Giant Avatars

Well I was going to just submit this as a feature suggestion outright, but the whole process did request that I post a forum topic about it first.

I would like to see the ability to make larger avatars outright. It would be useful and fun in my opinion, plus downright cool. As it stands, I'm forced to do a lot of off-set objects to make something only a little bit larger, but even that doesn't work all that well. There are apparently some overrides floating around, but I've yet to see one that works.

If we could have a much broader range of size for avatar creation, that would really rock.

We already have avatars that are oversized... you can max out above 7'... How big do you really want before it becomes a burden that land is small by proportion?

I've not had any troubles with the override methods, but I've also scripted the avvies themselves to be more mobile when mixed with the animations.

Other than that I don't expect this to be added, the pain for people trying to click something when a huge mass of prims is sitting in front of it, or blocking the view of a doorway, probably isn't something the Lindens will take lightly. They already had a note in the Welcome Area Guidelines (old WA, anyways) about large sized avvies. :>

I've done a couple of huge birds, But I've limited them to using +2m overrides, as they work fine and can move quite realistically, albeit the legs look a -bit- stiff when walking. The upper body is perfectly fine. :>

As I've been told, avatar height varied much more in the early days of Second Life, but this was toned down due to people abusing the system. Furthermore, I've been told this practice is frowned upon in select areas exclusively.

The logic to this is simple - people need to be able to work and enjoy themselves without having to mouse around/avoid a disproportionate area of the sim.

To be fair, avatars could be created using scripted systems such as this or by using offsetted animations. Just be aware that the process is generally more cumbersome and frowned upon if abused in certain cases (either by lag or by getting in someone's way).

Anyway, the proposal has already been submitted for a vote. (Probably several times, but here's one instance: Prop 200 )

neko

Well I can see how some might think a giant Av could be a pain in some respects, but I've been having a lot of fun with them. Sure you can't exactly fit into a normal sized building, but nothing says you can't have more than one configured avatar setting. As it stands, I've got multiple set for various levels of size.

I had a look at that linked proposal, and figured it kinda matched this one in part. So forget making a second, I'll just add my vote there.

Hmmm... I think these are two fairly separate issues, Neko. Even if modifiable avatar meshes were added to Second Life (as I feel they should), the scale of said mesh should still be kept low to prevent abuse.

From a technical standpoint, both proposals have their share of problems. "Giant avatars" would give the physics system a heart attack - a reason why the limits for prim sizes were eventually lowered (for examples of some 50-100m prims, go to Nexus Prime. Assuming it's still up, there's a building that uses them and displays a couple bugs).

Same problem with the bounding box. I'd rather be able to select my work, thanks.

As for custom avatar meshes (the linked proposal), I think something like that is inevitable once streaming can keep up with them. As I've mentioned before, the problems with this are both "rigging" the avatar to an animation file - something most standardized mesh formats don't cover - and getting all of that data to stream in a timely manner. Getting them to be the right "size" is easy to do, mathematically.

That said, custom meshes and animations are something I definitely want to see, if you can't tell. And the standards are out there already in a form that wouldn't require licensing them. It's all a matter of time and speed.

Well, they probably should have been two separate proposals, but I wrote it as one. Guess it should be split up into size and shape sections.


Don't we get a new physics engine with Havok 2? Is that likely to help at all?

neko

Yes, but it's still unnecessary overhead.

Well I have to totally disagree with the Unnecessary part. it is "to a point" actually NEEDED

the entire POINT of sl to me is the total customization of everything. the system will find a balance you will always have a screwball bucking it but thats easy to deal with too

how about if a "majority" agrees you "boot" the person from the parcel for say 10 minutes

so you could right click someone and say "boot" if say 90% of the users in the same parcel withing say 60 seconds also say boot he gets booted to the next nearest parcel and not allowe back for another 10 minutes.

this will quickly weed out the doophasses maybe this should be proposed

but I ALSO agree there has to be PRACTICAL limits for the sake of the system

not sure where to set them. the problem is an issue of relativity. when I made my first avv it was over 7' tall. by accident (no way to measure in world easily without tools at the time) I tried to make my height relative to everyone else my height in real life but since everyone pretty much was 7' tall I found this odd (did not know at the time)

Once I found out I adjusted my av to 6'3" (IRL Height) Once SL settles down I would probably make the limit a wee higher than the IRL limit (say 10ft)

What I would really like to see is things go the OTHER way I want to make SMALLER av's

I want to make a 6-8" av ! a true "fairy" or "pixie" sized avatar ! now that would be fun !!!

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

See this thread then.