New Inventory Item: Avatar

I think it would be nice to create a new inventory item type called Avatar. An avatar item would simply be a record of everything you are wearing ... from your shape and skin, to any attachments. It would not contain the actual items, but rather, pointers to the items in your inventory. This would eliminate the need to create copies of items in folders so that you can have different outfits.

Some thinking would have to go into this ... components of your avatar would have to be referenced by key, not by name and location since items can be moved. Also, when deleting or transferring an item that belongs to an avatar, it would be nice to receive a warning. Perhaps broken avatars (those where a referenced item is no longer found in the user's inventory) could get a special icon - but they could still be used for what items are still valid.

Am I making sense here?

I would like to create some avatars for myself like this:

Persephone's Pink Fairy Avatar
Persephone's Ballroom Dancing Avatar
Persephone's Shopping Avatar

This idea would also make it more fun to shop for clothing and attachments. Right now when I am shopping I usually don't try on what I buy and wait until later. This is because it can be a pain to return back to my normal outfit once I have tried on what I have purchased. If I can save my look, I can quickly return to it at any time.

A couple of additional thoughts.

1) I have seen inventory pointers (links or shortcuts) requested on these forums. For example, you could copy an inventory item and paste it as a shortcut ... and this would work for non-copy items as well. It is possible that my idea here could merely be a function of implementing shortcuts such that when you save an avatar item all it really does is create a folder with all of the required shortcuts inside.

2) People have asked for a "try before you buy" feature. This could be implemented using the avatar capture feature such that when a container is "tried" the current avatar is captured temporarily. After a period of time has expired, the avatar is rolled back and the temporary avatar is deleted.

3) People have asked for an "undo" feature with regard to avatar changes and attachments. It's possible this feature could provide this kind of thing as well.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. I think creatively modifying your avie is one of the nicest things about Second Life. It would be nice if saving your various looks was a bit easier.

Well, there's no such object type as an "Avatar", but you can save everything you're wearing from the Appearance Editor into a folder in your inventory named whatever you choose. Then to wear the collection of item that comprise your current appearance and attachments, open the folder and just drag it onto your avatar. Presto!

You can even add attachments and other items by dragging them into the newly created folder, and when you drag the folder onto your avatar, they'll be automatically attached along with everything else you were wearing.

So what you want to do already exists, without having to add a new feature.

Yes, I am aware of this feature. It doesn't work the way I am suggesting at all. Play around with it a bit and you will see the differences.

Just to clarify ... in my first paragraph I said "It would not contain the actual items, but rather, pointers to the items in your inventory. This would eliminate the need to create copies of items in folders so that you can have different outfits."

The key to this feature is inventory shortcuts or pointers. And, having them automatically created when you save your avatar, rather than having to manually copy and paste shortcuts would make this sooo much easier to do.

wow great idea!
this would be great for no copy items,
you cant make a folder for an av with a
no copy skin or if you save another folder
it moves your skin and breaks the old folder.
as well as clothes and attachments.
you should put this up on the vote proposable.
avatars are the only reason i came here,
otherwise i would still be in activeworlds.
-LW

Inventory shortcuts have been proposed here, and should be voted on if you like this feature:

https://secondlife.com/vote/index.php?get_id=1165

I have just applied several of my votes to this proposal.

The only real addition my suggestion makes is to provide some kind of automatic means to capture all of the items you are wearing into an avatar folder. However, with the new ablity to search for "worn" in your inventory, this is already not very difficult. Soooo, I think I will just vote for the idea that is already out there.

Well I imagine you'd just combine the shortcuts with the appearance option to save a folder and *bam* you're done

Nice idea, I like. I have many different 'avatars' that are similar except for clothes and accessories, would be really helpful. Especially as some of my items are no-copy so I have to add them afterward, and some I don't want to copy because they are HUD attachments I am developing, so if I fix a bug or add a feature I need to change them all.

Man, I just finished looking up and posting a "vote for #1165" message, and you beat me to the punch. That's cool.