New World Products: Mr. Mubble Makes a Baked Texture Dream Home

I haven't gone Second Life house-hunting in quite awhile, but recently someone by the mouth-gargling name of bigdoggt32 Mubble told me about a home he'd been making with baked textures and lighting, and it's one of the more amazing I've seen. Mr. Mubble made it, he tells me, with a custom rendering/texture system: "It allows me to take anything I make [that] I render in 3D Studio Max and puts it on a normal prim, so you still get the baked lighting and shadows quality without the lag [of] sculpts." That includes simulated dynamic lighting. How he does that "is a bit of a secret... but basically I use a program that takes pictures of the rendering and turns those into textures." So a uniquely well-lit home for those who can't afford a laptop powerful enough to run Kirsten's Viewer. See for yourself: [SLurl teleport at this link]

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

They're good baked textures. But every time I see a baked texture I think, "there's yet another instance where the SL engine/viewer has failed us."

Lighting design is an art form in its own right, and one given short shrift in the current state of the world.

[Jovin]

...and every time I see a baked texture I think they should have turned the heat down a bit, they usually look more cremated than baked.

They mostly look out of place in SL too, like alien objects just landed from Planet Maya, which of course is what they are. I realise SL will never have a consistent look, not with all of us pursuing our own tastes (or lack thereof), but I wish shadows came with the client and didn't have to be cooked up somewhere else.

[Val Kendal]

i feel the same way Jovin - like Xeniversity - very cool, but still feels 'un-SL' to me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valentinakendal/3802173266/

[Kimberly Rufer-Bach]

Beautiful work. Baked light and shadows almost always bother me, though. I'm uncomfortable when the chair I'm sitting in looks more real than I do. But that's what happens when a build's got consistent baked-in lighting effects which can't ever affect my avatar . . . makes any avatar look out of place.

[Adeon Writer]

It's amazing now, but I worry what will happen when we do get real shadows and realistic shaders. The most accurate models will be those that contain absolutely no inherent baked lighting. Models with baked lighting and shadows will look a tad off.

[Leondra]

I hope Adeon is right, and we will get a better viewer. I just remodeled my SL house with sculptie windows, etc. I feel like I bought a DROID a month ago. LOL

[Doreen Garrigus]

Adeon--that's my thought, too. Some people are already running viewers with shadows. All of the baked in shadows (on buildings, clothes, landscaping, even skins) have got to look more than a little bit wonky.

[Doreen Garrigus]

Adeon--that's my thought, too. Some people are already running viewers with shadows. All of the baked in shadows (on buildings, clothes, landscaping, even skins) have got to look more than a little bit wonky.