Third Party Programs

More of a techical question I suppose but one I have been wanting to ask.


While the in-game building system is useful, I'm curious as to the possibility of using outside programs for in-game material creation. I utilize some of the 3D applications available out there ( Rhinocerous, Lightwave and Softimage XSI in case you're wondering ) and it seems the ability to create an object then import it into SL would simply be the greatest thing since sliced bread. These programs are dedicated to object creation and are a bit better suited towards it I think. ( Better camera control, point control, etc. etc. )


I am only guessing here, but I assume it's not in place due to trying to keep the polygons to an absolute minimum. While I can create some outstanding work in the applications I am used to working in, the polygon count can get out of hand fairly quickly. Put that in a world with more high poly count objects and it would bring the entire system to it's knees quickly.

However, there are some programs that can reduce the polygon counts to suit whatever needs you have, so I was curious if the topic had ever been discussed or if it would ever be considered a possibility.

Just a thought. . . .

-Daye

Jeffrey Gomez is working on an offline building tool that uses Blender and Python. I think you'd still have to follow the law of prims regarding number of prims, number of linked prims, etc, but it should be interesting.

Your main question has been answered, but I thought I'd chime in to address this particular portion of your post. I think you'll find the information useful.

SL's modeling system does keep poly counts regulated, but that's not precisely why it is the way it is. In fact, while poly counts do end up remaining at a relatively predictable rate, for most models the counts are considerably higher than they "should" be, since there's no such thing as a plane in SL. All sides of all primitives are always present, whether they're desired or not. There's no way to build a true surface model.

So what's the real reason for doing it this way? Well, it's the streaming nature of SL. You see, all machines using SL are able to construct objects quickly only because all the objects are made of the same building blocks. Every machine involved has pre-programmed knowledge of how to create a cube, a sphere, a cylinder, etc. Therefore the only information that needs to be streamed over the internet is where to put them and how to size them, which is a very small amount of data.

Were outside mesh models to be imported, that kind of compact description would not be possible. The full instruction set for how to create every single polygon would need to be streamed to every single client machine for every single object, which would take forever and then some, and SL wouldn't be able to run in any semblance of real time. So, the answer is that it is data transfer, not poly count, that is kept to an abosolute minimum by the modeling system.


Your question, by the way, is one that comes up time & time again every time anyone with any modeling experience joins SL. At first, the in-world modeling tools seem childish, even silly, and you spend 90% of your time saying "If only I could import my Maya models, or my 3DS models, or my Lightwave models..." As you spend some time in SL though, you'll begin to discover that this "limited" tool set, which you find so silly at first, actually forces you to employ creative problem-sovling skills and techniques that you would never normally consider. As a result, you end up becoming a better modeler both inside and outside of SL.

To use myself as an example, outside of SL I'm a Maya person. I can atest that my poly counts per average model have gone down tremendously since I started using SL while the quality has gone up, and my texturing skills have improved a hundred fold. The same is true for just about everyone I know who is in the 3D field who uses SL. Quite simply, it forces you to pay attention to detail in a way you otherwise woudn't, and that process provides tremendous growth potential for you as a modeler. Give it a few weeks and you'll see exactly what I mean.

This rocks. Thanks for posting. It made my day, and the day's just started!

Hehe

Oh I agree. How I would build something via Softimage is radically different from how I will build things within SL.

It does force one to sit down and really think HOW you can accomplish the same design with the absolute minimum of primitives. In the end, like you stated, the same line of thinking
will present itself once back inside the main 3D applications and the resulting models will benefit from it.

Having purchased my first piece of land, the primitive count is going to be very restrictive initially. ( +/- 115 I think ) Will have to see what I can get away with and where I will have to make decisions on detail vs prim counts.

Aside from the lag ( present in just about anything online ) I suppose I have two items for a wish list.

1) Ability to download textures from modifyable objects in order to understand how they were done. Uploads are there, but once the texture is in SL, I don't see a way to download it back to an imaging program like *insert your favorite image editor here* modify it, and reupload it. Then again, maybe I haven't found it yet.

2) On a related note, an offline building / avatar system would be nice. It would allow the creation of objects / textures and the testing of those items without actually taking up
bandwidth from the SL servers. ( Perhaps help with the lag issue ? ) The ability to create a skin / clothing / what-have-you then drop it into an offline avatar customization program to check it would be very, very nice indeed. Same with building objects. The object could be built and visually inspected while offline before uploading it to the SL servers. If it was created from the SL engine itself, then it would be perfect

Anyhoo-

I'm trying to design a home that will fit within the ~100 prim allotment I have See you all in game

-Daye

Number 2 can be done with poser and the SL AV files in the downloads section of the site.

Number 1 not in the game stop looking lol.

Satchmo what up bro!

1) Open up the texture you have mod rights on. File - Save Texture As...