3d max / 3ds support?

any plans to include support for importing 3ds models, or some sort of plugin for 3DMAX to export models compatible with SL?

Maybe in some form, in the future...

The waywaywaywaywayway off future, according to the Lindens.

SL uses a parametric modeller with strictly defined primitives, so a direct 3DS import would not likely be possible. Exporting maybe.

I know that this issue came up during the beta and several people (like me) who had worked with offline object creation befor were in favor of something like this. However I think LL WANTS building to take place in-world as a part of the social interaction that makes up the system.

I find I am far too easily distracted to build in-world (or maybe I'm just lazy). I have to admit though, for 90% or more of what you would want to build the primatives in SL will do the trick without too much overhead.

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They did that mostly because of bandwidth and the physics engine.

Being a 3ds Max user myself I agree this would be nice to have. But yeah, they would need to figure out a system to limit the models imported and keep them efficient polygon-wise. Maybe they could instate a cost-per-polygon or something. Make it expensive in L$ to import custom models.. and also have them count for more than one primitive. Prim-count could be based on the poly-count and scale accordingly. As for physics - they could just require a simple bounding box system for all imported models to simplify physics calculations.

That being said... I do like the aspect of building in-world, so I'm kind of on the fence about this. There's a certain cohesiveness that comes from everyone using the same basic tools and materials to build from.

Rather than an importer... maybe an exporter with script. That way you can make the prims outside of the game and still keep the native SL editing featuers like hollowing and starting points (the functionality would be added to the file with max script). The expoerter/script can limit the poly amounts and the in game import feature just has to make sure someone didn't try to hack more polys into the file.

I think the big problem with importing 3ds models is that there are going to be lots of errors in them, that and the dynamics. It's very easy to create polygon models that have normals facing the wrong way, multiple vertices, unconnected vertices and all kinds of weird stuff going on in them. This wouldn't work too well in a game engine. Secondly, you would need two version, one for collission detection and one for the actual model.

Technical things aside, the worst thing would be that you would be seperating people into those that have 3dStudioMax and know how to use it (or whatever format you pick), and those that don't.

Little

I agree that the 3dmax idea would never work for this game due to so many different issues.

I quoted the above because I immediately thought of how SL is divided into Photoshop / non-Photoshop people.

The game itself divides people into groups who can't create anything / people who make things out of prims (which is a form of modeling and if you can learn it in SL you can pick up 3dsmax or GMax, the free version, really easy with a few tutorials) and people who can or cannot script. It's all a matter of learning an outside program just as you've learned something in SL. I think with the proper Max sripting you can deal with the mistakes someone will make and correct them or tell them to correct them. The only way I see SL modeling evolving is to let outside/custom models in or change the SL interface to allow editing of primitive meshes.

Maybe people with modeling skills will be able to get more L$ that way. The need for money will make more people in the SL community want to learn how to model thus making the Modeling community a bit bigger. That's a good thing, right?

I would even be satisified with the current in-game tool in off-line version. Theres times , like today where I am away from home on business. During this time i always have a laptop handy, but rarely a broadband connection. Heck, I'd ever he happy with milkshape

I think the biggest problem with importing will be the network utilization. Prims are very easy to describe using a small amount of data. A 3d mesh type model will not be quite so easy, and be slow to download =)

Another thing: even complicated objects load up nicely in SL with the prim system we have now, because the prims load up one at a time, so you can see it coming together as it's loading.

Well, that theory would kill cad software but what about an offline version of the SL build tool. I'd love that.

As for the Photoshop/non-photoshop thing. For those of you that don't have Photoshop, go to http://www.gimp.org/ now and get the Windows version of GIMP. It's a lot like Photoshop, but FREE, and more than enough for most of your texture needs. Haven't checked if it supports Photoshop layers (so you can import the clothing templates), but that should be easy to fix with some help from someone that has Photoshop. I'll look into it tonight.

Little

A long time ago someone (think it was either Ama or BBC) wrote some kind of LISP program or something along those lines that took data out of a full-fledged 3D modeller and wrote instructions to a LSL script about how to build it in SL.

Tested GIMP with the SL clothing templates. And it loads them in just fine. So now all of you that don't have Photoshop can join the fun.

http://www.gimp.org/

Little

I suppose someone could write a Max utility or plug-in that recreated the SL prims, using Max primitives where there's a match (hollow cylinder = tube) and more complicated manipulations otherwise (hollow sphere = Shell modifier?). So you'd be limited to SL primitives in Max, no poly or vertex manipulation. Then export it to a custom text format, "import" it by pasting it into a notecard, and use a slick rezzer to recreate it in world (someone had one, didn;t they?).

Not that I'm crazy enough to do this myself. And although it would give you the increased power of the Max dev environment and let you build offline, you'd still be working within SL's restricted modeling.