http://halfpastnull.com > Division by Zero. Singularity terminated. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:56:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/11/20/hiatus/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/11/20/hiatus/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:54:22 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=286 It’s been fun! But for now, I’m closing this blog.

Second Life has been a terrific muse. While I still take part every so often, I find I no longer have the initiative or time to develop my tools further. I feel others have done a more than adequate job of taking my place. To them, I am thankful.


Because this blog was always dedicated to my works in Second Life, this hiatus represents one of two things: either a closure, or a change in focus to my other interests.

I am still very passionate about 3D and virtual worlds, and continue to express that passion elsewhere. But I feel my time with the Linden system is at an end.


To those who listened to me ramble all these years, thanks! I wouldn’t have come this far, nor created what I had without your time and support.

The pages I’ve posted here will remain active, as well as my contact information and source code. I simply won’t be posting about Second Life any further.


One chapter ends; another begins. Here’s hoping we meet again in the not too distant future. ]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/11/20/hiatus/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/05/07/roadmap-from-the-cutting-room-floor/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/05/07/roadmap-from-the-cutting-room-floor/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 05:05:26 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=150

As original project founder and maintainer, I no longer actively develop Prim.Blender for personal reasons. However, for those who are curious, or otherwise interested, I wanted to share my ideas and tests over the past few years.



This should be considered the roadmap that never was: feature ideas, fixes, and tasks from my agenda, and those suggested to me by others.



The basic outline is as follows:

Feature Ideas
* Textures and Render Pipeline
* New Sculpty Sizes
* Primitive Animation Sequences
* Sculpty Animation Sequences
* Light Render Tests
* Texture Projections
* LSL and Link Impostering


Bug Fixes
* Refactored Mirror Support
* Fixes to Primitive Params
* Prim Torture
* Megaprims
* UI Cleanup
* Benchmarking and Expanded Use Cases
* Code Refactoring


Dev Tests and Errata
* More Thorough Regression Tests
* Menu Integration
* 3D Model Import and Export
* Documentation

For details, see below.


—

Feature Ideas


Textures and Render Pipeline

I’d always wanted to implement textures for Prim.Blender. While this is trivial for sculpties, regular prims are a very different animal.

Now, Prim Composer already has texture support, so it wouldn’t be a huge leap to port that support to Prim.Blender. The devil is in the details, however; particularly, in mimicking the various display and render anomalies of the Second Life client.

Furthermore, I always came back to wanting to be able to bake robust materials from Blender straight to the prim surface. This is plausible and indeed, not terribly difficult, but would require constant monitor of Blender’s features and development path for the script API.

Effectively, texture support is a job in itself.


—

New Sculpty Sizes

Back in version 1.22 of the Second Life client, Qarl added the ability to create “non-square” sculpties to Second Life. By this, the dimensions of the sculpty map would define the number of faces used.

Prim.Blender has support for this at the backend already, as I’d effectively forked Domino Marama’s code.* However, certain improvements and testing are required on Domino’s code to prevent the functions from crashing.


—

Primitive Animation Sequences

Back in March of 2005, I drafted an animation system for prims. The basic idea was to use regular prims to play various BVH animations, as a means for vehicles, visual effects, and autonomous avatars.

Being able to specify the animation of prims using Blender motion data would be a logical extension of this project. The trick would be programming such a system fluidly, accounting for the speed that Second Life renders motion data (ie, llSetPos and llMoveToTarget).


—

Sculpty Animation Sequences

Similarly, being able to bake in visual effects to sculpties would be a win for Blender users.

Domino’s tools already allow for this, provided one has significant knowledge of Blender’s vertex animation and baking systems. As the aim of Prim.Blender is to make these tools more accessible, being able to build animation sequence data into a series of sculpty maps automatically would be a significant step forward.


—

Light Render Tests

With the new changes to the lighting system to enable real-time shadows and dynamic lighting effects (AKA, deferred lighting), it would be a big win to have Blender lights translate to Second Life.

Once again, an eye for nuance would be required, along with working very closely with the Render Pipeline client as it develops.


—

Texture Projections

Another new feature of the render pipeline build is the ability to project textures onto another surface.

This is technically possible in Blender, and would be very useful for testing effects prior to committing them in Second Life.


—

LSL and Link Impostering

Several of the best texture and render effects are done through the use of LSL scripts, including some of what’s listed above. Being able to imposter the particle system, linking system, and various scripted effects would be very helpful to tweaking models and textures in Blender.

While technically part of the XML prims specification included with this project, script contents add a whole new dimension to working with this tool. Specifically, they would allow developers to test their builds and sandbox new ideas outside of Second Life.

A possible implementation of this would be to migrate some of libSL’s code into this tool. However, such a project is a major undertaking. The farthest I got was the initial scope and skeletal implementation.


—

Bug Fixes


Refactored Mirror Support

Prim.Blender currently mirrors sculpties along all three channels: Red (X), Green (Y), and Blue (Z). As implemented by Qarl, Second Life now handles the mirroring and inversion of sculpties on the fly, but in the case of mirroring, only along the X-axis.

Effectively, the refactored code would be nothing more than two bits to specify mirror and invert, just like the current sculpty spec. Normals would need to be flipped appropriately, and mirroring functions handled accordingly.

The basis of this change would be purely to save on textures when uploading to Second Life.


—

Fixes to Primitive Params

As pointed out by several residents, various changes to the client code have caused a bit of drift between my own functionality and that of the Second Life viewer. In addition, several bugs in my own primitive params exist, particularly on coverting certain values and with the size of spheres.

Ideally, such work would be paired with refactoring the primitive code itself, as it’s currently a bit of a mess. See “Code Refactoring” below for more details.


—

Prim Torture

My tools have always assumed no support for prim torture. In light of sculpties and very small prims, however, this assumption would to well to be revised, for residents that continue to make use of these features.


—

Megaprims

Currently, Prim.Blender does not support megaprims. However, this support would be trivial to implement, given a list of fundamental megaprim sizes, and the ability to include them with copies of the importer.

Personally, I have mixed feelings on revising the code to support megaprims, since they’re not an explicitly supported feature by Linden Lab. However, residents have proven the usefulness and desire to create efficient builds using them, and I’m not one to argue.


—

UI Cleanup

The UI code for Prim.Blender is a bit of a mess. In addition to minor quirks and timing issues, the current assumption of using a timer instead of an event for primitive updates should be revised. This was originally implemented for (now) very old Blender API support.


—

Benchmarking and Expanded Use Cases

Several residents have reported various problems using Prim.Blender with functions of Blender, including Ctrl-Z (Undo), texture and object manipulations, and combining with other scripts.

Expanded use case scenarios, tests (see below), and work with the Blender interface itself would fix a lot of these issues.


—

Code Refactoring

The entire code tree needs refactoring. When I originally envisioned Prim.Blender, I designed it as monolithic code written in much the same way as a book. Given my programming experience has dramatically improved over the years, I realize the need to convert the entire code tree into a more modular, flexible structure than that which currently exists.

Specifically, every direct function should live in its own logical file, original assumptions should be documented in the code tree and tested against at the function level, and the entire tree should be refactored to reflect current assumptions of both the Linden code tree and quality.

In particular, this project was written before the client source was available to residents. Ideally, this code would use the same documentation standards and structure as the client tree, and quite possibly be merged into a section of it.


—

Dev Tests and Errata


More Thorough Regression Tests

The regression tests for Prim.Blender are very, very weak at the time of this writing. In order to ensure robust code, the entire tree MUST be tested rigorously at the unit, module, and integration level, and tested again with every version regressions.

Currently, my tests are generally topical, at the integration level. Tests should be interleaved within the code tree, allowing for easy testing and verification.


—

Menu Integration

Prim.Blender currently exists as its own menu system, residing in the script window of Blender. In addition to relying heavily on this system not crashing, the system should rely more on Blender’s own import and export logic than its own duplicated “Save” functionality.

Effectively, the “Save” button should become an export to prims, “Load” to import, and the user should expect to just save the .blend file for the entire set.

Much of this currently works in the public build, but has not been thoroughly tested.


—

3D Model Import and Export

Over the past few months, I’ve worked with various ideas on how to convert an entire Blender scene into a set of sculpted prims. In addition, this method would work to “combine” multiple primitives together into a single, sculpted unit.

All one would need to do is compute the outer edges of a multi-primmed or mesh solid. Next, sculpties should be applied to the surface area of the model as a series of “patches”, following the loops of the solid until all faces are accounted for.

Essentially, this method uses sculpties to “patch” a model together. While issues regarding seams exist, this would allow one to import 3D models directly from Blender into Second Life, complete with textures and baked material properties.


Another option would be to simply have a sculpted prim “conform” to the surface of a mesh solid or prim set. Such a system would be very good for “impostering” a series of models in very few prims, but would take a severe hit to detail.


—

Documentation

The final prong of this project that I never managed to get to is robust documentation. Domino Marama and Gaia Clary have done a terrific job of documenting their own sculpty system using video tutorials, written documentation, and multiple help threads on the forums.

My own project somewhat pales to this work, in that it’s been a sole labor of love by one person. Future maintainers should take a stab at thoroughly documenting this project at the technical, user, and tutorial levels.

I will admit some jealousy, in the hard work Gaia put into documenting Domino’s tools. But such is the way these projects work out.


—

Thanks for reading. I hope this documentation serves to help future developers work with my tool, and develop future external tools for Second Life.




* I’ve edited Domino’s tools to upload non-square sculpties right out of the gates, and refactored a bit of the code. Should anyone be interested in this revised build, please let me know in comments or by email (tom plus the domain of this page).]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/05/07/roadmap-from-the-cutting-room-floor/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/04/20/restart/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/04/20/restart/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:05:19 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=146
Prim.Blender is effectively without a master at the time of this writing. Shack Dougall has done a terrific job over on LifeRain working on Prim Composer, and floating the idea of porting it to Blender. If you support continued offline development, his work is excellent, and worth pursuing.


As for my own development status, here’s a few tidbits I’m working on that I’d like to share.


—

After musing with job ops and my old career in antivirus, I’ve come to the conclusion that Second Life is actually a Good Thing (TM). That is to say, the emphasis now is necessarily more on the community than it is the technology backing it. This has interesting ramifications that I’ll discuss at length in future postings, modulo interest in how that all works.


As for myself, well…

First off, I’ve gone freelance. That means you can get a slice of my time for your own projects. If you’re looking for a good programmer or scripter, shoot me an IM (Jeffrey Gomez) or email (tom [-at-] halfpastnull [-dot-] com). I’d be glad to help, but I need to eat too.


Second, I’m currently working on a few odd avatar and scripting projects in Second Life. If you have insight into cool projects you’d like to see built, drop me a line and we’ll discuss how to make those a reality. More often than not, I have insight on how projects like those have been made in the past, and how to make them work today. I’m interested in ideas up to full sim jobs, if that’s what you have in mind.

Finally, on the repurposing of this blog: I’m shifting it over from just straight tutorials and evangelism to cool things I find in my travels of virtual worlds. That’s a pretty broad spectrum, going all the way from text adventures (!) to high technology and the so-called “metaverse” populated by apps like Second Life. I expect it all to be fun, and hope you folks share in my enjoyment.


Anyway, that’s it for now. Send me feedback! After all, it’s what keeps me writing and working with Second Life. ]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/04/20/restart/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/01/21/about-primblender-and-the-state-of-this-blog/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/01/21/about-primblender-and-the-state-of-this-blog/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:50:56 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=130
Newcomers to this site may notice I haven’t posted new material in the past six months. A large part of this was the completion of my Master’s degree at the University of Miami. But… some of it wasn’t.

In particular, I want to discuss the lapsing of support for Prim.Blender, what it means, and what I have next on my own agenda.



Before I continue, I want to let everyone know that it’s been fun. Really. You all have been great at keeping your questions civil, interesting, and to the point when contacting me, and I really appreciate it. Just as I hope you learned something from me, so too did I from all of you.


It’s truly been a great three and a half years. But all good things must come to an end, should they remain “good things” for all involved.

—

Several of you have asked me what exactly it means to be “lapsing support to other tools.” This means:

* I will continue to answer support email and forum questions addressed to me.
* I will no longer be working on Texture support for the tool, nor support updates to the Sculpty system by Qarl.
* I won’t be supporting porting Prim.Blender to third party grids at this time.
* I will begin referring people to other tools maintained by other residents, such as the fantastic Prim Composer by Shack Dougall and entries on this list.
* Anyone interested in continuing to maintain the project is more than welcome to step up and email me about picking up where I’ve left off.


As for the reason why I’m choosing to do all this, I find that I no longer have the time or the will to continue supporting this tool for Blender. This is due, among other things, to repurposing my time on other projects.

Over the years, Linden Lab and I have also differed on a series of core beliefs on what constitutes the so-called “Metaverse”; that’s part of it too, I suppose. And, while I am thankful to them for continuing to open source their system, I can’t help but feel we all could improve on their system in forming a true “standard” for how we conduct ourselves and our avatars.


For those interested in the continued hosting of Prim.Blender’s files and this site, don’t worry. I will continue to maintain the SourceForge page until a suitable replacement is made, and [re]purpose this blog to discuss more of my own personal and professional projects. I still do cool stuff these days, including within SL.


But more importantly, I’d love to know what you all think on this. This site doesn’t capture too much traffic at the time of this writing, but if you’re reading this, consider dropping me a line sometime.


What are your experiences with my tools? Were they useful? And what cool things have you done with them that you feel are interesting? I’d love to hear them.


Thanks for sticking with me through this journey. It’s been fun!

– Tom “MrGomez” Robinson

]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2009/01/21/about-primblender-and-the-state-of-this-blog/feed/ 1 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/12/new-tutorial-section-and-primblender-version/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/12/new-tutorial-section-and-primblender-version/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:17:16 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=19 Prim.Blender: How To Use It series, as well as a few sites from past and present.

Prim.Blender has also been updated to 0.5.4, with a *ton* of fixes for Windows users.

Full changelog:

- Added new params: Faces and multires (previously hardcoded)
- Added new GUI components for faces and multires values
- Added “Reset Mesh” to sculpt type options
- Fixed default Prim.Blender.blend file for a GUI bug with new objects
- Performed additional regression tests
- Added Windows XP to tested OSes
- Fixed a bug related to not having a full Python installation present
(we now warn the user and catch exceptions as necessary)
- Fixed a directory bug on Windows
- Reformated this text file back to DOS mode to be readable by Notepad.exe
- Updated .prims save output to DOS mode to be readable by Notepad.exe
- Fixed a bug where changing the mirror mode would nuke sculpty meshes without warning
- Changed default LOD back to 3

—–

Enjoy! ]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/12/new-tutorial-section-and-primblender-version/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/05/primblenderimporter-posted/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/05/primblenderimporter-posted/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:01:31 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=16
Built copies are available here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Great%20Pubnico/23/71/93/

—

Happy 4th of July!

(Even if it’s technically the 5th on the server’s clock)]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/07/05/primblenderimporter-posted/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/30/primblender-050-release/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/30/primblender-050-release/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:30:37 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=15

It can be found on its SourceForge page:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/primdotblender/

—–

I’ve also posted its code to the Source section.

Yay!]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/30/primblender-050-release/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/18/prim-mirror-code-posted/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/18/prim-mirror-code-posted/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:02:22 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=12 source section of this site.]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/18/prim-mirror-code-posted/feed/ 0 http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/01/source-postin/ http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/01/source-postin/#comments Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:01:49 +0000 MrGomez http://halfpastnull.com/?p=7 source section of this site. Currently it holds LSL2 code for some of my older Second Life projects, plus a new one I might be discussing very soon. Enjoy!]]> http://halfpastnull.com/index.php/2008/06/01/source-postin/feed/ 0