Second Life Forums Archive - New Implementation

Drizzt Naumova

Teh Foxeh DJ

Join date: 9 Oct 2005

Posts: 116

07-24-2006 12:33

If at all possible..this would be a truly helpful not to mention creative addition to SL. Check this page here for info....
http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/#Metaballs

notice the "skulls" there? the positive meatballs..err Metaballs are the smoothed connected spheres...the negative metaballs are spheres that are making up the eyes. aka spheres that are invisible and are used to literally punch a hole into a positive metaball...also..on a side note...2 negative metaballs will tend to attract each other thus strecting to reach a nearby negative metaball. This is of course a bryce 4 and 5 ability..but just thought it would be worth looking into as an implementation into sl. could broaden some building abilites as well ans simplify other building methods.

Any thoughts and or feedback welcome

*edit*
Just some more examples of creativity using metaballs:
http://www.daz3d.com/support/tutorial/printable.php?id=1479
and also what 2 negative metaballs do as far as "attracting" one another:
http://www.metafex.net/cinefex/tutorials/metaballs/

Argent Stonecutter

Emergency Mustelid

Join date: 20 Sep 2005

Posts: 20,263

This has already been brought up.

07-24-2006 14:41

This is what's called Constructive Solid Geometry.

LL has said that they know about it but it's not as easy as it seems because there are meshes you can create with it that cause all kinds of problems for some OpenGL implementations.

I wish they'd try anyway.

Drizzt Naumova

Teh Foxeh DJ

Join date: 9 Oct 2005

Posts: 116

07-24-2006 18:09

From: Argent Stonecutter

This is what's called Constructive Solid Geometry.

LL has said that they know about it but it's not as easy as it seems because there are meshes you can create with it that cause all kinds of problems for some OpenGL implementations.

I wish they'd try anyway.

Yes, you and both, as it would bring forth some interesting and for some builds, seamless conjoining of prim. Imagine no seams in a build..seamless custom avys etc....ahh the thought of it just makes me happy

Haravikk Mistral

Registered User

Join date: 8 Oct 2005

Posts: 2,482

07-25-2006 02:51

It would be awesome, currently I have things built with lots of spheres which would look awesome if they merged seemlessly.
I suppose the overall geometry of an object would have to be calculated to optimise it (so that there are no issues with the parts that intersect or whatever), thus restricting it to linked sets (no free floating prims sticking to each other that way).
Once the geometry's been calculated it can be sent to client, or the clients can compute it themselves when the object appears and then ignore the individual prims (except when editing where they'd be visible as normal)? Probably the latter as complicated builds could take a while to send, especially if they're being updated a lot (e.g by script).

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Argent Stonecutter

Emergency Mustelid

Join date: 20 Sep 2005

Posts: 20,263

07-25-2006 07:44

The client would best calculate the geometry... it's got the computational resources to do it easily, and the calculated geometry is likely to be bulkier than the prims so there's no savings in uploading it and caching it on the sim.

You'd probably want to cull the smoothing pretty heavily, though, based on the visible size of the object... don't run the smoothing algorithm on something until its bounding box is more than some noticable percentage of the screen (but don't throw the info away either).

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New Implementation - Metaballs

New Implementation - Metaballs
Drizzt Naumova Teh Foxeh DJ Join date: 9 Oct 2005 Posts: 116	07-24-2006 12:33 If at all possible..this would be a truly helpful not to mention creative addition to SL. Check this page here for info.... http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/#Metaballs notice the "skulls" there? the positive meatballs..err Metaballs are the smoothed connected spheres...the negative metaballs are spheres that are making up the eyes. aka spheres that are invisible and are used to literally punch a hole into a positive metaball...also..on a side note...2 negative metaballs will tend to attract each other thus strecting to reach a nearby negative metaball. This is of course a bryce 4 and 5 ability..but just thought it would be worth looking into as an implementation into sl. could broaden some building abilites as well ans simplify other building methods. Any thoughts and or feedback welcome edit Just some more examples of creativity using metaballs: http://www.daz3d.com/support/tutorial/printable.php?id=1479 and also what 2 negative metaballs do as far as "attracting" one another: http://www.metafex.net/cinefex/tutorials/metaballs/
Argent Stonecutter Emergency Mustelid Join date: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 20,263	This has already been brought up. 07-24-2006 14:41 This is what's called Constructive Solid Geometry. LL has said that they know about it but it's not as easy as it seems because there are meshes you can create with it that cause all kinds of problems for some OpenGL implementations. I wish they'd try anyway.
Drizzt Naumova Teh Foxeh DJ Join date: 9 Oct 2005 Posts: 116	07-24-2006 18:09 From: Argent Stonecutter This is what's called Constructive Solid Geometry. LL has said that they know about it but it's not as easy as it seems because there are meshes you can create with it that cause all kinds of problems for some OpenGL implementations. I wish they'd try anyway. Yes, you and both, as it would bring forth some interesting and for some builds, seamless conjoining of prim. Imagine no seams in a build..seamless custom avys etc....ahh the thought of it just makes me happy
Haravikk Mistral Registered User Join date: 8 Oct 2005 Posts: 2,482	07-25-2006 02:51 It would be awesome, currently I have things built with lots of spheres which would look awesome if they merged seemlessly. I suppose the overall geometry of an object would have to be calculated to optimise it (so that there are no issues with the parts that intersect or whatever), thus restricting it to linked sets (no free floating prims sticking to each other that way). Once the geometry's been calculated it can be sent to client, or the clients can compute it themselves when the object appears and then ignore the individual prims (except when editing where they'd be visible as normal)? Probably the latter as complicated builds could take a while to send, especially if they're being updated a lot (e.g by script). _____________________ Computer (Mac Pro): 2 x Quad Core 3.2ghz Xeon 10gb DDR2 800mhz FB-DIMMS 4 x 750gb, 32mb cache hard-drives (RAID-0/striped) NVidia GeForce 8800GT (512mb)
Argent Stonecutter Emergency Mustelid Join date: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 20,263	07-25-2006 07:44 The client would best calculate the geometry... it's got the computational resources to do it easily, and the calculated geometry is likely to be bulkier than the prims so there's no savings in uploading it and caching it on the sim. You'd probably want to cull the smoothing pretty heavily, though, based on the visible size of the object... don't run the smoothing algorithm on something until its bounding box is more than some noticable percentage of the screen (but don't throw the info away either).