Braydon Randt

I had a similar, When i rezzed the item ... it was fine, when i wore it it went to crap. That was cause by the weights being applied at different times. so I am pretty certain your weighting is still slightly broken. I do know what you mean though. I started mesh a while ago to try it .. and completly forgot how to do sculpties. I modelled a mesh head and carried on building as normal in game, then went back to mesh and i couldnt remember anything. So I feel for you Nacy Bray

I still suspect it may be because of the bones being imported with it. There is a great tutorial on you tube by Ashasekayi Ra on rigging clothes for SL, so i wont cover the basics, but i dont believe that copying the bones into the upload will be bennifitial but copying bone weights will. Rigging is very smoke and mirrors but there are a few lessons to learn with it, and im still getting to grips with the tripfalls. Bray

its difficult to describe without appearing to be condesending 101, but....... I suspect the OP has clicked a face, and unwrapped that to a new image on each face, therefor giving 8 UV maps, confusing the hell out of it. I would offer the suggestion that the OP selected edge mode in blender highlighted the hexagon bottom face edges and selected Ctrl E and mark seam Highlight the hexagon top face edges and mark seam Highlight each of the vertical edges (all 6) and mark seams select all with A press U to open the Unwrap window and Unwrap I am sure the OP knows how to apply a material to each facebut in case they dont select one face with face select mode click the red marble in the properties (next to the texture button) Select a slot and click new Click assign And repeat untill all faces are material mapped as required. Bray

A question Nacy, Did you copy bone weights ? and also did you accidently include the bones in your upload ? Bray

I respectfully disagree Kwakkelde, You dont have to bake any texture, only have to make the UV map with materials applied to each face. When you bring that into SL you can apply a different texture to each face as it has different materials. Bray

hi there, Im not sure i can see any seams in your mesh, especially as highlighting one face you ended up with your UV window being filled will just a large square. Ive quickly modelled a hexigon using a plane and extruding it so it only has 20 vertices (10 faces) which is the minimum i can get away with did the seams and unwrapped it. See picture below of Mesh and UV Unwrapping. So i suspect its your UV unwrapping thats at fault. Each face doesnt have its own UV Map, if you do that you will have troubles as you have found but if you mark your seams along one edge and then up each side, you will be able to unwrapp as above. If you assign a material to each of the edge faces and then a material to the top and bottom faces you will be able to texture accordingly. As blender doesnt support NGons you will still have to break it down to two quadrangles rather than 6 triangles. Happy Blending Bray

Do we asume then that LL are going to be adding to the contribution from the community or is it a " errm Karl, we know we sacked you .. and we know that you are doing this for your client the SL community at large, but do you think we can jump on this bandwagon"

ok .... care of the wiki .. its as such for question 1 LOD 3-0 - 42 Meters LOD 2-42- 166.67m LOD 1-166.67 - 333.3m LOD 0-333.3 + Question 2 SL sees anything as an asset with a UUID, so if you use the same texture , it will only see it as a UUID and apply accordingly. of course thats for base textures that have nothing not even shadows. Question 3 This is where it gets a bit sketchy, as UV Unwrapping is an art in itself, but I have found that it is dependent on the software you use as to how it handles UV's. For ecample , I created a Low poly version and UV Unwrapped it , then i just copied that and added more detail, the base UV will still work on the lower model and the higher model. that way I was able to texture a high rez model and the low poly moly was able to handle the texture. This is how i handle it , others may vary depending on experience, skill and of course the software package. Regards Bray

Hi Emily, the best place to start is learning just to model, because with anything , it doesnt matter what the software is wether it be blender, zbrush or maya to name but a few .. you have to look at things such as topology of the models, UV unwrapping, Texturing then of course theres rigging and skinning. Theres no absolute tutorial to do things from start to finish but I always found that Blendercookie was excellent, followed by blender guru. theres also a good tutorial on youtube by David Ward called Johnny Blender which i think is an excellent start to blender and teaches you all the basics. Good Luck Bray

ok this isnt really a critique, but i am making a medieval style outfit from mesh, I was curious as to what kind of vertices count is ideal. I have done a Tunic, Belt, Pouch, hood and am currently doing the arms and am touching about 2500 which isnt bad as upload costs are around the L$18 and 15 PE. I have baked textures using a multirezzed version to the lower UV hense the folds etc , anyway heres a pic to see. I was curious as to what is the ideal... it seams to move ok in world and isnt too expensive and considering its essentially the load of three sculpties im thinking its ok.

ok.. I have been making my jacket, and i have a belt on the jacket. Its 2 items thats been joined as a single mesh and uploaded in Blender 2.59. Its been weighted as per the copy bone weight script and for some reason when i rez the jacket the belt appears, but when i wear the jacket no belt. When i try to upload it through the 2.49 collada exporter .. the belt is there on the worn jacket. Is there something that im doing wrong, or something somebody else has experienced with joined meshes. i.e is the belt rezzing somewhere different to the jacket or is it just blowing it away? Please help as ive been up to 6am swearing at it. Thanks

Ok.... just messing with meshes for a change, and i decided to do some work in blender 2.6, I exported the test item in 2.6 and was presented with the joy pictured I thought this was strange, and attempted to upload it with various different settings etc to no avail, so i opened the mesh in Blender 2.49 and exported it in that.... and I got this Now aside that its just the early stage development of a tunic so the weight painting on the arms is a bit iffy and there seams to be a strange distortion at the bottom of the jacket opening has anybody else suffered a similar issue with blender 2.6 native collada exporter or is it something imm doing wrong? any advice would be appreciated. Bray

Quick Question, Is Aditi still active, as when i try to log into there it just says " login Failed, Unable to connect to a simulator" ? Gracias

that was my whole statement base medhue, that we should look at what the cost is overall ... as to most lost vertices are not really any problem of theres.. its not efficiant by any way possible and sculpties are actually far more cooler in the fact that they work how they do, and when you can do things with sculpties .. mesh is like 10 times easier. But its still hard to think .. if you make something for 100L$ you can for example cost 70l$ in uploads ... and in some respects .. that mesh object can be made a lot less ..

this is what i was looking at hearing, it wasnt a case of mesh bashing , as i really do think its a positive move forward I was looking at what can be acheived and its main differences, not the technicality as i said with regards to wasted vertices etc.... but more over the general "feel" of it. this is something i made with sculpties and only 7 prims but working in mesh, and its by no means a comparison I did a head, which was one of my first mesh items away from sculpties, but it wasnt for SL

i always upload my sculpts with phoenix so temps till i get it right

Nacy, thank you for your reply. I have been in SL since 2006, and have ran two successfull building ventures and currently i can build with mesh just fine, i am also a scripter and I am not asking "why am i forced to use meshes" what I am asking is what is the actual bennefit.  I am quite confident in my ability to make an optimized mesh object with blender. Yet I watched a tutorial this evening on mesh optimization and uploading additional LOD objects to replace the rather lackluster LL LOD implementation. I feel that this additional cost to eqaute to what you would get by using a sculpty is a false economy of time and effort. Or at the very least in my eyes its more of a punitive messure for bad modelling, of course a bad model is never wanted either in a commercial game development enviroment or second life, yet as i stated in the original post this is not about vertices because in that argument ... you create one sculpty and yes its wastefull of vertices, i agree whole heartedly, but you pay your 10L$ and that it. Yet with a mesh object you will work harder and longer to drag down those unecessery vertices which i agree is good practice, yet the rewards for such are not so apparent to justify 4 uploads for LOD, 1 upload for texture and a prim equivilant that unless you are extreamly clever and dont have high expectations for detail will equate to that of a sculpty. I want to use mesh, yet as a clothing maker, it is limited..... and any business in second life will tell you ... you have to look at overheads in production so I am trying to analyse how making in mesh would be a bennefit to the overall product. And with respect I dont accept "qaulity" as being something that can be argued. which is why i also stated that arguments such as qaulity were not in question. A sculpty is far more efficiant as a streamed item over that of a mesh as it is only a texture that can be squeezed down to a minimal size in comparison to that of a mesh object. therefor .... it is more costly to home that object on the server side, and yes meshes are easier to manipulate in your 3d app that you choose to use but in these economicly stunted times additional costs as a builder .. are pushed through to your customers and customers who allready smart or resent paying those costs ( and yes .. i do get asked why i charge more than 20L for an item) you really do need to look at the end result. I have yet to see a situation where one strides over the other in terms of functionality so it comes down to cost. or rather the implimentation of mesh by LL making it expensive by default... as I stated earlier I have been in SL since 2006 and have owned a sim, yadda yadda so i have no issues in paying my way in life nor do i expect free ... what i expect is for LL to impliment tools that complimentry to SL, rather than trying to shoehorn industry standard tools into a non standard enviroment, maybe if mesh was available pre sculpty then the query would be null and void. As for creating usefull UV's I can texture most items and am not in the world of " photo source" products so I have to hand draw everything and have become quite used to working with the flattened mess that sculpties give you. But the question is .... what is the advantages ? rather than singing the praises of either mesh or sculpties. I am not a fanboy for either, mesh was introduced to be competitive with other 3d world enviroments yet in its current state it does not support any of the 3d "tricks" to make those low poly models into good looking items such as bump mapping. So i was curious as to why if i dont get hit for waisting vertices in a sculpty why would i use mesh to get a similar result where i would get hit or in deed have to pay 4 times for efficiancy or suffer a prim load. becuase in the world of sl ... prims = land, land = money or .... efficiancy = lindens and lindens = money. and allthough you are indeed right the costs have not gone up, yet people are expecting sl to be free from start to finish and in deed building the better mouse trap does not gaurantee capturing the mouse only that it the complexity of the machinery gives more oportunity for failure 

that was my question though, Not to highlike things that im being tight fisted etc. and as i said i am more than capable with mesh objects, i was more interested in the logistics of mesh over a sculpt. and why LL isnt making it more user friendly with things like LOD, or at least allowing you to upload your own LOD models as part of your upload, they should reward you for making things better as currently it feels like a chastisment for lowering PE with the additional upload costs

yes, but its not wether you can make one item that looks ok ... its wether or not its cost effective and to coin an old phrase about linux " its only free , if your time has no value"

ive played with clothes development with mesh in SL, and it was so restricted, i just didnt see the point other than accessories. But i spend a lot of time making and tweeking my textures for sculpties even applying baked normals etc within Blender, Yet before I leap over to making items in mesh ( those said accessories) I just find it hard to consider a more expensive time consuming way other than sculpties. Of course if there is further developments down the line fair enough such as dynamic bump mapping etc. but that can also be applied to sculpties UNLESS that said bumpmapping is places on a different texture layer therefor making ye olde prims virtually incompatible.

ok, the same question has been asked many times, so i figured why not ask it again seeing that mesh is now here and is being pushed heavily. This is not a technical question over streaming, or vertices etc but more a realist question of why use a mesh when a sculpt will work just as well. I know there will be " because it can have 8 texture faces .... yadda yadda" but in the real use situation, if you create in SL I have watched various tutorials for the implimentation of mesh and it seams as though 1. It costs more in uploads 2. mostly i costs more in prims 3. in order to combat item 2 you should do your own LOD version there for costing more in time and money. You really cant state things like " its faster" as in real use terms its not or " its better" as also in real terms a sculpty is a mesh of sorts so ... in real terms it isnt. I can do mesh objects and have done out of SL, i just find the uploading of various LOD factors and a lot of work to acheive what can be done as sculpties, cheaper, faster and with less PE loading. Please can somebody just enlighten me, other than making a hole in something, or throwing away 500 vertices to try and make a UV that isnt totally distorted why are meshes the holy grail ? and why should i be using them over sculpties

I also sale to the gorean market as my main business, yet gorean is a dirty word because its only goreans that have sex in sl. As we all know .. vampirism is the new abstinance sector. When i came to Sl in 2006, there was gambling, sex, clubs and all manner of ADULT behavour..... because SL was an ADULT place. We all know that kids were on the main grid. As we all know that age verification doesnt work as my friend used his wifes passport to verify and it passed him fine despite him being 37, so it doesnt check diddly squat, Running 2 grids cant be efficiant use of resources. So somethings i do understand. but ........ whats happened? I see there being a few problems here 1. LL attempting to make Sl politically correct to everyone from cradle to grave This isnt a particuly good thing, as sell christian the muslins get upset, sell muslim the hindus get upset, sell sex and the god fearing book bashers get upset. You cant gamble .... as it leads people to being crack addicts and prostitutes. 2. Changes in market Place Does anybody remember when hotmail WASNT owned by Microsoft, spam was rare, you never got offered viagra or university diplomas. Of course you change owners... and it looses that responsibility when its deep in corporate business tratergy. Because you cant use certain words in marketplace .... you say " COMMING SOON!!!" its mature why ... because it could be really saying " cumming" so the adult filter applies regardless, there are ways to bypass the filter..... but u sat there.. and was curious why my medieval dress was mature/adult yet there was a advert for a virtually naked av in general as they had put stars over the nipples and the girly bits. it was ONE word ... gorean that made it dirty.... not what it was, not what it was selling. .. just the word. 3. Sales .... as in 20L days, 25L days .. 30L days .. etc etc. Everyone has devalued their own products by joining sales days. I know i have been approached for 20L Mondays, 25L tuesdays, 40L Wednesdays, 50L Fridays and 30L Saturdays. I am a designer, i dont use templates, I am a blender modeler and reguly spend over L$600 - L$1000 on upload costs, yet many of my peers and friends will spend virtually every days throwing outfits together for the various sales days throughout the week. Do i feel that the item ive created ... that took 2 weeks with texturing and modeling time and L$1000 in upload fees is worth L$500 HELL YES I DO!!!. Not that my things are better ... but my time isnt free, i dont expect SL to pay my rent , but i do expect not to be asked " when will you be selling it for L$30?" We have set outselves up for cheep bargain seekers, when its got to be free ... or next to free 4. "Can anybody lend me $L100 till tommorow..... ?" This about says itself......... Sl opened the doors for more people with no intent on purchasing lindens, or designing their own products to sell. Costs havnt gone down for business, yet what the customers are able to pay .. maybe thats changed All in all ....... their could be a multitude of reasons why SL sales are down, all i know is that when LL messed with the market place... i lost nearly all my sales for three days. I know items that arnt mature or adult were forced into those areas .. yet naked avs looking like vegas showgirls are so clearly listed as "general" Teir isnt less just because LL has reduced your customer base by introducing children to an adult world. Those like me who are a parent RL, will realise that your kids swear when you arnt there ..... they know more about sex than many adults .... this is NOT caused by SL, this is caused by society in general good or bad isnt the point , but i dont WANT to be "nannied" ... i dont want to be " protected" I agreed to the TOS when i joined sl .. that said I AM AN ADULT!!!!! FFS LINDEN LAB ... treat me LIKE AN ADULT!!! ...

I feel ya on this... Its effected everyone i know, and as i sell to what LL depict as ADULT aka .. the RP markets even if it has no sex, nudity or choice words its automatically depicted as adult.. If LL INSIST that kids should be intergral to all the areas that adults are, then would it not be wiser to make sure that the marketplace is part of the login process in order to make sure that you can only view those items. I know that many people search and only login when it comes to purchase. I have lost 80% of my sales over the last 4 days..... Its easier to view porn on the net with no restrictions than it is to buy a dress on marketplace. so the solution... Linden Lab .. Please make the marketplace only acceable after log on, or else all your methods of it remembering what your choice was ... is useless if you exclude 95% of your vendors because general is the default.

looks like a trash thingy

I think you misunderstand me Daniel, Im not suggesting that we upload a prim replacement.. i was refering to the general file size in comparison. 4k for 10L is cost prohibative.