Prop 422: Alpha texture support for avatar skins

More and more specialty avs are using invisiprims to hide part or all of the default skin, and I think it's time for a real solution to be implemented that would replace this buggy hack: give alpha channel support for skin textures, so that part or all of the skin can be hidden without causing the odd side-effects inherent in invisiprims. This will make tons of non-human av makers and users very happy. The only source of abuse potential is invisible avatars, which are already possible anyway via invisiprims or hide-underground animations -- besides, the avatar's name and green map-dot are always visible.

This feature would be a great boon to creativity in Second Life. Please, voice your support.

Link to Prop 422

Meh. I say if prim getups are such a resident priority, we should just have the option to use a meshless, freeform animation with a maximum of 25 joints and set bounding box.

This is a joke to put together with any decent animation creator, and would likely be easy to code.

I think this kind of thing should fall in line with revamping the animation system altogether to allow for user-designed basic movements. Not high on the totem pole of features, but would be interesting nonetheless.

Having gone through the process of writing an animation importer for Second Life myself, I can say that all of this is very feasible. The problem right now is Linden priority.

Except that people may want to use portions of the humanoid mesh in conjunction with prim attachments. That mesh, in conjunction with animations, gives an organic look that is impossible to reproduce using prims alone.

"Mesh" and "animation" are two totally different concepts. In traditional 3D, a mesh can exist without an animation, and vice versa. I think you understand this - I'm leaving this here in case anyone is confused.

In context, you would still have the animation with attach points defined in the BVH file. This can be done without any mesh whatsoever, though it would be nice if they were marked with connected boxes or whatnot.

As for using the attach points via the default SL figure, one could just import the default Poser BVH. Problem solved.



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As for using "portions" of the mesh of the avatar, there's no reason these two ideas are mutually exclusive in concept.



At the end of the day, I feel the avatar system should be far more freeform, and that it should allow users to shirk the humanoid figures entirely. Such a meshless system would be a great boon in my opinion, since it would allow for greater flexibility in mechs, animals, "vehitars," and all sorts of fun stuff.

All in due time.

I agree, a freeform avatar/animation setup would be very exciting. Of course, something of that scale would be quite a ways down the development road. Alpha skins, in the meantime, would be a major step in that general direction, and it would require very little effort to implement.

On the other hand, there are some types of clothing that use alphas in their texturing. How would you set the difference between, say, lingerie lace and a full invisitexture?

This is in reference to the av's skin layer -- the clothing layers would behave the same as they do now. So basically, if at least one layer is opaque at a given point, the topmost layer will be seen at that point; otherwise, you will see through the av at that point. Just like a Photoshop image with no background layer.

This would need a toggle, then. In my short experience with "skins," doesn't alpha show through to the skin color underneath?

Yes, under the current system. Under the proposed change, this would still be true unless the skin itself is alpha. What would a toggle be needed for?

I suppose that works, then. And I agree with the sentiment.

The "toggle" would only be useful for those people that like to use the skin colors provided by Second Life. But then, last time I made a skin for my avatar, I just did the whole thing in the color I wanted and didn't bother with the lower skin color at all (easier that way).

In this vein, alpha "stacking" desperately needs a fix. The current system for it on prims suffers that lovely bug where it can't figure out which part to show and... argh.

Would you require at least some non-transparent part of the skin, or would this de facto allow invisible avatars? (You'd still be able to see the dots, of course, and presumably the nametag.)

neko

That's actually a separate issue. Skins & clothes are all "baked" into a single layer, so they wouldn't suffer from this bug.

My intent is to allow for invisible avatars, making the av skin completely optional when designing a prim-based avatar. It's all about maximizing creational freedom. Besides, how would such a "non-transparent part" rule be enforced?

This is a very good idea, one which almost everyone who has made a prim-based avatar has probably wanted. I have a friend who has made several robot-like avatars, where portions of the avatar would be visible, if not for invisiprims.

Invisiprims are messy, and look bad from many angles.

Perhaps even just allowing an invisible checkbox in the appearance editor would be useful.

For LL to support something like this would be really easy.