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DanielRavenNest Noe

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Everything posted by DanielRavenNest Noe

  1. Ross Myhre wrote: That wiki page is outdated. SL uses Collada 1.41 now, which is what Max 2012 exports so no need to mess around with the .fbx converter. It does not work correctly. I tested a 6 sided prism, with 8 texture slots (one each on the 6 sides + top & bottom), exported via built-in Collada exporter, and uploaded to Aditi (beta grid) using viewer 3.3.0. It arrives with only one texture slot. Selecting one face does not work. The same object exported from Max 2010 worked in the past (I will re-test it when I get a chance later).
  2. Bart Seymour wrote: I need to confirm this issue that basicly the mesh does only allow one texture layer, it will help a lot already if you allow 8 layered textures upon one face. That way you can wear clothing upon the mesh body, without creating really wearable mesh clothing with an offset (fake it to be honest). A mesh avatar can have multiple clothing/tattoo/makeup layers if it's designed right (like mine is). Otherwise it's a single layer. A lot of texture layers along with a high polygon count can lead to lag, though. Extending the skin/clothing baking system to attachments would help with that.
  3. What I did to make things come out the correct size is scale up the SLAV default body till it was about 1.8 meters in size, and facing the correct direction, then reset scale and transforms so it reads 100% and 0 degree rotation in all axes. Then I modeled the clothing or avatar body to fit that scale, reset transforms, collapse the stack, then save a version at that point. Then proceed to rig if needed, delete SLAV body parts, and export. From Max 2010 or 2011 you can use the FBX 2011.3 plugin and save directly to Autodesk Collada. For Max 2012 you need to save to FBX, and choose 2011 file version in the save dialogue window. Then use the standalone FBX 2011 converter to turn the FBX into Collada format. With the correct units set up in Preferences in Max, my models scaled to the correct human size, and the right export path, I have not had any sizing problems once it gets into SL.
  4. What version of 3ds Max are you using?
  5. 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... * Most 3rd Party viewers now support Mesh display, and there are a growing number of items available and in use on the grid. Mesh adoption is progressing about the rate I expected, i.e. about a year from official release to widespread use. * On the other hand, the former project manager no longer works at Linden Lab, and things broken at Mesh launch (shape deformer = responding to all appearance settings) are still broken, and future improvements (a materials system) are not making any visible progress. * I have been very happy with sales of my Mesh avatar. * As expected, items copied from commercial sources like games have popped up, because Linden Lab has done very little to stop it. Also as expected, portents of Doom (Mesh will destroy Second Life) have proven groundless. * The latest version of Blender now has a specific SL export option, and there are good tutorials available, so anyone who wants to learn and use it, can do so, on a par with learning other content creation (making textures, audio clips, scripts, or animations). * The system for counting land impact (formerly prims) is more complex, and penalizes mesh, linking, or using scripts depending on circumstances. So mesh is not replacing other object types for everything, prims and sculpts still have their place. Just like in the past, badly designed items can have absurd impacts and cause lag. At least mesh credits you for good design with a low land impact.
  6. Huntress Blackrain wrote: I can't find a step by step on how to do that in 3D max, however the units are in meters.. You must be new to using 3ds Max: * Command Panel > Edit Tab > right click in the stack (history) of applied modifiers, and select "Collapse All". This will remove the history of changes you did with modifiers, and leave you with a model in the final state * Command Panel > Utilities Tab > Reset Xform. This will null out any rotations or scaling you made back to zero degrees and 100% in the number entry boxes under the viewport windows. Do this *after* you are done fiddling with the shape of your item, but before you apply the Skin modifier. Always do the skin modifier last. Please take a look at the 3ds Max Wiki page and see if anything is there you didn't do or don't understand. I wrote half that page, so you can ask me if anything is unclear.
  7. Looks like your normals are not pointing outward, check that.
  8. Chosen Few wrote: From everything you've written here about your experiences, it sounds like LL has been in full compliance with the law, and they've done their best, within all practical reason, to help you. The problem lies not in their willingness to do the right thing, but in the hard fact that there really can be no technical way of determining what might be a copy of what, after the fact. There's no such thing as a magic "remove all copies, no matter how they were made" button. That's just not how it works. It's important to understand that that's not a failing on LL's part in any way, nor it is a flaw in the SL system. It's just the reality on the ground. Actually, that's not quite accurate. The law says the must remove all content identified in a properly filed takedown notice. It does not say they must scour their system to hunt for anything that looks like it might be a copy, and take it upon themselces to remove every potential match. The problem is that a UUID is just an index number in their database, it does not uniquely identify the content. To give a Hollywood example, a ripped copy of the film "Iron Man" is still a ripped copy if you change the file name to "Fe Man" (Fe is the chemical symbol for Iron, from the Latin "ferrum"). The way to identify copies is to use a "hash value". That is a unique number generated from the content itself by a well known (in computer circles) process. It is highly unlikely that any two sculpt maps will generate the same hash value. Linden Lab could save itself a lot of effort and make Second Life more attractive to content creators if they add hash values for every asset in the asset database. Then a DMCA claim could state "remove all content which duplicates the hash value of my item X, but has a different creator name", and it would be straightforward to call up the items that match, check if they are really duplicates, and then delete them. They could also prevent the upload of copied items by comparing the hash value of a new upload against the values of already existing items. Note this would not be perfect. Two people who use the same open-source texture would get the same hash value on upload, and someone who slightly modifies an asset would get a different value. But perfect is the enemy of "better than what we have now". Identifying items by a numerical fingerprint of the content (a hash) is better than identifying them with an arbitrary database index that bears no relation to the contents (a UUID). And this does not have to affect existing uses of UUID's. It just means creating a new table of hash values in their database.
  9. Sculpts are imported by defining the XYZ coordinates as the RGB colors in a texture, which you upload and apply to a prim in the Edit window. That is unique to Second Life, so you need some special plugin in the 3D creation program to output the texture. Sculpts are fairly restricted in several ways, because of the hack of using a texture. Direct mesh import uses a Collada .dae format file (it's an XML type text file). The XYZ coordinates and other info about the model are a bunch of numbers in the text file. Many 3D programs can directly export to .dae. Then you use the SL menu for Upload > Model in any mesh-capable viewer. Once it's uploaded, it's an inventory item you can rez like any other SL object, and apply textures to the "faces" of your mesh if you defined the faces in the 3D program (a process called UV Mapping). Mesh are a lot less restricted than sculpts, and you can do things like rig them to animate when worn by an avatar, that sculpts cannot do. On the other hand, in some cases their "Land Impact" (ie prim cost) is higher than for a sculpt, and in fact is a *variable*, rather than a fixed number.
  10. Since I have been a developer for the Crytek CryEngine for a couple of years, when I saw a Crysis game "Nanosuit" soldier character, I notified Crytek directly. Either they don't care, or the effort to swat the infringers is not worth the trouble, since the models are still there. The game has sold 2.5 million copies, so do they really care about a few hundred ripped characters? I don't know, I did my part and let them know about it, and leave it to them what to do about it. If it was me, I would use it as an opportunity to sell more games, and let people sell the characters in SL as long as they include links to the original.
  11. If you have done any building at all in Second Life, you have already used a 3D modeling program (note: a mesh is the result, 3D modeling program is the tool, like the difference between a document and a word processing program). You will find that most 3D programs use similar movement arrows and rotation rings to move things around, and start with "primitive shapes" ie prims. Linden Lab did not invent these methods, they borrowed them from other 3D software. So actually, Second Life is the easiest program to use, because you already know it, but it just has a lot less tools to manipulate things with. There is no clear answer to "easiest", because the full range of things you might want to do includes some more complex tasks like rigging or UV mapping. Those tasks are fundamentally the same in all 3D programs. They just differ in what buttons on what menus are needed to do them. But the amount of learning needed is the same regardless of which button is used. Another part of the question is how far do you want to go? If you learn an "easy" program, and then want to do more advanced things, you will have to re-learn a more capable program, untraining yourself from what you previously learned. Besides a 3D program, you may need an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP to make the textures for a given mesh shape. Not every 3D program can save to the Collada .dae format that Second Life understands. Check elsewhere in these forums to see whether a given program works (and the version of the program matters too) For any 3D program, look at the availablity of video tutorials, manuals and books, and discussion forums. Most of these programs can't be learned effectively by playing around with the software itself. Many of the programs that cost money have a free trial, so you find out if you like them that way. Having said that, I suggest Blender 2.6, not because it's easy, but because it does everything you need for SL, has a specific exporter to Second Life, and it's free. After that I would consider Google SketchUp if they have fixed the SL import (I don't use it, so I don't keep track), which is also free, followed by Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max (what I use), which are possibly free if you are a student or unemployed and not doing commercial work with them. Otherwise they are very expensive, being professional products. Photoshop Extended has a 3D model feature, but it's also not free. There are other programs I'm sure people will suggest.
  12. Because of the size penalty, very large objects should be divided into smaller meshes, or use prims or sculpts instead. It may not make sense from a total triangle count perspective, but that is what the cost formula forces you to do given a finite land impact per parcel.
  13. Export to FBX format, and choose the 2011 version under Advanced Options > FBX file format. Then get the standalone FBX Converter 2011 and use that to convert to collada DAE format.
  14. Render weight is an arbitrary value. How many triangles/polygons in the actual model, and how many textures of what size? What are your PC specifications (CPU/Memory/Graphics card)? Did you make Level of Detail (LOD) versions? What software did you create it with? Can you provide a snapshot?
  15. The Second Life rendering engine only renders one side of polygons (the side that the normal vector points out of). To see this, maneuver your camera inside any object or avatar, and you can see it's invisible from the inside. I'm not familiar with the solidify function in Blender (I use 3ds Max), but if it turns a plane into a box it is adding extra polygons you don't need around the edge of the box. What I usually do for plants is copy the leaf planes without moving them, flip the normal vector so it points the other way, and then joining the copy to the original so they are both part of the model. For most objects, rendering only one side saves work for the graphics engine, but there are a few like plant leaves and windows where you need to double the geometry so it can be seen from both sides. Some graphics engines have a setting per material for "2-sided" so you don't have to double the geometry, but the SL viewer does not have that feature.
  16. It's a cloth simulation program mainly, so if you want to get the draping of fabric over an avatar body, it works well for that, or for that matter, tableclothes, curtains, or other fabric that needs to hang on or from other objects. As was pointed out previously, other 3D programs also have cloth functions. Marvelous Designer's pro version (CLO3D) is made for real life clothing design and producing actual cutting patterns. So the interface is optimized for doing that, and using real life fabric properties. It's fun to play with, but it is likely overkill for most SL clothing makers, and you still have to export the model and do rigging separately. You might want to take a look at Blender's Cloth simulation first, since that's a free program.
  17. Kwakkelde Kwak wrote: I haven't put much time into rigging yet, a full day or slightly more, but as far as I could tell, you really need to make sure all rotations and scales are reset BEFORE you apply the skin modifier. Yes, do everything with the geometry first, and then apply the skin modifier last. That's worked for the avatars and clothing I have made.
  18. OK, what you want is to download the very latest version of Blender (2.62 - 16 Feb 2012) from here: http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-262/ If you scroll down that page to the Collada section, you can see it has been set up specifically with an export option for Second Life. As far as mesh vs sculpt physics, it's a difference in how things are imported. A sculpt imports a 3D model in the form of a texture, where the Red, Green, and Blue channels define the XYZ positions of the vertexes. The SL mesh feature imports the 3D model in the form of one or more Collada Digital Asset Exchange (.dae) format files. Besides XYZ positions, that file format can also include UV mapping, bone weights, and other information. You can also load up to 5 files, representing 4 levels of detail of the model, plus a physics shape. The custom physics shape is how you are able to walk on a mesh mountain. Since sculpts only carry vertex positions in their texture, they cannot define UV mapping, physics shape, etc. Sculpts also need a given number of vertexes in a particular arrangement, regardless of what your model actually needs. Mesh is simply a lot more flexible Any program that can generate the correct .dae file data can make mesh for SL. It doesn't even have to be a 3D program, since the .dae is just an XML formatted text file, but for most situations a 3D program makes it easier. Blender happens to be free, and more than capable of doing all the kinds of mesh things that SL understands. Therefore it is popular. The only extra you need besides the basic program is if you plan to make avatar attachments (clothes or replacement body parts). For that you should have the default SL avatar mesh and bone set as a blender file. The mesh is so you can fit attachments properly (like a dress dummy), and the bone set is if you are making a "rigged" item which will animate along with the base avatar. All animations assume the standard avatar bones, and so must any rigged items you make. Most high end 3D programs have plugins or side programs that make life easier, like unwrapping UV maps. But they are not *required*, just nice to have if you do a lot of a given task. It's better if you first learn how the task is done within the main program, before you decide if you need an accessory tool. Rather than go by way of a texture, mesh is exported directly to .dae, then that .dae file gets uploaded as a model file into SL. It's actually a much more direct process, what you see on the Blender screen becomes directly the same object in SL if you upload it correctly.
  19. Linda Brynner wrote: Did we all understand that Collada is from a fired team from Sony? And... did we all understand that the specs from this open source project are way too complex? Did we all understand that this kind of complexity and open source thingy isn't very reliable consistent from a quality point of view? Did we all understand that open souce = never top notch quality. SL wants to be leading, no? ----- The COLLADA standard is maintained by the Khronos Group, which is a not for profit consortium that also manages other graphics standards, like OpenGL, which is what Second Life runs on. There is no such thing as a reliable file conversion between any 3D programs, even between different versions of the same program. At the moment COLLADA is the best we have for a conversion that works between multiple programs. Here are the members of the Khronos group. Is anyone you know not here? The ones that really matter for Second Life are AMD, intel, and Nvidia, because 99% of SL users get their graphics from one of them. They in turn have an interest in seeing more 3D models get used everywhere, because then they sell more graphics chips.
  20. Phil Deakins wrote: For instance, someone wrote that, if someone accuses something on a website of being illegal, ipwise, then the whole website, and the whole of all other websites that link to the website, can be closed down without any kind of "due process". The american politicians may not be all that they could be, but no body of politicians is stupid enough to pass a law where that can and will legally happen. Stuff like that, and many other things that have been stated in this thread, is just not going to happen. Unfortunately, such rules are in the SOPA text. Section 103 allows a "a holder of an intellectual property right harmed by the activities described in paragraph (1) occurring on that Internet site or portion thereof." to send a notice to payment networks (credit cards and paypal) and advertising networks (Google AdWords), and they must shut off their services to a website within 5 days. Afterwards both sides can go to court to get relief or further action, but the cutoff of money can happen with a form letter similar to a DMCA takedown. Of course, it's hard to pay for lawyers if all your income has been cut off. Actions to remove a site entirely from the web can be taken by the Justice Department once they have decided on their own (Section 102) that a site is comitting criminal copyright infringement. All they need is a judge to approve the action, and they can go to the site's service provider and have them shut down, before the site owner has a chance to respond. Site owners do have the ability to contest the takedown, but that is after the fact. Here is the text of the SOPA bill, it's incredibly twisted legalese, but feel free to verify what I said: SOPA Text
  21. Ganelon Darkfold wrote: Copyright laws need to change, because the world has changed since they were originally written. PIPA and SOPA aren't what's needed though. . . .What is needed is something that fairly protects creators at all levels from unfair/illegal use of their ideas. You are correct that the world has changed, and that is why your second sentence is impossible to implement. The old media (paper newspapers, books and magazines, movies on film shown in theaters, broadcast television and radio, vinyl records) all required expensive studios and printing/pressing/transmitting hardware. So only a few people could do it, and pirated copies were hard to make and easy to catch (try setting up a pirate radio station, for example). In the digital age in which we live in, every single one of those media types can be done with a computer and a few accessory devices (video camera, music keyboard). So instead of just a few being able to create and distribute media, it's pretty much all two billion internet users. Of course, a few people distribute stuff they did not create, wherein the problem lies. But the network cannot tell a photo of your cat from the latest Hollywood movie. That's because all the internet does, the sum total of it's function, is moving packets of data from one place to another. It doesn't know what those data packets mean. That only happens when some program loads the data and a human looks at it. So to prevent unauthorized copying, you would have to stop every single method of sending data, not just kill some websites. http is the protocol used for the Web, but in addtion there is email, ftp, udp, removable disks, thumb drives, wireless routers, and many other methods to move data. All of them can move both legal and illegal content. The way to address the problem is not acting like King Canute trying to hold back the tide. The way to catch commercial pirates and counterfeiters is to "follow the money". It has to get to them somehow, so trace the money and it will lead you to them. For the casual copiers who are not making money off it, do what iTunes, NetFlix, and Steam do: provide better service at a reasonable price, and people will be very happy to do business with you. For the hard core "will not pay for anything" group, they would never be your customer anyway. You have not lost any business from them, so stop worrying about them.
  22. Penny Patton wrote You are seriously misrepresenting the issue here. You are correct, Penny. The proposed law talks about "facilitates a violation" (SOPA section 103 B). That means having a marketplace so pirates can sell their stuff, enabling web links in local chat or by clicking an object so you can reach a pirate site. Facilitate means "making it easier to do something", and those features do in fact make it easier.
  23. 16 wrote: For purposes of this section, a foreign Internet site or portion thereof is a ‘‘foreign infringing site’’ if— (1) the Internet site or portion thereof is a U.S.-directed site and is used by users in the United States; (2) the owner or operator of such Internet site is committing or facilitating the commission of criminal violations punishable under section 2318, 2319, 2319A, 2319B, or 2320, or chapter 90, of 14 title 18, United States Code; and (3) the Internet site would, by reason of acts described in paragraph (1), be subject to seizure in the United States in an action brought by the Attorney General if such site were a domestic Internet site. Yes, I read the bill. Sec 102 (a) which you quoted, and I quoted above Second Life would fall under: Second Life is a foreign internet site, odd as that sounds, because it's domain name registrar, Ascio Technologies, is located in the UK, which meets the definitions in the law if you read it carefully (1) Second Life is a "US-Directed Site" because it meets definition (23), because it conducts business with US Residents. (2) Second Life likely facilitates criminal violations of Title 18 because copyright violations are probably larger than $2500 retail value in any six month period, which is what it take to qualify for criminal infringement. It only takes about 42 copies of a game character in a game that sells for $60 to reach that level. Second Life is not doing the selling itself, but it *facilitates* it by having a marketplace and having ways to cash out for the seller. (3) It's subject to seizure because it meets paragraph (1). The tricky part is they are defining "foreign infringing site" as meeting the above conditions, not "foreign" as normal people would understand it. It's a legal definition within the context of that section of the law, and makes no sense outside it. But just because it makes no sense to normal people would not excuse you from being prosecuted under it.
  24. Unfortunately, no. SOPA is backed by the movie industry, and how does every monster movie go? It lives again! SOPA Markup to Resume in February Though even Google has info against these bills on their front page/doodles today (Jan 18th). The risk is very real to Second Life. We all know stuff copied from games and movies is rampant in SL. All it takes is one complaint, and the Justice Department could vanish SL from the internet and cut off all credit card processing. Linden Lab could contest that in court, but the SOPA law allows the government takedown with no notice, which is what makes it so dangerous.
  25. I'm sorry you lost your files, Sae, but Linden Lab intentionally didn't allow for extracting mesh for two reasons: (1) to slow down people who want to steal other people's meshes, and (2) when it is uploaded, it's converted to an internal format, so it is no longer the Collada .dae file you uploaded. As Chosen mentioned, there *are* ways to extract model data, but since they can be used to steal other people's stuff, I won't give details either. I use a staged backup plan based on how important the files are. 3D models I sell and personal files (like photos) get the most backups. In order what I use are: * Original on my C: Drive * Copy of important folders onto external hard drive * Second copy of very important stuff onto my older, second computer * Third copy of the most important items onto Windows Skydrive. Yet another way to back things up is create an extra Gmail account, and mail the files to yourself. I don't use that because of the file size limits and total storage limits, but it's OK for smaller stuff. Any backup plan is useless if you don't actually follow it. If you are not good at following a plan manually, an automated system like RAID or an auto-backup program may work better for you. I do it manually, but I keep important files together in a folder and know to copy the entire folder around the 1st of each month.
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