Project Bento Update – Important read for Content Creators in Second Life
Linden Lab’s Project Bento was first announced on December 16th, 2015. Since then, they have had weekly meetings inviting all content creators to come and help them with this new Project. If you are a content creator in Second Life, I feel that you should try your best to make it to these meetings. You have a chance to add your voice and input before this project goes public and you are missing out if you don’t take that opportunity! The Lindens have said that they are planning to move this project to Agni in the second quarter of 2016, so it could happen any day now!
Info about Project Bento:
- For those that are not familiar with Project Bento, Linden Lab has added dozens of new bones to the Second Life Avatar Skeleton, which support both rigging and animation, in order to give us more options to personalize our avatars.
- An introductory video by Draxtor Despres explains Project Bento in detail: https://youtu.be/WEzfh1S5Y6Q
- Weekly meetings for Project Bento are held every Thursday afternoon at 1pm on Aditi and they are open to the public. So the next meeting is tomorrow: Thursday, April 28th at 1pm SLT. I encourage all content creators to attend to give their input and request Linden Lab to release Bento to Agni grid as soon as they can so we can all take advantage of it.
- Nalates Urriah uploaded a video of the meeting from the 21st on YouTube and she also has a Bento tag on her blog so you can follow all of her posts regarding the progress on Project Bento since she attends all the meetings.
- Inara Pey has also been covering Project Bento news and meetings on her very informative blog, you can follow her Project Bento tag for all the details. She also summarizes what’s going on so far with Bento and adds soundbites from the meetings so makes it very easy to understand.
- The Project Bento Feedback Thread on the Second Life forums is also another great place to get up to speed on what’s going on with Bento as well as join the conversation.
- I’ve also created a Project Bento tag on my blog so any time I post about it, you’ll see it listed there.
- Lab Chat #3 has been announced and one of the topics will be Project Bento! The 1-hour event will once again take place at the Linden Endowment for the Arts Theatre, on Friday, May 6th, starting at 10:30 SLT with guests Ebbe Linden, Oz Linden and Troy Linden. You have until April 29th to submit your questions to the Official Lab Chat forum.
I hope this post encourages you to attend the meetings and Lab chat and have your voice heard, especially if you create content in Second Life! Please make sure to share this post and encourage other content creators to attend these meetings as well. Don’t miss your chance to provide your input!
Linden Lab Opens Project Sansar Application
While we are on the topic of Linden Lab Projects, if you missed my post from yesterday, the Lab has opened applications for creator preview of Project Sansar. So if you are a content creator in Second Life and interested in checking out Sansar, make sure to fill out an application soon. Good luck if you apply!
*Mesh Body: Slink Physique Mesh Body Hourglass V1.5 by Siddean Munro
*Mesh Head: CATWA HEAD Gwen v4.9 by Catwa Clip
*Skin Applier: Bold & Beauty :: Kylie (Catwa Applier) by JourdanMcMillan
*Hair: TRUTH HAIR Henya by Truth Hawks
*Top: BUENO-Air Shirt-HG-Lines by Mikel Monk (@ Kustom9)
*Jeans: Bueno-Tight Jeans by Mikel Monk (glitches with top in the back)
*Necklace: [MANDALA]TAIGA by Kikunosuke Eel
*Sunglasses: [Z O O M] Aviator Classic-White Gold by Jonas Acanthus
Location: Virtual Decay
So here’s where I’ve always been afraid (not ‘quaking in my boots’ afraid, but afraid nonetheless) of where feedback can be good or bad. While I know they’re inviting content creators, the term is semi-broad. Do they mean those who create original mesh? Or those who even use templates?
In my thinking they’re asking those who create the mesh versus those who use it.
What would you say is their possible viewpoint of what is and isn’t a content creator?
My guess is they want anyone that can provide any kind of input, so if you feel you can, then go for it! Any resident is invited, even if they just want to go and listen to stay updated.
I’ve skimmed the links in your post, but it gets pretty technical and not being a content creator myself I just lost the thread of the conversation pretty quickly.
Here’s my question in case you know the answer. Existing mesh bodies and heads made pre-extra bones, will they still work later? Will they automatically be able to be adjusted for all the new bones and sliders? As a customer, I wonder if I should just wait on that next mesh head purchase in case one is coming that I can fully customize. Thanks in advance if you can help with that question!
I am not 100% sure as I am not a technical person myself and not a content creator but I do know of some mesh head designers that are waiting on releasing any new heads so they can do new releases that include the Bento bones. Apparently Bento is going to be great for mesh head animations. Again, since I don’t really have knowledge in this, I can’t confirm anything but this is what I have heard. Looking forward to seeing what actually happens when Bento hits Agni!
It will be a relief on our systems, too. Apparently the heads with animations and lots of expressions take up a significantly higher amount of rendering power than heads that are static or have fewer animations. Catwa in particular, because of all the animations, is off the charts in terms of the number of triangles and vertices that have to be rendered. I am hoping that when Bento drops that she’ll re-rig her heads. Then, I will give her heads a serious look.
@NaughtyPrincess Milneaux Per your question about pre Bento heads and bodies I think I can answer. They’ll still work in the ways they always have since they aren’t taking away any existing rigging or other base structures the existing mesh is built on. They won’t however automatically update to the new bones. Their creators are going to have to take them and redo the rigging if they want them to respond to the new bones and release that as an update. Like Berry said a lot of them are just going to wait and release new things when Bento goes live rather than update things that have already been purchased.
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I honestly hope that this will enable us to have mesh heads that actually look like us. The biggest issue with mesh heads at the moment is the designers own take on what we should look like. They all have a generic style, and no matter what skin you use, avatars, generally, have a too similar look. It is very hard to maintain a unique look when using a mesh head, hopefully Bento might give us the tools to actually make the necessary adjustments ourselves. The ability to alter lips, cheekbones etc if we get that, will be a massive step forward.
does it mean only players with VR can play this game?
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