Vivienne Schell

Come on, stop with fooling youself. Any kind of existing 3D model will be convertible and uploadable in all it´s pride with the right tool, and this tool must not even be a ripped 3Ds or whatever, in fact. If i were invited to the closed beta i´d upload about 5000 models which are perfectly optimesd within a week or two. That´s really not a problem at all. But probably the wise Lindens knew this and did not invite me, cause it would have scared the hell out of all their fanboys who helped them with erasing the existant SL content creation with a loud "HOORAY" on their lips.

"The poly counts will be too high for SL and they will be relying on things like normal and specular maps." This is simply not true.

Right. Even C4D can optimise meshes in a totally adequate manner. And it´s just a matter of time until the stuff on all these free websites will be ready for SL upload. To the content creators who rely on the Lindens: It´s time to watch out for a different place where your work is appreciated by the ones who run this environment. Now.

Not the numbers? Well, we#ll see. I ´ll not wait until the Lindex crashes, for sure.

No, but see. Sl did only grow because of the gold digger effect. And participating in the gold digger effect eas exclusive. One HAD to be in-world, learn the tools, learn how to trade, learn how to distribute, all within a certain environment. This exclusivity granted LL a steady flow of fresh content and thousands of content creators using their environment. And the content was not so bad at all, otherwise there would not have been tenthousands of people appearing as the "consuming" side in this game. With mesh import Linden Lab drops this exclusivity and opens the environment for any#thing which was created by professionals, amateurs, wannabes and whomever during the past TWELVE YEARS. Therfore i consider the ones who really think that SUCH an opened environment would be useful for any kind of trade with virtual 3D objects as being completely naive. They might brag with their skills, discuss the wonderful art of using 3Ds, they even might be 3D pros. But: There is an entire planet out there. An entire planet crowded by hundredrthousands of skilled 3D modellers in every country, in every city. These people do not have to deal with something silly like sketchup or Blender. Each of these people has servers FULL of stuff. What do you think will happen to SL, as a result? It´s simple logic.Object trade within Sl will collapse, and in the end NO one will be able to charge anything for whatever. By givinng away the exclusivity of SL content creation Linden Lab gives away content creation on a commercial, semi professional level completely. And without THAT thriving force any kind of 3d model trade in SL will collapse. They are BLIND: It´s not for the art of 3D modelling or whatever, Linden Lab ONLY opened the grid for imports for ONE reason: strengthen their own business, which is selling server space. They really could not care less about SL content creation with zillions of readymade objects out there. They want to attract THEIR customers, and these do not pay for a 100 prim mesh imported lighthouse, but for their servers. The 100 prim mesh imported lighthouse might be nice, but with 1000 mesh lighthouses out there, ready to be uploaded for a few dollars - who would honestly imagine COMMERCE? And without commerce SL is dead, as dead as it can be. Apart from that - it´s a HUGE step backwards, A platform, mainly relying on not-platform related formats, is doomed to fail. This is not visionary or progressive, this is reactionary corporate profit driven madness. Maybe they get away with it. Maybe. But i´ll not invest anymore into a company which prefers to go Active Worlds - we watched that fail before.

LOL; MORE ADVANCED? I tell you what "more advanced" would be. IN_WORLD TOOLS. And ONLY In-World Tools. Reducing this to a pure import fee collecting is just plain idiotic, it is like wasting everything Linden Lab ever has achieved for some short sighted profit. They do not invest, they return to stone aged technology, which is not even their own. They hope to get away with this - and they probably will. But NO content creator in Sl will get away with it, that´s just simple logic. And people, if you want to brag with your "knowledge" on meshes, read the first handbook for 3Ds. It´s from 1998 or so.

I hear "something new"again. Boy, mesh IS NOT SOMETHING NEW: It´s OLD. VERY OLD. And the idea of importing mesh into some VR is as looooong as Slartibartfasts beard. It´s BORING. It´s a business decision for the benefit of Linden Lab. They save money for the development of adequate in-world tools. They even refuse to spend a single cent on something simple and effective. And you REALLY think that the re-discovery of a stone aged idea will benfit anyone but Linden Lab? Dream on.

Right, sculpts are crap compared to mesh. The only advantage was that they they were not so easy to crate and therefore still something SL native. Mesh isn´t SL native, or SL specific. it´s just - a mesh. I#d like to see in-world tools. I´d like to see SL being "your world - your imaguination", and not an assembly of imported stuff from all over the web. something like a crowded Active Worlds. Why do you think Active Worlds never took off?

Photoshop? Well, say byebye to the in-world photoshop creators. They are dust with mesh imports.

Performance Improvement? How so? Do they limit polygons? No, they only let people pay for uploading tons of polygons. Which they certainly will do. And did average customers ever care about the number of prims if they wanted nice looking hair? No. And they will not care about the "not optimised" meshes, as long as they are free or almost free. And this they will be. And please don´t mention "performance improvements". Nothing they ever did really improved performance. And i fear that mesh import will not "improve" anything at all. business as usual. Nice ideas,.lousy implementation.

Good Luck with it! Really. Hopefully Torley will not do another blog post tomorrow.

Yeah, i never really likeed Linden Lab. I better keep my money for more promising projects.

Right, the choice is mine. And i´ll quit this crap finally. And I´ll not be the only one. Have fun with Turbosquid amd all the ripped games stuff (what a bore). And these MILLIONS of fresh consumers (Ha, ha, didn´t we hear this before?).

Collada is not the re-invention of the whell, and yes, it´s pretty easy to convert anything into collada. http://frankieloscavio.blogspot.com/2007/10/collada-file-format-converter.html three years old, and this is only the first one you get on google search.

Okay Lindens. So you finally decided to kick out the average Sl content crteator who made your little company so big,.You reached the critical mass of content in SL, anyway, so why bother anymore? Open it to the consumers, easy upload of MILLIONS of 3D objects from zillions of free or almost free websites. It will "improve" the visual quality and this will attract MILLIONS of fresh customers, right? Why bother about the silly "SL economy", where only a few earn enough to make a life, enyway... Right, Lindens, it´s a well calculated risk you take, by erading the classical SL content creation "economy" and market and replacing it by MILLIONS of consumers who can easily hit the "upload" button for a pretty cool SL living. Pay 10 or 20 or even 100 linden dollars and maybe 500 linden dollars more for the soon available allround-be-happy scripts which can be easily applied. Or do you plan to eliminate even the script market? As you tried with the real estate market by implanting Linden Homes? Would be logical, somehow. Congrats Lindens. I´d probably do the same, if my main business would be selling server space. It will cause some lowdown after maybe two or three months. When content creators realise that they cannot make more but less money due to teh unbeatable comptition named "upload" and all teh free imported meshes. When all these small businesses crash and withdraw one by one. You only must survive tje hit on the Lindex then, and maybe the loss of 2,000 to 3,000 sims, which were paid by in-world content creation directly or indirctly. But then you´ll be fine. Probably. But you, dear content creators in Sl, you are simply blind. You applaud your own caretakers for technical "improvement". As everything LL did since years, this is no technical improvement but a business decision, and only a busimness decision. And this business decision will make you obsolete. Completely obsolete, because all your nice 3Ds and Maya and whatever stuff is already made and done. You are simply five years too late. Don´t even THINK of wasting your time on learning blender or whatever nifty tool. Take a look at the web. Take a look at the competition there. Compared to THIS the SL marketplace, as it is now, is your indisputed monopoly. Mesh import will change everything. Maybe for the better, but NOT favorable for the content creators who made SL what it is. Say bye bye SL, hello Disneyland.