issues customizing Vampire Hunter Angus & Allison, help please!

[VexDarkness]

So I'm using the pre-built avatars Vampire Hunter Angus and Allison.  But I seem to have issues with customization.  I purchased some clothes for Angus but am having problems wearing them.  I bought a goth/vamp outfit for example, but only certain items become visible when worn.  I tried to wear a vest from the pack and it will say "worn", but nothing changes.  I don't know if it's "under" something else or what. But stuff like shoulder attachments work fine.  I spent several hours on it.  Any tips or pointers would be most appreciated, I am frustrated.😦

Thanks!

[Rowan Amore]

Those avatars are mesh.  You are probably trying to wear System layer clothing which is denoted by icons in inventory that look like shirt, pants, etc.  Those will only work on non-mesh starter avatars or mesh body that use the BOM (bakes on mesh) system.

You could try Elleria for female or Feng for male which are system type avatars in the Library folder.  Those will allow System layer clothing.

 

 

[Coffee Pancake]

 

The exiting pre built avatars are not really intended to be redressed and not supported in that way by 3rd party creators. There are new starter avatars in the works from Linden Lab that will correct this, but they likely wont be ready for some months.

The vast majority of SL users are using 3rd party mesh avatar bodies and heads. Mesh clothing (looks like a box in inventory) has to be created specifically for each mesh body so it fits correctly. System clothing (has clothing icons in inventory) requires either a mesh body that supports BoM (which most new ones do) or the original and very old system avatar.

Figuring out which current mesh body and head to get can, and then picking a good skin can be a bit daunting, not to mention expensive. All in you're looking at about 10 - 15K L$ to jump to the current "standard".

From this point on - only buy DEMO items, they cost 0L and will allow you to build out an avatar and dress it up without needing to trial and error with actual money.

There is a fair chance the items you have bought are not wasted though, so with a little luck all that's happened is you bought the cart before the horse and have lost a little time to frustration.

I've sent you a friend request in world.

Edited June 28 by Coffee Pancake

[Persephone Emerald]

For male avatars there are not many good free options for a mesh body. There are some free or nearly free male mesh bodies, but there isn't much clothing available for them. 

For a female avatar though, I highly recommend the Atenea mesh body on the Midnight Madness board at LucyBody. Click on the board, then wait for enough other people to click it, so it hits it's target. Then the body will be sent to you. If you like it, you can also buy the Bakes on Mesh applier for it for $L 197 and the Maitreya high heels feet for $L 99.

Bakes on Mesh lets you wear skin, tattoos, and clothing that go right onto the body as if they were painted on. Mesh clothing is worn on top of those layers and is usually made to fit specific mesh bodies. Out of the box, the LucyBody body fits Maitreya clothing and SLink shoes. Since Maitreya is by far the most popular female mesh body, there is plenty of free clothing available to fit it.

Here is the LucyBody store location ❤️ . 

You can get a mesh head too, but you don't need to rush that. It's better to explore SL to see if you enjoy this virtual world or not first. 

Join groups that interest you in order to meet people. "SL Frees and Offers" and "Fabulously Free" are 2 good ones for finding free stuff.  The Shop and Hop mall going on now also has 400 shops, each with a free gift. Some of the gifts are store credit or gift cards, so you can pick out whatever clothing or other items you like. Some of the best clothing store credit there is from Addams ($L 300), Blueberry ($L 300), Bumblebee($L 350), and Vengence ($L 800 when you join their free group). Tachinni and Vision both give you $L 400 of store credit when you join their groups, which are around $L 20 each to join. There is some free hair at the Shop & Hop event. 7 Deadly S[k]ins hs some free & $L  skins in their store too.

[Lindal Kidd]

There is a high quality, free mesh female mesh head available, the "Strong" head by Genus Project.

[Persephone Emerald]

Akeruka also has an almost free mesh head right now, $L 150 to join their group & $L 1 for the mesh head.

I think if you're new, mesh bodies and heads might seem overly complicated though, since they all have their own HUDs to learn how to use.

Using a standard head instead of mesh, you can still use the same hair and most full-body skins that are not for EvoX heads.

If you see a faint line on your neck when using a mesh body and system head, you may want to wear a choker to cover it. 

Edited June 29 by Persephone Emerald

[VexDarkness]

16 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

Those avatars are mesh.  You are probably trying to wear System layer clothing which is denoted by icons in inventory that look like shirt, pants, etc.  Those will only work on non-mesh starter avatars or mesh body that use the BOM (bakes on mesh) system.

You could try Elleria for female or Feng for male which are system type avatars in the Library folder.  Those will allow System layer clothing.

 

 

Hmm.....neither of them "worked".  It said I was "wearing" the Feng skin, but all I saw was my head and no body.  Same thing for Elleria. I'm pretty sure I removed all the old stuff first.  What the heck? lol

[VexDarkness]

4 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Akeruka also has an almost free mesh head right now, $L 150 to join their group & $L 1 for the mesh head.

I think if you're new, mesh bodies and heads might seem overly complicated though, since they all have their own HUDs to learn how to use.

Using a standard head instead of mesh, you can still use the same hair and most full-body skins that are not for EvoX heads.

If you see a faint line on your neck when using a mesh body and system head, you may want to wear a choker to cover it. 

Okay, cool.  Yes, brand new.  Only played for like 48 hours (almost in a  row! lol)

[VexDarkness]

15 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

 

The exiting pre built avatars are not really intended to be redressed and not supported in that way by 3rd party creators. There are new starter avatars in the works from Linden Lab that will correct this, but they likely wont be ready for some months.

The vast majority of SL users are using 3rd party mesh avatar bodies and heads. Mesh clothing (looks like a box in inventory) has to be created specifically for each mesh body so it fits correctly. System clothing (has clothing icons in inventory) requires either a mesh body that supports BoM (which most new ones do) or the original and very old system avatar.

Figuring out which current mesh body and head to get can, and then picking a good skin can be a bit daunting, not to mention expensive. All in you're looking at about 10 - 15K L$ to jump to the current "standard".

From this point on - only buy DEMO items, they cost 0L and will allow you to build out an avatar and dress it up without needing to trial and error with actual money.

There is a fair chance the items you have bought are not wasted though, so with a little luck all that's happened is you bought the cart before the horse and have lost a little time to frustration.

I've sent you a friend request in world.

Thanks so much!  But I need to "reset" my avatar or something. Nothing I click for my avatar works, and I just see a head.  Then I got a demo for a Lelutka head, and I did "wear now", but it looks backwards and has an eye on top of the head.

[Coffee Pancake]

5 hours ago, VexDarkness said:

Thanks so much!  But I need to "reset" my avatar or something. Nothing I click for my avatar works, and I just see a head.  Then I got a demo for a Lelutka head, and I did "wear now", but it looks backwards and has an eye on top of the head.

Quickest way is to pick a different starter avatar (any) and then just to be safe, relog.

[Rowan Amore]

7 hours ago, VexDarkness said:

Hmm.....neither of them "worked".  It said I was "wearing" the Feng skin, but all I saw was my head and no body.  Same thing for Elleria. I'm pretty sure I removed all the old stuff first.  What the heck? lol

if you right click on the Feng Folder and choose Replace current outfit, all the items you had worn previously will be replaced/removed.  

[Lindal Kidd]

@VexDarkness,

There are three things at work here. 1) system layers, 2) alpha mask layers (actually these are also system layers, but I'm going to treat them as a special category), and 3) mesh objects.

The key things to understand are: 1) system layers are 2D textures "painted" onto the classic avatar body; 2) the "classic avatar body" is the foundation of all avatars, and has some special qualities, such as the ability to "wear" system layers; 3) alpha masks hide part or all of the classic avatar body. This function is very useful for keeping bits of you from poking through... 4) mesh objects, which are 3D objects, not textures. Mesh objects can be actual bodies and heads, which are worn "over" the classic avatar, which is then hidden by an alpha mask, or they can be items such as hair and clothing.  ALL objects have the inventory symbol of a little box; system layers have other symbols, such as a shirt, a jacket, a pair of pants, and so on.

Mesh objects do not have the ability to be affected by system layers, with one major exception: Bakes on Mesh, or BoM. BoM-enabled mesh body parts CAN wear system layers, just like the classic avatar body. But if you wear something, and don't see it, it's because you are wearing a non-BoM mesh body.

When you take off parts of your outfit, and then cannot see your body, you're still wearing at least one alpha mask layer. You can hunt for it by looking in your inventory's Worn folder, or in the Current Outfit folder; by searching your inventory for any items with (Worn  (yes, with the left parenthesis) in their title; or by right clicking yourself and choosing Edit Outfit.

Or you can pick another avatar from Library\Clothing\Initial Outfits, and choose the Replace Outfit option, as Rowan suggested. An easy one-click solution.

Now, the weird head texture you got when trying a Lelutka head: When Lelutka came out with their newer Evolution X, or EvoX line, they remapped how texture layers are applied to their head. Skins and makeup and tattoos and alpha masks made for earlier heads are NOT compatible with EvoX heads, and vice versa.

 

[VexDarkness]

5 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Quickest way is to pick a different starter avatar (any) and then just to be safe, relog.

Okay, great.  Thanks! 😎

[VexDarkness]

3 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

if you right click on the Feng Folder and choose Replace current outfit, all the items you had worn previously will be replaced/removed.  

Awesome, I'll ty that!!

[VexDarkness]

1 hour ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Now, the weird head texture you got when trying a Lelutka head: When Lelutka came out with their newer Evolution X, or EvoX line, they remapped how texture layers are applied to their head. Skins and makeup and tattoos and alpha masks made for earlier heads are NOT compatible with EvoX heads, and vice versa.

So what can I do?  Do I need a different body for that head?

Thanks for the detailed answer!!

[Lindal Kidd]

1 minute ago, VexDarkness said:

Do I need a different body for that head?

No, but you do need a different skin, one that says it's compatible with EvoX.

Or, there is a different solution. In the head's HUD, there is a setting to select either the original Evo mapping or the newer EvoX. Just change it to whichever setting it is NOT currently set to.

[VexDarkness]

2 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

No, but you do need a different skin, one that says it's compatible with EvoX.

Or, there is a different solution. In the head's HUD, there is a setting to select either the original Evo mapping or the newer EvoX. Just change it to whichever setting it is NOT currently set to.

Okay, I'll see what I can do! 🙂

[Rowan Amore]

1 hour ago, VexDarkness said:

Awesome, I'll ty that!!

To go along with that, once you've replaced with that entire folder, you can go back to the Angus folder and wear the skin from there.  Since Feng is a system avatar, most of the skins from the Mesh avatars in the library should work fine.  Also, with the system avatar, you can easily edit the facial features to your liking.  Working with a free System avatar from the library folder will give you a good idea of how Bakes on Mesh (BOM) works.  BOM is what all the current mesh bodies for sale are geared toward.  System type layering.  

 

[VexDarkness]

On 6/29/2022 at 1:52 PM, Rowan Amore said:

To go along with that, once you've replaced with that entire folder, you can go back to the Angus folder and wear the skin from there.  Since Feng is a system avatar, most of the skins from the Mesh avatars in the library should work fine.  Also, with the system avatar, you can easily edit the facial features to your liking.  Working with a free System avatar from the library folder will give you a good idea of how Bakes on Mesh (BOM) works.  BOM is what all the current mesh bodies for sale are geared toward.  System type layering.  

 

Okay, thank you!!

[VexDarkness]

I decided to go with Elleria.  Can I buy/use *any* clothes and hair for her, or are there specific ones?

[Quistess Alpha]

44 minutes ago, VexDarkness said:

Can I buy/use *any* clothes and hair for her, or are there specific ones?

You should always try a demo before buying something (especially before you have good intuition about what will "probably work").

If it works with BOM as Rowan claimed, then anything with "BOM" in the title/description should more or less work, and things that advertise "Fitmesh 5 sizes" should have a 50/50 chance of looking OK in some size.

[Rowan Amore]

59 minutes ago, VexDarkness said:

I decided to go with Elleria.  Can I buy/use *any* clothes and hair for her, or are there specific ones?

There are specific ones NOT to buy.  Anything mesh made for specific mesh bodies (Slink, Belleza, etc) won't really work.  Mesh clothing with sizes such as s, m, l, XL (like RL sizing) should work and usually will include an Alpha layer which will hide the system body underneath. I know some of the freebie stores still carry these sizes. You can also wear any system clothing.  That would be.like the outfit you purchased where the vest didn't show.  The icons in inventory that appear as undershirt, shirt, jacket, underpants, etc...will all work on that system body.  They essentially go on like paint layers so a.jacket icon piece will cover a shirt icon piece.  Those outfits may also include attachment pieces which are denoted by Box icons in inventory.  

I'd suggest not buying too much to start.  As others have mentioned, 3rd party mesh heads and bodies are what most people end up using.  I just thought, no sense spending that much from the start until you see what SL is all about.

 

I do suggest grabbing the free heads and bodies that are mentioned by others.  Before you start playing with those...SAVE AN OUTFIT... Then work with copies of your shape...right click/copy and paste into the folder with the free or demo mesh head or body.

ETA.  Also, older mesh hair might work better than newer hair.  Argrace has an older section as does Magika.  I'm sure other stores do as well usually at discount prices.

A lot of newer hair is rigged with mesh heads in mind.  Always demo to see how it fits.

Try the Free Dove group/store also.  They have some really nice free items.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 1 by Rowan Amore

[VexDarkness]

On 6/29/2022 at 1:52 PM, Rowan Amore said:

back to the Angus folder and wear the skin

What icon will that have? I don't recall seeing an Angus "skin" after I replaced the outfit....

[VexDarkness]

13 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

There are specific ones NOT to buy.  Anything mesh made for specific mesh bodies (Slink, Belleza, etc) won't really work.  Mesh clothing with sizes such as s, m, l, XL (like RL sizing) should work and usually will include an Alpha layer which will hide the system body underneath. I know some of the freebie stores still carry these sizes. You can also wear any system clothing.  That would be.like the outfit you purchased where the vest didn't show.  The icons in inventory that appear as undershirt, shirt, jacket, underpants, etc...will all work on that system body.  They essentially go on like paint layers so a.jacket icon piece will cover a shirt icon piece.  Those outfits may also include attachment pieces which are denoted by Box icons in inventory.  

I'd suggest not buying too much to start.  As others have mentioned, 3rd party mesh heads and bodies are what most people end up using.  I just thought, no sense spending that much from the start until you see what SL is all about.

 

I do suggest grabbing the free heads and bodies that are mentioned by others.  Before you start playing with those...SAVE AN OUTFIT... Then work with copies of your shape...right click/copy and paste into the folder with the free or demo mesh head or body.

ETA.  Also, older mesh hair might work better than newer hair.  Argrace has an older section as does Magika.  I'm sure other stores do as well usually at discount prices.

A lot of newer hair is rigged with mesh heads in mind.  Always demo to see how it fits.

Try the Free Dove group/store also.  They have some really nice free items.

 

Cool, thank you very much!

[Rowan Amore]

7 minutes ago, VexDarkness said:

What icon will that have? I don't recall seeing an Angus "skin" after I replaced the outfit....

I just checked and apparently, there is NO Angus skin per se.  The actual mesh must have been created with that skin already baked onto it.  Another reason LL failed with their starter mesh avatars.  

In the Linden official viewer, the skin icon is the dual colored person...

[VexDarkness]

9 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

I just checked and apparently, there is NO Angus skin per se

🤣I'm using Firestorm viewer.  But cool, thanks for checking!