Blender Install 2022

Years ago (2012) I wrote a tutorial on installing Blender and setting up for making clothes in Second Life ™. It is titled: Second Life Mesh Clothes Blender 2.6 Setup 2012 Tutorial. It has all the gory details a person with OCD would need. A couple of years later I wrote: Fitted Mesh Base Avatar Files, about which mesh models to use for making clothes. The articles have good information but we have learned and advanced since then. So, we can simplify things.

This article will hopefully take some of the pain out of your entry into clothes making for Second Life.

Blender.org Download Page

Blender Install

There are two ways to install Blender™. You can install it as one does any Windows program using the provided install program. This is simple and quick. If you are just curious and in the process of exploring, this is your option.

However, if you are serious and committed to making clothes then there is a better option.

Blender is in what I consider rapid development and updates often. Some of the updates make changes in the core parts of Blender. These changes force third-party add-on makers to update their add-ons. If you are dependent on an add-on you’ll run into times when a Blender update will break your model and/or your add-ons and you are left waiting for a third-party update.

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LiDAR for Second Life

If you watch detective shows on TV, every so often they will do something with LiDAR. These are generally really expensive systems that scan a crime scene and eventually produce a 3D model. Expensive in this case is like US$10k and up. There are cheaper ones in the $100 and less range for personal or hobby use. But you may already own a LiDAR system and not know it.

Professional LiDAR

If you have a newer smart device that uses facial recognition then you may have a LiDAR system. The iPhone-12 has an actual LiDAR camera/laser on the front… back?… camera away from the screen… normally used for distance measuring. It is rather low resolution but also is stronger and reaches farther.

The screen side camera facing you is used for facial recognition. It is higher resolution but not as strong… meaning far-reaching.

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Maitreya v5 Update

The Maitreya body just updated from v4 to v5. This version is for the Bakes On Mesh (BoM) era. NovataSecondLife (YouTube URL) has made a video to explain how the new version works.

Another Maitreya v5 Update video. 30 min

Until this release, Maitreya used an applier to upgrade their bodies to use BoM. It worked with my version 3.0 demo copy. Nice. Now the body is redesigned and switches to the BoM style via a click in the HUD.

Here are the things I found interesting in this release.

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Making Slink Sizes

In December Siddean Munro made a video of how to easily make the various Slink sizes.

I think the video shows how easy and quick it is. So, I continue to be baffled at why so many provide only Hourglass sizes of their products. Especially when discussions in the SL Forum show growing support for the Slink Redux bodies.

If you are a Slink Original wearer, Physique or Redux, and your designer isn’t making the sizes you need, send them a link to this article.

Getting Ready for “Bakes on Mesh” Bodies

The end of March Linden Lab released the latest version of the Bakes on Mesh (BoM) Viewer. It is in RC so we could see BoM coming out in final version soon. The recent Disconnects Problem has likely delayed BoM and other projects. That problem seems solved or at least greatly reduced. Other projects will move ahead now and BoM is probably just a couple of weeks from final release… say soon…

The questions I have all deal with how well will my clothes will work with the new BoM Mesh Bodies? Siddean the designer for Slink has provided information on what we can expect. Siddean’s Slink body is built… um… that doesn’t sound quite right, rephrase… ready for release or at least down to the final tweaks.

Whatever you look outside, the real value is what you have inside

Whatever you look outside, the real value is what you have inside

April 3rd,2019 Siddean answered questions about what she is doing with the Slink bodies. You can find this information in Siddean’s Discord channel.

The new bodies are a re-thought new design. So, we are going to be re-learning how to manage bodies, clothes, and tattoos.

The new body will work with clothes made for the previous body. Said in tech-speak, the body size and weighting remain the same. Also, the previous versions of the body will continue to work. BoM will only work with the new bodies. Continue reading

Content Creators’ UG Meeting 2018 w50

Interesting news came out of the CCUG meeting today. There is word on Firestorm’s release.

Here is the video of the meeting. I missed the first couple of minutes.

Word on Firestorm is at the start of the video. Beq Janus gave us an update in chat on where Firestorm is. Their Beta testing has moved to the larger group of Firestorm testers named the Preview Group. Next, it will go to public Beta before Christmas and the final release is expected for early January 2019.

In another article I pointed you toward Beq’s article on the changes to the Mesh Uploader in this next release of Firestorm. Continue reading

Second Life and Mesh Body Lag

Revised 1/3/2019 – Hamlet has an interesting article Well-Optimized Alternatives To Resource-Heavy Mesh Bodies For SL touching on the contentious debate going in Second Life as to how much lag mesh bodies are causing. The high polygon count in mesh bodies is the suggested cause of the lag.

Tachinni - Bonnie Dress - @ACCESS Exclusive

Tachinni – Bonnie Dress – @ACCESS Exclusive

We don’t have an obvious resolution to the argument. Nothing the non-techies can grasp. The techies stay out of the argument having learned one cannot argue with the ignorant as it is all opinion for the uneducated.

Recent technology changes have complicated the information on polygon counts and how they may affect your viewer’s performance. One complication is the shift from video card manufacturers bragging about polygons-per-second rendered to frames-per-second and now giga-rays-per-second… Part of the reason for changing metrics is the marketing hype card makers introduce to sell more cards.

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Second Life ACI is SO Screwed…

This week has seen discussion on the ARC/ACI values and how broken they are. See the SL Forum thread: Rigged mesh LoD bug. I knew ARC/ACI weren’t all that accurate. But, I thought they were reasonable comparisons. I still believe once up on a time they were. But, in light of this new information I can’t prove that.

ARC = Avatar Render Cost
ACI = Avatar Complexity Index

Comparing ACI in LL, FS, and BD viewers

The purpose of ACI is to influence users and designers to buy and create more efficient mesh content. Something along the lines of Consumer Reports, but free and in your face.

A couple of things have happened that has not only changed ACI’s usefulness but distorted it and pushed us away from its goal. Possibly even making it counterproductive Continue reading