Odd Stuff

This picture has nothing to do with the stuff in this post. I just like it.

Stuff wouldn't go into a cube: When I tried to put some Copy-able Halloween hair from Argrace into a cube for storage each item had to be dragged one-by-one. Trying to select everything in the folder then dragging would not work at any location on any day or even after a cache-clear relog. Turns out some 50% of the stuff I tried to put away gave me the same issues, regardless of maker, type, &c..

Name Tags mean that you know everyone's Stuff: Not sure why, but for the last month it has disturbed me that Second Life name tags let me see who is around me at all times. When I'm at the doctor's office I know who is who by face ... though sometimes I forget names ... but when I'm someplace unfamiliar I have no idea who is near me. Are we giving up some modicum of privacy because of name tags or the hover tips that show us an avatar's name?

Fetching Stuff: My Inventory has been in "Fetching ..." mode for a week now, even after a cache thrashing. Maybe it is time to do a clean install ... and buy a new computer.

This is an alt I need to log in sometime on a Linden Home I used to have and she's using the Dolphin viewer. She's still a member of that viewer's in-world group, I think.

Viewing Stuff: Why does the Firestorm viewer require me to relog after about an hour to clear increasing lag? It uses the same basic settings that I chose in the Official viewer. The latter refuses to rez many to very many textures since the most recent upgrade (and my installation of the Apple Mavericks OS). I miss the Exodus viewer and if I could afford to pay the coder a salary to bring it back, I would.

Second Life Stuff on my iPad: Now that everyone in our house uses iOS 7 on our iDevices (including a new pair of Air iPads) it's harder to hide my Second Life .... the risqué pictures for Topless Tuesday, for example. I need to turn off sharing pictures so I can get back to using the some fine apps to edit and enhance images. Now if only The Lab could get a decent app to run. This thing has a desktop-grade processor in it, for cryin' out loud.

Some Stuff is meshy: As creators become better and better with making mesh, I've noticed that the scale of some items is becoming more realistic, even doorways. Maybe the end of the 7-foot blonde is nigh? I bet it has to do with creating things off-world in software such as Blender where one isn't influenced by the avatar and existing unrealistically-proportioned stuff.

I wish Mesh had been around when the Empress Isle was built. And Advanced Lighting. It was a lovely place. The whole Lesbos archipelago was beautiful.

Kaelin's Fembot

One of the joys of Second Life is enjoying the creativity of others. Fortunately, I get to wallow in it as I have so many talented friends (far more talented than me). Honour writes better, Marianne textures beautifully, and Kaelin makes some awesome avatars – and not just the custom all-mesh ones she makes just for herself. You might recognize the name. I wrote about her Fire Giant here and her Storm Giant here. Her SL Marketplace shop is filled with intricately-made clothes and fabulous stuff for fantasy avatars (her wings are awesome), but now she's branched into SciFi with her new Fembot avatar ($529 here).

I'm in a corridor at Space Trek, an adult cosplay sim (SLurl).

This partial-Mesh beauty is Mod-Copy so you can personalize it. In fact, Kaelin tells me that if someone asks politely, she'll pass along the UV maps so you can do things like asymmetrical arms, new shades, and more. Also, some shape adjustments can be applied so while mass-produced robots should look alike, you can stand out (keep a backup copy of all parts before you go modding, please).

If you love SciFi, you must get this avatar ... or at least check out her whole shop here. As of this moment, she even has a dozen items L$10 and under, including her famous L$5 prim-resizer script loved by Petite avatars everywhere.

MyWeek on MySL

If you haven't been following my past week on MySL then you've missed a fairly busy time. Here's a sampler from the snapshots section:

In my travels I re-found some places I had forgotten about, like the Bay of Space Pigs (SLurl) and picked up some freebies like this snapshot HUD. The Moles of the LDPW often display a wickedly sharp sense of humor in their builds making each visit a treat.

After The Lab finished rolling out Havok updates to all the regions it was safe to use mesh vehicles at sim border crossings again so I leaped in the Black Chicken and flew around the Coastal Waterway (Web) until I hit a ban line which disintigrated my chopper and dropped me in the water. Thank goodness this kitty can swim and has a day-glo flight suit for the Search And Rescue teams to spot.

On Election Day in the USA I visited an unofficial Obama 2012 campaign headquarters and took several snaps with owl buddy Daniel Voyager. Can't see it in this picture, but I'm wearing my Flufee for President hoodie. Later, Daniel searched for a Romney HQ but couldn't find anything. It's not like four years ago when lots of politicians had a presence in Second Life, official or otherwise.

The day before the US elections I ran amuck in some UK sims to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (Web) and took a few snaps. There didn't seem to be much of a party for the remembrance anywhere and I actually met folks who thought I was just an Occupier (Web). My, how folks forget their traditions.

Despite Halloween having passed, I hit up Grendel's Children (Web) to search for pumpkins with avatar prizes inside. One of my favorites of the couple dozen I got is a pair of giant spiders. Amazingly textured, artfully sculpted, and brilliantly scripted, these critters can actually build webs and use them! Here I'm setting up house on the sign at one of Robin Sojourner's shops (SLurl) in Bay City.

A couple times during the week I attended the burning of the little Man at Burning Man's Inner Child Camp. Marianne McCann (far right) streamed some great tunes while a big crowd of people danced, watched the Man burn, and generally had a great time. Of course, Mari set off fireworks. The girl likes fire.

The week saw a couple visits to the Mad Pea Carneval (Web; SLurl), a fantastic build that must be experienced. There are so many talented artists that use Second Life as a medium that it's hard to understand why the platform, at least by general consensus, seems to be floundering.

On my first visit to Mad Pea I picked up a stalker, one Tem Haalan, who has a fabulous avatar that fits the Carneval so beautifully. Tem inspired me to spend several hundred L$ on new boots, leather pants, and other sundries to make a similar avatar which in the end I (A) forgot to photograph and (B) realized was nearly a clone of my Zyx Resident alt character. DOH!

So that's a sample of my week in MySL. How was yours? What? You don't use it? Shame on you! A premium account is not needed, its fun, and you can meet new people like Tem (he watched my MySL feed before we met, hence the stalkerness).

Beware the Fire Giant

Available for L$389 on the SL Marketplace here or in a male version here for L$359.

My super talented friend Kaelin Westland has done it again ... another giant avatar. Coming in at six meters tall, the Fire Giant is amazingly detailed. As much as I admire what Kaelin does with the mesh itself, its the skin that really sells this avatar. Her muscles just ripple and it seems that lava is just ready to burst out.

All the armor, also mesh, is included in the package or you can easily resize prim clothes to fit. If you need help with that,  Kaelin offers a L$5 resizing script here that is better than just about anything I've seen.

You may remember her Storm Giant avatar that I wrote about on May 9th. Essentially, this is the same avatar but with theme-specific armor to go with the fire skin. And you can also resize hair or prim clothes for this avatar as with the Storm Giant.

Still scary in the buff, but maybe even more beautiful as you can really appreciate the skin.

Kaelin has also created a truly unique alien avatar (NSFW; see it here), part of an amazing 100+ item collection that includes meticulously detailed clothes, body parts, avatars, and more. As much as I tell her that she's an amazing artist she just shrugs and denies it. I like to think she's secretly smiling and blushing but I know she's really thinking about what she can do next.

The Consequences of Mesh

Upgrading a mobile phone once meant a complete change of hardware and re-entering your entire phone book. SIM cards came along and one could easily swap phone books and other settings from one piece of hardware to another. With so-called Smartphones the need for software upgrades enters the picture even if a hardware upgrade isn't required. I, for one, miss the days of a simple hardware upgrade. Now refrigerators, automobiles, televisions, and more have gone "smart" and require various upgrades.

Zyx doesn't look very different after completing the upgrade. She looks like she's has 10 fingers on her left hand, but that's an illusion that relogging fixed. And if I want to change her ears, now I can.

Avatars in Second Life have become comparable with the advent of Mesh. Particularly, the "Petite" avatar system developed by Yabusaka Loon. You've seen them, the wee tiny fairies and elves and pixies and the like. My Zyx Flux "character" bought the Fallen Gods version on Day One, thrilled to finally be the size that I initially envisioned her to be. Then almost immediately there was a change that allowed the basic shape to have digi-grade hooves so owners could be fauns or demons or whatever. This meant that the clothing templates had to change. Then a whole new version arrived, v1.2, that required replacing the body so make-up options could be applied. That meant that all the Saved Outfits I created had to be changed. Not too big of an issue as I had but four at the time, but it was a bit of a nuisance as I had to recolor all the bodies as the originals had been customized.

Yesterday, v1.3 was released. The avatar's heads are now interchangeable —pointy ears, human ears, or no ears are all options — and all my Saved Outfits have to be upgraded once again. This time, I have a dozen to change. When I modified the shape of my Uccello "character" I knew I'd have to make some clothing adjustments as well but I developed a strategy: put on the "old" outfit then swap out the outdated shape for the new version. A couple attachments needed to be tweaked, but the whole process was quick enough that I could easily update all my couple dozen Saved Outfits.

This is more complicated with the Petites update. I found it faster to start with a saved nude version with all the HUDS and mods (like my custom eyes) and then add the bits from a previously Saved Outfit: clothes, shoes (if any), hair, jewely, etc.. Nearly the same process and not quite as fast, but fairly workable.

By workable, I mean "as long as the upgrades aren't frequent its workable." Completing some updates today reminded me why I hadn't changed Uccello's shape in so long. Changing an avatar can be time consuming and Mesh avatars mean even more work. It really makes me wonder if I should try to adjust my SLink pixy ears from Zyx's "regular" sized avatar to fit Zyx's Petite avatar now that an earless head is an option. Maybe, but it would mean more work come any future upgrades. Ahhh, the consequences of Mesh.

Storm Giant [Update]

Everyone is blessed with having a few talented friends and I'm no exception unless you consider that I have some exceptionally talented friends. My IM windows get a regular workout with "Hey! You gotta see ... " or something to that effect. Today my friend Kaelin caught me with "Just in time" and seeing via the Mini Map that she was at the courtyard on Lesbos I teleported down right away knowing she had to have something new with an IM like that one.

From Chat History: [13:49] Height Detector (Accurate) - Prim Height: Kaelin Westland is 2.708965 m (8 ft. 10in.) tall. (counting shoes) - Prim Height
But from measuring, she's more like 6 meters (19.6850 feet) tall, making me so happy I just the other day made my own avatar shorter so I'd need a platform to put me on eye-level.

The Something New was a Storm Giant avatar, a custom mesh demi-god with hand-painted skin and it is every bit as detailed and delicious as the smaller fantasy mesh avatars she's been making for herself of late. I don't know if she'll sell this one (find her on the SL Marketplace here) as only a few of her earlier avatar projects have gone public, but I'm sure she could make a small fortune. She does this sort of thing for fun, however, and I'm sure enjoys the challenge more than the potential income. Maybe I'll set another challenge: Create a pantheon of giants from various mythologies. I'm sure Kaelin would be far more than equal to that task.

[Update: May 10, 2010 - The Storm Giant is now for sale on the Marketplace here (L$389).]

Retro SL: The Alpine House

Way back in the day, it cost L$10 to rez a prim. Any prim. Marianne McCann reminded me about this once regular fee when she noted the Prim Tax prank in her April 1st blog post, and while I wasn't on the Main Grid to witness that, I remember getting a free Alpine House from a now-defunct freebie board in Waterhead (SLurl to the blank wall where the board used to be) and seeing the box labeled "... only $200L to build" (note the old-style of indicating the L$) which is what it would have cost at the time to rez all 20 prims of the house on your land. On a 117 prim, 512m² "First Land" lot, that was quite a dent in resources.

With a slightly larger than 10m² footprint, this classic building by Lifetime resident Juro Kothari was a regular sight back in the day and can sometimes be seen on most any trip around the Mainland. I've modified copies of this building more times than I can remember, making new houses and skyboxes, using the roof prims for the texture on other builds, or just practicing my building skills. With sculpties, I bet this could easily be re-created with just 8 or 9 prims and a talented Mesh builder could probably re-create it in 1or even 2 prims — maybe 3 with a door, which the original didn't have, either.

Checking out historical architecture at the Astutla Sandbox (SLurl)

I've been combing through my Storage Alt's Inventory and my own Inventory to find other classic builds of days gone by and I'll probably write some posts about them in the future because Retro SL can be as fun as current SL.

Wholly Mesh [UPDATE]

According to the note card I got from Landscapes Unlimited (SLurl) today, their sim is now 100% mesh, top to bottom.

"As of today the mesh environment on my sim is open to the public. Please come over with your friends and enjoy the scenery, the tranquil spots, a boatride, a swim in the ocean or a picknick under the majestic old oak trees. Beware: you need a MESH VIEWER to see the environment!"

With the obvious exception of the the base land (the system ground) itself and the water, everything appears to be mesh prims. Unsure, though, I wrote to creator Margaret Heliosense about certain items and I'll update this post with her reply. Until then, compare the pictures below:

Facing south, everything you see but me, the sky, and the patch of beach just at the water line is mesh.

The same shot with Simple and Water derendered (Advanced > Rendering Types) to remove all but alpha-textured prims.

That, of course, would derender traditional and scuplty prims, as well, but if you take for granted that all the prims in the first picture are mesh, then their absence in the second illustrates the extensive primscape.

Further exploration showed that some floaty toobs with poses appear to be standard prims and sculpts even upon close inspection. The linked pairs of buoys I found were mesh (check the yellow outlines in the pic — the lines on the cone curve are a dead giveaway that this object is mesh) that weighed in as seven prims of mesh but could have been made in as few as five prims if made the old-fashion way, though that may have defeated the purpose of having an all-mesh sim. Remember that object size, physics settings, and spread over an area (how far apart the combined "bits" appear to be) affect the land impact (read more here) which is the same as prim count. The green/white buoy by itself, for example, has a land impact of three "prims" despite being one, unlinkable object, while the red/white buoy "weighs in" at four. Most builders with a knowledge of prim tortures could make the latter with two old-style prims at most and just one if the exact proportions weren't important. Also, there were several decorative items such as furniture and ground covers that weren't mesh, such as some wonderful stuff from Margaret Heliosense, who was kind enough to answer some questions I had.

What really struck me, though, is the homogeneity of the textures on the elevated land, as seen below:

Compared to the far more natural texture and form of the otherwise similar landscape from this screen cap from the viewer log-in screen last year, one's first impression of mesh may be tainted:

Don't be quick to assume, however. as you've seen in the many items of mesh clothes, the variety of mesh avatars, and other mesh items in-world, it is possible to create much more complex result. Generally, though, I think that mesh is smoother over all, with less of ability to create a firm, hard edge. Mesh seems softer, to put in in one word, and the application of such uniform texturing enhances that impression.

The ground under the trees is a custom land sculpt that hides
 a mass of system ground sand at the Isle of Lesbos.
I made a custom land sculpt so my brother could have a sandy
beach at his place in an all green sim, Nangrim.

But stepping away from my builder's nerdieness, the overall effect at Landscapes Unlimited is still amazing. When mesh was first announced I immediately thought about how it might be used to form land without the limitations of our current ground system. Applying textures to a region's system ground at this time is hit-or-miss at best, especially as re-renders after a fresh log-in or region restart can shift textures dramatically. And shaping the land is more art and alchemy than repeatable science. With sculpties and mesh, achieving the precise desired effect is much easier. Going beyond simple textured prims to level land (remember Help Island?), I have a nice tool that lets me model parts (or all) of an existing landscape to change its texture — and to some degree, it's shape — regardless of what they system ground becomes.

I applaud the folks at Landscapes Unlimited for all their hard work and I look forward to what they can do as the state of the art progresses. By the time the Isle of Lesbos is ready to remodel again I hope that I can use large mesh builds to make the landscape truly spectacular.

-----------------

Details and more pix are on the Landscapes Unlimited blog. For my pix I used the Region Default settings for Windlight which seem to be very different from what appears in the creator's blog pix.

[UPDATE] Feb 17, 2012
I heard from Sominel Edelman, the creator, today and here are some comments:

"The goal of what I did was to learn, and perhaps to inspire other people [and to test if] mesh can be an alternative to sculpted prims for landscaping." He noted that part of the test was to see if structures that can't be made with the system ground, like caves and tunnels, could be made and how easily.

As to the smoothness of the mesh objects compared to sculpts or to the system ground, "With the size of objects I use for the ground (64x64x64m), every 12 vertices count for approximately 1 prim [compared to 1024 for a sculpted prim. That makes it extremely expensive to create smooth landforms." Increasing the vertices would certainly create a more natural effect, but at a high cost. Sominell suggested that I look at Desert Mountain Landscape_001-mesh on the SL Marketplace (pictured at left). "This has 230 prim for just a 50x50m object. A complete sim surface needs 25 objects of that size..." That would be 5750 prims total, a substantial portion of a 15,000 prim region.

Spirit by Claudia222 Jewell

Bathed in perpetual sunset, Spirit by Claudia222 Jewell at Art Screamer (SLurl) is a magnum opus in mesh. Ms Jewell, well-known for her sculpty work with Farstar New Earth (blogged here) has once again created a surreal world that despite initial impressions is bursting with color. Subtle, yes, but a festival of tones and hues masterfully textured onto some truly fabulous mesh sculptures. The Sacrifice, her 2011 Burn2 installation (blogged here), is an important part of Spirit so look for it in the sim's northeast corner.

The Sacrifice, from Burn2 2011, fits perfectly. Be sure to view it from every angle.

It's hard to move a meter or two in any direction without finding something fantastic, but be sure to look at everything from multiple viewpoints as perspective is an important part of the experience. And since you'll be visiting time and again, I'm sure, be certain to use the Region Default settings World > Sun > Estate Time for best effect at least once. You might see more specific details at high noon, but it won't be the same. All my pictures here were shot with the defaults and unretouched.

The dragons from Farstar New Earth have a home at Spirit.

A Torley alt wearing the free avatar you can pickup when you arrive at the installation.
I found him in one of the several ethereal floaty islands. Islands? More like living creatures.

Normally I'm all about green grass, rainbows, lush foliage, and lots of sunshine. At first glance, this artscape is bleak, somber, and even macabre. If you spend some time and (really, really) look you'll find there is far more. There is life and death and the full cycle in between. This might explain some of my attraction, despite modern art being so far from my usual tastes, the Renaissance and photojournalism being the meat and potatoes of my art world. Spirit is such a polar opposite that I'm baffled by how much I love this installation.

One more picture, the installation at sunset, showing why you need to use the region's Windlight and water settings:

The light is such an important part of the experience.

I could have taken quite a few more pictures. Actually, I did take more, but they are for me. You'll have to go to Spirit and see this magnificent art for yourself. Once you see it, you'll kick yourself for even thinking once about skipping a visit.
__________

Be sure to see Honour McMillan's blog post about this exhibit. She's far more clever about modern and virtual art than I am plus she has some nifty pictures.

Too Busy Being a Pixy

Cripes, I had to spend 90% of my day in Real Life today, getting my first manicure and pedicure, amongst other things, when I really wanted to be in Second Life being a pixy!

Fallen Gods has a new mesh fantasy avatar, a micro-sized girl -- elf, demoness, or fae (L$1500; SLurl). Of course, I got the fae and a full set of hair from Wasabi Pills (L$500; SLurl), and one rather girly outfit (L$400). Immediately I began fitting the clothes I had for my other micro pixy avie, one composed of comparatively primitive (pun intended) sculpts, and adapting my regular pixy's eyes for this teeny form. And here is the result!

Wee Zyx is even more wee-sized but a bazillion times cuter!

Fabulous Hair

Late last night when my wee pixy alt was wrapping up a purchase of a freebie item on the SL Marketplace, the site suggested several other items in hopes to wring some cash out of her. Interestingly, one of the items was a free demo hair from Wasabi Pills (in-world at SLurl), pretty much obviating the attempt at bringing the checkout total above Zero Lindens. But she quickly grabbed that, too, and grabbed demos of other styles including the one pictured here, Sebastianne. Everyone who saw it the next day agreed that this mesh hair was far too adult for such a child-like pixy. But not for her bigger "sister," another pixy alt of mine ... the adult one. And, my goodness, she makes it very, very adult, indeed.

Several shades of one color for L$250 or a complete set of all colors is just L$1500 (if I recall correctly). This shade is Night Shadow, part of the pack of all blacks.

Yes, you saw the word mesh up there. This is new tech hair that anchors to the body thus moving naturally. Those tresses draped over the pixy's modest assets won't "fall" into her body as her pose changes. Nor will they stiffly stick out into space as sculpted and non-sculpted prims both do. The hair stays put. Add some strategically placed flexi prims (none in evidence here) to simulate fly-aways and the look could be oh so natural. In any case, I think the hair looks great and even mesh detractors likely will, too. Sure, there are some drawbacks. Like a special hair base and a hair-specific alpha layer are required. And there is a rendering error common to invisi-prims with some of the space between the hair and the body. I'm not sure why. If this big pixy were bustier, the gap would close and no one would be the wiser, despite their increased propensity to stare at the increased bounty.

But I am thoroughly pleased, indeed. In fact, I made this style her standard hair, the one saved with a dressable nude avatar. It even looks good with her usual blue skin ... but I'm too thrilled with this effect to change skins just yet. Her wee "sister" pixy has some money and the names of a couple more youthful styles available at Wasabi Pill and plans on ducking in tomorrow to shop. If, that is, her big "sister" is done playing.

Now Tell Me That Mesh SUCKS

"Mesh Sucks!"

Seems to be that's all I hear. I think it is because too many people are invested in hating the Official Viewer, for one, so they stick with non-compatible viewers. But I also think it is because too many people focus on clothing. Sure, clothes and avatars made with the mesh feature have some limitations, but other things can be made with mesh ... something too many people forget. Check out this statue:

Large lawn ornament, small statue w/2 cute Animations, or teeny tabletop-size: L$280 each. 

To think that statue is but four prims worth (it acts like one prim, but all mesh objects have a "weight" that is the workload their resolution requires and can be equated to a number of prims). Even in scultpies I bet it would be at least double that value and it wouldn't rez nearly as quickly.

Hatzfeld Runo, of Tiki Lounge & Tiki Tattoo, has an entire branch of his store devoted to mesh creations if you'd like to see what a real artist can do with  Second Life's latest feature. Maybe like this drinks giver ...

Two Prims! It's only Two Prims!! OMGsh that's fabulous. L$280 and it offers a choice of two different drinks on touch.

Why the Fuss about Mesh?

With all the emphasis across the Second Life portion of the blogosphere about the problems with clothes and avatars made from the new Mesh feature, I think people forget that more can be done with the feature. For example, 101 sculpty, Mesh, and standard prims take the place of 443 "regular" prims to make up this tableau of a dragon admiring a mystical girl at Mesh Mellows (SLurl). That is a considerable savings for builders on a prim allowance. Something this complex can actually fit on the typical 16m x 32m "starter" parcel that supports just 117 prims.

So where are the other builders and artists using Mesh? There seems to be very little at Burn2, the Burning Man festival in Second Life, so far. I don't see them on the blogs and very, very little shows up on the SL Marketplace despite detailed searches. Sure, Mesh is new, but the the volume and variety of clothes available tells me that folks have certainly had the time to create something.

No, I haven't used anything with Mesh in my builds yet. Partly because I can't make anything from scratch for now and partly because I still know a considerable number of folks not using a Mesh-capable viewer. The Mesh dolphin avatar I bought yesterday was acclaimed by several but not visible to just as many. Maybe other builders are waiting, like me, until there are more folks who can appreciate their work.

More Adjustments

After grabbing the really cool free 'mesh' Minotaur avie from Creative Lab (SLurl) I couldn't wait to try it on. Since I'm volunteering at Burn2 I sat at the bar in the center tent ... and found the Animation Override (AO) I had was totally inadequate. Well, it was a freebie male AO, but it was still wrong for the size and limb proportions of the minotaur.

I"ve got a sinking feeling ...

I wonder if someone out there is working on scalable animations ... ones that automatically adjust to the avatar's proportions? One of my pixy alts uses an AO meant for a man, so the sitting anims are totally wrong. She sinks into the ground, for example, and folding her arms looks funny. But I like the "attitude" of the various stands and most of the other anims. If only it would suit her stature.

Since mesh clothes and avies are 'rigged' to the avatar skeleton, I'd think there would be something in the physics that would allow animations to be so fitted.

Mesh Clothing

Xandah wearing the Free Hoodie from Damian Fate's Random Crap store.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/TenFifteen/166/44/33

As soon as I could, I rushed right out to Damian Fate's store to check on the prices of his mesh clothing templates and met someone I knew. She pointed out the free demo hoodie she was wearing. While I'm not one to wear brand names on my chest ... it gets enough attention as it is ... I had to grab one of these, too. Pretty sweet, if you have a supporting viewer, either the official one or Kirstens. If you don't have one, or people looking at you don't, here is what they see:

An in-world snap by JoyJoyJenny Bimbogami.

From a note card included with the hoodie:

- The arms are different colours, with our custom UV layouts, we can have different textured arms!
- The UV (the grid effect shown on this texture) is nice and smooth, no crazy bumps.
- The logos on the front of the chest and the back have no distortion, even over breasts. Now you can put lovely artwork (or store logos in this case) on the chest with no worries of wrinkles or distortion.
- The 'hood up' version is a fantastic example of how we can now join different body parts together with cloth that stretches and bends in a much more realistic way than sculpts could ever offer.
- The zipper is shiny, with mesh we can apply normal prim effects and asign several different faces so we can apply those effects to specific areas.
- Obviously, we can now also rely on physically modelled details alongside texturally suggested details which will provide us with a much more realistic and outlandish range of fashion options.

Also of note, with the hoodie on, whatever body shape you had before is gone. You DDD-cup women are down to a training bra again. No bust slider in the world will bring your girls back, but at least you won't have logos and text crushing into your cleavage. Part of what changes  your figure is an alpha layer below it that erases your body and part is the prim you are wearing wearing is whatever shape the creator wanted. One more item of note ... trying to right-click on it directly like you would any other attachment doesn't work so well. I had to "edit" my hair before clicking the hoodie.

In my excitement, I didn't look too closely at the prices, though the couple templates I looked at were L$2000 - L$3000 (see more here) with megapacks of everything for one gender about L$46,000 ... spendy, I guess, but not out of line with other clothing templates I've seen.

So, that's mesh. Look for a lot of it near you soon, either in odd, blocky form, or as a minor graphic miracle like in the first picture.

Mesh Tease [Updated]

I finally got to the Beta Grid after numerous tries and I was immediately griefed with objects that took my name, spammed chat with racist hate speech and offers to open Web sites to learn about avoiding griefing, but were, in fact, advertising pages. Later, I got to see some mesh objects.

This is one of them and I'm not floating above it. Apparently mesh objects have collision planes much like sculpted objects do ... physical bounding boxes that control how close an avatar can get to it. If the object is phantom, that's not an issue. If it is solid, you can stand on it and be seen as standing above it as you are really on the bounding box. This little beauty is by Drongle McMahon and I call it Mesh 60 Prims in 1 because the Edit pane indicated it was but one prim working as if it was 60 prims.

I won't bore you with tons of pix, but I will tease you by saying I saw marvelous applications of 3D cartography, clothes, fantasy avatars, landscape elements, and an detailed "Model-A"-style truck that should have been 41 prims but was really just one. I'm looking forward to mesh. You?

Alright. Just one more.

The Not-42-Prims truck by Alzahra Ames

UPDATE: 23 August 2011; 7:57pm SLT - The Lab has an official announcement on their blog, "Mesh goes gridwide: Create, sell, buy & enjoy all-new things in SL" ... with a nice picture. You can download the required viewer here.

Mesh is Here

Today's rolling restarts, by all reports, enabled all regions to use the widely-anticipated mesh object code in preparation for v3-based viewers. Wondering what mesh will do for you? Check out Damian Fate's blog for a couple fascinating videos and read more on the official mesh wiki.

Who was Minding the Store?

An important part of the upcoming introduction of "Mesh" to the Second Life Grid appears to be an increased emphasis on protecting copyright (see Mesh Update: Part Deux). Very interesting as this 2009 official video demonstration of mesh uses the Hulk character copyrighted by Marvel Comics:

Between this and news about copyright from elsewhere in the tech world -- Samsung postponing a product launch pending resolution of a lawsuit with Apple (Web) -- makes me wonder "Who was minding the store when I bought an "Apple" laptop in Second Life and an iPad just yesterday?"

Is that a DC Comics-regsitered superhero logo on my shirt?

The Apple logo on the "laptop" is a violation, I'm sure, as would be the photo-texture rendering of the keyboard and ports. I found it on the SL Marketplace by searching with the term "Apple." Amusingly, the iPad there is the kicker considering the Samsung/Apple news. Sure, it was a freebie in-world, but its a very accurate reproduction, right down to the icons -- a key part of the Apple lawsuit against Samsung. It was positioned near accessories the creator probably hoped I would buy to compliment the gift.

So who at The Lab is in charge of policing copyright violations? If they leave it to the public then I doubt brand-name violations like this will be officially noticed. There's no incentive. One merchant turning in another to trim competition? Probably not as they'd be caught, too. Would real world brands go after individual residents? Gucci was involved with that back in 2007 (Web) yet a current search of the SL Marketplace (Web) turns up over 100 items using the name in some fashion, if not outrightly. The furor of old really hasn't had a huge effect, it seems.

Much like real world "KIRFs," I suppose. After all, someone in China recently cloned a whole Apple store, right down to the t-shirts (Web). The shop I visited when looking for a new Second Life laptop and tablet was a pretty good clone, too, though the owner wore a suit as he leaned against a table that could have been hauled out of the real world Apple store an hour from my house.

Imminently Meshed

According to a new blog post from The Lab, "The first round of rollouts of mesh will be happening over the next few weeks!" (Web) so fantastically-rendered creations like this dinosaur skeleton (from this September 2010 Linden blog post) will soon populate Our World if you have the right viewer installed. However, if you also want to create such magic, you must first complete a Question/Answer-style tutorial about intellectual property. I breezed through it with flying colors despite never having studied the subject because it was one of those common corporate training tutorials where the obvious answer is always right. Disappointing, actually, that guessing works as well as actual knowledge since the ability to change your answer if you manage to guess poorly really makes the idea of being informed moot. Only after the 10 questions do they give links to Web resources they think might be helpful to understand the complex ideas that they marginalize with the tutorial.