Difference between revisions of "Mesh Project Viewer FAQ"

From Second Life Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Redirected page to Mesh/FAQ)
 
(2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Multi-lang}}
#REDIRECT [[Mesh/FAQ]]
{{Navbox/Mesh|project}}
== What is mesh? ==
''Mesh'' is the capability to import models, known as meshes, created in 3D content creation tools into Second Life.
 
== How to try it ==
{{:Mesh/Project Viewer Downloads}}
 
==General questions ==
 
===What Viewer do I need?===
 
The official Second Life Viewer supports mesh, and third-party viewers may also provide mesh support.
 
===What will I see if I use a Viewer that doesn't support mesh?===
Here is a scene filled with mesh objects, as rendered by the SL Viewer:
[[File:Mesh_001.png|600px]]
 
 
Here is the same scene, as rendered by a viewer that does not support mesh:
[[File:Meshes_001.png|600px]]
 
===How will permission systems work with meshes?===
Meshes have exactly the same permissions system as sculpted prims and textures.
===Will SL Mesh create a disadvantage for prim/sculpty builders? Will it upset the economy?===
 
Maybe.  The future is hard to predict. Mesh is the next generation of  building technologies available in Second Life and offers content creators new ways to quickly create virtual goods and objects in Second Life, greatly enhancing the inworld experience for all Residents and opening up new opportunities to create highly marketable, quality items
 
===Will the existing content tools in the viewer go away?===
Absolutely not! As with flexiprims and sculpties, meshes will be added to the growing set of building tools already available in SL. Our goal is always to expand the capability to create compelling experiences in SL. By adding new options like meshes to our builders' tool sets, we're enabling the next generation of content creation while still supporting the classic tools that have existed.
 
==Intellectual Property and Mesh==
 
===Do I retain intellectual property rights of the meshes that I create?===
Yes, under the [http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php#tos7 Second Life Terms of Service], you retain any intellectual property rights you have in the meshes and other content that you import into Second Life. It's important to remember that you're responsible for knowing your intellectual property rights, and if you're importing meshes or other content to Second Life, you must have all the necessary rights and permissions.
 
===How can I protect my intellectual property in my meshes?===
As we announced in our [http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/08/04/our-content-management-roadmap Content Management Roadmap blog post], we are committed to empowering content creators to better manage and control their content.
 
The protections of the [http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php Second Life Terms of Service], our [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Intellectual_Property Intellectual Property Policy], and [http://secondlife.com/corporate/tpv.php Policy on Third-Party Viewers] apply to meshes. If you believe your meshes are being infringed, you may submit intellectual property complaints to Linden Lab requesting removal of the content at issue as provided in the [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Intellectual_Property Intellectual Property Policy]. We are currently testing some early improvements to our [http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/12/09/testing-improvements-to-our-intellectual-property-complaint-process intellectual property complaint process]. Stay tuned for more content management announcements as we have them.
 
===What if I download or purchase meshes from a service such as Google 3D Warehouse or Turbosquid? Can I use those in Second Life?===
Every mesh you acquire from these and other sites is subject to its creator/vendor's particular license terms, and you must adhered to them.  Every individual Turbosquid model contains a license link on its main page, and Turbosquid's general Licensing Terms and FAQ can be found [https://turbosquid.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/turbosquid.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=329 here]. Google's 3D Warehouse Terms of Service can be found [http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/3dwh/tos.html here]. If any meshes violate either the original creator/vendor's license terms, or Second Life's Terms of Service and Policies, then we will handle the matter as previously mentioned.
 
==Performance and Stability==
 
===Will meshes cause lag?===
Meshes have several advantages over prims and sculpties when it comes to rendering efficiency and quality. First, you need far fewer triangles using mesh vs. prims resulting in higher quality and faster rezzing times. For example, a very high quality character model can require only 15,000 triangles using a mesh, while an inferior version requires 250,000 triangles using prims! Additionally, meshes generally have topology that highly optimized for real time rendering, when compared to prims or scuplties, and the result is much faster rendering speeds. However, meshes are a new asset type for the viewer to download and some may require higher bandwidth usage, potentially longer load times, and potentially higher physics loads on the sims.
 
Physics simulation is something that we will also be watching very closely, especially in light of our new Havok 7 '''[[Havok_7_Beta_Home]]''' implementation, that should substantially optimize mesh collision calculations. Regarding heavier bandwidth and longer load times, we will track bandwidth usage and, if necessary, work to make the streaming mesh format as size-optimal as possible and/or impose stricter quotas on the number of meshes that a region can efficiently support.
 
===Is there a scale limit to mesh files that can be imported into SL?===
At the start of the Open Beta, the default prim scale limit will be 64m. As testing continues and we gather data, we will settle on a size that can easily facilitate your creativity while still ensuring region stability.
 
===Is there a file size limit to mesh files that can be imported into SL?===
Yes. The maximum mesh asset size after compression is 8MB, roughly equivalent to a 256MB raw COLLADA file. An entire region can support up to 128MB of distinct mesh assets after compression, not including attachments. The size of attached mesh assets is effectively unlimited, but there's no guarantee that all of your attachments will be downloaded by other viewers.
 
===How are meshes stored in SL?===
Meshes are stored the same way as all other Second Life assets (textures, scripts, etc.). The mesh asset data is stored as a custom mesh format based on gzip and LLSD.
 
== Advanced ==
=== What's the best tool to use to create a rigged mesh for Second Life? ===
This question is addressed in a forum thread, [http://blogs.secondlife.com/message/529689#51831 here].
 
=== Why can't I import the model I created? ===
Please check the [[Mesh/Troubleshooting|troubleshooting guide]] for some common problems.
 
=== I want to animate my mesh. Why can't I use UUID flipping? ===
UUID flipping is being throttled on mesh to prevent the creation of objects that animate this way. [[Why_UUID_Flipping_is_Bad|Learn more about why UUID flipping is bad, and what you can do instead.]]
 
=== How do I mirror a mesh? ===
Sorry, we don't support this feature yet. We do plan to support mirroring later on.
 
[[Category:Mesh]]

Latest revision as of 17:20, 2 February 2012

Redirect to:

Retrieved from "https://wiki.secondlife.com/w/index.php?title=Mesh_Project_Viewer_FAQ&oldid=1162412"