Mesh Pivot Points
This feature keeps coming up. If you work with Blender or other 3D modeling tools you know they have user controllable pivot points, sometimes called object origins. However Second Life does not import that information or if it does it isn’t used.
We have work-around methods for doors and other mesh objects that need off-center-of-mass pivot points. But, origins are also used to put parts of a model together. A castle could be built around the 0,0,0 point in Blender. Each piece of the castle could be set to have its origin at that single point. The model could be assembled in SL by setting each part at the same X,Y,Z point in SL. It would save trying to fit all the parts together visually.
As it is now object centers are always calculated at the geometric center of a mesh’s bounding box. It is this center that is used as the objects center of rotation or pivot point. If one sets all those calculated centers on the same SL region coordinate it would make a mess. So, for now we have to fit the pieces together by eye. Tedious.
Avatar Bounce
When making mesh avatar attachments, if the bounding box of the LoD (Level of Detail) models do not have the same size bounding boxes to provide matching center points you can see the avatar ‘bounce’ as LoD changes.
If we could set pivot points we wouldn’t have to worry so much about the bounding box size and shape. But, as we can’t control the centers/pivot points we have to place them by adjusting the objects bounding box.
Implementing Change
When Nyx was asked how we could get the priority on this feature moved up Nyx answered, “…what you’re doing right now – bring it up here [at Content & Mesh meeting] and let us know how much difficulty not having the bugfix is causing you. We’ll adjust our priorities internally accordingly. I can’t guarantee immediate attention on any particular bug/issue, but it helps us to know which ones are causing the most trouble”
So, if you feel this is an important feature, visit the Content-Mesh User Group meeting on Mondays at noon (PT). You can also file a bug report and request the feature.
Avatar Bake
Nyx Linden is still looking for interesting outfits that have lots of layering. They will be used for testing the Avatar Bake service. If you have complex outfits get the Outfit Name and your name to Nyx Linden. It helps if you include a picture of how the outfit is supposed to look.
Nyx has not started testing, but soon.
Roll Outs
There was no roll to the main channel this week. Since there were no new packages in the RC channels, there was nothing to roll out.
RC Channels
Two new packages are coming to the RC channels. One is a configuration package to take advantage of the new hardware the Lab is installing. The other is a bugs and maintenance package. It has Baker Linden’s Large Group Editing changes and the new localization for various server messages to allow language translations.
To take advantage of the Group Edit code you need the project viewer. You can use these download links:
NOTICE: Unfortunately problems were found in the planned RC packages. So… those are not going to roll out Wednesday. So, no updates this week… well… may be Thursday. We’ll have to wait and see.