SketchUp to IMVU
It sure seems like SketchUp is becoming the default building tool for 3d user-built content. Today I see the word that IMVU now supports importing SketchUp content.
For those who do not know, IMVU is a graphical chat system founded by Will Harvey, who also founded There.com. It is basically IRC with real rooms, and of course a microtransaction system for items such as clothing. Last I had seen, the user-uilding program was limited to that sort of thing, but SketchUp is far more suitable for furniture and the like, so perhaps IMVU has expanded its capabilities.
This is yet another way in which virtual world elements are seeping in from the other side… how long will it be until there is an assumption that of course you can import your own models into EverQuest III, just because the audience pool has taken that ability for granted in all their IMing?
Isn’t that basically what Nintendo’s doing with Mii? If the Wii is successful, I wouldn’t be surprised to see cross-game avatars become commonplace.
And how long until somebody sues because players are bringing in avatars using images like Angelina Jolie and Green Lantern? It seems to me that the biggest obstacle to player generated content is what the players will do with it. And I don’t just mean maliciously. People generally don’t understand the concepts of IP very well, in my experience.
Exactly. I’m actually surprised more in various IP-holding industries haven’t been taking a closer look at how their stuff is being misused on places like YouTube and MySpace.
Further, I don’t think we’re going to see “importing models to EQ3” anytime soon. No matter how powerful and intuitive the tools, the average person still isn’t that good at making their own content, and many just don’t want to. Creation and entertainment don’t go together, though personalization (lower order content management) certainly does. What would result would be yet another emergent business, profiteering creatives who can make “good” content to spec. That getting imported into new games now becomes a case of for-pay content being imported into a for-pay world, in a hodge podge that for a time would likely look as messy as Second Life.
I foresee a backlash there where people seek self-consistency ala today’s MMORPGs, themselves not going away anytime soon. This is not unlike any experienced media. Anyone can make a movie or write a book, but the industries are about delivering those things to the masses who don’t want to bother. SL vs WoW, for example.
I think we’d need to see a lot more than just new tools coming out for this to change. Maybe the next gen of gamers, today’s tweens for example, will just be more talented en masse? 🙂
Darniaq, have you read Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture? If not, consider it recommended.
When I last looked at Sketchup a few years ago, it was infinitely easier to use than any of the other 3d modellers out there. Z-brush was also well done. SketchUp did a good job of buildings, while Z-brush was good at organics. 3DSMax was OK. Maya was EVIL!
I haven’t looked at sketchup recently, but at the time it had a sort of “philiosphy” of doing everything by cutting out sections of polygons and extruding and bevelling them. This worked for rough house/building models, but started to fall apart on more complex constructs (studs, beams, joists), and didn’t do organics.
With my own modeller, http://www.mxac.com.au/m3d, I found that thinking in terms of building blocks (more complex primitives) was a better mix of flexibility vs. ease-of-creation. If you install the app, you’ll see that I have building blocks for houses, which are their own procedural modeller. I have a different procedrual modeller for trees. A different one for caves (using metaballs). Yet another for faces (polygon subdivison) and hair (fuzzy-pumper barber shop).
It’s a tradeoff though; each modeller requires that the user learns something new in order to use it, but since each modeller is specialized, it does a better job at what its trying to accomplish.
The same issues apply to textures; I ended up creating about 20 procedural texture algorithms, from board-and-batten to leaves to chainmail.
Thanks for the recommendation! Ironic timing 🙂 I’m a big fan of real convergent thinking, not just the talking heads that see digital cameras and cellphones and say “see??” I’ll pick it up.
As of March 2006, Mike, SketchUp hasn’t changed much from that from what I could see while using it. I also seem to have a severe inability to actually model, well… anything. I was in a class with some architecture students (I’m not one) and watching one of them use it was… mind-boggling. =P
Of course, when we took a class “field trip”, this same guy pulled out a notebook and started sketching a wood-metal join he saw on a ceiling. So… I’m impressed either way.
I think I remember seeing some organic-like models in the library to be pasted in; we didn’t use it. Polygon count got too high, and we were having trouble with lag as it was. (Old graphics card on lab computers.)
Having spent time with the architect that was designing my house, I can see how sketchup fits in well with an architect’s thinking. It’s good for getting “sketching” buildings in 3D… in the same way that cardboard models are good for building prototypes. It falls apart (or at least did a few years ago) when you wanted to add detail.