Building houses or other objects offline

Hi,
I am a complete newcomer to Second Life and would like to know if it's possible to build houses and other objects offline.
I will be using Blender wherever possible to build stuff.
I would like to build offline as I have a limited amount of online time every day (up to 2 hours only).
Does anyone have any tips to pass on or things I should consider before I buy any land.
Thanks.

Hi Thierry,

If you can use Blender you can certainly build stuff without being online in SL. There's an app called Prim Blender which will let you use ordinary prims and if you download the add-ons from Domino Marama you can also create sculpties.

If your on-line time is limited you could also consider setting up your own stand alone sim using OpenSim: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page.

I'm not sure about the transferring of stuff you create in OpenSim into SL but I'm sure there are others who can advise.

If you mean building houses with the dead simple basic prim technology of SL, no. But you can import sculpties from outside of SL

My guess is that unless you are very proficient at Blender, you will be able to build more houses, faster, in the two hours a day you have in world with SL's native tools.

One solution I came up with for someone in the UK on metered bandwidth and access time was the following.

OpenSimulator: You can login to your own region running on your home computer and build to your heart's content using the SL browser and become proficient with the native SL building tools.

Blender with Primstar scripts: Develop your understanding and technique for sculpties and upload them to your opensim for trial and error (free uploads YAAAY). Blender can also be used for baking textures on your builds to give them realistic lighting and shadowing.

Meerkat Viewer: Once you're happy with your builds, login to your opensim using Meerkat and back them up to an XML file along with the textures. Login to SL using Meerkat and use the import function to bring your opensim builds into SL (upload fees for textures will apply). The reverse is also true, if you build something inworld and wish to export it to your opensim to tweak and change or just admire in your offline time, Meerkat will check the permissions on your inworld build and happily export it back to your hard drive along with textures (be wary of permissions on textures you use inworld or they may not export).

This is the correct answer for the OP. Anyone that says "no" is sadly uninformed. Boggles my mind that someone would not even read a post that tells the app needed, or read it and not say to themselves "hmm.. lemme check it out to see what it is before I respond". It's not even like it's a new tool, it's been around for years.

Anyways, yes, with Blender and Prim Blender you get the same building functionality as the SL prim building tools within Blender and can build to your hearts content and then import that into SL via scripts.

Now, now.... Nobody said it couldn't be done. What Dekka and I both said was that unless/until you are really proficient at using a tool like Blender, you'll find that you spend more time making things off world and importing them than if you spent a relatively small amount of time and built them in world with SL's native tools. Just because you can import things made elsewhere doesn't necesarily mean that it's the smartest/fastest/most economical use of your time, or that the end product will be better than something built in world. The "correct" answer to a question in these forums is one that helps an OP and anyone reading explore all the options. That's why more than one person responds to a thread.

I agree Rolig, as the OP did ask for tips and suggestions. What may work for one may not work for another, the OP was given what he asked for. Prim Dot Blender which does work quite well, is no longer being supported or updated, the last release being a year ago. While the OP didn't state what his level of experience was with Blender, it was certain that this was his choice of modelling program that he would use "whenever possible".

Tips and suggestions...he got 'em..

Hi,
Thanks everyone for your replies.
I'll see how I get on. I'm going to try using OpenSim and Hippo/Meerkat viewers first of all in standalone mode.
Thanks.

Ok, sorry was in a bit of a snit this morning.. had my pet peeve button pushed elsewhere and brought it here, my apologies for being short . Thought my point I think, still stands. The direct question I saw asked by the OP was.. is it possible to build prim based objects offline using Blender. I don't see a middle ground there. Yes it is possible to build prim based objects offline using Blender. There was no mention of the users ability within Blender, and believe it or not, there are quite a lot of people that were proficient with it long before sculpties brought it to the awareness of many SL builders . Even so the prim blender addon makes Blender pretty much as easy to build with as SL. All you need in addition is knowing things like, opening and saving files, and movement/view controls. Really nothing super hard to learn (especially considering the plethora of tutorials), if indeed you were starting from scratch.. which again I didn't get that impression from the question.

When someone says something like



most people in this forum understand that as a general invitation to offer advice, including



IMHO, too many newcomers to SL leap to using wonderful external tools without giving the basic SL building tools a fair try first. I think it's good to remind people that the tools are there, especially when they ask for advice.

Yet most newcomers to SL have many hours a day to sit and enjoy the SL tools. The OP has a max of 2 hrs a day. It's nice to have options when there is no possibility of getting on and you have a jones to build, right?