RipleyVonD

I've been 3D Modeling since 2005, that's when I first saw how optimized models where in games like "FarCry" and "Doom 3". To my absolute amazement they solved their visual problems by using Normal Maps. I understand Normal Maps can be pretty intimidating to try and learn, but unfortunately this is the way things are properly done in an effort to not use so many triangles on a model. And in 3D Modeling for Games all objects have proper LODs created. The Second Life uploader is a decent repalcement for creating Mesh LOD's in my opinion, for those new to making 3D Models. There is a discipline in 3D Modeling that I've strived to live by ever since 2005, and because ot that discipline I begin to sweat whenever I am building anything over 7000 triangles, but that depends on the size. But for a Chain 37,824 is an extreme amount of triangles. There have been games in the past that used that as their triangle budget for an entire game level. This triangle amount would be pretty bad if it was a large object, it would affect people's GPU's at a far distance, but since its a Chain that size it only affects people who will be upclose to your Chain. And when I say affect, I mean 1 - 2 frames per second, because their is still a high percantage of people whos computers can't handle that many amount of triangles - this Chain and its triangle count + Avatars + Enviroment and Props. Here are a few threads that need to be read and considered by anyone who is interested in making meshes for Second Life. Another thing that should be kept in mind in reading these threads is the polycount for the type of object and how big is that object... Character, Weapon, Prop, etc... Historical Poly Counts http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/threads/23520-Historical-Poly-Counts Mesh Polygon Count for PC Game http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/140675-Mesh-Polygon-Count-for-PC-Game The Theory of LOD – Understanding LOD in Mesh can help reduce land impact #SL http://www.lokieliot.com/blog/?p=670

Hola Meredith, busque en Google ayuda para blender y encontre esta pagina que parese tener toda la ayuda que nesecitas. Me parece que tienes mucho valor y bien corazon para aprender. Mucha suerte. :smileyhappy: Aqui esta la pagina. http://www.g-blender.org/

Thanks. Right its my first project for "Second Life", but I'm not unfamiliar with 3d Modeling. Its hard to tell from the pictures but actualy only the stairs, the walkways, and the 3 structures are shiny, not the little Sand Hill. Yes I am planning to make it "Mod" so people can easily moddify it to their liking. I agree a sand Castle's surface should be duller but for the purpose of seeing the Normal Maps a little better I made parts of it shiny. I forgot that I could take a picture with the viewer it self, (lol) I'm so used to using the snippet tool for taking screenshots.

Ok, so here are a few images showing some of the features of this Sand Castle. This Castle uses two 512x512 maps on its surface area or UVs, whats amazing to me is even after all the maps it uses it still only rezzes in seconds, and I'm on a slower 3 mb DSL line. This Castle uses 6 maps in total 2x Diffuse (Color), 2x Normal Maps, 2x Specular. I made 2 different sets of Diffuse maps so one Castle is normal and one glows at night. The first three show how a Normal Map can dramaticaly change the surface of a model.    Here you can see Ambient Occlusion baked into its textures helps with some form of lighting when in shadow.  And this one which is my favorite is the other version that glows at night. You can probably tell I'm a Scifi movie fan of sorts.  The land impact is 12 after setting the LOD options to their optimal settings. The uploader says it has 2300 triangles, and it uses just a cube for physics. Hopefully I'll have it up as my debut product on my store in the next few days.

Antumbra, it helps to take a breath and relax your mind. Working with 3D models seems difficult at first but it does get better. There are alot of experienced people here who are willing to help. I wish I had this when I first started years ago, and I feel sympathetic for the frustration of someone first starting out. One thing that helps immensly for finding the right help for your problem is helping people understand what your issue is actualy called. Are you baking "Ambient Occlusion"? Or... Are you baking the "Shadow Map" from lights in the scene? Ambient Occlusion works just fine with the default light in the scene, but you need to adjust the settings to get the right amount, otherwise the Ambient Occlusion will cover too much of the surface area of the mesh. What I see is Ambient Occlusion set to cover too much of the mesh.

I hadn't thought of cheking that, it didn't occur to me. lol Thank You.

I'm wondering if there are common Sand Texture colors that are recommended or are often used in Second Life. I havent visited any beaches in Second Life, if anyone knows of some often used colors or some destinations I could visit that would be very helpfull, Thanks.

That's the information I was hoping to find when I came back here, I really appreciate that Drongle. It was very clear to understand, well for my techie head atleast. I'm hoping to test a mesh soon and see how it works on Aditi.

arton Rotaru wrote: The uploader doesn't alter your mesh. At least not in a visual way. As long as you leave the "generate normals" thingy alone. It will import your hard edges, smooth edges like you defined them in your modeling program. This is good to know. I really wouldn't want my mesh altered in a significant way, that is very bad for Normal Maps baked to a specific mesh. arton Rotaru wrote: The shading of your baked normal map won't work very well in SL anyway, because the tangent space basis of your baking program is most likely not the same as the tangent space basis in Second Life's shader. Here come hard edges/split UVs, manually edited vertex normal angles to the rescue. I'm sure I'll find a way to make it work, I'm not unfamiliar with Normal Map baking. Thanks for the quick help.

Drongle McMahon wrote: Note that this may be much higher than the vertex count in your 3D program because vertices get duplicated (or more) when they lie on sharp edges, UV seams or the boundaries of materials. Keeping as many edges smooth shaded as possible will keep the weight down. Drongle, I was wondering if you could elaborate on how the SL uploader works concerning duplicating or altering a mesh when its uploaded. I find this a bit frustrating because when I bake Normal Maps for my geometry those normal maps are meant for the exact geometry it was baked for, otherwise applying that same Normal Map to a slightly altered mesh will produce artifacts. Can you point me to the source of this information on the wiki somewhere? I'll try and find it my self meanwhile. Are there image examples of how the SL uploader modifies mesh uploads with sharp edges? I would also like to see this, I"m sure I can do this myself to bake out a more accurate Normal Map.