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Old 30th June 2009, 05:21 AM   #1
Elliott Eldrich
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Default Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

I'm currently using a demo of AC3D to create architectural content for Second Life (TM Linden Labs), by using the ability to export "Second Life boxes". I'm very encouraged by what I see so far, but am also finding some serious limitations that should, IMHO, be addressed. Here's what I'd like to see in terms of enhancements to the "export Second Life Boxes" tool.

Basic enhancements:

1: Ability to export boxes placed at angles / with rotations.

2: Ability to export boxes that have taper and shear properties.

3: Ability to export boxes that have hollows.

Advanced enhancements:

1: Ability to export boxes with cut prim properties.

2: Ability to export spheres and cylinders, bonus points for adding prisms, tori, rings and tubes.

3: Ability for the user to set a built-in limit on size of prims created, so as to avoid accidently creating oversize prims that will not export properly.

I would suggest that perhaps the best way to achieve these goals would be to provide a basic set of "primitive elements" in the AC3D program designed to be used in this context.

This having been said, I am quite pleased with what I see so far. Building accurately in Second Life has proven to be a challenge, because of the way their so-called "grid" system works (or more accurately put, doesn't work). Errors in dimensions, placements and alignments creep into any building project no matter how careful you are. It's a very frustrating problem, and having AC3D as an option for creating content is a great thing.

I'm most likely going to go ahead and get a copy of AC3D once the trial period runs out, I'm very encouraged by the results I'm already getting. If I were reasonably convinced that the developers of AC3D were planning on addressing some of the issues I've described herein, then my decision would be a no-brainer.

Regards,
Elliott Eldrich
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Old 17th July 2009, 01:58 AM   #2
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

OK, I went ahead and purchased a copy of AC3D (spent the extra $20 and got the "Windows and Mac" option, figured I'd cover myself just in case I should change platforms in the future, currently a Mac user). Anyways, as is, AC3D is very helpful for creating architectural builds in Second Life. I would like to know if there are plans to address some of my concerns in future releases of AC3D. I see that about 90 people have looked at this thread, does anyone at inivis.com care to make any comments regarding my earlier post?
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Old 17th July 2009, 08:53 PM   #3
lisa
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

I'm not with Inivis, but I've worked on a couple of the SL plugins.

I actually played around a bit with writing a plugin like you ask.

There's a couple of snags that make it tricky: AC3D doesn't store internal rotations, and SL doesn't use unified textures. Also some of SL's prim modifications seem to be non-linear, or computed in a non-obvious order. I tried poking around in the viewer source to see if I could find what they were doing, but as far as I could tell the prims are built a face at a time; there is no part of the source that assembles a complete prim per se. (Surprising if it's true! I would have done at least some it as a vertex shader!)

I haven't come up with a good solution yet. I've contemplated that maybe it's possible to fake non-unified textures by composing the "prim" out of multiple objects grouped together, but I'm not sure.
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Old 19th July 2009, 01:06 AM   #4
Elliott Eldrich
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

Hello Lisa,

If I may offer one suggestion, I'd not worry so much about texture exporting from AC3D to Second Life (TM). Instead I'd focus on prims and leave texturing to be done inside of Second Life. There's one tool in particular, the JexTone system, that allows for easy application of textures inside of SL.

I currently use AC3D as an initial building tool, then I do final building and all texturing inside of SL. This seems to make the best use of the strengths of both tools, the accuracy and ease of editing within AC3D, followed by the complete sense of "immersion" found inside of SL.
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Old 22nd July 2009, 02:33 AM   #5
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

Hmm. Possibly.... although a lot of my motivation for attempting such a tool is texture baking. If I could get the geometry back out of SL after the fact in order to bake shadows, it might be okay, but as it stands the only way I know to do it is to do the textures first then re-create the same work in SL.

I've tried glintercept to capture the data out of the client for baking, which (sortof) works for small objects but it's impossible to capture an entire building that way.
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Old 22nd July 2009, 02:37 AM   #6
Elliott Eldrich
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

Ahh, excellent point! Yes, shadow baking in particular, would be VERY handy. Good thinking. I've tended to avoid doing that in my builds, because it's often done poorly, and the shadows never move. Dynamic shadows would be way better, but at the rate things improve in SL, I don't think we'll see that feature implemented before 2012.
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Old 5th August 2009, 03:03 PM   #7
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Default Re: Thoughts on AC3D for Second Life

Yes, dynamic shadows *would* be nice. I hear Phillip is working on a new viewer outside the main viewer... maybe it will support more of these things, with any luck.

I'll keep you posted if/when/what I come up with.
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