The crowd at the Content Creation UG meeting is growing. I think that is mostly due to Medhue live-streaming the meetings.
These meetings are somewhat just small updates on the week-to-week progress the Lindens are making on Server-Side Baking and animated mesh objects, animesh. While there isn’t much new, we are learning more about animesh.
Vir Linden and crew are figuring out how to make animesh work. Group participants are thinking more about how they would like it to work. So, on both sides, the plan is getting more sophisticated. The meetings are interesting.
This week’s video runs about 1hr 8 minutes. I couldn’t hang out after the meeting. But the post-meeting can last an hour. It might go longer, but the Server Beta meeting starts and hour after, so several people leave to make that meeting. Continue reading →
I missed the first 10 minutes of the meeting as RL was intruding. There are Two interesting parts. Toward the end of the meeting a discussion of copybot issues starts. That section and an hour long post-meeting is in another video. When I get it uploaded, I’ll link to it from this article.
I’ve used bold text to highlight subjects in the outline summary of the meeting. You may remember, I use these videos to learn about video editing for RL work. Premiere, in general, or maybe just on my computer, is broken. So, I cannot currently use titles or text from within Premiere. So, this video is mostly about audio for me. In that area, because I used Firestorm (FS) I had to learn more about audio cleanup. Maybe if I knew more about FS, it would be less of a problem.
Medhue caught the entire hour-long meeting on video (HERE). My video picks up about 10 minutes in (1:10 PM SLT). Medhue skipped streaming the post-meeting. He was there for most of it. Inara has not posted her summary of the meeting. So, I don’t know if she’ll touch on it or dive in. I’ll dive in.
In the 10-minutes prior to my video starting, Vir Linden was following up on a question about whether animating attachment points is (will be) allowed and whether meshes can weight/rig to attachment points. The Linden viewer currently blocks animations and meshes that do. The servers, however, will allow it. So, for now things are a bit inconsistent. Continue reading →
One of the complications in 3D rendering is working out how to blend the objects with transparent parts. Think of windows and SL hair. Designers can reduce the complication by how they use alpha layers and blending. I’m not going to try to explain how to set stuff up because I have yet to get it figured out. But, I came across a handy workaround for things we already have.
I buy hair, dresses, and other things that use blending modes. Most are no-mod. But, the script below can be used to modify them.
In the beginning of the video, I am wearing Magika’s Dreamy as purchased. This is hair that in the Linden viewer has an ACI of 4,699. Using the script reduces the ACI by 702. That is a saving of 15±%. This is my first try, so I have no idea if this is typical, minimal, or a max. You may find that high ACI items benefit more.
There is some degradation in the appearance. When zoomed out, it is barely noticeable. Only when zoomed in can you see the difference. Personally, the 702 ACI saving is not worth the loss of appearance. Continue reading →
Obviously this is for the shoppers, L$30 Saturdays is a Discount Sales Event. Seraphim puts the event on. The event is a set of merchants that place a product on sale for L$30 every Saturday. Prices are dropped for 24 hours then return to normal. You can visit Seraphim’s web site each week to get a SLURL to the first shop in the day’s participants. Plus, Seraphim has a load of hunts and sales listed.
GTS Weapons
This week the sale starts at GTS Weapons… they are offering 3 melee and 3 ranged weapons you can pick up for free. GTS features bows: cross, compound, and medieval, when you walk in the door. They offer some spears and swords. As you wonder the store you find most weapons types, chainsaw, lasers, old west guns, present day military, steampunk, black powder, explosive, futuristic, a tank, cannons, poison plants… pretty much everything a combat RP’er could want. Generally, in the L$600+ range. These are mesh objects. The scripts use Raycast tech in appropriate weapons, the newer tech for SL weapons.
The region is GTS Weapons. GTS has other stores there and offers other products from clothes to tools needed to run an RP game.
The L$30 Sale Item is over at WHATZ (Fashion and Props), across from the landing point. There are 4 sale items, one of which I couldn’t resist. A cute camisole but, it fit so poorly I tossed it. 🙁 Continue reading →
I just saw an in-world notice that Slink has released their Male Dynamic Hands, or AKA Bento hands.
If you already have Slink hands then this is just an update, no cost. Just visit the in-world Slink store (map URL) and click redeliver.
What you get depends on which hands package you purchased. If the full pack, you get the full HUD that has all the hand poses.
I’ve been wearing my Dynamic hands since they came out. Love them. Of course none of my rings work any more and nails have to be Slink or Slink Bento nails.
The question keeps coming up in the SL Forum, what is a mesh body and why won’t my clothes show? I am so confused… Yeah, I can see how that would happen. So, I need something I can link them to. This is the ‘something’. I’ve tried to keep it simple for noobs without 3D modeling experience.
Basics
To understand Classic and Mesh avatars one has to understand Second Life™ has a history and understand some of the basics of 3D modeling.
Mesh & Classic Avatar 2017
SL Started in 2003, 2004 depending on what you define as ‘starting’. It started with a basic avatar that evolved over time. That is the Classic avatar. It is still with us.
If you take off everything you can take off your avatar is wearing, you are looking at the Classic avatar. You can click the top menu Developer (press Ctrl-Alt-Q to reveal the menu item if it isn’t showing)->Avatar->Character Tests->Test Male/Female. This will set your avatar to the very basic (Classic) avatar known as Ruth. Continue reading →
While I am happy with my new Slink Dynamic Hands and the add-on Stiletto Nails, Strawberry Singh is pointing out that not all add-ons work with all mesh body parts. See her article: Cutie Loot March 2017 Unboxing Video. She is working to keep people honestly informed about the products she reviews.
That all this new Bento stuff doesn’t work together is no surprise to me. I was expecting problems, especially for facial animations. Strawberry ran into the problems with Catya’s Bento Bubblegum. Catya, to their credit, tells you the gum is designed to work with a specific Catwa head, not all Catwa heads.
Bento Heads are going to be a problem. Trying a demo before buying any Bento product or add-on is very important, especially animations.
The Bento heads have a load of new bones. Each of those ‘head’ bones is rigged and weighted to some part of the head’s skin. So, it isn’t surprising that each developer will do things differently… even the same developer trying to make their products as similar as possible will likely not be able to achieve full compatibility.
This means add-on and animations for different heads, even in the same brand, will likely have to be tweaked. A great looking smile animation for one head is likely to look odd when run while wearing another head. So, I expect to see a lot of …for specific brand and model only… notes on Bento products.
There are some conversations in the user groups about how to minimize these problems. But, it may be awhile before things get ironed out, if they do.
So, be careful. Try a demo before you buy.
Hopefully, we will see some people using Advanced Experience Tools (AET) to make some nicer demo tools. I really don’t want to see more animation demos that work like dance demos… the ones where they put 10 to 50 animations in a pose stand and you click through them. Tedious.
And wow… it is an update… no additional cost… WOW!
To get yours visit the slink main store and find a REDELEVERY terminal. Have the system redeliver the hands you previously purchased. Take them home and figure them out… J
If you purchased the multi-pack hands you get all the new Bento stuff. If you purchased a smaller pack or a single hand pose… you get less stuff. See the Slink Dynamic Hands (aka Project Bento comes to Slink) article in the Slink web site for more precise details. Or just get your update and open it. Continue reading →
