Maxwell Graf has a neat graphic that lists the current problems with mesh clothes. Other than most are over priced (IMO). Check out his Plurk stream for information. He has a forum post you should check out too. Also the JIRA for this issue has been moved and is now SH-2374. Stop by the JIRA and click WATCH.
There are simple solutions for most of the problems listed. It is not the total disaster Maxwell paints. But, you have to learn the work around. He is right on that mesh clothes are currently more of a problem then necessary.
From the Lindens’ side it was a matter of delaying mesh and solving this problem or releasing mesh and solving the problem later. We know what they decided. If you read my mesh update, you know whats going on.
Most of the work Lindens are doing in regard to mesh just now is to stabilize the viewer and servers, mesh problem fixing and performance improvements. Today they went through answering questions posted to the meeting agenda, a typical meeting with some interesting items.
Mesh 11-09-12
Prim Equivalence
By now you probably know Prim Equivalence (PE) is a complex way of representing how mesh uses up render resources. It is confusing, especially if one does not read how it is supposed to work in the wiki. Most people don’t bother to read the wiki. After finding they can’t figure it out, they complain in the forum and blame the Lindens for a dumb idea that is broken. Well… if one make an attempt, it is not too hard to understand.
Yesterday (9/9) Kim(RL), who is Gianna Borgnine in SL, put up an audio recording of an interview with Charlar Linden. Most of us know him from the Mesh Project, at least I do. Charlar is a senior project manager at Linden Lab in charge of creators, those that make things in Second Life. The following is an index of the audio tape and my take on it.
The tape has problems and the volume is inconsistent, making it hard to listen to and understand. Charlar is, I guess, close to the mic so he can be understood.
Reed Steamroller and Draxtor Despres participate in the discussion. Unless you already know their voices, I have no idea who is who.
You’ll find the audio here: A Chat With Charlaron Metareality. There is kidding around that I have left out. Charlar seems nice enough and gives some candid answers.
Update: 2012-03-08 – The coming Mesh Deformer is going to change some of the thinking in this tutorial. At the time I wrote this and these tutorials were being made the thinking was using our avatar shape to make custom mesh clothes was a good idea. In some ways it still is. But, for those of us that sell clothes, not so much. The Mesh Deformer will allow mesh clothes to be adjusted by the viewer to any avatar. This means making clothes for the base avatar is probably the better choice.
UPDATE: 2012-05-13 – There is a Mesh Deformer Project Viewer available with the 0.3.3 version of the Deformer. You need this viewer to upload mesh that will use the Deformer. This the only SL Viewer that recognizes mesh deformation and displays and uploads it. A number of TPV’s have the Deformer in test versions.
You can get a copy of the Deformer Project Viewer from:Downloading Viewer Test Builds. I also have a link in my blog’s left column. You can find lots of information on the Deformer in this blog, just click Deformer in the tags section of the right column. There is additional information in JIRA STORM-1716.
Ashasekayi has made a 6 part video tutorial on making mesh clothes. The tutorial uses Blender 2.49 rather than 2.5x. That is good and bad news. The good news is that Blender 2.49 has been doing a better job of making importable clothes than 2.59. The bad news is everyone is moving to Blender 2.59. Linden Lab is working to fix problems with Blender 2.59 clothes imports and has it mostly fixed. Following are my tips to help get you through the tutorial, avoid some gotchas, and descriptions of each video part’s content.
Mesh Clothing Video Tutorial
I suggest you use Blender 2.49 if you plan to follow the tutorial, especially if you are not familiar with 2.59. I started out using Blender 2.59 to follow the videos. It is not too bad. Keyboard shortcuts are mostly the same between 2.4 and 2.5. When I reached the point where I needed to copy bone weights I ran into problems. Over the last couple of days those have been worked out. Read this article and you’ll know how to use 2.59 for the bone weights work. I used Blender 2.49 while I worked through the problems with 2.59. Then redid it using 2.59.
The Mesh User Group meeting is moving back to ADITI. The meeting has been in AGNI in the Mesh Sandboxes. Those will disappear tonight. So, a new meeting place is being selected in ADITI.
Mesh Meeting
The majority of meeting participants feel ADITI is a better place for the discussion. I think the big selling point is the free mesh upload available in ADITI. Whatever the reason, Charlar decided to go with the majority and have the meeting in ADITI.
I remember Robin from when I was first learning about Second Life and how to build and texture things. She now has a new 3 part video tutorial out. These tutorials are nice because she starts at the beginning and explains all the basic concepts of how mesh objects work in SL. I think these … Read more
