NUX Avatar

[Jenna Huntsman]

So, as of today, Linden Lab have unveiled their new (replacement?) to the old System avatars.

The "NUX" (New User eXperience) avatar is a full-mesh, Bento-rigged avatar which will be fully slider-adjustable, and will have a male and female variant. LL also intends for a library of clothing to be launched with the avatar, which will be available for both variants.

LL have also announced that the dev kit will be available to creators who wish to make content for this new avatar.

Some photos from the launch (Male variant, modelled by @Jester Mole)

(Taken in Alchemy (project) Viewer, 100mm lens)

Livestream of the reveal (Unveiling at 13:45)

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Jenna Huntsman

[Rowan Amore]

Is it BOM?

[Jenna Huntsman]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

Is it BOM?

Yes - I don't think they mentioned if it's using a different UV map, but I'm assuming it's SLUV

[Codex Alpha]

We need documentation and updated tutorials to encourage more people to upload custom avatars with any new rig.

And sorry if this offends anyone, without a Avastar prerequisite.

This will open up SL and options to more creators who won't necessarily have a paywall in the way or limited to one workflow that is constantly promoted.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Codex Alpha

[Blaise Glendevon]

Is it compatible with Universal Neck, I wonder? If you can't separate head and neck, it's a total non-starter out of the gate. I wonder how far you can push the sliders on it to make it outside of the rather generic shape I'm seeing in the demo. Also, it's telling that they showed the men's version and not the women's. I suppose they're not ready for that level of scrutiny.

 

[Jenna Huntsman]

13 hours ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

Is it compatible with Universal Neck, I wonder? If you can't separate head and neck, it's a total non-starter out of the gate. I wonder how far you can push the sliders on it to make it outside of the rather generic shape I'm seeing in the demo. Also, it's telling that they showed the men's version and not the women's. I suppose they're not ready for that level of scrutiny.

 

The demo that was on display was an All In One (head + body in a single mesh), but it was acknowledged that it is "preview-grade", so I'd say it's too early to know which way they're going to go.

(Although I do agree, the head and body should be separate - I'd also hope it uses the SLneck!)

EDIT:

Please see the comment from Patch here, the body is separate from the head mesh -

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by Jenna Huntsman
Update with new info

[Blaise Glendevon]

1 minute ago, Jenna Huntsman said:

The demo that was on display was an All In One (head + body in a single mesh), but it was acknowledged that it is "preview-grade", so I'd say it's too early to know which way they're going to go.

(Although I do agree, the head and body should be separate - I'd also hope it uses the SLneck!)

As a starter, to learn how mesh works before you buy one of the many creator-supported bodies and heads, it might work. I'd be surprised if creators jump on the bandwagon of making clothes for an avatar used by people too cheap to buy a real mesh body or too new to know where the discerning shopper heads and what they create for. And as admirers of the Tonic bodies or the Signature Alice might tell you, you can have the finest body on the market - but if there are no clothes/skins, you're just going to wear Maitreya/Legacy/Belleza, etc. 

[blissfulbreeze]

I'm impressed, wow. Good job.

[Gabriele Graves]

I actually think this is encouraging and will help enormously.  If it turns out to be what it appears to be, it is what has been asked for by the residents of SL for a long time now.  I don't think the standard neck or having a separate head is really much of an issue personally.  I wonder though if "system avatar replacement" really means it will be built-in in the same way as the existing system avatar is or will it be more like current mesh bodies/head in that it is an attachment.  It would be a shame if it were not integrated in a sense because the newbie will still have to grapple with the fact there is an older system avatar underneath as well, sooner or later.

Of course it will depend enormously on clothing creator support and so my enthusiasm has to be reigned in considerably as we know that hurdle is huge.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Gabriele Graves

[Elle74 Zaftig]

Meh, this should have come out WAY before ANY of the mesh bodies and heads ever came out. Just like BOM SHOULD have been the standard before any of the dumb appliers became a thing (what a damn pain in the tuchhus). Who would want to even wear these? I mean ok, fine, there ARE still people who wear the system avi -_-, and they'll probably wear this...but for the rest of us who've spent gajillions on mesh bodies and heads...this is...too little too late sadly. I wouldn't even put my alts in this.

[Quistess Alpha]

Honestly, I really like this. Finding standard 'casual' attire, especially with modify permissions and downloadable texture templates is hard and/or expensive even for experienced residents. Even if it doesn't take off with any of the big creators, if it has a good handful of viable clothing variations it would probably be worth sinking a few hours into playing dress-up with.

[Lucia Nightfire]

2 hours ago, Jenna Huntsman said:

The demo that was on display was an All In One (head + body in a single mesh)

The industry calls it a "fullbody".

[colleen Criss]

1 hour ago, Blaise Glendevon said:

As a starter, to learn how mesh works before you buy one of the many creator-supported bodies and heads, it might work. I'd be surprised if creators jump on the bandwagon of making clothes for an avatar used by people too cheap to buy a real mesh body or too new to know where the discerning shopper heads and what they create for. And as admirers of the Tonic bodies or the Signature Alice might tell you, you can have the finest body on the market - but if there are no clothes/skins, you're just going to wear Maitreya/Legacy/Belleza, etc. 

THIS is real mesh.

[Blaise Glendevon]

27 minutes ago, colleen Criss said:

THIS is real mesh.

It's a freebie substitute. We don't even know what features it has or the capacity for figure changes before the mesh starts to warp. 

[Coffee Pancake]

Well then .. this is finally progress.

I await the BLENDER dev kits and documentation.

Not Maya .. B L E N D E R

[Sammy Huntsman]

4 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Well then .. this is finally progress.

I await the BLENDER dev kits and documentation.

Not Maya .. B L E N D E R

Btw I was right. lol

[Sammy Huntsman]

3 hours ago, Codex Alpha said:

We need documentation and updated tutorials to encourage more people to upload custom avatars with any new rig.

And sorry if this offends anyone, without a Avastar prerequisite.

This will open up SL and options to more creators who won't necessarily have a paywall in the way or limited to one workflow that is constantly promoted.

But these new avatars are free. So what is the paywall that is in the way. That and not everyone knows how to make complex mesh such as that. So I don't see what your point is.

[Sammy Huntsman]

2 hours ago, Elle74 Zaftig said:

Meh, this should have come out WAY before ANY of the mesh bodies and heads ever came out. Just like BOM SHOULD have been the standard before any of the dumb appliers became a thing (what a damn pain in the tuchhus). Who would want to even wear these? I mean ok, fine, there ARE still people who wear the system avi -_-, and they'll probably wear this...but for the rest of us who've spent gajillions on mesh bodies and heads...this is...too little too late sadly. I wouldn't even put my alts in this.

Okay then LL isnt forcing you to wear this. This is generally for new users of SL. So these people haven't spent oodles of money on their avatar. And yeah some people change to this new mesh avatar.  But some people will still wear their system avatar.

[Coffee Pancake]

I will also add .. 

PLEASE @Linden Lab Let us have a robust and (actually) iterative preview / beta period.

Let us find all the jank, all the areas where it falls down, all the sliders and poses and gotchas that don't to the magic. Let us whale on it and iterate a little. We're really good at picking things apart and finding problems, often by accident. We go places QA don't even dream.

Let us help you make it as good as it can be .. it wont please everyone, it can't. But please let us help you get this body into a final state where NUX doesn't become shorthand for some social judgement call, and adding it to existing workflows is a no brainer.

We all need this to be a huge win.

 

[Akane Nacht]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Let us help you make it as good as it can be ..

I second this... let both skin/clothing makers and users fiddle with it. An easy to use out of the box body will be such a boon for new user experience, and for oldies who are tired of complicated huds 😛

Edited June 25, 2022 by Akane Nacht
typo

[Theresa Tennyson]

8 hours ago, Elle74 Zaftig said:

Meh, this should have come out WAY before ANY of the mesh bodies and heads ever came out. Just like BOM SHOULD have been the standard before any of the dumb appliers became a thing (what a damn pain in the tuchhus). Who would want to even wear these? I mean ok, fine, there ARE still people who wear the system avi -_-, and they'll probably wear this...but for the rest of us who've spent gajillions on mesh bodies and heads...this is...too little too late sadly. I wouldn't even put my alts in this.

Mesh starter avatars DID come out before any of the mesh bodies and heads came out. They were garbage.

 

[Marianne Little]

I agree that this is coming very, very late. Ten years too late.

If creators think those who use this avatar will only get freebies for it, it will not have much support. It is bills and rent to pay in RL for them as for all of us.

Kind creators may include a size for it and have at The Free Dove or such places, even if they don't make money.

[Conifer Dada]

As someone who has stuck with a 'system' avatar body and head up to now (over 15 years) this could be what I'm waiting for.

[Elle74 Zaftig]

7 hours ago, Sammy Huntsman said:

Okay then LL isnt forcing you to wear this. This is generally for new users of SL. So these people haven't spent oodles of money on their avatar. And yeah some people change to this new mesh avatar.  But some people will still wear their system avatar.

Did I even IMPLY that they were forcing me or anyone for that matter to use it? My point was that it's come out too late for most of the folks like me who've bought mesh bodies and heads from content creators. It's great that they're the ones making mesh now, and that it's free...but for folks like me, it's not anything that gives me a QOL upgrade.

[Conifer Dada]

Quote

LL have also announced that the dev kit will be available to creators who wish to make content for this new avatar.

Not sure what this means but hopefully by "creators" LL means anyone who wants to have a go at making content. As well as the avatars, a set of full-perm mesh clothing complete with texture templates would be great.

If NUX amounts to a "System Avatar 2.0" that works well and looks good, then it'll be game changer for Second Life. 

Edited June 25, 2022 by Conifer Dada