In-world sculptie editors?

Are there any good in-world sculptie editors? I came across one on SLX that got poor reviews. Are there any better ones?

All I can say is this: DO NOT BUY the one I reviewed on SLX. If it was transferable, I'd give it to you, just to be rid of it. Heck, if you want, I can show you how to use it and leave it on your land so you can use it as much as you want, but it won't produce the way it's described.

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No, thats ok. I have no interest in making sculptie rocks.

Why don't you want to use an Out-World application?

Considering several outages, crashes and lag issues that happens very often in SL is not a bad idea.

Yeah, no kidding. I only wish I could do ALL my modeling for SL externally. I'd love to just build everything in a standalone app, and then just pop into SL to upload it and put it in place. Not only would this make texturing a thousand times easier and faster, it would also mean no more having to take Wednesdays off, no more inability to work when there are too many people online, no more having to worry about whether or not the asset server works today, etc. I could just work straight through all that, and then only have to worry a little bit when it comes time for upload. I've been wanting this for years.

The fact that sculpties are done externally is a good start, but it's nowhere near enough.

I can see why professional folks want to do all their building offline. Heck, I do as much scripting offline as possible too. But I very strongly think that it is HUGE that normal residents can use the inworld build tools and make something that they can use and that looks OK.

You could say the same thing about textures - why buy them inworld? So much more convenient to get them from texture websites. And my answer would be the same ... it is IMMENSE that you can get everything you need to build a home inworld. So immersive, and a real differentiator from other 3D worlds.

So I would love to see simple, decent sculptie tools inworld too. Otherwise, as sculpties become more common (and rezzable lol), folks like me may eventually stop building altogether, figuring all building should be left to the pros.

Never tried it but you can build offline with this: http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=149111

I see your point, Nika. I'm really of two minds on the subject. On the one hand, I'd love for there to be at least a rudimentary way to create every possible asset in-world. In fact, when I was at SL Views in San Francisco last year, I did suggest to the Lindens that they add a simple texture-painting tool to SL's repertoire. They looked at me like the idea had never even occurred to them. I doubt it will ever happen, but I'm still hoping.

On the other hand, I do believe that for SL ever to become "mainstream", it has to get much, much simpler to use. At some point, you have to say enough is enough, feature wise. For those of us who are here, it's difficult to understand, but the fact is SL is just too damned hard for most people. 90% of people who join quit within 15 minutes and never come back. The most common reason given for this, as far as I know, is that people feel the software is too complicated.

That kind of dropout rate is totally unacceptable, and ultimately unsustainable. Something needs to be done to "dumb down" the experience enough so that it's palatable for general consumption.

Maybe the answer is to split the viewer in two. Have a standard viewer that behaves like a browser, with just the ability to communicate and interact with the world, and then have an advanced one for content creators that is chock full of tools (including lots of tools we don't currently have). It don't know that's necessarily the best solution, but I believe it's something the Lindens (and others) have been thinking about for a long time now, and it might work.

Thanka, Kahiro. Yes, I've been aware of prims.blender for years. I've never used it either, but from what I hear, it works well. I've just got this little problem of being allergic to Blender, so it's unlikely I'll ever use it.

I'm really hoping Adrian Linden will get around to finishing his Maya prims plugin one of these days. That would do it for me.

For most people though, something that more closely resembles SL's actual inteface would probably be the best way to go. That means a standalone program, not just plugin for a larger 3D modeling platform. Nobody's stepped up to the plate to do that yet.

I use ZBrush for making sculpties, which I love.

I was thinking about teaching an in-world sculptie class. An in-world sculptie editor would allow a class to happen in shared 3d space and I could look at what my students were doing in real time.

I think there are plenty of people in SL who are creative but perhaps don't have the artistic or technical skills or inclination to make sculpties or have been frustrated or disappointed in their attemps to make them. I have a business selling full perm sculpties which is growing nicely. I thought teaching a class would be a nice compliment to my business and get some of these people over the hump.

Another option I'm considering is learning Wings and getting students set up with Wings. (Blender gave me a headache). I suppose I could hold an in-world class where my students are also working offline.

There are some in-world sculptie editors, but from what I've seen they look like they're actually less precise and more confusing to use than some out-of-world techniques.

I personally use specialty programs out-of-world like rokuro, tokoroten, nomi, HM2Sculpt, sculptypaint, and PloppSL.

I also use Wings3d for proper modelling, and use sculptypaint to make the models from that a bit more natural.

These do all I need, with very little risk of them just going out for hours on end, and they work lovely.

I'm fairly new (been on about 2 months...many hours a day) and fairly computer savy...and I have to agree with you.

You know, on one hand SL is totally increible. I remember signing up years ago when the avatars were cones and circles. The way it is now is a vast improvement. In many ways, I am totally astounded at all the creations so-called hackers and modifiers have done! To say that I am blown away would be an understatement.

On the other hand...I wish someone would have made it clear that SL has like a 6 month learning curve (at least that is how long I think it will take before I am up to speed), and that in those 6 months you'll have to pretty much eat, live, breathe SL.

One of my banes (if someone out there wanted to seize the niche and solve it) is the time it takes to go to and rez all the stores and products only to find the exact same things at every store (it seems). I use SLX a lot...but same there. When i am looking for hair I just want one picture per vendor...providing each vendor is selling different hair. 2 months and I STILL cannot find hair that looks like mine! And the only hair that comes close is sold E V E R Y W H E R E...who wants hair the same as everyone else's?!

[SLX could be much improved if advertisers were encouraged to post just one (say bench) and on the information page post the (benches) in umpteen different colors.]

Still...compared to what it was...SL is awesome. And it will no doubt continue to improve in the next two years.

I likewise wish it was easier for those just starting out...that things were not described or stated in needlessly confusing ways...and that if I was looking for a specific script or product I could just easily find it (within 5 querry links...as opposed to days upon days of searching).

It's too bad about the drop out rate...but perhaps in two to three years they will be back to a much easier place to navigate. For my own self, I thank everyone who has been so kind and helpful to me...as well as everyone coming up with all these interesting things!

Sustainable Love