Accessories 2


Building an Accessory in the Previewer



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4. Building an Accessory in the Previewer


The Previewer is IMVU’s proprietary development tool. It allows you to put together all of your exported assets, save them into a product and submit that product to the IMVU catalog. The Previewer is pretty powerful; allowing new Developers to do the simple stuff like just changing a texture while also allowing professional Developers to put together a wide range of products.

4.a Asset signing?


'Asset signing' means that every product in the catalog is automatically digitally signed by its Developer author. The Previewer is aware of who is the author of every Product. The first time you use the Previewer, you will have to enter a login, for an account to be "associated" with the Previewer install. You can also add other accounts, for those of you with multiple dev accounts (see section 0.c).

Fig 3.1 – The Previewer’s Product Info panel


4.b How does ‘asset signing’ work?


When someone attempts to edit a product, the Previewer will determine if the product's author is one of the Developer accounts associated with it. You will not be allowed to edit a product which is not your own. Consequently, no one else will be able to ‘edit’ your products – they will only be able to ‘derive’ from them.

Asset signing gives IMVU a theft free Developing environment where you should feel safe placing your hard work into the IMVU catalog.


4.c What if I have multiple Developer accounts?


If you have multiple Developer accounts, have no fear. You can add Developer accounts to one Preview install. Just click Help/Manage Developer Accounts to be brought to the ‘Manage Developer Accounts’ dialog. Within this dialog, you can add and remove Developers. You can also set which Developer is the default or active Developer.

4.d Load Existing CFL


Now that you have all of your files exported, fire up the previewer. The easiest way to make a new Accessory in the previewer is to ‘Create a Derived Product’. Go to the webpage of the product you wish to derive from and click on the ‘Derive from product’ link.

Example primary Accessory products are:

Female: product683

Male: product669

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of surfing the web and know the product number of the Accessory product you wish to derive from, just choose ‘Create a Derived Product’ in the file menu of the Previewer and type in the product number when prompted. If you do not have the product files you need, the Previewer will ask if you want to download them. Click the download button and then click the close button.

NOTE: if a product has been set to non-derivable by the original Developer, you will not see the ‘derive’ link on that product’s page nor will you be able to create a derived product straight from the Previewer.


4.e Advanced Mode


The IMVU previewer comes prepared for the painter to change textures and the novice modeler to play with geometry. In order to create an Accessory you must enter the dark and forbidding world of.....ADVANCED MODE. Muahahahahahaaa.

Under Edit in the main menu, check Advanced Mode. This will actually set the previewer default to Advanced Mode so there is less hassle. You will notice several new tabs appear within the previewer window. You will use most of these before we are through.



Fig 3.2 – Choosing Advanced Mode



4.c Auto-refresh


Something you might want to do at some point in the Accessory making process is turn off Auto-Refresh. With Auto-Refresh on, the previewer applies every change you make when you make it. Sometimes a single change can cause a pause of about 10 to 20 seconds while your change loads. You are going to be making so many changes that a 10 to 20 second wait between them will quickly become tiresome. When you are ready to see any of the changes you have made, just hit any available Apply Changes button.

4.d Use OpenGL Rendering option


IMVU’s default rendering software is provided by Pixomatic, or Pixo. Pixo is a software renderer while most other renderers use hardware acceleration. Because of this, the Pixo renderer is able to run on a larger base of machines and is likely to cause fewer headaches upon first installation of IMVU. However, because Pixo omits some of the more costly rendering calculations (filtering, anti-aliasing, and alpha textures just to name a few) it does not usually look as good as OpenGL.

IMVU users have the choice of running IMVU in either Pixo or OpenGL. This support is also available in the Previewer. If you want to see your Accessory looking fantastic, choose “Use OpenGL Rendering” from the edit menu. However, be advised that you should always check to see what your Accessory looks like in Pixo in case there are any problem areas. I, for one, always build in Pixo because I know that if I get things looking good in Pixo, they will just look better in GL.



4.e Edit Other tab – Accessory specific options



Edit Other Panel


Our first stop is the Edit Other tab (the yellow one). In this tab, you will find several key bits of Accessory functionality. First up is the BodyPatternProductID. Change this number to the avatar product number of your desire and then apply changes. The IMVU Body Pattern Products are named as follows:

Female: product80

Male: product191
Now is the time to Save As a different file name. The file name can be anything at this point as the name is automatically converted to a product number upon upload.
The second thing you will notice is the AttachmentNode box. Change this name to whatever avatar skeleton bone name you wish your accessory to attach to. For example, in the case of Glasses, type in “Head”. Remember to type in the EXACT name of the avatar skeleton bone you wish your Accessory to attach to.
4.e.1 Avoid attaching to the Avatar’s Pelvis node
In the Previewer, you will tell your accessory skeleton which bone on the avatar it should attach to. Although you are allowed to attach your Accessory skeleton to any bone on the avatar, it is recommended that you do not attach it to the Pelvis node. You may be unhappy with the result.
4.e.2 Accessory limit per bone
You may wear multiple Accessories at one time but may only wear three Accessories per attachment node at one time. This means that you could be wearing your sunglasses, halo and antennae on your head AND be wearing your shoulder pads, wings and sheathed sword on Spine4 at the same time. Pretty cool.



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