Skell Dagger

I see that it still always ends in chickens...

Throwback Thursday! Actually, I think this one's more like Throwbackception, since it's not only an old look, but it's an old reworking of an even older look. Some of you might recognise this skin, as it's the one I wore a lot during my old Forum Cartel Hangout days, and back in May 2015 I dragged it back out again to see if I could do anything with it. Turns out that, jazzed up with some mesh stuff, it still looks pretty damn good. Credits are on the image, pulled direct from my Flickr post. (Please excuse the JPEG artifacts around the text. Flickr can be such an arse sometimes...)

It takes a while to get used to all this stuff, so don't quit in frustration. If you can give us a few more details (or, better still, a screenshot) then we can help you out. First of all, can you tell us exactly which body and/or head you are wearing? It may be any of the following combinations: a mesh body that you've purchased, plus a mesh head that you've also purchased a mesh body that you've purchased, plus the original system head the original system body, plus a mesh head that you've purchased the original system body and system head (you purchased no extra body or head) A quick glance at your profile shows you to be (probably; I never like to assume!) male and inworld for about six years, so I'm guessing that you've purchased a mesh head and/or body and need help with them. I'm going to quote sections of your post and then ask further questions/make suggestions accordingly. I assume this means that you've got the body applier to work and it's applied correctly to the mesh body that you're wearing? If you're wearing a mesh head: by "old skin" I assume that you mean your system avatar head is showing through the mesh head? If so, then make sure that you're wearing the alpha layer for the head that you've purchased. Or, if your mesh body comes with different alpha layer options, look for one that covers your system head as well. (This is no different from a non-mesh 'old-style' system avatar having to wear a bald base to cover that godawful system hair so you can wear hair that you've purchased.) As has been mentioned above, always right-click and 'add' new items, don't right-click and 'wear'. Mesh heads have slightly different placement on the body than system heads. An example of this would be: if you have mesh eyes that you've edited to fit your system head and you then try to wear them with a mesh head, they will either bulge out too far or will be sunk halfway down into your cheekbones, and you'll need to edit them into place to fit your mesh head. (If you then took off your mesh head and its alpha you'd see the newly-edited mesh eyes hovering in front of, or sunk right back into your system head.) System eyes (the ones whose icons are a pair of eyeballs) won't work with a mesh head. You need mesh eyes for this. Either your head will have a pair of mesh eyes in its folder, or you'll need to purchase a pair of mesh eyes yourself. I don't really understand what you're saying here. What I think is happening is that your system head is showing through your mesh head, since it's not really possible for a mesh head on its own to have two overlapping layers of skin (even the mesh heads that contain multiple layers). The other possibility here is that you're wearing a mesh body with the system head, you've purchased a system skin that goes with the mesh body applier you're wearing, and yet your original system skin is showing on your head instead of the new one. What you need to know here is that many skin creators these days only offer appliers for mesh bodies and heads, and if they do sell system skins (for their newer creations) they're either for the body or the head (but usually for the body only). Example: A system skin for someone not using a mesh body might only have the textures on the body and not the head of the system skin, because the creator assumes you've purchased the mesh head applier for that skin. Or the textures might only be on the body while the head has a blank white texture. This is down to the fact that many mesh heads have different texture maps, and it's a lot of work for creators to re-jig their work to fit system heads as well as the mesh heads that they're creating for. I don't think that second option is what you're seeing here (indeed, I don't even know if it's possible for a previously-worn skin to show when a new skin is worn, even if that new skin has an alpha texture for the head section; in that case surely the original Linden avatar skin would show?) but I'm mentioning it anyway. In short: What would help most of all to help you is if you could post a screenshot of what you're seeing.

I was in the middle of putting this look together when a blogger pack of earrings dropped into my inventory, so they made their way into the look Credits ~*Souzou Eien*~ for Fantasy Gacha Carnival and Stray Dog for Men Only Monthly. Jacket: Ascend - Kaii Waist Tied Jacket (black) Pants: Tomoto - Flare Pants (black) Hat: David Heather - Drip Brim Hat (black) Footwear: United Colors - Black Laced Up Sandals Unisex Eyewear: Pop Art Store - Gabana Sunglasses Armwear: Caboodle - Aiden Armwarmers Earrings: ~*Souzou Eien*~ - Tribal Gages* (spirals) Piercings: LittleFish - Ezili Lip Ring Set for Catwa Daniel Hairbase applier: Stealthic - Male hairbase Brows: Avi-Glam - Logo Eyebrows (Omega applier) Face applier: Stray Dog - Luca (buttermilk) Body applier: L'Etre - Slink body appliers (buttermilk) Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Hands: Slink - Dynamic Male Feet: Slink - Physique Flat Male Poses: CheerNo Motion *review copy

Have you verified that email address? As per this update on LL's news feed, in order to receive offline IMs and suchlike to your email, you need to verify your email address. That may also be affecting snapshots to email, too. It's worth checking, just to make sure, even if you think you verified it in the past.

I do enjoy a challenge, but since it would have been easy to log Skell in and wear any of the hundreds of pre-mesh outfits he's put together over the past ten years (because seriously, that boy is such a packrat) I decided to put two twists on this challenge: 1. Absolutely no mesh whatsoever. Back to clothing layers and sculpts. 2. Absolutely free. Not a single L$ to be spent. Both of those are pretty easy to do for a female avatar, even now when mesh is so prevalent, but it's a bit harder to do well for a male avatar (so much free menswear is either gangsta-bling or dull-n-boring). And, since I like pretty boys, that's what I decided to create, with an emo twist. Everything in that look is free. Some is from Free Dove, a couple of bits are from Marketplace, the makeup is from the Free*Style store, and a couple of things (eyes and skin) are from the default avatars. I started with one of the default male shapes and modded it a little, then began trying the default skins over it. And that's the secret behind the pretty boy look: it's a female skin. Yep; there's boobs under that sweater, and it's not the first time I've done that! It's far from perfect (I can see that I need to make the hands a bit smaller) but it was a fun challenge. Anyone want to take me up on those two new rules: do it free and with absolutely no mesh whatsoever? Bonus points if you don't dig through an old avatar's inventory for stuff you never threw away, and instead go out and find it all now.

Yes, Slink have released Bento hands for men. They have a nice subtle movement to them, even when you're not wearing any special HUDs to make them move. I'd suggest that the OP gives us an idea of what he wants to look like (eg: body physique - muscular, slender, somewhere in-between?), what kind of hairstyle he prefers (a screenshot of his current MADesigns style would help), and what kind of clothing style he'd like to have (casual jeans-n-tee/biker/etc), and then we can give more concrete suggestions. From a quick Google Image search for Fruk's Knox skin, I'd suggest a store like Birth or maybe Clef de Peau for skins. Dependent on whether you want facial hair or not, you have a choice of buying a clean-shaven skin and adding a beard applier or tattoo layer (there are hundreds out there, enabling you to customise far more than just by buying a skin with the beard already on it) or - if you don't plan on changing your facial hair at a later date, finding a skin that comes complete with your preferred type of beard.

Speaking of welcome back... Hi, Æb! @Marianne McCann - I've been curious about those things for a while. It'd be kinda fun to fart sparkles @Zena Randt- Willow Pattern! Haven't seen that for a while. My Nan used to collect it. She had the full set, so I'd often have my dinner dished up on fancy blue and white plates when I was a kid and staying with my grandparents in the summer hols. Thanks for invoking a happy memory there.

Are you wearing the rigged mesh eyes that are included in the folder with the head, or are you wearing eyes from another creator? The eyes in the folder are rigged to fit perfectly with that head, but for any other brand of eyes you'll need to edit them manually to fit, moving them back into the eye sockets and possibly up or down a little until they sit perfectly.

Another store that I just remembered makes female clothing to fit the male body (although I haven't tried it with the Slink body) is Schadenfreude. I know they have mesh corsets and thigh-high boots specifically for male avatars, and I also recall seeing a sundress at an event which also had a flat-chested male version included.

Any so-called 'female' applier clothing that is either Slink compatible or has an Omega option will work on the Slink male body. I regularly use female applier pants on my avatar (added bonus of the Slink body being the built-in bulge, so it doesn't look as if you're tucking). You can also use female applier tops, although - if you don't want obvious boob shading - I suggest opting for either dark colours or being very selective about which stores you buy from. Sn@tch is a great store for that: Ivey's darker top appliers don't have much boob shading, relying on the underlying body to do the work in that regard. An example for you: the top and pants in this look are both female applier ones, from Sn@tch. The boots are also ostensibly sold as female ones, but they're unrigged, so I could resize them to fit my Slink body. The shading on the top is subtle enough that it passes for pectoral shading: Another example. Female applier underbust corset and pants (Sn@tch) and female mesh boots (Rosal) on the male Slink body: As to mesh clothing, your best bet is to either get in touch with the drag community in SL (if you want a curvier, more feminine-shaped male avatar), or simply demo everything. I've had mixed success with getting female mesh pants to fit the male Slink body. Usually I've found that the small female standard sizes work everywhere but at the base of the spine (which can be covered with a jacket or shirt) and since they're small the hips aren't too prominent or feminine. Boots can be trickier, although demoing the versions for curvier female avatars (such as the Belleza ones, or Slink Hourglass) can sometimes pull up something that doesn't dig in at the thighs. If you simply want a more androgynous look, I suggest the Androgyne Initiative group and website. Keep an eye out, too, for the annual Femboi Hunt, which tends to cater for the more bishōnen type of avatar. In short: it is possible. Just demo the hell out of everything! ETA: Just remembered one store that does cater for this. Check out Violetility on Marketplace or inworld.

That would be a late lunch for me, considering it's 3:30pm here, but I'll take it! Looks like a fun time was had by all at the Hangout. Sorry I couldn't make it; busy stuff to do elsewhere (pesky RL!) I made up for it with a massive inworld shopping spree last night, during which I turned Skell completely on his head (figuratively speaking) and made him over into a blond Nordic type. Might wander around for a bit like that, purely because it's so damn different

The mesh avatar factor didn't exist back then, but other factors did. I recall users asking for an improved avatar many times, but the reason LL always gave was "not wanting to break existing user content" - even back when that meant you wouldn't be able to use your clothing layer pants because putting more vertices in the avatar's crotch area would "break" existing pants which had been created with the low number of vertices in mind. I'm thinking of one male underwear creator specifically who managed a fantastic workaround for the streaking that happened down the inner thighs; his were the only ones I found that never suffered from that failing. Had LL added more vertices to that part of the avatar, all of his content would have been wrecked. The shoulders of the default male avatar were also an issue. Textures would always stretch over them, so some designers deliberately compressed their texturing in that area to compensate. Again, add more pixels there and the design would be ruined. In short: this is an old issue that LL have always countered with the reason of not wanting to break existing content. However, when they introduced Bento a lot of designers adapted their existing mesh content (case in point: Maitreya updated their body to include Bento hands) and these upgrades were free to people who had already purchased the original item. While it would create a lot more work for these designers if there was a system avatar upgrade, I think they would work with it as they worked with Bento. However, since mesh avatars are the way that things in SL are trending (as in: they are the big commodity on the up at the moment, regardless of how many thousands of users are happily sticking with the system av) I don't see LL doing anything to improve the visual look of the system avatar (adding more vertices, etc) because that's simply not where the money lies at the moment.

I've just spent a ridiculous amount of money at Men Only Monthly, including dropping L$1000 on the fatpack of this stunning hair. My god, it is so good. And yeah, I've gone Nordic for a change Credits Skin applier: Stray Dog - Luca (Catwa only: buttermilk/browless) Hair: Stealthic - Like Lust (blonde HUD) Shirt: Ascend - Luke Long Sleeve Shirt (black) Brows: Avi-Glam - Logo Eyebrows (Omega applier) Eyes: Avi-Glam - Elysian Eyes (fjord) Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Body: Slink - Physique Male Hands: Slink - Dynamic Hands (Bento) Note: Stray Dog head appliers match to L'Etre skintones.

Two female applier items, two unisex accessories. Just because it's advertised with boobs that doesn't meant you can't work it with pecs Credits Skin: Swallow - Gothic (Catwa only - Ivory) Earrings: Codex - Earring Black Swan Collar: Codex - Collar Maya Cuffs: Absolut Vendetta - Ryan Wristband Hair: Dura - Boy*51 (black) Tattoo: Sn@tch - Filigree Sternum Tattoos (Omega applier only) Eyes: Avi-Glam - Elysian Eyes (Omega applier - onyx) Pants: Sn@tch - Badass Belted Pants (Omega applier)

@ChrisDiamond865 I've just gone through the gallery for the Men Only Hunt. Be aware that this is themed as a 'Hipsta Hunt' so if that's not your aesthetic some of the items won't appeal to you. However, I'm about as far removed from a hipster as one can get, and I still have a list of 16 items I want to get from the hunt, so it's worth doing. There are some great accessories and a few nice clothing items. Since you've been away for a few years, there are a few things you need to look out for if you do this hunt (and for shopping in general). - Anything that's marked with either a logo or text saying either 'classic', 'standard', or 'standard sizing' will work on a non-mesh avatar. - Anything that's marked only with logos such as 'TMP', 'Slink', 'Signature' etc is created to work with a certain brand of mesh avatar. While these may work on a classic avatar, be aware that there very likely won't be an alpha layer to remove parts of the system body under the clothing, because mesh bodies use a HUD system to do that. It's possible to re-purpose other alpha layers that you have, so if the item is a freebie or a hunt gift it's still worth getting to try it out. You can get free packs of alpha layers for various body parts on Marketplace. - Anything marked as an 'applier' will only work on a mesh avatar. This includes both head and body appliers for skins. (Example: there's a fantastic skin in this hunt from 7 Deadly s{K}ins, but it's applier-only.) While some designers will include a classic skin with mesh body appliers, these are increasingly being sold in various separate packs as people need to mix and match according to what body parts they have. Appliers can be body/head-specific (eg: Catwa head, Slink body, etc) or they may have the purple Omega logo (which means that - with the correct Omega relay HUD - they can be used on almost any mesh body part with the exception of TMP, which has its own proprietary 'installer' system). - Many tattoos that have applier logos on them will also contain a 'classic' or 'standard' version for the basic system body. Sometimes it's not obvious from the ad image, so try editing the sale board and looking in the contents. With luck (assuming it's not all packed in a box inside there, or a vendor with just a script) you'll be able to see if there are standard tattoo layers inside. One last note on customising a newb avatar on a limited budget: don't forget the inventory library. The avatar selection has been vastly improved of late, which you'll probably have noticed when you were creating your new account. If you check out the classic avatars in the library you'll find a surprising amount of usable stuff, from mesh eyes to some fairly decent skins and hair. Try each avatar on once to put it into your main library, then dig through those folders for stuff you can use. There's even a serviceable AO in each folder that will get rid of the duck-waddle until you can pull something better together.

You're welcome I just remembered another group worth joining (and this goes for female avatars, too) and that's Gizza VIP. From memory, it's free to join, and they have a load of free outfits at the store's landing point, some older than others, but they release a new one each month and the newest ones are mesh.

The 'special thing' is called Bento. Linden Lab added a lot of new bones to the avatar skeleton, so it's now possible to have customisable moving mesh heads and hands (as well as other body parts, such as wings, quadruped avatars, tails, etc). The Phoenix viewer is now called Firestorm, by the way. Whether you download that or the Linden Lab viewer, you should be able to see Bento avatars if you get the latest viewer versions.

If you have any cash at all on your old avatar, log in and transfer it. Even a handful of L$ will give your new avatar a basic start. Look up 'Vista AO' and 'Akeyo AO' on Marketplace. Both of them have a good basic L$1 male AO, and if you're familiar with editing things like that you can pull the animations out of both to create your own AO (or put them into Firestorm's built-in AO, if you're using that viewer). Currently, there's a free fatpack male hairstyle at Exile, so that's worth getting. As to other stuff, join the Gabriel group, head to their store, and pick up some of their group gifts. Last time I checked they had some decent footwear on the group gift wall. Finally, Free Dove has a few good male clothing items, but the Dulce Secrets male skin pack there is definitely worth checking out to get you started.

Good afternoon. It's an Englishman's favourite day: National Tea Day! I'm raising a mug of Yorkshire's finest in a toast to you fine threadpeople, while munching on a chocolate Digestive. (And yes, I'm even quirking my little finger, in the way wot posh people do.)

Throwback Thursday - back to September 2013 and an old system look. No idea on the credits (the hair is Dura, the piercings are Kibitz, but the rest of it? Not a clue!)

I wish I knew when the phrase "while many may disagree" became "while there are many haters". Somewhere along the line, we've lost the subtleties of disagreement and reasoned discussion and devolved into disagreement = hatred. (In general, not just regarding this post.)

Absolutely not. In fact, I would burn it. I would rather live my life as an ongoing and enjoyable thread of existence, rather than seeing a sharp pair of scissors hovering in the distance and getting ever closer. Those metaphorical scissors would constantly catch my eye, and - as they drew closer - I'd start living in a state of fear (even though I'm not afraid of death) that I won't have enough time to do everything I want to do. ETA: Slight edit (the struck-through text) because - after posting this - I realised that my words intimated that people who did choose to open the envelope and know the exact time and date of death would not enjoy existence. That's not what I intended, hence the edit.

This post is ten months old. I think the OP has probably made his choice by now...

I'm always happy to find cheap eyewear. There's a 50% off sale at Pop Art Store and I picked up some great ones. These Celine unisex sunglasses are just L$39 for five pairs. Some great Aviators there, too for L$49 for seven pairs, including four mirrored. Credits Sunglasses: Pop Art Store - Celine Sunglasses Jacket: Scars - Designer Jacket (black) Pants: Gizza - Luke Leather Pants (black)* Shoes: David Heather - Gongini Oxfords (black : Slink feet)* Necklace: KOSH - The Angel Key Necklace Ring: Maxi Gossamer - Royal Khadijah Estate Ring Hair: Dura - Boy 65 (wood bark) Skin applier: Swallow - Martin (ivory) Nail applier: KOSH - Glitter Fingernails Head: Catwa - Daniel (Bento) Hands: Slink - Dynamic Male Hands Body: Slink Physique Male Ears: Swallow (included with skin applier) *not shown, but in case anyone wants to know