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Issue Details (XML | Word | Printable)

Key: VWR-812
Type: New Feature New Feature
Status: In Progress In Progress
Priority: Major Major
Assignee: nyx linden
Reporter: Haravikk Mistral
Votes: 686
Watchers: 129
Operations

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1. Second Life Viewer - VWR

Ability to add alpha to base avatar skin

Created: 22/May/07 08:08 AM   Updated: 11/Nov/09 09:26 AM
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Component/s: Avatar/Character, Graphics, User Interface
Affects Version/s: None
Fix Version/s: None

File Attachments: None
Image Attachments:

1. 1-23-1-Avatar-Mesh-Mistake.jpg
(250 kB)

2. Alpha against water.jpg
(314 kB)

3. alpha mask example.jpg
(23 kB)

4. avatarskin1.jpg
(91 kB)

5. avatarskin2.jpg
(117 kB)

6. avatarskin3.jpg
(81 kB)

7. bad_invisiprims1.jpg
(106 kB)

8. bad_invisiprims2.jpg
(109 kB)

9. bad_invisiprims3.jpg
(64 kB)

10. bad_invisiprims4.jpg
(94 kB)

11. bad_invisiprims5.jpg
(71 kB)

12. Is this an alpha skin.jpg
(373 kB)

13. no invisiprims.jpg
(31 kB)

14. noinvis_pennysnatcher.jpg
(115 kB)
Issue Links:
Duplicate
 
Parent/Child
 
Relates

Last Triaged: 22/Jul/08 11:11 AM
Linden Lab Issue ID: DEV-17076


 Description  « Hide
Currently, there is no good way to hide the base avatar mesh in second life, or parts of the avatar mesh. In order to work around this limitation, many content creators take advantage of invisiprims to hide all or parts of the avatar mesh, resulting in rendering artifacts as seen in the images posted on this JIRA.

In order to support a more robust avatar, we will be supporting avatar invisibility in two forms:

1) Stopping the rendering of the avatar mesh entirely
2) Adding support for "alpha masks" which allow for the blocking of rendering parts of the base avatar.

Alpha masks will be wearable items that one can attach that will mask out pieces of your avatar on a per-pixel basis. Because these masks will not support semi-transparency, they will be able to be implemented without the rendering artifacts that are present with invisiprims today. There will be support for wearing multiple alpha masks for a given part of the avatar, allowing residents to mix and match attachments that will reshape the avatar.

Initial avatar reconfiguring work is currently scheduled to roll out with the 1.23 viewer. However, in order to handle backwards compatibility issues and to give enough time to make the appropriate interface changes, the functionality requested in this jira will not be exposed until later this year. Updates will be posted to this JIRA - questions can be posted here or brought up during Nyx Linden's office hours at noon PST on Wednesdays in borrowdale: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Borrowdale/74/217/32



 All   Comments   Change History      Sort Order: Ascending order - Click to sort in descending order
Simon Nolan made changes - 31/May/07 08:55 AM
Field Original Value New Value
Link This issue is duplicated by VWR-951 [ VWR-951 ]
Haravikk Mistral made changes - 07/Jun/07 12:20 AM
Link This issue is duplicated by SVC-267 [ SVC-267 ]
Aimee Congrejo made changes - 07/Jun/07 08:53 AM
Link This issue is duplicated by SVC-267 [ SVC-267 ]
Aimee Congrejo made changes - 07/Jun/07 08:54 AM
Link This issue is related to by SVC-267 [ SVC-267 ]
WarKirby Magojiro made changes - 19/Jun/07 02:39 PM
Link This issue is related to by SVC-345 [ SVC-345 ]
Haravikk Mistral made changes - 13/Nov/07 01:44 AM
Description A lot of avatars require nasty hacks like invisi-prims and body squashing to hide the original avatar and use primitives to build up areas of the avatar. These aren't ideal solutions, so what would be nice is the ability to define an alpha value for the skin-colour of an avatar, this would be done in the same place we specify upper/lower/facial tattoos for the skin, and would allow us to make the surface UNDERNEATH these 'tattoos' to be made fully transparent if we wish.

This is the preferred solution, as it does not change existing behaviour (currently skin 'tattoos' with transparency allow some of the base skin colour to show through, people use this). But allows us to quickly and easily remove parts of an avatar. Prefereably this would be implemented using a slider so that values of 0.0 for avatar alpha would allow the game to cull the avatar model completely (and display only the attachments).
A lot of avatars require nasty hacks like invisi-prims and body squashing to hide the original avatar and use primitives to build up areas of the avatar. These aren't ideal solutions, so what would be nice is the ability to define an alpha value for the skin-colour of an avatar, this would be done in the same place we specify upper/lower/facial tattoos for the skin, and would allow us to make the surface UNDERNEATH these 'tattoos' to be made fully transparent if we wish.

This is the preferred solution, as it does not change existing behaviour (currently skin 'tattoos' with transparency allow some of the base skin colour to show through, people use this). But allows us to quickly and easily remove parts of an avatar. Prefereably this would be implemented using a slider so that values of 0.0 for avatar alpha would allow the game to cull the avatar model completely if there are no other layers applied (ie clothes etc.).
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 01:13 AM
Workflow jira [ 11627 ] jira-2007-12-21 [ 21283 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 01:34 AM
Workflow jira [ 21283 ] jira-2007-12-21 [ 22513 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 02:54 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-21 [ 22513 ] jira-2007-12-22 [ 30219 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 03:14 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-21 [ 30219 ] jira-2007-12-22 [ 31489 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 07:58 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22 [ 31489 ] jira-2007-12-22a [ 37114 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 08:16 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22 [ 37114 ] jira-2007-12-22a [ 38079 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 09:13 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22 [ 38079 ] jira-2007-12-22a [ 41026 ]
Rob Linden made changes - 22/Dec/07 09:32 PM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22 [ 41026 ] jira-2007-12-22a [ 41944 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 06:32 PM
Summary Alpha for avatar skin-colour Ability to Specify Base Avatar Skin, Including Alpha (vs Invisiprims)
Component/s User Interface [ 10033 ]
Description A lot of avatars require nasty hacks like invisi-prims and body squashing to hide the original avatar and use primitives to build up areas of the avatar. These aren't ideal solutions, so what would be nice is the ability to define an alpha value for the skin-colour of an avatar, this would be done in the same place we specify upper/lower/facial tattoos for the skin, and would allow us to make the surface UNDERNEATH these 'tattoos' to be made fully transparent if we wish.

This is the preferred solution, as it does not change existing behaviour (currently skin 'tattoos' with transparency allow some of the base skin colour to show through, people use this). But allows us to quickly and easily remove parts of an avatar. Prefereably this would be implemented using a slider so that values of 0.0 for avatar alpha would allow the game to cull the avatar model completely if there are no other layers applied (ie clothes etc.).
Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, additional make-up, or other skin additions without incorporating them directly into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide desired features. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, trees, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them and inhibits creativity.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying 32-bit skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body.

This is already available for hair.
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 06:33 PM
Link This issue Relates to VWR-1449 [ VWR-1449 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 06:38 PM
Link This issue duplicates MISC-619 [ MISC-619 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 06:54 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-1449 [ VWR-1449 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 06:58 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-4036 [ VWR-4036 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 07:05 PM
Link This issue Relates to MISC-527 [ MISC-527 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:11 PM
Attachment avatarskin1.jpg [ 14992 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:11 PM
Attachment avatarskin2.jpg [ 14993 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:11 PM
Attachment avatarskin3.jpg [ 14994 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:12 PM
Attachment bad_invisiprims1.jpg [ 14995 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:12 PM
Attachment bad_invisiprims2.jpg [ 14996 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:12 PM
Attachment bad_invisiprims3.jpg [ 14997 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 18/Feb/08 10:16 PM
Description Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, additional make-up, or other skin additions without incorporating them directly into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide desired features. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, trees, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them and inhibits creativity.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying 32-bit skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body.

This is already available for hair.
Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, additional make-up, or other skin additions without incorporating them directly into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide desired features. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, trees, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them and inhibits creativity.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying 32-bit skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body.

This is already available for hair.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to over-ride the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Coadey Concord made changes - 19/Feb/08 11:08 AM
Description Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, additional make-up, or other skin additions without incorporating them directly into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide desired features. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, trees, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them and inhibits creativity.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying 32-bit skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body.

This is already available for hair.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to over-ride the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, make-up, freckles, or other skin additions (including appearance sliders) without manually incorporating them into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide body parts. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, floors, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them, introduces alpha sorting problems, and inhibits design freedom.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body. It's suggested that only 1-bit of alpha be used to avoid sorting on avatar geometry, which would enable the same control as invisiprims.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to override the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Coadey Concord made changes - 19/Feb/08 03:32 PM
Link This issue Relates to VWR-3775 [ VWR-3775 ]
Haravikk Mistral made changes - 20/Feb/08 03:52 AM
Summary Ability to Specify Base Avatar Skin, Including Alpha (vs Invisiprims) Ability to add alpha to base avatar skin
Description Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, make-up, freckles, or other skin additions (including appearance sliders) without manually incorporating them into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide body parts. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, floors, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them, introduces alpha sorting problems, and inhibits design freedom.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body. It's suggested that only 1-bit of alpha be used to avoid sorting on avatar geometry, which would enable the same control as invisiprims.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to override the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, make-up, freckles, or other skin additions (including appearance sliders) without manually incorporating them into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide body parts. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, floors, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them, introduces alpha sorting problems, and inhibits design freedom.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body. Or to allow skin-creators to specify an overall alpha level for their "base" skin layer of their avatars, for example as a slider in the skin settings for an avatar.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to override the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Coadey Concord made changes - 21/Feb/08 06:34 PM
Attachment bad_invisiprims4.jpg [ 15027 ]
Coadey Concord made changes - 21/Feb/08 06:34 PM
Attachment bad_invisiprims5.jpg [ 15028 ]
Haravikk Mistral made changes - 17/May/08 03:13 PM
Link This issue is duplicated by VWR-7260 [ VWR-7260 ]
Alexa Linden made changes - 24/Jun/08 11:16 AM
Assignee WorkingOnIt Linden [ WorkingOnIt Linden ]
lindenrobot made changes - 24/Jun/08 11:16 AM
Linden Lab Issue ID DEV-17076
Erica Linden made changes - 22/Jul/08 11:12 AM
Last Triaged 22/Jul/08 11:11 AM
Status Open [ 1 ] Resolved [ 5 ]
Resolution Won't Finish [ 2 ]
Assignee WorkingOnIt Linden [ WorkingOnIt Linden ]
Haravikk Mistral made changes - 22/Jul/08 11:38 AM
Resolution Won't Finish [ 2 ]
Status Resolved [ 5 ] Reopened [ 4 ]
Alexa Linden made changes - 22/Jul/08 02:32 PM
Assignee WorkingOnIt Linden [ WorkingOnIt Linden ]
Tofu Linden made changes - 24/Jul/08 08:57 AM
Link This issue Relates to VWR-53 [ VWR-53 ]
Hypatia Callisto made changes - 25/Jul/08 12:04 AM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-6713 [ VWR-6713 ]
Argent Stonecutter made changes - 28/Jul/08 11:01 AM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-8394 [ VWR-8394 ]
Brandon Shinobu made changes - 01/Aug/08 03:41 PM
Comment [ Brent, you posted your clarification while I was still writing my response -- I'm editing my statement to reflect your clarification. ]
Lupercaleb Walcher made changes - 04/Aug/08 11:22 AM
Comment [ wowww awesome! yaaaaay ]
Khyota Wulluf made changes - 05/Nov/08 08:13 PM
Link This issue is original of duplicate VWR-951 [ VWR-951 ]
Khyota Wulluf made changes - 05/Nov/08 08:14 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-951 [ VWR-951 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 11:08 AM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22a [ 41944 ] jira-2008-11-14 [ 64769 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 11:30 AM
Workflow jira-2007-12-22a [ 64769 ] jira-2008-11-14 [ 72755 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 05:01 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 72755 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 97530 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 05:16 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 97530 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 103122 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 05:25 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 103122 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 106816 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 05:41 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 106816 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 112176 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 06:10 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 112176 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 122922 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 06:38 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 122922 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 132937 ]
Sue Linden made changes - 13/Nov/08 06:56 PM
Workflow jira-2008-11-14 [ 132937 ] jira-2008-11-14a [ 140201 ]
meni kaiousei made changes - 29/Dec/08 11:32 AM
Link This issue is original of duplicate VWR-8195 [ VWR-8195 ]
Cheetah Hammerer made changes - 18/Jan/09 05:54 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-11608 [ VWR-11608 ]
TigroSpottystripes Katsu made changes - 01/Feb/09 08:34 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-11826 [ VWR-11826 ]
TigroSpottystripes Katsu made changes - 01/Feb/09 08:36 PM
Link This issue is original of duplicate MISC-619 [ MISC-619 ]
TigroSpottystripes Katsu made changes - 01/Feb/09 08:36 PM
Link This issue duplicates MISC-619 [ MISC-619 ]
nyx linden made changes - 03/Feb/09 12:56 PM
Assignee WorkingOnIt Linden [ WorkingOnIt Linden ] nyx linden [ nyx linden ]
nyx linden made changes - 03/Feb/09 12:58 PM
Status Reopened [ 4 ] In Progress [ 3 ]
nyx linden made changes - 03/Feb/09 01:43 PM
Attachment no invisiprims.jpg [ 21779 ]
nyx linden made changes - 03/Feb/09 02:13 PM
Description Today, those wishing to change their basic skin appearance must apply a second, overlaying skin using the "tattoo" feature.

This makes it difficult to use "real" tattoos, make-up, freckles, or other skin additions (including appearance sliders) without manually incorporating them into the "tattoo" texture. It also means each avatar with a custom skin still has an unnecessary texture underneath.

Further, those wishing to alter their basic avatar shape must apply "invisiprims" to hide body parts. These prims also hide other objects with 32-bit textures (nearby avatars, water, floors, etc), which causes frustration for those who use them, introduces alpha sorting problems, and inhibits design freedom.

Both of these issues could be addressed by allowing users to specify the underlying skin textures on their head, eyes, upper body, and lower body. Or to allow skin-creators to specify an overall alpha level for their "base" skin layer of their avatars, for example as a slider in the skin settings for an avatar.

(Images illustrate how "tattoos" are commonly used to override the base skin, and how poorly invisiprims work for avatar builds).
Currently, there is no good way to hide the base avatar mesh in second life, or parts of the avatar mesh. In order to work around this limitation, many content creators take advantage of invisiprims to hide all or parts of the avatar mesh, resulting in rendering artifacts as seen in the images posted on this JIRA.

In order to support a more robust avatar, we will be supporting avatar invisibility in two forms:

1) Stopping the rendering of the avatar mesh entirely
2) Adding support for "alpha masks" which allow for the blocking of rendering parts of the base avatar.

Alpha masks will be wearable items that one can attach that will mask out pieces of your avatar on a per-pixel basis. Because these masks will not support semi-transparency, they will be able to be implemented without the rendering artifacts that are present with invisiprims today. There will be support for wearing multiple alpha masks for a given part of the avatar, allowing residents to mix and match attachments that will reshape the avatar.

Initial avatar reconfiguring work is currently scheduled to roll out with the 1.23 viewer. However, in order to handle backwards compatibility issues and to give enough time to make the appropriate interface changes, the functionality requested in this jira will not be exposed until later this year. Updates will be posted to this JIRA - questions can be posted here or brought up during Nyx Linden's office hours at noon PST on Wednesdays in borrowdale: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Borrowdale/74/217/32
nyx linden made changes - 03/Feb/09 02:36 PM
Attachment alpha mask example.jpg [ 21782 ]
Strife Onizuka made changes - 05/Apr/09 04:26 AM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-7871 [ VWR-7871 ]
Maya Remblai made changes - 28/Apr/09 09:04 AM
Attachment noinvis_pennysnatcher.jpg [ 23376 ]
Ellla McMahon made changes - 29/Apr/09 07:08 AM
Link This issue is related to by MISC-2723 [ MISC-2723 ]
Adeon Writer made changes - 09/May/09 04:04 PM
Attachment 1-23-1-Avatar-Mesh-Mistake.jpg [ 23843 ]
Feral Mistwalker made changes - 22/May/09 10:06 PM
Attachment Is this an alpha skin.jpg [ 24590 ]
Feral Mistwalker made changes - 22/May/09 10:06 PM
Attachment Alpha against water.jpg [ 24591 ]
Maya Remblai made changes - 23/May/09 07:08 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-13496 [ VWR-13496 ]
Strife Onizuka made changes - 22/Jun/09 05:52 AM
Link This issue parent of VWR-13337 [ VWR-13337 ]
Strife Onizuka made changes - 22/Jun/09 05:58 AM
Link This issue parent of VWR-12906 [ VWR-12906 ]
Maya Remblai made changes - 27/Jun/09 03:53 PM
Priority Normal [ 4 ] Major [ 3 ]
Adeon Writer made changes - 24/Jul/09 08:24 PM
Link This issue is related to by VWR-12266 [ VWR-12266 ]
Adeon Writer made changes - 21/Oct/09 12:57 PM
Link This issue Relates to VWR-7871 [ VWR-7871 ]
Adeon Writer made changes - 02/Nov/09 12:54 PM
Link This issue Relates to VWR-12314 [ VWR-12314 ]
Adeon Writer made changes - 11/Nov/09 09:26 AM
Link This issue parent of VWR-12314 [ VWR-12314 ]