[Opensim-dev] Mesh to primitive converter

[Paul Fishwick]

I saw an example of this once - an app that takes a mesh and creates
a conversion to SL prims. The problem is that it took a long time to
rez, and the prim geometry was more detailed than necessary (given
that the problem is to render a mesh (which the prims are already).
I would say it might be better to use a renderer that incorporates meshes,
such as realxtend if that meets your needs. I recently uploaded a basic 
stress
test that incorporates a mesh, two region modules, lsl and python
scripts....: see the first video in: http://www.youtube.com/user/metaphorz.
 

-p

Mircea Kitsune wrote:
> I hope this list is a good place to discuss this, I have thought of 
> this feature as an addon for Opensim possibly something that could be 
> in the core at one point. I'm not sure if what I have in mind is 
> possible as I see it or not, but I think this feature would allow 
> awesome graphics and revolutionary styles of buildings in SL 
> (excluding realXtend which has direct mesh support). What if a 'mesh 
> to primitive' converter could be created which would allow a user to 
> import a mesh in-world in the forum of many primitives arranged next 
> to one another to simulate that exact shape?
>
> Lets say I model something in a 3D modeling application and export it 
> as a .ase model. I would place the model file in Opensim's bin folder 
> then from the console write something like "importmodel mymodel.ase". 
> Opensim would read the model, see how it's made and create primitives 
> to respect that shape as close as possible (a box prim for every 
> face). For instance, if my mesh was a 5 side cylinder and I'd attempt 
> to use this tool, Opensim would generate 5 tapered boxes arranged like 
> this <http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/1299/meshexampleig3.jpg>.
>
> No converter could probably be smart enough to use primitives like 
> cylinders, spheres or any other types in places it could use them in, 
> so every mesh would be represented from boxes tapered and positioned 
> accordingly... basically a box primitive would represent each face. 
> The converter could also place the clear texture on the hidden faces 
> on the insides of the object and automatically link everything into a 
> linkset. Also the UV mapping of every specific face of the model could 
> be set as the texture mapping on every box, so one could just upload 
> the texture after 'importing' the model and place it on the object.
>
> I don't know how that could be done but the idea seemed too 
> interesting to keep for myself. Sculpt prims could not reach such a 
> level of detail nor contain any holes in the model so this would allow 
> realXtend-like meshes in the normal Opensim / SL (of course under a 
> reasonable number of polys otherwise the converter could use thousands 
> of boxes). What do you think?
>
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-- 
Paul Fishwick, PhD
Professor and Director, Digital Arts and Sciences Programs
University of Florida
Computer & Information Science and Eng. Dept.
Bldg. CSE, Room 301
P.O. Box 116120
Gainesville, FL 32611
Email: fishwick at cise.ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 392-1414
Fax: (352) 392-1220
Web: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~fishwick