Meshing... Blender to SL

[Noxec]

I was told that clothing/accessories etc anything that goes on an avatar requires the Avastar addon to upload from Blender to SL. Is there no alternative way? I'm at a standstill about impulsively buying something I've never played wit before or know how to work wit vs the countless tutorials that may end up clouding my ADD brain that will most likely take me YEARS to finally understand (as it did for Blender and 3dsmax... also SL in itself too o.o;; but yeh for few years after i finally got the understanding lol).

As for meshes that doesn't attach to an avatar ie furnitures, housing, decor etc.. I understood the LOD part on a video about physics I watched, but do I just upload it normally like I do images but ofc under the Upload Mesh option?

I've tried reading thru the wiki.. but I find it simpler to read it from actual people on forums than pages easier.. or videos. I also had trouble finding the right videos.. I think it more or less had to do wit the words I type in search.. 

Please guide me, thanks in advance

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

Someone just had a similar thread in the Mesh forum (which is actually a little more appropriate):

Quote

As for meshes that doesn't attach to an avatar ie furnitures, housing, decor etc.. I understood the LOD part on a video about physics I watched, but do I just upload it normally like I do images but ofc under the Upload Mesh option?

All mesh objects have 4 visual Levels of Detail and 1 physics collision frame (and they're not the same thing, despite the fact that some quickie tutorials say to use the lowest LOD as the physics frame). It doesn't matter whether the object is rigged for animation and it doesn't matter whether it's attached or free-standing. You can't prevent an object from having all these versions by simply not making them, either, because SL will fill in any missing ones itself -- usually poorly.

[Noxec]

thanks for the pointers. are there any video tuts that u think are more accurate like how u described about the 4 lods thing?

[Noxec]

also. it feels as if imvu and sl’s gap in meshing/content creating is a lot far wider than what i had imagined. thats why i had loaded questions. i didnt kno where to post bc i thought building was meant as building a mesh. apologies. 

[Chic Aeon]

To answer your original question (and much was said in that recent  post that was linked here) you do not NEED Avastar in order to upload mesh garments. Most clothing makers in SL do use Avastar if they are using Blender (and most use Blender probably because it is free and there is plenty of community support).  

 

You can make jewelry and other attachments that can be worn such as earrings and bracelets -- even short or updo hair  - all without the need of Avastar. But if you want something RIGGED that will move along with your avatar -- like a skrt for example or pants -- then the story changes.   I suggest that you start with something simple like furniture or jewelry and then later worry about things that need to be rigged -- and Avastar :D.  Good luck. 

 

You can search through the MESH forum and find lots of information including tutorials for the LOD explanation. 

[Noxec]

6 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

You can make jewelry and other attachments that can be worn such as earrings and bracelets -- even short or updo hair  - all without the need of Avastar.

I'm.. lost at this statement, bc don't jewelry/attachments need to move wit the avatar as well? 

[Noxec]

Also, how do I contact a mod to move this post to Mesh?

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

10 hours ago, Noxec said:

thanks for the pointers. are there any video tuts that u think are more accurate like how u described about the 4 lods thing?

1. Pretty basic:

2. A little more specific:

3. A video on how LoDs work from the viewer's end, with a little info on producing them from the creator:

4. A more detailed dive into creating manual LoDs:

2 hours ago, Noxec said:

I'm.. lost at this statement, bc don't jewelry/attachments need to move wit the avatar as well? 

Every object (prim or mesh or linkset of 2+ combined prims and/or meshes) has to attach to one avatar skeleton bone (or to the HUD). If it's anything but a rigged mesh, the whole object will be totally stiff and move in lockstep with that one single bone and no others. A rigged mesh can have different parts follow different bones, as well as have gradual transition regions -- like, say, the elbow of a shirt being influenced by a blended combination of the upper arm and lower arm so it flexes around the curve.

2 hours ago, Noxec said:

Also, how do I contact a mod to move this post to Mesh?

I wouldn't worry about it.

[Quarrel Kukulcan]

9 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

But if you want something RIGGED that will move along with your avatar -- like a skrt for example or pants -- then the story changes.

Technically false . . . but practically true.

Vanilla Blender can make rigged mesh. (And it's fine to practice with it that way!) But it can't easily make rigged mesh that responds to the full set of body shape sliders, which means your creations won't match a lot of wearers' physiques. And that's often a show-stopper.

[Chic Aeon]

3 hours ago, Noxec said:

I'm.. lost at this statement, bc don't jewelry/attachments need to move wit the avatar as well? 

A RIGGED item will move with all the parts of the avatar, an "attachment" is rigged in a sort of cheaty way in SL in that attachment points are predefined (same in Sansar).  IF for example you have a very tall and complex neck piece you COULD rig it so that the different parts of the item moves along with the whole body (so as the neck twists, the necklace twists too. 

A better example would be long hair which NEEDS to move with the shoulders etc so that the hair doesn't flow through the body.    Hope that cleared up some things.

 

Avastar technically (this I have been told by many techie folks, so "hearsy") doesn't do anything that can't be done in Blender BUT the devs have done lots of behind the scenes work to make things much easier (renaming bones to match SL etc).   But I see no reason to buy Avastar UNTIL you need it. You do not need it for furniture or jewelry ATTACHMENTS :D.  

 

[Noxec]

Thank you both for the details answers  definitely helped me to understand a lot better than most textbook guides. @_@

[Noxec]

3 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

A RIGGED item will move with all the parts of the avatar, an "attachment" is rigged in a sort of cheaty way in SL in that attachment points are predefined (same in Sansar). 

Last question, I promise  so in that sense, all I needa do wit accessories and furniture items are basically.. mesh them.. unwrap their maps.. self-make physic things mentioned in other ppls' posts, and upload both to SL just like that.. yes?

[Chic Aeon]

51 minutes ago, Noxec said:

Last question, I promise  so in that sense, all I needa do wit accessories and furniture items are basically.. mesh them.. unwrap their maps.. self-make physic things mentioned in other ppls' posts, and upload both to SL just like that.. yes?

Not quite. YOU NEED TO TEST THEM.  Preferable at LOD 2 setting or below to make sure that they will work for the majority of people.  You also need to bake either an AO map or a complete texture (Cycles) so that you can upload the texture and put it on the item. 

I suggest you actually try making something and then you will understand better. Reading and theory only go so far. Best of luck to you.

 

[Noxec]

the thing is im a creator coming from imvu, so i'm all just trying to understand things better on top of what i know from imvu  but ya.. thanks

[ChinRey]

14 hours ago, Noxec said:

...

self-make physic things mentioned in other ppls' posts,

I'm not sure you got a good answer to the physics questions - you certainly didn't from that post of mine Quarrel linked to since that was about a different kidn of build.

What you should do is make a cube in Blender - or simply use the one that's there in the default startup view. Just a regular 12 tri cube, size doesn't matter, UV mapping doesn't matter. Export as dae and store the file for the future. Then use it as the physics model for all furniture you ever make.

[Noxec]

On 12/13/2020 at 8:55 AM, ChinRey said:

I'm not sure you got a good answer to the physics questions - you certainly didn't from that post of mine Quarrel linked to since that was about a different kidn of build.

What you should do is make a cube in Blender - or simply use the one that's there in the default startup view. Just a regular 12 tri cube, size doesn't matter, UV mapping doesn't matter. Export as dae and store the file for the future. Then use it as the physics model for all furniture you ever make.

Oh! Thank you very much for this