Liquid metal

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 confronted a T-1000 - a liquid metal villian capable of shape changing.  Second Life, in a way, strives to touch a similar star with its "sculptured prim" feature, a new user tool for generating shapes from textures ("images").  At least this is a direction they claim to be heading.

The Second Life wiki has a write-up.   The gist, however, is that they are now offering a capability where one can import an RGB texture and map it into XYZ space (fn1) - thereby estimating the original shape (3d model).  Mark Wallace has a good write-up on its anticipated impact in the Second Life ecosystem, notably that it may impact a vibrant modeling service economy there. 

CNet (and other press reflectors) emphasize the ability to generate "organic" shapes from textures - which can be produced from a variety of tools.  I think, however, the more ambitious view is the more interesting one.  From the Second Life wiki:

...it would be easy to have a flash animation generate a sculpted prim - and when a resident touches a spot on its surface, the shape could wiggle and ripple appropriately.

Dynamic shapes responsive to their environment.  Sounds cool, we'll see.  Hasta la vista.

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From Second Life wiki:

fn1.

For those familiar with computer graphics - a sculpt texture is very similar to a normal map, but instead of encoding surface normals we encode surface positions. They are also similar to displacement maps, but instead of a single scalar distance we have three values (for each of X, Y, and Z.) They are also very similar to parametric (e.g. nurbs) surfaces.

Comments

[Thomas]

1.

I'm all for innovation, but I don't see this idea going far.

Extrusion maps are not truly 3-dimensional, and while they can be used to make embossed patterns and reliefs, they won't be able to create a virtual horse or house.

And that's even in the best of circumstances, where the texture is designed as a greyscale height map - you can't simply make the computer turn a picture of the family dog into a cute little virtual pet :)

[nate_combs]

2.

Here is the "Sculpted prims in Second Life" video. Gives some idea of the process.

I'm sure the family dog is off limits, but bananas, apples, and mushrooms, oh my! ;)

[Thomas]

3.

Looks nice, now if they would just take another look at the walking animation... :)

By the way, the video didn't really give much insight into how the process goes from having a 2D image map to a finished mushroom - as far as I could see, the creator just selected pre-made shapes from a list.

[Aaron Delwiche]

4.

Nate, thanks for linking to Mark's excellent piece.

In his blog Clickable Culture, Tony Walsh wonders if sculpted prims are just a "cosmetic upgrade." He makes important side points about usability and grid stability, but Linden Lab's recent changes to the building environment are very significant.

For one thing, this is terrific news for those of us affiliated with Metaverse development consultancies. Almost overnight, the world of Second Life is being opened up to artists who rely on tools such as 3D Studio Max, Blender, and Maya.

This is also a positive development for builders who learned their craft with the Second Life tools. If they seize the opportunity to master more robust modeling programs, they will be well-prepared to develop content for other virtual worlds.

As Ordinal Malaprop argues in the comments on Clickable Culture, "[t]his may be a cosmetic upgrade, but it is a seriously significant cosmetic upgrade. We are talking about not only adding a level of mesh support but also dynamic mesh support. Much as I have grown used to the building system within SL, and much as it is relatively friendly and learnable for new residents, this not only allows other modelers to come in but also gives residents an incentive to learn skills which are useful outside of SL. I have been worried for a while that SL building would end up being some sort of ghetto."

Last but not least, the support for other 3D modeling programs will make it easier for organizations and individuals to leverage their content across multiple virtual world platforms.

If I were teaching the virtual world promotions course again next semester, I would seriously consider folding in a component on the other 3D modeling tools.

[csven]

5.

"By the way, the video didn't really give much insight into how the process goes from having a 2D image map to a finished mushroom - as far as I could see, the creator just selected pre-made shapes from a list."

The process is similar to how most high-rez game assets are now created and the discussion surrounding this is on the SLWiki. There are no "pre-made shapes". The offset data is encoded as vectors in the RGB channels of an image.