AvaStar Update: 2.0 Alpha-4 & Project Bento

Gaia Clary announced another update of AvaStar 2 is out. This is not the production version. This is the Alpha version with Bento support. In the announcement Gaia explains the current problem people are debating. The video by Medhue shows and explains what is being talked about.

Gaia says this alpha version of AvaStar complies with the current proposed Bento model that includes rotation and translation. But, there are concerns about the Bento plan to allow rotation and translation. See the release announcement for a longer story or below the fold for the shorter version. This is an extensive document. If you are animating in SL, read the thing to understand what is coming. 

The concern is that Shape Sliders will break animations. Gaia feels the shape slider problem is not that bad. Watching Medhue’s video I agree.

To play with the proposed alternative one must use Vir Linden’s Test Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.317405 – download. (URL to Linden Lab’s Amazon repository.) Notice the current Bento Project Viewer is version 5.0.0.317134 (as of 12:30 PM 7/7/16).

Also, use this latest AvaStar Alpha-4 release to build an animation with  rotation and translation. Download. Instructions for testing are in the release announcement, link above. Gaia give a good explanation of the problem along with the instructions.

Medhue’s video shows a good set of examples of what can and cannot be done with animations depending on what the final Bento model is. He compares animations and shapes both with and without translation.

So, the short version of the problem is if both your shape slider and an animation move a bone, called translation – it’s a math thing about position, there can be a conflict and possible problem. Medhue and Gaia’s position is the problems are small enough that advantages seriously out weight them. From what I’ve seen I’d say they have it down.

I think the take away is that while the final Bento with rotation and translation won’t be perfect and it will be possible that some cases will mess up, having translation is way better than not having it.

To discuss the proposed changes comment in the SL Forum thread: Updated test build – proposed skeleton changes. This jumps into the thread at the start of Vir’s request for comments and testing.

2 thoughts on “AvaStar Update: 2.0 Alpha-4 & Project Bento

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