Thinking of getting a mesh avatar

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Ravenglory wrote:

 

Great comments on this thread, I will have to check out the Belleza mesh.

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You're too late... its gone from SL for now...

So far via demos or alts I've tried:

TMP, Belleza, Lena, Fusion, Banned, EvE, Slink, and maybe two others.

Of them all, the only ones that I'd consider ready were TMP and Belleza.

EvE would have been up there two, but it you wear 'physics' with it - you will notice that when the boobs move, the entire chest from sternum to solar plexis moves with them as one piece - making it look like you're wearing a clamp on elastic chest. And EvE has a... small beak thingy coming out of the genital region - which almost looks like the result of a 'reverse FGM' removing the hood but leaving the rest after angling it out. And EvE only comes with a foot in the high-heeled position. You can wear slink feet, but if you're not tall enough they will float away from the body slightly.

Lena needs a new alpha in a desperate way. And the shoulder bend is awkward.

Banned - cam at yourself from behind and below, looking up at your caboose - that strange stretching of the texture... is not their sample skin. Its the mesh. And if you look at your vulva... which hangs down a bit, where it connects to the body there are 'diamonds in the shadows' or something - the UV map is hitting that area strangly. If not for these two issues - the body would be a good replacement for Belleza, as it looks unusually similar except for having a wide butt.

Slink's bosom deforms above 48 or so. And below 25 or so. and has the shape of the default avatar otherwise - and a major reason to get a mesh body is how lacking in shape that form is anyway... Looking like two giant pimples rather than a bosom. The whole reason skins have so much shadow under the boob these days is because the default avatar's boobs didn't even round out at most dial settings...

Fusion... The 'andro' version is the most like a default avatar, except it lacks curve in the saddle bags to legs - and upping saddly bags just makes them wider. If you try to make the butt smaller than 30 - it just moves that fat into the sadle bags in the form of triangles jutting out. The Genesis version of fusion curves like the default avatar, but has a big butt, which also cannot go below 30.

TMP... that HUD... and the arms out of position.

Belleza - a slight gap between the left arm and a left slink hand. And an alpha hud that has front,back,left,right all connected on the same button except in the torso.

Another one I tried that is often recommended in here seemed to work great, but deformed if you took the bosom above 30 or so... and had the curves of a young boy...

And then there is brazillia - which only puts out giant butt / giant boob bodies, so I've yet to try them.

 

For now... its basically TMP or wait and hope Belleza wins its DMCA...

 

Side point:

https://my.secondlife.com/pussycat.catnap/snapshots/547e504ca73e215ea8000001

- Me wearing Belleza while also wearing all mesh clothes... Covers so much its almost pointless to have a mesh body on. Almost. But... it worked just fine.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

That sucks!

Stupid griefers messing up everyones good time..

I wonder if it is the same people that did WOWMEH's also?

Really just blows that someone doesn't have anything better to do than grief  nice changes to SL..

[Rhys Goode]

I have a small but growing collection.  As noted by others, they all have strong points and weak points.  My favorite by far is the *KL* Lena (Perky or Lush).  Thats because the avatar has modify permission,  I can make my own appliers and directly write onto the avatar meshes. It only has two layers, so tattoos are a bit of a problem, but at least there is no alpha sorting disaster, like there is with the Physique.  And being able to script my own appliers is very importanant to me.  I hear that Eve has modify perms too, I think she will be my next try.

A word about the "use your own shape" thing. Yes, you can use your own SL shape with any of them.  But they will all give you different actual shapes, some radically different.  If you want to approximate the same shape as your SL avatar, be prepared to do a lot of tuning with the sliders.  THey all do respond to the shape sliders, but they are all rigged differently, and so none of them respond in quite the same way to any given slider. So, for instance, if I want to wear a necklace, I need to make a separtate copy of the necklace, and custom size and fit it for each different avatar.  And some necklaces which work fine with the SL avatar, get swallowd by the rigged mesh when animated, depending on how the creator chose to rig the shoulder region.

And a lot of my existing mesh clothing will not work with any of the mesh avatars, no matter what I do with sliders. Some can be salvaged with the alpha masking huds, but those huds are in general not nearly as precise as the alpha mask for a legacy avatar. I keep mine collection mostly as a hobby, learning the technology. And for nakie dancing, because they are way too hard to dress.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Well it looks like the DMCA against Belleza was in fact fraudulent. This time... the mesh maker had the resources and desire to get a lawyer... and the person who was revealed to have filed it... ... Had no idea they "had" filed it... As in... somebody faked the filing... https://bellezaskin.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/belleza-venus-mesh-body-dmca-update/

[Perrie Juran]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

Well it looks like the DMCA against Belleza was in fact fraudulent. This time... the mesh maker had the resources and desire to get a lawyer... and the person who was revealed to have filed it... ... Had no idea they "had" filed it... As in... somebody faked the filing...

https://bellezaskin.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/belleza-venus-mesh-body-dmca-update/

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What will be really interesting if the other DMCA's against the others were done in the name of the same person.

[Pussycat Catnap]

From the blog:

"At this time, we are not disclosing the person named in the DMCA notification, because that person is not a Second Life user and was impersonated."

- Which basically sounds like... you could pull any old name of anyone in the world... and file one of these in their name... with no proof of who you are...

 

Makes me wonder how many DMCA's Barrack Obama has filed...

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

From the blog:

"At this time, we are not disclosing the person named in the DMCA notification, because that person is not a Second Life user and was impersonated."

- Which basically sounds like... you could pull any old name of anyone in the world... and file one of these in their name... with no proof of who you are...

 

Makes me wonder how many DMCA's Barrack Obama has filed...

 

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Interesting that the DMCA Policy doesn't say what type of ID the original filer needs to supply, only that the claimant, "Provide a reasonably sufficient method of contacting you; phone number and email address would be preferred."

However, to file a counter claim you must, "Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address (if available)."

https://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php

I'd be pretty sure this is what's required by the DMCA but I'm not digging through it right now.

Oh, and what I'm wondering is how much music Barrack's daughters have downloaded illegally. 

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

From the blog:

"At this time, we are not disclosing the person named in the DMCA notification, because that person is not a Second Life user and was impersonated."

- Which basically sounds like... you could pull any old name of anyone in the world... and file one of these in their name... with no proof of who you are...

 

Makes me wonder how many DMCA's Barrack Obama has filed...

 

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It's also quite possible that the "impersonated" person actually WAS the one who filed the DMCA but when they were contacted by a lawyer they realized they were bringing a knife to a gunfight. And if the IP of the filer was tracked to them they'd say "Oh, that must have been my nephew/neighbor/cat using my computer."

[Pussycat Catnap]

And the Belleza is back up for sale:

https://bellezaskin.wordpress.com/2014/12/20/belleza-venus-mesh-body-available-for-purchase/#comments

Better get it before the DMCA griefer makes an alt account...

There's also an upcoming body that looks similar:

http://strawberrysingh.com/2014/12/16/maitreya-mesh-body/

And the Slink body will get an update after Christmas. If that update fixes the horrible boob deforming above 40... then it might be another contender.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

Maitreya has released her mesh body now..

Looking at my transaction history,It costs L$2750.

Hopefully she will release a bunch of clothes..She may even have some in her store,i didn't look..i just got mah body and ran. lol

Omega already has their kit for it..

I like it and it's another user friendly hud, with a lot of alpha slots  around the hips and breasts..:smileyhappy:

ETA: Oh also It's not on the market,have to go to her store to get it..maybe  it will be on the market another time in the future..

Here is a look at it on Strawberry Singh's site

Maitreya mesh body

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Any thoughts on Maitreya vs. Belleza?

I noticed the alpha hud is back-front linked in the limbs, but not side-side linked like Belleza. So an improvement.

I've only got the demo thus far, and only had a few minutes with it. It looks like its aplir system is going closed house, but then will take omega... which is an odd set of choices. But at least with Omega people can make appliers for it more easily. Though this will probably mean no one makes appliers for the feet and hands, just like has happened with Belleza.

It did not seem to have a 'nipple' texture option like Belleza does - which means if skins don't line up right, a user will be out of luck (and one skin an alt has, from "sinful curves", has a no-nipple skin in its omega applier for exact purpose of being used on mesh bodies and not having to worry about lining up exactly with differences in opinion on UV map - when I tried the EvE demo, I began wishing some of my skins had a no-genital option as well, because that demo had very different ideas about lower body layout than some of my skins, and in one case so off my avatar had two sets down there... which if I were to use it and go nude in SL again, would be rather weird).

[Marianne Little]

Make sure you get the three free shoes that's a group gift for this body. They are lovely, and in versatile colors, indigo, plum and coral.

They are on a shelf beside the body, but they rez incredibly slow. I was walking up to the freebie counter, but they are not there. I used Firestorm and Area search to find and touch them. 

This gift is temporarily, no idea how long they stay up so get them now! Even if you only pick up the demo. The group is free to join also, so you don't waste any money if you don't buy the body later. But later the shoes might be gone.

[Marianne Little]

The one lingerie included is from Zaara and it is appliers. I clicked on the stockings option and the feet was textured. I am not sure what this means... will only appliers made specific for Maitreya texture the feet, and not Omega?

Yes, it seems that there is no nipple layer. I think it looks fabulous, and since it is Slink fit without having to set muscles to 50 as Belleza had, it fits me so much better. I still like TMP, but the no Slink fit at all and the locked installer craziness makes Maitreya a winner over TMP.

It was a very good neck fit with my TMP mesh head. With Glam Affair installer on the mesh head, I was really satisfied. If I zoomed in very close, I could see a thin open line in the seam. An improved alpha layer will probably fix it. Besides. I don't zoom in that close in my regular SL life.

[LlazarusLlong]

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Marianne Little wrote:

Make sure you get the three free shoes

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Especially if you have a three-legged avatar!

[Marianne Little]

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LlazarusLlong wrote:

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Marianne Little wrote:

Make sure you get the three free shoes

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Especially if you have a three-legged avatar!

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Lol. This IS Second Life, I wouldn't be surprised... 

I just copy and paste from the official blog, I am too tired to try and correct myself:

"We also have a new V.I.P. Group Gift set up: a version of the Maitreya Gold Liaison pumps made especially to fit the mesh body!! Make sure to pick up all 3 unique colors!! (don't forget to wear your group tag) This group gift will only be temporarily available and those 3 colors are group exclusives, meaning they will not return!"

[Ceka Cianci]

Ya i picked the shoes up..I couldn't the first time because i was lagging so much..

But now that i got SLGO i can zip into the laggy places and look around without ripping my hair out..

Out of Belleza and Maitreya  and TMP..

In my opinion TMP has the best body..but their system and trying to get in their store and jump through the hoops..They need more sims or open up to omega and other appliers or something..They need more versatility for sure..There is nothing in that store that i seen under 500$L..their demo system is terrible ,their hud is terrible,the whole experience so far has been terrible..

It's not gonna be long before someone comes out with a better body and less headaches..

i love the body though, it is a very nice body..but it is an expensive pay as you go system that adds gray hair with each step and visit..hehehe

 

Belleza was like stepping  onto a tropical islans compared to TMP..They had that DMCA the day after i bought it..i don't know what is going on with that right now..but that sucked..Especially for them..I'm glad i bought it just in time =)

I really love that body,could use more butt,but that's nothing that can't be fixed with the sliders..

It's a beautiful body and user friendly hud and open to a lot of appliers with the relay..

It comes with beautiful hands and feet and lots of body shades and neck tattoo's and lots of options on it's user freindly hud..

It's like the one stop kit so you can get a really good footing into the mesh bodies, rather than struggling each step of the way..

 

Maitreya it has the butt!! and for the most part is beautiful..really the only problem i have is around the shoulders..it gets kind of system looking and rounded in the underarms as well as has dips in the shoulder where bra straps go over..nothing real bad..

I Love the hud and is like Belleza's user friendly ..to me that is important..

 

I haven't had any seam problems really with any of them..and compared to system body,i'll take any of them in a heart beat..

I just wish fitted mesh wasn't so similar to system clothes.. especially around butt cracks and cleavage

 

This is just my perspective as a relaxed shopper not really  worried about little details ..after years of fighting around the system body, the second two are pretty relaxing..

My impression of these three is,Belleza and Maitreya are set up to get you on your way and shopping and doing things with your bodies so you can enjoy your SLexperience..it's a good deal where we both walked away smiling..

Where TMP wants you stuck in their store paying every step of the way at a 500$L minimum with each step..

I don't mean to come down on them so hard because the body is beautiful,but any time i even think about going back there i get this feeling in my stomach and already getting frustrated because i know it's gonna be hair ripping.

It's just feels like,lets see just how much someone will jump through hoops to get my stuff..

That is the impression i get with every step of TMP..

 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

I've actually given up on TMP over not the hassle, but the quality.

At first its amazing, but I noticed odd bends in sit poses and limbs going flat when joints bent too far - but not at angles that were humanly impossible.

That, and the arms being out of place... wore me out.

And if you were to want to have a nude avatar, there is no definition in the pubic region. While 'EvE' has too much (it has a beak... which is... peculiar...), and a demo of another brand I tried had a fully modeled... **bleep** cavity... for whatever reason... TMP has nothing, not even a 'camel toe' which, actually, the default avatar does have. This is not a concern unless you do go nude, then it starts to be eye catching... because the pubic region is a wide gap on TMP - for maximum visibility... so you can very easily see you have all the anatomy of a barbie doll. and that actually resulted in me posing around nude with my TMP owning alt just so I could rile myself up in annoyance about it...

 

Belleza won out on their DMCA - the avatar is back.

At this point I consider the competition Belleza versus Maitreya. Especially given omega support. But that's with me not yet testing Maitreya myself...

TMP... is slowly killing their own business with their unfriendly system... and some of their bugs.

[Marianne Little]

Pussycat and Ceka, I think TMP should have been out of business now, because I have heard the same complaints from day one. Yet, their sim is fuller than ever.

They refused to make appliers for Lolas, for Slink, and this was so many years before they made their mesh avatar. People threaten to stop using their skins.... I was one of them that bought only the face (they sold faces separately) so I could use that over another skin with appliers. They fond out that more people bought faces that full skins, so they stopped selling faces.

Then they made mesh avatars.  Customers started to ask for a Slink fit. No way. Not now, not ever. Then they started with the HUD. People complain. No way. The credit system. People complain. No, njet, nein, nada. We will not change.

And what do we see, the sim is packed. I don't know how many years the complaints, the sighs and the facepalms has been going on. They sell too good stuff. 

Now I think Maitreya might be the one to go up and challenge TMP. Their Slink fit and neck is much better than Belleza. Belleza need 50 in muscle to fit Slink, and that is not going to happen with my avatar. Maitreya has a XS Slink fit. The mesh is very well made. When Maitreya start to make clothes for their body, they will be the same fantastic quality as we are used to from Maitreya. 

Over to male avatars. I had hopes for Signature mesh avatar. But I could not get through to the designer of those avatars... to talk them into releasing a mesh that can take appliers. In 2014 and 2015, avatars need to customize their look. A mesh body need alphas and layers for skins, tattoos and clothing.

TMP has released a fantastic male body, and 5 mesh heads that can be customized as soon as other designers apply for creator kits. Again, TMP has done it. They can demand customers to stand on their heads and jump up and down on one leg, while paying their store credit and buy outrageous expensive products. Why? Because they can do it, they have no other serious competition and their product looks fabulous. 

[Ceka Cianci]

My main reason for getting the TMP was because at first i thought it was just me not being able to figure out their system,that and i was so curious about their mesh body..

after the past few days of dealing with that system i think i am done and the curiosity is gone..

 

I like that Belleza and Maitreya are new and am look forward to updates..

I would have hated mesh bodies if it was the same and the others were having  systems like TMP..

I would be back in a system body before long if it was dealing with that..

One thing i notice is ,when i go there..i kind of see some of the same people there..Not sure if they are just really good customers or just like hanging around there a lot..*wink wink*

They may have the business at the moment,but when more systems show up and give out what maitreya and Belleza do with all the stuff you get,and it easier and bodies just as good if not better,plus opened up to omega and other systems?

It would probably be in their best interest to not clintch so tight to security and oneness..

If they ever lax up ,i would love it..but they have found a way to make every inch of their experience like toiling the fields with a mule and a one bladed plow..

Omg i am so terrible..i should not be so terrible to them,but it's just been a few frustrating days and this  helps..hehehe

I don't wish them bad,i just wish they were more user friendly..

 

 

Anyways,Maitreya butt is just as bit as good if not better than TMP since i went and did another check..

If i could just get that butt on the Belleza.there would be no doubt  Belleza being the winner hands down for me over them all..

I've checked out a few of the otherones and their demos.. for me right now it's the same i would say in overall system and body and shopping experience..  Belleza and maitreya..

Combine those two and i would be good to go and never curious again lol

 

 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Lolas Appliers.

Think on that a moment. Early part of 2014 - if it wasn't a Lolas... people using mesh parts didn't use it.

Then Lolas got stomped out by... inferior looking but more usable fitted mesh products. By the time Lolas caught up and did its own fitted mesh boob... wowmeh was already gone and replaced by other full bodies... and in between that time period the 'inferrior competitors' themselves competed the 'mesh boob' range quality notch up.

TMP may have a lot of momentum right now - but if you listen around, they're losing it. They might keep it if they change, and if they did change they might even deserve to keep it.

But brand loyalty can shift.

 

On the Maitreya Butt - how does it look from behind and under? Some mesh bodies have texture stretch from back there, akin to the texture stretch in the system body. TMP does not, belleza does not. Many others do not. But some do, some that would otherwise be great competitors, liked banned.

The need for 50 muscle on Belleza was weird when I first tried it (my review of belleza panned them for it). But once we have it for a day or two... removing it starts to look weird. You notice that the avatar at a lower setting looks, skeletal. And I've even started dialng UP muscle on my non-belleza shape...

The standard sizes... just have 'wrong' muscle tone that I think we've gotten used to. Then again standard sizes often have body fat / thickness INSTEAD of muscle, and the mesh bodies sometimes have muscle instead of fat / thick...

- this one has me wanting to break out the measuring tape and articles on proportions again, its not something I considered back them... and I'm wondering which is "right" if any (at some extreme there is a right, but the room for that is likely much wider than it is with things like arm length and body center).

 

[Ceka Cianci]

The Maitreya butt actually looks great  even bent over..

I don't see anything wrong at all..it's all rounded in about any position  and looks pretty real and flawless from front to back and under and from the sides..hehehe

if there is something wrong there, i didn't see it hehehe

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

I've got Maitreya on one alt now.

I did notice that none of her skins would fit where Maitreya puts the nipples - but I found a new skin at Elysium that came out this week that is like... 90% on target. I see the mis-match but maybe most people won't. Good enough when clothed. Some of my skins were severely off, enough that it would show in bikinis.

No nipple layer is a minus - but then I only know of one skin brand that even puts out skins with a no-nipple option for use on mesh bodies with nipple layers...

The shape is good - yeah I see that the butt is better than Belleza and TMP, and the pubic detail is the best I've seen - there is enough detail that skins will look right over it, but not too much so that a mis-match will look silly like with EvE, nor so little that any nude avatar looks plastic like with TMP.

The bosom shape is not as good as Belleza or TMP, but its close. If you use a very high bouyancy or have physics set with very high mass / gravity - it will take a little tweaking to get it looking natural. But if you want a perky look its going to be easy to work with.

Omega works really well with it. The included hands / feet use the SL UV map or very close, unlike Belleza, so Omega appliers apply to the whole body... but you must have an Omega head applier or the neck can get weird. And you have to toggle off Maitreya's neck fit layer as Omega puts something weird there (the Omega notecard even points this out).

The Alpha system is second only to TMPs, but on a body that will work better with your tops, and its a very close second.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

I was in one of the groups today and there was talk of maitreya alreading working on an update for some fixes..

Hopefully the same is happening with the Belleza..I really love a lot of the belleza..

I would love to have that skin on the Maitreya..

[Pussycat Catnap]

I suspect Belleza had to pause some of its update work while fighting the DMCA - but they've announced what they are working on with regards to an update. Improvements to their alpha system, and probably a few other things as well.

I seriously hope Maitreya doesn't also have to fight a DMCA... We could use some stability in this field...

 

[Marianne Little]

I am so frustrated. Trying to demo a mesh head in TMP. I can't find what I look for. I have to highlight transparent to find anything at all. Then I have to get a demo through the stupid shopping HUD... then it is supposed to get in the style HUD but it will not work. And all the other avatars stand there, trying to demo. I left without managing to demo again. 

I wonder if TMP can really survive this....