New World Notes

SL Friday Fashion Finds Both Classy & Sexy from LeYo

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

LeYo [MaziKeenFr] is an unusual blogger in that most of her pictures are in black and white. Not all. Occasionally she does a color picture when it’s important to present the items in color. She is a great blogger who seeks out actual clothes along with the sexy lingerie and clubwear. I love this gorgeous gown with the dramatic collar. It’s from Sascha’s Designs. The lighting emphasizes the contrast between her skin and the gown. 

• Sascha's Designs. Collier Black Gown . Mainstore

For a shocking, but safe club dress, click here:

SL Fashion Friday: Fun & Fantastic Story-Rich Looks from Loute Diesel

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Loute Diesel’s Flickr post I’ll Protect You is emblematic of her fashion blogging, a full-throated commitment to the story she’s telling with her clothing. She never just shoots clothing, but always provides a rich context that intensifies the mood and emphasizes her color scheme. This is a gorgeous outfit of leaves brighter than her bed of moss. A baby lies in an external womb. Is this some creepy future? It’s from Fantasy Faire so all is fair. 

• Skin : Petrichor - Zova Skin
• Baby : Azoury - Minuscule
• Leaves and feets : Aii & Ego (Fantasy Faire closes May 7th) at Szystrum Synod

For more, click here:

SL Fashion Friday: High School Styles Plus a Fun Pillow Fight Attachment

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“The Halls” is the most recent post in Toxzen OwO’s Flickr Blog. I like the letterman’s jacket with the school uniform. Seeing the Class of ‘85 patch, I am guessing he’s wearing his dad’s letterman’s jacket. His knuckles are badly bruised, something explained by the title of the book.

Yes, you have to look, not a subject I recall. I wonder if someone could make a texture change letterman’s jacket that would allow you to change the numbers to any year?

I am really taken with the clothes. The set is made for Legacy+Athletic, Belleza, CZ Slim, Anatomy, and Kairo Fit

• CORDEWA - Male Class Set Available at Access (4/12-5/8) | Store LM | CORDEWA MP
• Jacket Fatpack includes: 3 Jacket and Metals, 4 Tie and 2 Shirt HUD textures, as well as Long and short ripped and a Hide/Show options
• Pants Fatpack include: 5 Pants, 4 belt, 3 metal and 2 boxer texture colour HUD options, as well as Hide/Show Boxer options.
• Shoes Fatpack include: 5 shoes, 2 laces and 3 metal HUD potions.

For a fun pillow fight toy, click here:

Second Life Still Struggling With a Crisis of Poorly-Optimized User-Made Mesh Items -- But a Pro Game Artist Has Some Solutions

Above: A single Second Life fashion item with nearly 50,000 triangles (Courtesy Penny Patton)

Longtime SLer and professional game artist Penny Patton recently bought a Second Life shirt and then saw something that shocked her. That one mesh item (see above) had nearly 50,000 triangles.

As a point of comparison, characters in AAA console games with high end graphics rarely have this many triangle. The ultrarealistic lead character in God of War, for instance, has on the PlayStation 4 version only has 32,000 total triangles. For the entire character and their clothing items, while looking even more detailed than that one Second Life shirt. (Click Kratos at right to see.) 

But when Penny contacted the creator of this shirt in Second Life, she got an interesting response: 

"They informed me that they could not reduce this because it results in a 'decrease in quality'.

"The [shirt has] 11 faces. Each face has three maps. Diffuse, Specular, and Normal. It's even worse because the specular actually only uses one map, a black 1024x1024 texture that was uploaded 11 times instead of reusing the one.

"It's absurd. It's also, sadly, common in SL these days.

"This is why SL needs hard caps on avatar resource use."

It's not only common, it's an ongoing problem, and hasn't really been sufficiently addressed. As a former Linden Lab staffer told me about poorly optimized mesh, "These items are effectively DDOS attacks on everyone around them." 

Five years ago, we pointed out that most of the top-selling mesh bodies in SL are poorly optimized, and have even more triangles -- 200,000 or more. (Penny has also been writing about the issue on her own blog for years,)

Fortunately there are ways Linden Lab can address the issue head-on. 

"I really want to stress there is not one thing Linden Lab should do to fix a problem like this," Penny tells me. "There's no 'silver bullet' solution that will fix the problem and make everyone happy."

That said, here's the solutions she recommends:

Friday Fashion Ideas: Adorable KPop & Cyberpunk Styles from Sparkly Fly

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

 

Sparkly Fly is a kawaii blog by Andyylee. Sing with Me is adorable. Who doesn’t sometimes dream of being a singer?  I love this look, especially the tie tucked into the belt. Such a fun little detail. It’s from Niniplanet at The Arcade. 

 

• / NINIPLANET / UNNATURAL RARE @The Arcade

For more kawaii sweetness, click here:

Fashion Friday Finds from SL Style Blog Yurin's Happy Sigh

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Yurin has a lovely blog called Happy Sigh. Her most recent post 230313 features the ubiquitous fashion passion for mesh. If you checked out the Oscar and Vanity Fair After Party fashions, mesh and illusion was everywhere with over ever shrinking strategic coverage. This is downright modest by comparison. 

• TOP + *COCO*_FishnetTopWithBra(Black) @FaMESHed which closes March 27th

For more Happy Sighing, click here:

Friday Fashion & Shopping Tips from SL Blogger Tomomi Homewood

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Tomomi Homewood is my favorite kind of fashion blogger. She wears clothes. She is a microblogger and does not provide links in her Flickr descriptions, but the sheer joy of seeing clothing instead of lingerie  is worth the extra effort of looking for SLURLs and links. It’s March which means it’s The Arcade month. That’s where you will find these overalls. 

☑ [SHIFUKU] Overall look - - - - @The ARCADE

- Overalls Set BOM only / Legacy RARE

- Shoulder Jacket no rig / Legacy

- Tank top / Legacy

- Overalls / Legacy

[To take the A Train to The Arcade, click here]

For a sweet treat, click here:

Fashion Friday: Fantasy Roleplay Style Suggestions from a Flickr Microblogger

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

"A." is a Flickr microblogger who revels in roleplay. “A Heart Made of Yarn” is a gorgeous picture. I love the feeling of one thing on top of another on top of another. The woman’s face lies there as though in a dream. That arm covering, the staff, and the amazing background seem like something out of a fairy tale. 

• From Cerridwen's Cauldron
• Orb Slime- Variation 1 (No Spores)
• Twinkle Ivy - Tree/Columne Patch
• Twinkle Ivy - Large Patch
• Mythspire Arch Small Scales- White
• Prism Type 4- Small Scales/ Mythspire Edition
• Gorgon Lilly Set- Fatpack
• NightFire Aloe Set
• From Arkivet + /Vae Victis\ ::
• Nix Solis Staff

For more, click here: 

Friday Fashion Blog: Home & Fashion Shopping Ideas from Her Sketchbook

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Her Sketchbook is a beautiful blog by DanayaRed. It appeals to me a lot. Her recent post "Fox Mist" is just gorgeous. I love the rich color and it’s fun to see someone blogging the outdoors. In particular, the ruin drew me in. I noticed it says “Urgent” on the arch. Is this a very ancient E.R? 

• GOOSE - Elizabeth Arch > Cosmopolitan (Ends on 11/12)
• NOMAD // Old Ruins
• JIAN Gray Fox

For great casual fashion, click here:

Fashion Friday: Neva Seljean Puts Stylish SL Ensembles Together on Her Blog Nevamind

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Nevamind is the cleverly named blog started by Neva Seljean. To say she blogs sporadically is a bit of an understatement. She gives us a post every three to four months, but I don’t care that she is infrequent. I love that she wears clothes, real clothes, and that she is an artist at styling. She is not afraid to mix prints or in this case, stripes with plaid. She takes separates from different stores and puts them together into something new and exciting like this gorgeous outfit. And the hair!  Check out Post 003.

• hair: doux - medusa 
• top: emery - helen top (sunset)
• cardigan: giz seorn - paty oversized cardigan (stripe)
• pants: c'est la vie! - tory pants (colour change fatpack)
• shoes: sallie - 8 hole boots (colour change fatpack)

For more great print styling, click here: