A Sculpted Prim (or Sculptie) is a Second Life 3D primitive object whose shape is determined by a texture. Second Life ( abbreviated as SL) and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based 3D Virtual These textures are called Sculpt Textures or Sculpt Maps. Sculpted prims can be used to create more complex, organic shapes that are not possible with Second Life's prim system.

A Sculpt Texture or Sculpt Map is a standard RGB texture where the R (red), G (green) and B (blue) channels are mapped onto X, Y, and Z space. Sculpt Textures are similar to normal maps, but instead of encoding surface normals they encode surface positions. In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping is an application of the technique known as Bump mapping. They are also similar to displacement maps, but instead of a single scalar distance we have three values — one each for the X, Y, and Z coordinates. Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to Bump mapping, Normal mapping, and Parallax mapping, using a ( procedural Sculpt Textures are also very similar to parametric (e. A parametric surface is a Surface in the Euclidean space R 3 which is defined by a Parametric equation with two parameters g. NURBS) surfaces. Non-uniform rational B-spline ( NURBS) is a mathematical model commonly used in Computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces See Sculpted Prims: Under the Hood article for details.

Sculpted prims work with UV maps. UV mapping is a 3D modeling process of making a 2D image representing a 3D model Instead of making an object with a certain, very distinct shape, it is possible to take an object with a very generic shape and use the texture file to tell it where to move vertices. That way the polygon count stays low and things still look good.

For more technical details see the links below.

Contents 1 Free Sculpted Prim creation software 2 Commercial Sculpted Prim creation software 3 Current implementation problems or limitations of Sculpties 4 See also 5 External links

Free Sculpted Prim creation software

• (see also: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide)
• Blender
• Wings 3D with the sculpty plugin
• ROKURO(lathe) - Sculpted Prim Maker - A simple NURB curve maker and revolver (a "lathed" object is one that is perfectly symmetrical around the center axis)
• TOKOROTEN(extruder) - This Program makes Sculpted Prim texture . Blender is a free 3D graphics application It can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping texturing rigging, water simulations tga file of the pushed-out/extruded objects (makes cookie-cutter style shapes)
• InWorld Sculptor Tool Kit
• Pixel Lab SculptyPaint - Sculptie Making Tool.

Commercial Sculpted Prim creation software

• Inivis AC3D
• Pixologic zBrush
• Moment of Inspiration (MoI) (save as a 3dm (opennurbs) file and use 3dm2sculpt to convert to a sculptie)
• Autodesk Maya
• NewTek LightWave 3D
• Autodesk Media and Entertainment's 3ds Max
• Strata 3D
• TheBlack Box - Sculpt Studio

Current implementation problems or limitations of Sculpties

As of July 25, 2007, serious limitations on Sculpties include the following.

• There are only 8 bits of data used for each X, Y, and Z point in the UV maps, instead of 16 bits.

• There is some JPEG2000 compression of all uploaded texture files, even those in lossless TGA, BMP, and PNG format.

• Level of Detail (LOD) for displaying sculpted prims is set to the integer 3, which corresponds to capping the visual detail displayed in the Second Life client at 64x64 sized uploaded sculptie textures. This problem can be fixed but because of the compression during upload, greater detail can lead to more visible anomalies on the object.

• Sculpted prims are only 'seen' by SL's collision system (serverside) as misshapen spheres, meaning they are very limited in practical use and are best reserved for non-structural decorative elements. They are only fully (visually) rendered 'clientside', in the user's browser.

See also

• UV mapping
• NURBS
• Polygon mesh
• Normal mapping
• Displacement_mapping
• Parametric surface

External links

• Second Life Wiki: Sculpted Prims
• Second Life Wiki: Sculpted Prims: FAQ
• Second Life Wiki: Talk:Sculpted Prims
• How to Make Sculpted Prims with Blender
• Blender and Second Life
• How to Make Sculpted Prims from Existing 3D Models with AC3D

UV mapping is a 3D modeling process of making a 2D image representing a 3D model Non-uniform rational B-spline ( NURBS) is a mathematical model commonly used in Computer graphics for generating and representing curves and surfaces A polygon mesh or Unstructured grid is a collection of vertices edges and faces that defines the shape of a polyhedral object in 3D computer In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping is an application of the technique known as Bump mapping. Displacement mapping is an alternative computer graphics technique in contrast to Bump mapping, Normal mapping, and Parallax mapping, using a ( procedural A parametric surface is a Surface in the Euclidean space R 3 which is defined by a Parametric equation with two parameters

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