Migrating from IMVU..

I'm trying to explore and make my way over here after about a year of developing on IMVU. I'm a member of the Developers' Guild over there, and a lot of people are looking to go else ware, as well as possible expansion of the guild to include other virtual worlds. I gotta say, I"m not even sure where to begin.. there are some people who have already moved over, and some who exist in both worlds.. So I guess I'm looking for advice on moving over, the kinds of differences, and perspective on learning to develop here while already possessing decent skills with graphic manipulation programs. The worlds are very different, but I'm sure there are skills that carry over, right? So I guess I want to ask if anyone who has developed for IMVU as well has any advice, and what makes SL different/special from the other virtual worlds?

Hi, Maggiedoll!

You can expect the following differences on SL as opposed to IMVU:

- SL has no "predits", "developer tokens" or anything like that. LL does give out promotional credits but they are regular L$, the same as the ones that are paid for. All the income you make is in L$ and can be sold for real money if you choose.

- Making clothes on SL is (I think) quite similar to making them on IMVU, in that they're based on textures. However, making 3D objects is quite different, because they're made with SL's internal tool set. You can use external 3D software to make "sculpties", but there are limits on what can be done with them, and you still need to use SL's tool set to link them together.

- The hosting model is different. In IMVU - I think - everyone has their own free-floating space, and its contents are downloaded to everyone participating in the chat and then that is it. In SL everything is centrally hosted, so most individuals share their space on a server with others (and this corresponds to being near to each other in the world). The unfortunate consequence of this is that users have to pay based on the amount of hosting they consume, which means that users actually have to pay a higher subscription if they have a physically larger house, or if they have a large number of objects (measured in "primitives" - 3D building blocks) in it. This means that items designed to use a low number of primitives, or houses designed to increase perceived space but not physical space, tend to be popular. So you can do some Feng Shui too!

- Scripting! Second Life objects can have embedded scripts to make them interactive or to create effects such as particle bursts, objects changing/appearing/disappearing, and so on.

Okay, well, on the topic of clothing, on IMVU clothing textures are made as .jpg files, with separate files to control opacity. From what I've seen, it looks like clothing creation is done using graphics files that include their own alpha channels, is that correct?

What about the scripting? I've been hearing that you have to be really careful in-world to avoid picking up malicious scripts.. What all can scripting do? Is the scripting language comparable to any others? Can anyone recommend any good tutorials on scripting?

What about avatar animations? Is that done through scripting? How difficult are simple animations to create?

There is a huge difference between IMVU and SL. With this said we can move on.

Clothing/Skin/some Building Textures / some Hair upload as .tga 24/32 depending on alpha
Scripting close to RL c++ even if some Guys wanna tell you it's not. Some Scripter even mix LSL with PHP however yes there are tutorials bring a lot of time if you wanna learn it in future.
Animations can be done by Poser, Maya , Avanimator (free if I'm not wrong) or div. in world tools sold for xxxxx thousands.


But what I want to say is, if you have not really RL skills you will not make any money in SL. Fact some people spend here over 20 hours in game to make a very good living concentrated on a whole bunch of different products and categories. Its easy to switch from SL to IMVU but hard from IMVU to SL. Good Luck with that

Tip : Read the Building & Texturing as the Animation Forums. Have a look on Natalie's blog she make awesome new Resident Tutorials ( no url sorry do a search on goggle ) Inworld we have particle tower with good Tutorials or just give some Universities a try. youtube got some tutorials too if you search for em. that should get ya started.

If I've created my own shape, is it possible to load that into the second life clothes previewer to use while I work on my skin? (Yes, I've heard that second life skinning is more difficult than it is on IMVU.. but I can't run around in someone else's skin! I have no problem with sitting here for 30 hours making a skin that's me.. the idea of wearing someone else's skin just doesn't work for me!)

Edit: so far as ability to move from IMVU to SL, I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised in the near future at the level of talent IMVU developers possess, as more members of the guild start to make their way into this world. We have some very talented and creative people that I think will really thrive in Second Life..

Another edit:
http://pictures.maggiedoll.com/albums/userpics/firstpic.jpg
Yea, looks monsterish so far.. just got started, though..

Third edit:
Oh, and does that mean I can make ghostly skins just by making the same files semi-transparent??

No.


http://eloheliot.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-psds-let-me-show-u-them.html
Take those for a start, they are licensed under the BSD license.


No. The default skin will shine through the semi transparent parts of the textures. A skin doesn not have to have a texture, some skins have transparent parts in the face to allow the user to change the colour of the makeup or all three textures are semi transparent to allow changing of the colour.

Main thing on textures for skins are the shades that model the schoulders, the spine and other things and the highlights. Be carefull not to make it look like wet plasic, that's achieved easier with the well known body oil.

cu
ALeco

Clothing in SL is usually made as a .TGA file with an alpha channel, yes. It may also have prim parts.



It's kind of hard to list all the things you can do with scripting! You might like to look at the Scripting Tips forum here. The scripting language is very vaguely like C.



Avatar animations are .BVH files. There are resident-made tools, such as Avimator, to create them, or you can use Poser (which is commercial, however).

Do you know what other programs would do poses? Just look for anything that can export in .bvh files? or are there specific exporters or importers?
I did take a peek at some scripting info, it looks like fun! I'd been saying I needed to learn a programming language.. 'tis rediculous that I can't program, my mom was getting her masters in comp sci while she was pregnant with me! here's one I can put to immediate use! I find that most scripting languages still aren't all that different from programming a graphic calculator, lol. This is gonna be fun!!

Yeah, skills, tools, and experience are all important- and I'm sure this is true in IMVU development as well. But like all art forms, the most essential ingredients to a successful design or product are vision, patience, and time.

It's funny I had actually thought about going the other direction, expanding from SL to IMVU. However after about 15 minutes I realized IMVU was about as compelling as a plate of left over spaghetti left unwrapped in the fridge. Coming from IMVU to SL, I think you're going to be both impressed and frustrated. SL is much more open-ended, meaning you have greater say in the Whats, Wheres, and Hows of creation. However, it's also much more open-ended, which means there are a zillion ways to mess up and fail too.

I'm a by-coaster, lol.

In my on-season when stuck at work twiddling my thumbs I focus on IMVU as I can make test and and sell products without being logged into the client.

In Summer (and Halloween and X-mas because you HAVE to be here then) I focus my time in SL when I can relax and have fun making and testing things and not have the RL work distraction.

Ive found both very similar and also very different.
I HATE the IMVU client, so i wouldn't say I use it, I just make stuff for it and find that aspect enjoyable. If I want to chat or hang out its all SL. I would imagine most rabid SLers will also find the IMVU system far too limiting for actual use.

IMVU and SL have similar issues with design theft and such, however SL doesn't have the issue of a mixed age grid and item rating which is really nice not to have to deal with.

Anhoo, if ya need someone who is versed in both systems let me know,

Step 1> Stop playing IMVU, stop it! Stop that! Tssst!

Okay, your best friends?

http://wiki.secondlife.com

Also check out a blog called the Mermaid Diaries, there's tons of tutorials there on clothes making and all kinds of stuff, not just girly stuff.

Check out the Ivory Tower inworld, its an interactive building tutorial.

Go from there, the wiki lists several resources for designers of various things.

I must reiterate though, stop playing IMVU! Tssst!

^_^