Linden Lab are preparing Viewer 2.0 for Public Beta which may or may not include the elusive mesh importing function which was proudly showed off at last year’s Second Life Community Convention.
Mesh imports will pave the way for a new level of content within Second Life, much in the same way as sculpties changed the way the grid looked. The complexities of such a change lay in how the current levels of mesh operate within the virtual environment.
Looking at the standard polygons, for example a prim cube, you can see it formed out 18 triangles in its wireframe. Other default shapes have a similar grid-like structure to them, as do sculpty forms, despite their more freeform nature.
The clear advantage of a system like this is that the asset server can clearly define the mesh of the objects it holds – a prim cube is a prim cube. This information can then easily be downloaded to the various Second Life clients being used at the moment.
The disadvantage is that builders oftentimes find such shapes to be restrictive to what they want to create, or require a prim count which is much too high. The resulting factor leads to more simplified structures and objects being created, as the “prim cost” of more complex shapes is too high.
Of course, Second Life already uses complex meshes with a higher number of vertices – the Second Life avatar is modifiable to allow users to create their idealised shapes.
So it seems Second Life is about to be blessed with the kind of things which will raise the bar against upcoming competitors who are working off more advanced graphics engines than the OpenGL which Linden Lab has based the SL platform on.
So why the scepticism of the title?
It’s not really my lack of faith in Linden Lab to be able to pull off mesh imports and get it working flawlessly, which I’m (kinda) sure they will.
Mesh imports will pave the way for a whole new blackmarket within Second Life. Architecture, furniture and clothing models are already commonplace throughout numerous websites and design communities for use in 3D software. The licenses in these 3D models usually bars any resale of the product, however. And we all see the regular ripping of content from fashion website as they magically reappear on avatars in Second Life.
It won’t take long before people are converting 3D models and uploading them into Second Life, selling them on for their own profit. Which will obviously lead to cries of foul play, SL stores getting even more fed up and the cementing of Second Life’s reputation as a haven for content piracy.
Mr G on January 30, 2010
guess your are totally right
lufpleh on January 30, 2010
Would not making MESH Imports a service accessible to only verified premium account users drastically reduce the amount of mesh content theft?
Is not most content theft perpetrated by free disposable accounts?
Tying real life identity to theft has to make the consequences more real and reduce the numbers actually taking part in it.
Scarp Godenot on January 30, 2010
Well, content piracy is inevitable. It is the reaction to that needs to be well implemented. And recently LL has been making good on their promise to deal severely with the offenders.
Ultimately, the solution to the problem needs to be a worldwide standard for mesh implementation that includes verifiable creator information within the object. This is possible, but it needs to have an international standards body dealing with it.
As the stakes rise in the future, I am confident that this issue will be dealt with. Why? Because money talks.
Kim Food on January 30, 2010
You’re just stating facts Prad… I thought you were more subjectif than that =P
“As the stakes rise in the future, I am confident that this issue will be dealt with. Why? Because money talks.”
Yes but isn’t LL making money out off the black market to begin with? You just have to think about the cut they take off every items sold on Xstreet, and the price to actually list that item. And then the stores selling ripped off items (be the original in SL or anywhere else on the Internet or IRL), they have to pay for lands too… So yes, money talks, but the money is going into LL’s pockets.
Troy McLuhan on January 30, 2010
Maybe this is why LL is improving their DMCA process (currently in private beta) before they unleash meshes on the grid.
Ordinal Malaprop on January 30, 2010
I generally consider that it will be the end. The whole place will be full of pointless client-killing meshes, and it will make everyone leave.
Snickers Snook on January 31, 2010
Just a quick question, when you say content is ripped off of fashion websites only to appear on avatars, what do you mean?
FWIW, real world clothing designs cannot be copyrighted although logos and symbols appearing on them can be. Knock-off dresses are a reality and there’s nothing designers can do about them — even less they could do about knock-off dresses appearing in Second Life. However, shoes that have the Nike swoosh (the trademark) can be DMCA’d (by Nike).
Regardless, it will be very interesting to see what happens.
Reed Steamroller on January 31, 2010
Polygon mesh support would not only address the poly/prim count problems associated with making intricate and complex objects out of standard (and even sculpted) prims. Texturing these objects would also be greatly simplified, though radically different. Instead of multiple images spread over each and every face of each and every prim, the texturing would be consolidated into one image. The downside of this process (UV texturing/mapping) would be that, like I said, getting this done is completely different from the normal SL-prim-texturing process. Thus there would be a learning curve. However, I think what is gained by implementing such a feature, in this case, outweighs the price. As well, it isn’t like they’re taking regular prims away, so anybody who can’t figure this feature of polygon meshes out would still have the current tool set to work with. Although, I can’t imagine UV mapping to be outside the grasp of someone capable of figuring out polygon mesh modeling in the first place.
Open GL is not a rendering engine, it is a specification for displaying 2D and 3D content. The Second Life graphics engine is simply Open GL compliant. While there are certainly more advanced rendering engines out there than Second Life’s, to say there are more advanced alternatives to Open GL is slightly misleading.
There are, of course, a plethora of other 3D specifications, but the only real contender to Open GL that I know about is Microsoft’s Direct X. Direct X is great at what it does (pretty much the same stuff as Open GL, displaying 3D/2D content primarily). However, in my opinion, Direct X is to 3D graphics what Internet Explorer is to web browsing. Applications (or games/virtual world clients) written to the Direct X specification will only work on an operating system that supports Direct X. Unsurprisingly, Direct X is only supported by Microsoft products (such as Microsoft Windows). Therefor, any 3D application which is Direct X compliant will not run natively on say… a Mac, or on a PC running Linux.
Take that other Virtual World, Blue Mars, the capabilities of which everyone loves to compare to Second Life. The Blue Mars graphics engine (Cry Engine 2) is fantastic, but Avatar Reality (the company that develops Blue Mars) had nothing to do with it. That is, until they licensed it from CryTek. Cry Engine 2 is everything a guy like me would want, as far as high-end content creation goes, and the graphics it pulls off can sometimes look close to real life.
Though there are a few problems with Blue Mars, especially when used in a Virtual World environment. First, while CryEngine 2 is built to pull nearly every trick in the book graphics-wise, it wasn’t developed to allow Joe Average to log in and start making stuff. To create content that Cry Engine 2 is willing to digest, it takes a lot of (professional) software and expertise. This concept totally does away with a large part of (what I think) makes Second Life awesome. Anybody and everybody cannot sit down, log in and start contributing content to the worlds of Blue Mars. This doesn’t have as much to do with CryEngine2 being Direct X compliant as much as it does with how the engine was built to handle 3D content, but it is still one of the pitfalls of using such a game engine in a Virtual World.
Second, like i said, Direct X applications will only run natively on Microsoft Windows. Period. Cry Engine 2 is a Direct X oriented 3D application. You can’t really be mad at CryTek for developing their game engine in this way though, as it was built with a 3D first-person-shooter game in mind (Crysis), not a Virtual World, and Windows is the head honcho operating system when it comes to gaming on home computers (I have my own opinions on this, but I digress). That cuts out all the Mac and Linux users who either don’t want, or don’t know how, to fanagle a Direct X app into working on their machines.
Now, it may sound like I’m implying that by using the Open GL specification over Direct X you would be trading quality for content that could be displayed across multiple platforms. Not the case at all, check out id software’s up coming title, Rage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage_(video_game)
Rage is about as graphically advanced as games come these days, no surprise, considering it’s being developed by id. Also, it happens to be Open GL compliant, and will run natively on Mac and (possibly) Linux (depending on if they actually build binaries for the platform, though it is possible). Leave it to id to break free of the Microsoft strangle hold.
Anyway, word around the campfire is that mesh support will require some sort of license/registration to be taken advantage of by SL residents. I imagine if one of these licensed residents decided to dive right in to Bio Shock (a video game) and started making their new SIM out of one of it’s levels, that resident’s account would get nuked.
But I really think people are over reacting about this stuff. One of the commenter’s on our blog said it best I think:
“By the same token, thieves can use computers to rip CDs to MP3s, so let’s ban computers. And let’s ban automobiles, which bank robbers can use as getaway cars; masks, which they can use to obscure their features; guns and knives, which they can use to threaten bank tellers; paper or cloth bags, which they can force bank tellers to stuff the money into; pens, pencils and paper, which they can use to write holdup notes…
Seriously, though, if you restrict everything that an unscrupulous person *might* abuse, it does a grave disservice to all the honest people who could do something really fantastic with it.”
-Warin Cascabel
Zauber Paracelsus on January 31, 2010
lufpleh, forbidding basic account holders from using meshes is not a good plan, as it alienates those who can’t afford to hold a premium account monthly. And yes, there are people with that kind of income.
A simpler and more practical solution would be to limit mesh uploads to people who have payment info on file and have used it.
whyroc on January 31, 2010
The interesting thing about meshes in SL , if they can work out automatic optimizations like with sculpty LOD’s then it could work, and for a decent 3d modeller would probably be less overhead than using prims and sculpties for general builds. The issues I see is any kind of physics/proxy bounding will be very difficult to manage.
While technically it should work out, I think what we have seen since sculpties came in is a general trend towards the door for anyone who picks up an external 3d app. So the push to make sculpties for SL initially great. SL improved as a result of sculpties I guess, but the talented hobbyist/artist then discovered Unity or Blue Mars or others and sees it cheaper and much more effective way to convey their message or expression.
This is a brain drain on SL and meshes will only increase the distance between customer and creator we are now seeing. I think the -thousands of talented creators- market from that Phillip Linden speech is close to if not completely depleted. It’s not so much that there aren’t talented people out there, but some has given up, others have moved on. There is a limited number of people who 1.can make 3d stuff 2.want to make 3d stuff for SL and other worlds.
What I have noticed is a real trend towards entertainment in virtual worlds, and also in finding useful applications for virtual worlds. This is a shift away from the simple SL adage of -give you a blank piece of land- which has changed to -here’s a house and environment to live in until the novelty wears off-. People want it easy, they want it now, and they want to laugh and cry while being engaged in their worlds.
As we all move into the mainstream, which ever worlds we are a part of, I think its very important to consider that while we haggle over the intricacies of this world vs the other, All virtual worlds together can be taken as a very new idea.
From this point on the user of virtual worlds will not be the same as it has been for the last 5 years. Bottom line is that the new users will likely not be into 3d creation. Companies that can break it down to base elements and extract fun and social environments will make it easy for new people to get involved.
-Corey Evans
Opensource Obscure on January 31, 2010
Linden Lab confirmed (see SLDEV mailing list archives) that first releases of Viewer 2.0 will NOT include Mesh Import support.
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Kalel Mommsen on January 31, 2010
I’m more worried at this point.. it’s hard enough to learn all thsoe sculptie programs. small business wil just die as they can’t keep up with the demand of those trained in the sfotware and the black market…
Scarp Godenot on January 31, 2010
One quick opinion here: the future of the entire internet is trending more and more toward user created content. And the model of top down content creation continues a declining trend.
It follows that success in Virtual Worlds will need to have as a major component, the ability to make content easily.
Another trend is that of ‘advertising’ or becoming aware of content happening as recommendation by friends and not interruptive displays by larger institutions
Based on this trends, I don’t believe that easily accessible virtual world content creation, is something that is going to leave us. And top down buyer/seller heirarchies will continue to decline, as far as we can predict.
Wallace Linden on February 1, 2010
hey there, nice post. Just to clear up the top, though:
Mesh imports will *not* be in Viewer 2, though we’re hoping to release that feature later this year. Stay tuned!
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