Bind avatar to actual model geometry...

[TzunCet Xomotron]

Hello all, hope everything is well and working in your favor as you read this =)

I finally got the Mesh Viewer Beta installed and working, and have found an awesome combo in workflow using 3DCoat, Hexagon, ZBrush and Carrara... It will be very exciting when it's finally released.

One thing I wanted to know how to do w/ the current version bind the character/avater to the physical geometry of the imported model. In the video tutorial by Machinimatrix, they use a method in which he changes a setting to a prim, but the current version does not allow or have this option. This process refers to the part in the video tutorial when the lady attempts to stand on the lighthouse, but falls through, and checks the mesh geometry using the develop>render metadata>shape feature. Also to note, they used some technique in which he dragged/dropped the geometry info onto a tetrahedron?!? My models, when imported/uploaded do not create a "Mesh" folder, so again, this was an option that was not available to me.

Also, since I'm here and asking, are there any rules/restrictions/guidelines to follow w/ regards to the textures?!? Best format to use? Best size? Any do's and donts, pros and cons to be aware of?!?

Any advice that could be offered would be of immense help and greatly appreciated =)

[linkin Slate]

If your  importing them correctly you should have a mesh folder  in there is more a text file of your mesh i belive, and then  in your object folder is a mesh you can  drag drop directly to  ground, or wear, not understanding about the rest your trying to explain about, and as for the textures  you can set up to 8 textures to a mesh  object and up to 1024 in size, for example a  avatar mesh you can set seport textures for head   arms  hand feet legs and middle all being up to 1024, this seems to work best as a full av mesh with 1 texture  is hard to get alot of detail on, blender and zbrush you can, set for multiply textures, im sure most 3d programs you can , it all depends on how much detail you want 1024 is over kill for alot of things,

[Nalates Urriah]

You can get a quick take on SL Mesh by checking out Gaia's blog, Machinimatrix.org.

The viewer and server code that supports mesh is still changing. One big change has been the removal of the Mesh Asset from inventory. See: Second Life Mesh Status Week 16

You need to use the Mesh Viewer Snapshot (nightly) to play with the latest changes. The ambiguity between whether updates and news appears in the Forums or the Wiki is confusing and updates seem haphazard. So, the information in the Wiki is mix of current and out of date. The viewer provided for download at: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh is an old one. It is ok for viewing mesh on the Preview Grid, but it does ot have the latest mesh uploader, AFAIK. You'll see the Dev Snapshot at the bottom of viewers download list.

The current speculation is we may see mesh go on the Release Channels in June... but, that is total speculation. Lindens are not saying. The Mesh Status article has some more info.

[Drongle McMahon]

The falling is not about binding the avatar to anything. It's about using different kinds of physics shape for the mesh. The uploader generates a default convex hull shape for all meshes. This is rather like a shrink wrap around it, but with no concave parts (no vacuum inside, no twisting*). This is used by default when the uploaded object is rezzed. The avatar in the tutorial slid down the part of this that went from the rim of the platform to the top of the model, eliminating the flat platform.

There is a Physics Shape Type selection drop-down on the Features tab of the edit dialog. If you have not made an explicit physics shape, this will offer only Convex Hull and None. There is no simple way to change this so you can stand on the platform. It is possible by linking transparent prims as the root and setting the shape type to None.

However, if you have provided a physics shape mesh, then the additional option Prim will be there. Choosing this will use the physics shape of specified by the mesh.  It is best if you have used the Analyse option (which may eventually be applied by default), which breaks the provided physics mesh down into a set of convex hullls.These can include a flat platform that you can stand on. Suitably specified, they also allow you to walk inside buildings.

The complexity of these must be kept low to avoid excessive physcs costs charged ahgainst the parcel allowance, especially for small objects. This often depends on making a suitable mesh just for the physics, rather than using one of the LOD meshes. It takes a bit of work trying alternatives and looking at the results in the uploader to learn how to do this effectively. For simple shapes without too many details, the LOD meshes may give acceptable results.

* it is actually the maximum set of vertices that can touch a large flat surface without any other vertices penetrating the surface.

 

[TzunCet Xomotron]

Thank you all for your responses, it is appreacted =)

Seems that most of the problems are from my not having the correct version. Instead of getting into all of that, how would I make these setting adjustments with the version I am using now... A lot of the options and features that were/are refered to in the tutorials are either not present in the version I am using or are grayed out.

So how would I provide a physics shape?!? The prim option was NOT available for me to use, and the analize option was grayed out. I couldnt make heads or tails between the two different UI's, there are HUGE changes in them.

I have installed and am using version 2.6.3 (226799) =/

[Drongle McMahon]

I'm using 22664. Can't find 226799 and current is 227031, but all should be the same for this. 

At the top of the physics tab, you have to either: [1] select Use Level of Detail and choose one (You have to actually choose it. Even though it says Lowest at first, it isn't selected until you do); or [2] load a physics mesh by clicking the Browse button and choosing your file.

When you have done one of these, the physics mesh should appear superimposed on the preview and the Analyze button should un-grey. When the analysis is done, you should see the hulls instead of the mesh (no diagonals) in nice pastel colours distinguishing each hull.

The number of hulls and the number of hull vertices will be shown at the bottom. You can use the Preview Spread slider to explode the view so that you can see the individual hulls better.

For now, the physics prim-cost of the hulls will be at least 0.04*(number of hulls + number of vertices), although this is very likely to change as costs are still being adjusted. So you can see that it may be important to get as few hulls/vertices as low as possible, to keep the physics cost below the streaming cost if you can, and, more important, to minimize the load on the sim's physics engine.

At the moment, you can still upload a physics mesh without decomposition, although that is likely to replaced by a default hull. The non-hull physics will usually, but not always, be considerably more expensive. It will also mean the cost changes inversely with size, and can get extremely large (quite easily greater than a sim-full).

[TzunCet Xomotron]

I have since updated the Mesh Viewer and am having great success w/ my imports and keeping costs down (or at least understanding how to control cost to some degree w/i SL).

However, after a great amount of finagling I was able to see that when I use the analyze, that the model will not import. After a drag/drop, I hear the rattlesnake, but see no model I can interact with. So I can't help but feel I may still be doing something wrong =/

So what I am doing is importing the model, setting my LOD, selecting the same LOD in Physics, and that produces an acceptable result.

Note that in the other Viewer, the LOD would also determine the quality of the texture imported w/ the model, doesn't seem to be an issue w/ the latest update, which is awesome...

The help and advice is appreciated thank you =)

When this goes live, expect a lot of cross application terminolgy chaos and workflow requests =P

[Drongle McMahon]

There is a problem with rezzing models with decomposed physics shapes, exactly as you describe. It is very elusive because it changes with time and with region. I spent a whole day trying to make a reproducible case, but did not succeed. If you try the failing object again, on another region, on another day, or sometimes just a few minutes later, it works. Then it stops again. It tends to be worse the more complex the decomposed shape is, but that's all I could find out. It does not affect undecomposed shapes at all. This has stopped me working seriously for some time. I think the developers know about it and hope for a fix soon.

[TzunCet Xomotron]

Many thanks for the help... If it's a SL side glitch, I can live w/ it =P

So long as I can bring the cost down on my imported models, I am ok for now...