[Opensim-users] Exporting prims from OpenSim into a popular 3D format - .OBJ, COLLADA, whatever

[Miller, Peter]

There's the freebie Meshtastic and a commercial version on SL Marketplace whose name escapes me but is somewhat more performant. I suspect that neither would function on the scale you require though.

Blogged the former here: http://tidalblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/making-mesh-inworld-with-meshtastic.html

Best wishes

Peter

________________________________________
From: Miller, Peter
Sent: 10 April 2012 20:02
To: opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
Subject: RE: [Opensim-users] Exporting prims from OpenSim into a popular 3D     format - .OBJ, COLLADA, whatever

________________________________________
From: opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de [opensim-users-bounces at lists.berlios.de] on behalf of Gwyneth Llewelyn [gwyneth.llewelyn at gwynethllewelyn.net]
Sent: 10 April 2012 19:48
To: opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
Subject: [Opensim-users] Exporting prims from OpenSim into a popular 3D format - .OBJ, COLLADA, whatever

Hi,

After years of reading how to copy content between SL and OpenSim, as well as doing all kinds of content backup in all possible formats, and reading volumes of information on how to import sculpties and/or meshes developed on application X (name whatever application you wish), I couldn't find anything about exporting prim content from OpenSim (or Second Life, for that matter) to a popular 3D format that could be used by any 3D modelling tool.

There is a reason for this. One of our projects (two OpenSim regions) was seen as good background for a TV production. Now the producers need those buildings in a standard 3D format to upload to their CGI software to do special effects. Since all those objects (except for one or two sculpties) only exist as OpenSim prims, how can I export them to, say, .OBJ, Collada, .DXF, or any similar 3D format?

OAR/IAR are really just meaningful in the SL/OpenSim world. They're completely meaningless for any other 3D software, because they're so closely tied to the way SL/OpenSim store prim/mesh data.

I found a reference back in 2010, where some people had some limited success using GLInterceptor with the OGLE plugin (the website for OGLE has been down since mid-2010, but there are still ways to get copies of it). The idea is the following: when the SL Viewer generates the mesh data for a scene, it sends OpenGL commands, which get intercepted by GLInterceptor, and are written on a file. OGLE apparently "recombines" those commands so that they are mapped to object meshes, which can be saved to any popular format. This allegedly works for simple objects, but I really have no idea — because of the possibility of content theft, all information regarding "success" with GLInterceptor/OGLE is really not much available.

Obviously the best solution would be an OAR/IAR-to-OBJ conversion tool, but if such a tool exists, Google cannot find it :) I suppose it's something worth developing one day, but it would take far, far too much time. As said, the way objects are described in OAR/IAR make little sense outside the SL/OpenSim context. Turning them into real mesh data, in whatever popular format, is a highly complex operation — in effect, it amounts to developing a 3D renderer from scratch that works on SL/OpenSim data! As you all well know, almost every SL viewer out there uses the LL rendering engine. Radegast is one exception. Does it save objects to .OBJ?

So... I know that most of you are only worried about the reverse problem (how to get your fantastic 3D models uploaded via mesh import into OpenSim), but I wonder if anyone actually had the need to do the reverse operation — build in OpenSim, export to .OBJ — and, if so, what tools were used to accomplish that feat?

It would be a pity to be forced to recreate everything from scratch :-( Not to mention the time it takes...

Thanks in advance for any input!

Cheers,

        - Gwyn


--
"I'm not building a game. I'm building a new country."
  -- Philip "Linden" Rosedale, interview to Wired, 2004-05-08


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