied the two and made Tutorial ISland was that they needed them for the teen grid. When Lumiere Noir passed away, LL decided to keep the Ivory Tower as a heritage site. I'm not sure if the original texture tutorial is still here.

I'm afraid that's the way to go if you want a mesh museum too: rent some land and build it yourself.

[Kyrah Abattoir]

If it's a museum about good mesh I'd wager that it's mostly about showcasing good examples of "final results", so the tools & workflow used would ultimately be irrelevant.

[animats]

6 hours ago, ChinRey said:

The reason LL copied the two and made Tutorial Island was that they needed them for the teen grid.

Oh, that's why there's a second one.

6 hours ago, ChinRey said:

Some background info and to give due credit, The Ivory Tower was created and hosted by Lumiere Noir and the texture tutorial by Robin Sojourner. Both made them on their own initiative and paid tier for the prvilege of having them in SL.

Yes, there's a little shrine to Lumiere Noir near the Ivory Tower, who died in 2015, and I have been there.

6 hours ago, ChinRey said:

I'm afraid that's the way to go if you want a mesh museum too: rent some land and build it yourself.

Not me. This needs to be done by someone who lives in Blender. I do mostly scripting.

[Coffee Pancake]

I don't see the point of doing this in SL. It's hardly any better than a script library that doesn't show any code, only final results / closed source version history.

3D models that can be downloaded would be far better, a .blend with all the LOD meshes .. a YT video of it's creation documenting how, why, compromises, etc.