I don't understand Omega :(

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

I am totally confused with this. I got a mesh head demo (UTILIZATOR) and it's completely white. The description says it comes with omega so I have a wide range of skins ... but how? I have tried like a zillion skins from my inventory and it never applied to my head.

What is this? How do I put a texture on the head mesh?

[Orwar]

   For the skin to be applied through Omega, it needs to be an Omega applier. This is a specific (but quite common) form of applier which many (but far from all) skin creators offer. Make sure that the skin is marked with the Omega logo or that the product info clearly states that it comes as an Omega applier (a HUD which you wear and click on to apply the texture on your skin).

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

I have none of such all my skins are like 10 years old. Do I need to buy new skins for that?

PS: Just looked at the marketplace and there are products that say "PLEASE NOTE APPLIERS ONLY" That means I need the skin texture? And then? Does that have to be worn on my Mesh or just in inventory? This is so confusing....

PS2: Some skins say they come with appliers for mesh bodies but nothing about the specific head creator I wanted to use it for. It get's even more confusing. So the skin applies to mesh body and SL head only or would it just work on another creator's head?

Edited November 13, 2019 by Phoebe Hazelnut

[Orwar]

   Yes, I suspect that you're referring to 'system skins', those are unfortunately not applicable through Omega. Do hang onto them, though; a lot of mesh head and bodies are now being brought to BoM compatibility (the ability to apply system skins directly on a mesh, which previously wasn't possible - technical stuffs!).

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

Yes I stumbled upon the BoM thing in a Maitreya group discussion and I understood nothing.

I was off from second life for a while and when I came back everyone was bragging about their mesh bodies and Omegas and what not and I understand nothing anymore.

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

6 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   Yes, I suspect that you're referring to 'system skins', those are unfortunately not applicable through Omega. Do hang onto them, though; a lot of mesh head and bodies are now being brought to BoM compatibility (the ability to apply system skins directly on a mesh, which previously wasn't possible - technical stuffs!).

To be specific, the shop page says: "This head Is SLUV/Omega compatible so you have a wide selection of skins, makeup, hair bases and other options. The head is full mod too so you can add those finishing touches."

Ok Omega = Omega I need an applier skin for that. And SLUV is SL UV, the original avatar? So it should support original skins?

[Orwar]

1 minute ago, Phoebe Hazelnut said:

To be specific, the shop page says: "This head Is SLUV/Omega compatible so you have a wide selection of skins, makeup, hair bases and other options. The head is full mod too so you can add those finishing touches."

Ok Omega = Omega I need an applier skin for that. And SLUV is SL UV, the original avatar? So it should support original skins?

   SLUV is the UV map used by the 'standard' Second Life avatar; some mesh bodies use the same UV which makes the skin textures cross-compatible with different bodies through Omega appliers.

   In the case of your head, it seems that it indeed uses the SLUV, and that it is Omega compatible. What you need then is a skin which is applied through an Omega - I'm also not sure whether your head already has the Omega receiver, or if you will need an Omega installer/relay to apply Omega skins.

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

3 minutes ago, Orwar said:

I'm also not sure whether your head already has the Omega receiver, or if you will need an Omega installer/relay to apply Omega skins.

Omg even more stuff to look at *sigh*

I looked into my head and there is an "Omega System Listener" script in it.

Sorry that I ask so many questions but before I spend hundreds on skins and head stuff I want to make sure it works. It's just so many new things to learn

[Lindal Kidd]

OK, let's have a history lesson!

In the beginning was the SL system avatar, what is now called the "Classic" avatar.  You wore a special skin texture on this avatar.  All such skin textures have a distinct symbol in your inventory.  You had other textures you could wear too...tattoos, and clothes.

Then came mesh.  "Mesh" is SL's term for 3D objects created in an external 3D modeling program like Blender and uploaded to SL  (as opposed to making objects with SL's built in prim creation tools).  It's important to remember that all mesh objects made for your avatar are ATTACHMENTS...objects that are worn on one of your avatar's attachment points.

Pretty soon, mesh creators started making mesh body parts, and then entire replacement bodies and heads.  When you wear a mesh body, you first wear a full-body alpha mask.  This makes your Classic body invisible.  It's still there, but all you can see is the mesh body.

Since mesh bodies are OBJECTS, not avatars, none of the skin, tattoo, or clothing layers made for classic avatars affect them.

So, the clever creators invented "appliers".  An applier is a little HUD which applies a texture to your mesh body or head.  Now, you could go back to the skin store where you bought that classic skin you loved, buy an applier for a small fee, and apply that skin texture to your mesh body.  Appliers can also be used to apply things like makeup, or underwear textures.  The important thing is that the applier must be compatible with the mesh body that you want to apply the texture to.  Also, appliers can only apply the texture(s) they have inside them.  You can't use an applier as a universal airbrush to apply just any old texture.

Since people quickly got tired of making appliers for each of the many brands of mesh bodies, another clever inventor created the Omega system.  This was a (mostly) "universal" applier system.  It's supposed to act as an intermediary.  A skin maker creates an Omega applier for her skins, and then that can be used to apply the skin to any mesh body that is "Omega compatible".  Some bodies, like Maitreya's Lara, need an additional HUD, an "Omega relay" to use Omega-compatible texture applier HUDs.  Omega sells their system at their store and the prices are quite reasonable.

Well!  Here were all these classic avatar clothes and skins, sitting in everyone's inventory and moldering away.  Here were all these different mesh bodies, heads, hands, feet.  Here were all these different applier systems.  Here were all the would-be fashionistas, confused by the bewildering landscape of semi-interoperable things.  So....

...Linden Lab created "Bakes on Mesh", or BoM.  This is a new capability of SL, that allows the old system layers to be applied to mesh bodies and heads without all that tedious applier nonsense.  It does require that the mesh product be BoM compatible, and that you use a viewer that supports BoM.  It is so new that not all bodies and heads and viewers have incorporated it yet, but it's moving pretty fast.

And thus, we are coming full circle!

[Ajay McDowwll]

23 hours ago, Phoebe Hazelnut said:

Yes I stumbled upon the BoM thing in a Maitreya group discussion and I understood nothing.

I was off from second life for a while and when I came back everyone was bragging about their mesh bodies and Omegas and what not and I understand nothing anymore.

Everyone else has covered this marvelously, so I'll just say welcome back to SL from another newly-returned oldbie   You'll get the hang of mesh.  There's a learning curve, but it's totally do-able.

[Phoebe Hazelnut]

Thanks for the explaination.

It have come a long way through. I think, the next thing they should invent should be something like geoshells. Automatically fitting attachments with extra steps and their own alpha layer.

https://daz3d.com/forums/discussion/68454/simple-geoshell-tutorial