Ashasekayi Ra

Oz Linden wrote: Nalates Urriah wrote: For now it looks like the Lindens are moving on to upgrading other parts of the system. The avatar and mesh is pretty much going to stay as it is until the current round of fixes and additions are completed. Not true... we not only have STORM-1716 (the deformer) in progress, we also have other avatar improvements under review in STORM-1800 Thanks for that news Oz ^^

You may want to try a free (but powerful) program called XNormal for an AO bake alternative. I use it a great deal for making AO (and normal map) bakes for items I've made in Blender or Zbrush. XNormal can do a number of various different types of bakes. Very useful program. FYI: XNormal will export an AO map that you'll have to combine with your color map in Photoshop.

Sassy Romano wrote: I have some more detailed notes from Ashasekayi which I hope she doesn't mind me reproducing No, I don't mind at all. Thanks for posting it. I didn't see this post until late anyway. As an alternative, I believe Machinimatrix's Avastar plugin has a feature for this if memory serves. I haven't personally tested it though.

Your picture links are dead for me. But, my first question has to be which version of Blender are you using?

Kwakkelde Kwak wrote: Ashasekayi Ra wrote: If you already have the SL armature and just want the .obj files of your shape, you need to download the old (non-mesh) version of the Phoenix viewer. It gives you the option to download the .obj files of whatever shape you are wearing at that moment. I hope that's only shapes with you as the creator or we're looking at some serious violation. As for Wiz' exporter, I only used the free one with the default avs, but it works well after some headaches...I'm pretty sure the commercial version works just as good, that one lets you import your SL shape into 3ds max. The shape does need to have you as the owner though I think, since I suspect it uses the .xml export. Hmm.... that's a good question. I've only used it with my personal shapes which I made. However, I just use the xml option now. As for the violation, shapes in SL are made with LL's morphs. Not sure someone inworld can claim ownership of LL's morph data. Beyond that, the person that exports those .obj files can't re-import them to a shape layer in SL. They can only use it as a reference to make tailored clothing for that shape in their 3D modeler. Either way, it might be a good question to ask a Linden at the next content creator user group I guess.

DeathSmile Swords wrote: I saved my avatar shape it's called archetype.xml, any idea why it's not importing it into 3ds max? It basically says there's nothing to import. I'll try to look on phoenix how to save it in .obj.. Wiz Daxter has a product on the marketplace for 3DS Max users that want to import their shape XML file along with the SL armature. I use Blender, so I'm not sure of any free ways to do it for Max though. Hopefully, a Max user will come and give a clue about that. If you already have the SL armature and just want the .obj files of your shape, you need to download the old (non-mesh) version of the Phoenix viewer. It gives you the option to download the .obj files of whatever shape you are wearing at that moment.

TzunCet Xomotron wrote: Can someone tell me if there are any new developments w/ regards to Mesh and the software used for it? How is the Collada file working out now? Are people even using Mesh and what is the general "feel" for it? Are people enjoying it or is it still too early to even bother with? Granted I just "got back" and in my short poking arounds I haven't seen much (anything?!?), so your opinions would be golden... Thanks... Some good links have already been posted. However, most of the best information can be found in the forum. If you use Blender, the good news is that they have a Collada exporter that works with SL rigged mesh again. It's in the latest Blender 2.62 version. As far as people using mesh or being able to see it, here are the last stats I saw during a Content and Mesh User Group meeting: 70% of online time is with a mesh viewer over the past 3 days. 65% of all sessions are launched with a mesh enabled viewer, over the past 3 days. 73% of unique residents logged in with a mesh enabled viewer, over the past three days. You can read more about it on Nalate's blog: http://blog.nalates.net/2012/02/28/sl-contentmesh-ug-news-week-9/ So, I'd say that adoption is improving a great deal. Personally, I've been buying and wearing more and more mesh. I'm even contemplating building a store totally in mesh now. By the way, when it comes to viewers, I use Exodus or the main LL viewer to upload mesh.

Kaluura Boa wrote: Definitively not! Using prims to make walls is definitively not the way to go! When you upload your model give it a physical shape. That's the way to go. As a test, you can use the model you upload as physical shape too. Note that in your case, the windows will also be holes. (Note for the future: Think of doing a much simpler shape to reduce Land Impact.) Once your model is rezzed, go to Features tab in the Build floater and change from "Convex hull" to "Prim". Et voilà! According to Charlar and Nyx Linden, using undistorted simple prims (i.e.. a cube not a torus) for the physics shape is a perfectly valid workflow that doesn't tax the system. Plus, that simple cube, once linked to the mesh, will actually have a weight less than 1 LI. As Pamela pointed out, there is no harm in this workflow especially if you plan to use those prims for a secondary purpose in your design anyway. So basically, use the workflow that works best for you that still is kind to the SIM and people's computers.

Welcome and good luck

I surely hope they don't make this a mesh/sculpty forum. I think it would just create more confusion since the workflows for mesh assests and sculpt maps are so different. If anything, they should add seperate forums for sculpts maps and textures. As for sculpt maps beating mesh hands down with prim count, I'd have to disagree. If you know what you are doing, you can get good prim counts with mesh. I'd say the only exception is really large items, such as landscapes.

Drongle pointed out some good points. One other method is using subdivide smooth. If you use it, you can add extra geometry to specific areas. Basically, you select the edge rings in that area and then you use "W -> subdivide smooth". In the latest Blender, you can have access to further options by looking in Toolshelf sidebar (hotkey N). You can increase the number of cuts and adjust the amount of smoothing. When modeling for games, I usually opt for this method instead of subdivision, or I use the edgesplit workflow.

Well, Oz has already stated publicly that the deformer is something that would be considered a feature that alters the shared experience since only viewers with the code will see the mesh outfit fitting your avatar properly. To any viewer without the code, your mesh outfit will not look like it fits correctly. In the broadcast that Oz Linden did with Jessica Lyon, he did state specifically that the Lab is working with Qarl to try and make sure the code works with LL's viewer. So, I think that is promising albeit not a guarantee.

It's called "shade smooth" in versions of Blender over 2.49. You can reach it by going to Edit Mode, selecting the faces you want and using W -> Shade Smooth. Or, select the item in Object mode and use T to open the Toolshelf sidebar. You'll find "Smooth" under the Shading header within the Object Tools category in the Toolshelf. As for the buttons, if you don't know how to manually weight them, you should try unjoining them from the main model. Then, use the bone weight copy script to copy weights from the shirt to the buttons. Then, rejoin the buttons to the shirt with Ctrl+J. [The script is an add-on: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/bone-weight-copy-in-blender-2-52-6/ ] By the way, you may want to upgrade to the latest version of Blender, which is 2.62. It has a Collada export that is compatible with SL rigged mesh.

Harry Hyx wrote: second question is, how do you apply the "Automatic weight copy" to mesh that have multiple objects joined to it? It seems to only copy the weights onto the main one. Drongle already answered your question about the faceting that needs to be fixed by using smooth shading. So, I'll try to help you out with the second question. Did you use Ctrl +J to join your models or did you just group them? Sometimes when you use automatic weights, it has issues with multiple layers of vertices. You may want to unjoin the items, weight them individually and then join them together. But really, there are times where you'll just have to do some manual weight painting to handle such situations.

Since the Content Creation User Group page is still active and updated, does that mean LL will continue to have this user group? At the last meeting, there was a sign that stated the group would by closed.

You either have normals facing in the wrong direction, or you have more than 8 material ids on the model. I assume it is a problem with normals though. What program are you using?

The Avatar Databank is another place you can find it. It's called True Female. You can also find the default male which is called True Male. If you look around on there, you'll find morphs as well. LINK: http://www.ccccybernetics.com/avatar_databank/all.php

I haven't had a chance to install the update. But, I am looking forward to playing with this feature. ^^ I wouldn't use them in SL as models though because of the poly counts. But, I would like to play with them in high resolution bakes for textures.

Thanks for sharing this, LindaB.

Nalates Urriah wrote: I have put an agenda item in the Mesh/Content UG. Be interesting to hear what the Lindens think. If they change over to FBX, that shouldn't be too big a deal. I'm an avid lover and supporter of all things Blender. But, even I think it is a bit much to expect LL to drop Collada for FBX at this point. Frankly, this Collada issue with Blender has nothing to do with LL. It's a problem that will have to be solved by the programmers in the community. Thankfully, it seems like Domino is already on the case.

Domino Marama wrote: Chosen Few wrote: Nothing's been decided yet, so nobody panic yet. If worse comes to worst, and the Blender devs do cease official support for COLLADA, I'm sure enterprising SL residents will just create their own COLLADA exporter for Blender, and release it to the public, just like they did for the excellent sculpty tools that so many Blender users now enjoy. Are you looking over my shoulder? Oddly just before this issue came up, I'd just started digging into the Blender code to fix some Collada bugs. I do tend to agree that the current implemention in Blender is awkward and in the long term best replaced. So instead of fixing bugs, I've started on a Python implementation of a Collada exporter. And getting it working for SL is the first priority - it'll be free to all Primstar 2 and Avastar owners - I hope to have it ready before Collada support is dropped from Blender This is really great news to hear. Thanks for your continued support for Blender. ^^

Thanks for pointing that point out Drongle. Just one more reason not to use that sort of UV map in a final production.

The dae exporter for Blender 2.58 doesn't export rigged mesh for SL properly. Try the latest Blender version (2.61) with the dae fix (SL Collada-1.4.py) from this page: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?189696-One-mesh-won-t-render-%28noob-issue-%29-...-%28 Or, you could use the old Blender version 2.49. (Beware: This one uses an old UI that many find hard to use.)

Toysoldier Thor wrote: Thanks for the tips. "ReTopo" basically means to remove the doubles? and here is the question I cannot grasp in my mind and what I believe is the main reason my texture maps dont even come close to fitting on my mesh in SL.... Why do I have to "UV" my model and EXACTLY how does one UV the model? Is it simply one button in blender? I just hope the MODE in blender is there when I import the obj. I tried to follow a couple simple "how to apply a texture onto a mesh in Blender" but options in the video under texture (like MAPPING") do not exist when I bring in the Sculpty OBJ even though the video shows it should. Blender has a bad habit of removing/hiding modes and options for obscure reasons. I will sure try this XNormal plugin. But of the two programs of Zbrush or Blender, Zbrush for me is the lesser of two UI Disaster evils. Retopology isn't related to removing doubles. When you do retopo, you are making a new topology for a high resolution mesh. The retopolgized mesh can have quads and good edge flow. Another benefit is that you can make an efficient UV map for the new low resolution model. I use the paid version of the Bsurfaces addon for Blender to do my retopo since it is fast and easy to use. Here's a tutorial on the addon that will give you an idea of what retopology is: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/08/08/retopology-with-the-bsurfaces-add-on/. There are free solutions for retoplogy in Blender as well, but they take much longer. (There is also a free version of Bsurfaces in Blender. It's a lower version than the paid one that doesn't have the best features and it's buggy.) As I mentioned before, you can use Zbrush for retopology, but the tool really sucks imho. Here's a tutorial that shows how to do it in Zbrush though: As for UV mapping, there isn't a one button solution if you want a quality UV map at the end that doesn't have bad stretching. That being said, it does depend on the model. Some models are easier to unwrap and organize than others. Here is a whole series on the different UVmapping solutions in Blender: http://www.youtube.com/user/cannedmushrooms#grid/user/AB4DF1F21A33CB3B To better understand the default UV Mapping solution in Zbrush (and Sculptris), you may want to read this page: http://www.pixologic.com/docs/index.php/Tool:Texture_Subpalette#Other_Types_of_UV_Mapping As you can see, it uses a tile system, which cuts down on texture distortion. However, you can't take that map into Photoshop and make hand painted changes because all it looks like is a bunch of tiles. That's why it is customary to make a low resolution version of the high resolution sculpted model and make a well, laid out UV map for that low model that can be easily understood and used by a person later. Zbrush also has a plugin for making a UV layout that is not tile based. It's called UV Master. If you want to explore that one, here's a link: http://www.pixologic.com/blog/2010/02/uv-master-tutorials/

Did you let got of the SHIFT key before using CTRL+P?