[Clothing with multiple mesh options: Is there a more efficient way?]

Got it! The 'washing out' isn't something I considered, but it's a very good point

I also like to be able to ever so subtly tweak/tint. I think you've sold me on just all mod

[Clothing with multiple mesh options: Is there a more efficient way?]

17 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

If I recall correctly from the viewer source, if the alpha is set to 100% (not just a fully transparent texture; the alpha property of the object has to be set), the surface will be skipped for rendering. Those meshes/textures will still be downloaded, so they will still have some impact on performance.

Personally, I would prefer having separate shirts, or at least a modifiable product so I can unlink the parts I don't need (and delete the scripts).

Got it, and thanks for the input - I appreciate it!

My only issue with mod is where I want to provide certain colours for less than the fatpack, I think people will be able to tint pale clothing as they please, which defeats the purpose of colours/fatpacks to an extent for me? 

I was considering only making the pale colours no mod in order to provide mod versions, or just making the fatpack versions fully mod?

This is a little bit off the original topic, but I was wondering what your thoughts might be on this?

[Clothing with multiple mesh options: Is there a more efficient way?]

I'm nearing the end of a shirt meshing project, and I've modelled three different sleeve versions for it and a couple of different collars 😆 

I could split the iterations into different shirts, but I've been toying with the idea of making a hud where people can choose which sleeve/collar etc on the one model. It seems transparent parts (alpha) increase complexity, however - is this so? So walking around with essentially several different mesh pieces and only a few of them visible might be too taxing on viewers, I'm thinking?

Does this make the concept non-viable? With hair that has style huds, I figure it's not as bad because the tris are probably low enough to justify

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

Thank you! Informative 🥰

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

13 hours ago, Da5id Weatherwax said:

Ah, the silly lengths that some creators go to, thinking it will somehow prevent their products being ripped off or prevent some miscreant out there dropping a copy of their scripts into their own object and make it work with the creator's HUD (or into the miscreant's HUD and make it work with the creator's objects or whatever other supposed "nightmare" scenario they have in mind)

What you have there, my friend, is buggy overparanoid DRM-like code. It's an extension of the mistaken idea of "protection" that made folks sell things no-mod but with a resizer script. I say "DRM-like" because for anyone with enough skill to reverse engineer enough of the scripts protocols for the "DRM" to matter (and that kind of clean reverse engineering is NOT cracking the code or infringing the original IP - it's an explicit exemption under DMCA and while companies have tried to sue over others making "compatible products" they've failed more often than they've won) those reverse engineers have got enough skill to write clean reimplementations of the scripts anyway.

I was actually wondering about the no-mod debate I've seen on social media lately... Is anyone able to elucidate me?

My confused and maybe incorrect take on what I'm reading:

-It seems creators make their mesh no mod in an effort to prevent their stuff being ripped, but I've seen it said that this entices people to rip their mesh?

-I've seen people mention scripts that are possibly effective in preventing things from being ripped (they... delete the item if its rezzed (??) )

-Where a creator makes several different single colour versions available, surely no mod would stop people from just... buying the white dress and tinting it whatever colour they like? 

 

[Animated attachment]

Thanks guys! That'll be next on my list to experiment.🤖

[Limit limb movements?]

7 hours ago, Profaitchikenz Haiku said:

No.

The closest you could get to this would be to create some animations that position the upper arms only and upload at P5, but that would simply lock the upper arms to that position and disallow other animations of lower priority moving the upper arms, it would not actually constrain them.

Damn! Thank you, that was in depth, helpful! 

[Limit limb movements?]

Im wondering how it might be possible to limit arm movement on a garment so that whatever animation the avi is doing is still possible, but an arm for example wont have its entire range—say if an avi is lassoed by a rope above the elbows then lead along, that should prevent upper arm movement only. Is this possible?

[Animated attachment]

I think this belongs here? Im curious how animesh hair works. Presumably animations are made for when the avi turns/walks/runs etc. But does it have its own AO, or some sort of scripting process that triggers each animation whenever the avi performs each movement? Anyone who can elaborate?

Ive seen scripts on the MP that apparently mimic your avatars movements on the animesh attachment—if so, would it be just a matter of setting the right deformations for your mesh? Sorry if this is the wrong place for this!

[Rigging Problem!]

You will still need to tweak the weights of your mesh, because your mesh will have a different number of vertices in different places to the legacy mesh, so when you interpolate weights/copy them approximately to your mesh, it won't deform in a way that conforms exactly to the legacy body. Around joints too you have to be more particular, as if you use smoothing, you'll often end up with super bendy, noodle-looking arms, not arms that follow a natural-looking bone structure. Because of this, I don't usually smooth around the elbow, personally. You need a sharp bend for it to look realistic.

I smooth where posing the armature shows all jagged vertices and not a smooth surface, to try to work out an average weighting between vertices, and more often on parts of the body that are more gently contoured.

It's often a matter of finding which bone is deforming the mesh you are working on, which I do by going down the list of bones affecting a vertices, just to make sure that I don't have a foot affecting an arm or something. That can happen sometimes if you have normalise or multi-paint on, so where you are running into problems with weights constantly appearing, it can help to turn them off (just be wary when subtracting of zero weights!)

 

[Universal Layer question]

Hey! I've been trying to create a BOM tattoo for one arm only and am using the legacy body.

 

I've tried a few things, but can't get a tattoo to show up on one arm - I've tried putting the skin on a universal layer too, and reordering so that the layer with the tattoo is above the skin layer, but I can't get it to show up (even if I just select 'blank' and take everything off, the arm does not show up white!) I feel like I'm missing something integral.

 

Any ideas?