Why not???

Why does LL make it so we have to go through all this baking rediculousness? It'd be a lot easier if we could just upload a simple .obj file or sometihg, wouldn't it? I mean, maybe there's some reason I'm over looking something, but I still don't see why they won't do it. I've spent about the last 4 or 5 hours trying to figure this baking thing out.... Well thanks for responding.

I'm not sure what you mean by "this baking thing", Zeenith. Typically, the word "baking" refers to a process of using a 3D modeling program to create a part or all of a 2D texture. You could do that for any 3D model, whether it happens to be saved in OBJ format or not.

And there's nothing "ridiculous" about baking. You won't find a single realtime digital 3D environment on this planet that doesn't incorporate baked textures to some extent, including every video game in the world. Even non-realtime 3D, such as models you see in movies and TV shows utilize baking all the time. Baking is just one of the things you do when you work in 3D. It's as common as painting is in 2D.

I suspect you're actually trying to ask about something other than baking, but you're using the wrong wording. If you could describe what it is you're having trouble with, I'm sure one of us can tell you the correct term, and can help you get past whatever step you're currently stumbling on.


As for why we can't upload OBJ files, that has to do with the history of SL's achitecture. For the first 4 years of SL's existence, every model was constructed in-world, entirely out of parametric primitives (prims). At least 90% of what's built now is still done that way. There are many very good reasons for this. I'll explain two of the biggest ones:

1. Physics. It's much more difficult to calculate collisions on an arbitrary mesh than it is on a prim. The system is pre-programmed with knowledge of how collisions work for each prim type's particular shape in 3D space, which allows things to happen as smoothly as possible. There's obviously no way it could have that foreknowledge of an arbitrary shape it's encountering for the first time. So it would therefore have to figure it out in real time, which would not be an efficient use of server resources. There's enough difficulty with physics as it is.

2. Streaming. SL doesn't work in the relatively simplistic way that online video games do. It's far more complicated. In a game, the "world" resides on your local hard drive. Everyone playing has an identical copy of the world on their own machines, so none of the information about how to create anything ever has to travel across the Internet. The only data that has to stream back and forth is where the characters are, what they're doing, etc., which is a very small amount of data.

In SL, it's exactly the opposite. Almost EVERYTHING has to be streamed. Since every object in the world is user-created, you can never have an up to date copy of the world on your local machine. It changes literally every moment. The only way to keep everyone on the same page is to stream the whole damned thing.

So how are prims "better" than meshes for this kind of environment? Well, with everyone using the same building blocks, every client machine can be pre-programmed with knowledge of how to make them all. So the data that gets streamed is not the actual geometry desciption, which could be huge, but just a tiny, finite list of parameters. All that needs to be transmitted is where to put each prim, what size they each need to be, what direction they're rotated in, etc. This makes for very high efficiency.

Were arbitrary meshes to be employed, the entire instruction set for how to make every last object would need to be streamed. Until the Internet gets a whole lot faster than it currently is and/or until someone figures out how to compress a mesh description to be as small as a prim description, that's not going to happen.


All that said, LL does very much realize the need for the world to become a more "normal" 3D environment. They've been trying to figure out the best way to introduce mesh support for years now. Sculpties are the first fruit of that labor. They're a little weird, sure, but they're rather ingenious. They allow SL to incorporate arbitrary shapes without having to change its architecture at all. It has always had the ability to upload textures, for example, so encoding XYZ vertex displacement into RGB channel data was an easy leap to make. It's definitely not the typical way to do things, but it works extremely well for what it is.

It will only get better from here. LL and many in the open source community are actively thinking about the best ways for mesh models to fit into SL. It's only a matter of time before someone has that eureka moment.

Understand that prims will never go away, though. Even if full blown mesh support were to hit SL tomorrow, a prim model will always be more efficient in many ways than a mesh model for this type of environment (even if geometric efficiency isn't one of those ways).

So, rather than complaining about what we can't do, learn to work with what we can do. Lots of people in SL have created absolutely stunning builds. Quit asking "Why can't I'. As "How can I."

I'll grant you most of the world doesn't look all that great, since the vast majority of people in it are not professional artists. But that doesn't mean nothing good exists. You can find lots of places scattered across the grid in which things look as good as what you'd find in any video game. Think about it like this if it helps. 99% of all websites look like crap. But that doesn't stop good Web designers from making their own sits look great. There's nothing wrong with the platform. It's the people that make it work or not.

The only important question is how good are you? Are you someone who can adapt yourself to working with the tools of this platform or not? If you are, you can make great things. If not, you'll move on to something else. Either way, don't blame the system. It's up to you either way. If you choose to succeed, there are plenty of us here to help. If you choose to give up, then good luck in whatever else you end up doing.

I'm ok at it. I just need to find a good way to align things. (putting two shapes EXACTLY on top of each other or putting one shape EXACTLY in the center of another one I'm sure there's way)

I'm trying to make the shape of a crystal. A pic's in the other thread about the Blender Scripts.

Well I meant by baking that I wanted to map the object to the texture but it's annoying because I've been trying to figure it out.

Use the reference grid. First make sure Use Grid is turned on. Now select the first object, and press shift-G to reference it. The grid units will change to be the size of the referenced object, and the object's center will become the origin for the rulers. No simply snap your second object into place, via the on-screen rulers. Easy.


I'm not a Blender user, so I don't pay attention to the threads about it. I'm not gonna go digging through them to find whatever you posted in one of them, sorry. If you've got a link, great. But I'm not gonna go searching.


I'm still not sure what you mean. "Map the object to the texture" could mean all sorts of things. Can you explain exactly what you're trying to do?

Oh, well I found the links. The ones on the other post were on the last page, I forgot to mention that becuse it was REALLY early in the morning. lol

Ok, in this first link, you'll see the shape I'm trying to make at the top of the screen . (that crystal shape) to the right, you'll see this brownish pic.... that's the texture I tried to upload.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/Dreamcube017/Help%20folder/Blenderhelp.jpg

Now in this next pic, you'll see what that texture turned into.... a Dorito potato chip of sorts. lol Looks pretty tasty though...

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/Dreamcube017/Help%20folder/Wrong.jpg

Those are the pics I was talking about. That should explain what I was trying to explain.

Thanks for the advice. I'll give that a shot!