SketchUp > Blender > Second Life?
Attention, SL resident Jeffrey Gomez! Jeffrey, of course, is the guy who brought us the ability to export SL objects to Blender. Now comes the news from Ogle Earth that the latest release candidate of Blender can also import KMZ files created in SketchUp. Of course, this doesn’t imply it’s an easy step to get those into a format that SL understands. But Jeffrey was close to writing something that would export from Blender to SL, but held off because of IP issues. [See comments thread.] Here’s a great, non-IP-infringing use for such an app. It would be great to see Jeffrey or someone else complete the process. SketchUp is a fun tool, and there are great resources for SketchUp models out there, including a free warehouse and a marketplace for user-created models. Being able to get this stuff into SL would immediately open things up even more than they already are. The potential seems pretty exciting to me.
[NOTE: Second Life now supports maya and soon other formats in the form of scultped prims.]
Feeds
IP issues aside (not to minimize their importance, but to cover another side of this issue) the main reason, as I see it, for importing objects from another soft, be it Blender, Sketchup or Maya etc… is to gain access to an alternative workflow for creating 3-D objects. As cool as Jeffrey’s hack is (and I use it all the time), it merely makes SL’s primitive based object model portable. But the fact remains that we’re still just projecting objects from primitives. What I want is access to Boolean generated objects, surface generation and modification, lofting, noise algorithms… a real, contemporary 3-D workflow. Anyway, Sketchup does seem like an interesting alternative to the SL modeller because it intuitively extends the access and reach of objects, while still being primitive based.
Correct.
Anyway the KML2X3D converter offered the same capabilities and pathways when it was released 2 weeks ago. X3D as an open iso standard can be imported into many 3d apps blender included. And yes, the blender as well as x3d pathways all still faqils to allow outside content models from getting into SL. The blender plugin only creates prims internally and cannot as far as i can see/test, deal with objects from the rest of blenders toolset- example an imported kml file. So the 3d warehouse is still not “a click away from SL”..
so linden still stands alone, and thus , even with all this bloggerism, cant be of much value to the professional visual world of 3d design/ virtual worlds and communications.
ps. watch the skies for more open/ more choice of tool/format alternatives….. soon one click away…..
larryr
cube3
larryr//
I can confirm that the blender toolset *cannot* be used to modify objects that are intended to be imported into SL via Jeffrey et al scripts. As for “watching the skies…” please tell us more…
//kliger.
Not sure you understand the technology your’e discussion.. exporting from SL is one thing, converting basic 3d models to prims is near impossible, and even if done will very unlikely look good or be practical.
This will never happen.
What I think is exciting is people exporting stuff from SL and then using elsewhere … other games, printing to 3d printers, etc.
Both ways are exciting, I’d say. As to the technology, my understanding of it (quite possible incorrect) is that it’s not impossible, just very difficult. Jeffrey was apparently contemplating such a system at one point.
the truth is out there……;)
follow the links….
google the facts mulder:)
cube3
Jeffrey created a tool for *importing* 3D objects (OBJ files) into SL. It basically converts each polygon to a prim, so it tends to generate SL models with a large number of prims. Jeffrey also made a tool for building objects *out of prims* in Blender (rather than in SL, as one normally would).
Neither of Jeffrey’s tools exports SL objects to Blender (or other 3D programs), although there *are* programs that can do that.
Importing a generic 3D object (e.g. an OBJ file) into SL *and* keeping the number of prims low is a very challenging problem, but not impossible. There are no tools to do THAT, yet.
haha even I have to laugh at myself on this one. Jeffrey’s Prim.Blender does indeed create objects that can be imported to SL, as I wrote about earlier. But the basic tenet of this post still stands, that it would be interesting to be able to translate a generic object into SL terms. Agree with Troy: “Importing a generic 3D object (e.g. an OBJ file) into SL *and* keeping the number of prims low is a very challenging problem, but not impossible. There are no tools to do THAT, yet.”
I’ve got a very basic SketchUp to Second Life exporter working, which I’ve written up over at Eightbar. It’s pretty basic, and does not support much of what SketchUp is capable of, but it does at least work well for rectangular faces.
I love SketchUp is a fun tool and I use it a lot .
Hello all.
A couple of questions regarding getting Blender models into SL.
What format should the file be when saving / exporting from Prim Builder? OBJ? Or Blend? Something else?
Then in SL, I create a primitive, add the two script files to it, add the notecard (and rename it to correct name), paste in the contents of the object from step 1, then leave Build mode and “touch” it. I get the “complete” message, but the primitive does not change. Shouldn’t it?
Thanks for any responses.
Richard
Oh, I should add, I get the error message:
Object: Couldn’t find object block
Then it says “Complete”.
Thanks!
Richard
Okay, after some tinkering, I got rid of that error message.
In case anyone cares, scripts should be called “block” and “rezzer”, not “block.lsl” and “rezzer.lsl”.
Anyway, now I get the error message:
Unable to create requested object. Object is missing from database.
Any ideas on this one?
Thanks!
Richard
I just started playing with primdotblender yesterday. it took me quite a time in experiments, but here’s how it works for me:
1) create an object
2) inside this object create:
* a script “rezzer”, copy&paste rezzer.lsl into it
* a notecard “Sample_Prims”, copy&paste the XML-export from blender into it (using the Prim.Blender extension)
* an _object_ “block” (though the name doesnt matter probably?)
+ inside this object, create a script “block”,copy%paste block.lsl into it
3) on rezzing, the builder-script should run & create all prims
it helps to enter lots of llSayOwner-calls fpr debugging!
if you need a working copy of this stuff, contact me (Mickey Curtis) in game!
I’ve got the PrimScript running in blender, Did make a nice chair in actually but now comes the problem.
how do i get this friggin chair in SL?
Anyone how helps me gets the sl-chair with developer rights.
thanks
I think that some people would find it way cool to import their 3D stuff from other 3D applications but there is just another thing to mention here.
Just the fact that residents CAN NOT import and export objects and buildings etc into SL is given the whole game just much more experience. When you fly around in SL there is almost nothing nicer to see that people are really building on their house. Most of the time starting with the default texture, wich is wood. And just because of that I will enjoy it more to see that there’s a wooden building slowly but surely appearing somewhere in this world where I live also.
Importing models from another 3D program will destroy the fun you experience in SL. Whole cities will suddenly appear in my region, and people will be bored by that.
I think that a lot of people are missimg some points about the game element that Second Life excists. It’s about having fun too you know…
Once you have the object designed in Blender, you should be able to save to a file called *.prims. This is copied into a note card that is placed in the rezzer prim inworld. On touch, the script in the rezzer res’s a block(contained in the rezzer prim with the block script in it) and then sets its parameters based on what is in the notecard. It will do this for each prims data in the notecard. Once complete, it is up to you to link the prims into the object. Since the block prim used shows you as creator, so will the object built from them. While not fast, (I go off and let it run) this does work. I have used it on those days when SL is down and I can not build. So far, I have had good luck with it.
too complicate.
Anysone has a easy tutorial ?
Hey, where can I find the scripts “rezzer.lsl”and “block.lsl” to download?
I want to try to do this magic too!!!!!
thank you guys!
Hey i keep getting a strange error on Blender; it says “Python script error, check console”, then comes up with Blender needs to shut down now, and does so. I’m a prim FREAK i love making things and this just pisses me off something shocking. Whats wrong with it?
Taba, I have the same problem!!, please, somebody help us, ty :).
Same here…the tools show, but within seconds Blender shuts down. (working in OSX)
Same same!
The tools show but crashes seconds later with above error message
NOTE: Second Life now supports maya and soon other formats in the form of sculpted prims.
prim.blender was written to run witn Blender 2.4, and updeted till 2,42 . It will however not run on Blender 2.43
There is however a fix for prim.Blender to work with Blender 2.43
Open the script, find all setEuler(……….) entries and change them to read setEuler([……….]) by inserting square brackets after the opening bracket, and before the closing bracket. Save you r script, and you should have a workable prim.blender
tried the fix suggested by Jestermon. Changed all occurances of setEuler(……….) in Main.py but to no avail. I am still getting the same error as Taba, Facu, Jenine and reklov. I am using OS X, python 2.5, Blender 2.43 So if anyone else knows what we may try…or how to get in touch with Jeffery…
Workaround or Stepback… Installed blender 2.40 (I will try 2.42 later) from http://download.blender.org/release/ then dropped back to Python 2.4.4 and everything seems to be working, or at least I am not getting the error and subsequent crash. Good luck kids.
[…] Crude progress: Sketchup to SL: http://eightbar.co.uk/2006/09/29/google-sketchup-second-life-export/ http://www.3pointd.com/20060626/sketchup-blender-second-life/ […]
As I’m sure you’re aware, Roo Reynolds created something like this (SketchUp to SL converter) as a sort of proof of concept. Someone else may have pointed this out too, I didn’t read every comment.
I had several emails with people at DAZ 3D about 6 months ago, trying to convince them that DAZ should made some basic 3D party modeling tools for Second Life. They were inclined to do so, but basically (understandably) blamed Liden Lab for not allowing the importation of objects from 3rd party apps.
SL: ChristopherBest Daviau
@Chris: I’m pretty sure this pre-dates Roo’s thinget. The post is a year and a half old. I think Roo’s is probably the more effective solution at this point, however.