A real SketchUp to Second Life exporter?
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Dear reader.
Recently I've been doing some research towards SketchUp and Second Life exporters. Since (to me) it seems that the easy-to-use SketchUp, would be perfect to create models with for create-your-own-world Second Life. It proved more difficult then I at first anticipated though, because it seems that the only exporters out there (that I know of) seem to be mere extensions that only allow you to build with the tools they provide.
I overred this little detail and went off and started one of my biggest projects to date (I do relatively small projects normally, so it's not THAT big, however) I've been working on it for a steady month now, so it's kind off a pain to read later that it's not actually an ''exporter'' but more a tool to help you build in Second Life. Rendering my model useless..
This was depressing to say the least, however, it was my fault entirely. But now my question to you would be; Is there an actually SketchUp to Second Life exporter?
If you know any that are relatively simple to use, or any at all, then please let me know. I've been looking all over the place. Thank you in advance.
~Yours truly, B. Puma.
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The problem is not with SketchUp, but SL. SL, as far as I know, uses basic shapes (called prims) to construct more complex objects in the game. It would be difficult for a plugin to take a typical SU model, analyse it, and build prims from raw geometry.
Easier to plan ahead, build your model from the start using SL prims, and use one of the SL exporter tools: http://vrshed.com/sketchlife/
But never having played SL nor used the SL tools, I may have some of the details wrong.
It would be dead simple if SL would support vertex, face, or mesh data.
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@jim said:
The problem is not with SketchUp, but SL. SL, as far as I know, uses basic shapes (called prims) to construct more complex objects in the game. It would be difficult for a plugin to take a typical SU model, analyse it, and build prims from raw geometry.
Easier to plan ahead, build your model from the start using SL prims, and use one of the SL exporter tools: http://vrshed.com/sketchlife/
But never having played SL nor used the SL tools, I may have some of the details wrong.
It would be dead simple if SL would support vertex, face, or mesh data.
Ah yes, I'm familiar with SketchLife, I've downloaded the plugin and all that. However, it's not really something I'm very comfortable working with. They did a great job on the plugin though, that they did. :3
The reason I was looking for an exporter was more for business reasons then anything else, really. I'm not an heavy active Second Life player either, but I needed something that brought in a buck or two, and since I'm familiar with SketchUp, and know there are people in Second Life willing to pay for a somewhat simple model, I was hoping to create and sell these models in Second Life.
But if it isn't possible at this time, then there's nothing else we can do I guess. Ah well, maybe they'll start supporting more types of 3D models in the future.
But thank you for your reply anyway. :3 At least I can stop looking now.
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your dreams are answered
Sketchlife is a system which allows you to build for Second Life using SketchUp.Most 3D modelling tools use meshes (vertices connected by edges which define faces), whereas Second Life has adopted solids, referred to as primitives, to be their indivisible building blocks. This guarantees that there won't be any stray polygons flying around, but it also prevents mesh models from being imported automatically.
The in-world modelling tools in Second Life are quite good, but they are stone age compared to the 3D modelling power tool that is SketchUp. SketchUp is free. (Thank you Google.)
Therefore, if we can't bring SketchUp to Second Life, we'll bring Second Life to SketchUp.
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