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My proposal about using NURB technology was made an independent feature request VWR-7678
Allowing more variation in avatar shapes can only be good for content creators. Allowing people to make fully articulated giant robots.. or allowing us perhaps to make "much smaller" avatars into the pixie/sprite scales. Imagine tinies with elbows.
Hamlet Au's book on the history and development of Second Life says that the limits on avatar height were set to preclude a height "arms race". I respectfully submit that SL has now established a convention of sorts (though it would help if people could actually tell from the beginning how tall their avatar is--that's another JIRA entry, though, that already exists), and that tends to keep people from exceeding a height compatible with existing buildings and furniture. Even as things are, I can't get from one floor to the next in some buildings because of the opening from the stairway into the next floor is small enough that I can't go through while standing... and SL doesn't let you stoop.
If SL changes to allow giants without the dodges currently required, which, while they are a testimony to SL creators' creativity and inventiveness, preclude use of the vast array of animations and clothing in SL (just as prim breasts do) and have inherent problems with joints, then almost everybody will stay at the height they are. A few will choose to be giants some of the time, and most of the time stay at a height that will let them enter buildings and the like--giants for a day, as the album title put it. An even smaller number will choose to be a giant full time... and surely that is as it should be in a place that is "your world, your imagination." "... the limits on avatar height were set to preclude a height "arms race" (see post above for origin of quotation)
this is again an example of a general rule (impacting everybody) which was set for a small subset of SL users (those interested in the most simplistic fights). This said, it is obvious that playing a giant (or any other large creatures, such as the dragons which are so common in SL) has some advantages and inconveniences, from this very choice. So those choosing to play large creatures accept these features as part of their roleplay. This is true in the other way, for instance if you go in the dwarves forges in ElvenMoor, human sized people have to squeeze into narrow galeries intended for dwarves. Same if you go in a child's house or hobbit hole. This is the roleplay in these places. This to mean that SL must not set arbitrary limits to our roleplay. Especially today, when a rewriting of the avatars and animations is becoming a condition for the survival of SL*, it is time to think of this. Note*: remember Google Lively which died mostly because of its ugly avatars what may be needed is when SL does a rebuild of the current meshes (and don't get me going on what the uv mapper must have been SMOKING when the sections were placed) extend the range by another decimal point
and put the bottom of the range at say a 0.5 meter total avatar height (and where-ever the top lands up) also make sure that the female mesh has a true zero breast size and that a full zero avatar looks right (where all of the size related sliders are at 0). Just to add my two cents:
Melissa Yeuxdonx said: "...and SL doesn't let you stoop." |
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New Feature
Open
Normal
extend size limits on avatar body part sizes
) but because there is a real problem in many cases, where the triangulation of the mesh is uneven. The problem can be visible as angular body shapes. I also saw a panter skin clothe, where some parts of the texture were very ovestretched. In another example, round nipples became irregular or square.
The problem can be clearly understood with making menu>client>rendering>wireframe. Then the mesh is visible. Overstretched or clumped parts clearly appear.
This is because, I guess, all the avs are made of the same mesh, with only different dimentions of each triangle. So even if the "breast size" slide bar was allowed to 200%, or 400% (vote! vote! vote!), so that Melissa would be allowed to make her breasts as big as she (an I) likes, they would appear angulous. There are other similar problems, or the reverse, for instance when people want to have narrow hips, while keeping a rounded butt, they often get strange shapes, or angular shapes when sitting.
The only solution to this would be to use the NURB technology, in place of a simple triangle mesh. In this technology, the shapes are not coded as triangles, but as ideal curved mathematical shapes. Then, when displaying, the shape is automatically tesselated (transformed into a mesh of flat triangles). In more, the code which displays NURBs automatically deals with the LOD (Level Of Details) so that the number of triangle is dependent on the distance: in a scene with many avs, far avs would be rendered with less triangles, and thus much lower the lag. On the reverse, a close av appears with many triangles, and this a smooth shape, without angular or overstretching.
The problem can be clearly understood with making menu>client>rendering>wireframe. Then the mesh is visible. Overstretched or clumped parts clearly appear.
This is because, I guess, all the avs are made of the same mesh, with only different dimentions of each triangle. So even if the "breast size" slide bar was allowed to 200%, or 400% (vote! vote! vote!), so that Melissa would be allowed to make her breasts as big as she (an I) likes, they would appear angulous. There are other similar problems, or the reverse, for instance when people want to have narrow hips, while keeping a rounded butt, they often get strange shapes, or angular shapes when sitting.
The only solution to this would be to use the NURB technology, in place of a simple triangle mesh. In this technology, the shapes are not coded as triangles, but as ideal curved mathematical shapes. Then, when displaying, the shape is automatically tesselated (transformed into a mesh of flat triangles). In more, the code which displays NURBs automatically deals with the LOD (Level Of Details) so that the number of triangle is dependent on the distance: in a scene with many avs, far avs would be rendered with less triangles, and thus much lower the lag. On the reverse, a close av appears with many triangles, and this a smooth shape, without angular or overstretching.