Syle Devin

So I think I understand what you mean about high and low LoD. I am curious what would be considered need for use of High LoD then? Any oppinions on the build in the image, aside from the sl avatar which is only there for scale? Also I didn't realise it but it makes sense to remove parts of the mesh that wouldn't be seen from a certain distance. Such as the inside of the building could easily be removed because you wouldn't see it as soon as the camera is far enough outside of the building. Thanks for that.

What there is a limit to faces per mesh? What is that limit? Not that it bothers me to much since I already build as low vertice as possible with removing to many. I just worry it will be lower than my needs. Also thanks for the tip anyway. I have been trying to think of ways to not upload as one mesh since I am making it as one scene in blender. It just deends on how I go about exporting it when its done. Is it possible to export a single object in blender? Would I have to do it as I plan? My plan right now, unless an easier/better one comes up, is to save a back up and delete all other objects except for the ones I want to export. Also I am glad to see there is support for mesh from you char. Since I haven't been on sl this much in a couple of years I am used to not much linden feedback but I am glad to see that there feedback now.

So I am slightly confused from the last few posts on the topic. So I understand now that I can upload my own objects for low and medium LoD settings. Is it bad to have them all as the same model? The reason I as is because I already create objects with as low LoD as possible and so there is nothing more to remove. Is it safe to set them all to the highest my model is at? Though all I mostly care about, aside from upload costs and lag on behalf of the model, is that setting my own LoD would not have objects disappear immediately like they are. Would it save me from that? I take it then moving away to where medium LoD would usually show up, if I have the same model set for medium as I do high, nothing would change?

Ah this is all good to know. I didn't realize that there was an auto LoD generator, though how else would it be set if not automatically. Though how can I go about setting my own up so atleast nothing disapears immediately? Are there any good tutorials for setting LoD and physical shape for sl mesh or can I just search google with good results? Wish I could say I know how but I only know blender and have never needed to do anything of this before when making a model. So thanks to anyone who has responded, this has really been informative. Wish LL would make all this information known when you have to take that "test" to upload mesh. Though I may have just not seen that information.

I take it the reason seems appear are a little different than the reasons LoD distances might be extremely low or not?

Yes, it makes sense that the overall size being bigger would affect the cube. what I don't understand, if a mesh is still one object, why seperate parts of one mesh can have different LoD distances. As the second cube that had better LoD view distance was combined with another object that had horrible LoD even though it was the same single mesh.

Are you wanting to save it as a posable joint or just the head with teh mouth closed? If you have the head with the mouth closed, inside the program, than you should just be able to export that as a dae file. That is if I understand you correctly.

So i've been messing around with uploading meshes to make sure my current build will upload properly. Am I correct to see that 1 unit in blender is the same as 1 unit in second life? Also is there anyway anyone could explain the LoD of a mesh. I uploaded a cube straight from blender in second life and it has bad LoD. I upload that same cube with another object, smaller but with a lot more vertices, and it has an almost infinite view distnace. Keep in mind the second cube did not have any size changes or any more vertices. I only added an object so the mesh contained 2 objects instead of just the cube. Can anyone explain that to me? I can't make any sense of it and it is very important for me to know so I can make sure my build imports as best it can. Thank you

If you are willing to really work at it you could learn a program such as blender. It is free and open source and it works for making custom mesh avatars with custom bone structions. I personally could not tell you how to do it with the program but it is possible. With some learning of Blender you can make custom meshes and then add bones and weight to them. You would really need to learn how to import that into second life. I am not sure how that is done.

Ah yes, I understand the capabilities of saving prims with mesh. It is basically the same as trying to keep poly count low on a 3d model. If my understanding of the system is correct it seems the lower the poly the count the less $L the mesh needs to be uploaded and less land weight. So I havea basic understanding of that I just haven't messed around much with the upload quality and that. The balance between size, amount of polys, and having a far view distance. Thank you again for mentioning that test grid for mesh. I didn't know there was one, it will really help with making this building turn out.

I agree. If you force it upon them by turning something they may want into mesh than of course they may be more interested for mesh. If you cater to them and build non mesh items than I do not think there is much room to complain that people aren't adapting mesh as much as we would like.

Well thanks for that info. Seems it is ok enough to keep buildign with mesh. I am working with someone on making a working bowling alley. Right now mesh can make it look the best but if no one could see it than there would be no point fo rit to be mesh. So thank you for the info, gonna keep going ahead with making it in mesh. Seems enough will be able to see it at this point.

So I am trying to find out if it is worth it to make a whole building is mesh or just use the textures on prims. to give the look of a mesh. I really want to make the whole building in blender and then upload it but do enough people see meshes, and are meshses stable enough to make it worth it? It is also a lot less prims which I love but if people won't see it then it's pointless. Any advice? Edit: I am no where near new to the 3d world so I know what I am doing but I am newer to second life mesh. I have no real idea if meshes work well enough in world for buildings and such. I know they work well with clothing but not sure about naything else.