Hi me again...eep,,can anyone explain this to me like Im five?

[Clarke Millar]

- BOM only [no appliers in this pack, body bom/ appliers sold seperately].
(These face layers have a chest neck face to use with other bodies. If using Birth's body appliers, put your body applier on after/ above these head layers).

[Stephanie Misfit]

4 minutes ago, Clarke Millar said:

- BOM only [no appliers in this pack, body bom/ appliers sold seperately].
(These face layers have a chest neck face to use with other bodies. If using Birth's body appliers, put your body applier on after/ above these head layers).

I am not sure what you don't understand about it? They are bakes on mesh layers. They don't include a body skin. It sounds like they will blend with body skins from other makers.

[Rowan Amore]

Some of the newer skins from Birth (head skins) are compatible with Velour body skins which are BOM/system skins.  It's easier and usually better to use BOM for both body parts, IMO.  Skip the appliers.

Birth now includes BOM layers with their body skins.

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Birth-Legacy-Body-Appliers-DEMOS/17676904

Edited August 26, 2023 by Rowan Amore

[Persephone Emerald]

Maybe this will help explain SL skins.

There are 3 kinds of skins.

1. System layer Skin (which can be used as Bakes on Mesh) looks like a little person in your Inventory in Firestorm or like the upper body of a person with right and left sides colored differently in the SL viewer. We're always wearing a system layer skin, even if it's hidden, and we can only wear one at a time. When you *Wear* a new system layer skin it replaces the previous one you had on. Since mesh heads became popular, many skins now come with the body portion on a system layer, but the head part of the skin is an ugly white or orange, unfinished skin. Older skins were made to fit on the standard SL bodies, but most of them now are made to fit on specific mesh bodies. Some few skin makers still make skins on Skin layers that are made for a specific mesh body and a specific mesh head. Some few skin makers put their head textures on the Skin layer, and leave the body portion unfinished.

2. Applier skin came into use with mesh bodies and heads. This type of skin is a texture that uses a HUD to go onto a specific mesh body or head. Some mesh bodies and heads come with applier skins included in their HUDs. The HUD will show in your Inventory as an Object, but the skin textures inside it will only show as options on the face of the HUD.

3. Bakes On Mesh is the newest option for applying skins. This is sometimes enabled with a button on the HUD for your mesh body or head. Other times this is the default way that a mesh body or head uses skins or tattoos. Bakes On Mesh uses system Skin, regular Tattoo layers, Universal Tattoo layers, and all the system clothing layers (except maybe not the skirt layer?). This puts these textures right onto your mesh body or head just as if it were an original standard body and head.

There is a normal priority for which layers go under and over other layers. A Skin layer goes on first, then Tattoo layers go on next, then underwear, then shirts and pants, then jacket layers. The original Tattoo layers look like a dragon symbol in your Inventory and are often used for head skins. This means they would go onto your body over your system Skin layer, but under any system clothing layers. The Universal Tattoo layers also go over the Skin layer and under clothing layers, but they use an auxiliary channel, so they don't interfere with standard tattoo layers. Universal Tattoo layers are used for EvoX mesh ears and can also be used for skin, tattoos, makeup, etc.

You have to choose between using either Applier layers or Bakes On Mesh for your mesh head or body. You can only *Wear* 1 system Skin layer, but you can wear multiple Tattoo, Universal Tattoo, or clothing layers by *Adding* them rather than Wearing them.

*Wear* your system Skin layer first, then *Add* your Tattoo layer or Universal Tattoo skin. Usually your body will use a system layer Skin, while your head will use a Tattoo layer skin and EvoX ears will use a Universal Tattoo layer skin.

[MissSweetViolet]

23 hours ago, Clarke Millar said:

- BOM only [no appliers in this pack, body bom/ appliers sold seperately].
(These face layers have a chest neck face to use with other bodies. If using Birth's body appliers, put your body applier on after/ above these head layers).

It's way easier then it sounds at first. It just means the skin is Bakes on Mesh, so it will be on a system layer, instead of a hud (which would be a applier). The chest/neck/face layer from that description sounds like it's designed to blend in with other store's body skins.

It's basically like Persephone said above, but really you just need to be aware of two main things;

1: System/Bakes on Mesh (BoM), BoM is often used for the newer skins, but old systems skins are basically the same thing, they just need to be demoed to make sure they work with your setup (especially if you plan to use EvoX, as the head part with be a different layout), they both work on the system layer.

2: Applier Huds, and object that when worn lets you click a button to apply the skin on to the body, some people still love using these, but you'll probably find it easier to match tones and without seams using BoM.

One thing to note is that head and body skins even older body skins (and as long they fit your body, always demo) can often be used together pretty well with a neck blender as long as they are close in skin tone, some shops have them out for free. If they still have them out, Velour and Not Found use to have free neck blends out.

Edited August 27, 2023 by MissSweetViolet
Spelling corrections

[Love Zhaoying]

I thought this was a thread about EEP, from the title!

 

[Nalates Urriah]

I am not sure which part is tripping you up. Persephone and MissSweetViolet give good explanations. But they rely on SL jargon. I'll try saying what they said using different words and ideas.

First, we have the "SYSTEM AVATAR", which is the avatar called Ruth or Roth and it is built into the viewers (thus system). If you detach everything that can be detached, you will see the system avatar. If you press Ctrl-Shift-R you'll see the avatar and everything in the world is MESH. (Press again to return to normal view)  But until 2011 or 12 we could not access the mesh of the avatar or the mesh of anything. It was then that the Lab created a Mesh type of Primitive. If you have NOT done any building, you've missed out on a lot and that is likely why this seems so complicated.

All the system layers were designed for the system avatar when we could not work with the avatar as we did with other prims. A system shirt is basically like a decal being stuck on a doll. The jacket was a LAYER above the shirt. These system layers could only be used on the avatar. There are 5 or 6  layers each stacking in order on top of the system skin.

Once mesh prims could be created, which we just call mesh, people started making mesh clothes and bodies. First feet then hands then whole bodies and heads. But the avatar and prims use different pipelines in the viewer to render. So, we could put materials on a prim but not on a system avatar.  And avatars had layers but not prims. If you have played with prims and textured them and added materials you understand. Otherwise... I hope you have a good imagination.

The creatives solved the problem of no layers on prims (mesh) by creating multiple copies of the body each just slightly larger than the previous layer. The Russian doll thing. We call these onionskin bodies when we talk tech.

This was making for huge models (lots of vertices and faces). Instead of one body, there were 5 or 6 copies of the body wrapped around a single mesh body. Each had its own textures and materials. This created a huge render load.

These body copies within copies made it nearly impossible to select a single layer to put skin on another for underwear and another for tats... The solution was appliers. An applier is a HUD programmed to place a texture and materials on a specific copy (aka layer) of the stacked mesh body copies.

These mesh bodies were like a glove fitted over the system avatar. Rather than use the System Layers to dress as we once did, we used appliers and hid the system avatar with a system alpha layer.

This was turning into a royal mess eating up bandwidth and degrading viewer performance. So the Lab created BOM = Bakes On Mesh, meaning we bake all the layers we find on the System Avatar and paste them as a single texture on a single copy of the mesh body. Bye-bye onionskin and dozens of additional textures. Way more efficient.

Now we dress our avatars using BOM... aka System Layers just as we did in the beginning. No need for appliers. Except...

There are some advantages to using the onionskin multiple copies/layers type head or body. So, those are still around and some designers still design their products to use multiple layers of mesh and appliers. Some people like the advantages of them and so they buy them. So, we'll likely never get away from appliers.

Hopefully, this helps...