Hair not rendering properly all of a sudden

[Dragonlord1269]

Hello and thanks for reading this:

 

I'm new to SL, and I have an issue with my hair all of a sudden for no known reason. The hair falling on my chest doesn't render like it has been for the past 2 weeks. It just started last night when I put a new shirt I bought on. But now with it off, and switching to or from any other outfit it happens. If I detach/add the hair it's fine, but as soon as I change outfits it comes back.

I'm using Firestorm Viewer (updated), Signature Gianni v5.0 body (SL Neck) (BOM), Signature Gianni Default skin 5, Lelutka Skyler 2.5 head (BOM), Lelutka Skyler shape, no.match_No_Wither hair, ALPHA MASK (BOM Head/Body, Applier eyes.

 

The lighter color isn't supposed to be there. I assume it's something of the entire shape of the style but it isn't supposed to be visible.

Correct hair rendering

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and, or responding to it. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Skell Dagger]

Thanks for giving us the list of what you're wearing, @Dragonlord1269. That's always useful information to work with. I suspect, though, that what's causing the problem is something that you haven't listed.

The issue isn't with your hair; it's either with your tattoo or your body hair (if the body hair is an add-on and not part of the skin itself). The alpha you've listed suggests that you're fully BoM for everything except your eyes, so my guess is that the tattoo and/or body hair are appliers. The fact that the tattoo stops very abruptly at the neck join would suggest it's that part, as a BoM (system layer) tattoo would progress further up the neck.

If so, then it's a simple fix: Check to see if the tattoo has a BoM option. If it does, add that, and then set the tattoo layer on your Gianni body to not show, and the issue should go away. If the body hair is also an applier, you'll need to check for and add a BoM version of that also (although I'm guessing it's not, otherwise you'd be seeing the same kind of glitching between the body hair and the tattoo).

The OpenGL glitch is a persistent one that - visually - can come and go. The fastest and most common way around it is to detach and re-add your hair. That re-sorts the alpha layers for your viewer to understand and render correctly. But as soon as you teleport anywhere the sorting information will get confused again, hence the second workaround that others have given you, which is to change the alpha masking on the hair. Be aware, though, that - even if the hair is modifiable and you are able to change it - the hair might not look great afterwards. The sections of hair that you'd be working with contain some lighter 'feathered' areas, and those usually don't look good when alpha masking is used (they can turn into solid 'blocks').

[Lindal Kidd]

Try right clicking the hair, selecting Edit, and changing the alpha type from Alpha Masking to Alpha Blending (or vice versa, if it's already set to Alpha Blending)

[Rowan Amore]

It's the tattoo layer that causing the alpha on the hair to glitch.  You can try doing as @Lindal Kiddsuggested but if the hair is no mod, it will always do this when against your tattoo.  If your body is BOM, try a BOM tattoo instead of an applier.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

This is an entirely normal thing we've all been experiencing for over a decade.

The problem can happen when there are two partially-transparent surfaces on top of each other. In this case, it's your hair and your tattoo layer.

Essentially, the viewer will have to draw one or the other onto the screen first. If they're drawn in the wrong order, your problem appears.

If the viewer decides that the tattoo is under the hair, everything looks as it should. But sometimes, the viewer will think that the hair is under the tattoo. So, the hair is drawn over bare skin and then the tattoo layer is drawn around the hair. (I'm simplifying the explanation quite a lot.)

It's often fixed by selecting the hair, but not always.

The only permanent fix is to avoid overlaying partially transparent (specifically, alpha-blending) textures. The best way to do that in this case is to use Bakes On Mesh.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Rowan Amore]

Constantly had the issue with applier eyeshadow and hair.  BOM solved it.

[Rowan Amore]

3 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

This is an entirely normal thing we've all been experiencing for over a decade.

The problem can happen when there are two partially-transparent surfaces on top of each other. In this case, it's your hair and your tattoo layer.

Essentially, the viewer will have to draw one or the other onto the screen first. If they're drawn in the wrong order, your problem appears.

If the viewer decides that the tattoo is under the hair, everything looks as it should. But sometimes, the viewer will think that the hair is under the tattoo. So, the hair is drawn over bare skin and then the tattoo layer is drawn around the hair.

It's often fixed by selecting the hair, but not always.

The only permanent fix is to avoid overlaying partially transparent (specifically, alpha-blending) textures. The best way to do that is to use Bakes On Mesh.

Thanks for the explanation.  I always wondered why it happened.

[MoiraKathleen]

If the hair is modifiable, you will want to choose "select face" once you're in the Edit window, and then click on the transparent parts of the hair that are incorrectly appearing.  Then switch to the "Texture" tab of the Edit window and change "Alpha Blending" to "Alpha Masking".  If that makes those sections turn black, then in the mask cut-off box that's right under the box where you choose "Alpha Masking"  enter a number - it's been awhile since I've done this with hair, but try around 100 and see if that changes it to being invisible rather than black - if not, try 255 in the mask cut-off box. 

If the hair is not modifiable, then see about whether you can go BOM with skin and tattoo, as Rowan suggested. 

[Rowan Amore]

20 minutes ago, MoiraKathleen said:

If the hair is modifiable, you will want to choose "select face" once you're in the Edit window, and then click on the transparent parts of the hair that are incorrectly appearing.  Then switch to the "Texture" tab of the Edit window and change "Alpha Blending" to "Alpha Masking".  If that makes those sections turn black, then in the mask cut-off box that's right under the box where you choose "Alpha Masking"  enter a number - it's been awhile since I've done this with hair, but try around 100 and see if that changes it to being invisible rather than black - if not, try 255 in the mask cut-off box. 

If the hair is not modifiable, then see about whether you can go BOM with skin and tattoo, as Rowan suggested. 

This is why I wish more hair was mod.

[MoiraKathleen]

31 minutes ago, RowanMinx said:

This is why I wish more hair was mod.

I agree, especially when it's long hair in the front and you're wearing a no-mod top that also has alpha blending and parts of your top disappear...

[Dragonlord1269]

I want to thank you all for your replies. I will look into all of them.

About the neck join @Skell Dagger, I didn't even notice in the pictures that it isn't showing. There is a small amount of tattoo that runs onto the front of my neck. I can see it on me now, but what I didn't see until now is the HUD - Neck Tattoo, which I am about to add and click apply. Correct, my body hair is not part of the skin itself, nor from the Signature Gianni body hair pack, but it is BOM and advertised to work with Signature Gianni.

Ok, so I added the HUD - Neck Tattoo and clicked apply but nothing changed. In the meantime, I went to look at the tattoo again on MP and discovered there is a whole bunch of neck tattoo I'm missing. The only option in regards to the neck is applying it via the HUD. The body tattoo has the HUD apply system as well as a tattoo layer which when added makes the body tattoo look as advertised. So I am basically wearing 2 tattoos, being unaware of whether I needed to add both. The HUD applied tattoo is much lighter, and from what I'm seeing it's the HUD added "faded" tattoo is leaking through the added tattoo layer at the bottom of my hair and that is what we see in the picture. I am going to remove the HUD applied tattoo if I can and only use the layer tattoo to see if that resolves the problem. As far as the neck... I don't see a layer tattoo in my inventory for the neck tattoo. And like I said the HUD apply for the neck does nothing.

I really hope I don't have to use a Signature Head for this tattoo to look as intended. Which now that I look at it on MP, there is no Lelutka Icon associated with the tattoo so now I'm guessing that is my issue with the neck tattoo. There is an omega applier icon though, so I should go get the omega applier and add it through the omega applier, correct? I will be back with the above mentioned removal of the HUD applied body tat some time today.

Update: Removing that HUD applied tattoo has seemed to fix the hair problem going from one outfit to another. If someone can comment on the improper neck tattoo issue ( the lack of the advertised tattoo on the neck as well not realizing the product doesn't advertise Lelutka) and let me know if I should now pick up the omega applier. Will that apply the HUD only neck tattoo?

Again thank you all

Edited January 15, 2021 by Dragonlord1269
Spelling and Clarification, Updated

[Skell Dagger]

3 hours ago, Dragonlord1269 said:

The body tattoo has the HUD apply system as well as a tattoo layer which when added makes the body tattoo look as advertised. So I am basically wearing 2 tattoos, being unaware of whether I needed to add both.

Wear only the tattoo layer version. Use your Gianni HUD to clear the applier tattoo. Once you have the BoM tattoo on, you'll be fully BoM and the alpha glitching behind your hair will be gone.

3 hours ago, Dragonlord1269 said:

The HUD applied tattoo is much lighter

This is likely because the creator hasn't included a faded version of the tattoo layer. Quite why they've not done that is a bit of a mystery, however it's a known issue that you can't change the transparency of a BoM layer, so possible that the tattoo creator thought they would include the faded version as an applier only. It's incorrect thinking (they would simply need to create another tattoo layer using the 'faded version' texture, and besides that mesh bodies don't tend to have an option to control transparency on tattoos anyway) but they may have seen that somewhere else (usually related to things like makeup appliers) and assumed the same thing was needed for tattoos. Who knows? The more I read of this, the more confusing the contents of the tattoo's folder appear to be!

3 hours ago, Dragonlord1269 said:

If someone can comment on the improper neck tattoo issue ( the lack of the advertised tattoo on the neck as well not realizing the product doesn't advertise Lelutka) and let me know if I should now pick up the omega applier. Will that apply the HUD only neck tattoo?

Without knowing exactly which tattoo it is, and by which store, I've no idea. I wouldn't recommend using part-BoM/part-applier tattoos, though. The BoM layer should have the entire thing all in one, neck included, and it should show up on any BoM-enabled head or body regardless of brand. It sounds as though the tattoo creator has included a very confusing mixture of BoM and applier partial tattoo options, which - if that's the case - is not very user-friendly.

[Dragonlord1269]

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

Without knowing exactly which tattoo it is, and by which store, I've no idea.

Rock Tattoo Unisex Horse and Dragon V5

 

 

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

The BoM layer should have the entire thing all in one, neck included, and it should show up on any BoM-enabled head or body regardless of brand

I agree it should be included in the "body" tattoo and show up. One thing i did not test was if the neck tattoo would show up on the neck if I turned off Head BOM. I'll check that out now. No luck. I'm lost lol.

[Skell Dagger]

OK, looking at that list, "full body" appears to mean only the body. All of the applier options are listed as either being for a specific body brand (full body) or a specific head brand (neck section). My guess would be that - for some reason - there is no BoM version of the neck section for any brand of head. While you could try the Omega applier for the neck tattoo section, I'm unsure as to whether it would work. I'm a CSR for Catwa, not Lelutka, but I have a suspicion that Lelutka's Evolution range may not even have a tattoo layer on the neck for it to apply to.

I'd suggest trying the Omega applier first (you may need the Omega installer for Lelutka, if you don't already have it; I'd definitely check in the Lelutka support group to find out if it will even work, before you spend additional money on the Omega kit) but if that doesn't work, then judging from the Marketplace reviews for that specific product the creator is very helpful, so I'd reach out to them and ask if they have a BoM version of the neck tattoo section.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Skell Dagger

[Dragonlord1269]

7 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

While you could try the Omega applier for the neck tattoo section, I'm unsure as to whether it would work.

If I understand what I just read in between or responses, Lelutka went EVO so Omega applier will only work on eyes now. Thanks for everything Skell, you have been a tremendous help.

[Rowan Amore]

2 hours ago, Dragonlord1269 said:

Rock Tattoo Unisex Horse and Dragon V5

 

 

I agree it should be included in the "body" tattoo and show up. One thing i did not test was if the neck tattoo would show up on the neck if I turned off Head BOM. I'll check that out now. No luck. I'm lost lol.

I contacted this creator a few years ago.  He's very helpful with any questions you might have.

[Dragonlord1269]

4 hours ago, RowanMinx said:

I contacted this creator a few years ago.  He's very helpful with any questions you might have.

I am going to reach out to the creator in the near future. Thank you