Avatar imported to Blender not really matching Avatar in world.

[Pirschjaeger Fassbinder]

Using Wiz Daxter's import function into Blender, I doodled on the avatar and get this...

And it looks pretty much the same when I view it in perspective mode too. However when I upload it... it looks like...

 I also tried looking for the option in Firestorm to save the avatar as an obj, but I didn't see it. So I tried the default male avatar downloaded from secondlife.com and got this...

Still looks like how it should be. Not perfect, but close and definately not as bad as the above in world. Could someone please explain why this is happening? Is the model used in world a verison with more vertices or something? I am wondering if subsurf or smooth modifier would make the model more accurate.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

I bet the difference is caused by body morphs, in either the bones or skin. Even if you get the two to match perfectly, this means it won't be perfect when you alter your shape, or when someone else wears your "doodle" or when you start animating the avatar. So even if the two models are a perfect match, a slightly different t-pose will show the doodle differently.

The model inworld definitely doesn't have more vertices. In fact is has slightly less, because in Blender the head, upper and lower body are seperated, leaving you with double vertices on the seam. It is the exact same model though, as far as topology goes.

Adding more geometry by subdividing won't help either.

The only thing I can think of that might help you, is "doodling"  along the edges of the model (the lines you see in the mesh). But with an avatar shape as crude as the SL avatar, the UV layout as it is and odd skin weights in some places, I don't think you'll ever get a perfect result.

Try to find the places where the morphs affect the shape as little as possible when animating or morphing, then place your detail there (clothing seams or collars for example). The rest you can fill in with less detailed texture (like a slab of cloth or even plain color).