My Blender sculpt needs resizing in SL, why?

Since I've been using Blender I have had to resize my sculpts in SL to look as they should when made in Blender.

I have some sculpty maps collected from here and there in world and noticed that they do not require resizing. They display as you would expect. How can I get my sculpt maps to display correctly without having to resize the sculpt everytime I want to use a map?

I found out how to do this.
When you bake the sculpt there are some options in the window where you click "ok". The buttons are not clear to know if they are on or off. I assumed the lighter color indicated on. Keep scale was a lighter color. I clicked it dark and tested the map, which now displays the sculpt in scale. The botton does not stay on though so you have turn it on each time, remembering that the darker buttons indicate on.

Darker = depressed = on.

On a related note, does anyone happen to know the answer to this?

I've used, downloaded, and installed Domino's scripts multiple times, for various reasons. However, it seems I get different options occasionally, from a different download (Same location). I recall a more extensive list in the Bake Second Life sculpties menu, but in my current install I just have 3 buttons (Fill holes, normalize, and compressible).

Is there some option I've toggled somewhere, or something like that? For instance, in this case, I have no 'keep scale' button.

Basically there are 2 different versions of Dominos scripts around:

- The Release-Version (dated from july 200
- The Release Candidate Version (dated from end december 200

The later has got a few more options in the popup menus.

Meanwhile there is a third option available, which we (machinimatrix) have started as a maintenance fork of the release candidate. My original idea was to keep Domino's scripts up to date and provide an "inofficial development branch".

Domino's versions can be obtained from Domino's website. For convenience we also distribute all his versions along with my version in our download-area:

http://www.machinimatrix.org/svn/sl/distrib


And here are the direct links to the 3 available versions:

Verbatim copy of Domino's official release (from july 200
http://www.machinimatrix.org/svn/sl/distrib/blender_scripts.zip

Verbatim copy of the official release candidate (from december 200:
http://www.machinimatrix.org/svn/sl/distrib/blender_scripts_rc_2.zip

The inofficial machinimatrix maintenance release:
http://www.machinimatrix.org/svn/sl/distrib/blender_scripts_rc_4.zip


=== The current list of modifications in the maintenance release ===

- Added correction for spherical distortions with multires/subsurf. Added comments to the code for better understanding. Added a visual hint for the release in use.

- Fixed an out of bound error with RGB-ranges; Added a function clippedColor([r,g,b]) to avoid redundant code mainly in DrawVLine()

Be aware that your sculptie keeping the proportions comes with the costs of reduced resolution. (the color range is simply reduced (generally in 2 of the 3 axes). If you only have one sculptie to bake, the prefered method is to use the "Sculptie export feature":

After you finished your sculptie:

- Create a folder anywhere on your operating system
- in blender: file --> Export --> Second Life LSL
- navigate to the folder you have just created before
- store your sculptie.

Now navigate to the folder. You will find a sculptmap plus an LSL script. The LSL-script basically contains some script code which adjusts your sculptie in world. now ...:

- in world create any object (cube or whatever)
- upload the sculptmap and put it into the objects inventory
- create a new script and cut/paste the LSL file into the new script.

As soon as you save the LSL script, the object properties are changed to sculptie, the sculptmap is applied and the dimensions are adjusted. Possibly you need a bit of tweeking the script. I remember, that it didi not run out of the box as expected. but the beasic idea is simple ...

Good luck

I'm trying to perfect animated sculpties.

I'm still having trouble figuring out how to get their scale AND position (prim offset) so that i don't have to resize and position for each frame of the animation.

I havent thought about animated sculpties (yet). I saw a remark about that in Domino's scripts, but it was more like "would be nice to have it here", so nothing seems ready here for animated sculpts. But for multiple sculpties there is limited support in blender:

As long as you can live with limitations in resolution, what i have explained above ("sculptie export feature" is already available. You can export the sculpties and let them auto-reassemble in world later keeping their exact matching. The generated LSL scripts do support this after a little tweeking.

If you want best resolution, thats a different thing... The main problem is, that the "absolute" sculptie resolution changes with the sculptie proportions. so if you have 2 sculpties, then (in the general case) you end up in not beeing able to match them perfectly in all 3 dimensions on the vertex level. except when they do have the exact same bounding box proportions.

hmmm... that doesn't really answer your question, no ?

regards,
Gaia

Have I ever told you I love you?

Because I do.

Thanks, Gaia, you rock ^-^

There's two approaches to doing this..

1) Have each frame as a seperate sculptie in the scene. Select all and bake.

2) Use a sizing sphere. Find min & max offsets for x,y,z for all frames of animation. Add a sphere sculptie to the scene. Goto logic buttons and set LL_SCULPT_TYPE to 0 on the sphere. Set the sizes of the sphere to max - min on each axis. Bake each frame with the sculptie and the sphere selected.

Either method results in sculpties that are baked to the same scale so size and position are constant while changing the sculpt map.

Thanks Domino,

Is it best practice when doing deform to make variations on a theme(separate frames for an animated sculpty) to make the duplicate in OBJECT mode? Example: I made a finger. I want various bends of the finger to preside at various times. Should I make the basic finger shape, then duplicate that shape in object mode, deform the duplicate slightly, then for the next frame make a duplicate of the deformed shape(again in object mode). And repeat through the set of "animation frames"?
Note that when i'd play these in sequence they need to seem to bend from the knuckle attached to the palm.

Are there settings to optimize the flow? Is my procedure destined to fail?

Sounds about right.



It might be better to use a sizing sphere centered on the knuckle. You'd get less available vertex steps for modelling but with sculpties whose exact rotation point is the knuckle.

Alternatively if the models already have the correct center, then "Keep Center" with multiple selection of the frames can give the same effect.

Otherwise the sculpties center would be mid finger, but you'd get the full 256 available vertex steps. A couple of quick tests should show which approach is best for your use.



The settings change the flow, so depending on how you approach it, different settings might be optimal. Animation is still at the "It's possible" stage rather than easy for everyone point. Eventually it'll be timeline based with a single model, so that's worth considering when figuring out your workflow.



Nope, but I bet you learn a bit getting it going

hmm, centered on the knuckle... Could I drag a zero width set of nodes out to act as the SL context referrence?I had done something similar to make an elephant trunk animate correctly (only it wasn't zero width)
OMG, it just occurred to me that i could make it invisible by having my texture be alpha in that part.

/me scoots off to GIMP it.