Are all shapes made up of the same number of polygons?

[Myra Wildmist]

Underneath it all, whether we're male or female, furry or robot, we're all a bunch of polygons. :D  (Ctrl-shift-r) There's an example in this thread: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Technical/Jagged-Edges/qaq-p/791343

This is sort of a geeky question. Do all shapes have the same number of polygons underneath? Are all sl shapes molded from the same shape, essentially?

I would think there would be at least two different starting shapes under it all, a male shape and a female shape, and they might have a different number of polygons, but I don't know. Are there different original shapes for robots and furries?

Is the original shape Ruth?

(Original shape is probably the wrong term. Sorry.)

[Cerise Sorbet]

Hi, if we ignore attachments then yes, all SL avatars use exactly the same mesh. Shapes, animation, face and hand morphs all just stretch it around.  Even the female and male avatars are different stretches of the same mesh. Ruth is kind of a default, but an arbitrary one, she is not anything like "all the sliders at halfway".

[Myra Wildmist]

tyvm.

[Myra Wildmist]

Is it possible to upload your own shape, say one created in a 3-d program? (I'm sure the answer is no, but sometimes it's worth asking.)

Will a new original shape be coming out with the introduction of mesh?

[Cerise Sorbet]

Hi, when mesh comes out it will be possible to wear them as attachments that bend with the standard avatar skeleton. If we throw on an alpha layer to hide the standard avatar, those meshes can serve as complete replacements. Animation will work, a few shape settings will work, but the full shape editor and standard face/hand expressions won't be available at this point.

True full replacements of the avatar, custom skeletons, etc. are on the wish list and might happen, but there are no guarantees for if and when.

[Myra Wildmist]

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Cerise Sorbet wrote:

Hi, when mesh comes out it will be possible to wear them as attachments that

bend with the standard avatar skeleton

. If we throw on an alpha layer to hide the standard avatar, those meshes can serve as complete replacements. Animation will work, a few shape settings will work, but the full shape editor and standard face/hand expressions won't be available at this point.

True full replacements of the avatar, custom skeletons, etc. are on the wish list and might happen, but there are no guarantees for if and when.

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Thank you, again, Cerise. This is very informative.

Are you saying shapes will be attachments when mesh arrives? Or just that, if you want to, shapes can be treated as attachements? Will we still be able to edit and create shapes the old way?

[Cerise Sorbet]

The shapes we have now will still be there, but these days it is easy to make them insivible with alpha wearables (except maybe the eyes). Those are not going away. There is talk about an improved or more detailed built-in avatar type, but for now that is really only talk.

The new mesh attachments will still technically be prims, but their ability for rigged ones to bend with the skeleton will make them almost as good as "real" avatar replacements. They will probably work a little better for fantasy avatars like robots or furries than they will for realistic human ones, because they will not inherit the built in mouth and eye movement. Being fancy attachments, it will be possible to wear other  existing standard prim attachments with them, but texture clothes would have to be custom made for the custom meshes. Regular SL pants/shirts/skins/etc. won't work.

In the future mesh attachments will probably get more features, so some of those limitations could disappear some day.

[Lee Ponzu]

Take some photos of yourself, front, left, right, back, and upload them.  Then put them on a board.  Adjust your SL shape using sliders to match the photograph.

 

Then retch.