Second Life: Project Bento goes GOLD

This morning about 11:30 AM The Lindens announced Project Bento is now live. The main Linden viewer has updated to include Bento. Firestorm has talked about releasing their Bento capable viewer next Monday the 12th. I suspect if things go well for them they will release an update. But, FS is picky about quality, so there could be delays. Still I’ll bet on next Monday.

The Firestorm viewer is used by half to three-quarters of SL users. The Linden viewer is used by a quarter to a third of SL users. So, until Firestorm adopts something many developers and merchants consider too few people as being able to use the feature to justify releasing products using the feature. Continue reading

Project Bento Update 2016 w37

No video this week. I recorded one. But, it is too much of a mess to try and clean up.

Wetcat | The Book of Daniel - Fund-raising event ♥

Wetcat | The Book of Daniel – Fund-raising event ♥

There is a new Bento Viewer out: Second Life Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.319688. This is the one that came out earlier this week. It is in RC stage now. If you login with your ‘old’ Project Viewer, it should automatically update. If you log into the ADITI grid and update you may get a second update when you log into the main grid, AGNI. It will be the same viewer version you already got but, the viewer is confused so it updates again. Some people have seen their viewers update twice.  Continue reading

Project Bento Update Video 2016 w32

This is an interesting update on the current bugs and progress on the head bones. Matrice Laville, the programmer for AvaStar speaks about several issues.

One of the people working with Bento is totally frustrated. She provides us a textbook case of victimization and projection. Wow. She is having problems with the Bento Collada file in the SL Wiki dated Aug 6th. Even after several people downloaded and checked the file during the meeting then told her the file was complete but had bone position issues, which were talked about earlier, she couldn’t hear them.  Continue reading

MayaStar Update Week 06

Cathy Foil sent me a note explaining the Project Bento updates to MayaStar. I copied, modified, and paraphrased what she sent.

Brunella

Brunella

The MayaStar 4.5, I’ll call it BETA version, addition runs on PC and Mac. It works with Maya 8.0 through 2016. While most of MayaStar works with Maya LT, but Maya LT is lacking some abilities and that limits what can be done with MayaStar. Cathy asks you contact her for more information if you are working with Maya LT.  Continue reading

Bento Meeting W#1

The first meeting of Second Life’s™ Project Bento User Group was held today. There was a good turnout, about 33 residents and 3 or 4 Lindens. We got new information about the Bento Avatar and lots of questions were answered.

First Bento UG Meeting 1/7/16

First Bento UG Meeting 1/7/16

The meeting is Lindens in voice and residents mixing text and voice. The plan is to have the meeting each Thursday at 1 PM SLT. But, scheduling conflicts will push that around so all are encouraged to see the Bento UG page to confirm the meeting time.  Continue reading

Second Life: History – Who Made the Skeleton?

The Project is months old. But, it has a history already. Cathy Foil was one of the developers aske into the project and under NDA. Now the NDA has been lifted and she has made a 52 minute video relating her experience in the project. I have an index of the video below.

0-11:00 – Mostly audio talking about the people involved in the project. Cathy talks about her MayaStar and cooperating with the Machinimatrix AvaStar people to solve various problems.   Continue reading

Second Life: MayaStar News – Week 15

A week or two back I covered MayaStar®, the addon for Maya® users developing Second Life™ content. I suppose many are aware of the similar product AvaStar for Blender. These are different products made by different people. They are not competitors as they serve different audiences.

Even if you are a Blender/AvaStar user there is still a bit of information here that may help you in  your design work. I’ve sot of added the work flow Cathy is building into MayaStar into my AvaStar work flow.

The video is 30 minutes long.  Continue reading