#SL Mesh Update Week 30

Surely you have heard Mesh has made it to the main grid. To see some mesh open the World Map and search for ‘mesh’. You’ll see the mesh sandbox regions listed. You won’t be able to get in or see mesh until you do a couple of things.

You need to read the Mesh Volunteers Group instructions to get access. You’ll find that you need a particular viewer too. Download the Mesh Test Viewer here. This is the viewer candidate that will soon become part of the beta viewer for SL. So, use it and find as many bugs as possible.

You’ll also find that you must join the Mesh Live Volunteers Group. This group must be your active group to have access to the Mesh Sandboxes.

Mesh Meeting

Mesh regions on ADITI

Now that we are seeing mesh on the main grid some have wondered what would happen to the mesh regions in the Beta/Preview grid, ADITI. After all, soon all the regions on ADITI will have mesh. Charlar Linden says they plan to keep the mesh regions in ADITI for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t mean forever, but it does mean they will be around for some time. The Lindens are hoping residents will continue to upload and test mesh in the ADITI mesh regions.

Which Viewer Should One Use for Mesh in AGNI?

There is the Mesh Viewer pointed to by the Mesh Volunteer page (above) for the main grid AGNI. It is different than the Mesh Development Viewer. Nyx Linden tells us that Viewer (236285) is the official project viewer for use on the main grid. This is the version they hope to merge into the main viewer. Testing in this version is for viewer stability. The Development Viewer has code that will go into a future version.

So, using (236285) will help improve stability.

Using Sphere for Physics Shape

Some people have noticed some prim cost problems when using a sphere for the physics shape. The issue appeared in the JIRA item CTS-662. Runitai Linden explained it this way.

Runitai : I guess a more satisfying answer [to JIRA CTS-662] is that the new cost is representative of the actual physical complexity of the prim. Most prims are NOT efficient physically.

Nyx: So, using the new physics shape type shows the accurate cost info.

Runitai : If you use the physics shape display, you can see what the physics rep of your prim is. For example, if you do a non-uniform scale on sphere, it turns into a mesh for Havoc. If you do uniform scale only, it stays as an analytical sphere.

If you are trying to understand what is happening… it can get confusing. My simple explanation is that if one uses a deformed sphere for a physics shape it is going to be expensive. The equation for ploting points on a sphere is relatively simple. Deforming the sphere into an ellipsoid requires more math and CPU time. Until know the Lab never considered that an import consideration. Now that we have new accountants it is a concern.

If you want a cheap physics shape, make a 12 triangle cube.

Getting Mesh Enabled

To upload mesh one must get their SL account Mesh Enabled. When you first try to upload a mesh there will be a link in the upload panel that sends you to the right page in your Account Dashboard. Fill out a questionnaire and your good to go, provided you have payment information on file.

A problem came up that the questionnaire did not work well on some browsers. Firefox users had some problems that they could not backup a page. Some could not answer the first question. That should be fixed by now. If you hit the problem, try another browser.

Max PE in a Link Set

When making link set there is a 256 prim limit. Only 256 prims can be linked together. So, a question comes up as to how the link set code handles mesh with variable Prim Equivalency. Nyx Linden tells us that link sets do NOT look at PE. The code only considers the object count. So, it is clearer if you think of link sets has allowing 256 objects. For use in a link set a single mesh with a PE of 20 still counts as 1 object.

Automatic Avatar Muting

I’m not sure why it made it into the Mesh Meeting but Nyx tells us the Lab is looking into having a feature that automatically ‘visually mutes’ the number of avatars a viewer renders. There would likely be a setting so users can set the limit for their computer’s capabilities.

Presumably this would help in cases where lots of avatars are wearing mesh clothes… who knows?

Ground Plane Preview

Several people have run into the problem of not being able to tell where an imported rigged mesh will be in relation to the ground. There is an offset value that can be adjusted to get a mesh to position correctly. But, it is not easy to adjust if you can’t see where the ground is. So, at some point we’ll see a ground plane in the mesh upload preview window.

Mesh Format Documentation

If you want to know how mesh is formatted for use in SL see: SL Mesh Asset Format.

Rand Linden created a page titled, Mesh/Technical Overview. Recently Gaia Clary has been adding to the page.

Summary

People that have not been following mesh are suddenly waking up in the forum. They are ranting away, trying to tell the Lab how mesh should be done, and on and on. Next will be the stories that the Lab never listens. If you have been following mesh development with me, you’ll know better.

Mesh is pretty much here. I think we will see mesh spread across the grid by the end of August.

Mesh is already grid wide in OSGrid.

One thought on “#SL Mesh Update Week 30

  1. Interesting to hear about the ‘visual muting’ of avatars. I think that would be a very useful feature for residents with marginal machines in some circumstances.

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