Mesh/Project Information
Mesh is the capability to bring 3D models, known as meshes, created in third-party tools into Second Life. Mesh background information explains in detail.
Prerequisites
Viewer
To upload and render mesh content, you need a mesh-enabled viewer, such as the official Second Life Viewer.http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/. If you are using a third-party viewer, check its documentation to see if it supports mesh.
If you don't already have a mesh-enabled viewer:
- Download the Second Life Viewer from Second Life's Downloads page.
- Install and run the Viewer.
Mesh tutorial
To upload mesh content you must accept the IP terms and have payment info on file.
- IP terms for the beta grid (Aditi). You do not need payment information on file for the beta grid.
- IP terms for the Main Grid (Agni)
Getting started
To try out mesh:
- Go to one of all the sandboxes in Second Life. See Second Life Public Sandboxes.
- Some sandboxes may become overcrowded with Residents and have poor performance. If you see objects that look like a lot of flat triangles, try moving to another region.
- See what people have been working on, or try uploading some sample content of your own!
Save L$ by testing on the beta grid
Uploading mesh content to the main Second Life grid costs Linden dollars. For development and testing, upload your content to the Aditi beta grid instead. For more information about Aditi, see Preview Grid.
Follow these steps to upload models to Aditi:
- Import your SL account to Aditi (see Updating Your Account on Aditi for instructions).
- Enable the grid selection dropdown on the Second Life login screen in Me > Preferences > Advanced > Show Grid Selection or by typing CTRL+SHIFT+G.
- Note: You may need to enable the Advanced menu by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D
- In grid selection, choose the Aditi beta grid.
- Your account on the beta grid has its own L$ balance, so Linden dollars earned and spent on Aditi do not affect your main grid L$ balance.
Related Resources
- Prims, Prim Equivalent, Land Impact... a too long guide An in-depth exploration of land impact, originally posted by Jenni Darkwatch in the Mesh forum.
- Resident-run Mesh images group on Flickr, also search Flickr for the "slmesh" tag
- Depth of Field An optional graphical effect, particularly useful for enhancing screenshots.
- Mesh Optimizations A tutorial covering the transition from sculpted prims to mesh models.
- SL Answers Page Answers to common Mesh questions on the Second Life community website.
- Mesh Enablement How to enable mesh upload abilities on your Second Life account.
- Basic Intro to Maya Tutorials A series of tutorials for learning Autodesk Maya, an external 3D software program for making mesh for Second Life.