Hello guys (and girls ^^)! <3

I'm glad to see you here! It has been some time since I have written MeshFix v2. Last months have been quite busy for me.
Also, I didn't have much motivation for coding. RL can often surprise us!

It made me happy that so many of you have found my tool useful.
Some of you though found few issues with it, mostly about the lack of the bones in exported daes,
lack of OpenSim support and high RAM usage issue. There were some other minor complaints too.

I am well aware of these problems. While the bone and maybe RAM issue could be solved, the OpenSim support rather can't.
This is because OpenSim uses different texture UUIDs than Second Life and therefore applying textures with the OS script is impossible.

However this issue can be solved by using entirely new viewer that doesn't have in-world script limitations.
One other thing new viewer could help in, is completely removing the need to use XMLs at all, making copying stuff fully a single click action.

However, if these were the only purposes, spending a lot of time for the new viewer would be veeery silly :D

BUT! The possibilities with the new viewer are far more than that. Enough to completely change the way we use virtual worlds.
For now I won't reveal the details, but I will just say that making new viewer starts making more and more sense :)

The new viewer will not be Firestorm based (or SL Viewer based - FireStorm has a lot of LL's code).
It will be written in the open source modern gaming engine to avoid licence issues - Godot Engine. it is fairly easy engine to work with.
For scripts, it will use mainly C# for performance purposes (modern C# is as fast as C++ in most cases while much easier to code in).

It will still be massive and time consuming project. And I am not going to spare all my free time for coding.
I have other hobbies too, RL friends, RL duties.. 

So.. I can not say any date when or even if I am going to finish it. If some experienced devs are willing to help they can PM me.
Currently I need only experienced devs as I am writing core features and elements of the viewer.
When it is done, less experienced devs will also be able to help by writing extensions to the viewer (YES! My viewer will support custom extensions!)
That being said, the project is very modular so it won't be hard to spread the work between many devs. 

Non-devs can also help - by writing encourging comments in this thread or MeshFix's thread.
Or by giving rep points. Or by giving me hugs. Or by supporting me with money. Any support counts!
All these can give me more motivation to work on stuff. Without motivation I may work slower or even totally abandon the project.

About MeshFix, I am going to keep maintaining it for bugfixing purposes. I am rather not planning to add new features to it -
because the MeshFix's dependency on XMLs gives me too many limitations to fully do what I would like to do.
Those who need bones in exported Dae files, can use MeshesSL or Mesh Helper for now.
They are buggy with static mesh but work fine with rigged mesh.

This thread will be mainly for updates about the project and the discussion.
You can give your own ideas or other thoughts in this thread about the future project(s). Any kind of interest makes me happy! <3

Kisses to everyone!

Hehe, i love japanese culte, and watch a lot of anime and reads load of anga, sometimes eve some drama also XD
So i guess my calling you "Saeki" i was VERY polite then ! haha, they tend to call each other by theyr last names, in class and work when they're not too close it seems.

But if i'm allowed... i'll call you Amae-chan ! :D

You know i do some machinima in SL and i mostly use your tools to help me with my creation, i don't really copybot things for free or anything, it's just that sometimes i REALLY need to edit something and i can't unless i rip it. so your work for the comunity has been VERY helpful to me !

So thank you VERY MUCH !

Will it be open-source? So many of the tools here are closed-source, which makes troubleshooting issues and cross-platform compatibility EXTREMELY difficult.

You are so sweet @Kalachman. Sure you can call me this way <3 And I'm glad that you like my tool.. it makes me happy that my work is found useful. And as you are so nice, you leave me no choice but to give you more rep points.. you are smarty!


@Huggypie
I understand your feelings - I'm a dev myself.
To answer your question: the new tool that is under developement will be partially open source.
What that means is that the tool itsself will be closed source but it will be very flexible and extendable - as you will be able to 
create addons to it via specially designed API. You should be satisfied :D
And you don't have to worry about cross platform compatibility. The tool will natively support both Windows and Linux.

@Saeki Amae

So I will 3 choices:
1) Reinvent the wheel
2) Wait X months or years for you to develop your godot viewer
3) Install windows on my computer.
You leave me and others no choice but to go with option 1. Do you see how unproductive this is?

Unproductive? If I was unproductive I wouldn't code MeshFix 2 in first place. I wouldn't even start working on the current project and instead enjoy my life by seeing friends, watching movies, playing games.. think of what you are saying. 

The source code is effect of hours.. no, MONTHS of work that i spared on my tool.. the work that nobody was willing to pay even single cent for.
I have full right to decide whether or not I want my program to be opensource.
And still, as I already said, I am considering making it opensource once my tool will be released - not because I have to but because I am kind enough.

Yet.. people like you who instead of showing appreciation by donating, giving hug, rep points or even simply saying "thank you",
just behave like leechers and make demands, are the reason why I every day think whether or not i should continue my efforts on the new tool
or simply give up on the project and do something more fun.

That's really sad.. But don't worry, my new tool (it won't be full viewer, it would take too much time) won't take years.
I'm doint my best to make the tool happen sooner than later.. at least for now.
If more people will behave like you I will just abandon the project, really.

PS: Because people like you make this forum sad and toxic place, negative rep was awarded.

@Saeki Amae
Sorry if I came across as rude. I will explain.
I want to be able to rip things from SL and contribute here. I currently can't because your tool and some others only run on Windows, and I have sworn to never use that OS again.
If the source code to your tool was public, I and others would be able to do the following:
1) Build binaries for other operating systems and architectures
2) Fix bugs
3) Implement your functions in other tools in order to streamline workflow.
By keeping things closed, you actually make it more difficult for grateful people to contribute anything back.

@Saeki Amae
And by unproductive, I don't mean your own work.
I mean the fact that anybody who wants to create software like yours has nothing to work off of, and has to reimplement everything from scratch.
Which isn't hard to do (in fact I am already halfway there by going off of the SL documentation alone,) but it introduces unnecessary friction. Imagine if you didn't have zlib, or any of the other OPEN-SOURCE dependencies that your project uses. It would make it harder for you to develop your own tools, would it not?

@Saeki Amae
And what if the Firestorm viewer was closed source?
Hydrastorm (which violates firestorm's 

[To see links please register here]

license by the way) would not even be possible.
You all stand on the shoulders of giants. Quit acting like you don't.

@Huggypie
Don't be so bold, watch your words
There are always people who think they are better and know everything
This is a forum to help people not get burned out.
Stop what you're doing
This is your first warning

@Huggypie
Lagertha is right. People here do things to help community.
The lack of opensource is unpleasant, yes. There were many cases when I wanted to modify something in the game I am playing but I couldn't because I didn't have the source code. But you need to understand that it is their right - a reward for their hard work.

Yes, it is possible that the lack of releasing my tool opensource might slow things down. But besides the fact of stealing my code by other people and then seeing them claiming the code as theirs (yes it is breaking copyright but we are on copybot forum - people here rarely care about such things), it also breaks intimate feeling that you are the only one having power over your program and it is only you deciding how the program will be shaped.. I am sure you are a dev so you know what I mean.
Is that selfish? Maybe a little. But I find it as a part of a reward for the hard unpaid work that I made. But as you noticed, I am active here. Even though I don't release the source code I try to help people here use my tool, I react on bug reports and so on.

But as I already said, my new tool will be much more accessible for modifications.. and I might release source code of MeshFix when it happens.
To be honest, my new tool is exactly addressing the issue you pointed out - that there are not many resources to built tools for Second Life. It will revolutionize everything. As I said two posts ago: you will be satisfied.
So.. 
You have to stay patient. And if you want to speed things up, rather cheer me up and be nice, give hugs, rep points or donate me instead of making demands.. really, it is much better way :D