Mesh Planes not visible from certain angles + Low prim question.

[Aesthethicccc]

Hey all! I've been having issues with my mesh uploads from blender with planes not being visible when viewed from certain angles and wondering if there's another way to fix it other than using a solidify modifier or extruding in blender as it adds more faces than needed. I had this problem before with a Sink I was making where the top surface was disappearing when viewed from certain angles as well but it was not made out of planes but a cube with extrusions. I have made sure that all transformations were made. Edit: Im Stupid I realized the mistake as soon as I made this post, the normals were inverted, the question now becomes how do I get them to show from behind aswell? is there a setting im overlooking?

Also for my question about how to get low prims, I was looking at an item from Backbone a Neon sign. It is only 5prims but its highest is 53k tris Med being 6.6k tris. Low n Lowest being 5 tris. I understand cheating the low n lowest setting by making them 0 with auto generate is one way to cheat low prims but the sign has very good LoD. I was wondering how they can go that high in tris but keep the prims so low! the detail is amazing. 

I made a neon sign that comes up as 5prims and has the following specs: 6k tris High and Med, 337 tris Low and 3 tris Lowest. It has good LoD to me and I know making the med lower with a lower mesh file instead of copying the high tris will result in lower prims but now by much which is why I decided to keep the Med prims. Also for the physics I have been using a cube as per most peoples responses on forums and Chic Aeon Residents guides ( Thank you btw! ).

I'd say I have a decent understanding on how to model things on blender but not for SL. I do make sure to reduce excess faces/loops to models before uploading to SL. If there is any specific guides or written links please link them down below, I know that certain tips and tricks are kept secret but anything to help me understand the SL mesh optimization better e.g when to upload items separately and link inworld

A link to my orchid flower blend file (Just a quick model for testing as I got this plane issue before when I was testing that's why its not that great.. I promise ....): https://pasteall.org/blend/e241bb81cc9a4106bf384cf03406398a

Thank you all in advance ❤️

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Aesthethicccc
Half self answered

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Second Life, and most real-time games will primarily use single-sided meshes for performance reasons.

To make double-sided mesh without extruding the surface into a solid shape, you can duplicate the surface and flip the normals. That way you'll have an infinitely thin "double sided" surface without any extra geometry.

Regarding the 53k tri sign, it could have less LI without LOD cheating if the creator made any attempt to optimize it. I'll just quote what I said in a recent thread:

On 3/9/2021 at 11:58 PM, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Download and Physics cost. The final land impact will be the highest value, but when both values are almost equal, you have two problems.

Physics are very easy to fix for an object that doesn't need a distinct physics shape. Export a regular cube and select that in the "Physics" tab of the uploader.

The download cost is high because every Level Of Detail is set to the same model. The uploader will penalize LODs with an inappropriate amount of detail. Small objects will be penalized for having lots of detail in the Low/Lowest levels. I would never recommend using the Generate option in the uploader anyway. You're much better off creating the lower LODs in Blender and exporting them separately to be selected in the uploader.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Aquila Kytori]

Hi :)

When mesh modelling, faces only have one side.

This is how your model looks in the default Blender set up :

 

Looks fine but if we enable Backface Culling we see which faces have there normals facing towards the viewer and which are facing away.

This is how the model will look when rezzed inworld. Perhaps a good idea to  work with this Backface Culling option enabled.

To add the missing faces the easiest way is ................. hmmmf !     I just got notification that Wulfie has alrerady answered. 🙂

So I will just leave the part about how useful it is to work with Backface Culling checked.

 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

1 minute ago, Aquila Kytori said:

To add the missing faces the easiest way is ................. hmmmf !     I just got notification that Wulfie has alrerady answered. 🙂

So I will just leave the part about how useful it is to work with Backface Culling checked.

Quality over expediency!

[Aquila Kytori]

@Wulfie Reanimator My method was going to be alot more complicated, assigning parts that need to be double sided to a vertex group and then using a Solidify modifier........

which would have included many screenshots and arrows pointing to things ........................ Duplicate and Flip ................ I'll use that next time lol.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Aquila Kytori

[Aesthethicccc]

Thank you both for the replies!

@Aquila Kytori That back face culling option is a life saver! Thanks ❤️

@Wulfie Reanimator That makes way more sense now thank you! for the second part about the 53K tris object I was wondering how they were able to get an object to have such high tris but have such a low prim count. Would you have any idea on how to do this? I've experimented on this by uploading very high tri meshes and messing with the other options but don't seem to have much luck.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

40 minutes ago, Aesthethicccc said:

@Wulfie Reanimator That makes way more sense now thank you! for the second part about the 53K tris object I was wondering how they were able to get an object to have such high tris but have such a low prim count. Would you have any idea on how to do this? I've experimented on this by uploading very high tri meshes and messing with the other options but don't seem to have much luck.

It really depends on what is causing the high LI.

Like I said, if the physics cost is high, simplify the physics shape. If the download cost is high, you need to reduce the amount of tris at certain LODs based on the object's size. Large objects can't have much detail at High/Medium. Small objects can't have much detail at Low/Lowest.

[Aesthethicccc]

Right that makes sense about the Large n Small objects. Thank you.

[VirtualKitten]

You might find the items skin is to thin I had similar problems with wings that had to be thicker to view them I would use the spanner to add thickness and see if it resolves it

Have a lovely day

Denise