Wherein the Intrepid Explorer (and Friend) Goes Mesh in Second Life

Mesh Honour

This is just a quick update - I'm buried in Burn2 lists at the moment.  I will get out later this week and bring you some fabulous locations though.

This morning Diana Renoir and I put on our new mesh avatars and I had to show you! Each has an arc of 33 - amazing.  She is wearing something not only adorable but it appears soft and squishy just as it should.

I can't get over how easily they rez and how crisp the textures are.  This is fun but I thought I should show you what we look like in case I encounter somebody without mesh enabled. Note I kept my view distance down so I'm not giving advance glimpses of the Burn2 builds. :)

Mesh Di

Meshing Around in Second Life

The Black Mirror  (general)

Ah yes it's a typical day in the neighbourhood.  You know something is announced and then there's a scramble to see if the announcement applies to everybody.  I refer to the mesh rollout and the 64m prim limit that arrived this week on the grid.

I made my first 64m prim and was actually grinning like the idiot I am - it was cool.  No weirdly phantom-scripted object to achieve a back door result, just a plywood box and it was a thing of beauty.

I'm going to suggest that we refer to large "illegal" prims as megaprims.  The 64m limit is legal now and so let's not confuse things by referring to them as "mega".  I know that sounds pedantic but there are discussions going on in various quarters relevant to the size of builds and prims and this distinction should clarify things.   The only outstanding question now is "Who can make them?".

The answer would appear to be anybody using almost any viewer but 1.23 and Firestorm, although there's some workaround for both of them that I don't understand.  I assume Firestorm will allow it in the near future.

The Black Mirror  (general)

As for mesh, well we knew you'd have to have a viewer not based on 1.23 to see mesh objects as anything other than a distorted something.  Uccie has a photo of a top and what it looks like if you don't have a mesh capable viewer.  Once mesh cities appear it could be very depressing for you.

The Destination Guide has a few mesh locations highlighted.  Unfortunately one of them is for Claudia222 Jewel's build on Mesh Mallow - she was a little surprised because, although she has built mesh objects for that creation, today it's still a sculpty installation.  However, once informed of the presence of this site in the Guide she went off to talk to the landlord about switching some mesh in.  If you decide to visit note that you sit on the fly to teleport to the cave. To assure you that there really is a mesh version I want to point you to ColeMarie Soleil's video of Claudia's sandbox work.

There was bound to be a period of confusion and adjustment, complicated by the number of viewers and development timelines out there.  It'll all work out eventually and while it does I'll just keep my eye out for new stuff appearing inworld.

Claudia gave me this gorgeous mesh dragon, one prim and 5PE's.  This little guy gives me great hope for the wonderful things I'm expecting to see arrive on our grid.  It's a new day, scrambling and glitches not withstanding.  :)

Mesh Dragon by Claudia222 Jewell

A Rusty Second Life & A New Toy for Mesh

NN City  (moderate)

I don't know what it is about rusted metal I find so aesthetically appealing but when I find it I have to start messing around with the camera and, apparently, share.  Combine the rust with derelict buildings, broken pavement and old boats and I have little resistance.  The only thing missing in NN City is some litter.  I'm sure some psychologists are salivating now but if it's a psychopathy it seems harmless enough.

NN City  (moderate)

Labelled a "grunge" industrial City, this destination has shops and at least one club but I spent my time, as usual, admiring the build.  Oddly though, for most of my visit the ocean was floating about 30m in the air.  When I have glitches they're at least interesting. :)

NN City  (moderate)

My desk and monitor are starting to disappear again under little yellow stickies with the names of sites I need to go visit.  I'll try and catch up in the days ahead but, in the meantime, if you want a cool industrial site to explore then I recommend NN City.  Maybe you could drop some trash here and there just to add to the air of authenticity. :)

NN City  (moderate)

Uccie, being the bleeding edge well informed individual that she is, pointed me the way to a new toy.  I haven't played with it yet but it looks interesting.  I don't know if it could be used to at least partially create mesh objects for the grid (and you'd really have to be careful about IP rights although I think trees and plants would be cool) but you do wind up with an .obj file so conversion would seem possible.  It might also be useful for machinima but I'll let you technical and artistic types figure it out.  Photofly: 3D Rendering Software is free though and that's a huge positive.  Check out their videos and maybe you'll come up with something really cool.

NN City  (moderate)

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!

Idle Thoughts on a Second Life Tuesday

Five Level Mayan Temple Maze   (general )

Idle thoughts on a Tuesday:  I was thinking about mesh this morning and naturally went to look at Sculptie Island.  Well it made sense to me.  I'm looking forward to mesh and I'm ignoring all of the doomsayers because I don't think anybody really knows what the final prim cost will be or the impact on viewers.  I remember all too well the shrieking and wailing when there were plans announced to put script limits on land - some kept insisting it would kill their businesses.  This in spite of the fact that the "limits" were never specified.  I assume those who accused the 'powers that be' of heartless retail murder must have had some secret knowledge of the numbers - however, they never revealed that information. 

I can say that my few trips into the mesh beta lead me to believe that rezzing mesh will be much faster than sculpties - the latter being textures - but I'm not an expert by any means.   I do think there will be a quality improvement to the grid landscape and (see video at bottom of screen) some really interesting improvements to avatars.

Parthenon (general)

Referencing my discussion of workarounds for Viewer 2.8 Environment Settings, I got a couple of tips on my JIRA from Torley yesterday and wanted to share them:

Also, here's another workaround: use Ctrl-Alt-F1 to hide/show the WHOLE INTERFACE. Or use a macro program to map it to something simpler, sometimes I use foot pedals so my hands are free, I swear the 3-pedal Scythe has been one of my biggest photography timesavers! I've done this lots before WRES (WindLight Region Environment Settings), and it's been hugely beneficial for seeing a clutter-free view of the world so I can get my angle, framing, etc. precisely how I want.

UPDATE: Here's a quick video tip showing how to hide/show the user interface! If you take snapshots in SL you should at least know about this, then do what works best for you!. This is even more handy if you primarily use an external tool to do snapshots due to the SL Viewer's awkwardly elongated list o' snapshot bugs (sigh) — I use FRAPS for both my still pics and videos.

Green Men in Pond (general)

I've a tendency to learn things through trial and error - which is fine to a point.  It is a great source of joy to click on random buttons and sliders to see what happens but I think it's time for me to find some more formal  online resources that will improve my photography. 

What I won't attempt is a mastery of Blender or anything to do with the magic inherent with mesh.  I watched this video in awe and decided I have as much hope of doing this as I do painting anything I wouldn't immediately trash.  I'll just take advantage of what these talented individuals do.