From SketchUp to Second Life

writes "Roo Reynolds of Eightbar (an external blog written by some IBMers) has put together a tool to export Google SketchUp models and import them into Second Life. It only seems to work for fairly basic objects, and cylinders and non-rectangular surfaces 'are particularly badly hit.' Along with the Prim.Blender project, this sort of tool looks like it could make building in Second Life considerably easier, allowing people to choose their preferred tool rather than be constrained to the in-world editor."

Comments

The in-game editor isn't easy?

[QuantumG]

I've found it a LOT easier to use than Second Life. Hell, if you're going to use external editors, you want something more powerful not something easier to use.. that's why most people use Blender or 3ds Max. Of course, if you're going to use an external editor, what point is there importing the stuff into Second Life? Develop an Open platform.

Re:The in-game editor isn't easy?

[Telvin_3d]

Of course, if you're going to use an external editor, what point is there importing the stuff into Second Life? Develop an Open platform.

What point is there importing it into Second Life? My guess is that this is aimed at people that are creating assets specifically for use IN second life. These aren't people who are creating stuff and then go looking for a venue to publish it. They know their venue and they are looking for better tools to address it. Really it's like asking what's the point of using World of Warcraft's character generator to make a character specifically for WoW. Why not create a OPEN character generator instead?

Re:This sounds kind of neat.

[GigsVT]

There are plenty of giant phalli. This doesn't let you do anything you couldn't already do. It's just helpful if you already are used to working with a certain tool. Or when SL is down, like right now (and about 20% of the time, lately).

Of course you are going to be pretty constrained translating everything into constructive solid geometry without boolean (other than AND) operators, which is all SL supports.

(Friend Spam) In Game Editor Augmentation

[LordStrange]

If you like building in SL but hate the tedium, you should check out Skidz Primz. It builds a intuitive UI around regular prims. Especially useful when trying to put many prims together.

(Skidz is a friend and I couldn't resist pimping his tools. Dont hold this spam against him please)

Re:(Friend Spam) In Game Editor Augmentation

[John Hurliman]

While we are talking about related projects, we (the libsecondlife project) are working on a C# importer and exporter for xml prim data. The .prims format that prim.blender uses now has an XSD and primimport and primexport are both in early testing. A screenshot is up here. Sometime in the next couple months we hope to have a completely open design chain for Second Life where you can model and texture in any combination of Second Life, SketchUp, prim.blender, or whatever comes up.

why do i see so many second life links on slashdot

[circletimessquare]

is there some sort of link deal?

What about half-life?

[Karma Sucks]

I still haven't upgraded... will this work with half-life?

Re:Linux Version?

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting anonymously because I'm the Google employee working on porting SketchUp to LiGNUX. Expect it later this year. I'm not sure if the commercial version will be ported -- it depends on closed source libraries for exporting videos and such.

I DESPISE linking to a blog that links to a blog

[gmezero]

Just friggin' link to the ACTUAL SOURCE!!!

Harder than you would think

[Gerocrack]

Gotta practice making boobies in Sketch-Up now.

Of Course it Sucks and is Incomplete

[A*OnYourA**]

Anything other than exporting faces of cubes would be extremely difficult. SL prims are based off parametric equations and are incompatible with 3D models based on sets of vertices (Sketchup).

If someone found an efficient algorithm to convert 3D models based off vertices into a group of simple parametric objects, they would be very, very rich. It would be the Computer Graphics equivalent of an alchemist discovering a way to convert copper into gold.

What this guy did was paint a piece of copper with liquified gold, then wrote a blurb about how great it would be if this was pure gold. It's not, although it's good to dream. I'm sure a lot of alchemists made progress in chemistry just by trying to solve the copper-into-gold problem. I just don't think people should get their hopes up about a Sketchup to SL importer that does anything worthwhile.

Re:Linux Version?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is your supervisor - yes, really. Come see me when you get in tomorrow morning.

Re:why do i see so many second life links on slash

[veganboyjosh]

hey now. what happens at chucky cheese...stays at chucky cheese.

Second Life -- needs to escape its roots

[martijnd]

I tried Second Life for a bit recently, they have a Linux version and I have a new graphics card. So I'd figure I'd give it a go. Its really quite nice, some of the graphics are amazing, and I had great fun playing with the various in world scripts. It is however constraint in its usefullness at the moment.

My nags at the moment:

• I want to run my own server, I don't feel like paying an increasing monthly fee to just build the world I would like to share with my friends, considering how many "islands" there are, quite a few people are keen to have their own place appart. But if I would like to build something massive, like an insane bookstore that would cost a fortune.
• I want to write my own scripts, that can take data from other sources and generate objects accordingly
• It is a social experiment in that its has its own currency and trading mechanisms etc, fun, but closed.
• Closed source -- so its not going anywhere fast

This feels a bit like the really popular early BBS services -- they are on to something here though. Instead of chatting in yellow text on a black background at 3am, you could be sitting on a virtual campfire with your chat friends next to a beach, instead of typing smilies, you set of fireworks. If this escapes into the real world, it could possibly be a similar step as from the BBS communities to the Internet

Standards in 3d modelling?

[syousef]

When oh when will we have truely open and interoperable standards in 3D modelling. Imagine if every web browser, rather than just redendering differently or supporting a small set of different features that good web designers avoid, worked with completely different markup languages. I know there are tools to convert (though not for all proprietary 3D file formats) but this is ridiculous. I want to get into 3D modelling, but given the time and effort it takes to create a 3D model I'll be damned if I learn how to do it using one tool only to have it fall into obsolescence or have it yanked away the way GMax was.

Re:Standards in 3d modelling?

[TheMoog]

There's Collada, which is at least a step in the right direction for the industry as a whole.

Re:Standards in 3d modelling?

[fongsaiyuk]

Not sure if this would be of interest to you, but the person who co-created VRML, Tony Parisi, has gone on to create the X3D spec. and a plugin for your web-browser.

They've got a design studio that can import/export several different formats:
From the site: "Imports and Exports a wide variety of standard 3D file formats using the Accutrans Translator."

You can also programmatically add and control content within the rendered scene, in the web-browser, through AJAX. I was impressed with some of the samples on the site. You are required to install a plugin, but it's pretty painless. I thought it was rather fun to hack a little javascript and make stuff move around in 3d within the browser.

It's also open source: http://www.mediamachines.com/fluxsource/index.html

http://www.mediamachines.com/
http://www.ajax3d.org/

Re:why do i see so many second life links on slash

[mwvdlee]

It's not censored at all (the top places either deal with gambling or sex).

To many slashdot readers the idea of a big sandbox would be very tempting.

I guess you're just one of those guys that want everything handed out, with no constructive, social or creative skills needed.