Sculpted Prims: 3d Modeling Glossary

(This is work in progress)

Sculpted prims: A new prim type in Second Life. A sculpted prim is a prim whose shape is determined by a texture — its “sculpt texture”. Sculpted prims will allow for custom and more complex shapes to be brought into SL and used in building.

Sculpt Texture or “Sculpt Map”: Sculpt Textures are image files that contain the data for the shape of a sculpted prim. A sculpt texture is a standard RGB texture where the R, G, and B channels are mapped onto X, Y, and Z space. A sculpt texture is very similar to a “normal map”, but instead of encoding surface normals it encodes surface positions. See this wiki page for a detailed explanation.

Texture Maps: Texture Maps is 3D graphics lingo for what most SL residents know as textures. The textures most SLers know and love are also known as “diffuse maps” or “color maps” within most programs; some people may also be familiar with “opacity maps”, “bump maps” and “normal maps”. You will also come across the term “UVW Map”, which is basically the data that defines how a texture appears on a model.

Polygon Mesh: The Polygon Meshis the most common modeling method used in 3D computer graphics (including Second Life). The process involves the direct manipulation of polygons (triangles and quadrilaterals), faces, vertices and edges to produce the desired shape.

NURBS Modeling: NURBS is short for “Non Uniform Rational Bézier Spline”. This modeling method uses a series of curves and control points to define the model’s shape. If you have already worked with the Pen tool in Photoshop, Illustrator and similar programs, you’ve worked with Bezier curves in 2D. NURBS take the same concept into 3D. According to Qarl Linden, NURBS are the best thing to use for sculpt prims; it makes some sense since he worked most recently in movie special effects where NURBS are commonly used.

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