New World Notes

Ex-Linden Karl Stiefvater Explains How His Crowdfunded Code Improves SL Mesh - Get the Alpha, Give Him Feedback!

As promised, ex-Linden programmer Karl "Qarl Fizz" Stiefvater has created the first version of his crowdfunded code that greatly improves Second Life mesh. What's that mean in practical terms? Many things, as Karl explains in this video, with the big improvements showing up around 2:20, when he compares how the current viewer displays mesh, and how his does:

As you can see, clothing which uses Karl's version of mesh adjusts to an avatar's shape, instead of how it is now, with the avatar having to adjust to the mesh shape. The code is now in early Alpha, Karl tells me, but the main work is basically done.

"Code-wise, it's 80% done," he tells me. "Maybe I work on efficiency some more - maybe I make the deformations smoother." But that's where you come in, early adopting SL user, because he needs your feedback:

SL's Vintage Fair, Four Favorites: Things that Swing from Curio, Icing, Shag, and Stuff Store

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Second Life's Vintage Fair (which features retro 1920-1980 fashion to die for) is in full swing, and last week, I gave you a simple sweetheart look to start it off. This week, I'm going to take it up a notch with items I found at at the Fair to decorate both your avatar and your home.

• This working mesh jukebox from Stuff Store really got my attention. Honestly, if you'd shown it to me a couple years ago I never would have believed it was in Second Life. I mean, just look at it! It's an absolutely flawless work of art, and although it's not exactly a bargain it's worth every L$.
• I needed a dress with a bit of jive to match that juke, so Icing's latest, Just Swing, was the natural choice. Miko Omegamu's designs have evolved a lot over time, and these days her blend of painted and photoreal texturing is more flattering to the avatar than ever. Little design details, like the lace petticoat under the skirt on this dress, really make Miko's outfits pop.
• Shag released a couple of styles for the fair, one for guys and one for gals. The ladies style is a dual look called Hello, Goodbye. I'm wearing Goodbye, which has a sexy downswept fringe, while Hello holds that fringe back with a pin instead. Two looks for the price of one, who can argue with that?
• Finally, my skin of choice this week is Curio's Ritz. It may seem like yet another red-lipped cateye look that's not in short supply at VF, but the dark, nearly-matte lip with blueish undertones to the rich red really stands out from the crowd.

For a detailed event map and a complete list of shop SLurls, check out Chic Management's event page here, or check the fair out for yourself! [Teleport to Vintage Fair in CLASSIC]

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Karl's Crowdsourced Second Life Mesh Fix Update: Linden Lab Working With Him, But Progress is Delayed

Remember the Kickstarter-style fundraiser to pay former Linden Lab graphics developer Karl Stiefvater $5400 to fix SL mesh so that it can better fit avatars? As first reported by Gianna Borgnine, there's good and bad news there: Linden Lab is now working with Karl to make his improvements part of the official SL viewer. But because of that, progress is being delayed.

"Oz Linden gave me a call," Karl confirms to me. "They want to play nice. The idea is to start a dialog now so we can maximize the chance Linden Lab will accept it when it's done. My feeling is this is the best possible result at this point. But it also adds delays: I don't have a reply to my initial spec, and I've switched to a different project while I wait. So."

So it looks like Karl's fixes, when they're implemented, will be accessible by all SLers. And for that very reason, that also means those fixes may take awhile to come.

DECO's New Mesh Parkas Show How Revolutionary Mesh in Second Life Fashion Can Be

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Believe it or not, there are still some people who don't think mesh can revolutionize Second Life fashion. Admittedly, both designing and wearing mesh can be a huge pain right now, and I absolutely don't think everything needs to be mesh for to look good, but there are some clothing items that really demand it. Parkas and bulky coats are a perfect example. In the bad old days, these coats were made of tori prims looped around your avatar's limbs like the Michelin Man. Sculpties improved this some, but the prim shapes made creating unisex items incredibly difficult. Even with painstaking adjustments to the prims, certain animations or poses would mess up your look entirely.

DECO's new mesh-based Parkas suffer from none of this. [Click here to teleport to DECO this Friday]. This coat is exactly how a parka should look, and exactly how they couldn't look before the advent of mesh. It's very well textured, as good as unisex, and parkas are always so bulky that a lot of the shape issues that make wearing mesh so frustrating for some of us get literally swallowed up in the heavily-padded figure of this coat, just as they would in real life. A parka may not be the sexiest winter coat choice, but as far as I'm concerned, the quality of this piece is sexy in itself!

A note on the picture, since I'm sure you're wondering...:

Get all Dolled Up for Halloween in Second Life with DOLL COCO's Mesh Ball-Jointed Doll Avatars

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Second Life fashionistas seem to have a very self-aware love for doll avatars. From Marionette-string accessories to the Bloom Doll boom a few months ago, a lot of us just love the idea of dressing our virtual "doll" as a real one. That's why it shouldn't shock anyone that Cocoro Lemon's new brand, DOLL COCO [Click here to teleport to DOLL COCO at COCO DESIGNS], is making a big impression in SL fashion right now, just in time for Halloween.

Cocoro (who also helped pioneer realistic sculpted prim clothing in SL under her other brand, *COCO*) opened DOLL COCO just this week, revealing her new line of mesh avatars mimicking the build and look of asian ball-jointed dolls with remarkable fidelity. True to their inspiration, these dolls are hauntingly pretty, and cute to the point of making your teeth hurt. Even better, they're far more economical than many doll avatars that have come out in the past. The bodies, which are made up of individual jointed pieces, are free with group membership (along with some bonus elf ears and a cute costume), while each head (there are a half-dozen to choose from) costs just under L$500.

The clothing for these dolls is a little pricier, but the detail on each piece justifies it. I'd kill to have the embroidered dress and scalloped button-up boots I'm wearing above for my regular avatar, for example. As with most mesh avatars, it's possible that you will be able to find mesh clothes elsewhere that will fit it, but it will be hit or miss so always demo first. You can also obviously still wear regular prim items with them as well, which makes finding hair or accessories for these dolls as easy as opening your inventory.

I'm expecting to see a lot of brilliant photography springing from the DOLL COCO community. Check out Cocoro's blog for more dolly details, or head straight to DOLL COCO for yours. [Click here to teleport to DOLL COCO at COCO DESIGNS]

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Want an SL Halloween Under the Sea? Check Out This Beautifully Detailed Mesh Mermaid Costume!

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion

Believe it or not, but before I was an SL fashionista, I was an SL mermaid* (see below), so mermaid avatars have always held a special place in my heart and my digital wardrobe. Naturally, these mesh mermaid avatars from FATEbecome [Click here to teleport to FATEbecome at TenFifteen] were an easy choice to start a series of short Halloween costume-inspired articles that I'll be writing over the next couple weeks (featuring both mesh and non-mesh items, I promise!)

Mermaid avatars are one of the biggest reasons I was excited about mesh from the very beginning. Traditionally SL mermaid tails have either involved bulky skirt layers and/or awkward prims to try and cover up the joined legs, so seamlessness was essentially impossible. These mesh mermaids, created by Damien Fate of Loco Pocos (and Linden library) fame, are everything that Second Life mermaids couldn't be before now. Sold in color matching sets, you can wear the avatar complete with upper body and hair as pictured on the right, or you can wear elements like the tail separately with your own avatar as pictured above. Also shown in the above look is a skin from Nuuna and a mesh hairstyle by Alice Project which are both available at the 4.44.444 event [Click here to teleport to 4.44.444] for a limited time, along with tattoo lipstick from Pink Fuel.

Thankfully I didn't even have to modify my shape at all to fit this tail, but your mileage may vary, so always demo mesh items first. If you don't want to (or can't) change your own shape, there is a fitted shape included, as well as a complete AO. You can even wear the hair separately (though it's also available sans fins at FATEbecome if you're not interested in the deep sea look.) Either way, be sure to check this avatar out, along with FATEbecome's latest gruesome mesh zombie bits! Click here to teleport to FATEbecome or visit them on the Marketplace!

SL Mesh Users Launch Fundraiser for Ex-Linden Dev to Fix Mesh Issues Now That Linden Lab Has Delayed Fixing

Click here for a fascinating project, especially if you love Second Life mesh, but don't like how it now fits your avatar. It's a Kickstarter-style fundraiser to pay former Linden Lab graphics developer Karl Stiefvater (formerly Qarl Linden, now Qarl Fizz) to fix mesh so that it can better fit avatars. This project was initiated by mesh developer Maxwell Graf, who has led hundreds of other content creators and mesh users to ask Linden Lab for a "Rigged Mesh Parametric Deformer", which in basic terms would (as he puts it) "eliminate a plethora of unavoidable problems with mesh clothing, reduce workflow considerably, open the market, allow avatars AND clothing to be worn (both mesh), one size would fit all and we could keep our physical (virtual) identities."

However, as I blogged last week, the Lindens have downgraded that request to Someday/Maybe.

Enter Karl, who was unexpectedly fired from Linden Lab last year. However, the programmer (who also created effects for The Matrix movies) is still a passionate believer in SL and its content creators. As he tells me:

Lindens Mark Major SL Mesh Fix Request "Someday/Maybe"

A couple weeks ago I mentioned the JIRA feature request that would improve the way SL mesh works with avatars, so that it (as a leading mesh developer puts it) "would eliminate a plethora of unavoidable problems with mesh clothing, reduce workflow considerably, open the market, allow avatars AND clothing to be worn (both mesh), one size would fit all and we could keep our physical (virtual) identities." But as Rowan Derryth reports, Linden Lab has marked that JIRA as a feature for "someday/maybe". So for now, the many mesh developers hoping for it will have to wait -- and curvy avatars like Ms. Derryth, pictured here, will wind up with mesh dresses that by default look like this. She explains why here.

Miss Metaverse Manners: Should You Wear a Mesh Dress to Your Friend's SL Wedding? And Other Mesh Social Concerns

Iris Ophelia's ongoing take on etiquette & ethics in virtual spaces  

With controversial new technology like SL mesh come new social dilemmas for the early adopters and holdouts alike. This week we've got a few that will hopefuly help you navigate your own messy, meshy faux-pas.

I'm going to a friend's SL wedding soon and I really want to wear a mesh dress but I'm worried about ruining the event for people who can't see mesh. Is it even that important?

                    - Party Pooper

In a crowd like a wedding party, it's probably a safe bet that many people there aren't using a mesh viewer. A lot of those people might be taking pictures for the lucky couple, so someone with an invisible body and a blob on their hand would definitely stick out like a sore thumb. Even if it's a fabulous dress, you're there for them, not for yourself. Wear a slightly older piece from your closet and save that little mesh number for next time.

Keep reading for two more questions answered!

Awesome SL Build for Burn2 - Found on Reddit's /r/secondlife

This is amazing detail on an SL mesh build by artist Claudia222 Jewell, profiled here by Inara Pey of Modem World, a post that's currently ranking at the top of Reddit's Second Life channel, and for good reason. It's part of Rites of Passage, her installation for Burn2, SL's annual tribute to Burning Man. Ms. Jewell tells Inara that she creates her works in Zbrush and Blender. Much more here, including a mesh robin and flying dragon.

Seen any amazing SL content or news lately? Go here to submit it to Reddit's Second Life group /r/secondlife, for upvoting!