3DS Max to Prim plugin.

Not sure if this has been covered before, if it exists etc, but the on call Lindens didn't seem to be aware of such a thing.

SL does not support uploading of 3D data, as most of us know.

3DSmax does support the creation of plugins to export to non-native formats (such as the Macromedia Flash plugin).

Is anyone aware of the existence of, or have the talent to create a plugin that converts 3DSmax models to the LSL required to rez and manipulate prims to mimic the model data- doing all the calculations to figure out:

that a 20m x 30m x 100m hollow box with a hole in one end and 1m thick walls needs to be split into about 100 10m x 10m x 1m boxes, all rotated and positioned properly, linked into groups where pos, with a hole set to the right size and type

taking a character model, complete with pose, disassembling the UVW maps, generating the textures to apply to the prims (no more flat manequins!!)/clothing and the avatar settings required to make the shape and skin

taking a sim model, generate the RAW file, generate the LSL to plant trees and place prims, disassemble UVW maps and create textures and texture maps (aka sprite maps for you Old School folks) for uploading alongside the lsl to copy & paste.

(you know if you really wanted to, you could configure the renderer plugin to email in the instructions on the fly rather than spitting out LSL, I've written LSL to manipulate prims by email before)

ramble ramble ramble.

Summary: why doesn't such a thing exist if it doesn't ?

it does,... for blender

I'll address your last quesiton first. The simplest answer to why this doesn't exist is that it's freakin' hard to make. Why haven't you written such a plugin yourself? Well, that's exactly why no one else has either. It's not a small task.

That having been said, everyone's favorite genius, Jeffrey Gomez has been working for some time on Blender plugin for prim building outside of SL. If you're wondering why Blender, by the way, Jeffrey has said (and I agree, even though I'm not a real big Blender fan) that Blender makes sense since it's free and open source. Not everyone is willing to shell out $1500 for Max, or $6000 for Maya, but everyone can get Blender for free.

Also, Jeffrey's OBJ->Prim converter has been available on the scripting forum for a long time now. If you want to upload a Max model to SL, first export it as an OBJ, and then use Jeffrey's mojo to upload it. Be aware that it will turn every poly into a cube, so the results are not always pretty, but it's cool either way.

As for doing the avatar thing you asked about, I'm not sure if you're talking about making something that looks like an avatar out of prims, or if you're talking about modeling an av in Max, and then using the data from that model to shape your inworld av. If it's the former, it can be done, sort of, in theory, and Jeffrey's OBJ importer would be the best way to do it. The results won't be perfect since prims aren't quite capable of bending in all the ways the av mesh polys can bend, but you can get a reasonable faxsimile.

If it's the latter, it's not possible. The avs are all created by applying morphs to the default (Ruth) avatar. Those morphs are applied as percentage values, via the sliders. Scripts cannot access those slider settigs in any way, shape, or form, so there's no way to write a script to rebuild your Max model as a real av, even if your model had the same polys in it, which it likely wouldn't.

As for the RAW file thing, island estate owners already have something similar to what you're talking about. It hasn't been implimented on the mainland yet, but Phillip has said several times now that the mainland will eventually have all the tools that the estates do, as soon as they've worked out the difiiculities in implimentation.

Apologies for not using search.



Agreed, acknowledged and damn disapointed about my lack of the level of coding skills required. The only person I know who could do such a thing is too busy with too much other stuff to be able to write it.


Open Source software kicks ass (heads up on Avimator for animations btw).


Both.


"Mearly" providing the info for avatar settings would be a step in the right direction. UVW map disassembling and the Jeffrey Gomez's work would assist in the creation of skins, textures and attachments.
A little help from Linden Labs to allow offline backup and upload of settings would allow for that to move forward (although scripted avatar tweaking would be well cool).


This is the exact thing I'm referring to. I'm sure there's 3D programs available to create the landscape file in a 3D view, similar to DarkYoda's work for Black & White 1 (I think I got the name right), I'm just saying it'd be nice if everything was in one neat package.

Offline editors built into the client would also be a step towards direct P2P mini-grids over internet and LAN for collaboration on builds without having to rely on the current centralized vulnerability issues.

I forget what his response was, but Phillip was questioned in a recent interview regarding the ability for SL to become decentralized by allowing residents (and third party companies) to host regions themselves- which I'm guessing would either be accomplished by the afformentioned P2P method, the NWN method of providing server tools as software, or the Google method of supplying a server in a rack mountable box (with remote access so the SL Sim Appliance could be configured to let Linden Labs/other third party distribute server updates).

Handy how Linden Labs has good links with Google- wonder if that idea was brought up after the presentation to Google (the one where it's just the two of them running a live demo of SL in the middle of a database upgrade to the main grid).

PS, I suspect because of the complexity in offline tech stuff was to be implemented, I wouldn't be suprised if such things were to be announced "officially" till people were getting antsy for SL version 3.0 instead of 2.0