Vanity Fair

I am a big fan of the Kalhene Analexa body, and I bought the Kalhene Erika body for an alt, and I love it! As you can see from this thread, the creator is super responsive to user comments and updates the bodies frequently. Even at full price, I think it’s an attractive alternative to Inthium Kupra and Belleza Freya. And I’m thrilled to see some designer support for this body already! Really, you should check it out if you haven’t yet. Google “Ryan Schultz blog Kalhene Erika” for my review, which includes a feature-for-feature comparison with Kupra.

I just search for “premium” under Places in Search, and I always find one.

All major brands of mesh heads include mesh eyes, which you can change the colour of using the included HUD. Many vendors also sell eye textures for various brands of mesh heads (e.g. Catwa, Genus, LeLutka).

The Big Three of male mesh bodies at the moment are Belleza Jake, Signature Gianni (NOT Geralt), and the Meshbody Legacy. You will find the widest range of clothing for those three bodies. Catwa, LeLutka, or Logo for the head. Stray Dog or Birth for the skin.

Interesting survey results, and a good, recent snapshot of the mesh head and body market. I’m so glad someone decided to step into the void left by Strawberry Singh! The rapid rise in popularity of the Inthium Kupra body explains why vendors such as Kalhene are coming out with thicker, curvier bodies (Erika). Obviously there’s a market there, although I’m not sure how any new body maker is going to convince fashion designers to rig for YET ANOTHER mesh body. (By the way, the Kalhene Analexa body is 99% compaible with Maitreya clothing and footwear, and you get a head, skins, hair, and a starter wardrobe as part of the package. All you need to add is an AO and you’re all set to stroll the grid! Flat chested and petite chested and transgendered versions are also included, you don’t have to pay extra for them. I think it’s a great deal!) Over the years, I myself have used the following male and female mesh bodies: WOMEN: Maitreya Lara, Meshbody Legacy, Belleza Freya, Altamura (both free and paid), eBody regular and curvy (free versions), Lucybody Atenea (free via Midnight Madness board in the store; Maitreya-compatible for clothing, Slink-compatible for shoes), and Kalhene Analexa (also Maitreya-compatible). I have found that most clothing designed for Maitreya fits Altamura bodies with a minimum of fuss (tops fit better than bottoms, though). My favourite is Maitreya Lara because everybody designs for them! Kalhene Analexa would come second, because I can wear almost all my Maitreya clothing and shoes on them, and the developer often issues updates to the bodies (she’s already on version 4.1, I think). MEN: Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake, Meshbody Legacy, Niramyth Aesthetic, Altamura (free and paid), plus a bunch of freebie and dollarbie mesh bodies over the years. I’ve also used EXMACHINA (free and paid), but it’s hard to find clothing for them. As for heads, I have picked up and tested literally every possible free and inexpensive mesh head on the grid over the past 4 years I’ve been blogging (male, female, and unisex), and I have no particular favourites (although I have bought male and female heads from Catwa in the past). I quite like Logo, LAQ, and LeLutka, though! And of course, you can’t beat the free Strong Face head group gift from Genus; I turn to it time and again when styling a freebie alt.

Question for Patch Linden: If the word "gacha" is going to be banned (as seems to be the case, from what I understand), how will that impact gacha resellers who have branded themselves with the word "gacha" in their business name? Thank you!

Hello Silas, I wanted to respond to some of what you are saying here. We chat often, and you know that I am a friend, and your current situation makes me sad. So I am saying this to you as a friend and as a fan of your artwork. First, you are going to have to change your mindset. The gacha resellers who previously bought your products are a market that is only going to shrink in the coming years, as the supply of existing gachas starts to decline over time. You are going to have to start thinking about selling your artwork directly to the customer at a fair-market price. If you are not interested in selling your artwork directly, then you will have to partner with a trusted art broker, who can sell your artwork for you, taking a percentage of the proceeds. I'm sure that there are many galleries and stores in SL who would be only too happy to take over the task of selling your work, should you decide to do so. That way, you do not have to deal with what you consider the distasteful task of marketing yourself, etc. and you can focus on your creative work. You can still sell your items mod/trans in limited quantity with a total value that represents what you want from your work, WITHOUT you having to find buyers yourself. You are a very talented artist, and I and many others who value your work would hate to see you shut your gallery and store in Second Life. This is a big change to how you do your business, but it is not the end of the world, and there are possible solutions. Change is constant; it's how we respond to change that defines who we are. Please do not leave SL! I want you to succeed!

You must understand that English is not Silas’ first language. He may not have recognized “adapt or die” as a saying or metaphor. We all need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes a bit in this discussion. Please, everyone be kind. Silas is a talented artist in both SL and Sansar, who told me he feels this change will lead to him shuttering his gallery and store in Second Life. (I’m trying to talk him out of it.)

Hooray! I love Jian pets, so this is good news. Thanks for letting me know 😄

Goes for popcorn, settles into the thread We should start a betting pool as to when this thread reaches a hundred pages…oh, wait, that’s gambling 😂

What I am dying to find out is how those SL stores, which are either completely or largely gachas, will retool (e.g. Jian pets, Hideki home decor, Garbaggio dolls). Gachas make up a significant part of their business, and they have dozens and dozens of gachas in their stores for which they abruptly need to find alternative sales mechanisms. I am sure some of them will just decide to shut down completely, rather than bother to do all this work. This is going to have spin-off effects on the SL economy. I have been chatting with one gallery owner who sold much of his artwork and sculpture via gacha machines. He tells me he doesn’t see how he will be able to meet his tier with regular sales, and he is seriously pondering packing up and leaving Second Life, which makes me sad.

Oh wow, I really would like to know what Linden Lab would make of this. On the surface it would *appear* that it would be allowed, but who knows how they will rule? Also, expect an avalanche of such developments and modifications to existing gacha machines over the next month! I'm just glad *I* don't have to evaluate all these gadgets and gizmos. I just get to editorialize 😜

Check your DMs.

I also have bought a fatpack of all the gacha items when it is available. The message I want to send content creators is that I would rather pay more for one individual item I want, rather than endlessly (and sometimes fruitlessly) play a gacha machine. On a related note, I *did* finally go drop some Lindens at few of the gachas at my friend's gallery, and I am quite happy with the results! So I think we should expect a boom in gacha sales during August...particularly for those retailers who choose to shut down over this decision, as my gallery/store-owning friend is thinking of doing in response to this.

Personally, I am in favour of this change. I never liked playing gacha machines to get the one or two items I wanted out of a collection. Wherever possible, I always purchased the specific items I wanted from gacha resellers. Also, gacha encourages those people with problem gambling habits to spend way more than they should. However, I have been in discussion today with a gallery owner who sold his statues via gacha, who tells me that this is the only way he can earn enough to cover the cost of tier for his gallery. Right now he feels that he has to shut down his gallery/store and leave SL, which is sad. My opinion is that I would prefer him selling his creations individually, instead of through gacha. He could price them accordingly to meet his rent, charging more for them since you will probably sell fewer statues. In other words, charge more for statues but sell fewer of them per month. Another thought: we might see a boom in gachas during August. I for one might consider playing the gacha machines at my friend's gallery just to snap up some statues before they are gone forever.

I remember spending many pleasurable hours browsing the lovely gowns at Nonna Hodges! These garments have a new life with Bakes on Mesh, by the way. Also I remember the Gurl Six hair store, just a massive place with so many hairstyles it made your head spin! It was all prim/flexiprim hair that makes your avatar look so dated, however. Pixeldolls used to have some great system-layer clothing; I still make regular use of a empire-waist dress AO that keeps the hands away from the waist that came with one of her dresses. They stopped making clothes just as we transitioned from system layers to mesh clothing. Nicky Ree Designs also had some stunning system-layers-and-flexiprims dresses. They're still around, last I checked.

Oh, sorry! I have no financial connection to the apps I listed in this thread. I just think they're so freaking cool.

I just wanted to report back on my own experience. Like Chic, I also got this update. After I installed it, I opened up my Firestorm and checked... ...and all my saved usernames and passwords were still there. Nothing was lost! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't know if I just lucky, or what!

If you thought WOMBO was neat, wait until you check out another new AI-based mobile app, called Reface! My Second Life supermodel, Vanity Fair, has now escaped the confines of SL, and is now stomping down real-life fashion runways! Search 'ryan schultz blog" on Google and you'll find my blog easily enough 😉 it's the second blogpost from the top. Between them, WOMBO and Reface are almost singlehandedly curing my depression! They are both apps that are well worth feeding your Second Life selfies into, just to see what you can do! Both are highly recommended! Here's the selfie of Vanity Fair I fed into Reface, and some of the resulting famous paintings and animated GIFs I was able to create:

Yes, a single colour background is recommended for the best results with WOMBO!

Thank you to everyone who commented on and emoji'ed my post about my recent avatar makeover for my alt Moesha Heartsong (here's a link to the original post). I thought I would bring Moesha back to sing for you all, courtesy of the INSANELY cool new mobile app WOMBO, which creates a lipsync video from a selfie (and it works like a dream with SL avatar selfies, too!): If you want to hear this video clip, you'll have to go here, since you can't embed audio into an animated GIF, and these forums won't let you upload an MP4 video file... 😉 I have written up a blogpost (with numerous example videos) of putting Second Life avatars through the WOMBO app. It is insanely great, and I actually spent the money to upgrade to the Premium version! Just Google "ryan schultz blog" and you'll find the blogpost easily enough (it's the second one from the top). I also tested WOMBO with a Sansar avatar and some famous paintings (Frida Kahlo's self-portrait singing Tunak Tunak Tun turned out to be the mashup I never knew I needed!). Seriously, if you haven't tried WOMBO-fying your SL avatars, download the free app and give it a try! It's great fun and seriously addictive, and the app keeps adding new song clips to choose from. This thing is singlehandedly curing my depression!

OK thanks Ansariel. It looks as though I am just going to have to re-enter my username and password info for my small army of alts 😉 thanks again!

Thanks, Chic! I will try to backup my Firestorm saved avatar userids/passwords file before I attempt to do this Windows 10 upgrade (not sure how to do that, but that's what Google is for 😉 ...)

@Chic AeonLast night I got the same Windows update message that you did, and I am freaking out that I might lose my Firestorm login information (although I do keep track of my alts' usernames and passwords in a separate spreadsheet, just in case something like this happens). Waiting to hear back more from you, and others, until then I am putting this upgrade on hold (as far as I can tell is simply cosmetic things for Windows anyways). *sigh* I simply do NOT need this today...

I went wandering around the Skin Fair today and I was so impressed with this skin by Pepe Skin (called Aquarius) that I bought it and the matching Maitreya body applier and achieved the look you see below! I rarely buy a skin on impulse, but this was an exception! This is the darkest skin tone, called Goddess.