Can't fix avatar issue

[Jez2k Republic]

Something has been bugging me for a few years. Upon close examination, the back of my avatar's neck appears to be jutting out slightly with an angle, the shoulder blades too, and the heels are quite angular also. In some sitting poses, the top of the stomach juts out. And this may or may not be related, but when I edit my shape and change the pectorals, the minimum setting seems ok, but when I slide it to the right, the pecs collapse in on themselves and it looks ridiculous. I've tried various shapes and skins to see if any of them could fix my problem, but no luck whatsoever. The character test didn't fix it either.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

That is the fault of the poorly designed avatar mesh. Don't expect it to be "fixed". That would break too much content.

[MizzKittenzz]

I'm guessing this is all happening on the official SL viewer? Maybe you could try another viewer like Firestorm, see if that helps. 

[Ren Toxx]

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MizzKittenzz wrote:

I'm guessing this is all happening on the official SL viewer? Maybe you could try another viewer like Firestorm, see if that helps. 

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Quite certainly not; all viewers (that I know of, including Firestorm) use the same basic avatar and render it essentially the same; in fact they rather have to, due go a certain “shared experience” thing that Linden Labs require of all TPVs.

At most, the OP might try checking his viewer's avatar LOD setting, just in case it's being rendered at an unnecessarily low quality that would exacerbate the problem.

Other than that, the only known solution is to use rigged mesh body replacements, one of whose main advantages is precisely that: they have higher / better thought out polygon counts.

[MizzFuzzyMoran]

 if it is a diffrent veiwer it will do diffrent things wont it

if it didnt do diffrent things what woud be the point of a diffrent veiwer

 

[MizzKittenzz]

I've actually found that firestorm renders avis better, like if the feet or hands are messed up, on firestorm it's fixed..,

[Ren Toxx]

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MizzFuzzyMoran wrote:

 if it is a diffrent veiwer it will do diffrent things wont it

if it didnt do diffrent things what woud be the point of a diffrent veiwer

 

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Rendering is only one of many things a viewer do, and though there are indeed some differences in how each of them do it, in my experience most of the times big apparent differences are just due to different viewers having different default settings: make them the same across all of them, and most of those differences will disappear. This is so not only because of the “shared experience” thing I mentioned, but also because all of them are inevitably linked to Linden Labs' original rendering code, always needing to use it as base for their own, and most TPV programmers just don't have the resources or the inclination to make deep, radical changes to it on a consistent basis.

 

To more explicitly answer your question, most viewers differ mainly in areas such as interface and extended functionality (most of which, nevertheless, consists of little more than interfaced panels for settings that other viewers have as well, but hidden in places like the Debug Settings).

[Marigold Devin]

Its like when you're housebound for a while, say if you break a leg and are stuck indoors; you seem to see brand new cracks or the cracks that were there just get bigger.

The more you look at an avatar, the more flaws you'll see, especially as over the years the graphics and our computers' abilities to view the world has improved, yet our original avatar structure has not (apart from, apparently, the replaceable bits like the hands and feet and heads - ugh!).

So you haven't actually got a problem. And as Griffin says, it can't be fixed.

You can make it appear better though by making good use of the windlight settings if you're taking photos, and clothing can cover a multitude of sins.

And take a look around you at other people's avatars - they all have the same "problems" too.

[Perrie Juran]

Oz Linden has told us that they are looking into making improvements to the Avatar Mesh.

Someone started playing with the weighting a while back.  LINK

There is nothink to stop someone from utilizing these files.

In fact, there is nothing that stops a TPV from incorporating them.  Because they only effect what I see.  They don't have an effect on what others see.  It is my choice how I want to view the world.

 

[Jez2k Republic]

Thanks everyone.  I use Firestorm and yet the problem has been there for a few years, over which I have done a few clean installs, sometimes of just Firestorm, others a complete format and reinstallation of Windows (for other reasons though, not SL). I'm not noticing cracks and flaws for the first time. They are very noticeable and jarring. Whats that pointy thing sticking out the back of my neck? Why do my pecs collapse in on themselves when I increase their slider setting, making them look practically inverted?

I've never played around with any LOD, so naturally its still on the default of 2.000 in the debug settings (which I only found by googling). And increasing it to maximum has no effect on my stray polygons.

Every other avatar I look closely at, even older than mine, does not have these anomalies. I'm guessing I just got dealt a very poor mesh when I signed up over 6 years ago.

[Marigold Devin]

Please add some photos to this thread so we can have a proper gawp at your avatar.