November 29, 2008

Building a box

I'm cooperating on a product with my friend Rika Watanabe at the moment. It is a server appliance for a specific task in SL, and the first development versions were located in your run-of-the-mill plywood boxes. As the project become more advanced, we figured it needs to be in some sort 19" server rack. I had a texture for this ready, and in fact it started to look more professional. But at the same time boring, and too possible-in-real-life. A further complication came as the device is used to rez objects, and due to technical limitations, the objects get rezzed at its center before being moved to their location.

Thinking a bit outside the box, and a bit not-possible-in-real-life, we gathered a hollow cube would be best for this. So I started to build a hollow box, and soon it became obvious this will be a "microwave on steroids". I used a technique called "baking textures" in my RL-3D application, and developed a very sci-fi like cube. Some subtle glow effects, and some equally subtle particle effects by Rika, and voilá - a very SL like version of a cube.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This actually looks quite cool. I have no clue what it is supposed to do, but I just might consider getting one just for decorative purposes.

Anonymous said...

I love this cube, no matter how crazy that sounds. While look of the object is not important for the actual script inside to do it's job, having it look good as it is is a great thing. It's not just making things look "professional", it's giving our world that fine touch of imagination exercised on all planes.

huh, I am rewieving a box. *slaps her forehead* And it's not even slang meaning of the "box" *runs away*

Anonymous said...

That's a very cool cube, Peter. Shows how something as simple and 'normal' as a cube could be transformed with a little creativity, imagination and skill! I never thought a cube could look that good ;)