Face detail problems in all viewers

[SegmentationFault String]

When I started playing Second Life five years ago, I had no money and did everything on the cheap.  Rather than buy a photorealistic skin, I designed my own avatar using the system appearance editor.  Even after I could afford any skin I wanted, I had grown fond of my quirky appearance and kept it.  So my female avatar doesn't have some glamorous screen star skin.  Instead, I used the appearance editor -> Face Details option to add freckles, rosy cheeks, and light pink lips.

About a year ago, something went wrong and she looked like a goth girl: Those innocent flushed cheeks now are black, as are the lips.  The freckles still look OK, but they're dark brown to begin with so who can tell?

It's not my viewer: In recent weeks I have tried the latest LL Viewer, Cool VL Viewer, and Singularity viewer on both a Linux machine and a Dell running Windows 7 (as well as a VMWare virtual Windows 8 session on the Dell).

In preferences->Graphics, I have all shaders enabled except water reflections; local lights, hardware skinning, and avatar cloth are enabled. Draw distance is 128, Post Process Quality high, and all mesh detail options are on high except trees, terrain, and sky.  Changing any of those has no effect on the goth black face detail.  I keep my sun position on high noon all the time and I have even put a big honkin' face light right in front of me that only washes out all detail while leaving cheeks and lips black.

 

Interesting thing about the LL example on the left: You can see the original intended effect of rosy cheeks on one side of the face, but not on the other.  When exited out, ran the other two viewers, then went back to the LL viewer for a second shot, that redness was gone and it looked exactly like the others, black on both sides.  I tried facing different directions and changing sun to morning and evening, but I never got that rosy glow back.

As a workaround I can leave off the cheek and lip details and apply a tattoo layer, but that means I have *zero* control over color and intensity, which makes it an annoying workaround. Has anyone else experienced this, or am I the only one on the grid who still uses system appearances?

 

[Jade Nova]

I'm pretty sure you're the only person on the grid who has EVER used system appearances, Lol. I signed up in 2008 and the first thing I bought was a non-system skin.

Isn't there an option for blush color? Perhaps with the last few updates it messed something up on the skin sliders and changed the blush and lip colors to black. I don't think it's a lighting issue, it really looks to me like the color was somehow changed on accident. Maybe try that? ;o

[Jewel Laurasia]

Oh lordy it's time for an upgrade girl!

[Marigold Devin]

If you've not consciously changed anything, between your avatar having rosey cheeks, and then looking all goth-like, chances are its down to the natural evolution of both Linden Lab adding updates every week to their servers and graphics card updates.

And probably/possibly what you see on your computer is different again to what other people see on their computer, as we all may be using different lighting settings, or have our graphics set higher or lower or with or without shadows, shading, etc.

If you are happy to continue using system skin, then all you can do is continue playing around and see what tweaks you can make.

But, have you looked in the inventory recently? In the library section there are tons of new skins and shapes.  You might enjoy a little rummage around in there, to see if there's a new look for you. One of my spare avatars is even in the form of a rather lovely ginger cat. 

[Theresa Tennyson]

I asked my alt, um, AUNT to test things for you. The facial detai "lips" and "rosy cheeks" when creating a new skin are stil pink on my antique copy of pre-mesh Phoenix but all later viewers show them black, and they turn black when used with a new viewer even if .

My aunt also wants you to know that she hates you - she's my avatar-creation alt and that skin was pretty traumatic.

 

[SegmentationFault String]

Hah!  Thanks, Theresa.  Glad to know it's not just me.

Jewel and Marigold, after all these years I'm very familiar with the amazing skins available both for free and for reasonable proces in the marketplace.  But as I said, I'm fond of my self-designed avatar with her nerdy, totally non-glamorous freckle face and thick glasses.  Obviously I'll have to settle for somebody else's design since that feature no longer works properly, but it's a shame.

It's also a moot point.  Since my RL wife started joining me in SL, I almost always use my male avatar.  She feels weird going out dancing with the homely nerd girl, and the male almost never wears any kind of makeup :-)

 

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

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SegmentationFault String wrote:

Hah!  Thanks, Theresa.  Glad to know it's not just me.

Jewel and Marigold, after all these years I'm very familiar with the amazing skins available both for free and for reasonable proces in the marketplace.  But as I said, I'm fond of my self-designed avatar with her nerdy, totally non-glamorous freckle face and thick glasses. 

Obviously I'll have to settle for somebody else's design since that feature no longer works properly, but it's a shame.

It's also a moot point.  Since my RL wife started joining me in SL, I almost always use my male avatar.  She feels weird going out dancing with the homely nerd girl, and the male almost never wears any kind of makeup :-)

 

 

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Think of it this way - you could customize your skin before but the "design" you could do was extremely limited. Basically, you could cook your own dinner but your only ingredients were varying amounts of bologna, circus peanuts, canned peas and LIfebuoy soap. The alternative is to have your dinner sent in from any restaurant in the world. Odds are you'll find something that suits your taste even better.

[Sidnella Riler]

Let's go shopping

[Marigold Devin]

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SegmentationFault String wrote:

Hah!  Thanks, Theresa.  Glad to know it's not just me.

Jewel and Marigold, after all these years

I'm very familiar with the amazing skins available both for free and for reasonable proces in the marketplace. 

But as I said, I'm fond of my self-designed avatar with her nerdy, totally non-glamorous freckle face and thick glasses.  Obviously I'll have to settle for somebody else's design since that feature no longer works properly, but it's a shame.

It's also a moot point.  Since my RL wife started joining me in SL, I almost always use my male avatar.  She feels weird going out dancing with the homely nerd girl, and the male almost never wears any kind of makeup :-)

 

 

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Well, yes, you'd have to be blind or stupid not to be familiar with them. Or closed-minded or very frugal.  Which is, I admit, what I thought you were being, by clinging on to the system skin look, which is truly awful.  (Some of the bought in skins and shapes are also truly awful, but for very different reasons.)

What's wrong with looking a bit Goth anyway?

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Marigold Devin wrote:

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SegmentationFault String wrote:

Hah!  Thanks, Theresa.  Glad to know it's not just me.

Jewel and Marigold, after all these years

I'm very familiar with the amazing skins available both for free and for reasonable proces in the marketplace. 

But as I said, I'm fond of my self-designed avatar with her nerdy, totally non-glamorous freckle face and thick glasses.  Obviously I'll have to settle for somebody else's design since that feature no longer works properly, but it's a shame.

It's also a moot point.  Since my RL wife started joining me in SL, I almost always use my male avatar.  She feels weird going out dancing with the homely nerd girl, and the male almost never wears any kind of makeup :-)

 

 

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Well, yes, you'd have to be blind or stupid not to be familiar with them. Or closed-minded or very frugal.  Which is, I admit, what I thought you were being, by clinging on to the system skin look, which is truly awful.  (Some of the bought in skins and shapes are also truly awful, but for very different reasons.)

What's wrong with looking a bit Goth anyway?

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... hands Mari a tube of Veet... and a spokeshave.

[Lucretia Brandenburg]

Maybe do away with the rosy cheeks and lipstick, and use tattoo layer make up instead? As for buying a skin ... if you love your ugly, nerdy girl you made, don't let anyone talk you round to changing and purchasing a skin. Your world, your imagination.

[Canoro Philipp]

it seems to be a bug that Linden Lab didnt notice it changed since they supposed the majority would have tattoo skin by now, if the sliders of colors moved from place and are displaying a different tint, you can check the sliders again and put them back again to where you preferred color is.

you have a very original avatar, very personal, i applaud that you follow exactly what you want without letting your wish be drowned by popular trends. you have a very unique avatar in sl, congratulations.

[Theresa Tennyson]

If you want to take total control over your avatar's appearance you could try making your own skin. Eloh Eliot put a variety of Photoshop templates on the Internet that are free to use and modify, and they can be edited with GIMP if you don't have or want to invest in Photoshop.

https://sites.google.com/site/another/resources

[Efurou]

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SegmentationFault String wrote:

Hah!  Thanks, Theresa.  Glad to know it's not just me.

Jewel and Marigold, after all these years I'm very familiar with the amazing skins available both for free and for reasonable proces in the marketplace.  But as I said, I'm fond of my self-designed avatar with her nerdy, totally non-glamorous freckle face and thick glasses.  Obviously I'll have to settle for somebody else's design since that feature no longer works properly, but it's a shame.

It's also a moot point.  Since my RL wife started joining me in SL, I almost always use my male avatar.  She feels weird going out dancing with the homely nerd girl, and the male almost never wears any kind of makeup :-)

 

 

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You can update your avatar for free....there are so many good freebies these days.

http://roleplaystyle.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/your-purse-is-thin-you-can-still-look-fab-d/

 

And you can customize the skins these days to fit your own taste.

 

 

[HisaDrug]

AHHHHHH Im gonna have a nightmare.