History of the Development of Max

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

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History of the Development of Max

2023-10-16 22:01:38

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

How things came to pass from the Ruth 2.0 test release to the development of Max; CW: long (full-blown blog post shared/"quote-tweeted" in its entirety)

Artikel ansehen

If you've always been curious about the #MeshBody development in #OpenSim from Ruth 2.0 to the new #Max project, @Ai Austin has you covered in his blog:

Austin Tate's Blog schrieb den folgenden Beitrag Sun, 15 Oct 2023 11:59:49 +0200

History of the Development of Max

[summary]History of the project, current Ruth2 and Roth2 avatars, testing models,
managing artists and the community social media channels. Further
resources for the Max, Maxine and Maxwell mesh avatars is available at
https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2023/09/13/max-new-open-source-mesh-avatar/
Timeline 2017 – Shin Ingen creates original … Continue reading →

https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2023/10/15/history-of-the-development-of-max/[/summary] History of the Development of Max

History of the project, current Ruth2 and Roth2 avatars, testing models, managing artists and the community social media channels.

Further resources for the Max, Maxine and Maxwell mesh avatars is available at https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2023/09/13/max-new-open-source-mesh-avatar/

Timeline

2017 – Shin Ingen creates original Ruth 2.0 and Roth 2.0 avatar meshes in ZBrush. https://github.com/ingen-lab/Ruth
2019 – Fred Beckhusen creates GitHub RuthAndRoth organization to improve open source community management of the project with Ada Radius, Ai Austin and Serie Sumei as administrators. https://github.com/RuthAndRoth
2019 – Ruth 2.0 RC#2, Ruth 2.0 RC#3 and Roth 2.0 RC#1 resources archived as branches in https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Ruth
2019 – Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 released by GitHub RuthAndRoth organization into OpenSim and Second Life. https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Ruth2 and https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Roth2
2022 – Ada Radius, Kayaker Magic and Tom Ernst explore details of viewer data for avatars as basis for Max. https://github.com/New-Media-Arts-New-Viewer-Avatar
2023 – Max, Maxine and Maxwell project underway. https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Max

Max, Maxine and Maxwell

The new underlying avatar created directly in Blender by Ada Radius is called “Max” which can be morphed into female and male variants called “Maxine” and “Maxwell”. The avatar armature is refined via research on the character folder in SecondLife/OpenSim viewers https://github.com/New-Media-Arts-New-Viewer-Avatar.

RuthAndRoth GitHub Organization

In 2019 Fred Beckhusen created the GitHub RuthAndRoth “organization” as a shared community umbrella to improve open source community management of the project. Ada Radius, Ai Austin and Serie Sumei continue to act administrators.

Github Organization: https://github.com/RuthandRoth

There are several code and resource repositories available:

Ruth – the original Ruth 2.0 RC#2 and RC#3 and Roth 2.0 RC#1 resources with Git archival branches for the releases.
Ruth2 – Female mesh avatar – Ruth2 v4.
Roth2 – male mesh avatar – Roth2 v2.
Extras – attachments and resources of interest for open source avatars.
Skins – open source skins.
Reference – archive of Second Life and OpenSimulator avatar-related reference files.
Max – repository for the new Max, Maxine and Maxwell avatars.

A simple management approach to code and resource contributions and preparation of releases is taken at present. There is a “Contrib/ which any creator may establish and into which they can commit their own contributions. Hence they can make them available to the community for testing and feedback.

Repository issues can be raised for discussion and a repository “Wiki” allows for useful documentation. Social media channels, in particular via Discord, are available to discuss developments, issues, testing, etc.

An OpenSim community region on OSGrid called “RuthAndRoth” is available to allow any user on any grid that implements the “Hypergrid” protocol to get in-world prepared resources and boxed releases. There is a Second Life marketplace also called “RuthAndRoth” for boxed release items. An avatar “RuthAndRoth Resident” exists in both OpenSim (on OSGrid) and Second Life to “own” the canonical version of each released item.

Resources and Social Media

Note not all of the resource below by any means will contain Max, Maxine or Maxwell relevant content at this early stage, but the links are here for possible future use.

GitHub:
- Github Organization: https://github.com/RuthandRoth
- Github Repository: https://github.com/RuthandRoth/Max
Social Forums and Discussion:
- Discord Discussion Forum: RuthAndRoth [See channel #max][Invite]
- MeWe Community Page: https://mewe.com/group/5bbe0189a5f4e57c73569fb9
Second Life:
- Second Life Group: “RuthAndRoth” (free to join) – Group name place holder.
- Second Life Group: “Ruth and Roth Community” (free to join) – Most active and recommended for use.
- Second Life Marketplace Store: RuthAndRoth
OpenSim:
- OSGrid Inworld Location: hop://hg.osgrid.org:80/RuthAndRoth/134/124/26
- OSGrid OpenSim Group: “RuthAndRoth” (free to join)
- OpenSim Kitely Market: RuthAndRoth Store (products not currently listed)

Contributors to Max

Ada Radius
Ai Austin
Curious Creator
Kayaker Magic
Linden Lab
Serie Sumei
Sundance Haiku
Tom Ernst aka Owl Eyes

Contributors to Ruth2 v4 and Roth2 v2 Development

Ada Radius
Ai Austin
Chimera Firecaster
Duck Girl
Elenia Boucher
Fred Beckhusen
Fritigern Gothly
Joe Builder
Kayaker Magic
Lelani Carver
Leona Morro
Linden Lab
Mike Dickson
Noxluna Nightfire
Sean Heavy
Serie Sumei
Shin Ingen
Sundance Haiku

Previous Core Contributions to Ruth2 and Roth2 Avatars

Original Ruth 2.0 RC#1, RC#2 and RC#3 and Roth 2.0 RC#1 meshes modelled in Zbrush by Shin Ingen with rigging and vertex weight maps by Ada Radius.
GitHub Repository management and testing by Fred Beckhusen, Outworldz LLC (Ferd Frederix), Ai Austin and Serie Sumei.
Revised mesh, rigging and vertex weight maps by Ada Radius.
Improvements to feet meshes by Sundance Haiku and Curious Creator.
Fingernails and toenails by Sundance Haiku.
UV map is CC-BY Linden Lab.
HUD mesh, textures and scripts by Serie Sumei using modifications to original scripts by Shin Ingen and nail enhancements by Sundance Haiku.