Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Mesh, Smesh & a Soundtrack for Second Life

Smesh  (general)

I am really looking forward to mesh arriving officially on the grid.  I want them to wait until all the kinks are worked out and I recognize there will be hassles and a lack of satisfaction with prim equivalents, blah blah blah.  From my perspective though one huge advantage to those of us exploring will be the difference in rezzing mesh objects and sculpties.  Sculpties download as textures and so there's all this distortion and weirdness while you wait for things to appear properly.  It is one of my pet peeves - particularly at builds full of them - they usually look great once the image is stable but until then I try not to look.

Smesh  Noren Rang

I've been using the mesh beta to go visit the sandboxes where creators are experimenting and so far I'm very pleased.  Mesh objects either load instantly fully formed or "appear"  in front of me after a couple of seconds, again complete and intact.  I don't understand enough about it to know why some rez faster than others but it is a much better experience - at least for me.

Update:  I don't want to mislead you - these photos are not of mesh objects.  But the designers are, I know, preparing for the introduction of mesh and I liked the build.  To access the mesh sandboxes you must have the latest Beta version of the browser and you must join the group.  After that just type mesh into the map and you'll find all the sandboxes.  What you see on them will depend on who is working and what they have out.

The downside of the advent of mesh is that it is making me feel old.  It seems like a whole new "generation" of designers and builders is emerging - and apart from the instant aging imposed on me it's a good thing.  It will, however, make me much less inclined to build or display anything unless I think it's really really good.  :)

Smesh  (general)

This brings me to Smesh - an exciting build by two very talented designers, Noren Rang and Renn Yifu (who yes, made some of the new set of avatars available when you first register).  They sell mech avatars among other things and their store is actually a giant moving robot.  (see the map view of the homestead to understand the scale of this thing)

The textures and details on this build are superb and Noren assured me this morning they will be using as much mesh as possible once that functionality goes live.  Mesh will also be part of their products and, since I'm a big fan of their current work,  I'm really looking forward to the new pieces.

Smesh  (general)

All of which brings me to a bit of music.  I love this piece and it reminds me of Second Life in a lot of ways.  The image in the video makes me think of post apocalyptic landscapes, the sound and speed remind me of the changes and excitement of all the new creators and existing creators using new tools (a recent comment I saw said that Gabriela plays the guitar like she's invented a new instrument).  Mostly, though, I just like it.  Enjoy!


4 comments:

Uccie Poultry said...

Great video with some stunning music! Thanks for sharing :) And the mesh pics care great, too. I'll have to try again to get onto that grid. I've downloaded the software and passed the can't-lose-for-trying copyright test, but I still can't get into the beta areas. Dunno. Anyway, thanks again :D

Honour McMillan said...

@Uccie those are not actually mesh objects :P They look like what I expect mesh will be - but mostly they're there because it's a cool build and I know these creators are preparing for the full mesh introduction.
To get to the mesh sandboxes you must join the group - http://world.secondlife.com/group/3aa8389a-b658-7fb0-d0bb-75001a13db86

Apmel said...

Smesh is great!

Honour McMillan said...

@Apmel yes it is :)