KeeperS Karu

Kenbro Utu wrote: KeeperS Karu wrote: and my own pet peeve of being unable to have custom keyboard and mouse bindings You can do this. Just edit keys.xml in the app_settings folder. It's a workaround that I've been using, for a while, but having it part of the user-interface, along with a wider variety of things you can bind (such as what calls up the menu on an object, etx.) would be absolutely lovely. My bigges issue is mostly with binding the mouse buttons. I would prefer mouse steering to be controlled with the right mouse button, rather than holding down the left mouse button. That way, I can use weapons in third person mode. I absolutely hate the first person viewpoint. It's very disturbing and disorienting, for me. And, yes, I've tried all the tricks to widen my peripheral vision. None of it helps, for me. It never has. Combat in third person mode requires me to have access to mouse steering, though, which I don't have, because that's often the trigger button for the weapon. I've made a bit of a workaround for that, too, mostly in the sword script I've been playing around with. Again, it helps, but it would be nice to be able to actually do exactly what I want with my mouse and keyboard functions. It's a pet-peeve, as I said, and doesn't make it a deal-breaker for SL. It does keep me from participating in SL combat, though, until I get my weapons script set up, finally.

With the advent of mesh, in conjuction with incredible texture maps, and well-placed sculpts and prims (I know people give flexi-prims a lot of flak, but when used the right way, it can still be the better choice for a particular project--especially if you want to emphasize movement and flow, over form; there are really lovely mesh items that are coupled with flexi-prims that give a fantastic effect), I have found that the graphics of SL 1.0 can more than match the graphics of the latest MMORPGs I've seen put out. It's all a question of design skill, really. In fact, my friend and I had been talking about SL 2.0, and we had no complaints about the graphics. Instead, they were related to the issue of the sea of abandoned land in certain Mainland regions, and my own pet peeve of being unable to have custom keyboard and mouse bindings (for example, I'd prefer to set mouse steering on the right mouse button, the ability to just click on an object to be set to something like CTR + left mouse button, and once clicked, bring up the menu with something like Alt + right mouse button; this way, the left mouse button can be dedicated to using weapons in combat sims, with the right mouse button available for steering the avatar, so I don't have to go into first-person view), more functions that can be customized with LSL (like, oh, having access to the right mouse button, just saying), etc. As far as the creation tools go, the only thing I could think of that would be nice to have, in addition to what's already there, would be the ability to either upload our own custom bone structures or, barring that, having some other preset bone structures to use for our meshes, such as a four-legged bone structure for animal avatars, etc. Other than that, we have most of what we need to make what we want. In fact, I'd rather that we keep the in-world building tool, especially the features such as flexi-prims, as well as the ability to import sculpts, as they allow us more choices in how to approach our creations. On the social front, I hope that Linden Labs ports over the Linden Realms idea. I think it's a better way to introduce people to the metaverse, as many are often confused when they first try it, thinking it's a game, so they never even give SL a chance, as many don't even know what to do, once they get past tutorial island. With Linden Realms, new arrivals have something to do that allows them to get to know SL and its functions, better, and as they do this, they're learning other ways in which they can enjoy SL, either socially or creatively. So, yeah, for the most part, I don't see a lot wrong with SL, to be honest. Certainly, rebuilding its code from the ground up so that it can better adapt to changing technology, such as mobile devices and the occulus rift, is needed, but a lot of what's in place really works, often better than what new and upcoming virtual worlds have tried to give us (and I've tried quite a few, always coming back to SL).

Nevermind! I found it Only took a few months and one frustrated and determined all-nighter! lol

Heyla, everyone! So, I wanted to tour the different adventure and puzzle games in SL, a few months back, and I had come across Magellan's Grid Scavenger Hunt (http://secondlife.com/destination/magellans-grid-scavenger-hunt). I was doing pretty well in it, until I arrived at the Theme Park. For the life of me, I can't figure out where that mind mangler is! I've gotten to the underwater part, and the narrator keeps telling me I'm right there, but I don't see anything, at all. Does anyone have at least a hint as to where I'm supposed to go? Thanks for the help! KeeperS Karu PS-- I HAVE found the Prim of Life. Just not the Mind Mangler, which is supposed to be my main objective. PPS-- For those who are also stuck at the Pyri Peaks portion of the hunt and are at their wits' end, I will leave a few tips. I'll type them out in white, so those who don't even want hints don't have to see it: 1. The first time I did this, the monocole told me that the mangler was right there. What I didn't realize, at the time, was that it had spawned behind me. I was so focused, for a change, on what was in front of me that I didn't even notice, and I either TPed out, in frustration, or turned around and got caught by one of their many traps, or I was just searching, so long, in front of me, that it eventually disappeared. I don't recall which. So, the thing to remember is that, if the monocole sends you this message, and you don't see it, after a few seconds, rotate around, as it might have appeared behind you. If, after a minute or so, it's still not there, but it insists that the mangler is right there, it's possible it's either a glitch or it only stays in existence, for a certain length of time. Either way, you may need to restart that mission by either teleporting out of the region, then back to the start point, or, well, dying and being automatically ported away, then going back to the start point. Dying might be the better way to get it to restart the mission. I haven't tested that idea, though. 2. When I finally found the mangler, there was an error in sending me the end quest reward. I WANTED that prize, so I redid the mission, again (you have to click on the mission title at the home base, to do so), and I discovered that there are at least two different spawn points for the mangler, as the second time around, it was not where I had originally found it. So that is working as intended, if someone tells you where it is, but when you go there, it isn't there. There could be other spawn points for it, but I haven't tested it. I hope that helps, without actually spoiling the hunt, for you!

With the advent of mesh, I'm glad to see someone utilizing its potential to bring the MMORPG-like experience into SecondLife. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Dungeon-Builder-v10/3962614 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MTR-Zombie-Rezzer/2237691 https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Orc-Rezzer-Gen-2/543110

Sigh. I'll probably have to upgrade to the latest version of Poser Pro, one day, to make this work. As it stands, I've got Poser Pro 2010, and it seems to be more trouble than its worth, to try to rig with it. (Poser Pro 2010 only imports collada files as props, rather than actual rigged models, and there seems to be no real way to get the armature into Poser, unless there's a Python script out there, that I don't know about.) Gah. While the latest version of Blender isn't bad, I do not enjoy rigging with it. Weight painting just feels... I dunno. Clunky. Then again, this might be a workflow issue, than anything else. Time to start experimenting.

Lanfer Christensen wrote: Hey any more updates on how to use poser to upload meshes to SL? Oh, wow! Sorry, I'd gotten caught up in so many other things in RL that I hadn't had a chance to really follow through on all of this. Though, I'm hoping to actually explore around a bit, with it, in the next few days. If I find there isn't much relating to Poser to rig and upload meshes to SL, I'll probably come back and make notes of what I experienced.

Stickman Ingmann wrote: The pin scripts are used for actually transferring running scripts between objects. That's a bit more complex than what you're looking to do, I'm sure. Sending a spoken message with llSay(), llWhisper(), llShout(), llRegionSay(), or llRegionSayTo() would be much simpler. I'm partial to llRegionSayTo(). In this case, you only need one object to hear what you're saying, so there's no reason to go broadcasting it into a radius. And when you llRezAtRoot() you get the object_rez() event, which tells you the key of what you just rezzed. On object_rez(key id) you'll want to have a llGetOwnerKey(id) == llGetOwner() to verify that the object actually rezzed, as it can be used to check for rez failure if the key is invalid. The wiki page probably has more about that, though it may only be listed as a jira bug link. I played around with some possibilities, and I decided to actually try the one idea you had mentioned, where the object rezzed is a temp on rez object. I have it set so that, when the timer event counts down, if it isn't attached, it dies. If it is attached, it goes from temporary to a regular object, so the avatar can use the HUD for as long as needed. I'm actually a lot happier with this result, though I am keeping in mind what you said about regular sweeps to clear out temp items. I think I'll leave a warning that it may happen, and they'll need to rez the HUD, again. It just seemed like the easiest of all solutions.

Hm... Yeah, I think the pin scripts might be more involved than I want it to be.

So when making something like this, I need to give the receiver object time to actually receive the message and delete itself. Okay. That makes sense. I've been looking at a few ways to get the vending object and receiver object communicating with each other. I found some functions called llSetRemoteScriptAccessPin and llRemoteLoadScriptPin. What's the difference between using these functions and having the receiving object listen for a command from the vending object?

Ah! Thank you! That helps! Been looking at sample codes for rezzing and derezzing objects, too.

Heyla and well met! I know that the following is possilbe: 1. An avatar touches the vending object 2. The vending object rezzes an item in its inventory 3. The inventory item, equipped with a script with the temporary attachment code in it, attaches itself to the avatar, if the avatar gives permission. But I am thinking, "What if my shop, for whatever reason, happens to have its prim space maxed out, right then?" The inventory object won't be able to rez itself long enough to attach, right? So is there a way to produce this same effect by sending the inventory object directly to the avatar? I tried combing the SL Wiki and LSL Wiki for something that allows an object to directly attach its inventory to an avatar, but I haven't been able to find anything. I'm hoping I'm just not using the right search terms? Or am I out of luck, with that particular avenue? If there is no way to temporarily attach an item sent directly to an avatar, I am thinking of a workaround where there would be a vending object and a placeholder object, and the sequence would go something like this: 1. the avatar touches the vending object 2. the vending object checks to see if there is enough space to rez its inventory 3. if there is not enough space, it deletes an in-world placeholder object. 4. With the placeholder object gone, the vending object rezzes the inventory object. 5. With the inventory object rezzed, it does the following: a. If the avatar touches the rezzed object, it offers to attach itself. b. If the object is not attached after a certain amount of time (say 60 seconds), it destroys itself. 6. Either way, after 60 seconds, the vending object checks to see if there is space on the property, again, and if there is, it rezzes the placeholder object. Would something like that be possible? If so, what functions/etc. do I need to look up to try to make the script? Thank you for your help! KeeperS Karu (Keeper S. Karu)

Heyla and well met! I decided to try using my joystick, in the hopes that I can use it in 3rd person meee combat. While I've figured out that disabling 3D cursor allows my avatar to move, and that changing the y scale to 0 and the x and z scales to something above 2 keeps my avatar from crouching, I've yet to figure out exactly how to get the camera to follow my avatar when she moves. To clarify: when I move my avatar, the camera position seems to stay fixed in a certain spot. So, if I movebackwards, I end up watching my avatar move towards me, rather than having my camera rotate around, so I can see where she is going. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks for your help. KeeperS Karu

I just recalled an incident that also produced broken meshes: http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?21966-That-Darn-Thumb!&p=224103#post224103 I had everything properly grouped and such, but for whatever reason, i couldn't get the thumb in the mesh to move properly. Turns out there's another aspect to getting a mesh to properly conform to another mesh--which is essentially what people seem to be doing when making mesh clothing for the standard avies--the joint structure. I don't know if you have something like a joint editor in Blender, though. You'll have to check.

Ah! Thanks for the extra clarification! That really helps!

Sokoda Soulstar wrote: Thanks a lot I'll give a shot and hope that everything goes to work out. Chances are you're right about miss-naming some polygons somewhere... Also thanks for the links, sure to be a massive help. I'm going to use each of these and start over from them - and do like you said. Start with an extremely avatar - then slowly move to more and more advanced. Best of luck to you my friend, and thanks for all the help. You're very welcome, and thank you, in return! Oh, and in checking the naming of your groups, check for things like capitalization/lowercase letters being used when it should be the opposite. Remember, those group names are case sensitive, when it comes to matching it to the SL avatar.

Mari Plassitz wrote: Here's what it looks like in Blender. But when I upload to SL, here's what I get. The arm and collar gets separated from the torso part. The arm part and the torso part is one object, and the collar is a different object. Please tell me what the problem is. You might want to make sure that all the polygons in your mesh were actually assigned to a group. I've had meshes become broken like that in Poser when polygons weren't completely assigned to a group. As I've mentioned, elsewhere, I don't use Blender, so I'm not familiar with how to go about checking such things with it. But I've used a program called UVMapper. If you import your mesh's .OBJ file into UVMapper, then color the resulting UVMap according to groups, you'll be able to better see if some polygons were missed in your initial group assignments. http://www.uvmapper.com/ UVMapper Classic is the free version of the software. That's what I currently use.

Sokoda Soulstar wrote: Right, so I did a little bit of research... that just ended up seriously confusing me. Long story short, for the past two days I've been trying to upload a Rigged mesh Avatar. Which in itself making a rigged mesh wasn't too hard. I did it in Blender (both 2.49 & 2.57). Of course when I finally got to the upload screen - I'd check *skin weights* and the upload button would disappear from sight. Thus, is when I finally got to doing some more of the research and found a couple of the forums that said something along the lines of skeleton names...21 of them. So, I went though one by one and renamed each of the skeletons to the ones in SL. "hips, neck, head, rForeArm..etc" needless to say that didn't work. Well then I went and thought it was just the wrong type of mesh I was using... so I downloaded this "MakeHuman" open source project. That was cool, up until the point when I imported it into Blender and tried to export it as DAE... it still didn't work. So I followed another path, http://blog.machinimatrix.org/3d-creation/blender-meshes-trail/rigg-your-avatar/ that one to be exact. And I thought for sure this one would work.... but yeah.... failed too. (Maybe it was that hidden 'make real' button that I can't seem to find) So...Daz Studio was a no go, Blender 2.49 & 2.57 was a no, MakeHuman also a no, even my own mesh from ingame was a no. But all in all, long story short... I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I tried to rename the skeletons, I tried to use the rig that I acutally got from SL, I tried a number of different meshes, I really just don't know what else to try now. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and I'd return the favour as best I can. (This isn't a problem with normal meshes - I've uploaded terrian meshes and housing meshes already - it just doesn't seem to work with Skin Weights...if you need or request any of the files that I've been using I'll glady offer them.) - Thanks ahead of time... ^^' You might have already done this, but I figure it couldn't hurt to mention them, anyhow: 1) Make sure that you've included all the groups. 2) Make sure that all the group names are spelled correctly. 3) Make sure that EVERY polygon has been assigned to a group. I don't use Blender, so I couldn't tell you how to check this with Blender. However, there is a free program called UVMapper. From what I recall (it's been a while, and I'm just getting back into playing with all of these programs, again, myself), you should be able to have all of the polygons in the UVMap colored according to group.Do this, and you'll know if you've missed a few polygons in your grouping. These suggestions are based on what I've read about uploading rigged meshes and, especially, getting a rigged mesh meant to act as clothing for the standard avatar to attach properly. When reading about it, it didn't sound that much different than the steps needed to make conforming clothing for a Poser/Daz|Studio figure, and from my misadventures into those projects, I've discovered that everything tends to come down to making sure that ALL of your polygons have properly been assigned to the appropriate group, and making sure that your groups names are spelled properly. These things can be easy to miss, on the first pass. In fact, most of my hours rigging a piece of conforming clothing was spent going back and forth, trying to get the polygons assigned to their appropriate groups, before it dawned on me to simply see how well UVMapper would work for a project like that. It really helped, so you might want to try it out. To better troubleshoot your problem, you may also want to try making a simple rigged mesh meant to conform/attach to the SL avatar. Go through the above steps, making sure that the mesh has been grouped and rigged, properly, then first seeing if the clothing properly conforms to the the SL avatar in Daz|Studio. If, when posing the avatar model, the clothing conforms and poses just fine along with the avatar, then try to see how it holds up when uploading the mesh into SL. Again, I easily admit that I'm no exert. In fact, I've a lot of experimenting to do, myself. But these are the steps I'd take, first, to see what the problem is. EDIT: Whoops! I mentioned UVMapper without giving you a convenient link to the web site: http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html EDIT 2: I noticed in the link you provided that steps are included to extract the SL avatar's .obj file. You might want to try downloading the one from the following link: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials Click on the link titled: Second Life Avatar Meshes. These meshes seem to be already nice and properly configured for you, so working from those might actually help.

Rage Riptide wrote: I beleive the best way is to model in quads only, if possible, with a nice, neat topology flow. Some say triangles are fine, but I always find they get in the way at some point. Triangles become a problem when you want to add or remove an edgeloop but one must keep in mind that the mesh will be converted to triangles at completion. So, convert to triangles as the last step before export and examine the results, usually fine and dandy if the topology is nice to begin with. If there is a problem then it will be much easier to correct. Ah, so keep the model, as is, and if anything looks weird, it can be fixed while still in a state that's still easy to edit?

Oh, thanks! I saw that feature when reading about the Mesh/Upload Model UI, but until you mentioned it, it actually hadn't fully sunk in! Silly me. And, yes, I plan on uploading experimental meshes, from basic cubes to kettles (just to see how my own experiments with optimizing my mesh for the various levels of LOD compares to what I saw in the videos) to some kind of very simple conforming mesh clothing, like arm bracers, just to see how they all work. Thanks for the reminder about the scaling feature in the uploader UI, as well as the in-world scaling of objects, though! That actually does ease my mind a lot, as this will mean a lot less headaches!

I just realized I had another question related to rigging and uploading meshes using Poser: I already know that I have to use Objaction Scaler in order for models to scale properly between Poser and 3D modelling programs, as figures in Poser tend to be quite tiny in regular 3D modelling programs. Will I need to use something to scale my meshes when I export them from Poser?

Sounds like I should be thinking of making a mini-me. =D

I just got off the phone with SmithMicro tech support. While she was unable to actually get a specific version number for COLLADA used in Poser's export/import feature, she did confirm that Poser Pro 2010 does have the latest version. I'm hoping this means that there won't be any compatibility issues between Poser and SL when exporting my scenes in COLLADA format. A bit of caution, though, for those thinking of picking up Poser Pro 2010: Technical support confirmed that, once Poser Pro 2012 hits the market, there will be no further patches and upgrades to Poser Pro 2010. So, as was suggested in a previous post, if you want a copy of Poser, you may want to consider reserving yourself a copy of Poser 9/Pro at the discount they're offering, now. As for myself, I plan to make the most of what I have. If compatibility becomes an issue, later, I'll likely switch to using Daz|Studio to export my meshes in COLLADA format, as Daz3D seems to be actively supporting issues regarding it. EDIT: For those thinking of skipping Poser, altogether, in favor of using Daz|Studio, the free version of Daz|Studio does not seem to offer the ability to rig your meshes. For that, you'll need to upgrade to the full Pro version, which costs about as much as Poser Pro, and if you just want Poser 9, as opposed to Pro 2012, it's actually more cost effective, as the regular version of Poser possesses the Setup Room, which is where you do your rigging of the mesh. EDIT 2: A little tired and realized how strange the first edit may sound. The first edit was only taking into account a choice between using Poser and Daz|Studio. As others have mentioned, though, there are actually some other free programs available, though, that offer the ability to rig your meshes, the most notable of them being Blender. Personally, though, I really hated Blender's interface, and I'm more comfortable and familiar with Poser and Anim8or, so I choose to use those programs. Which reminds me: Anim8or actually has the means to rig meshes. I just don't use that part of Anim9or because I learned to use the system in Poser, first, and as I mentioned, I tend to stick with what I'm familiar with. I find Anim8or much easier and more intuitive to deal with than Blender, so if there are people who still feel intimidated by Blender's UI, you may want to try Anim8or.

I would very much love to see you put out a separate tutorial on the secrets of tris and quads! I can't be the only person asking questions concerning them... I hope. :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

Ah! Thank you, both, for clarifying this issue This helps, greatly!