World Creation Tools

Content Creation Tools

• Bryce 3D

  http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/bryce
  Bryce 3D is excellent for terrain maps, background renderings and many more "scene" related work. It has an easy to use interface but is very limited in export options. http://www.virtualwhite.com/?p=38 is a great tutorial for using Bryce with OpenSim & SL.

• Terragen

  http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen
  Terragen is great for creating terrain maps. There is a free and commercial version. Great tutorial here http://uskala.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/using-opensim-as-a-second-life-terraforming-sandbox/

• Second Inventory

  http://www.secondinventory.com
  Second Inventory is used to transfer Full Permission items from the Second Life grid to OpenSim but not the other way. I can also be used to move inventory from OpenSim grid to OpenSim grid but not without some quirks to learn. Use with caution.
  

• GIMP Image Editor

  http://www.gimp.org
  The GIMP is an excellent image editor that is completely free and opens source. A great no budget Photoshop stand in.

• 3dvia MS Virtual Earth

  http://www.3dvia.com/
  3DVIA is the only place online to SEARCH, UPLOAD & SHARE your ideas in 3D. Create an account today to download the latest 3D content from the worlds top modelers and share your own creations.

• Blender

  http://www.blender.org
  Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

• Poser 7

  http://my.smithmicro.com
  Harness the power of 3D Figures with Poser 6. Easily design, pose and animate your dream figure in 3D. Poser’s unique interface unlocks the secrets of working with the human form. Personalize your creations with strand-based hair, dynamic cloth and facial photo-mapping. Render stylized content for any project, including cartoons, Flash movies and photorealistic imagery.

• Art of Illusion

  http://www.artofillusion.org
  Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modelling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java Virtual Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.

• Plopp

  http://www.secondplopp.com
  PloppSL allows you to create intriguing Sculpted Prims for SecondLife™ easily. Both texture and model are created in one step. Simply paint the front and back side of your model and it will be converted to a Sculpted Prim by PloppSL.These sculpties work in OpenSim as well.
  

• Wings3D

  http://www.wings3d.com
  Wings 3D is a subdivision modeler inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware. You can make shapes for SL and OpenSim not possible with inworld tools.

• POV-Ray

  http://povray.org
  The Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a high-quality, totally free tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics. It is available in official versions for Windows, Mac OS/Mac OS X and i86 Linux. The source code is available for those wanting to do their own ports.

• Prim Composer

  http://liferain.com/downloads/primcomposer
  Prim Composer is a complete offline building environment for Second Life and OpenSim. Build in 3ds Max; Deploy to either Second Life or OpenSim.

• trueSpace 7.6

  http://www.caligari.com
  trueSpace7.6 is a fully-featured 3D authoring package that will let you model, texture, light, animate and render 3D content. As well as traditional images and movies, you can also make 3D content for online shared spaces, and for Virtual Earth.
  
  Microsoft recently acquired Caligari & released version 7.6 of this previously expensive software for free! No trial, no limited features, its free!
  

• SketchUp

  http://sketchup.google.com
  Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like.You can convert most simple models to SL or OpenSim formats indirectly using the .obj format.
  

• MilkShape 3D

  http://www.milkshape3d.com
  MilkShape 3D is a low-polygon modeler, which was initially designed for Half-Life. By and by many file formats and features have been added. MilkShape 3D has all basic operations like select, move, rotate, scale, extrude, turn edge, subdivide, just to mention a few.
  
  MilkShape 3D also allows low-level editing with the vertex and face tool. Standard and extended primitives like spheres, boxes, cylinders, etc. are available too.

• L3DT

  http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT
  L3DT is a Windows application for generating artificial terrain maps and textures. It is primarily intended for game developers seeking to make large high-quality 3D worlds (eg. for RTSs, MMORPGs, etc), as well as for digital artists who have designs for their landscapes and need a program to build them.
  

• TerrainSculptor

  http://spinmass.blogspot.com/2007/08/terrain-sculptor-maps-sims-and-creates.html
  Terrain Sculptor is a tool which maps the terrain of Second Life sims and generates sculpty textures for them. It's written in C# and runs on .NET 2.0. The tool uses the libsecondlife client to log in an avatar to retrieve the terrain data.
  
  It also downloads the world-map image of a sim so that it can be used as a texture. A "decal" version can be generated which includes a border to align better with the sculpty. The elevation data can be saved seperately as a binary dump or as a grayscale image. The process typically takes only a few seconds after logging in and the files are saved automatically.
  
  Only use this and all other LibSL tools to get items YOU OWN 100%. Do not take items from SL or anywhere else with this tool and import to our grid or your account may be suspended.

• ESRI ArcView

  http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcview
  ArcView is geographic information system (GIS) software for visualizing, managing, creating, and analyzing geographic data. Using ArcView, you can understand the geographic context of your data, allowing you to see relationships and identify patterns in new ways.Tools from ESRI can both make static terrain maps for 3D GIS applications in Second Life and OpenSim and can be used to feed data to and take data from these 3D environments.
  

• AutoQ3D

  http://autoq3d.ecuadra.com
  AutoQ3D is an award-winnning 3D Design and Draft tool which enables you to draw 3D models easily. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and clean design, have made AutoQ3D one of the most popular 3D Design and Draft tool software available. The solution has a high degree of AutoCAD command set compatible and a great set of tools. AutoQ3D is a simple 3D CAD system for everyone.

• Scratch

  http://web.mit.edu/~eric_r/Public/S4SL
  S4SL is a new easy way to add behaviors and interactivity to your objects in Second Life. S4SL is based on Scratch, a graphical programming language that lets you construct programs by snapping together graphical blocks.
  
  With S4SL, you can snap together a few blocks to make your SL pet interact with you using chat commands, make your sculpture change size and color, or make your house respond to your presence.

• LSL Editor

  http://www.lsleditor.org
  LSL-Editor  is a standalone LSL (Secondlife) script editor and run-time environment for Windows and compiles and executes LSL scripts. No SecondLife viewer is needed nor connection to the SecondLife grid.

• SimTeach Scripts

  http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Scripts
  Scripts open a new avenue for asynchronous communication between learners in virtual environments. Scripts advance MUVE's beyond the realm of decorative chat rooms to scaffold more thoughful student interaction with the virtual environment. Scripts also make manipulable simulations possible.

• GreenEggs AutoScript

  http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript
  This site will help you create scripts for your Second Life objects. These scripts allow you to add interactive elements to your builds without knowing how to code. All of the script are released under a creative commons license, which means that you can use them freely! This site tries to map the way you think into the way the LSL interpreter thinks.
  
  First choose what you want your object to do, then when you would like it to happen. You may be prompted to add some additional information. For example, you can create a script that will give a landmark to an avatar when they click on an object, prompt them to load your web site when they say "web" in chat, or simply welcome them to your land.

• Microsoft Robotics Studio

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics
  Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio 2008 (RDS) is a Windows-based environment for hobbyist, academic and commercial developers to create robotics applications for a variety of hardware platforms. RDS includes a lightweight REST-style, service-oriented runtime, a set of visual authoring and simulation tools, as well as tutorials and sample code to help get started. End-to-End Development Platform RDS enables developers to create services for a wide-variety of robot hardware.
  
  Non-programmers can create robot applications using a visual programming environment. Microsoft Visual Programming Language enables anyone to create and debug robotics programs very easily. Just drag and drop blocks that represent services, and connect them. It is also possible to take a collection of connected blocks and reuse them as a single block elsewhere in the program.
  
  This program can be used with REST services to talk with OpenSim and Second Life grids for the purposes of automation and control along with data visualization.

• Visual C# Express 2008

  http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/
  Build and compile OpenSim. Edit the code to do as you like. Create rich virtual world supporting applications. Script inworld using C# instead of LSL. A must have application.

• AgilentVEE

  http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-34463.0.00&lc=eng&cc=US
  Used by G2 to capture data from high end assembly and test and automation equipment. This program can pull data from just about any piece of machinery with an I/O port. We use this to capture and feed data to our virtual world platforms for data visualization and analysis as well as automation and control. G2 has automated entire factories with this software from CNC milling to automated assembly tolerances to final electrical and environmental test yields and analysis.

• SQL Server 2008 Express

  http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql
  Power your OpenSim world with this free database from Microsoft. G2 uses this database as the foundation for all our grids and it has performed flawlessly.

• Microsoft Visual C++ Express

  http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc
  If you are looking to mod the open source Second Life client this is the free tool for you. Download, edit and compile yourself a brand new viewer!

• ArcGIS Explorer

  http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer
  ArcGIS is one way to show your Arc maps online or integrate with other visualization apps like OpenSim.