Sketchlife: SketchUp to Second Life

We have never quite understood why Second Life is such a closed shop when it comes down to importing models - compared to systems such as Sketch Worlds, which we covered earlier this week, it has been a positively painful process to get any model in the environment. However, Sketchlife is a step in a right direction, allowing models to be built in SketchUp and import to Second Life.

The video below details a simple model of the words "Hello World" being built and uploaded using Sketchlife tools. It demonstrates the process: press "Export", copy and paste the model key, drop the textures into the box, and, finally, copy and paste the build key. The process is the same for all models:



Written by Evgeni Sergeev the plugin for SketchUp is available for free, take a look at http://vrshed.com/sketchlife/ for details and download.

Import Any Model into Second Life: AC3D

Importing models into Second Life is still for various reasons a difficult task - the people from http://www.inivis.com/ however have just made it a whole lot easier with their plugin for AC3D.

There are three ways to import from AC3D into Second Life:

1) Sculpted prim maker AC3D's Sculpted Prim exporter is one of the best ways to create smooth sculpties for Second Life. Using AC3D's popular and easy to use interface, you can create objects for Second Life quickly and without many of the restrictions that other 3D modelers enforce.

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2) Box builder Planning a new vehicle, building or piece of furniture? Simply create your model in AC3D then watch your creation assemble inside Second Life. Second Life Box Builder

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3) Upload ANY polygon model in Second Life Want to show someone what you made in AC3D, or discuss a CAD design inside Second Life? Our Second Life Triangle Builder lets you upload virtually ANY 3D model inside Second Life.

The movie below details the Second Life Triangle Builder:



Sure using Triangles is object intensive but it works and it works well (our previous maps in Second Life were created using our own triangle builder).

If you have the space and it fits into the maximum object limit then this really does open up object import into Second Life.

You can helpfully try AC3D free for 14 days so grab a trail, install the plugins and start importing those models into Second Life...

Virtual Lower East Side New York: MTV's Virtual World - A Glimpse of a Populated Virtual Earth?

vLES or Virtual Lower East Side is a replica of the area in New York City created by MTV.

Of note is the starting point from Google Earth into the Virtual World - perhaps a glimpse of how a 'Second Earth' would look and operate?

The movie below provides an insight into vLES:



You can find out more and download the software at http://vles.com/