Maya to Second Life: a new option for builders

Cute!

Can this figure out what textures you're using and split them out so they can be uploaded, or how do we set it up so we don't end up with just plain wooden prims? It's much easier to figure out what prims I need to make, when I can see the actual end result, rather than just a lot of wood piled around. Note that I've never used Maya, don't even have it, so it might not be possible to see the textures anyway.

That's what I really need, something that will let me do the whole build offline, including textures, and still reproduce it correctly inside of SL. Paying the L$10 per texture to upload them is fine, I just need to have them uploaded, and have the script which creates the prims in-world know what textures it needs to apply to the appropriate prims.

So, does this handle textures? The one for blender clearly doesn't, which IMO makes it completely useless.

I have Maya 8, would it work? I would love to use this thing, I've gotten so used to Maya tools during this semester that I'd find myself typing "we" all the time while trying to build!

One way to find out. Give it a try.


Hahahaha. I do stuff like that all the time. Usually for me it's with the camera controls though, not so much the manipulators.

For anyone who might be new to all this, so you know, Maya's controls and SL's controls are basically opposites of each other. In SL, you control the camera with one finger on the right hand, and 3 on the left (left mouse button + alt, ctrl, shift). In Maya, it's one on the left, and 3 on the right (alt + the 3 mouse buttons). When I'm using both at the same time, or if I've been using one for a while and then switch to the other, I often end up either deleting things in SL or sending the camera spinning off to all kinds of weird locations in Maya. Neither program is very forgiving when you get the controls backwards. Fun stuff.

Aww, maybe it doesnt work with 8, I'm getting an error message talking about prims being created or somesuch. O_o

Maybe I'll have to download the learning edition to play with it

EDIT: I can relate with the cameras, though I mostly find myself trying to use maya camera controls in Illustrator...^^;

I can't access http://www.purplestatic.com/MEL_SL/ .
Could you give me a copy of the script?
Thank you very much!
[email]zengjunx@gmail.com[/email]

This is a fantastic script. I'm new to SL, but I have extensive experience modelling with Maya. I've just started learning the SL tools, and it can be frustrating. Being able to do this in my native Maya is awesome

I'm a little confused though. The script I've got (I've tried the one on your site), says it is version 0.0.9 in the top of the script, but not in the title bar, it says 0.0.8. It also has the 'Generate LSL code' option grayed out. I'm using Maya 7.

If I rummage through the script I can find that the button refers to the "makeSLcode" command, but when I run this on its own I don't get what I would expect. Sorry, my knowledge of scripting is limited, but I'm keen to use this script if possible.

Any possibility that a STEP or IGES files will be supported or do you know how I could utilize these?

It would be great if SL allowed the import of nurbs/surfacing models.

Thanks

You may be misinterpreting what this script and other similar "offline builder" scripts actually do. In no way do they enable SL to read files from external 3D modeling applications or to import arbitrary meshes. That's 100% impossible at present.

the Maya file format is completely irrelevant to the MayaToSL the process, as is the Blender format in the PrimBlender tool, and the Max format in the MaxToSL tool (or whatever that one is going to be called). The same would be true for the STEP and IGES formats. It's not a question of reading files at all. It's about utilizing 3rd party modeling programs in a very specific way, to create the only kind of models that SL can possibly understand.

This "Maya to SL" script here, for example, doesn't allow SL to read Maya files. What it does is it enables Maya to mimic the kind of parametric primitive construction methods utilized in SL, and then simply to export the resulting prim parameters as text. SL can then use that text to recreate the prims itself. That's it.

Since you're into STEP and IGES, I assume you're a CAD user. If you want to use a CAD program to create models for SL, you probably could, but it wouldn't have anything to do with using those file types. It would be done by rigging the program to create SL-style primitives, noting all their parameters, and sharing the notes with SL.

Again, importing models not made from parametric primitives is 100% absolutely impossible. SL understands primitives and primitives only. It has no idea other types of shapes exist (well, except for land and avatar meshes, but those are contained and parameterized, not arbitrary).

The closest you can get to bringing in arbitrary shapes is to use Jeffrey Gomez's "OBJ Importer" or something along the same lines. It works by taking every poly in an OBJ file and replacing it with a trianglular prim in SL. It's a very cool bit of programming wizardry, but it's hardly practical for every day use. In theory, you could take your CAD files and convert them to triangles in the same way, but again, it wouldn't be very practical.



Yes it would be great, but if you think SL is slow now, try employing something like that, and see what happens. There's a reason that no real time application on Earth uses NURBS. NURBS are great for film models, or for designing curvy structures like car dashboards, but they're not at all suitable for real time, at least not in our present state of technology on this planet.

How is the Maya simulation builder going Adrian. Know your probably quite busy with other things at this time of year, but just hoping for an update as expected to the arrival time of the completed program and wondering if it can be ported to Maya 7 or 8.

Hope you had a nice Christmas and the New Year brings you lots of happiness.



Femina Matahari

Unfortunately I cant get this to work in Maya 6, 7.01 or 8. I have all three installed, But nothing happens when I run the script.

Maybe Im doing something wrong, since MEL scripting was never my thing. I load up the MEL script in the script editor, Hit execute and.. Nothing happens.
I dont get a dialog box or anything. Am I supposed to be doing something else after that?

Either that or the script wont work with anything other then Maya 6.5. Im about to try and see if it works with Maya PLE.

Ok, Same thing in Maya PLE.

I execute the script but nothing happens. Unfortunately I dont have a copy of Maya 6.5 to test this out on, But I might be able to dig up a copy of 4.5 and 5.0. I have those laying around the office somewhere.

LIGHTWAVE 3d DUDE .... PLEASE !!!!!!!!

I have just got my (student) copy of maya.. and is thre a step by step instruction manual somewhere on how to use this... on how to import what i build into SL in general.


Thanks

If you're brand new to Maya, I wouldn't recommend trying to use the Maya to SL tool just yet. First of all, it's unfinished. Second, take some time to learn how to use Maya itself before experimenting with 3rd party plugins.

You'll find that the training videos included with Maya are excellent for getting you started, and Maya's help files are the arguably the best written of any help files for any program in the world. Take some time to go through all the Getting Started tutorials. By the end of it, you'll know everything you need to know to make Maya work for you.

After you've done that, then play around with Adrian's script.

To answer your specific question, no I don't think there is step by step tutorial for using the script, but the basic workflow is covered on Adrian's website, linked in the first post in this thread. Once you understand how to use Maya, and you play around a little with running the script, I'm sure you'll see how to use it.

Okay thanks... i am running through the tuts now...

But i guess to be more specific.. i was curious on how to make things like shoes, weapons etc in maya... do i just make them and import them (once my skill gets there) and then just attach them to a body part?

Sorry i am kind of hijacking this thread... we can go to IMs if this is off topic

There are a million ways to make any one thing in Maya. You've got literally hundreds upon hundreds of different tools and techniques available in the program. Quite literally, if something can be done at all in digital 3D, Maya can do it. That's why it's the industry standard.

However, to make things that would be usable in SL, they have to be made exactly as the SL building tools would make them. That means using primitives and nothing else. What Adrian's MEL script does is it sets up a tool within Maya for creating the same type of parametric prims that SL uses. The mathematical data that describes all the parameters for each prim you create can then be exported to a text file, which in turn can be placed into a script in SL for replication inworld.

In other words, you can't just make any arbitrary model in Maya, and expect to be able to import it into SL, but what you can do is build SL style models offline without being bothered by grid hiccups, griefers, friends IM'ing you, etc. You can work on your own computer, all by yourself, and then, when you're finished, you can replicate your model in SL simply by cutting & pasting some text.

And as an added bonus, you get to work with Maya's painting tools, directly on your model, which can save you some headaches lining textures up across multiple prims on complex builds.

All that having been said, I'd encourage you to consider this, and all other offline building tools, simply as a supplement to your inworld construction activities, not as a replacement. None of the offline tools are sophisticated enough yet to really be a viable substitute for building right inworld.

Hi, Maya 7.0 here and version 0.0.8 .Interface loads fine creates objects etc but " Generate LSL" button is greyed out. Fantastic work though ,sorry my scripting isn't good enough to find the bug though .

I have Maya 7 and I just keep getting a syntax error when loading the data chunks. Any ideas?



Femina

you might have maya 7.0.1, in which case, this script doesnt seem to work. Unfortunately I dont know if you can even get maya 7 anymore. Not since they updated Maya PLE to 7.0.1. Again, I havent been able to get it to work in Maya 6, 7.0.1 or 8.

I would love to see someone make a plug in for either of these 3d apps, or another free 3d modeler besides blender, like wings, or whatnot.

Is this still being developed? I'm curious whether to wait for a new version that will work my my version of Maya 7, or if I should try find and old copy of Maya 6.5 and see if that works.

I just tried Maya->SL on both Maya 6.5 and 7.0 but couldn't get it to work. It spitted out "syntax errors". Did anyone make it work before?

And where can I get the replicator ?
EDIT : Ok the replicator is a no mod no trans script available at Autodesk Island only on enrollment - what's the big idea...

Apart that, who can tell me what was the last version of Maya with which the builder worked ?

As far as I can see (enabling the button), it does'nt generate any code...? I really hope Adrian is working hard on this now he's employed at LindenLabs

Is this his first priority at LindenLabs, or...?