The Mystery of Shoe and Shirt Alphas

[Prokofy Neva]

Is there a way to have an alpha shirt that prevents your custom skin or shape from poking through mesh AND have an alpha that removes your feet so that your feet don't poke through mesh boots?

This is the paradox I find. All shoe alphas are in fact shirts. So that means you can only wear that alpha for those shoes, then the shirt alpha isn't deployed to prevent the body from poking out.

How is this solved? Or do clothing makes really expect that no avatar can wear both their shirts and their boots?

[Syo Emerald]

Use "add" instead of "wear". Just like you would wear more than one tattoo. Alpha layers are not attachments like hats or hair. They don't go to a certain spot just because they hide a certain area on the body. Their name hints it: They act the same as any other layer does.

I'm a little bit suprised that this is a "mystery" for you, you don't seem to be new to SL an alphas have been around for years and even became the only suitable way to hide bodyparts years ago.

[Ariel Vuissent]

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Prokofy Neva wrote:

 

 All shoe alphas are in fact shirts. 

 

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Actually, alphas are more like tattoos. They can affect ANY area of the body, from head to toe! Used to be you were allowed up to five of any system layer, which is what an alpha really is - just a system layer. That may have increased, but I don't think it's decreased, so you can use up to five alpha layers - in your case, then, one for your shirt and one for your shoes should be no problem at all. Just make sure you're clicking "Add" instead of "Wear" - "wear" will replace any other alphas you're already wearing. 

You can also create your own custom alphas, to save space or correct for an alpha that isn't very well made. I've heard it's not terribly compicated, although I haven't done it myself. Therefore, you could make an alpha that hides both your feet and your torso, and only need to wear that one alpha to wear both your shirt and your shoes. It's not really necessary, as mentioned above, but it can be done. 

[Prokofy Neva]

The system labels them as a shirt with the icon of a shirt it has used for more than 10 years.

Therefore, if alphas are "not really a shirt," say, but are merely a tatoo, then...they should show in inventory as a tatoo.

Hair makers provide tatoos for your head, for example, or mustaches for your face, and these are rendered in the system as tatoos with the symbol for "tatoo."

Giving resident lore and backstories is not a substitute for clear signage in an interface.

If the alpha was labelled as a tatoo that could be added anywhere, that would change how it is approached. I know I'm not the only one with this confusion and some people give up and don't buy mesh because of it.

Perhaps that can concentrate the little minds wonderfully, that you lose sales when instead of providing clear signage for customers -- or insisting that LL does in its system -- you berate and badger and blame user ignorance.

[Prokofy Neva]

Thank you, that's helpful and clear, I didn't realize it because...wait for it...the system renders them as shirts with the little icon for shirt, not tatoo or anything else.

So that's what needs to change, quite frankly, see my post above.

I can see the need for making those alpha customized versions because sometimes there are little cracks that happen with mesh outfits and your body.

 

However, I'm not sure you can even create ordinary t-shirts using the "appearance" mode as you once could, I'd have to experiment.

[Perrie Juran]

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Prokofy Neva wrote:

The system labels them as a shirt with the icon of a shirt it has used for more than 10 years.

Therefore, if alphas are "not really a shirt," say, but are merely a tatoo, then...they should show in inventory as a tatoo.

Hair makers provide tatoos for your head, for example, or mustaches for your face, and these are rendered in the system as tatoos with the symbol for "tatoo."

Giving resident lore and backstories is not a substitute for clear signage in an interface.

If the alpha was labelled as a tatoo that could be added anywhere, that would change how it is approached. I know I'm not the only one with this confusion and some people give up and don't buy mesh because of it.

Perhaps that can concentrate the little minds wonderfully, that

you lose sales

when instead of providing clear signage for customers -- or insisting that LL does in its system -- you berate and badger and blame user ignorance.

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Well actually the icon is similar but not identical.  If you look closely I'd bet you can see the differenvce.

And Syo did not say that they were  tattoos.  She said that they "are more like tattoos" which is a very accurate statement and she explains why.

Perhaps you could start a JIRA requesting that LL change the icon to a union suit or something like a child's one piece pajama with footsies which would be much closer to how they act so that people with poor reading comprehension skills like yourself won't be so easily confused.

And BTW, did you ever figure out where your cache was?

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Prokofy Neva wrote:

The system labels them as a shirt with the icon of a shirt it has used for more than 10 years.

Therefore, if alphas are "not really a shirt," say, but are merely a tatoo, then...they should show in inventory as a tatoo.

Hair makers provide tatoos for your head, for example, or mustaches for your face, and these are rendered in the system as tatoos with the symbol for "tatoo."

Giving resident lore and backstories is not a substitute for clear signage in an interface.

If the alpha was labelled as a tatoo that could be added anywhere, that would change how it is approached. I know I'm not the only one with this confusion and some people give up and don't buy mesh because of it.

Perhaps that can concentrate the little minds wonderfully, that

you lose sales

when instead of providing clear signage for customers -- or insisting that LL does in its system -- you berate and badger and blame user ignorance.

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An alpha is used to make something invisible. So, the only logical icon for it would be an invisible one. However, almost everyone else has managed to figure them out in the six years since they've been introduced somehow, illogical icon or no.

[Pixieplumb Flanagan]

Yes, you can.