The Big Stuff: Architecture in Mesh Studio

Architecture is a topic of interest to many in Second Life.  We've all seen our share of wonderful destinations where residents have recreated real life global points of interest as well as spun sims out of their imaginations.  When making these large structures, there are always considerations about how to make them and keep the land impact (LI) at a manageable level for mesh.  Mesh Studio is a wonderful way to build architecture.  We have a Mesh Studio Flickr group (Founded by Jo Yardley, please feel free to join and show off what you have done in Mesh Studio as well.) and two of its prominent contributors both do architecture.

I thought it would be great to showcase both Jo Yardley and Victor1st Mornington and hear how Mesh Studio is part of their workflow.  I hope you find their work as inspirational as do I.

Victor1st Mornington

What is the focus for the type of architectural style you have chosen to do in SL?  Did your own interest spur you to do what you're creating or did someone come to you with the idea or job?

The bulk of my builds, for at least the mesh side of things, is done in New Babbage or related to the distinct Steampunk Victorian era style which goes with the era and setting the nine regions of New Babbage is set in.  The biggest building I have made with Mesh Studio is Brunel Hall, a "Mock Tudor" style of building which is commonly referred to as "Tudorbethan".  Other buildings I have made in New Babbage are based on the same Victorian era styling.

I started building originally for the Doctor Who community, add on expansion rooms for TARDIS consoles, even some TARDIS exteriors.  I bought a plot of land in the City State of New Babbage in 2009 because I was told about the steamlands by another Doctor Who fan in Second Life.  New Babbage has a reputation is being a city full of fine builders.  The main region has been in the Destination Guide for.. well.. a LONG time, almost every major social event in New Babbage somehow gets listed in the Destination Guide as well and there have been countless Machinimatographers, Photographers and bloggers who have filmed, pictured or told stories about the city.  My build style has started leaning heavilly towards the Victorian era due to spending 4 years in New Babbage :)

I rarely build anything for the Dr Who community nowadays.  That community has a large pool of Blender, Cinema 4D and 3DS Max users.  New Babbage as well is now seeing a rise in the amount of folks who are using desktop modeling programs but there is also a lot of Mesh Studio users in New Babbage.

What are you finding as the biggest challenges to working with large structures where we know that mesh LI can loom large when objects are scaled up?  What kind of things do you do to keep the LI from getting out of hand?

Simple.. don't scale up the mesh build.. build it in prims to scale, that way you wont need to size it up.  Brunel Hall is roughly 90m from the bathing hall wall to the pub wall, 50m from the front wall to the back wall and 50m from the bar cellar floor to the peak of the roof.  The entire structure of the building, inside and out was made with Mesh Studio from the pre-existing prim build that was already there.  I had no need to scale it up which meant i got true LI counts when the mesh item was rezzed inworld.  The only time you should scale a mesh build is to scale it DOWN...try to avoid scaling UP!

 As for keeping the LI low...

 Large buildings, say 20m and up, you can get away with using 2/24 for the resolution.  If your building has no curves and all flat lines, use the Low Poly (but not Low Lod) setting.  If your building does have curves in it, lets say for a drain pipe going down the outside, or arch top door frames and windows, then use 2/24.  It is always better to use the default 24 setting for curves because the lower that resolution setting for a curve below the default the worse it will look close up.

Also, think about your building.  Do you REALLY need all those curves in it?  A square top mantle door frame and a square top and bottom bay window looks just as good as an arch and costs you far, far less in LI in the mesh model itself.  Also, one thing to remember... make those hidden faces 100% transparent!  All those transparent hidden faces all add up to making your LI count as low as it possibly can be!  Physics is the second one, but i'll go into that on the next question :)

Physics is an oft misunderstood part of working with mesh.  Have you had any adventures, or misadventures, with this?

Physics with Mesh Studio needn't be a nightmare.  The only misadventure I've had was the physics mesh not "matching" the actual mesh model, so I would be floating above a floor by a meter or so, but i figured out what was causing that.  The one thing to remember with physics when working with mesh studio is one single question...what prims faces will avatars be bumping into to walk on, or to keep them out of the building?

If you keep that question in your head whilst modifying your prim build for the mesh model, then your physics model will come out perfect!

Why Mesh Studio?  How did you hear about it?  How has it helped you with your projects?

I tried using Blender...its UI is a mess, i tired using 3DS Max, it was too confusing.  The 'Mayor' of New Babbage (who is the owner of the regions) Mosseveno Tenk told me about Mesh Studio and what it could do, essentially taking an existing prim build and converting it to mesh, and I was hooked.  

As for how it has helped, well...

The original prim build of Brunel Hall was just under 900LI for the entire building, and that was even using the convex hull trick on flat linked walls.  The Mesh Studio version?  Under 500LI  It saved me a LOAD of prims on the land the hall is sitting on, enough to add more higher detailed stuff on the inside and expand the furnishing on the inside of the building to bring it more inline with what a classic 'Mock Tudor' mansion would have looked like.

What would you tell others about working with Mesh Studio?  What would you tell others that you wish you had known about Mesh Studio when you first began using it?

I would say two things to them.  Take your time on the prim build check EVERYTHING on it, and secondly, take extra time on the physics build!  Time spent on making sure the base prim build is all fine is less time spent having to constantly upload mesh model after mesh model (which costs a lot) because you found one texture face out of alignment >.<

As for folks who are thinking about buying Mesh Studio?  Buy it.  In the long run it will save you prims on your land, those extra prims can be used to extend your home out, add more furniture and basically make your home or shop a more enjoyable place to be in.

Where, in Second Life, can your work be seen?

Brunel Hall Hotel & Muirsheen Durkin Restaurant (entire building done in mesh studio) - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Academy%20of%20Industry/64/86/108
Sovereign House (entire building done in mesh studio) - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Academy%20of%20Industry/196/69/111
Fullarton House & The New Babbage Art Gallery (lower half and internals done in mesh studio) - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Clockhaven/128/132/103
Hawksley Water Pumping Station (entire building and working twin beam engines done in mesh studio) - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New%20Babbage/177/71/103
Citadel of the Timelords (internals in the process of being converted with mesh studio) - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eutopia/246/127/3034

Also... the well known white oval RFL donation kiosks now have a 1 prim mesh counterpart, yup, you guessed it...made with Mesh Studio by me and sent to the Relay for Life of Second Life leads for upload to use for the 2013 RFL season.

Jo Yardley

What is the focus for the type of architectural style you have chosen to do in SL?  Did your own interest spur you to do what you're creating or did someone come to you with the idea or job?

I've always loved old architecture and hated modern architecture, my only interest outside of SL is trying to stop the destruction of old buildings.

But being able to build allows me to recreate the past and that is why it means so much to me in SL.

Building something that is gone, bringing it back, that is magic.

What are you finding as the biggest challenges to working with large structures where we know that mesh LI can loom large when objects are scaled up?  What kind of things do you do to keep the LI from getting out of hand?

My only focus is realism and authenticity.

Recreating the past and giving visitors an as realistic as possible experience of traveling back in time is what I am going for.

I got the idea for the 1920s Berlin Project after realising there was a Nostalgic scene in Second Life and simply started sticking prims together, I was only a few weeks in SL and had no experience at all.

So another reason I build how I build is connected to how much experience I've got, after more then 3 years in SL, I am still learning new things.

Physics is an oft misunderstood part of working with mesh.  Have you had any adventures, or misadventures, with this?

I try to make as many sides invisible as possible but I've also decided to make all my floors regular prim.

It was hard to get the collision to work perfectly on floors, somehow I always kept floating a little above the floor or my feet disappeared into it.

By keeping the floors prim, I also save on the textures I can use for the mesh.
But I also build in a RL scale, 1 meter = 1 meter, that means that my buildings in general are a lot smaller then other SL buildings.

Why Mesh Studio?  How did you hear about it?  How has it helped you with your projects?

Yes lots, just recently I made a door and just forgot about the physics, so it turned out phantom...

But it is worth doing it right, it keeps the LI nice and low.

It still can be tricky to get right.

What would you tell others about working with Mesh Studio?  What would you tell others that you wish you had known about Mesh Studio when you first began using it?

I tried some of the mesh software but soon realised that it was just much too demanding for me, at least at that time I did not have the patience or time to figure out how it all worked.

Someone mentioned Mesh Studio to me after I had been complaining about how tricky the software was.

It was exactly what I was looking for, it made Mesh easy for me.

And it motivated me to completely rebuild my sim and I am now turning everything to mesh.
I've already turned quite a few buildings to mesh.

If I had not found Mesh Studio I'd still be trying to build a simple table with mesh software.


It is easy!
Well not very easy, but a LOT easier (and cheaper) then the software I know.

And if you know how to build in SL, you can make mesh with Mesh Studio.

Where, in Second Life, can your work be seen?

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/1920s%20Berlin/237/232/751