Second Life: Project Bento Update Week 13

Again I didn’t make it to the Bento meeting. Inara did and has her coverage and some audio here: Project Bento User Group update 10 with audio.

Last week a new project viewer was released, version 5.0.0.313150. This has bone changes and some bones’ name changes. While it is hoped this is the last change to the skeleton, work on attaching Appearance Sliders to the bones may show a need for additional changes. 

The Lab wants feedback on the skeleton. Now is the time to see if it will do what you want and offer feedback and input. Once they finalize design it becomes really difficult to get the Lindens to reopen a project and start changing things. So, do it now.

Inara reports the Lindens would like feedback on:

  • The new “hind” limbs
  • The four additional spine joints
  • The additional branch in the wings to allow for wing folding
  • Testing the face sliders with animations – there is a concern that animations may conflict with slider settings used to reposition the facial bones.

The Lindens updated the wiki and provided new DAE files for use in modeling programs. There are files for Blender with and without AvaStar and files for MayaStar. But, those appear to be out of date.

It would have been nice if they put dates next to the links. Fortunately some of the file names include a date. But, read on and you’ll see you probably shouldn’t trust the date in the file name. They did note that some files need updates. If you are using AvaStar get the latest files from Machinimatrix. Of course from MayaStar if you use Maya.

Don’t let the 3/22 date on the file worry you. The earlier version of the female_2016_03_22.dae file came from: https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/92110/

The current file comes from: https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/attachment/92202/

The file in 92202 was added March 31. So, it is probably as new as is available.

At this point things are changing and it is confusing if you are just coming in. Join the Blender AvaStar group. I think it is the most active and has the most help available… greater number of people helping. In the early part of the California day Gaia is often online.

The current release of the beta AvaStar is avastar-2.0-8_blender-2-75, which is only for use on Aditi grid. Using it to upload to the main always trips on an error.

The pictures show the earlier avatar (left) and the 3/22 avatar (right). I doubt you can tell much from the images, other than stuff changed. I’ll wait for the AvaStar update to play with this version of the avatar.

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 12/2015 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 12/2015 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 12/2015 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

Project Bento 3/31 Build

2 thoughts on “Second Life: Project Bento Update Week 13

  1. I’m glad to see updates on the Bento Project, as this is long overdue in SL and OpenSim. When is it going to be finalized and go “live”? Is there an official current overview of the list of new bones and features?

    • We don’t have an ETA. The Lab doesn’t like to say. It is impossible to know what problems will come up or how long it will take to solve them. But, they are wanting to get this finalized and rolled out on the main grid.

      The best list of bones is in the Project Bento viewer files, skeleton.xml, if I remember correctly. There is the SL Wiki page: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Project_Bento_Testing and AvaStar for Blender (Machinimatrix.org) and MayaStar (site?). They lag a little behind, but provide the information. AvaStar provides a version of the skeleton for use in Blender without AvaStar.

      Use this site’s search to find more on Bento.

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