anyone interested in building challenges? at i live in science land

anyone interested in building challenges?

in many communities like photoshop communities and blender forums, members have informal challenges. it could be starting with a base image and applying their magic to it or seeing who can build the best looking light sabre (years ago on a blender forum there was a “build a light sabre” and put it in a short live action video challenge!)

Vanish at OpenSim-Creations started an OpenSim-based monthly challenge which was a brilliant idea but participation was low. it was a great idea because it could have meant more freebie content for everyone

a key factor for success for this is having an easy “place” to showcase people’s work

i don’t know anything about the OSgrid forum and maybe they already do this

there is a lot of talent in our OpenSim community and i was curious on what some people think of this type of approach for adding to the content that is out there. and it does not have to be free, but it should be pushing the creative envelope (so that it doesn’t become just a way to market your most awesome boots ever that come in 28 diff colours!) =p

maybe there’s not a good way to do this or (more likely) i simply don’t have an original idea as to how it can be done!

i challenged myself to make a prim version of this TurboSquid public trash can because i need a buttload of them for Enclave Harbour and i don’t want to pay $24 for one!

Simona saved Ener $24!

written by Ener Hax

October 8th, 2012 at 3:11 pm

posted in virtual worlds

You are SO good at getting me off my butt LOL. I actually have several buildings that I made in SL that I have been meaning to upload over at opensim-creations. Now I have no excuses LOL. Ok, I can still blow it off, but … this put it back on my mind.

Crystal Brewton

8 Oct 12 at 3:46 pm

I loved the OSC challenges. I hope Vanish offers more. Course I could get off my butt and post an idea too XD I only ever got around to doing one of them but the themes thing motivates me. One challenge I’d love to do is goofy open sourced Halloween costumes. Then in the winter we could do something like snow people/snow sculpture or whatever. Maybe something along the lines of “You Give Love a Bad Name” for Valentines but make it an un-Valentines…idk. I think I’m going to go post that Halloween one on OSC though so get your weird on!

Jamie Wright

8 Oct 12 at 4:39 pm

And just to put my money where my mouth is:

http://opensim-creations.com/forums/topic/osc-monthly-october-monthly-challenge-goofy-halloween-costumes/

8 Oct 12 at 4:48 pm

This is a great idea and could be implemented by many venues (Blogs, Content sites, Social media). In fact, I’m putting the link to this article on Gridcache and asking what they think :D

ELQ

9 Oct 12 at 5:43 am

Just a quick FYI for people wanting to import items that were saved as XML Exports. Many folks use(d) Imprudence to export objects and package them on OpenSim creations and other sites like here :) .

As we all know Impy is somewhat “long in the tooth” and no longer in development. While I still have Impy on my system, I tend to prefer Cool VL Viewer located here: http://sldev.free.fr/ when I want the V1 UI with the goodies for mesh (now including it’s export & import functions)etc…

I decided to perform some tests yesterday with Ener’s Espresso Machine (I needed a jolt in-world). I first fired up Impy to import it, which worked but I wound up with a disjointed prim attached to the import. Then I thought I would try CV (as they use the same XML Export/Import process) and the import was perfect without anything amiss.

Unfortunately, as present very few current viewers have Import/Export functionality, which leaves us a tad short on options.

Hope it helps anyone who is creating to share and for those wanting to import goodies.

WhiteStar

9 Oct 12 at 1:26 pm

thank you WhiteStar for that test and the link (and grabbing the espresso machine – still my favourite build)

if you say it is a good thing to use, then i will for sure

regarding the disjointed prim, i also find that Imprudence typically ignores the prim that had been set as the root prim and just allocates it to some other prim. not a big deal but curious

i’ll probably start doing the Cool VL viewer as my default freebie viewer (thus making it the recommended one for others grabbing those freebies)

Ener Hax

9 Oct 12 at 2:11 pm

/Waves @ Ener !!!

One tip, that should be mentioned to folks about doing XML imports that many forget… so if you are documenting a bit…

When you import an object, it’s best to be flying in the air off the ground surface by at least 2 to 5 metres. That way, as the object is being built/assembled none of it will wind up under ground surface.

This often does not cause problems, BUT in some instances / cases (OpenSim configs) prims can be prevented from being placed underground or under water which will cause issues. It’s one of those better safe than sorry solutions.

BTW: Zena intends to have a Backup system put back into Zen Viewer. It may be either XML or HPA. Angstrom Viewer has HPA but apparently (I have not tested myself but others have reported it so) the implementation has a few issues. FireStorm cannot do exports/imports. I don’t use Pheonix so I can’t say if it does.

I’m down to using only Zen (primary viewer), Cool Viewer as & when needed, Impy if I must (geez it’s painful now) and FireStorm for compatibility testing only as it is not very OpenSim friendly and they don’t seem to be following through on OS Compatibility as they stated earlier in the year.

PS: Your espresso machine does provide a good strong in-world jolt for the tired working avatar’s… ;-)

9 Oct 12 at 2:23 pm

Just an FYI regarding Import/Export functionality, of the 13 viewers I have listed on MIV, only 6 use XML and one uses HPA. The rest don’t have an Export function and only import Mesh.

http://excelsior-station.wikidot.com/misfit-s-index-of-viewers-miv

I know that there are other viewers that have the functionality, but I don’t think they are for use on OpenSim/AuroraSim grids in general. That is, they are dedicated to a specific grid.

Sarge Misfit

9 Oct 12 at 2:44 pm

OSGrid doesn’t have exactly that, but what they do have is either weekly or monthly (I don’t remember which) “speed build” contests where they set a theme and people have an hour to make a build based on it. It’s actually pretty fun.

Han Held

9 Oct 12 at 4:40 pm

I still tend to import and export on Imprudence as it’s been a faithful workhorse for me. However I’ve discovered Singularity imports stuff I exported on Imp pretty well. The crossover that doesn’t work is Imp/Singularity to Phoenix. You just crash.

I wish I could make the times for the Speed Build. It does sound like a really fun contest.

I’ve forgotten to compliment it but Ener that’s a great reproduction of the Turbo Squid outdoor trash can. I also adore your recycling and garbage autobins and did manage to get them to import well on Imp.

10 Oct 12 at 3:46 am