Prims to Desktop?

Is there a way to download prim builds made in SL to desktop and converted to Polygon meshes? Am only referring to full perm works not works from other creators....

I heard the Meerkat viewer does something like that. I haven't tried it, but I am interested to heard about it's results.

Meerkat Viewer will let you record builds YOU created, and stores them on your drive as .xml files and downloaded textures. You can then go to another sim, or even another grid (OpenLife, for example), and can re-create that build with a single command.

I don't know if it gets scripts. I do know it will NOT work on anything you didn't create, and it WILL work on things that you created, but which you no longer own. (Handy if you deeded the original to a group or sold it to a client.

Sound nice and all but then how to convert XML to 3D meshes for 3dsMax or other 3d application?

To extract meshes you need to use a program like OGRE that can pull data from the OpenGL mesh on your video card.

Forgive the non-techie in me but what does that about the meshes mean? I know, for example, our world is a mesh but does this translate then to i could download a prim i built, go to OpenLIfe, for example and still need another sort of in between program to be able to rezz it in that world?

And- Meerkat viewer - more info please - TIA

It means if you want to take a build in SL and import it to a 3d editong program yo need to extract the mesh (the surface, if you like) of the objects, and the easiest way to do that is to actually render them in SL and use a program to pull the rendered model out of your video card.

OGLE: http://ogle.eyebeamresearch.org/#

Here's a company that uses this to build 3d miniatures of your SL characters: http://www.fabjectory.com/secondlife/#

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Argent is the coolest ferret I've ever met...err seen on a message board.

/me rubs the ferret's belly happily.

If you intend to use the resulting meshes in 3ds Max, then you can also use MaxPort, part of the PrimComposer plugin. It will download prims (including sculpted prims) from any build you have created and own, and store it in an Xml format that can then be imported into Max.

From there, you have the choice to continue working with it as a prim-based build (PrimComposer simulates all of the prim tools in Max), or you can turn it into a regular Editable Mesh or Editable Poly object.

It's a *fantastic* way to work on your legacy builds offline and still retain the ability to re-import them to OpenSim or SecondLife, and I highly recommend it.

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If you can afford the US$4,000 + for 3DS max, then this is definitely the way to go. But, for us poor souls whose budget extends to Blender, or other 3D freeware apps, is there any tool for getting prims into something editable in the standard 3D world?

SI and Meerkat both save a linked prim built to disk, in xml format. Are there no tools out there to convert that to any standard 3D format?

I looked at Argent's suggestion of Ogle Eyebeam, but that depends on GLIntercept, which is a notorious texture grabber from SL, and something I don't wish to use.

Rock

But what do they do with the jiggly bits?

Ibtl

I was under the impression that there was an exporter for Blender, but never having been interested in it I don't have any bookmarks (and may be completely wrong).

PS: As for the price of 3ds Max, it's a goodly chunk, and often only people that use it in their RL professions can justify the price tag... New.

However much Autodesk protests, it is perfectly legal to purchase a used copy, see this link: http://www.eff.org/press/mentions/2008/5/23

Finding a legitimate used copy may be another matter altogether, but it *is* possible.

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