Answered People who have posted scenes on the site - What mistakes did you make?

[Deleted member 4032]

Hello I curious what mistakes people who have made scenes for the site have make when they posted the first scene. Anything bugs, problems etc and how did you solve them?

I am making a first scene and want to make sure it is good but hard to find info on process. Making pakcage is something I have not done before and there are many option. is there a guide?

Thank you for the time. I include picture from my scene. It uses many free packages from this site and includes animation. I want to make sure it works for anyone who download.

 

[MacGruber]

List of random things:

• When building the package, make sure everything needed is actually either included or referenced via another VAR. Also make sure you don't have unintended dependencies.
• Make sure to test your package after building using a second "clean" VaM install somewhere else that just has the vanilla stuff and dependencies you intend to need.
• Make sure to have screenshots and a description of your scene when uploading.
• Unless you make paid stuff, upload here to the Hub. That allows VaM to auto-download your package. If your dependencies are also on the Hub, these can be automatically downloaded as well.
• When uploading a resource here to the Hub, provide an "icon" image for your resources:
  • I recommend 512x512 size. Some people upload images that are too small, resulting in a pixelated image.
  • Consider that your user avatar image is placed on the lower right corner as well.
  • My SuperShot plugin can do square screenshots in 512x512 size directly from VaM.
• Make sure to choose the correct license for your package. Consider releasing as EarlyAccess instead of Paid. E.g. paid clothing prevents scene creators from using it in their scene, everyone would have to buy all your paid dependencies, which is unlikely to happen.
• Make sure to credit other creator's stuff you used (automatic when sticking to using VAR dependencies)
• Most content licenses for content imported from various sites like Daz, Unity and other 3D stores do not allow to be released in the formats needed for VaM. This includes free stuff. Sketchfab is the only exception, as content is released under compatible CC licences.
• When making assets (clothing, plugins, etc.) and you would like to provide a demo scene, put the demo scene in a separate VAR package. That way users of your asset only need the actual asset and not 3 million dependencies you needed for the demo. Also avoids clutter in the scene browser for end-users.
• When using plugin dependencies, always refer to the exact version, never to ".latest". As there are no major/minor versions in VaM, plugins have a high likelihood of not being backwards compatible after updates.

 

[Deleted member 4032]

Thank you MacGruber. I just upload my first addon and checked many of things you say in the list. I need to make proper icon and image.

 

[Hayduke]

List of random things:

• When building the package, make sure everything needed is actually either included or referenced via another VAR. Also make sure you don't have unintended dependencies.
• Make sure to test your package after building using a second "clean" VaM install somewhere else that just has the vanilla stuff and dependencies you intend to need.
• Make sure to have screenshots and a description of your scene when uploading.
• Unless you make paid stuff, upload here to the Hub. That allows VaM to auto-download your package. If your dependencies are also on the Hub, these can be automatically downloaded as well.
• When uploading a resource here to the Hub, provide an "icon" image for your resources:
  • I recommend 512x512 size. Some people upload images that are too small, resulting in a pixelated image.
  • Consider that your user avatar image is placed on the lower right corner as well.
  • My SuperShot plugin can do square screenshots in 512x512 size directly from VaM.
• Make sure to choose the correct license for your package. Consider releasing as EarlyAccess instead of Paid. E.g. paid clothing prevents scene creators from using it in their scene, everyone would have to buy all your paid dependencies, which is unlikely to happen.
• Make sure to credit other creator's stuff you used (automatic when sticking to using VAR dependencies)
• Most content licenses for content imported from various sites like Daz, Unity and other 3D stores do not allow to be released in the formats needed for VaM. This includes free stuff. Sketchfab is the only exception, as content is released under compatible CC licences.
• When making assets (clothing, plugins, etc.) and you would like to provide a demo scene, put the demo scene in a separate VAR package. That way users of your asset only need the actual asset and not 3 million dependencies you needed for the demo. Also avoids clutter in the scene browser for end-users.
• When using plugin dependencies, always refer to the exact version, never to ".latest". As there are no major/minor versions in VaM, plugins have a high likelihood of not being backwards compatible after updates.

I am just getting into uploading content and I can't seem to avoid the "make sure you don't have unintended dependencies." mistake... One of the dependencies that always shows up even though I'm not using it is your "Life v11" plugin. I also have several scenes by SPLINE that show up in the license reference list. I'm using any content from any of these and yet they still show up as a dependency when I post the scene to the HUB. Any suggestion how I can fix this issue so I can start sharing content?

The image attached is of a look that I created from Vanilla and placed in the default "three light" scene.

 

[MacGruber]

I would recommend to open the JSON file of your scene with Notepad++ (or any other simple text editor) and search for the package names, to see what is happening.

Note that if you started from a VaM default scene, some of those ARE already using Life. Although to my knowledge Life v10, which is shipped with VaM by default, not the newer v11. Most likely your character is referring to some morphs, which can happen if the plugin was not properly removed from the scene somewhere in the process. To rule that out, you can add the Life plugin to the character and remove it again, then save the scene, that way it should clean up after itself.

Another reason for the Life plugin to be referenced might of course be that you use some VAR package that contains a demo scene which uses Life. Then that VAR package would have a dependency to Life, although you are not actually using it. (That's what my second to last suggestion on above list is trying to avoid)

 

[Hayduke]

Thank you. I will try your suggestions and see if I can get this worked out. I have been lurking in the background since the first version of VAM was released (boy has it come a long way!) and have been building my own scenes and content entire time but never worried about dependency because I wasn’t trying to publish.

Now that I am trying to build shareable content I have one wish that I may have to bug Meshed to implement. A simple setting checkbox that would generate a pop up when adding non distributable PC to a scene. It’s obvious that the mechanism is already there to look for the flag but by the time it kicks in (during package assembly) it’s too late to fix the scene as everything is stacked like a house of cards.

It would be nice if I could choose what level of content I’m willing to use on the front end of the scene and filter my available content as I’m working rather than trying to weed out the problems and repair any damage after the fact.

Thanks again for you help today and your contributions, the Life plugin is a one of the few major leaps this platform has had and it made a tremendous difference to the experience!