Why is avatar height not to scale?

It's kind of a basic question but why does avatar height not match object height in SL? I have edited my appearance down to, say 192 cm, using a block I've drawn for comparison but then I find I'm way below that when I use a height detector to check.

My understanding is that height detectors go to the eye level of the av. At least that's what's been said here in the forums. That's why you're coming up short.

It is kind of screwy though. I'd like to be my titchy little bang-on-five-feet-tall firecracker that I am rl. Sadly that makes me look ... questionably jailbait shall we say. So I am 100% of what my shape will allow at 6ft and actually, given SL, that puts me in perspective. It still bugs me that I can't be 5ft - but then it bugs me that I can't be this thin RL to I guess it evens out

What a gang! come on, if there's enough of us they can't call us all jailbait. It's the gross height-creeps who are abnormal, not us!

The trouble is I'd like to make a build based on a set of RL plans. This means that unless I jump through arithmetical hoops recalculating every single dimension as I go, the damn thing will be too small to 'live' in once I've finished.

I could of course just stick with my 192cm 'object-height' but then I will be out of proportion to most SL residents - not to mention my boots!

And why do we use height detectors when they are off by so much?

Build it all, then "stretch" it?

Because they are easy to use and give us a nice "ballpark" figure.




I have to agree with Ianthe on this. As it stands, I'm a little shorter than most of the other guys in SL, and my avatar stands at a respectable 6'5" according to the height detector. Which means he's probably closer to 6'7" or 6'8". As of late I've been thinking of lowering my in game height until I'm about 5'10" to 5'11" on the height detector scale.

the understanding is that they are based on the av bone height, not the shape height, or bounding box, there are height detoctor that work properly, but if you want a quick acurate test rez a box on the ground, make it phantom turn off stretch both sides, stand in the middle and drag the top upwards until it just covers the top of your head... the z vector is now your height (including and shoes / hair you're wearing)

That's what I did, Void, and how easy is that, Joseph? My point is that by far the majority of SL residents take the ...



produced by inaccurate height detectors as a definitive reading of their avatar height.

This all-too-common error is the source of a plethora of issues from building through to animation that needlessly complicate how our avatars relate to each other and the common SL environment.

It's quite easy. But doing it the phantom prim way means

Rezz Prim
Set Phantom
Stretch Prim
Adjust camera to see exactly when said prim covers skull
Convert meters into feet and inches (if feet and inches are your preferred units of measurements)

As opposed to the height detector method which consists of

Rezz Device
Click device for foot and inch measurements.

I'm not saying one version is superior to the other. I was merely answering the question as to why people continue to use the Height Detectors when they are obviously flawed.

well, Ephraim, if you know this already, why did you waste perfectly good post space on it?
until SL, or a content creator, makes something more accurate to judge avi hieght, then the choices posted here are the only ones available.
and since our heights are only measured from eye level to ground, all you have to do is add two, three sl inches to get a more accurate height.

I didn't understand the discrepancy when I made the post in the first place and it's a perfectly legitimate question, Maggie.

So please don't carp at me. We aren't exactly cramped for space and it's only a matter of bytes and bandwidth after all.

^5s you

Well scale doesn't mean much considering if we had RL scale ceilings in houses we would just be looking at floorboards of the floor above all the time

I am 6'4'' according the the height thingie at the hangout. A have grown a foot in a week lol. I wish people didn't automatically see a shorter avvie and think (and sometimes shout) that it is a child! I would love to be my natural height - which isn't that short, but I don't want the hassle.

But the thing is, although SL uses the same scale as in 100 cm to a metre sort of thing, 1 metre in SL is not to scale with 1 metre in RL. It is just a way of easily measuring, rather than translating from SL to RL. I haven't explained that well at all. Its hard to describe what I mean lol.
192cm in RL may not be 192cm.

i would just build at the scale you have, then select all and stretch like was suggested before

Sounds like some conversions I've lived in. Funny thing, Grade II listed buildings ... you'd expect people to make them as solid and soundproof internally as the nice thick stone walls are but nooooooooo. Guess in the case of Regency, no one had large stereos playing music seemingly chosen to depress me (mindless chart pap, soppy pseudo J-Pop ... argh!).

Regarding height I have also a question, my AV got its height at 100 even so I'm shorter than my friends with 85... how is this possible? skin problem? shape?

try changing leg length as well nuno. that can make a difference

Nuno,
Height is entirely dependent on shape, not skin.
Maybe your friend bought a shape and you adapted a basic one with the appearance sliders? Or the other way around? A bought shape can have very different proportions to a basic one adjusted with the sliders.

Nuno: torso length as well as neck length all contribute to the skyscrapers we meet

/me waves to Claire and Sally

Anybody up to start a group of peoples that have realistic size?

Tonight I'll try to change again...

My problem was that on the other day I TP to somewhere and when I arrived I had a female shape and even when I changed to male I didn't get it right .... (I think I have to finally buy a real shape) It's already my second problem with TPs... this weekend when I arrived to one LM I had my no-perms shoes out of my feet and when I try to move them to my feet they simply disapear, so now I loose the smaller size of those 400L$ gorgeous shoes lololol thank God I got the bigger size....

The female shape after TP may be what is called being "Ruthed" Nuno. It's a fairly common condition and usually rights itself after waiting a while (lag) or after a relog.
As for disappearing shoes, if they ended up on your behind, that´s a bug in SL, unfortunately. The only cure is to detach and re/attach.

Hope that helps.



/me waves back at Bilbo

Nuno, I would open your appearance settings and just mess with the sliders until you are happy. For height you need torso length (this is called height i think), leg length and neck length. But if you just max these out you will not only be tall, you may look....stretched unless you adapt the other sliders as well. Just mess with them, seeing what changes what and create a shape you are happy with.
When you TP and are in a female shape - possibly with brown hair, you have been ruthed. Ruth is the default avatar I think (nice to know the default is a female )lol. Attatchments up yer bum is something that can only be sortd by detaching and re-wearing. They default to your pelvis attatchment or something like that. just right click and detach before wearing them again. It may happen with hair and other attachments too.

Basically, What Sally said.

/me waves back at bilbo and sally

Depends on what you mean by default avatar....... If you go the test female/male route in the client menu, you'll find you won't look anything like Ruth . Ruth is the basic shape and skin inside us all. Which is why we should all love and cherish her

/me waves at Claire