Windows and Sculpties

I wanted to make a window, with molding around the outside. Using texture is too flat. I can make one using prims, but thats a lot of additional prims for each window. So, I thought, "how about sculpties." The only problem is I didn't know how to make them.... I've used blender before, so I dled the scripts and loaded it up, followed some tutorials, and got it going. However, I can figure out how to cut the holes in it. I'm looking for a window with 6 holes, 2 per horizontal row. Some guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I've read about the LOD and sculpties - how quick does LOD come into play, and should I avoid using sculpties for windows because of it?

(Misspelling of From is intentional, to allow me to post this.)

Firstly, LOD distance depends on prim size. For windows, it's probably going to be closer than you want. HOWEVER, it's possible to disable this LOD, and you can tell your customers how to, as well. That would be:

Advanced > Debug Settings > Type in RenderVolumeLODFactor > Change to 8 (Default is 2)

=========

As for how to make it.... make sure that you have Domino Marama's scripts installed. You may want to do some video tutorials, as they're very very helpful for making sculpties with Blender, as it's a very complex program, and easy to get lost in. ( http://youtube.com/user/BlenderSL is my channel for them, it has some basic tutes atm)

It's not possible to cut holes in a sculpty... some sculpt types basically have holes in them already, but beyond that you have to fake it. Here's what I'd recommend for method:

Start by making a cube. I'm linking a thread in which I wrote a tutorial for stairs, just follow that through making the cube, and then come back to this thread for your window.

/8/b2/315772/1.html#post2385575

You're going to want to separate your sculpt into 5 sections, one with at least 4 rows of faces, and the other 4 with at least one. To do this:

Count up 4 rows of faces frum the bottom, and press B to enter Bounding Box selection mode. Select the two edge loops directly above the 4th row of faces (Not touching that row). Press S for scale, then Shift+Z to disallow scaling on the Z axis, then press 0(Zero) then enter. This will separate those 4 frum the rest of the mesh, visually.

Snap the top section flush like you did while making the cube top/bottom.

Repeat this for the other 4 sections, making them as long as you like.

Now, we need to bend the 4-section piece into a frame. To do this, switch the pivot point to Cursor Center. (This is the black round arrows with the dot in the middle dropdown). Select one edge loop in frum the end, and press Shift+S and choose 'Cursor -> Selection.'

Now select that row all the way to the opposite end of the piece, so that you have three sections selected. Make sure you're in an orthographic view (NUM1,3, or 7) and press R for rotate, then type 45, then hit enter. It should angle that whole section. Now select one row less, and repeat. Once you have a right angle, change the cursor to the next edge loop (Shift+S, Cursor->Selection), and repeat, until you have a rectangular frame. Some adjustment at the end may be necessary to get the two ends to line up. To do that, use G for Grab, and only move in one axis at a time, to keep it straight (Press X,Y,or Z to constrain to that axis).

After you have your frame, just arrange (By grabbing and rotating) the other sections so that they form a tic-tac-to board shape, and place inside the frame. There you have it! Tweak as wanted, export, and you have a window frame.

Any questions, please feel free to ask.

First off, thanks for the response. I've done some tutorial reading and video watching, and I knew how to make the cube and such.

While following your post, I get lost at "Select one edge loop in frum the end, and press Shift+S and choose 'Cursor -> Selection.'" Mainly, what you mean by edge loop. Also, by cursor center, do you mean 3d Cursor?

Yes, the 3d cursor. Shift+S brings up the Snap menu, which has two subsections (In one popup).

Selection -> X moves the selected object/part to your choice, be it the center of the selection, the closest grid point, or the 3d cursor.

Cursor -> X moves the 3d cursor to your selection, as above. The 'Active' choice moves it to the last selected object center, point, etc.

As for an edge loop, it's basically what it sounds like. An edge is a segment frum point to point. An edge loop is a loop of edges (Or partial loop), meaning all edges following off frum the original edge. I'm not explaining this very well.

Open up Blender, and create a sphere, then tab into Edit mode. Select any single edge, and press CTRL+E, then select 'Edge Loop Select'. You'll see what I mean. It's a line of edges, based on the edge you have selected. Using the Edge Loop Select function with multiple edges selected will select the loops for all of those edges.

On a similar note, Edge Rings are the opposite of Edge Loops. They're the edges parallel to each other, basically, in a ring or partial ring. To see what I mean, do the same, but choose 'Edge Ring Select'

I understand the snap menu now, as well as edge loop vs. ring... I guess my only confusion is which edge loop I should be selecting, as its not turning out right for me. Its late for me though, so perhaps its just me not comprehending... I'll come back to it tomorrow and hopefully figure it out. I thank you for your responses - even though I haven't quite grasped it, you cleared a lot of stuff up for me.

If it helps, what you're doing is this:

First, you're collapsing single section segments to a width of 0 (Making them invisible), thereby separating the pieces you're going to be working with. Then, you're taking a rectangular cube and bending it into a frame shape. Lastly, you're just moving some more rectangular cubes to create the decoration inside of the window frame.

That's the simplest explanation I can think of to try to help visualize it, and is generally how I start a sculpt project.

"What am I making, and what shapes can I use to make it?"

And tell your customers that they should tell that to their visitors too , because these settings apply only to the viewer. I would not go that way but i would consider 3 alternative (and LOD resistant) ways:

1.) Think of a clever combination between less complex sculpted prims, simple basic prims and a good texturing. For instance you could make the outer frame out of a sculptie, if you want it to look more interesting than a simple hollowed cube. Then place a flat prim as the window and make the inner frame by using an alpha texture.

2.) You can make the outer frame by using a hollowed cube and use 2 sculpted prims to make the inner part:



I found the construction above in my blender inventory and just recolorized the 3 parts so that you can better see the construction. It also contains 8 holes instead of 6 as you need. I am not sure if you can find an LOD resistent (standard conform) solution for 6 cassette windows with only 2 sculpted prims. For 4 cassettes the solution can be simply derived from one of the inner sculpties.

3.) You can use oblongs. With oblongs you can get away with 1 sculptie for the cassette-frame in the middle. But oblongs are not (yet) part of the standard viewer...

Remember: all solutions above are fully LOD resistent.

One word of warning though: It seems to slowly turn out that sculpted prims used in an excessive way may contribute to Lag. So you always should consider to use standard prims wherever it is possible and sometimes getting hyper realistic may not be the best way to go in a virtual world ...

Just wanted to thank both of you for your help - I figured it out, but in the end I ended going with simple prims and textures. But, I gained some valuable knowledge for the future, and for that I'm especially grateful.