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| == FAQ ==
| | #REDIRECT [[Sculpted prim]] |
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| '''Q: What is a sculpted prim?'''
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| A: A "sculpted prim" is a prim whose shape is determined by a texture - its "sculpt texture". Sculpted prims can create organic shapes that are not
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| currently possible with Second Life's prim system.
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| '''Q: What is a sculpt texture?'''
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| A: A sculpt texture is a standard RGB texture where the R, G, and B channels are mapped onto X, Y, and Z space. For those familiar with
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| computer graphics - a sculpt texture is very similar to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping normal map], but instead of encoding surface normals we encode surface positions.
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| They are also similar to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_mapping displacement maps], but instead of a single scalar distance we have three values (for each of X, Y, and Z.) They
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| are also very similar to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametric_surface parametric] (e.g. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NURBS nurbs]) surfaces.
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| '''Q: How can I make a sculpt texture?'''
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| A: The easiest way is to create a model in an external 3d package and use an exporter. We provide an exporter for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_%28software%29 Maya], and hopefully
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| exporters for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Studio_Max 3ds Max], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_%28software%29 Blender], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixologic ZBrush] will be available soon. We also have plans to provide a sculpt editor within the Second Life viewer.
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| '''Q: How detailed can a sculpted prim be?'''
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| A: Our current implementation samples the sculpt texture by different amounts depending on level of detail (LOD.) Prims which are
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| close to the camera get a 32x32 grid of vertices, which drops to 16x16 grid as the prim moves away from camera, and so on.
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| '''Q: But why use textures (images) to encode shapes?'''
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| A: Because there are a myriad of existing tools for handling images. Image compression, streaming, progressive loading,
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| and animation are all well-explored problems. For example - we could create a quicktime stream which fades from one sculpt texture to another - attached to a sculpted prim, the prim would "morph" from one shape to the other. Or, as another example - it would be easy to have a flash animation generate a sculpted prim - and when a resident touches a spot on its
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| surface, the shape could wiggle and ripple appropriately. This is the direction we are headed.
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| '''Q: How big should my sculpt textures be?'''
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| A: We recommend you use a 64 by 64 pixel image. More data is really unnecessary - less can result in bad sampling when the sculpted prim changes LOD.
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| '''Q: How do sculpted prims work in the physics engine?'''
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| A: Currently, sculpted prims are approximated by a lopsided sphere having roughly the same size as the sculpted prim. In the future we may provide a more exact representation to the physics engine - thereby providing more realistic movement/collisions for sculpted prims.
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| '''Q: Where can I try it?'''
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| A:
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| '''Q: Will I still be able to texture a sculpted prim like a regular one?'''
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| A:
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| '''Q: This sounds like it might take some extra processing power - will there be limits or can I have 15000 sculpted prims per sim?'''
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| A:
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