My favourite SciFi ray gun is Dr. Grordbort’s Righteous Bison Ray Gun, at one time sold as “replicas” by Weta Workshop. Seen here in use by Art3mis in a “Readyverse” virtual world experience based on the characters from the film Ready Player One.
Trying out the MeshyAI 2D Image to 3D Model Tool (see this blog post) gave me an opportunity to create a personal use 3D model of a derivative of Dr. Grordbort’s Righteous Bison Ray Gun that could be imported to Second Life and OpenSim to use as a weapon.
A reasonably high resolution isolated image of the ray gun was used and the model produced was saved in .blend format, and from there exported to Collada (.dae) to import to Second Life. [Tip: if the mesh calculate fees and check indicates there are “degenerate triangles” you should either use Analyse/Simplify or just not choose a physics model at all.] A couple of pressure gauges, each modelled as a simple textured cylinder, were linked for added realism. A little scripting, pistol shoot pose, some sound effects and a physical “bullet” projectile mechanism completed the weapon.
Note that by default the texture produced is a simple diffuse texture. A little shininess (Low) and ethereal glow (0.1) was added to that within in Second Life. It is possible to produce PBR textures (albedo, normal, roughness, metallic and height) by using the “Stylize” button.
Creation Process
https://www.meshy.ai/3d-models/Ray-Gun-Hires-v2-01952d13-a7f7-75be-8190-8ed0f10f7c0a
Ray Gun in Second Life
Source Images (thanks to Weta Workshop and Digiten)
More Information on Dr. Grordbort’s Righteous Bison Ray Gun
- Weta Workshop: https://www.wetanz.com/us/the-righteous-bison
- Review – http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_101310b.htm
- Replica (Not Weta Workshop)- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403957347727
- Museum – https://www.thewetamuseum.com/drgrordborts/rayguns/drgprop_bison.html