Not much going on in scripting right now. Various changes and new functions are winding their way through QA and the release channels. But, not much new information. Also, Kelly Linden did not have the usual Scripting User Group Meeting this Monday.

Prep Linden at Content/Mesh Meeting

The new PRIM_SLICE in llSetPrimativeParams() is in testing on Magnum Release Channel. The Magnum release is having problems with group chat. So, it is unclear whether that feature will roll to the main channel tomorrow or not. I can’t image that llSetPrimativeParams() is causing group chat issues. But, the Lindens are testing interactions, so it may not make it.

Inara Pey has an article out titled: Parametric Deformer: Qarl updates (2). Qarl Fizz, the former Linden writing the Mesh Deformer code, participates in the Metareality Podcasts. In the Apirl 20 broadcast. Smoke and Mirrors, Qarl talks about progress on the Mesh Deformer, known to some as AKA Parametric Deformer.

Mesh Feet with Deformer 0.1

The audio recording is over an hour long – 1:23:00.

The audio starts out talking about the coming SL9B celebration. Geez, Drax and I see the reaction to the SL9B announcement similarly. This and the coming Myrylyn Shinn interview I’ll be publishing have me reconsidering my mental state. But… Yay, Tateru Nino. Whatever, if you are considering doing something for SL9B, listening to the section is worthwhile. It runs from about 01:00 to 26:00 minute marks.

Botgirl’s SL9B parody song is at 25:20.

27:20 Discussion on Max Grafs standard sizing for mesh clothes starts.

The part where Qarl talks about the Deformer is at 28:00 and runs to 28:54. It’s just a few words. Basically Qarl has been busy and hasn’t worked on it for a time. He put some time in on it 4/16 and is moving on it. He reiterates that Linden Lab is committed to getting it working. He would be seriously surprised if the Deformer was rejected. In his opinion that just is not going to happen. To get the sense of things you have to hear this section it’s less than a minute.

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If you are working with mesh you probably understand some of the problems the Second Life® avatar has. If you make clothes for Second Life Avatars you are also likely aware of the short comings of the Second Life Avatar. For all the time Second Life has existed users have wanted better avatars. When SL Avatar 2.0 is released that will change… we’ll want better avatars. Oh,  wait! That’s not a change.

Another gotcha at the max breast size setting

We always want something better and as technology improves we get it. It takes better computers to run SL than it did when SL was created. In 9 years (going by SL birthdays) technology performance has doubled about 6 times, or 2^6^th = 64 times… don’t see it in your frame rates? Neither do I.

For some time when I see a Linden asked about when we might see an Avatar 2.0, I hear them give evasive answers. Not maliciously, they either don’t know or are NDA’d. The best non-committal answer we get is that it is not a near term project. I think the Lindens would love to give us a new avatar. The problem is the literal RL millions of dollars of content such a change would break.

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I’ve been busy with other things, so I’m a bit behind. Also, while there is news, there isn’t that much exciting news. But, here is what’s up.

Pathfinding

Andrew Linden was busy enough with Pathfinding fixes, creation, and changes he could not make the Sever/Scripting User Group (UG). I suppose that is a good sign.

Content Creation

Falcon Linden is supposed to have a new UG up tomorrow, Thursday, April 19. It will meet in the Pathfinding sandboxes at 4 PM PDT/SLT in ADITI. There is a Pathfinding Project Viewer. It is probably a good idea to use it if you attend the meeting.

Falcon has not added an office hour/user group entry to the wiki. So, I doubt many new faces will be there. Plus the 4 PM time in ADITI is going to cause problems for those of us attending Andrew and Simon Linden’s Server/Scripting group that runs from 3 to 4. It will take some time to log off AGNI and into ADITI. So, lots of late arrivals.

Gaia Clary has 3 new tutorials out from a new series of mesh tutorials for Second Life® users new to mesh. This tutorial series starts with the basics of mesh and defines what vertices, edges, faces, polygons, and quads are. I think it is a great series for anyone considering building with mesh and unfamiliar with 3D modeling.

New Machinimatrix Tutorials

There are 10 videos on the new Mesh Path page at Machinimatrix.org. All but the 3 Coffee Cup tutorials I have seen before. Some use Blender 2.49 and other various versions up to Blender 2.62. The new Coffee Cup series uses 2.62.

It may be subtle but, the Coffee Cup tutorials are about 3D modeling concepts more than they are about using Blender. Additionally, the overall focus is about modeling for Second Life. The other 7 video tutorials take one farther into modeling for Second Life.

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I was curious if the Lindens knew how many people use features like AO (ambient occlusion in this case) and Sun/Moon shadows. So, I asked them. Seems they do not track that information. There assumption is that people will be using shadows and AO.

Content/Mesh Creation UG

The consensus of those at the meeting, some top content creators, is that baking shadows into textures for use in SL is probably a poor idea.

With ambient occlusion the consensus is to include AO in the bake. It seems several have the opinion that the viewer’s AO is weak enough that it needs help.

In my reading I came across an excellent video on how to simplify models. Masami Kuramoto posted the information in the SL Forum. Video Tutorial on Retopology in Blender. 14 minutes of excellent information.

If you are making Second Life clothes, you need to see this tutorial.

The first tip ralusek provides stumped me. He is not using a key/click display and he went fast enough I missed it even after rewinding three times. I couldn’t get it to work. It is just too handy not to figure out.

You may notice some of the newer animations in Second Life are getting better. There is motion capture to thank for some measure of improvement. Another contributor to the improvement is Avastar, a for purchase add-on to Blender.

One of the other handy features of Avastar is the ability to handle rigging a mesh. So, clothes makers and those making other objects rigged to the avatar will find Avastar a handy tool. I think this video gives one a good example of what it can do.