Clothes for Mesh AVs

[Dargo Sin]

I understand the challenges of creating clothing for mesh avatars. However, I believe the rewards are well worth the effort if more designers would at least offer custom orders if not a regular line of products. Especially since the future of AV's is mesh in the first place so it makes since to get in the routine of experimenting with creating clothing for those types of AVs.

I have tried a lot of different mesh AV's for men, but the best one I like so far is the one by Tellaq. The problem is in finding clothes for that shape that don't rely on Linden clothing as a base. The outfits must be either prim, liquid mesh, a large enough sculpted item, or a combination of all three.

It becomes even more difficult to find clothing that fits that criteria for fantasy theme RP sims which is my main need currently. More specifically I am looking for clothing that fits 12th century Arabia. 

Maybe I am just not looking in the right place for stores or creators that make the types of clothes I need, so I appreciate any input. Thanks in advance

[Sassy Romano]

Meh, i'm not sure i'd agree that the future of AV's is mesh.  Not in the present state of affairs anyway and you do realise that the existing SL avatar is mesh (well actually so is all content in SL for that matter but that's an aside)?

From the creators perspective, custom orders aren't usually worth the time or more likely, when the actual price is quoted for a custom fit, the customer wonders who it is that the product for L$250 for general fit is now several thousand L$.  It's TIME... it takes time to do this and unless someone cares to give away their time for nothing then it won't fly.  I offer custom fit on one of my items and the take up rate is 0.25% of whom that wanted it custom fitted.  Plus, we don't need to experiment with creating clothing for those avatars we just need the 3d model in a format that can be imported into whatever creation tool is used.

That's where the fun begins, some creators of those avatars are only interested in creating their own line of clothing and thus you are locked in, they don't make their model available for others to create clothing for it so you're locked in, by your own choice.  Not all are like that but that's one of the challenges.

Next up, the vast majority of people still use the SL avatar, all the shape sliders work and the facial morphs work.  Mesh avatars don't do that, even fitted mesh just gives an inflate/deflate option so *some* of the shape sliders will influence the shape but not in the same way and the face and hand morphs don't work at all.  As a result, creators can create for the bulk of the customer base ONCE.  Not have to then spend time futher customising mesh for a minority of the potential customer base and certainly not for every mesh replacement avatar that pops up, it's just not worth the effort.

I point the finger firmly in the direction of LL for utterly failing to understand the customer base and how mesh would be used.  They thought it would be used just for buildings and rezzed objects and as such there's absolutely no correlation between mesh avatars, clothing and the underlying shape system.  Until that's coherent, I rather suspect that it will remain the fragmented market that exists at the moment and creators will choose one or two mesh avatars to support IF they can get the 3d model in the first place.

Apparently what customers say they need is often wrong according to the new CEO.

My slant on that is that "LL often delivers what the customer didn't need and fails to provide what it did!"

[Dargo Sin]

I never asked for a condescending post attempting to educate me in the obvious state of the game and it's community. With experience in game design and a former fulltime builder with a business in SL, I am well aware of what is involved with the pricing and effort involved. Not to mention having been in SL since the beginning, I am also aware of how slow mesh avatars are to catch on.

My post was made for asking for suggestions on existing designers that make mesh AV clothing or those who accept custome oders. The other part of my post being about the future of SL should be blatantly obvious to anyone who has played any number of MMOs. This is because any game that does not stay current with the level of graphics technology and features it allows to be added always ends up being shut down. Even F2P games fade away after a long enough time. 

Currently, MMOs are branching out into sandbox style gaming and with the level of graphics they provide, it will number the days of SL. And yes, I am well aware default AVs are mesh as well, it is only that it is common knowledge they are not referred to as such, the new full mesh AVs are. 

TL;DR: All in all, let's stick to what my thread was created for in the first place, thanks.

[Bobbie Faulds]

With clothing for mesh avis, it's about appliers Ask those that wear mesh breasts, hands, feet, phat azz etc. The maker has to make a designer's model available to clothes makers and there has to be a demand for it. If there isn't, the time investment isn't worth it.

Case in point, the breasts. Prim and sculpt breast have been around in SL for a long time. They had to be manually matched to skin colors and clothing was difficult to find. Then came the Lola Tangos, the first mesh on the scene. It didn't take long before they became the standard. The demand was there as was the technology to make creation of appliers for them, be it skin or clothing, profitable for creators. Slink came along with hands and feet to replace the SL default. The purchase of them exploded and skin makers made appliers available. Same for the phat azz, cute azz and ghetto booty. Wowmeh female zaftig body is now out and skin appliers are becoming available.

That being said, males aren't as willing to spend money on more than one skin. Forget about feet and hands, though Slink does have them available for men and skin designers are slow to provide the appliers for them. I'm not even sure if there are any shoes to fit the Slink male feet other than the flip flops Slink has in the store.

It's a case of supply and demand. Females will spend money and designers are happy to help. Most men will wear the same skin and clothes and rarely change to something else. Designers will go where the money is.