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SL rendering or my converter?
Hakko Noel
Registered User
Join date: 3 Mar 2007
Posts: 7
10-01-2007 14:35
Hello!

I got little mad when my sculpted sofa got some bumpines, but when I imported nice clean stright edged and flat surfaced part and SL rendered it I got realy mad. Please see image attached and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I'm using "Wings" 3d tool and converter that can be found somwhere in this forum.

Best regards,
Hakko
DanielFox Abernathy
Registered User
Join date: 20 Oct 2006
Posts: 212
10-01-2007 16:07
This is a result of the jpeg2k compression algorithm applied to your sculpty. Try uploading with SLImageUpload or the RC version of the SL viewer with lossless encoding. The latter is sometimes not successful, and even with the former there are some streaming issues (if your lossless sculpt map is significantly larger than its lossy compressed equivalent, it may stream incompletely)
Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
10-01-2007 16:38
Another option is to use the LibSL uploader. It's a little annoying since it's command line only, no GUI, but it works really well. Just be sure to tell it to create your sculpty in a relatively secure location. It will create the item with full perms and with Allow Anyone To Copy turned on.
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Daathorc Draken
Registered User
Join date: 30 Dec 2006
Posts: 6
10-01-2007 23:59
Also, you have to tell me the size of your bitmap. Try it with 16x16, you might get cleaner lines (shh LL might not compress that) and the image you are showing does not need anything beyond that. Fewer pixels, fewer compression artifacts. Fewer bumps.
Hakko Noel
Registered User
Join date: 3 Mar 2007
Posts: 7
10-02-2007 03:04
Thnx for explaining, got new viewer and now with it's lossless upload looks much better altho still some criplings but will live with that. Have 128x128 image - need it for further detailing of this part.
Omei Turnbull
Registered User
Join date: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 577
10-02-2007 10:01
From: Daathorc Draken
Also, you have to tell me the size of your bitmap. Try it with 16x16, you might get cleaner lines (shh LL might not compress that) and the image you are showing does not need anything beyond that. Fewer pixels, fewer compression artifacts. Fewer bumps.
You might think so, but in fact it is the other way around. With the current SL implementation, compression artifacts are greatest when the sculpt map is small. Although artifacts have been reduced in 1.18.3, your safest bet, if you don't want to experiment, is still 128x128.
Sylvia Trilling
Flying Tribe
Join date: 2 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,117
10-02-2007 13:20
I tried the RC and my lumpy sculptie looks exactly the same. Are there any other options for a Mac user?
Omei Turnbull
Registered User
Join date: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 577
10-02-2007 16:08
Sylvia, a number of things besides compression artifacts can introduce "bumpiness". If you post a picture of your model in whatever tool you are using, the size of the sculpt map you exported and the resulting sculpty in SL, you'll probably get better advice.
Sylvia Trilling
Flying Tribe
Join date: 2 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,117
10-02-2007 17:06
From: Omei Turnbull
Sylvia, a number of things besides compression artifacts can introduce "bumpiness". If you post a picture of your model in whatever tool you are using, the size of the sculpt map you exported and the resulting sculpty in SL, you'll probably get better advice.


I did. See /8/44/211561/1.html
I got some good advice which I am putting to use. But it would be great if you took a look. I am using your wings exporter which is giving me a 64x64 map. How do I get a map that is 128x128?

Thanks.

EDIT:
I did not have the most up-to-date wings exporter. I installed that and got a map that is 128x128.

Oh dear, the 128x128 actually looks worse. I will post a pic.
The left sculptie is the 64x64 map from a previous release of the exporter. The right sculptie is a 128x128 map of the most recent exporter.
Omei Turnbull
Registered User
Join date: 19 Jun 2005
Posts: 577
10-02-2007 18:25
I think you probably have unreal expectations as to the precision you can achieve with sculpty shapes. The SL models look pretty good to me. Getting to the next level of refinement requires texturing. To get the best results, you need to not only paint in the features, but "bake" shading into the texture. (I don't know whether ZBrush can do that, but I suspect it can.) Texturing will have much more effect on what the eye sees than little bumps in the shape.

Note that even though you export a sculpt map at 128x128, SL is going to use only 33x33 of those vertices. Since your method of modeling isn't specifying those vertices explicitly, SL is going to calculate them using interpolation. If you want to, you can improve the sculpty shape by rescaling the 128x128 ssulpt map to 32x32 and importing it back into Wings. You'll probably find that the edges don't align with the features. For example, instead of having a series of edges that line up with the eye outline, they will cross it. If you adjust the vertices so that they align, your model will look better in SL. But this is a lot of work, using a tool you're probably not familiar with. You'll probably get a lot more mileage out of learning how to create the best textures.
Sylvia Trilling
Flying Tribe
Join date: 2 Oct 2006
Posts: 1,117
10-02-2007 18:42
From: Omei Turnbull
I think you probably have unreal expectations as to the precision you can achieve with sculpty shapes. The SL models look pretty good to me. Getting to the next level of refinement requires texturing. To get the best results, you need to not only paint in the features, but "bake" shading into the texture. (I don't know whether ZBrush can do that, but I suspect it can.) Texturing will have much more effect on what the eye sees than little bumps in the shape.

Note that even though you export a sculpt map at 128x128, SL is going to use only 33x33 of those vertices. Since your method of modeling isn't specifying those vertices explicitly, SL is going to calculate them using interpolation. If you want to, you can improve the sculpty shape by rescaling the 128x128 ssulpt map to 32x32 and importing it back into Wings. You'll probably find that the edges don't align with the features. For example, instead of having a series of edges that line up with the eye outline, they will cross it. If you adjust the vertices so that they align, your model will look better in SL. But this is a lot of work, using a tool you're probably not familiar with. You'll probably get a lot more mileage out of learning how to create the best textures.


Thanks so much, Omei. This is exactly the info I was looking for. I should have mentioned that the sculpties in the pics do indeed have a quick and dirty texture bake already but I will develop this more. I will also work on breaking the model down into more prims so each prim can have more detail. I wanted to be sure I have the best tools and technical information before I launch into the work of developing my zbrush sculpting and texturing skills to get the look I want.
Lightwave Valkyrie
Registered User
Join date: 30 Jan 2004
Posts: 666
10-03-2007 17:49
LibSL uploader? where can you get this?
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