Feature request: In-world mesh creation tools
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Eren Padar
I joined SL in 2004. At that time we only had prims to build with, and everyone was on equal ground. Building IN-WORLD was very much part of the fun of SL.
As much as I like mesh, it's killed that fun. Prims have become passe for the most part. If something isn't mesh, people don't buy it. Building contests using prims are few.
Because of this, one might wonder why LL didn't give us at least one in-world mesh creation tool... say a sphere with 256 points that can be manipulated into a desired mesh shape. Add along with that a way to paint the texture on that prim.
Yes, this is already done via 3rd party tools such as Blender... but such tools are complex and difficult to use and are not in-world tools... thus taking the fun out of in-world building. If I wanted to sit by myself and build things outside of SL, I could make items and sell them elsewhere. The whole idea of a virtual world is to BE IN the virtual world, both for association and while creating.
LL keeps providing all these neat new toys such as pathfinding and the new mirrors and such. Why have we never been provided a basic in-world mesh-creation package similar to the prim building tools we already have? Frankly, mesh killed in-world creation... and that is most unfortunate.
Feature request: an in-world mesh-building package. At the very least, something that can manipulate and paint a sphere that has (optionally) between 32 and 256 points of adjustment.
I'm sure there are many opinions on this, so I'm just posting this to hopefully get the ball rolling. We can't be too insistent on this being done "our way" or it will never happen. But it would be very nice to have some kind of reasonably-effective in-world mesh building and texturing tools.
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Eren Padar
It might be good to point out that as of March 19, 2025 (almost a year after the OP), this post has 135 upvotes (a considerable number). Despite early negativity from users who very evidently had self-interest more in mind than the good of the general populace and SL itself, all of the most recent comments (as of this posting) are very positive regarding this suggestion... and voice it's a wonderful idea. Most of these comments carry a similar thought:
"In-world creation was what attracted me to Second Life in the first place. That experience is largely non-existent at this point."
Second Life has turned from a prim-based to a mesh-based world. It's not that prims are "dead"... but try making something out of prims and sell it on Second Life Marketplace. See how sales go.
So Second Life being mesh-based, an in-world mesh-editor is simply a sensible, valuable, world-enhancing concept. If Second Life is going to be mesh-dominated-- it should contain in-world building tools to meet that environment.
Rental Rizzler
Yes. I was told years ago by a Linden that second life was not trying to compete with Blender when I suggested meshing and UV tools. I got the same response when I suggest Discord-like features.
On some level SL is competing with Blender, and Discord whether they like it or not. Second Life is a social platform, Discord is a social platform. Blender is a modeling program, Second Life is in part a modeling program.
I don't see why they would take the position of not wanting to compete at all. They're pretty much telling us they don't care.
Polyhistor Serpente
The ability to build in world, potentially with other residents, was what originally caused me to be interested in Second Life before mesh uploads.
What I would like to see is something that we can join prims together and be able to somehow select then cut/delete the internal nonvisible surfaces and optimizes it. Sure I'd love to see all kinds of fancy tools in addition to that but at the very least I'd just want something that does that.
00 Python
As someone who has spent years learning and honing their knowledge of blender and spending way too much money on blender plugins for SL content creation i would definitely like to see this. I've bought loads of mesh items that i would love to modify more deeply than new textures and scripts but cant because... well... that's the nature of the platform- on top of that having decent mesh creation options in SL would make building quality things more accessible to the average person and could make blocking things out to be modified in blender much easier. i do miss the old days of watching talented folks make things in sandboxes or showing my friends my process in world. sure we have discord for that now but some of my friends are on potatoes and cant really follow a stream.
Ai Austin
I agree that in world content creation and modification tools are important.
Ai Austin
A really robust Blender mesh export add on (for Collada and glTF to future proof) that always produces valid (for SL upload) outputs would be a better approach to address this maybe? It could make sure the rigging was appropriate or convert as required. It could also maybe help with LOD generation if not already present.
Maxwell Graf
Ai Austin While I agree with your points, I want to suggest something that can also be for people who understand none of what you said at all, yet still have a desire to spend time messing with things and learning the basics of how mesh tools work. This, in turn, could lead them to better understanding and than off to blender for more. It is all about getting people to spend time building inside SL.
A
Arcane Fairelander
Perhaps a tool that can convert your prim builds into acceptable meshes too?
Maxwell Graf
Arcane Fairelander there is a way to save (export) your prim builds already into a usable (though not highly efficient/optimised) mesh, as long as it is yours.
Eren Padar
Arcane Fairelander There is already such a tool on SLM called Mesh Generator. Not only does it turn prims to mesh, it turns them into quality mesh with minimal Li usage. The trick is that due to Li limitations of the tool sometimes an object will have to be created in multiple pieces and then joined together when uploaded... but that's really nothing new to builders.
Marianne McCann
Even though I am perfectly comfortable in Blender, being able to do this would be huge. I would love to be able to doodle in mesh, and have fun with friends in sandboxes with mesh, etc. Yes, please!
Maxwell Graf
Yes, this would involve resources, development time, difficulty and seems unnecessary in light of the existence of dozens of 3d tools with long histories and practically unlimited variety outside of SL.
Bottom Line: I spent/spend so much time and effort to create a space in world where I want to be and want others to visit, yet for over a decade now, I spend my workdays outside of SL, in ever-increasing amounts and using software with ever-increasing levels of difficulty, constant re/up-training and an increasing demand for higher quality. As a creator I am now essentially completely removed from the thing which drew me to SL to begin with - creating within that space. My time in SL is reduced to the last 5% of the process, where I import, do my scripting, testing, add animations and place the item.
Even if the SL-provided toolset was just basics, imagine the time you could save making adjustments to items without having to re-import, or making one item adjust to work with other in-world items. Imagine a workflow where you work on and item then export it to do materials, adjust UV, paint, animate, w/e...do the finishing work and import. There are a variety of benefits to such a system. There have been many times where I wish I could do a simple adjustment to a mesh already placed in world so that it would fit better or work better in that instance with the other items around it or connected to it.
FINISHED BELOW v
Maxwell Graf
Imagine the effect this would have on not only attracting new members to build, but having existing users that are not creators spending more time logged in to use the new tools, allowing more people to learn mesh before going outside to more advanced tools.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, imagine how this would effect the concurrency of users of all sorts, coming back into SL and being active IN there, all those creators like myself who would be spending time again existing IN SL, existing, creating, actively communicating and doing things. I know there is a certain amount of people who leave SL minimized or in the background while they work in blender, etc., but It's not the same. I usually don't do that if I know I'm going to be working in Maya or Zbrush all day, I log out and do my work, then log in when I am done. This new functionality would bring me and a lot of other creators back into SL for a lot more hours, even if its not the entire creative process. Right now, a lot of people are NOT spending much time in SL simply because we are working on stuff. This could have a drastic impact on the number of people online, creating and doing all sorts of things that would not be possible otherwise. I'd love to spend more time creating in SL again. It's a big part of the magic that made me fall in love with it, and that has been lost.
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