Another Code Change Push
On the 26th Karl pushed a change to allow disabling, or just disabled – I’m not sure which, considering the normals in the Deformer process.
We have quickly gone through some versions over the last few days.
- 265137 – Added base shape selection and consideration of normals.
- 265139 – Fixes deform fail with some graphics settings and adds 3rd base shape.
- 265192 – Displays deformations without considering normals to avoid splitting creases.
Mesh uploaded with any of the three versions pretty much works with the other versions. Mesh uploaded prior to 265137 is not usable with viewer 265137 and after.
A Pre-265192 Mesh Failing
There is also an oddity with mesh items made before 265192. If you are wearing a pre-265192 version upload while running 265192, it will not deform, if you wear it first or are wearing it when you login. However, pre-265192 mesh items will deform if you first put on a mesh item uploaded with the 265192 version. It is like the Deformer has to get initialized with 265192 version mesh.
I haven’t done extensive testing of pre-265192 mesh items. I suggest you just reload the mesh items you want to test with.
beanster Potato Test Clothes
You can pick up some test clothes uploaded with the new Deformer Project Viewer. Exactly which version was Beanster’s latest is hard to know. They are in the Market Place and being sold for L$0. These are for testing use only.
Blender Exporting
Blender 2.63a has a less complete Collada export. I am exporting using Blender 2.63 r47996 Win32. This gives me the better export choices. See the image. There is a 2.64 RC 2 version available for download now. Plus there are archive and beta versions available for download. We may see a new release version out in a week or two.
Blender Beta Version
My Skirt
This skirt is part of my plan to weight a short, tight skirt that works well with avatar stands, walks, and sits. The topology is intended to be rectangular so I can see how the shape is deforming as I work with weighting. It might not be the best idea, but I was having too much trouble visualizing what needed to change to make things work with a more efficient and non-rectangular topology.
This model will be the weight base for other skirts with better topology.
What You See
I wanted to see how things fit on the default avatar mesh and how they fit on my custom shape. I am going to be making clothes I like. So, I most certainly want things to deform well for my shape. Plus it is easy for me to test against my shape.
The grey avatar is the Domino/Clary avatar. I checked it against a default shape exported using Phoenix 1185, the last one to have shape export. I have a copy installed just for doing this type of export. The two mesh models are a match. The blue shape is my custom shape exported via Phoenix.
I design the skirt for the default shape. You can see it on both the default avatar (grey) and my shape (blue). Obviously my shape (blue) is poking through, as I would expect.
I export the shape once with the settings shown above. In the Blender file I have the avatar model facing in the positive X direction, so my X,Y,Z from Blender to SL should match up. I then import the model twice, once with Deform to avatar shape selected and once without.
I also show the skirt on the two shapes in Second Life. You can see it is deformed as it should be.
The serious problems that several people are talking about are around the beasts and hands.
Summary
So, for now I am happy with my skirt. I just need to get the weighting finished and that is a pain.
But, there are problems that need to be considered. If you have run into one, get your test item into the collection of test clothes. Now is the time to work at getting this feature as right as possible.