Ajay McDowwll

My main (this one) and most of my alts match who I am RL. I do have a male avatar, who's handy for dragging to events when my husband can't attend (I like couple dances, and they look stupid if you're alone lol). Lord, the clothing options for men... sigh. Once he reaches his goal of buying everything at Deadwool, I have no clue what to do with him next.

I own several bodies (Maitreya, Legacy, Slink Physique and HG, Belleza Isis, LoveMomma) and have tried demos of Kupra (original and Kups), eBody Reborn, and Slink's Cinnamon Chai. My first body was Maitreya, and it's still my default. My preferred body shape works well within its parameters, and I love the fact that the onionskin layers are optional. Frankly, since BOM came out the only time I do use any of them is if I have an applier gown that's optimized for the clothing layer, where there's actually some texture across the chest rather than just being painted on, etc. My male alt has Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake, Inithium Kario (I use the "Fit" version of the body; the "Flex" is not to my taste), and Legacy. I like them all for varying reasons, but he defaults to either Jake or Legacy at this point, due to both the body shape and creator support. My female alts all have Maitreya, including my newest, but with her I figured I'd get the Lucybody too. I end up in areas where I sometimes help new folks out, and I thought it might be a good idea to know about a perfectly reasonable nearly-free option (totally free if you don't go for the BOM hud). I... I like it! The nail colors aren't for me, really, but they're cute and I can see why others might like them. My Maitreya skin shows no distortion around the fingernails or toenails. In fact, it's only due to Matti mentioning it that I realized the navel is slightly off from Maitreya, but you really do have to look for it. All in all, it's a really good option especially considering its price.

Have you checked your maximum bandwidth? With one of the Firestorm updates, my bandwidth got shoved down to the spot between WiFi and DSL, which killed my rendering until I worked it out. I'm on Firestorm (not sure which viewer you generally used) and it's at Avatar > Preferences > Network & Files > Connection. I keep mine at 1500 Kbps.

You should have it soon, at least in my experience; my newest alt had it in about three days.

I don't have one, but one of my friends does and he loves it I've considered getting it just because it looks like it's fun to mod... but I am a terrible, terrible SL driver, so I'd probably wreck it when I drove it off the lot

I'm the resident of a few virtual worlds, most notably SL and Sinespace. Both have benefits and drawbacks. The only true downside to SL, to my thinking, is the perception that it's all about adult activities. That said, there are also regions that are rated General with no adult content permitted. It's more about what you seek out, and there is so much to do in SL that involves nothing of that nature. SL Mainland as a whole is either General or Moderate in rating, with the Adult-rated mainland limited to the continent of Zindra. Private regions can set up their own land ratings and control the content there to whatever degree the region owner would like. With regard to lag, one thing I've found that significantly raises FPS is using opaque water settings. This helps even on landlocked parcels with no SL water visible. I'm currently in a region with more than 30 other avatars present and I'm still getting over 20FPS. Part of that is due to my graphics card, but it's also related to carefully tweaked graphics settings. The Lab recently did an update which appears to have given us a nice bump on FPS as well. Second Life's content creators are second to none. A downside to this is that the world is not optimized (which adds to the lag); you're not dealing with fixed assets as you would be in an MMORPG, for instance. But it does allow for endless personalization and creativity, both in one's settings (buildings, interior design, landscaping, etc) and for one's avatar. Plus, with the number of years SL has been around, there is far more content available for purchase than exists in younger virtual worlds. I was involved peripherally with the MuseWeb conference of 2020, which was moved online at the beginning of the pandemic. The formal sessions were held on Microsoft Teams, and then the leisure time was spent in SL. Participants almost universally said one reason they enjoyed the SL socialization is because they could "run into" a colleague wandering the grounds of the region Linden Lab set up for it, and it gave more of a feeling of sharing physical space than a simple Zoom conference would give. TL;DR: Adult content can be controlled for, graphics settings can reduce lag, and holy cats the customization options are insane. Worth it, IMO.

I loved my Genus head But yes, the hud was a nightmare, the animations glitched, and the neck has yet to be updated to the universal neck (unless this happened in the past year -- it could have) so I eventually moved away from it when I picked up the HDPro Queen when it was on sale for 1 linden. I mean, I had nothing to lose... and I was able to get a look I loved with zero neckline. If it weren't for that, though, I'd probably still be in my Genus. Lelutka makes beautiful heads, but shaping them just never works for me. I have a certain aesthetic and I have not yet worked out how to make that happen with their rigging... but the beauty of SL is that we have so many options

Sure! My favorite proportion tool is the Nanogunk proportion tool available on Marketplace. Every single one of my avatars has it, because I never know when I may want to tweak something... ... it's possible I get a little OCD about this stuff lol

I mean, I can set up a fully meshed-out avatar with BOM within 30 minutes, and that's IF I need to pick a head. Most of that time is spent TPing around to stores that don't sell on Marketplace, which is pretty much every body store out there, as well as my preferred skin creator. Plus I have access to privacy/ no-see land to make this happen. Some folks are pretty into modesty inworld... even though we all know after a point it's merely a construct. Newbies aren't going to know where to go, they're not going to necessarily have a place to do all the editing... let alone the fact that getting the knowledge necessary to do all this takes a more serious time commitment than many people want to make. That doesn't even touch on the financial investment, if you're not going the freebie/ cheaply as possible route.

I still have hope that perhaps new starter avatars will be customizable (for skin, hair, etc) via HUD to help new residents get how this stuff works. Like a training wheels avatar that they can then discard for a "big kid's bike" style avatar when they're ready/ want to.

Yeah, sometimes the way the bodies are rigged makes it impossible to get perfectly proportional. I think that alt's arms are pretty much maxed out, and still slightly short according to the picture? But as long as we're not wandering around as tiny-headed giraffe-necked T-rexes, I think we're all doing well

There's more clothing out; not sure on the skins because my male's in HDPro so I just kind of... glaze over when skins are mentioned. I have heard there are some skins geared specifically for Kario, and some with an EvoX head that was released at the same time. If you check out the Inithium Discord server, there's a special section for men there, along with a "New Releases" channel for men only.

It's an actual tool you can sit on Picture below -- located at the School of Avatar Customization in Caledon: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon Oxbridge/209/141/27

I know they have mockups in the new user tutorial at Caledon, but I'm not sure if it's an actual tool, or just something you can stand beside. Actually, bored now (I'm in "hurry up and wait" mode with RL atm), so I'll send in my newbie alt to check

Fair, fair... lol If so, though, it's obnoxious because it wasn't marketed that way. It was marketed as "Hey, great new male body with two options in one! Default BOM, get it while it's hot!" So I did, and it IS a nice body (I prefer the "fit" version to the overly-muscled -- in my opinion -- "flex"), but I'm horribly put-off by the clothing being created for it.

See, my issue with Kario is primarily the creator support that's out there. For some reasons, most of the creators for pants for Kario are making a huge... erm... "below the belt" bulge, which is simply absurd for day-to-day wear.

I'm so glad you got it worked out! yay!!! It can be so frustrating at times... the only reason I survived my first few weeks back inworld was due to friends who were still around and people on the Forum It's good to pass that on!

Nice! Yes, that will look FAR better than the sadness I've been dealing with lol

Yeah, it's the alphas that make me nuts. And the fact that you're supposed to be able to export them somehow? And every time I try to do it, I'm told I must be on build supported land with rez rights... when I'm literally standing in a region I own with my land group tag on lol So I've thrown in the towel... for now. Never say never

Rowan, thank you! That solves it And yes, agreed here... it just seems like it would make sense.

That was probably where I saw it. I wish I could find it, because that drive me nuts. I'm fully BOM; I only wear the clothing layer here and there when I'm wearing an outfit that was converted specifically for it; i.e., some formal tops where the mesh of the clothing layer actually extends out from the chest (rather than being painted on) etc. Otherwise, it's all BOM all the time.

I have yet to work that out. I think I heard there was a "hide nails" hud somewhere for Maitreya's toenails, but I have yet to be able to locate it. It's frustrating; that's the only complaint I have about my Maitreya in terms of functionality.

This is a purchased female body, not an SL default avatar, and as such would not be addressed in any detail by the Second Life Wiki. To the OP: I've included a screenshot of the Layers tab for the Maitreya body hud. If you look toward the top left, you'll see "Select Layer" with the layers listed below that you have on. For the purposes of this screenshot I attached all three; you may be wearing only one or two. (as a side note, you only need to wear the main body and not the additional layers, unless you're wearing specific appliers like clothing or tattoos that are on those layers) You need to highlight the layer you're wearing -- underwear is highlighted here -- and then go down below and click "Clear Layer". Then go back for any other layers, highlight them, and click "Clear Layer" afterwards. Unless you're actively using those layers, I'd recommend detaching them to reduce your avatar's load. Just click the "X" left of the layer on the hud and that will detach it. Your main body will stay on.

The issue being described is one that can only be resolved via the Maitreya body's hud. It is not something that can be resolved via "outfits" or the "wear vs. add vs. replace" functions. You're conflating two entirely different processes.

Yes; this is an issue specific to the Maitreya body, and has nothing to do with changing outfits.