I want to Create Avatar 2

[Naiman Broome]

Ok I want to make the new Avatars , since the ones we have are obsolete and do suck , with the upcoming mesh revolution it would be a pity to have still those prehistoric things....

An avatar that is fully morphable so where do I need to go look into and ask to ?

[Magnek Fang]

That sounds like a tall order to me.

[Dogboat Taurog]

you do realise that to anyone without mesh viewers you will look extrememely odd?

and it looks like a lot are not going to have sufficiently powerful computers to view meshes as it will entail using V2.

i think meshes will be the death of SL.

 

[Naiman Broome]

I dont mean a mesh avatar I mean a new avatar to replace the current one ....

[Shelby Silverspar]

not available yet, but who knows, maybe someday.

[Bree Giffen]

There's a mesh subforum under the content creation forum. I believe you can play around with mesh on the beta grid.

[Argus Collingwood]

 

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Naiman Broome wrote:

I dont mean a mesh avatar I mean a new avatar to replace the current one ....

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You mean one with a more detailed mesh & frame? More Pixels Please? :smileywink:

 

[Dana Hickman]

No, the mesh forum is for the new imported mesh objects. This question concerns the avatar mesh we've had since the beginning, so it's the correct place.

I'm unsure how much info is even available on this officially, though if you can find the wiki in this new setup it might be a good place to start looking.

The AV meshes consist of eye, eyelashes, hair, head, lower body, skirt, and upperbody, and the last four of these have 4 additional LOD versions, each one lower in detail than the previous (for the automatic switching of detail based on viewing distance). The eye has 1 LOD version, eyelashes don't have any. The AV meshes can be found in the second life install directory, inside the character folder, and they are in .llm format.

If you wanted to do this without hacking up the viewer code and compiling a completely butchered viewer, then you'd also have to create a mesh for every different morph point that the AV uses. Morph points are the minimum and maximum adjustment meshes for every adjustment slider (in Edit-->Appearance) that changes something about the mesh (including hair, skirt, shirt sleeves, pant legs, and shoes), as well as every facial gesture, blink, and hand pose. The system uses them to know which vertices on the real mesh to move, and which direction they need to move when the adjustment slider is moved in a certain direction. It's also how the system translates ones shape item data into actual changes on their AV when a shape is worn or loaded.  Additionally, If any mesh part or morph is changed from the default number of vertices (like making a higher poly AV) then every corresponding system layer texture in the character folder (like the system makeup layers, wrinkles, etc..) must also be changed to match the new meshes UV layout. The final nails in the coffin are even if you did manage to get all those meshes and textures made and installed properly, there's no guarantee that LLs database would accept the AV and shape item changes, and even if it did you'd be the only one to see your new avatar... Everyone else would be seeing you with the old mesh (because the mesh is read locally from the character folder) and it would be contorted to your new AVs new morph points instead of the old ones.

I would consider trying to make a new system skirt mesh, as that one only has 13 morph points and only a couple of layer textures IIRC. Although there's still the issue that nobody else could see the new skirt unless you were to modify all those files on their install of SL too. Is it any mystery why the AV has gone unchanged for so long?

[Luc Starsider]

There has been several Jiras for this since way back, and the issue is brought up with the Lindens frequently. Whether something is actually going to come of it is another matter, but, yeah, I'm right there with you wanting an alternative to the current avatar mesh. At least a new mesh with better topology could be provided as a choice along with the current one so that compatibility with wearables could be kept. Having a new av mesh alongside the current one is something that should work, and something that has been suggested to LL many times.

- Luc -