Vaki Zenovka has a very interesting and important post which points out a very interesting social consequence of introducing mesh in Second Life: As it exists now, wearing mesh-based clothing often forces you to adjust your avatar, to wear it.
So while mesh is appealing for its visual and physical qualities, it raises concerns over body image which bleed into real life. As Vaki puts it:
For those of us who’ve spent years fine-tuning our shapes, and who feel like our shapes are really part of our online selves, it’s very hard to suddenly wear clothes that force us into another shape, another body... so many of us have struggled for years in real life with our body images, for whatever reason. So many of us dread the chore of going shopping for clothes and wading through options that don’t fit, or hang funny, or gap in places they shouldn’t gap. We hate it because society makes clothes for an ideal shape which is not our own. We hate it because it reminds us that our bodies are not easily mutable, and we cannot change the things about us that feel, for whatever reason, alien.
And now with mesh as it's currently deployed, she believes that alien feeling has come to the virtual fashion experience. Read the whole thing here. NWN style writer touched on this issue in her post on the pros and cons of mesh, which you should read here too.
i could'nt help but notice on that samsung promo video all the speaker are wearing suits but they have had there ties removed, it makes them look contrived and fake like some one has purposley told everyone to remove there ties when you no the all arrived wearing a ties
Posted by: Jjccc | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:04 PM
I a have a short, curvy 'natural' looking avatar. I already have a major issue buying clothes, most of which are built for tall, skinny avvies- and then they go and make parts no mod? AUGH!
So reading this, I kinda feel a little smug and vindicated because in the past I've been told by designers "Well, just shrink your hips down or something!" or (I shit thee not) "Why would you want to look fat in here, you can be anything!"
So my inner immature 6 year old says "NEENER!" whilst my adult self hopes this can be addressed in how meshes function.
Posted by: Eleri Ethaniel | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:05 PM
Welcome to the world that those of us who have had to resort to attachments to get the figure we want have had to live in for years. I sincerely hope that this will inspire a solution that will work for all of us.
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:09 PM
Not to mention that 99% of all avatars are totally unrealistic already, much much too tall and so on.
Posted by: jo yardley | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:16 PM
There was a jira, submitted by Maxwell Graf, to solve the problem. What was asked is that mesh, instead of being "one size fits all", conforms to each specific avatar body. Won't bother you with all the technicalities of what Max called "Request for Rigged Mesh Parametric Deformer". The jira has been, apparently, moved into an internal LL project after receiving 470+ votes in few days, hence is no longer in the 'public' view. So, the Lab is working on possibly releasing mesh that will adapt to our bodies, or at least it seems LL is seriously looking into this! \o/
Posted by: Paola Tauber | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:26 PM
Thanks, Paola... I was wondering why links to the original JIRA entry, SH-2374, now take one to a "permission violation" page.
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 01:50 PM
There is a move to have the avatar shape affect the mesh it wears. The Lindens have said they would like to add that feature. It is now just a matter of time and priority.
If you visit the JIRA be sure you click WATCH. Votes do not count.
JIRA's that are public and related: CTS-301 or CTS-382
Posted by: Nalates Urriah | Friday, September 02, 2011 at 02:09 PM
The base avatar moves each of the 9000 or so vertexes that make up it's shape based on the sum of all the appearance settings. The JIRA that now went internal to LL proposed moving a rigged mesh's vertexes according to the nearest vertex of the base avatar by the same amount.
This would be modified by edit window settings for "strength" and "bias". Strength would control how much it moves, from 0 for attachments that need to keep their original shape, to perhaps 2 as a maximum, with 1 being the same amount as the underlying skin. Bias would move the attachment vertexes in or out by some amount. This would make it easier to do layering of multiple clothing attachments and avoid skin clipping.
The benefit of this feature is that it makes the clothing conform to the avatar shape, not the other way around, and the additional settings let the user make needed adjustments for best fit.
It would not impose a large load on the SL system. Animations already force calculation of vertex positions for every frame. Doing an offset calculation to conform the mesh attachment one time per object would be like adding one frame to the rendering sequence, which is not a large burden.
Posted by: Danielle | Saturday, September 03, 2011 at 09:33 AM
My avatar is pretty buffed and on the bearish side and not like the usual thin pretty boy twink avarats that most on SL have. Most attachments and clothing fit just fine after a good resize and fit...don't really wear prim leg cuffs for pants or the ones for the short sleeve shirts...those usually look dumb I think. As far as mesh I really don't have an opinion as I have never used it and never will til a viewer that is not LL's is out.
If it can be fitted and resized to how I can wear it then all is great...if not then no skin off my back. I lived without prim clothing and look woofy hot I can live without mesh then too :)
Posted by: InsyX Piranha | Sunday, September 04, 2011 at 09:18 AM
Well i was waiting for a v1 viewer that hsd mesh enabled to see the 600L mesh pabts i bought (dont ask why, Lol)
Seems today i'll be able to see them and all the fuzz about, for sure it looks like the prim on a web, same feature that is ignored by the majority of Sl residents.
Bur if Sl v1 starts to get mesh, and if they sort the clone war, perhaps for a foot fetish like me meshes can be worth;)
http://blog.slinkstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Tall-Thigh-Boots-Ad.jpg
Posted by: foneco zuzu | Monday, September 05, 2011 at 08:23 AM
I had a major argument with my two best friends last night. They were dissing a new body shape that just came out that was shaped rather like an average, somewhat overweight person, and they wanted me to join in the fun. Who in their right mind would choose to be fat in a world where everybody could be slender and beautiful?
I fear my response was not skillful, because I was trying to hard not to escalate the conflict. But something occurred to me that I didn't say: who in their right mind would choose to take on the likenesses of the types of people who mocked and belittled us for not conforming to their narrow aesthetic in high school?
Most of my avatars in SL conform to the ideal. When I diverge, I get expert advice from my friends and lovers on how to "fix" myself. It provides all the freedom of expression of Chinese foot binding sometimes.
I support any improvements to the technology that makes life easier for people more couragous than myself.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Tuesday, September 06, 2011 at 08:11 AM
Maxwell graff's "solution" has been a standard in games for a long time, so it's not a new idea he came up with but, it is an fact that the Linden's should look at and adjust the Second Life accordingly.
Posted by: CB Epic | Saturday, February 04, 2012 at 10:43 PM
My thoughts exactly:
"Not to mention that 99% of all avatars are totally unrealistic already, much much too tall and so on."
Posted by: House of Gryphon | Monday, March 19, 2012 at 09:22 PM