Transferring my creations between grids

Background: I am planning to operate a private OpenSim server on my local computer, solely for my own use. I would like the ability to transfer my own creations -- linked prims, not animations or scripts -- between SL and my private server.

I am planning to use the private server as both my home and as a private building space. I would like to transfer things I've already built in SL to my private server, and if I build some things I think others might want as freebies, I would like to transfer those items from my private server to SL.

I know that the Second Inventory software will do what I need, but it costs money. I have noticed people mention inventory backup features in some of the newer alternate clients, which might serve my needs for less money.

Question: Which clients/tools can I use for inventory export/import that are (a) free/cheap and (b) will NOT get me tagged as a content thief? (I assume that anything that doesn't respect permissions might cause LL to ban me. Don't want that.)

Ability to run Mac-native is a plus, but not required.

I use Second Inventory (www.secondinventory.com).. It works fairly well with items that you have full permissions on, but does not backup/transfer anything that you *don't* have full perms on.. As long as your avvy name on your private Opensim is the same as your SL name, ie: you don't take the default "Test User" when you install OpenSim, you can use the cheaper single avatar version, about $25US as I recall.. If your name is different, you have to buy the multi-avatar version.. I think its only about $10 more.. I have an OpenSim region on OSGrid and use Second Inventory quite a bit... its worth the $$$ IMO

Tas

Since I'm not a Mac-person, I'm not sure if they have a Mac version...

http://liferain.com/downloads/primcomposer/support/


(I believe there are some similar tools out there)

The Emerald viewer allows you to backup to your hard drive and restore later to SL. I have used the backup feature but haven't tried a restore yet. It does not back up scripts, only prims, but it's easy enough to save the scripts manually to your drive and put them back in later. Emerald only backs up those things you have full permissions for. It's also OS X native, free, and runs very well. I use it as my regular viewer now.

Thanks Tas. I've been leaning toward Second Inventory, but wasn't sure if it was more capable than the newer alt clients with inventory backup.

While a Mac-native version would be nice, I do have Windows XP on my computer that I can use through both Boot Camp and VMware. It's inconvenient, but functional.

Thanks Daniel, I hadn't heard of that one (yeah, I've been out of touch). It looks promising.

Thanks Paladin and Nika! It looks like there are a number of free options that I can try before resorting to the paid software.

Slight adjustment to my question: Do any of these transfer body shapes I created? I just played with Emerald, and while it transferred prim sets, it looks like it only does things that can rez inworld.

The imprudence viewer says it does. I haven't tried it.
.

Thanks Nika, I'll take a look at that one.

Meerkat has has capability. Not sure about others.

I just tried Imprudence, and I think Meerkat will have the same problem I just experienced -- they won't export shapes unless you are listed as the creator.

Unfortunately, way back when I was but a young noob, I modified the default shape rather than starting a new one. The end result would have been the same, but the way I did it means I'm not listed as creator.

Oh well... I do have the specs all written down for my main av, so that's half the process done. I was just hoping to avoid the time spent re-entering it, and doing the same for my alts. I guess I just have to face it... no easy way out on this one.

At least recreating shapes w/ your name on them is easier than some other recreations - though it is time consuming. I have made note of this, as I did the same with my shape --- started with a freebie and modified it to what I wanted.

I've been meaning to try the export capabilities of Emerald and other viewers, so your opinions/comparisons/feedback on is greatly appreciated.

I haven't tried Meerkat, but from the website it appears to have the same abilities and restrictions as Imprudence.

My experience with Emerald:
Only exports rezzed items. The exported contents include an XML file defining the prims, plus textures and scripts (and maybe more?) that are part of a linkset. However, the textures and scripts aren't included when importing, so they must be uploaded and attached separately. On the bright side, it exports full perms items even if you are not the creator, so that helps with situations where my builds might include something that doesn't list me as creator.

Imprudence:
Has the "creator only" limitation, which is proving inconvenient as noted above. I only tried a simple prim transfer, but in this case, it is possible to import the texture together with the object.


ETA: Just noticed that my regular viewer (a 1.19 version of Cool SL Viewer for Mac) has export and import features for prims and their textures, and that it checks for full perms rather than creator. Still no shapes, but then those are probably the easiest thing to transfer by hand.

It's not a problem, it's a feature! LL permits export of full perm things YOU MADE; if you didn't make it, it could be content theft.

I believe that LL's policy is, if you have a full perm thing that you didn't create, you have full permissions to use it in SL only. Ergo, legit viewers do not permit export of full perm things that you did not create.

There is really no difference between a 'legit viewer' and an illegit one. The vulnerability is in the source of all viewers. Just because you see someone using an Emerald Viewer (or any based on the open source) doesn't not mean they are not leeching everything rezzed on your sim.

Emerald exports based on perms and not creator, and I believe Emerald is generally considered a legit viewer.

In terms of exporting full perms things one did not make, it COULD be content theft, but it isn't necessarily so. My particular case -- a private OpenSim grid that will used by me and NEVER anyone else -- almost certainly falls under the "fair use" exception.

Even so, I'm not planning on transferring stuff that wasn't made by me, because the whole point of my private sim is that it's a place for me to build my own stuff. But when I made stuff in SL way back when, I considered permissions of an object, not its original creator, and so some of my stuff may include completely-modified prims that I didn't create from scratch. They are clearly my work, and it's nice to have the option to transfer those as well.

So I would have to pay a texture upload fee a second time just to get the backed up items re-textured? Yuck. That at least helps nicely when maga-prims were used.

Guess I'll play with it all a bit this afternoon.

As I mentioned above, it would also include pretty much all usage of Mega-prims. Only a few creators, but they are legitimate full perm freebies and used in many builds that folks might want to backup.

My reason for backing up is more for protection against some of LL's famous inventory issues. I will probably never run my own personal grid, nor import anything into another grid.

LittleMe - if you just want to backup and then reimport without textures you can use Testclient, based on the Openmetaverse (formerly libsl) libraries. It retains the original uuid's for textures when you re-import so as long as the master texture hasn't been deleted by LL (which I believe they would only do if there was a copyright issue).. it will pick it back up when you import.

Ah! Well, live and learn.

Time to take a vacation from "helping" for a while, and listen!

I think there is a choice whether to upload the textures or not. So if you are uploading to SL, you would just load the prims and they would refer to the existing textures in the SL database.

If you upload to a different grid, you'd need to include the textures and I assume you'd pay for that. (Of course it's free for my private server.)

I think only for transferring to OpenSim, though. I seem to remember something that said importing a megaprim to SL will make it revert to the normal maximum size.

No, don't stop helping!

To be honest, this whole thing with so many alt clients is very new and confusing to me because I've been gone so long. I'm glad you brought up Imprudence... I'd never heard of it, but I really like it. Although it doesn't meet all my object transfer needs, it might end up being my main viewer for everyday use.

Crud - I had forgotten that someone had mentioned this. Luckily, for my house, I'm pretty sure only the floors were magaprims, or maybe also the flat part of the roof. Hmm, now that I think about it, there might have been a few more of the roof pieces. Damn.