Default Avatar getting a makeover?

No. The AV mesh is only the rigid shape matrix that floats underneath the skin and clothing layers. Changes to that wont affect clothing at all.
It's LL's not-so-good UV texture map that determines what part of the skin/clothing texture goes to what part of the mesh, and the amount of stretching between each small section of it. Changing THAT is what would throw off current clothing mapping.

IMO The best option would be to have one new default AV choice that uses the new mesh and new UV map. That way current content would remain intact for all current AV's, and still allow for a new, better looking AV mesh inworld that people can develop new content for. Maybe put a "use default mesh" or "use new mesh" checkbox in the edit-->appearance dialogue so you can easily change between the 2 styles.

The only problem would be using certain content made for the opposite AV style (seams and edges would be fine, but details and shading would probably not line up). Skin and clothing lines would most likely need to be kept seperate.

Yes it would, not putting up with what we got for the next 50 years, might as well upgrade ASAP

A new mesh would be great. It would be a great way to stimulate the economy of SL. Maybe I'm wrong? There are just areas on the mesh that stretch so bad, its really, really ugly.

Anyways as long as old clothing and skins still worked, I'm sure everyone would support the option of creating the new mesh clothing and skins.

The male, female, and furry meshes are already 3 different ones.

There's a different mesh for furries?
So what is the difference between furry mesh and others?
Can't we just add new meshes? And call them newfemale, newmale, etc.....

I didn't say different ones though... I mentioned a NEW, better made mesh and UV map.
All those are the same one mesh with different base slider values, or a slightly altered derivitive made from the same parts, at the same time, and all use the same bad UV map.

Yeah sorry I guess I was confusing the issue. You're right of course. The main problem with the current mesh is the terrible uv mapping. And the fact aht the skirt doesn't move with the legs etc...

My guess would be that this is only about new skins, hair, and clothing for the starter library, and not a redesign of the avatar mesh. Don't forget that we're not just talking about one mesh, but all the morph targets for every appearance slider for both male and female. That would be a huge job, and one so fundamental to the overall SL experience that anyone who'd agree to do it for anything less than a king's ransom would be nuts. This may be a bad sign that any serious overhaul of the avatar system is probably off the table for the forseeable future. Sounds like they're taking the easy way out, and in essence asking those who bid on the job to compete against themselves. The better and more numerous the starting choices are, the less incentive there is for people to purchase products from content creators later on. It's hard for me to see this as not rewarding the content creation community by undermining its efforts. I'll reserve judgment until if/when I hear more detail about what's going on, what they want, and what they're offering. I haven't personally been approached, but my gut reaction is that this isn't exactly good news. If they want something of the same caliber that successful creators are already getting L$ 1k or more for, they might want to bid based on a reasonable bulk discount for the number of people who'll now get it for free... say maybe $L500 x ten or twenty million?

Everything you say makes sense, Chip.
Darn.

Hey, can anyone find JIRA? There's a proposal to improve the avatar mesh, but I can't seem to be able to find JIRA in order to find the proposal...?

I don't see how changing the avatar mesh can be done. Changing the mesh would most likely break every single avatar texture from skins to clothes to tattoos to god knows what. I see people writing about how to match the 'seams' all the time. I imagine we would have problems much worse than misaligned seams. Talk about item degradation... this will be item degradation for everything in one fell blow.

That would be a horrible mess. But honestly I think it would be worth it if we could start again with decently meshed avs.

Well...If the UV map is the same for both meshes there would be no problem at all, i have seen it done successfully, so there is no reason why not...then all clothing would actually fit BETTER!
as far as the new avi mesh (or now meshes) goes, there need to be two basic ones to chose from rather than a basic female mesh with choice of male or female shapes. thus resolving the 'ruthing' issue once and for all.
If my speciallty were making human meshes, I would VOLUNTEER for the job!

I'd volunteer to Learn how if they'd let me make new meshes!

Same here. We could be a team.

The two of you would mesh well together.

/me sprints for the horizon, followed by custard pies and howls of outrage.

Lol! I'm willing to try!

There's three ways they could approach redoing the mesh and UV mapping for the avatar. One way would be to have a brand new mesh but keep the old one in the client, allowing people to choose which one they want to use. The second would be to replace the old avatar mesh but make the new one carry two different UV mappings and have a checkbox for any given avatar/clothing texture for which UVs it should use. Neither one would be easy to implement, but well worth the effort on the long run. Of course the third way would just be to make all the existing content obsolete. It would be painful for everyone, and they'd likely have to hire armed guards to protect LL headquarters from rampaging content creators and angry shopaholics. That too might be worth the pain in the long run if they adress the other problems in the avatar system.

The most basic flaw in the existing system is not that the mesh is a bit clunky and that the UV mapping has some serious problems, but that the way skins and clothing work are very inflexible, severely limiting the ability of the end user to customize their appearance, and crippling any secondary market for skin and clothing products that might otherwise flourish.

People need to be able to use clothing or skin parts on any texture layer, and we need several more layers. It needs to be more modular so that someone could buy a base skin from one creator, eyebrows from another, makeup from another, tattoos from another, and so on, and it needs to be done in a way that doesn't require creators to distribute their work as raw textures. They should all be packaged the way that skins and clothing are already textures in a container with permissions that don't expose the raw textures to the end user. If LL doesn't do that kind of fundamental redesign to the system there's not much point to redoing the mesh or UV mapping really. We'd be able to bump up the quality of items but the system would still be just and inflexible as it always has been.

*Sigh* That would be so very nice.

God I don't check the forums for a few days and someting like this almst slips past me

I'm one of the people who has been asking for and voted for a new AV mesh for ages. As a poser user I am astonished at what we have to put up with in SL, it realy is outdated.
Yes clothing and skin designers will have to redo their work but the improvements will be worth the efforts. An improved avitar is absolutly necessary for far too many reasons, ankles and breasts just to name two, and to those designers who are put out by this I would like to extend my av's arm clench my fist and extend my middle finger. You have made your money on what you have done already, don't think you can just sit back and rely on an income from last years efforts. The "real" designers will embrace the upgrade and see the potental in the change. Yes we will have to spend money on new skins and clothes, but don't we do that already ? Woulden't it be nice to have diferent tatoos on each arm ?
The current av is a turd, the LL plan to give it improved newb clothes is little more than covering it with gold leaf. A gold plated turd is still a turd, upgraed the damned thing and be done with it already !

[rant]And while we are on the subject how about directing some of those "improved Havok Phys" into beter clothing, it would be nice not to have your skirt disappear through your legs as you walk. How about some phyisics enabled clothing meshes to go with a better av perhaps ? At the moment too much effort is being put into making a realistic newtons cradle for the front lawn and not enough into the most important thing about SL the very means through which we interact with this world the avitar itself. Get you thumb out of your ass LR and get on with it.[/rant]

What Lucy said.
And I am a clothing designer.