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I feel like the way you did is almost there? Im assuming here that you used the gradient tool from photoshop/gimp/etc for filling the uv islands of the torso, back and arms, right? I think you just need to either make the torso gradient a little bit darker, so it matches the arm... or the other way around, make the arms lighter so it matches the torso. In most editors its just a matter of changing the values a bit.

I have very little experience with texturing, specially BoM stuff, so lately I've been breaking my brain trying to create textures that dont show a visible seam between parts of the body. If I try to project the texture using the uv map, I get this result where theres a very weird distortion between the feet and ankles: And if I try to project the texture directly on the object, I still get some seams, now in different places: I have seen some tattoos that go through uv lines, so I think there must be some trick out there to get something seamless, but maybe Im wrong. Anyway, any help is appreciated.

I dont know why that option didnt work either, but this should be very easy to fix. So, as you saw by the error messages, the uploader only allows a maximum of 110 bones weighted for a single rigged mesh, and depending on what you are making, veeeeeeeeery rarely you'll need more than a dozen or so. So heres your options: - You can use an armature (skeleton) pre-bento... those have less than 110 bones anyway, so even if you weight all of them for some reason, you'll still be able to upload your mesh. I recommend this if you are making simple clothes. (edit: of course this only works assuming you are not using the bento bones) - You can manually delete the bones that you will not use from the armature, before applying the armature deform to your mesh. Specially if its something that you know you'll use more in the future. For example, if you are making bento rings, you can just delete everything but the hands (and its parents) and save a copy of that armature for future uses. - You can manually delete the vertex groups from your mesh even after applying the armature deform. When you do that, the mesh in the collada file will only have the bones you left. Just make sure to only remove the vertex groups that are not being used. An example of a skirt I used in another post:

I think this is what you are looking for: However, even if that doesnt work, its pretty easy to just go to the list of vertex groups and remove what you are not using. For example, if you are making shoes, you probably dont need any of those face bones, or wing bones, tail bones, etc.

My guess (and its only a guess) would be something related with alphas. I see this same problem happening when two objects are superimposed and have textures with alpha layers. If thats the case, one solution would be to make the background object an octagonal mesh plane, and then using a texture without alpha on it.

In that image, the whole body is missing.

Can you show images? When you say "alpha maitreya", do you mean the alpha layers in the maitreya hud? or the alpha object that comes inside the maitreya folder? This could either be a BoM issue or simply a HUD issue.

Hum... I think refitting everything in MD for each body is super overkill... when you watch the (very few) videos on youtube of people rigging their clothes, what I notice is that usually like you said the creators have a "target" body (or a favorite body? I dunno...) and they try to get the rigging right for that one specific body. When that is done, they just hide one body and select a different one, and then make small adjustments for that one. For example... something rigged for maitreya doesnt really need a lot of work to also fit legacy, since the bodies are extremely similar (proportion wise). In blender, just by using the "pull" (hook?) sculpt tool, you can already bring the garment to the surface of the other body. However, Im gonna assume that something rigged for maitreya would need a bit more work to rig for slink hourglass, since the body is way more curvy. If you want a very simple exercise to get the hang of it... try making a belly piercing! Its super easy, only needs to rig a few bones and its a good way to learn about how the bones affect the rig.

From my experience, all of these devkits (or at least the few ones I tried) were made specifically for avastar. And Avastar will do some correcting on the skeleton before exporting the file (or maybe its ignoring some values and using its own?) Ok, so a few things to consider: everything in second life that is fitted/rigged, be it an entire mesh body, a skirt or a pair of shoes, shares the exact same skeleton. However, something like an animesh horse for example, despite still using the exact same skeleton, would have that skeleton deformed in a different way. Like, maybe the arm bones would be longer and positioned in front of the leg bones, to make that horse shape. But still, from my experience, all of those popular mesh bodies that we all know, they all use exactly the same skeleton that we use with regular system bodies. That means that all the bones have the same scale and same relative positions. So, lets say you made a fitmesh skirt for system bodies... to make that same skirt rigged for maitreya (as an example) is just a matter of positioning and maybe some scaling, you dont really need a "maitreya skeleton" (after all, the mesh body is just something else sharing the same "universal" skeleton as everything else you are wearing). The real problem comes when you are making something like a very skin-tight pair of pants, and you are trying to get a blueberry-level kind of fitting for different mesh bodies. Or if you are making a top that will fit well people with size 40 boobs as well as people with size 100 boobs, across different mesh bodies. Doing something like that without using any assisting tools like avastar will require a lot of trial and error (but its not impossible).

Well, at this point I think its important to understand what is a dev kit and why we need them. I dont have avastar either, but I must have watched dozens of tutorials with it, so from my understanding the whole point of needing a dev kit to make clothes (with avastar) is: a) You get a model of the actual mesh body, so you can make your clothing conforming to that shape specifically. b) The mesh body is already weighted, so instead of using the skeleton to get automatic weights, avastar will just transfer the weights from the mesh body itself and make the whole process less complicated (well In most cases, specially with pants and shorts, you still have to do a lot of work). c) Avastar lets you adjust the body sliders, just like in SL, so its easier to test the rigging against bodies that dont use a more default shape. So, by not using avastar you lose B and C, but you still have A. Theres nothing saying that you cant just copy the ebody body mesh, import it (without the avastar skeleton) to a new file with the default SL skeleton, use the mesh body as a guide for adjusting your skirt, and then rig it with the default SL skeleton. There is going to be a lot more trial and error, but it should be doable. If it was like a long sleeved gown or something, then yeah that would be a pain in the butt... but a skirt that only uses ~6 bones, shouldnt be hard.

Hey at least we made some progress! lol The mismatching LOD error thing, I only get when my LODs dont have the same number of faces/materials. So I honestly have no idea why you are getting this error there. In the second picture, that warning about the bind shape, if Im not mistaken I think you get that when your mesh is rotated or scaled in a weird way. So make sure to apply rotation and scale to your objects (select the mesh object in blender and press ctrl + A). That could also explain why the mesh is deformed like that in the preview window. Another theory that I have is that maybe the armature you are using is messed up. I actually went and downloaded the eBody Kit and I tried recreating my awesome squared skirt and I got similar results to yours. The one I downloaded was made for avastar, so I dont know if its the same one you are using. The thing is... avastar skeletons have some extra binding information, and avastar uses this information in some way that is above my paygrade. All I know is that they dont play well when you try to use them without avastar. However, as far as I know (someone correct me please if Im wrong), all these kits still use the exact same default SL skeleton (same size and position), so since you are not using avastar anyway you dont really need them. So if I were you I would try rigging using a different skeleton than the one from the mesh kit. The one from this page is what I have used to rig some stuff before: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Rigging_Fitted_Mesh#Download_links

Im pretty much in the dark here, lol. So heres the thing... how about I show you how I do it, then you compare with the step-by-step you are doing yourself? Maybe the tutorial you are following is just missing some point. Now please bear in mind Im pretty much a noob when it comes to this stuff so I have no idea if this is the "proper" way of doing things, but like you said in your first post, most of the tutorials we find are for avastar so we are left with a lot of trial-and-error. 1) So, first, I made this super futuristic and fashionable squared skirt then I subdivided it a lot to add geometry. 2) When I was happy with the position and size, I selected the skirt, then holding shift I also selected the armature (skeleton), then right click, "Parent" --> "Armature Deform" --> "With automatic weights". 3) What this does is, blender will get the bones from the armature, create an armature deform modifier for the skirt using them, and also automatically create the vertex groups, giving automatic weights for them. Now, no matter if you are using blender with or without avastar, its 99% unlikely that it will be a perfect job... so most of the time you'll have to do some adjusting yourself. In my case, I thought my squared skirt was already perfection in skirt form, so I didnt have to do it (also cause I suck at this, but theres tons of good tutorials on youtube). 4) Next I selected the armature, went into pose mode and moved some bones to see if everything was deforming ok. 5) Then, just to be sure, I now selected the skirt, went into weight paint mode and checked the vertex groups. At this point I deleted all the vertex groups that werent having any influence in the skirt (like head, eyes, arms, etc). You dont HAVE to do this, but its easier to work when you dont have that list of 100 bones. (edit: actually you do have to do this if you go over the limit of bones that the uploader allows, which I think is like 110 maybe...) 6) Next you go back to object mode, select your skirt and export it as collada. I think ever since 2.8 blender now has a preset specifically for exporting rigged mesh to SL. So you make sure to select that present and, SUPER IMPORTANT make sure to mark the "Keep bind info", or you'll get something very wonky. 7) If you did everything right, when you try to upload the mesh to second life, you'll see something like this: Note that it shows exactly the bones I used in my vertex groups. Like I said, ever since project bento, you only need to list the bones you are using, not the full armature. And thats it.

Oh, I forgot to answer your first question... ever since project bento, you dont need to use the whole skeleton to make fitmesh clothing. In fact, if you are using that full bento skeleton (the one with the wing and hind legs and everything), then you are forced to delete some bones from your vertex groups anyway because theres a limit on the number of bones you can use in your collada file before the SL mesh uploader gives you an error. So yeah, you can delete the unnecessary bones without a problem. Since you are making a skirt, Im gonna assume here that its safe to delete the head bones, arms, feet, etc.

Hum... if the skirt is rigged to the collision bones, it should be affected by the sliders. So, I can only think of two possibilities here... either the vertex groups for the collision bones you are using are not "painted" or when you are uploading the mesh to SL you are not marking the rigging options (I think firestorm does this automatically in the newest version, so I dont think its that). You should be able to see if the skirt is weight-painted in blender by going into weight paint mode and selecting the vertex groups corresponding to the collision bones you used for the skirt. And if you are in edit mode, select a vertice and then press N to show that side window, you should also be able to see the vertex weights: If your mesh is showing there without the collision bones or with the collision bones with 0.0 weight, then thats the problem. Otherwise I cant really think of what might be the cause.

From what I got, you already managed to make 90% of the work. The main difference between rigged mesh and fitted mesh (the one that scales with the appearance sliders) is which bones you picked during the process. So it should be easy to make your skirt fitted mesh, you just need to replace the m_bones you are using with the collision bones closer to it. These links should help: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Rigging_Fitted_Mesh http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Appearance_Editor_and_affected_bones

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Download Make sure to check the configuration page. It has step by step instructions on how to configure it. The very first time running it is a bit annoying because you'll have to create an user and configure some files. But after that you just run the server, configure firestorm (the opensim version) to connect to it and log with the user you created. (ps: you want standalone mode, not grid mode... its much simpler to run too)

I very rarely see it mentioned here, but you can also install a local instance of the opensim server and then test your stuff there. Its like having your own local private grid. I have been doing this for ages, since my scripter days. Pros: Way faster than the beta grid (instant login, no lag), less resource intensive than SL (I cant have SL running while Im playing a game or rendering something, but I can do it with opensim no problem). Cons: The cost will be always zero, so you cant really see how much you would have to pay when uploading to SL and the land impact calculations are not exactly the same. But you can still get an idea if a mesh is having a bigger impact than a previous one, or if a rigging is working fine, etc. TLDR: Wont help much with the "prim cost, land impact" part, but will help with the "etc" part :P

Actually, dealing with the skeleton in blender is also a problem. Which is the main reason why tools like Avastar became popular in the first place. Avastar did a lot of things behind the curtains so that the collada file would be "SL Ready" before you imported. As a hobbyst, I wanted to actually understand how to deal with it without using avastar, and I think the source that helped me out the most was this series of posts by Ada Radius: https://adaradius.com/2020/03/01/how-to-build-the-bento-armature-in-blender-2-8x-part-1/ After spending a lot of time on this, two things seem very clear to me: The default SL files are a mess and the way the uploader deals with the skeleton is more finicky than it needed to be. So you need to go around these two things to make it work. Grab a working dae file and compare with the one from 3dmax, see whats different.

Yes, the example I showed was in blender but Im 100% sure that most these other software do something similar.

You can simply place a plane under your object, a light source above everything, and then bake the shadow map for the plane. The result will be a bit harsh, but you can then tweak things up in your favorite image software, and then alpha the white areas. You can also experiment with different kinds of light sources. I think an area light might work better.

Yeeeah... although I give props to the creator for making a really beautiful piece, when I saw the vram I thought it was almost a crime it only got 4 LI.

Last year I finally decided to deal with my 2020 new-year resolution of learning how to use blender before it was too late and I can say Im completely addicted now. One of the areas that I decided to pay more attention was in making my objects not too demanding for the servers, because like many of you, I reeeeally hate lag. So in my learning curve I started with simple objects, then I dipped my toes in learning to proper uv-unwrap things, getting the right sized textures for each part, being more conservative in my geometry to get the tris down, then I moved on to making my own LODs, using smooth normals so I dont need to rely heavily on bevels, making my own physics, etc, etc... Everything was going fine and I was very happy with my progress until I saw something and my mesh-world came crashing down (oh, the drama, lol). The image attached is of a chandelier I saw recently in an event with more than 120 thousand vertices, good LODs (I was able to zoom out a bit without losing too much detail) but still only 4 LI. One of the projects I made while learning was a backdrop that I gifted to a friend, and in this backdrop I also had a chandelier. And just like in the picture, coincidentally my chandelier used a very similar geometry (8-sided prims linked in an array then array'ed again around the main structure, simulating the chandelier crystals) which is why I got so obsessed with it. My backdrop however had more than 40 LI (despite having a lower number of tris), and Im pretty sure my chandelier alone was responsible for 80% of that. So, after this wall of text, my question is... how? Are you guys hiding the good hacks from us? (lol) How come I see things with less than half the tris but double the LI of that chandelier? Is blender maybe not as good as those industry-standard softwares people use? Am I forgetting to uncheck the "double my LI" box when I upload stuff to SL?

Im a new 3d modeler (started only 3 or 4 months ago), and Im absolutely in love with blender. Like many, the texturing side of things is my weak point, so I do prefer to do this part of the workflow within blender (well, to be honest, Im still experimenting with some things), and like you the shader/node editor was very intimidating when I started watching all those youtube tutorials, however being now at a point where I can make simple textures just using nodes and mixing them, I can tell you that its definitely something you should try and explore. Its as satisfying as popping bubble wrap. There is one very simple thing that made all the difference for me in learning how to use them, and that was the node-wrangler (built-in) addon. Even though its built-in, you still need to go to preferences, add-ons, and then look for it and enable. With it, you can add a node, then ctrl+shift+click on top of it to see the effect it is having on your object in real time, then you add another node, mix with the first, ctrl+shift+click on the mix to see the result, etc. This way its extremely easy to really understand whats going on in the final result.

Hi, Ive been looking like crazy for the dress/top used in this image: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osQqQ_slz10/V3ZbI4u-eLI/AAAAAAAABN8/TwYk4Zl1n9QfvKtMslG0ebazqTpkjTMowCLcB/s640/special.jpg Does anyone know the name, or where to find it? Edit: The creator was kind enough and told me the name. Its called "Raffle Baby Doll" by Ambrosia. :)