Mesh and TPVs

[Ashasekayi Ra]

I just downloaded Kirstens' latest build and to my delight it supports uploading mesh on Agni. I was very pleased with it. (Thanks Kirsten :matte-motes-kiss:) However, I do miss the build tools in Phoenix (especially spellcheck for scripts and the local browser). Does anyone know if there are any other TPVs with working mesh features? But also, does anyone know if more build tools are planned for Kirstens' viewer?

 

[Nalates Urriah]

AFAIK, Kirsten's is the only TPV that has mesh render and upload. We will soon see more TPV with mesh render. It will likely take longer to see mesh upload in TPV's.

The Phoenix Build Tools are mostly now in Firestorm, the Phoenix decendant that will replace it. If I remember correctly, Firestorm will handle mesh render in the next release.

Imprudence, also with great build tools and my favorite building viewer, is evolving into Kokua. Kokua will have mesh render and eventually mesh upload. Imprudence is unlikely to have render or upload.

The big complication is that Linden Lab uses Havok to help with creating the physics shape of uploaded mesh. Havok is a proprietary physics engine. LL bought rights to use it with SL. Havok does not allow LL to share the code with TPV Dev's. TPV's are not purchasing Havok and must come up with an open sourec replacement that works like Havok. Kirsten has done it. So, others will too. But, the TPV's are running some time behind LL.

Will Kirsten add more building tools to KV? May be. But Kirsten's viewer is an advanced viewer that is more about render speed and quaility. Photographers and machininamists use KV. Builders tend to use Imrpudence and Phoenix.

[Crim Mip]

I'm sure the Phoenix team will evaluate their options. They aren't adverse to spending money on Firestorm as their licensing of the KDU library shows. It'll probably depened more on whether the open source alternatives provide decent performance and how much Havok would cost to license. I still refuse to use LL V2 even if it means I'll have to wait a while longer to actually upload mesh. I might give Kirsten's another try though.

[Ashasekayi Ra]

Yea, Phoenix is my viewer of choice while building. However, I have been giving Firestorm beta a try the last weeks. It looks like I'll stick with Kirstens for mesh work at this point until Firestorm gets mesh upload or Kirstens gets more build tools.

Thanks for mentioning Kokua . I hadn't heard about that one. I'll have to give it a look.