Business in Virtual Worlds, Second Life

Joy of Rendering: 3DS, Second Life, and Neptune

Developers in Second Life have built a production flow that allows them to export models to 3DS for full rendering, re-importing the baked textures to Second Life to give builds an astonishing depth and giving a sense of immersion as seen in their sample build, the Neptune Club.

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The developers may have hit upon a service that is representative of where commerce in-world is headed, namely services, augmentation, branding, and use of external tools. They offer to render existing builds, added a depth of lighting, reflection and texturing that’s nearly impossible in world without some very patient Photoshop work, and is usually clunky to achieve by building natively in Maya and other applications and then trying to import into SL. The owners of Neptune Lighting charge a fee for this service, and for builders, club owners, and commercial enterprises the value that it adds to in-world work can make a significant difference.

I haven’t talked to the developers yet but look forward to seeing demos of client work to hear how seamless the process is.

They’ve also done some pretty neat tricks with the floor combining glow, a transparent floor, and a reverse version of the build – common enough for experienced builders but done here with a really wonderful subtle effect that push the in-world tools to maximum effect (alpha, glow and transparency).

Wonderful work.

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