Project Bento Update Week 9

I could make this week’s meeting. But, Inara has an audio recording of the meeting. See: Project Bento User Group update 7 with audio.

The set of bones has changed to meet feedback from SL users. It isn’t all they want, but it is what can be done now.

Lifted [We are more than light]

Lifted [We are more than light]

There was a neck-bone thing that users were on about. The problem is that adding bones within the chain of existing bones breaks legacy compatibility. An alternate option was figured out and added. 

Three new bones were added to face to accommodate those making expressions.

We get floppy ears. The Lindens added a bone to the ears so we have two per ear now.

We get more arms, well appendages. They are designed for multiple types of use.

Wings get a new bone. Bat wings sort of have fingers. This new bones helps create those wings.

We are getting bone translation. The cost is removal of two wing root bones. Those are no longer needed as the same positioning and animation can be achieved with translation of the remaining wing bones.

All these changes mean Bento content made to this point has to be tossed and new stuff made. But, that is what this beta and feedback period is about.

The changes are causing Blender peeps some headaches. They will get figured out. Read Inara’s article for the suggestions.

Soon the Lindens will freeze the skeleton. No more changes. That will be it. So, if you animate or work with the skeleton, get busy and test it out. Otherwise, ths what you get and no one is going to feel sorry for you have any sympathy.

11 thoughts on “Project Bento Update Week 9

  1. Just wanted to say thank you for always posting these updates and that your blog is really my favorite source of Second Life updates and info. Cheers!

    • It really depends on the time I have available in RL. I would like to…

      Right now Inara is doing a better job of updating us.

  2. I see they decided to go the extra limbs route over the two “tails” aka “tail and penis” bone route.

    Oh well. That’s fine, it’s not like the limb bones can’t be used for that purpose, but makers will somehow have to decide what limb is for what, I think. Or else there will be conflicts, yeah?

    • There will be problems…

      Mesh bodies and their animations will have to match. We see the “Appliers” problem. We are going to have something similar with these new animations.

      • Hm. I wonder if there’s any decent way to cut this off at the head, and get a fairly established assignment of what the bones should each be used for ahead of time… It’ll still take a bit for things to get established, but it would speed the process, I think.

          • Hmmm…. I don’t really consider myself an expert enough to have any real sort of useful info to offer at those meetings… But I’ll try to pop by, maybe I can somehow ask a question like this that will get the real experts to collaborate on a solution. Thanks for the suggestion.

            • I’m in the same sort of place. I have a question now and then. Otherwise, I’m just listening.

              You seem to have the idea the Lindens and users aren’t collaborating. That isn’t accurate. Collaboration between the Linden programmers and SL users is complex. For the Lindens it is about what can they provide with the time and resources they have. For users it is about what can we get and their dreams and ideas have no limits.

  3. Can’t seem to reply to the previous comment chain. I just wanted to say that I apologize for giving that impression. I actually have been impressed by how well LL has been collaborating with the users on this project. They’re doing a great job. By “real experts” I just meant the various mesh creators that are working on these projects, as compared to me, who is just a schlub that can just script a bit. I didn’t mean to call the people working at LL not experts or anything, that wasn’t my intention.

    A general consensus of what each bone will be used for on a standard humanoid avatar, so animations and stuff work well from body to body, and such, would be helpful for the creators to agree on amongst themselves, that’s all. I have no doubt it’ll happen eventually, I just think the sooner the better so we don’t have to spend as long in the “competing standards” phase that seems likely to occur.

    LL is doing good work on Bento, and the people that are showing up to meetings are generally offering helpful and informed suggestions and inquiries, as far as I can tell.

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