Class is back in session! Second Life University returns with a special new episode featuring AxlTruth (Mesh Monster). We are excited to welcome him to the series!
In
this episode, Axl walks through one of the most important updates for
content creators, .glTF and PBR materials. With .glTF, you can import a
full PBR asset, including mesh, textures, materials, and rigs, using a
single streamlined workflow.
Axl starts with a quick breakdown of
what .glTF is, why it matters, and how it works alongside physically
based rendering (PBR). He then demonstrates how to set up materials in
Blender, export a .glTF file, and bring it into Second Life. You will
also see how to import materials, manage the level of detail and land
impact, and apply textures efficiently. The video wraps with the same
workflow using Substance Painter, making it easy to bring fully textured
assets into Second Life with consistent results.
* * * * *
Topics covered in this video:
00:00 Introduction to .glTF and PBR in Second Life
00:59 What is .glTF?
01:37 Understanding PBR materials
02:06 PBR texture maps explained
02:52 .glTF expanded vs. packed (binary .glb)
03:17 Preparing Blender for .glTF
03:47 Setting up materials in Blender
04:19 Base color and normal maps
04:49 Metallic and roughness maps
05:11 Ambient occlusion and glTF material output
05:33 Emissive materials
06:01 Transparency and alternate material setups
06:27 Using combined ORM maps
07:15 Exporting .glTF from Blender
07:52 Importing .glTF into Second Life
08:09 Setting level of detail and land impact
08:35 Importing .glTF materials
09:10 Exporting from Substance Painter
09:52 Importing Substance Painter assets into Second Life
10:34 To dive deeper into using PBR Materials, watch our other Second Life University Video: • Second Life University - How to Create PBR...
Remember the Second Life University Youtube videos? From 2022 to 2023, Linden Lab would occasionally release an instructional video about some aspect of this virtual world such as the controls of the viewer. They would continue until August 2023, then stop.
Class is back in session! Second Life University returns with a special new episode featuring Boston Blaisdale! We are excited to welcome him back to the series as we give it a fresh restart.
In this new video, Boston walks you through the Avatar Welcome Pack, showing you how to build a fully customized, high-quality avatar at no cost, then introduces Project Zero, a new streaming viewer that lets you log in from your web browser with no download required.
Several topics around the Welcome Pack are discussed by narrator Boston Blaisdale, such as where to find it and mixing & matching items. Several topics around Project Zero are also gone over, such as managing what one is wearing.
The Lab promises more videos over the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, Linden Lab announced on their blog "Second Life University." These will be livestreams viewable on Youtube that can be seen at any time later made with the purpose of instructing residents about Second Life.
Welcome to Second Life University, a new project that aims to teach people all about the vast virtual world of Second Life!
There are many videos and tutorials out there for Second Life already, including Second Life Tutorials on our YouTube channel as well as those created by our Residents,
— and we’d like to consolidate information in one place as well as
ensure that all content is up-to-date. We will begin with topics that
are particularly relevant for newer users. This is a huge project that
will take time, and we’re excited to work on and collaborate with the
community to make it easily understandable and fun.
The first of the livestreams, "Viewer Basics," was yesterday, Thursday April 7 at 2PM SL time, hosted by Strawberry Linden. A better title might be "Official Viewer Basics" as the Firestorm viewer, which is more popular, isn't necessarily the same. It handles things like customizing the toolbar, editing one's profile, using the Destination Guide to explore places, and more.
In the forum thread on the topic, there seemed to be qualified overall approval, one saying, "Depending on the quality of the courses for 'advanced learning and
building,' I think this could be a good thing. In fact, I think it's a
LONG-overdue thing. LL should always have taken responsibility for
teaching SL at all levels with this sort of program. So,
congratulations LL! But I think this announcement would have been MUCH more graceful had it
acknowledged the resident-run universities that stepped into the vast
knowledge gap over time, and still offer inworld in-person interactive
classes where actual humans answer actual questions." She would bring up two places to learn inworld, Builders Brewery, and Caledon Oxbridge University.
There will be more such videos in the future, some may be hosted by different Lindens.
• Second Life University - How to Create PBR... 
