Challenge Accepted: SL Users Raise $5400 to Hire Ex-Linden to Fix SL Mesh Issues in Under 3 Weeks

Well that was fast: Less than 3 weeks after SL mesh developer Maxwell Graf launched a Kickstarter-style fundraiser to pay former Linden Lab graphics developer Karl Stiefvater $5400 to fix SL mesh so that it can better fit avatars, the funds have been raised. I mentioned we were only $700 away from the goal just yesterday, but last night, an anonymous donation of 600 dollars took it all the way. The fixes Karl will now develop, as Graf has explained it, will "eliminate a plethora of unavoidable problems with mesh clothing, reduce workflow considerably, open the market, allow avatars AND clothing to be worn (both mesh), one size would fit all and we could keep our physical (virtual) identities." This comes after Graf and hundreds of other SL content creators and users made the same request to Linden Lab through official channels, only to have the company mark it as a feature to be developed "Someday/Maybe". Not satisfied with that answer, over a hundred SLers have pledged funds to get the fixes now, many of them pledging hundreds of dollars.

So for SL mesh developers and users, more and better options are coming for you soon. And by raising so much money so quickly, a potential precedent has been made: Second Life users have proved they can take the lead on shaping the future development of Second Life.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Way to go guys!

[Vanadis Falconer]

Horrible idéa! Why in.(......censored........) shell we users pay someone to do what Linden Lab should have done?????
-I can´t find words enough........

[Seymore Steamweaver]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Linden Lab, even with all the work done by Q, is under no obligation at all to feed his code into their own, right?

So there is a possibility, though variably a small one I'm sure, that these people have wasted their money?

[Metacam Oh]

oh no Seymore, that possibility is quite high.

[Nickola Martynov]

Even if the Lab chooses to not include the patch, The TPVs out there will snap it up. The patch will also give a big boost to the mesh implementation plans of other grids.

I don't see a problem here.

[sirhc desantis]

This is going to be interesting to watch to say the least. I have no doubt that this is going to be done and done well too, the fun will start if and when the various viewer makers decide to implement. Like the current mesh rollout, only even more entertaining :) Think I'll hold off as yet on those new boots I've been promising myself for, oh, the past three years.

[Ehrman Digfoot]

way to go everyone!!!

[maxwell graf]

Most of the TPV's will be implementing the code (and hopefully taking it in additional directions) as will some of the open sim grids. On a positive note, LL has stated that barring them coming up with a better solution in the mean time (which does not seem very likely) they are willing to implement the code into official releases if the contributor agreement is signed, which Karl has agreed to do. Nobody's money is being wasted.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

Given the lag with the latest LL Viewer 2 release, I switched to Firestorm's Mesh Beta.

It rocks, but issues that are part and parcel of LL's grid persist.

Perhaps LL should simply stop trying to develop a viewer and work on things no one else can do: making server-side changes to physics, sim-crossings, and the like, while endorsing a couple of TPVs as "preferred" viewers?

[Shug Maitland]

Understand, the contract with Quarl calls for an unadjustable single layer deformer. There is more work to do so your mesh jacket can overlap your mesh pants properly.

[Sugar]

It would be more sane to make the TPVs supporting more than one alpha layer, imo.
While a wrapper might make alphas less required for mesh clothing, I still see issues: To make alpha layers absolutely un-needed, it would require the meshes move with the jiggling avatar-physics - a potential overkill performance wise.

While the deformer is nice at all, it will of course kill every 'custom fitting' business in world.

[Leslie Adams]

WTG guys. Nice job. Once more we show LL that we count, even if they don't use what is fixed. Happened with V2, now Mesh

[foneco zuzu]

And I have to agree that much better if the Lab really focus in what it important, making server-side changes to physics, sim-crossings and making sure the sims can work.