Sculpty Maker V1.5

lolz

Sue, you didn't need to tell me it was a joke. I was smiling the moment I saw your name and laughing at the end of the first sentence.


Now go get your geeky bum back in Resident Answers and ask how many pixels make up the letter 'x' in a Arial font or something!. You just know you want to!.

Sculpty Maker V2.2 now available.

Sculpty Maker can now export large sculptmaps and will lovingly apply a smoothing filter to help them withstand SL's compression.

I've added this new feature because I really dislike using SL's lossless sculptmaps because of how long they can take to rez. It's caused by a notorious bug that's been around since lossless image uploads were first introduced to SL.

But with the quality of Sculpty Maker's new lossy sculptmaps and how tiny they are when compressed, I'll probably continue to use them even after the lossless bug is fixed. For example - a lossless 64x64 sculptmap is approx 13k in size. Yet the same sculptmap at 128x128 only takes up a measly 2k when compressed!.

I recommend a sculptmap size of 128x128. Bigger sizes don't really improve the quality enough to justify using them. But the larger sizes can come in handy for getting rid of some awkward little bumps. and believe it or not but a 1024x1024 sculptmap will actually rez much quicker than a 64x64 lossless sculptmap. Despite the 1024 sculptmap's file size being much bigger. grrr..

Anyway.. have fun!.

Over and out!

Once again, another terrific update!

So, to make a zsphere using the new resolution, just divide up to twice more, or start with a 63x64 or a 127x128 object?

Nah, it's all just business as usual when it comes to ZBrush. The only thing you'll need to do is shift Sculpty Maker's new size slider to 128 and upload the sculptmap without the lossless option enabled.

You'll love it for your animations. You'll get the fast rezzing combined with nicely formed shapes!

I also forgot to mention that the new smoothing feature only kicks in when a sculptmap size of 128 or greater is specified. It you specify a size of 64 then Sculpty Maker will just assume you're going to be uploading it with the lossless option and so wont bother smoothing it. This is partly because a 64x64 sculptmap doesn't really benefit from the smoothing process. It's just too small.

Now this is the best argument for using sculptmaps larger than 64x64 that I have seen. I had always been convinced that using the smallest sculptmap image was always better, but never thought about lossless versus lossy file sizes. I think you may have convinced me to experiment with 128x128 lossy.

I guess the only concern I have now is whether or not sculptmaps actually take up video memory? Are they just downloaded as textures then processed or do they actually take up memory in the video card? Prolly not a big deal either way unless you are using dozens of sculpties...

Thanks for another great update, 2k!

It wouldn't be logical to send sculptmaps to the video card. The CPU will generate the sculpty's mesh using the sculptmap stored in main memory. But let's not forget that this is SL we're talking about, a place where logic can be difficult to implement

Thank you so much for all of your converter work.

Even more converter work done!. I can't stop playing with it!

I've updated the link up yonder with Sculpty Maker V2.4.

Changes:

I've reworked the mapping code. Sculpty Maker will produce much better results when converting high or low resolution meshes. 4x8?, 20x20?, 256x128?? No problem!. and no more black lines!.

Also, when mapping a 128x128 mesh into a 128x128 sculptmap, all the vertex detail is actually stored into the sculptmap. So in theory, if in 2 years time LL or somebody decided to increase the sculpty mesh resolution, all those sculptmap details would be magically revealed. Previous versions of Sculpty Maker would just map everything into a 33x33 sculptmap and then rescale the sculptmap to the specified size. So dumb!.
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Sculpty Maker will now convert the Helix and Spiral type objects correctly.
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I've improved the sculpty type (or stitching type) detection code. No more having to feed Sculpty Maker with meshes of a certain size in order to have the type detected. So now you can make a torus or plane of whatever dimensions you like and Sculpty Maker will figure out the stitchinig type.
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Finally, I've changed the 2 in " ...V2.2" to a 4. So it's now called "Sculpty Maker V2.4".

Awesome!

Aha! THAT explains the last two days: I really try not to run crying to you with my sculpt issues until I discover that it isn't me (which it usually is )

Thanks as always

It is!!!! Have to try it soon as possible, ty!!

Good gawd, every time you update ya just blow my mind! keep up the great work!

I am about to do some testing with the polycube tool that is in zbrush's tools folder rather than the Cube 3D tool which is a sphere that has been forced into a cube shape. The issue I find is with the poles of the sphere and I've done a lot of reading to work out how to get a shape that doesn't have these poles, as I find them prohibative to what I want to do with the sculpts. I'm hoping that 2k's converter wil work with this tool! *crosses fingers*

**Edit - it doesn't work. The sculpty converter crashes, and Maya exports a lovely black square :*( back to the ol' drawing board

Hi!,

It's not possible to convert the cube you speak of. But what you could do is to create your own cube from six ZBrush planes merged into a single object. Sculpty Maker will then convert your cube into six sculptmaps that can then be passed on to Sculpty Rezzer which will rebuild your cube inworld.

Careful though! - because it could result in slight gaps between each face.

Thanks 2k, I was in the process of editing my post when you posted!! Using the merged planes is an excellent idea! I'll give that a try

My god. This is the ultimate lifesaver for me in SL. Words cannot thank you enough.

Edit: It seems to crash when there's a lot of polys. I start with the regular 32x33 or 32x32, but I use the Divide feature under Geometry in ZBrush3. Should I return to subdivision level 1 before I have Subtool Master merge everything? Just thought I'd post this here, so that others with the same problem will see what seems to be happening.

In some prims, it's creating a "cut" on the prim where the edges of the scluptmap are.
In an object with 3 prims I created (two spheres, one torus), only one looked perfect without cuts. Odd thing is, it was one of the spheres, the other got cut, and they use the exact same starting point in Zbrush. I was using a 128x128 map, when I had Sculpty Maker make them 64x64, the two spheres had no cuts anymore, and the torus has a small one right where the corners join. I opened the sculptmaps in Photoshop, zoomed to 1600% and I don't see any black areas, and that's why I haven't tried fixing them manually, I simply don't know how.

Plus, every time I try having Sculpty Maker render maps at 256x256 or over, it creates a lot of black artifacts all over the maps (the larger I set the maps, the more blackness comes all over them).

Okay, I've fixed the black artifact problem. Although it was probably pointless of me to do so. Since I've added the feature that smoothens sculptmaps there's not really any benefit from using a sculptmap larger than 128x128. and if uploading with the lossless option then a 64x64 is fine.

As for the "cuts" - that might be caused by you selecting the wrong stitching method in SL's sculpty edit panel. My inworld tool - 'Sculpty Rezzer' will setup your sculpty for you, I'll send you a copy later.

I was using the Sculpty Rezzer - found the scripts you uploaded to the person who's on the teen grid and followed the steps you said to make the Rezzer...

Edit: Oh, forgot about this, Thank you for fixing the black artifacts ^___^

Try converting the same objects again with the latest version of ZSculpty or Sculpty Maker and see how that goes.

There was an issue involving the # character. Sculpty Maker uses the character to seperate the position, scale and sculpty type info that gets stored in your Sculptmap's filename. Yet ZBrush also uses the character quite often when naming sub tools - "Sphere3D #1" etc. So this caused major confusion for Sculpty Rezzer. In the latest version Sculpty Maker will remove the # character from your object's name.

I think I've found the problem!. The maximum length of item names in SL is quite limited and so what's probably happened is that your sub tools have a long name and this means that after the position, scale and prim type info is added to the name to create the final file name, the name length is just too long and so the end of it is being chopped off when you upload the sculptmap into SL.

So a sculptmap named:

SM_PM3D_MyBigSphere3D1_1#-1.5400,0.0000,0.0000#1.4054,1.4054,1.412#1

is ending up as:

SM_PM3D_MyBigSphere3D1_1#-1.5400,0.0000,0.0000#1.4054,1.4054,1.412

Notice the #1 at the end is missing?. Well that's the sculpty type and if that's missing then sculpty type none will be selected. Which basicaly means your sculpty will default to being a plane. or rather, a sphere with a big cut down the side. argh!

So keep your sub tool names quite short and life should be good!. But if you ever forget and a sculpty ends up with a nasty gash down the side then just change the prim type yourself.

I checked for misplaced #s, nothing. Tried with the new version, same thing. Tried renaming all the parts and the final .obj file to a smaller name, no use. Checked the uploaded sculpty maps in SL, all have their proper #1s or #3s at the end. Tried ZSculty, things got worse... I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Here's pics so you get the idea.

Model in Zbrush: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/afroditeohki/helpme1.jpg

Exported with Sculpty Maker and rezzed with Sculpty Rezzer: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/afroditeohki/helpme2.jpg
Heel part had a cut along it too, doesn't anymore with the new version. The one that's cut has a torus topology.

ZSculpty rezzed a crumb of very small prims: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/afroditeohki/helpme3.jpg
Here are the parts pulled apart: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/afroditeohki/helpme4.jpg
As you see, the part that was supposed to be a torus was rezzed appearantly as a sphere, and I figured they're all out of proportion and place because they somehow were exported too tiny for SL's size limits, but I did try merging them with Subtool Master, using the Size slider under Deformations a whole lot of times to get it much much larger, breaking it apart into subtools again and exporting, it turned into the same thing.


I dunno what's wrong X_X

You can upload your .ztl file somewhere and drop me a link inworld and I'll take a peek at it. From what you've shown me it looks like an issue with the info stored in the file names. You could easily test to see if this is the case by uploading and setting your shoe parts manually. You'll obviously need to use a client that lets you set the sculpty type manually. I use the Release Candidate.

I just did that. It seems the torus was set like a plane. It did work, THANK YOU! What stich type numbers correspond to each type? If the problem is in the naming, I can fix it myself. ^^

Dear 2k Suisei
Absolut fantastik work ,i woud vote for you "2k Suisei for LL President"

just a litle side note i trye too test your animation scripts on the Beta Grid .
And as i recognise after hiting the Sculpty Rezzer The Sim crash and whent down.
First i dont belive that it was the Sculpty rezzer but it happens again in a other Sandbox.
could it be a problem in the long names of the Sculpty maps ?
But Most important your great Zbrush tools and help.
Thanks will hang on your Z-talks.

2k for president!
Totally agree xD