The arguments regarding the collision bones versus Mesh Deformer solution continue to rage in the Second Life forum. The problem with solutions is that better is very very subjective, both solutions have pros and cons and neither of them are the perfect solution.
Personally I’d have preferred to see a two state solution here because the Mesh Deformer and the Liquid Mesh type solution should have been able to work side by side as a server side value as to whether a mesh needs to be deformed was part of the Mesh Deformer solution. Therefore if a content creator went with the Liquid Mesh style solution, they would just have changed the value of their mesh to signify it did not need to be deformed by the deformer.
However when forming an opinion on solutions it’s useful to get feedback from people who know what they’re talking about and former Linden Karl Stiefvater (Qarl Fizz, formerly Qarl Linden) has responded largely positively to the news that Linden Lab are adding extra bones to the Second Life skeleton to aid content creators to make Mesh clothing that fits various avatar shapes. This is despite the fact that Linden Lab are not implementing his Mesh Deformer solution.
I say largely because Qarl has some complaints about the way his Mesh Deformer project has been received at Linden Lab and quite frankly I agree with him. However in a statement on the Mesh Deformer Jira Storm-1716 Qarl says:
“Several people have asked me – this seems like the best place to answer.
LL’s assessment here is mostly good. in almost all situations, the simplest solution is the best one – and collision bones are indeed MUCH simpler than the mesh deformer. as i see it, collision bones have two downsides: 1) they are substantially harder to use for the person creating the garment and 2) probably don’t track as well to the avatar shape.
in the end, the evaluation must be made by the content creators who use the tool.
i will reiterate that the two year delay and refusal to communicate are unacceptable.”
Are there politics at play in Linden Lab’s decision? I honestly don’t know but we’ll come back to that later. The fact of the matter is that Linden Lab have gone with a solution that will largely work as intended.
Karl speaks more frankly on this week’s MetaReality Podcast: Good Solutions (warning contains profanity but now they warn you at the start). Karl is quite magnanimous in his assessment of Linden Lab’s decisions in the podcast. I’m not going to transcript all of the podcast, but here are a few things I think Karl said (I say think as my hearing may have failed me!)
- “It’s a nice solution, it is definitely a simpler solution, which is preferred in software engineering.”
- “The only downside is that it makes making the garments, way harder, because now you have to rig to these other things and it’s going to be tedious”
- “it would take testing, but I think this will work a little less well than the mesh deformer”
- “it’s a good solution yes”
- “Simpler is honestly better”
So Karl can see the logic behind the decision and he largely agrees with it. However what about the politics? Gianna/Kim does push him on the politics issue and I feel it’s only fair to relay this:
Kim : “Do you think that part of this decision was purposely biased against you?”
Karl : “I heard back from from two different people inside the lab that told me that Linden Lab would never accept my code.”
Now one would hope that Linden Lab would not be this petty and that the information Karl received was due to an error in communication because really, the idea that LL would reject a solution just because Karl was behind it is quite frankly absurd, surely they are not that petty.
However at the end of the day, a solution to the issue of Mesh clothing and resizing is on its way and although it’s not perfect it should certainly help end users to enjoy mesh clothing in the future to a less troublesome extent than they currently do.
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