New Clothing Type: Coat

This is a re-post from the "Cloak" thread, because it's a different idea.

Please add a new garment type called "coat." What's the difference between a coat and a jacket, you ask? Simple-- a coat isn't spraypainted onto whatever you're wearing, it has its own mesh. A coat should be able to be used to create trenchcoats, wizard's/Jedi robes, Chinese coats, Japanese armor... seriously, how can you look like you're someone from "The Matrix" in a long leather trenchcoat without this garment??

Ideally, it could be any length down to your feet, which would mean another mesh like the skirt mesh, but tied to sleeves, so you can make an outer garment with loose sleeves but an inner garment with tighter sleeves, if you like. Options I see would be a combination of shirt and skirt, naturally:

Front and back collar height

Length - midriff down to dragging on the ground

"poofiness" -- so those who want a closer-fitting, more tailored look can have it, but probably we would need:

shoulder pad height

shoulder pad width -- how much it sticks out sideways from the shoulders

shoulder pad depth -- how much it pulls away from front and back of torso, from the shoulders (I could live without this one, or it could be combined with the other shoulder pad options)

"waist poofiness" - how snug it is to the av's waist, from current spraypaint to billowing

"base poofiness" - how much it hugs the feet or billows out around the base

sleeve length

sleeve tightness

opening size

opening position (front, side, back, etc.) - transparency covers this, but an opening is convenient for quick jobs.

I know this would be more complex than the skirts because the avs can bend at the waist, but it really shouldn't be that hard, based on the skirt behavior. I really really want this feature. My Mandarin suits just don't look right with the current shirt/jacket limitations. "Loose" just makes them look "baggy," not what I'm going for. And prims are just too clunky for most clothing. This would open up a whole new creative area for clothing design in SL.

neko

i'm perfectly happy with doing coats as a shirt/skirt combo. all i would ask for extra is for jackets to have their own "fit" slider instead of relying on the shirt underneath them for that. is that what you mean by spray painted on?

Zuzi,

That's *exactly* what I'm talking about. You can't have separate fit because of the way jackets work -- they don't have their own mesh, they're just a texture applied over the shirt. You'd need a new garment type with a mesh, like the skirt has, to be able to get the slider you want. And while you're at it, you might as well have the other choices I described, though the one you're talking about is the one I care most about.

Oh, and if you don't want the lower part of the jacket to be tight at the waist, you need the length parameter, too.

neko

sorry i didn't make myself clear. i mean i'd like the jacket clothing type to have a "fit" slider the way pants and shirts do. pants and shirts aren't a mesh, they just deform your avatar based on the "fit" slider. skirts are an actual mesh which is why they can stick out and be separate from your "body".

i don't really care about extra meshes for long coats since a shirt for the upper half and a skirt for the bottom half work fine for me. all i would like is the addition of a "fit" slider for the jacket clothing type (unrelated to making coats since shirt/skirt works fine for that).

Would the "jacket" deformations to the avatar then take precedence over the "shirt" deformations? And how would that affect the fact that the "skirt" part of the jacket always conforms to the avatar at the waist? I suppose since the shirt always "tucks in", that wouldn't keep things from lining up, but it still wouldn't give much flexibility in appearance.

I myself would still prefer the new clothing type with mesh, but I can see that not everyone would need it. I like "ethnic" clothing styles, and they tend to be less fitted than the current system allows for.

neko

Something I just realized I hadn't made clear before is that the sleeves of a coat would ideally have their looseness separate from shirt sleeves, which I guess would mean they have their own mesh.

Robin suggested that capes/cloaks might make it into a patch, in the Hotline. Anyone who wants Coats should probably let the Lindens know so... and it looks increasingly like the Hotline is the best way to get their attention.

Neko

Woohoo! Support from Lindens on this one!

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Gotta love that Hotline forum.

neko

Anybody make Trench coats ill buy one for 100L$ when i can get on

I'd just like a skirt that can be made so it doesn't make my avatar's arse look huge yet narrow, turn the settings down and the cheeks stick out through the cloth.
Not just for skirts in the normal sense, but also for coats and such, a male avvy I'm making to sell looks quite ridiculous in his trencher.

There, I just made an entire post about my avatar's bum, happy?

I would say you'd want to either add the two deformations, or pick the max of the two for every patch.

I'd also like a new mesh that (depending on the texture) would work as a jacket, or a cape, or a trenchcoat, or a loose dress.