Introducing Senra Avatars... what do you think?

[Fionalein]

1 hour ago, Fionalein said:

yay, is it Slink compatible though? (would still need some alpha mode hacks I guess)

nope

[Paul Hexem]

Totally free and yet I kind of want a refund. 

[Chic Aeon]

I didn't expect much but most of the shapes for gals when worn with the body and head have a neck gap (mesh doesn't match meaning the body for sure and head most likely weren't rigged right).  We are not talking a difference in skin tone etc but AIR.   If you get naked or are willing to and change the shape some you can easily tell that the "love handle" area is horribly rigged - designed (likely both).  

 

Then I took off my everyday skin and put on the skins from the pack and almost cried.  I looked better as a newbie 16 years ago.  Hence no blog post.  As mentioned on another thread this was DOA.  New folks are much better off with any (ANY) of the free body and heads out there.  

 

I doubt new folks will be thrilled. Hopefully all the old stuff is still available. I didn't look to see.   

[JeromFranzic]

I'm getting the feeling that this Senra isn't much better than any of the Ruth2v4 stuff... still at work now so tonight, sometime after dinner I shall find out for myself. (Just as long as I don't use the super broken PBR alpha of Black Dragon to mess with...)

I'll likely try my curvier 4'9-5'5 ft Maitreya shapes on it first... taking one for the shorties lol! 

[Love Zhaoying]

41 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

Totally free and yet I kind of want a refund. 

Then, you have either joined the Karen's, or accepted the prevalent attitude in today's society! Welcome, One-Of-Us!

[Innula Zenovka]

2 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

What's with that AO?  There is no control so I don't see a lot of males wanting to stand there in a feminine hands behind your head pose.  The walk seems more masculine though.

 

There are two AOs, one for Blake and one for Jamie.  Jamie has the female animations.    Which one are you looking at?  (I've not examined them in any detail, so I don't know if Blake has a hands behind your head pose).

[Rowan Amore]

2 minutes ago, Innula Zenovka said:

There are two AOs, one for Blake and one for Jamie.  Jamie has the female animations.    Which one are you looking at?  (I've not examined them in any detail, so I don't know if Blake has a hands behind your head pose).

I'm using the Jamie and one stand and the walk look more masculine to me.  A casual arms down pose would have been better than behind the head.  That just looks odd.

[Casidy Silvercloud]

Ok, I tested Jamie. This isn't as full of a test as I want, but it's a good start. Warning, it's a lil long, I tried to keep the pics smaller so they don't take up a whole page. The pics aren't edited except to to resize and fit the forum

First pic: normal me
Lucybody Atenea
Lelutka Lily head/brow shape
My own shape
WoW skin
Cazimi eyes
(those were all free, btw, lol)
Stealthic Hair (a splurge, lol)
old Delish system bikini which was like $10L back in 09 (keep it pg lol)

Second pic: 
Jamie Body
Jamie Head
Jamie Skin 3
Jamie Eyes dark blue
Jamie Hair/hairbase 9
Same shape as pic 1, my own (obviously doesnt work well, lol)
delish bikini

Third Pic:
Same as pic 2 but with the Jamie shape 2 
(none of the jamie shapes are good out of the box)

Fourth Pic:
Jamie Body/Head/Hair 9/Eyes dk blue
My own old skin (looks good everywhere except face, ftr, that's going to be a problem I think, skin is odd on the Jamie head)
Adjusted Jamie Shape #2, but still weird looking
 

Ftr, I don't like the height of Jamie out the box even if it was a nice shape, it's too tall for my liking, lol. To get the shape editor to state my av height like my usual shape is, or close, I have to drop the height way tf down. Also I made no changes to the head shape at all because that's a whole nother can of worms, I was more worried about the body part for this test.

Shape issues-
The editor states the arms muscles are at 77, which is ridiculously high to still look like twigs, so, not sure what's up with that part. Even setting them to 100(4th pic) gives almost no muscle at all, which is weird to me.
Like others said, some sliders respond either very little or none at al. I set love handles to 100 to get the waist to look like I still have internal organs. The torso length is also extremely long out of the box. I shortened it.
Saddle bags affect the hips more than they do typically too, and the butt is set to 45 which is oddly bubbly without looking good (didn't get a pic of that, this is a thong bikini so, pg pics lol)
The legs are bugging me, they're too turkey leg-ish and I can't really pinpoint why other than the fact that sliders don't all have the effects I expect them to, lol.

I'm still working on it, but that's my novel for now. 

[Qie Niangao]

4 hours ago, ChinRey said:

So overall, although Senra isn't very well optimized, it's not too bad and certainly far better than any commercial mesh bodies.

At first I thought this couldn't be true, then I actually inspected my Jake body mesh… and then at first I thought: right, not that bad… and then I looked at the feet: wha? and then the toenails! and then, OMFG, the hands!

To be fair, I guess Jake's is a pretty ancient model but it's amazing it gets such a low ARC score for such an appalling cloud of triangles. So I take back what I said about Senra's rendering complexity: I knew better than to trust those scores and yet I kinda did.

[Casidy Silvercloud]

I think I'm going to make shapes for the Jamie and Blake bodies. New people are going to play hell with those shapes out of the box as is to get them right. They will likely just get frustrated with the weird oddities and how sliders do or do not respond. What you think a setting does (or what it does with current mesh bodies and system bodies), isn't always the case.

Could be good starters for new people with a bit more work, but the shapes need to be yeeted in file 13 and started over. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Casidy Silvercloud

[ValKalAstra]

Yah, I gave it a shot today. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to be. As a somewhat experienced user, I was rather whelmed by it. It's okay-ish. Obviously it's not meant as a replacement for established brands but something to get new users started and it's here where I feel like there's some potential for improvement.

For example, I very quickly ran into clipping issues and not just slight issues but outright "entire bum hanging out the skirt" issues. The supplied animation, yah okay. It's an animation. It's less stiff than default  but very uh, expressive. It stands out but not in a good way. I guess it's fine for new players.

Setup was clunky but I imagine there's likely some UI work still coming, at least I hope so. So all in all, yah - I am just whelmed. It's better than I expected but kind of peters out with a whimper.

 

 

[animats]

20 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

THIS IS REALLY GOOD. It does mimic the process of character customization that a lot of platforms and games use.

Exactly. LL got that right. It's about the right level of customization new users need. Enough that they have a unique look, instead of being stuck with "70s Disco Guy with Radio" or "Woman with big hat and small dog".

One thing LL should fix: automatically save the initial outfit in Outfits. The video tells new users to do that, but new users won't have seen that video. That's the single most useful piece of advice I give new users - once you have an outfit that works, save it, so that you can go back to it in case of wardrobe malfunctions. Then you can try clothes safely. That alone eliminates most new-user clothing problem panics.

[diamond Marchant]

21 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

THIS IS REALLY GOOD. It does mimic the process of character customization that a lot of platforms and games use.

I agree, that part is good... BUT

When someone  looks at the video on the splash page

they see avatars that are non-human and human avatars that look pretty good. Then they click "Join" and must endure the Senra human avatars that appear to live in the uncanny valley. One of the key points of Wagner James Au's book is that realistic human avatars create problems in virtual worlds, particularly for young people that do not want to be judged. So where are the non-human avatars in this onboarding customization process? Do you think a new resident wants to be judged on how they customize a Senra avatar? Why are they not offered avatars that come close to what is shown in the splash video? Where are the non-human options?

Edited August 2, 2023 by diamond Marchant

[Chic Aeon]

I doubt LL will OK mentors giving out notecards to places since there is according to the sign up sheet a "class" you have to go through etc. 

But I did just check and The Free Dove is amazingly there.   We never heard back on all those suggestions from awhile ago.   I would definitely be in favor a  new community newbie store and would help.

Better shapes for the new body would be a good idea.  The ones provided were not good. I suspect you would need to make sure the body fat matched the head since a bunch of the shapes provided did NOT fit body to head.  

[Scylla Rhiadra]

3 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Where are the non-human options?

This is an excellent question.

I am assuming -- hoping -- that some furry or other non-human options will be introduced in the not-too-distant future. The implication from all I've heard is that Jamie and what's-his-face are not the only or last Senra avis that will be made available to noobs.

If so, the sooner the better.

[Vanity Fair]

Just going to say here again what I just said on the pictures thread (or just google "ryan schultz blog" and you'll find my review there, with more pictures).

One thing I really do like about the Senra Blake and Jamie bodies is that they allow for a wide range of gender expression, since the wardrobe and hairstyles are unisex (see the first pictures for examples). For example, you can essentially zero out the breasts on the Jamie if you prefer a flat-chested look.

One thing I *DON'T* like is that there's not enough muscle/fat on the arms on the Jamie mesh body, even with the body fat and upper body muscles sliders set to 100! This is a complaint I have about many other name-brand mesh bodies, like Kupra: the arms are still too skinny compared to the rest of the body, and I think it looks weird.

Also, I think that the armpits are cut too high on both the Blake and Jamie mesh bodies. Again, it looks weird to me.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Vanity Fair
Added pictures, edited wording

[Kathlen Onyx]

To me, this would be like buying Sims 4 and finding Sims 1 avatars.  If I were a new resident coming in and went to a club I would be super self conscious of how I look. 

[Lewis Luminos]

I didn't think it was possible, in 2023, to find avatars this bad. They actualy  look worse than the classic ones they're supposed to be replacing. The hair and skins are also worse than the classic ones. Even Ruth and Roth are better than these.  (Why are the shaved hair styles done as a mesh shell instead of a textured hairbase? Is that to stop people wearing them with other heads? It's just bizarre.)

The clothes are okay though, and I do like the new avatar creation system for new residents. Thats just about the only thing they got right here.

On the plus side, the commercial body creators have nothing to be worried about. It'll be a miracle if anyone makes clothes for these.

SUX for sure.

[ItHadToComeToThis]

12 hours ago, ChinRey said:

That's a poor skin and body shape, nothing to do with the mesh body as such.

All well and good if you weren't commenting ON the provided body shape there.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

7 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

I don't see a lot of males wanting to stand there in a feminine hands behind your head pose

There's a whole lot of women who won't be wanting to do that either.

It's bizarre to me that they go out of their way to blur gender lines with these avis . . . and then use an AO that uses such an awful stereotypical "woman" animation.

At least it doesn't have her batting her eyelashes and giggling idiotically, I guess.

[animats]

3 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

The Free Dove is amazingly there. 

I thought they closed. Did someone take it over?

[ItHadToComeToThis]

Are we supposed to make our own alpha layers? Finally got something that looks half okay and this is the issue I face with the clothing, specifically the hoodie, currently wearing shape 1. Have tried modifying the shape in all kinds of ways, the only thing that gets rid of some of it is to set the muscle mass to 0. But, for a newbie to have to start making their own alpha layers? This needs fixing if it's not just me being a pleb.

Honestly, I was hoping for a decent mesh body setup, something that could work as a good replacement to the current body monopoly in SL. I have to say I'm disappointed, the model looks like an amateur with less than a years experience created it. 

[Orwar]

1 minute ago, animats said:

I thought they closed. Did someone take it over?

   Didn't LL step in to save it, or something such?

17 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It's bizarre to me that they go out of their way to blur gender lines with these avis . . . and then use an AO that uses such an awful stereotypical "woman" animation.

   I was pretty shocked when I first tried it. It's worse than the I-need-to-pee-wiggle AO everyone used to have. 

[animats]

1 minute ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Are we supposed to make our own alpha layers?

What, LL made new avatars and clothing for them, and they're not fitmesh? That's kind of lame. Those new avatars should Just Work.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

17 minutes ago, ItHadToComeToThis said:

Are we supposed to make our own alpha layers?

The hoodie's got an included alpha layer. How well it works, I dunno.