You may notice some of the newer animations in Second Life are getting better. There is motion capture to thank for some measure of improvement. Another contributor to the improvement is Avastar, a for purchase add-on to Blender.
One of the other handy features of Avastar is the ability to handle rigging a mesh. So, clothes makers and those making other objects rigged to the avatar will find Avastar a handy tool. I think this video gives one a good example of what it can do.
I’ve been using NVIDIA driver version 285.62 for quite awhile. I needed to update a clients machine and noticed a new update was out for my machine, 295.73. So, I got it and updated my computer.
The install has dramatically changed. Along with the drivers and Control Panel comes 3 add-ons for Photoshop; DXT Compression, Normal Maps, and Scripts.
Photoshop Plug-in
This is a Photoshop plug-in that allows Photoshop to open and save Direct Draw Surface (.dds) files. Simply said these are files used with DirectX to provide efficient textures, They are not much use for Second Life users, which uses OpenGL.
I see that Charlar Linden, the facilitator for the Mesh Upload group, has broadened the focus of the UG (user group). The more official name is Content Creation/Mesh Upload User Group. The group meets Mondays at noon (PST/SLT) in Borrowdale, Nyx Lindens place. Check the group’s wiki page for meeting time and location changes. I expect this location and time will be good for some time to come.
The wiki page contains the meeting agenda. Residents can add items to the agenda by logging in and editing the wiki page. The agenda is 99% plain text, so it is easy to edit.
The post is also somewhat an official announcement that the Mesh Project has shifted from development to maintenance mode. I suppose that is some type of milestone.
The post appears to be worded to generate conversation on what the group should be focused on. As there has been less to discuss about Mesh it is becoming obvious that time is available for other topics. You can join the conversation here: Mesh UserGroup expanding to cover wider Content Creation agenda – input needed.