Blender 2.63 Import Problem

Drongle McMahon has been posting this information around. Seems there is a problem when importing mesh into Second Life.

In case anyone else gtets into a mess with this …

Th name of an imported mesh in SL is taken from the “name” attribute of the <geometry> tag defining the mesh. Im Blender 2.49b, the exporter took this attribute from the Blender object name. Unfortunately, in Blender 2.63 it is taken instead from the data block. This means that renaming your objects so that they have reasonable names sfter import is no longer effective. Instead you have to rename the data blocks. You can do that in Outline view or in the property editor for object data (the inverted triangle of vertices).

If you use the same datablock for multiple objects, the exporter uses instancing, with the geometry appearing only once in the collada file, referenced in multiple nodes of the scene, each with their own transformations. Unfortunately, the uploader does not use instancing (although it does reads it properly from the collada). Instead, it ulpoads separate meshes. Since only one of these can use the dtablock name, the others appear to be renamed to “Object”.

Gaia Clary points out in a follow up post that the problem is being fixed in Blender 2.64. See her post.

This issue has been “fixed” by adding a new select option.In fact i believe that the SL Importer takes the Object name from the wrong place. It should use the information provided in the visual scene description. But well…

The new option will be available in Blender 2.64.

Extend Your #SL Gesture Keys

Way back in the Emerald Viewer days, like 2010, when I was only half as old as I am now… o.o  Yeah, my wild and reckless youth…  Emerald allowed gestures to be attached to any key. For my combat games that was a huge advantage. Well, it seems one can easily change which keys gestures can use in any viewer. This article is about how to do that.

Modified Gesture Keys

Read the entire article and pay attention to the warning near the end.

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nVidia Update and Goodies

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

DXT Compression

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.

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#SecondLife and Anti-Virus

The Firestorm/Phoenix Wiki has a load of handy information for solving Second Life technical problems. I noticed today that they updated their wiki page on Anti-virus programs.  See: Whitelisting the Viewer in Anti Virus Software.

Image by: SarahCartwright - Flickr

They tell you how to handle; Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, McAFee, Norton, and PC Tools Spyware Doctor.

They don’t say anything about speed gains or risk.

Anti-virus software can place a heavy load on your computer. The result is you lose Frames per Second (FPS). Not all anti-virus programs are the same. PC Magazine did a review of anti-virus programs for 2012: The Best Antivirus for 2012.

PC Magazine doesn’t say anything about performance. Most reviewers seem to consider the only performance criteria to be whether a program can find the virus. While that is important, it seems some anti-virus programmers have taken the approach that all the computer ever needs to do is defend against viruses.

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#SL Bare Feet

SL Mesh Feet
Mesh Feet w/Deformer On

I was asked to help a person get some bare feet working with their Xcite Feet. The person was about 6 months old. First we had to get past lots of confusion. She had ideas about what Xcite was going to do and what bare feet are. The problems I ran into trying to get things sorted out show several reasons people probably give up on Second Life. Whatever that case is, I learned a lot about bare feet, which is what this article is about.

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