3D Model Importer now freely available in SL

Since only the eggheads like myself seemed to be seeing the posts in the Scripting Tips/Script Library, I've decided it best to put a repost here.

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Script is free to use, distribute, sell - whatever - so long as the original header comments are maintained and standard ethics are kept.

... since ethics might be a problem for some people, however, the revision I've posted of the script has the following limitations hardcoded:

- No intersim builds; creations rezzed in a sim stay in the sim, and are subject to normal build restrictions.
- Every "tri" (face of three vertices) equals one prim
- No dataserver calls
- Builds are limited to 144 faces and 72 vertices a run, to prevent abuse, and cannot be run multiple times unless the user has some very basic scripting knowledge.
- Faces should convert to PASSIVE objects once the script has been run. This version should also throttle some, but not all, scripts run in faces, as well as the core script itself.
- Any attempts to use linked items as faces will be deleted automatically.

I will ask humbly that anyone wishing to overcome these limitations does not publicly post scripts without them. People are prone to do Bad Things With That.

In other words, provided you have auto-return set in some form on your plot, this form of script should not be able to hog your prims. Furthermore, since users would need to go to some pretty far lengths to abuse this script, I'm fairly confident that it should not be (much more of) a problem, given the existing system in place. I even went so far as to ask the Lindens, who unanimously (based on those I spoke with) stated it should not be a problem due to the existing prim system.

Now then, on to the other side of the debate.

This form of script will not usurp NURBs (prim-based) building, either. The models it generates are fairly prim-heavy, take time to bring into the system, and use a prim for every face (if not more). To give you a general idea, this model is 524 prims. Considering prim builders can not only make it potentially more efficient, effective, and better looking besides, this is not aimed to quote "put you out of business."

However, the potential good of being able to box-model or otherwise import models into Second Life (using a Wavefront OBJ; instructions in the script itself) outweighs the bad in my opinion, since it gives people the option to do so for nothing more than as a basis for prim builds. As for "stealing models from the web" - I make no claims to being able to prevent that, and that should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Finally, for those of you concerned that "oh no, but this means I need to buy expensive programs now to take advantage of this!" - wrong. Also provided, coded into the script, are my suggestions for completely free tools, as well as two extremely inexpensive ones that I make use of in addition to those listed. Since I happen to be a stingy 3D model creator as well as SL scripter, I do make some claim to knowing these things can be done very well, for free, should one make the effort.

With that said, let the flaming begin. All aggressive or denegrating posts that contribute nothing to the thread will be swiftly ignored, or admins willing, deleted. Should this get out of hand, I'll humbly ask the admins to lock the thread. Don't ruin it, folks.

I can understand why you decided to nerf the script, though I don't fully understand the thinking behind a few of the restrictions. Why limit total faces/verticies? If someone is rezzing over their own land, they can use as many prims as they've got. If it's a DB load issue, maybe limit the speed of rezzing, not the number rezzed, instead? What do you mean by "any attempts to use linked items as faces will be deleted automatically" ? By restricting the script's use "for faces," are you stating you don't want objects created with this script to be used as custom avatar heads? If so, why do you care? It occurs to me that you might mean using linked objects as "tris," though I can't imagine why someone would want to do that...

Ah, very cool. That's two programs I need to check out now-- one that allows us to paint textures directly on secondlife avatar models, and now a free 3D modeller that allows us to build macrostructures in SL with your script.

In general, this looks pretty cool. I'd love to see a gallery of what people are doing with it.

In response: "Faces" are also commonly called "Polygons." They are singular, filled shapes on an object. Just to clear that up. This can be use for any applications prims can be.

Second, the limitation of amount was a convenient stopping place, since it used up the script buffer of one script (the max memory alotted) and I did not want to push for more because I felt such a nerf, at the time, was warranted. Since you can easily string several of these together, given basic scripting knowledge, and I did not want people to ruin sandbox regions by rezzing objects to fill them to capacity - there's your nerf.

And yes, I don't want people to use objects with more than one prim as faces, because that could exponentially affect prim counts (believe me, people try to abuse this stuff). Since a sim only supports 15,000 prims (based on a private sim, anyway), you can see why I overreact a bit on preventing abuse where I can.

can we see some more pics please? different types of models, simple and complex, etc....?

Thanks!
Arti

Currently that's all I had time to do. I have reality to contend with, so I (as of yet) do not have time to display more than that. Perhaps others will?

Ok Jeff let me understand this basically this is an imported .obj file with the faces or "Polygons" being created by prims?

I do have to commend you on this however what frightens me is the aspect of prim usage will it ever evolve to a point where several faces be combined and created using 1 prim for multiple faces.

Remember Jeff as you well know now the server will have to in effect keep up with each prim face when rezing thus a simple 512 prim sphere that you show will become 3072 faces of calculation that the server will have to keep up with. Won't this create imense lag?

Not downing you as I love the concept just being the devils advocate and seeking more info as I model in Autocad and several other 3d programs to include Lightwave and maya.

Shadow...The Ancient.

Shadow Weaver, in response to this as well, I have personally asked select Lindens (names omitted unless they wish to make their presence known) about exactly this, and the official word was not to worry about it. Furthermore, this is precisely why the import limit is set where it is.

The only thing that scares me is what this may do to attachments. We'll see. For now, I've done the best I can to clamp down on abuse - and prim-heavy builds are so easy to create without, that I'm not sure it could be a huge problem - especially since existing linking behavior prevents certain caveats of abuse (for example, only 256 prims max in a linked set). I'm certainly aware that there are plenty of other ways to abuse this, but for now, my advice is to wait and see what happens.

As for combining multiple prims into a select face: No plans at this time. Xylor's XyObject, a script he retired because he, too, was concerned of abuse (a leaf I took to heart as I designed this implementation of my script), combined tris into quadrilaterals, or put simply, stock cubes. While I'd love to do that, or use, say, pentagons/hexagons/octagons, with the existing system I cannot do the latter, and chose not to do quadrilaterals because it conflicted with my attempts to import texture data. But the system will change over time, so we shall see.

Jeff Id like to see this in action as I mentioned I do work on several 3d platforms and this may be the fruition of some Ideas I have in mind come true.

I should be in world this evening about 8pm est or 5pm pst if you wouldnt mind Id love a demonstration.

Sincerely, Shadow Weaver..The Ancient

I'd also be interested in seeing a demo. If you can make the time to do this, please post a time and place.

Unless there's a change of plans, expect an event listing roughly Sunday Evening.

Aheh....

*shameless bump*

This looks promising. I'd like to see more discussion about this, as well as lots of pretty pictures.

seconding the request for pictures. all i've seen are the sphere and dragon head thingy.

i'm not real technical but is do the things it builds have a practical purpose or is it just a really cool toy you made? i guess i mean can they be used for everyday building or are they too prim heavy to be practical?

First, I'll have more pictures when they're ready. I'm still in the process of getting imported textures to work - if they'll behave at all.

Second off, this can be as prim heavy or prim efficient as you make it - and where practicality is lost on prims, I'm hoping it will more than gain back once I get textures from a single file working on one of these behemoths.

Assuming I do.

Other than that and the fact it should work well for really large builds - it's mostly a "cool toy" rather than a "feature."

well congrats on making it. i'd love to see that dragon model you posted a pic of bestriding the sim like a colossus.

Anyone wishing to see Jeffrey demonstrate this and learing more about his 3D Model Importer, come to the Crescent Moon Museum on Sunday at 5pm SL time!


Tayzia Abattoir

That I will be.

Since texture support seems to have hit a fatal speedbump for now (see: the prim system hates me), I'll try to work on some other "pictures" and imported models now.