Curious on GENUS head popularity

[Senet Wylder]

I have had mesh heads since SLINK first offered them back in 2015. Went to LOGO and have been with Lelutka since BENTO came about. Catwa has dominated the market with a myriad of choices and all sorts of support.

GENUS came onto the market and support for it has been like an explosion. Skin Mascara, Eye Shadow, and lipstick all came out within a month (it seemed) with many options.

I have heard "GENUS is the best" as a reason but this is less than insightful and certainly opinion. Further, it offers nothing to give me an understanding of my basic question ...

Why does GENUS have so much support is such a short time with only 2 female heads offered compared to Lelutka's 15 female heads?

This is not a flame or a complaint, I am curious as to the popularity in such a short time. 

[Fritigern Gothly]

The big explosion in popularity came when Genus, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, offered one of their heads for free.

The backlash of that was that an unknown person filed a DCMA complaint against Genus, effectively shutting them down for a few months.

However, this shutdown was lifted yesterday, so it is once again possible to go and get the free head (and updates to already purchased heads).

So go ahead, get the free head and decide for yourself, is it really "the best" or just a good one? Make up your own mind , based on your own experiences because only you can decide if it meets your standards of what constitutes as good 🙂

 

NB: Apropos the complaint filed against Genus, there is a certain major head creator who routinely gets accused of having filed the complaint, but the Genus team and that creator have been in touch with each other and it was not that major creator. The person who filed the complaint is not known at this time, but I'm sure that whoever it was can expect to be sued for filing a false claim and for damages, at the very least!

Edited July 4, 2020 by Fritigern Gothly
There is no S in DCMA :-)

[Ceka Cianci]

Genus gained a lot of support early on, especially it's 2nd beta release phase.. you kind of had the same thing going on waiting for it to come out of the first beta as you had while they were temporarily closed down..

The build up I'm sure in both cases had a lot to do with the big rushes.. But the head itself, for me anyways, felt like it had more freedom with the sliders..

I was able to zero in and get the look I wanted pretty quickly.. Where with the other heads I just seemed to have a lot of trouble with..

That's my personal experience with it and that's just a me thing there..

Honestly, I think just the beautiful looks people were getting from the head and showing them off really had so much to do with it.. I mean there were no animations at first and the hud was a problem for a lot of people to maneuver..

I remember spending hours in the group every day just helping answer questions, along with others as well..

There was a lot of support for the first head by the time it got released out of beta, as well as even for baby face..

Why that is, I'm sure there are a few reasons..I myself just think there were a lot of looks made with those first two heads that gave a lot of diversity to where you couldn't tell you were looking at a genus head..

Where the other heads at the time, it seemed like you could tell what brand you were looking at..

Again,just my opinion on that though..

Edited July 4, 2020 by Ceka Cianci

[missyrideout]

8 hours ago, Senet Wylder said:

Why does GENUS have so much support is such a short time with only 2 female heads offered compared to Lelutka's 15 female heads?

This is not a flame or a complaint, I am curious as to the popularity in such a short time. 

Not sure how to interpret this because it is written as if the Genus head just came out. They already had 3 head models (Classic, Baby, Strong) last spring, as of Skin Fair 2019.  With the release of the free head and the settling of the DMCA they now have I think 8-9 options. And a lot of buzz because of the gift head, the news of a male head coming soon, and the fact that many people were not able to get newly released models after Skin Fair 2020 because of DMCA issues.  But regardless of the timeline, you're right that Genus had an unprecedented and meteoric rise. 

Why? First and foremost, the shape of the mesh itself. The shapability of the mesh. The HD lips. More commonplace now, but at the time of the release nothing came close to the quality of Genus HD lipsticks.  Months of events where every new must-have skin was made for Genus. Creators as much as anyone else fell in love with the heads. The of the shape of the mesh and the wide variety of possible looks.

[Lillith Hapmouche]

1 hour ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

The big explosion in popularity came when Genus, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, offered one of their heads for free.

Naaaah... even before they came around with that offer, a lot of content was already in favour of Genus, though probably not as much as Catwa. LeLutka managed to catch up a bit when their Evolution series was introduced.

[Ceka Cianci]

I remember,people were chomping at the bit for the 2nd beta to open up..Which if I remember right was early august 2018..I believe the first beta was like 6 months maybe,before that..

Classic and baby face were released in early December 2018.. Honestly, I can't remember a time where creators were not making content for even the 2nd beta head..

I can't really say for the first beta head because I wasn't paying attention at that time..I was just more or less hanging out listening to people talk about their heads and saying to myself..I sure wish I had their problems hehehehe

I don't think I've ever been in the genus group one time where people weren't talking about new releases of content and dropping LM's.. I just remember there being a page where we could link to people that had everything and it was growing every day..

Then they made the catalog on flickr and things really took off with creators..

All I know is, I'm really glad there is plenty to choose from..

[Pussycat Catnap]

5 hours ago, Senet Wylder said:

Why does GENUS have so much support is such a short time with only 2 female heads offered compared to Lelutka's 15 female heads?

It's worth noting that outside of the new Evolution line the Lelutka heads are all extremely similar in look - like not just the same ethnic group but they look like they're all siblings. As for the Evolution line. I believe it's very new. Not sure exactly how new though. But it looks intentionally designed to break the assumption that everything from that store looks like a clone. It's also default BOM and from demoing it seems to be of fairly high quality - although I have yet to get the look I like out of it. If it actually is truly BOM (a single layer mesh with NO FREAKING LAGGY ONION LAYERS) then I would have to start seriously recommending it, as well as give a very hard try toward getting my look recreated with it. Need to examine this more.

 

Genus I also don't understand because it's a very severe case of lack of variety what with only 3 heads out. I think they're all older than BOM - is there a single layer option in there for any of them or are they lag-beasts purposefully designed for the sole express goal of killing the grid like all of the competition is? 😉

I Need to pick up a current demo now that it's available again.

[missyrideout]

33 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I think they're all older than BOM - is there a single layer option in there for any of them or are they lag-beasts purposefully designed for the sole express goal of killing the grid like all of the competition is?

Genus always had one onionskin "tattoo" layer.  They declined  adding upper/lower Catwa-style layers in favour of waiting for BOM. They also have an HD lipstick layer and soon will have an HD eyeshadow layer. Lelutka Evolution has no onionskin layers. It's intended to be used as BOM+ two HD makeup layers: eyes and lips. You'll have to check the triangle counts in world to get an idea of which is the worst offender. Totally pure BOM heads are highly unlikely to take off, imho of course. HD makeup is here to stay.

There are currently 9 (nine) Genus heads:  Baby Face 01 , Baby Face 02, Classic 01, Classic 02, Strange Face 01, Strange Face 02, Strong Face 01, Strong Face 02, Strong Face Gift 01. Each is a different head with a different mesh. 4 "families" with two heads in each plus one gift. The degree to which they are different is up for discussion. To me they are samey in the same way all Catwa heads are the same, all Lelutka heads are the same. They are, and they aren't.

Edited July 5, 2020 by missyrideout
phrasing

[Pussycat Catnap]

1 minute ago, missyrideout said:

Lelutka Evolution has no onionskin layers. It's intended to be used as BOM+ two HD makeup layers: eyes and lips.

Um... That's 3 layers: skin + 2 onion.

Looks like Genus is 4 onion layers: skin, tattoo, lipstick, eyeshadow.

So those are both still lag beasts designed to kill the grid. Just not as bad as other lag beasts...

 

[missyrideout]

2 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Um... That's 3 layers: skin + 2 onion.

Looks like Genus is 4 onion layers: skin, tattoo, lipstick, eyeshadow.

So those are both still lag beasts designed to kill the grid. Just not as bad as other lag beasts...

 

An onionskin to me implies the entire head is wrapped in the layer. HD layers aren't that. Are the Maitreya nipples an "onionskin"? 

Edited July 5, 2020 by missyrideout

[Pussycat Catnap]

13 minutes ago, missyrideout said:

An onionskin to me implies the entire head is wrapped in the layer. HD layers aren't that. Are the Maitreya nipples an "onionskin"? 

I would say yes. If there is ANYTHING on a mesh that is not used most of the time by almost everyone, it should have been done as an external wearable. ESPECIALLY if the item is no-mod.

All this non-removable junk people keep adding just adds to lag.

 

Anyway the Genus head did look pretty nice when I demo'd it just now - but I can't use it because the ear hide option leaves a gaping hole in the side of my head. Ear hides would be one place where I might see the exception to my note above - someone like me who hides the ears is the rare exception. Someone who displays the nipples all of the time is also the rare exception - so the ears I don't mind being there by default... the nipples make more sense as a wearable.

I just wish that if someone was going to offer an ear hide option, they'd do it without putting a hole in the head...

Edited July 5, 2020 by Pussycat Catnap

[Blush Diavolo]

13 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I would say yes. If there is ANYTHING on a mesh that is not used most of the time by almost everyone, it should have been done as an external wearable. ESPECIALLY if the item is no-mod.

All this non-removable junk people keep adding just adds to lag.

 

Anyway the Genus head did look pretty nice when I demo'd it just now - but I can't use it because the ear hide option leaves a gaping hole in the side of my head. Ear hides would be one place where I might see the exception to my note above - someone like me who hides the ears is the rare exception. Someone who displays the nipples all of the time is also the rare exception - so the ears I don't mind being there by default... the nipples make more sense as a wearable.

I just wish that if someone was going to offer an ear hide option, they'd do it without putting a hole in the head...

Make your ear size 0 in your shape, it should fix your issue!

[steeljane42]

1 hour ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I would say yes. If there is ANYTHING on a mesh that is not used most of the time by almost everyone, it should have been done as an external wearable. ESPECIALLY if the item is no-mod.

All this non-removable junk people keep adding just adds to lag.

No thanks, not with 34 attachment limits at least. It's nice if you're nudist, but if you try to put up some interesting fantasy and/or sci-fi avatars, then you will hit the limit as is. Also HD addons on Lelutka heads are just ~4k vertices and ~7.5k triangles (together). So having 40 avatars with those "laggy" addons combined won't reach (triangles wise) 1-2 hairstyle with styles (almost all big hair creators do it now), 2-3 clothing with a few built-in options and so on. And then there are actually laggy things like non bento Catwa heads that can have 1.5m triangles just for 1, and some people still wear them.

---

As for Genus' popularity... I guess SL just needed something new when they were released. Catwa kept mass producing clones, I mean, new bento heads, Lelutka also did lack variety and only had 7 bento heads by the time Genus was out, Vista's heads never got popular enough, same for LAQ ones. The others (Logo, Genesis, Akeruka and I probably forget a few) were even smaller.

And bloggers went wild about them, even though animations were terrible (still are, but better than back then I think), rigged eyes had countless issues, sliders/shape wise they didn't offer anything great either. I, personally, don't see an appeal after trying all their demos before DMCA, but I'm glad they are back, the more variety there is the better.

Edited July 5, 2020 by steeljane42

[FairreLilette]

7 hours ago, Senet Wylder said:

Why does GENUS have so much support is such a short time with only 2 female heads offered compared to Lelutka's 15 female heads?

This is not a flame or a complaint, I am curious as to the popularity in such a short time. 

I think it is perhaps because you can make the Genus Classic head look somewhat like your Classic avatar head.  I've seen this done and it can bring a pretty close resemblance.   And, this, imo, is what makes it unique and one I would like to buy - the Genus Classic head.  

 

[Marianne Little]

9 hours ago, Fritigern Gothly said:

The big explosion in popularity came when Genus, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, offered one of their heads for free.

The backlash of that was that an unknown person filed a DCMA complaint against Genus, effectively shutting them down for a few months.

However, this shutdown was lifted yesterday, so it is once again possible to go and get the free head (and updates to already purchased heads).

So go ahead, get the free head and decide for yourself, is it really "the best" or just a good one? Make up your own mind , based on your own experiences because only you can decide if it meets your standards of what constitutes as good 🙂

 

NB: Apropos the complaint filed against Genus, there is a certain major head creator who routinely gets accused of having filed the complaint, but the Genus team and that creator have been in touch with each other and it was not that major creator. The person who filed the complaint is not known at this time, but I'm sure that whoever it was can expect to be sued for filing a false claim and for damages, at the very least!

The bolded: Fabulous news!!! I hope the person that filed a DMCA is "blacklisted" from filing more in the future.

[Pussycat Catnap]

3 hours ago, Blush Diavolo said:

Make your ear size 0 in your shape, it should fix your issue!

The Genus head looks to be a 'lesser offender' of the issues I have with too many layers, compared to most of the competition... so if I can get it work, I can see making the switch.

I'm not sure I can though if that is the solution. It makes me cat ears too small. I'd have to also find some bento cat ears set to something other than 'ear'. I'm not the typical use case these days... Neko went out of fashion about 10 years ago... If mesh had come out when I was new to SL, everyone would be complaining about the bodies forcing you to have a tail on even if you just click to hide it... 103% of SL users were Nekos back then, now it's just me and that freak over in the corner... (or is that a mirror...? 😉 )

EDIT:

Size 0 doesn't work for that anyway:

Edited July 5, 2020 by Pussycat Catnap

[Pussycat Catnap]

2 hours ago, steeljane42 said:

No thanks, not with 34 attachment limits at least.

Just link your stuff if you run out of attachment points.

Better than that forcing lag on EVERYONE.

 

[Anna Nova]

Where can you get the free Genus head?  I looked at the mainstore, they are all 3300.

[Coby Foden]

2 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

Where can you get the free Genus head?  I looked at the mainstore, they are all 3300.

It's on the wall, the gift head is this one: https://gyazo.com/70f65685a625052d1465293c03ff2772

[Fritigern Gothly]

2 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

Where can you get the free Genus head?  I looked at the mainstore, they are all 3300.

Go to the main store, join group, then get the head.

[Marianne Little]

6 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Anyway the Genus head did look pretty nice when I demo'd it just now - but I can't use it because the ear hide option leaves a gaping hole in the side of my head. Ear hides would be one place where I might see the exception to my note above - someone like me who hides the ears is the rare exception. Someone who displays the nipples all of the time is also the rare exception - so the ears I don't mind being there by default... the nipples make more sense as a wearable.

I just wish that if someone was going to offer an ear hide option, they'd do it without putting a hole in the head...

I second this, now that we have ears that are resized with the default ears - the slider under appearance - the "set ears to 0" does not help.

I do not have this issue since the ears I use are static with resizers, but the "hide ears" should give the head a smooth surface, not holes.

[steeljane42]

3 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Just link your stuff if you run out of attachment points.

Better than that forcing lag on EVERYONE.

 

Yeah, so much lag, whole 7.5k triangles. And I'm sure you strip down to just alpha every time you leave your place, otherwise you're also causing lag for everyone.

P. S.

I do link what I can. However no mod things can't be linked and we all know how much no-mod stuff there is. And even if mod, then some still can't be linked normally because of their functions and/or attachment points. For some easy example: anything unrigged that must be worn on eyeballs (cyber lenses) can't be linked to anything worn on other attachment points like spine or neck, they just stop moving with eyes then. Reverse order makes other attachment to move with eyes instead, so also not a viable solution.

[Maitimo]

On 7/4/2020 at 10:17 PM, Senet Wylder said:

Why does GENUS have so much support is such a short time with only 2 female heads offered compared to Lelutka's 15 female heads?

This is not a flame or a complaint, I am curious as to the popularity in such a short time. 

I guess at least part of the reason is that the developer kit is free and doesn't require an application. Some other makers charge a not-insignificant sum of money for their dev kits, and others have an application process and they will only approve you if you have a large, well-established business and meet certain criteria. So making content for Genus is more accessible to more people.

[elise Voxel]

They say Catwa is the most popular but I've personally seen far more products made for Genus.

Is it possible that the babyface is one of the reasons why they do so well? It's probably the best head for an asian/kawaii look. 

Maybe shapes is another factor. Genus heads can be altered to give all sorts of different looks.

Edited July 6, 2020 by SassySam87

[Marianne Little]

22 minutes ago, Maitimo said:

I guess at least part of the reason is that the developer kit is free and doesn't require an application. Some other makers charge a not-insignificant sum of money for their dev kits, and others have an application process and they will only approve you if you have a large, well-established business and meet certain criteria. So making content for Genus is more accessible to more people.

This makes so much sense. I could not for the life of me understand why it was suddenly Genus at all events, taking over the market. Applying for a developer kit takes time, and some demand RL info too, don't they? Add that to the price you have to pay, and it can be offputting if you are new as creator.

I was... annoyed.... because I could not find things for my older LeLutka head anymore. I have caved in and bought an Evolution head now.

It was something I think Genus sold more heads with. People saw all those gorgeous skins and makeups, and had to buy the head so they could use the products. Double win.

When Genus get a male head on the market, I think that will sell well too.