Belleza Update

[Karl Herber]

1 hour ago, KjartanEno said:

I couldn't pass up a sale on Jake, especially since I've already got clothing for the body. As pointed out in this thread, a modifiable version of the body is now included. That is very important since the body is still NOT fully BoM compatible out-of-the-box due to the skin layer having no blend mode set. The No Mod version is still essentially the same as the demo I've had for a while in that it can have the BoM placeholder textures applied, but system alpha masks have no effect on it. The only difference being that on the demo I had to use Omega to set the BoM placeholder textures, and now they're included in the body script.

For anyone who would like to get the modify version of Jake working with BoM, here's a script you can create and drop in the body:

Even though this script will enable the correct use of BoM, the Omega system cannot be added to the modify body for some reason. I know I can further edit the body to get an Omega Custom Mesh Body Kit to work with it, but I expect the average user won't have the patience or know-how to deal with the semi functional nature of the "update."

If you got Jake and want fully functional BoM, then use the above script on your Mod version of the body. If you don't mind using applier skins and alpha HUDs, then "new" Jake will work pretty much like the old one in that regard.

There's no need for this. The hud for all 4 of the new bodies has a button on the hud to switch between Alpha Blend, Alpha Masked and None. Its set to None by default (same as the old body) but if you click where it says None - next to BOM (can't get a screenshot cos I can't log in atm) it toggles beteween the three modes. 

No need to do any of this complicated stuff.

[SarahThe Wanderer]

25 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Maybe in winter when I'm wearing turtlenecks, I can use it.  😅

Oh yea no kidding haha, winter clothes is the easiest solution for neck problems. 💁‍♀️

[Lewis Luminos]

12 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Working with the Mod version of the body, After removing every piece of mesh I wasn't using.. several dozens of pieces.

I unlinked the upper torso - which was 6 pieces, and replaced it with 'fat tids' which is a single mesh piece. That cut out 5 links of mesh. 4 for me though because I added fat tid's larger nipple addon.

- I then matched the bump and specular maps across the whole body for proper upper and lower so that fat tids would look right. Removed all the scripts.

Stuff like this is why I wanted Mod.

End result gives me a low lag 'looks just right for me' copy of the body.

 

The resulting visual is NSFW, so I can't show it here.

 

I'm thinking I need to write a tutorial of things one can do with the mod copy - from simple 'get rid of extra pieces' to more advanced 'link in mod-kits'.

I've been waiting YEARS for a human body that would let me do things that are just 'basic and routine' in the furry community. Never expected to get that body out of one of my favorites - so this is just an added bonus.

 

 

Wait... you mean my alt can take this body, detach all 3 sets of the human feet and actually link her furry feet directly to the body? 

If so, that is awesome.

[Pussycat Catnap]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

I just can't see how that neck issue isn't a problem for people.  Now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it and will probably notice it on anyone wearing it.  Am I the only one that it bothers?   I had thought with the universal neck it would fit my Lelutka as well as Maitreya and Legacy do.  I will be sending a notecard to ask about this.  Not sure I'd want to run around looking like Quasimodo.  (ok, maybe a bit dramatic but still)

It's been in Belleza since the beginning - and at the time it was still a step up from other bodies in that area, so people got used to it.

It is something they should fix, as smoothing that bump out would be unlikely to break any outfits.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

7 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

Wait... you mean my alt can take this body, detach all 3 sets of the human feet and actually link her furry feet directly to the body? 

If so, that is awesome.

It's mod so you could technically link a house to your ear if that was your thing.

You still need the things you link in to have the right rigging - that house would just float around you the same way it would if you just attached it.

But yes if you have multiple rigged items that were made to fit Belleza - might as well link them all so you just have one thing to wear.

And remove all the parts of the avatar you do NOT use. Unlining and getting rid of them in the copy you use is better for your 'lag' than hiding them with alphas - if there's something you almost never need, toss it out.

 

I removed over 60 pieces of mesh from Belleza last night that were unused items - onion layers, alternative breast shapes, multiple feet, etc.

I am on the fence about feet with one of two ideas: 4 copies of the body each that uses a different foot shape... or unlinking all feet and just wearing the feet as another attachment.

- I think wearing them as a separate attachment will be the best choice for 'speed of outfit changing'.

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap

[Lewis Luminos]

5 hours ago, Emma Krokus said:

I'd love to see some pictures - esp comparisons with Maitreya Lara. 

Does anyone have some to share?

Can't get pics right now because I'm not able to log back in but I did take demos of all three Bell bodies for comparison.

• All three seem to be broader in the hips than Maitreya. Venus the least so and Freya the most. 
• Venus has perky, almost petite breasts, closer in shape to Maitreya Petite, but they are overall bigger than Maitreya Petite. Isis breasts are bigger and rounder, but not as much as Freya. Freya's breasts look more natural, Isis' look like she's got implants.
• Venus and Isis breasts don't deform at lower slider numbers like Maitreya does. 
• All of them have better shoulders and thicker upper arms than Maitreya.
• Raising bodyfat doesn't automatically give them a beer-belly/baby-bump like it does with Maitreya.

Freya seems the most versatile and natural looking to me, I've had the original on one alt for a year or so, and because it can do a slimmer (but still curvy) shape as well as a chubby one, I've got the same for Indra too but I've made her shape more on the slimmer side.

And of course I got Jake for myself.

[Lewis Luminos]

29 minutes ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

But yes if you have multiple rigged items that were made to fit Belleza - might as well link them all so you just have one thing to wear.

 

oh yeah the furry feet are rigged. So is her tail, come to think of it, though linking that might mess with the animations.

I'm definitley planning on removing all the onion layers too, she will definitely never use those.

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

29 minutes ago, Lewis Luminos said:

oh yeah the furry feet are rigged. So is her tail, come to think of it, though linking that might mess with the animations.

I'm definitley planning on removing all the onion layers too, she will definitely never use those.

 

Yeah I have a faun alt that, once the servers come back up, I plan to do this with. Link in the goat legs, tail, and horns, and delete all the feet and onion layers.

[Pussycat Catnap]

3 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

I just can't see how that neck issue isn't a problem for people.  Now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it and will probably notice it on anyone wearing it.  Am I the only one that it bothers?   I had thought with the universal neck it would fit my Lelutka as well as Maitreya and Legacy do.  I will be sending a notecard to ask about this.  Not sure I'd want to run around looking like Quasimodo.  (ok, maybe a bit dramatic but still)

Got this in response to asking about it in what appears to be a new Belleza discord:

Quote

 

Vixie — Today at 11:27 AM

If you adjust your neck slider to 25 this will smooth.

 

 

Trying this however, made it worse:

Whereas my dials had been 38 and 30:

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap

[KjartanEno]

4 hours ago, Karly Kiyori said:

There's no need for this. The hud for all 4 of the new bodies has a button on the hud to switch between Alpha Blend, Alpha Masked and None. Its set to None by default (same as the old body) but if you click where it says None - next to BOM (can't get a screenshot cos I can't log in atm) it toggles beteween the three modes. 

No need to do any of this complicated stuff.

I'd love to be able to check this and see for certain, but yeah, today of all days we get a grid crash LOL.

Nevertheless, when I did click the BOM button after having selected one of the available skins from the HUD, it did not cause alpha masks to start working on the No Mod body. I selected a skin, saw the Belleza Jake skin, and then after clicking BOM on the HUD, I saw my system skin.

I was wearing an alpha mask at the time as part of my testing. I make system alpha masks, tattoo layers, Universal layers, system skins, Omega appliers, and even rigged mesh when I feel like playing in Blender with Avastar.

Regardless of potential creative uses of alpha blended and emissive skins, the BoM setting should automatically set the skin to masking by default, else there are going to be a lot of confused customers.

___________________

EDIT: You are right. I was clicking the [ BoM] box that looks like a button, not the button next to it. Masking does work. I think the body should have it set to mask by default though. I'm probably not the only one who will wrongly assume that the body wasn't properly set up.

Edited August 31, 2021 by KjartanEno
clarification

[Eddy Vortex]

5 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

I just can't see how that neck issue isn't a problem for people.  Now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it and will probably notice it on anyone wearing it.  Am I the only one that it bothers?   I had thought with the universal neck it would fit my Lelutka as well as Maitreya and Legacy do.  I will be sending a notecard to ask about this.  Not sure I'd want to run around looking like Quasimodo.  (ok, maybe a bit dramatic but still)

Same here. I wanted to get the Jake for Greg but I couldn't get past the ridge either. It may be okay for an alt, but it won't pass the muster with him.

 

[Eddy Vortex]

2 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

Got this in response to asking about it in what appears to be a new Belleza discord:

 

Vixie — Today at 11:27 AM

If you adjust your neck slider to 25 this will smooth.

 

Trying this however, made it worse:

Whereas my dials had been 38 and 30:

 

It doesn't work so well for the Jake either.  My neck thickness slider is already over 25:

Increasing the number looks okay from the side:

But when you view it from the front:

The neck breaks when you push the slider past 50. >_< This will be an issue for some guys who want a 17" or thicker neck. 

This poor alt will have to live with the pencil-neck syndrome until who knows when it'll be addressed.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Eddy Vortex
pictures

[KjartanEno]

4 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

I removed over 60 pieces of mesh from Belleza last night that were unused items - onion layers, alternative breast shapes, multiple feet, etc.

Which is probably what I'll do as well to Jake, since there's hardly any need for three onion layers nowadays. I'll change the description fields on what I do keep and add an Omega Custom Mesh Body kit script to it.

[Pussycat Catnap]

2 hours ago, Eddy Vortex said:

It doesn't work so well for the Jake either.  My neck thickness slider is already over 25:

 

Increasing the number looks okay from the side:

 

But when you view it from the front:

 

The neck breaks when you push the slider past 50. >_< This will be an issue for some guys who want a 17" or thicker neck. 

This poor alt will have to live with the pencil-neck syndrome until who knows when it'll be addressed.

 

So the '25' refers to neck thickness, and they suggest a value ABOVE 25 with 50 the sweet spot for most avatars.

A shape dial of '57' in neck thickness seemed absurd to me because I use radically lower on Maitreya, but on Belleza it actually looked 'right'.

 

On the male body, I was told to adjust for a balance between neck and shoulders. As in, in your screenshots maybe your shoulders are too narrow and pushing into your neck which is too thick?

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap

[Eddy Vortex]

2 hours ago, Pussycat Catnap said:

So the '25' refers to neck thickness, and they suggest a value ABOVE 25 with 50 the sweet spot for most avatars.

 

On the male body, I was told to adjust for a balance between neck and shoulders. As in, in your screenshots maybe your shoulders are too narrow and pushing into your neck which is too thick?

 

The CSR did say the more narrow the shoulders, the more pronounced the neck bump; so it's very likely.  It's going to be a challenge finding a balance with broader shoulders and still maintain Greg's svelte physique.

[KjartanEno]

Jake with Slink Redux male feet and Catwa Dino head. Skin, bump, and specular textures are my own. I'm using the mod version of the body. There is a noticeable neck seam. I despise neck blenders, so it is what it is.

Edited September 1, 2021 by KjartanEno
clarification

[Pussycat Catnap]

1 hour ago, KjartanEno said:

Jake with Slink Redux male feet and Catwa Dino head. Skin, bump, and specular textures are my own. I'm using the mod version of the body. There is a noticeable neck seam. I despise neck blenders, so it is what it is.

My alt got the Jake update and uses lelutka heads.

I had no neck seams and no neck bulges or dents.

I did use the copy/mod version and removed all the Onion Layers which removed 87 mesh objects from the linkset !!!

So my male alt now has a super low lag body.

 

 

My process for removing items from these is to first use the HUD to set up the body for how I will usually have it, and make sure it's in BOM and Mask mode.

Then I rez it out with the option in the viewer to highlight transparencies.

I drag everything that is NOT transparent off to the side, along with the root prim, and remove those items from the link set, then link them to the root prim. I delete the huge mess of transparent stuff that is left.

- This destroys the ability to use the HUD because it ruins the order of links. But since the bodies are Mod the HUD is not needed anyway.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap

[Eddy Vortex]

I'll either have buyer's remorse or regret not buying when the price is at its cheapest.  What is that lingo kids say these days? YOLO

[Karl Herber]

9 hours ago, KjartanEno said:

EDIT: ...I'm probably not the only one who will wrongly assume that the body wasn't properly set up.

Actually you're partially (or completely) right, the body is not properly set up out of the box. It should be masked as default, with the option to toggle to blend or none.

[Lewis Luminos]

I have no issue with the neck on Jake at all.  There is the tiniest bump at the back; I can definitely live with this.

No problem at all viewed from the front;

Ignore the neck seam - it's an old skin, not very well made, and the seam shows with just a classic body too. That's not a Jake issue at all.

Overall I like this body better than Gianni. I had to beef up my shape a little bit, especially in the lower body, to get to about the same shape I was with Gianni. 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Lewis Luminos

[Marianne Little]

I am tempted to go and spend some money to upgrade one or two male alts.

@Pussycat Catnap, when you have removed all the onion layers, the body works as a BoM body? The alpha cut in the HUD disappear when the parts are stripped off?

How low are the number after you took off all the parts?

@KjartanEno, your neck look great. I can not see any bump from the front. What's your neck number?

The reason why I consider it for the male alts is obvious, Jake has great clothes and other stuff support. While replacing the Maitreya for my female alts is not an option. I upgraded them when Maitreya had a 50% off sale.

I also have a guess that Maitreya will update with an optional mod version too. Maitreya will not let another body have a benefit that Lara does not have.

[s2Pandora]

Can't say the neck bump bothers me either. I've been using Freya for years and.. tbh I never noticed it until you guys brought it up lol. I always wear chokers, though(not because of neck seams, just because I like them). Hopefully Tricky will see this thread, as i'm not sure how many people actually contact about the things they find.

[KjartanEno]

1 hour ago, Marianne Little said:

What's your neck number?

45

I don't have any bad bump like others have shown. I just notice the transition from body to head when looking at it up close using standard day cycle lighting conditions. If I set the viewer to CalWL, the transition is close to perfect.

[Rowan Amore]

Tried adjustments mentioned here with neck size and shoulders but this is just not acceptable for me, sadly as I love the rest of the body. 

[Pussycat Catnap]

5 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

I am tempted to go and spend some money to upgrade one or two male alts.

@Pussycat Catnap, when you have removed all the onion layers, the body works as a BoM body? The alpha cut in the HUD disappear when the parts are stripped off?

How low are the number after you took off all the parts?

 

Yes. Onion layers are essentially the opposite of BOM.

So BOM works great on just the single layer.

I'll post some numbers once I get online.

 

There are so many mesh objects in Belleza that using it without removing the layers is almost akin to making a griefing attack...

 

I'm actually deeply disappointed that Belleza didn't do what Maitreya did.

Maitreya removed the onion layers for people, and made them separate items you wear. Still works - but now people assume a default of not wearing them unless they're using them.

And most people are actually NOT running around with Omega bras on all the time... so have little need for the Onion layers. A segment of people wear tattoos - but these actually work BETTER on the base BOM layer. Many other Onion items also work better as baked onto the BOM.

Belleza V6 MASSIVELY dropped the ball there - it's still the same lagfest it always was, and 99% of users will believe they lack the ability to make the mods needed to make it low lag - or never see my comments on how to do it - or never know it's a good idea.

 

Once you remove all the onion layers it becomes a low lag body - so why didn't they do that for people?

 

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap