Second Life Avatar Meshes, Now Exported As AC3D Files
The Avatar Databank, as the name suggests, contains all the UV files for male and female avatars of Second Life, right down to their discrete parts, like eyelashes and crotch. They were created by Zora Spoonhammer, last seen here mapping the entire physical world. This time, she's turned her cartographic skills inward. "In short Zora got sick of working the officially published UVs that Linden Lab distributes for clothing," Zee Pixel, Zora's RL/SL husband, explains. "Especially since the male UV set is actually the female making it a pain in the rear to work on male clothing." To do that, Zee explains, "she just read the source code to the client and wrote an exporter to output the data." She then exported them as AC3D files, a popular rendering format, then put them online for anyone to use for free. "It's for the good of the community," Zee tells me, grinning. "Consider it our weird hippy streak." The technical details are way above my paygrade, but even I can see how the Databank could revolutionize avatar customizations and fashion.
Umm, isn't that what LL already offers on their website? I used their models in Poser 3 years ago. Isn't that the same thing?
Posted by: eggy lippmann | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 11:19 AM
i wonder if this is what Seifert and Art used for their hilarious n00b work:
http://npirl.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-noob-games.html
Posted by: qarl | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 12:18 PM
eggy,
Actually no this is something completely new. All LL provides are a basic .obj based dataset for each gender, and the UVs for the male model are wrong. They are the female model miss mapped.
What this new collection contains are the datasets for all possible variations of avatar sizing including respective UV maps. This means you can now make a custom skin/clothing for overweight avatars and have the texture perfect without guessing at stretch.... really the possibilities are huge.
Zee
Posted by: Zee Pixel | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 12:28 PM
BTW, Hamlet, tons of thanks for mention =D
Zee
Posted by: Zee Pixel | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Hmm. I wonder if the mis-mapped stuff is why it's a bit more challenging (though not impossible--I have my faves) to find good stuff for guys? Bet a good chunk of budding content creators focusing on male fashion get frustrated at the screwy results and give up, so only a smaller number actually stick it out to learn how to work w/ the flawed maps.
If so, does this mean mebbe an eventual upswing in the numbers of great menswear designers? *does the happy dance while his wallet and his inventory both shriek in terror*
Posted by: Arcadian Vanalten | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 12:58 PM