Offline Builder Alpha Release

At long last, it is complete! Well, kinda.

I'm releasing the thing to beta for now. It has a few bugs (most notably, mirroring and Ctrl-Z), and currently supports saving and loading to an XML-based filetype.


What isn't included is an LSL counterpart to bring these into the world. Yet.

Because there are so many options for this, I am passing all of you the torch on that part, to write an importer for the (very simple) file standard hacked out. Since it can save and load to a file, getting it into Second Life is a trivial affair.

If no one bothers to write one, I'll get around to it eventually. Until then, I'm considering this "done" for now, given it's been in production for roughly the last year. Good day, folks.



Usage (Blender Default Controls) :
G -- "Grab" -- move the primitive
R -- "Rotate" -- rotate the primitive
S -- "Scale" -- scale the primitive


Tap X,Y, or Z once after the above to move, rotate, or scale in a given direction
Tap it again to move, rotate, or scale in a local direction


Selection controls:
Left-click: Place cursor (position to spawn new primitives)
Right-click: Select this prim, or a group of prims
X: Delete this prim


Camera (if no mousewheel, use numpad 2 and :
Mousewheel: Zoom Camera
Shift + Mousewheel: Translate Camera (up and down)
Ctrl + Mousewheel: Translate Camera (left and right)
Ctrl + Alt + Mousewheel: Pan Camera (left and right)
Mouse 3 (mousewheel button) + mouse movement: Free camera




Building Forum Thread:
/8/64/110607/1.html

(Oh, and you can find the complete version at the old link below)






Original Text:

For those wondering when I'd finally get around to it, I have a present for you:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=149111


This is a quick, alpha release of my Offline Builder for Blender. Right now it only supports one prim with no imports, exports, or saving to file, so I'm just looking for feedback and bugs with that portion of the system. I'd also love some feedback on the User Interface, which is optomized for 1.9x



And an open question. Would you all prefer:

a) Importing/Exporting directly, via XML-RPC
b) Importing/Exporting via a notecard and parameters
c) Bugging the Lindens repeatedly to make this built-in
d) All of the above

And for the Lindens:
Is it okay that I emulated several built-in LSL functions for simplicity's sake, as well as the prim system? I asked the latter question over a year ago to Philip, and he seemed to think it was okay. I would absolutely love your feedback on whether or not I should complete this project, since I don't want to get sued.


Enjoy!

What is this Jeffery? Does this allow you to import geometry?

If so, in what format and how do you get it into SL?

3 thumbs up jeffrey you rock my worl as usual!!

What does this do exactly?

Sorry, i'm new to all this still....

For the time being, it's an out-of-SL prim library, complete with UI.

Over time, and with Linden approval, this will be able to import/export prim-based builds from Second Life.

I downloaded it but there's no .exe or installer. What do I do to get this to run?

Thank You Jeffery, this sounds like a huge help.

It's a script for Blender. Instructions are included in the readme of the Zip file.

Feel free to test it. Just note it's not finished yet.

I'm curious about the XML-RPC potential. Would that implementation mean that a user could rez a cube in-world as a receiver/translator, activate the import, then, later, build offline via your application?

What's FreeGesture?

That's the theory anyway, yes. I've written an IRC bot for it before, so compared to that, this should be more of a cakewalk.

Provided I have the time and willpower to write it, anyway.

A defunct project I was considering. Vince's Avimator pretty much kills that.

... err. Where are you seeing that? It shouldn't be in the project release.

Edit: Whoops! Left some of the old sandboxing files in there. That might confuse some people. Will clean that up right now and refresh the release.

Sorry 'bout that.

All fixed. Grab the right version if you'd like. The files are right in the old one, just... it has a lot of backlogic that isn't relevant, and/or shouldn't really be there. Lots of useless and/or blank files. Nice to see where I was originally going with it, I guess.

It almost perfectly replicates SL prim behavior. I can't wait to see what comes of this.

You mentioned that with Linden approval, your tool will import/export prim-based builds from Second Life. How does that work? Linden Lab is going to approve your tool? I *am* impressed.

Frankly, I could do it without approval. It's just a matter of not wanting to be sued over what LL might consider their "intellectual property." All the code and resources for this are 100% original, though.

Jeff... I'll forward this onwards.

And then I must uncontain my enthusiasm and go "BOOYEAH! I'M HAPPY YOU DID THIS!" I haven't given it a spin for myself, yet... is there an easy introductory guide akin to your LSL 101 that would help the uniniated, like myself, get started?

Got more screenshots to entice too?

It's included in the readme. Basically:

1) Download Blender with Python 2.4 from www.blender3d.org.
2) Unzip the file I linked.
3) Open the Blend file
4) Right-click the left code bar, select "Run Script." Or just hit Alt-P with the mouse over that window.
5) Play with the UI.



On my old Windows XP desktop:
http://umsis.miami.edu/~trobins1/share/blender2.jpg

On my Linux laptop:
http://umsis.miami.edu/~trobins1/share/blender3.jpg

Sheesh. Okeydoke, thanx... and to lend context to this, the reason why I said what I did earlier... was because I remember you bringing it up in several threads, and showing an earlier screenshot in this thread, and it is just such a pure joy to see it out like this.

So, thank you for arcing it.

I'll wanna play with this soon!

Jeffrey I installed Blender (weird program) and I unzipped the "Python Building Tool" zip to it's own directory. Of the .blend files there are...

"Prim.Blender.blend"
"Prim.Blender.blend1"
"prim_render.blend"
"SLUGGUI Building Tool.blend"
"SLUGGUI Building Tool.blend1"

Which one of these am I supposed to open in Blender (which I might reiterate have never used before)?

I don't understand what i'm supposed to do...

I imported a .obj that I made in max into blender and am looking at the UI of the blender script.


What am I supposed to do with my model? Do I load it first and then run the script? How do i get it into SL?

I'm an artist, not a coder, so a lot of this new territory to me.

Yeah. That was my mistake. Grab the release again since I goofed early in the thread. Then run the .blend (as opposed to .blend1). Should be "Prim.Blender.blend".


Once that's set up, just hit Alt-P in the left-hand window and play with the prim. That's it, for now.

Oh I see some problem though Jeffrey. Not really a bug. But in my 1024x786 windows screen, choosing some prim type result in some option boxes goes off screen below the scripting box o.O I do not sure if there's a way to fix that? o.O

Mind screencapping that? The thing should be optomized for 1024x768, since that's the resolution my laptop runs at. When it goes off the screen for me, the options should list upwards. So, sounds like a mild bug with the Blender API. Can look into it anyway.

My guess? Switch Blender to full screen mode via the upper-right-hand button.

This thingy is so you can build using SL prims in blender, it doesn't use models.

Yet. I'm considering a separate script for that for Blender. Maybe.

Sure. It's Torus that's problem to me. Here's the image screenshot:
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j168/dragonnargus/BlenderScreenshot.jpg

And mmm...how do I show it in fullscreen? I don't see a button anywhere o.O *still trying to figure out which button do what in Blender*