[Opensim-users] Mesh noob question

[Chris]

"Can I for instance take a mesh model of a spaceship and sit inside it 
and fly it in opensim? "
Yes, provided you can find a vehicle script that is written for OpenSim. 
Some of these scripts may also be physics engine dependent just be 
aware. Most SL vehicle scripts won't work as expected (or at all) on 
OpenSim partially due to slight LSL differences between SL and OS with 
the physics functions as well as physics engine differences.

"Can I build mesh exotic buildings and use them in all the ways I can 
not mesh builds?"
I'm not sure what you're asking. But you can mesh buildings and use them 
the same as you could normal prim buildings provided the interior is 
also meshed (For instance a lot of buildings you'll find on Google for 
Google Sketchup don't have their interiors meshed and so are really only 
useful for modeling purposes; Such as maybe you're building a big city 
scape kind of place and you want some buildings for backdrop but not 
necessarily functional).

"I recognize I can't do various prim manipulations on meshes in world 
but don't have a good feel for what limitations this imposes."
It depends on how you construct your mesh and whether or not it's 
rigged.  Rigged meaning it attaches to your avatar and it moves with 
your avatar. In the case of rigged mesh there's not a whole lot you can 
do to manipulate it in world aside from coloring or texturing it. That 
is because it will all just snap back to its programmed bone positions 
once you reattach it. With non rigged mesh, it all depends on how you 
construct it in your 3D editor. If you build your mesh with compactness 
in mind (less objects, more complexity per single object in your mesh) 
then it can tend to be less you can do with it in world. If you build 
your mesh with modifications in mind (more objects, less complexity per 
object in your mesh) then it can tend to be that you can do more with 
your modification. Example: If you make a chair and table set but make 
it all one object in your 3D editor, then you wouldn't be able to move 
that chair around by itself in world since it's all one solid mesh. If 
you leave the table and chair separate from each other then you can move 
the table and chair around individually in world.

"Can I create linksets that include mesh and non-mesh items and add 
scripts and so on?"
Yes you can. The viewer and the server doesn't care whether an object is 
a standard prim, a sculpt, or a mesh from a linking perspective. As far 
as scripting goes yes as well, although, depending on how you construct 
your mesh; scripting techniques -may- vary. For instance if you take the 
above hypothetical table and chair mesh, but you chose to join them 
together in one object (in your 3D editor) and apply two materials to 
them (one face for the table and one face for the chair), and you want 
to be able to retexture them via script; you would need to know how to 
get the script to recognize that particular object and have it apply 
textures to those two different faces. This is as opposed to keeping 
those two objects separate from each other and simply having the script 
recognize that via object name or description and apply textures 
depending on which one matches. (I hope that explanation wasn't too 
confusing. It makes more sense if you try it both ways to see what I mean)

I don't have a FAQ or other resource I can point you to for further 
explanation; I apologize. But I hope I was able to answer at least some 
of your questions :)

On 2/17/2014 6:14 PM, Seren Seraph wrote:
> My most basic question is what can and cannot be done with mesh in
> opensim and/or SL?  Can I for instance take a mesh model of a spaceship
> and sit inside it and fly it in opensim?  Can I build mesh exotic
> buildings and use them in all the ways I can not mesh builds?  I
> recognize I can't do various prim manipulations on meshes in world but
> don't have a good feel for what limitations this imposes.  Can I create
> linksets that include mesh and non-mesh items and add scripts and so on?
>
> Is there a good FAQ or paper on this somewhere?
>
> - seren
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> Opensim-users mailing list
> Opensim-users at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-users


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