How Tall is My Avatar???

Everybody in SL is so tall!! My avatar's height setting is %75 to the right - and still people keep asking me if I am a child and all the other women tower over me. I figured my avatar was 5' - 5'2". Is there a yardstick somewhere in SL where you can see how tall you are supposed to be?

There are many height checks around SL - one at the Forum Cartel Hangout (search on that and you will find the place).

Everything in SL is large compared to RL -- 5.2 is very short for a usual female avi in SL.

The "touch me to see your height" things scattered around the grid are filthy stinking liars, those only tell you where your eye level is. You can rez a prim, stretch it as tall as you and compare to find your real height.

People will also assume your avatar is a kid if your chest has realistic proportions too, so don't be too concerned about this stuff.

Thanks - it's a land of amazons! But I think small is cute!

Yes, but height detectors are generally wrong...they measure about eye high.

Also, the height slider isn't the only determiner of your overall height. Things like torso, leg, and neck length also contribute.

If you want an more accurate height, you can rez a prim via the Build menu and stretch it to your av's height, then convert the meter measurement if necessary.

Keep in mind though, SL avatars are often unrealistically tall in this unreal world. I don't think the numbers matter that much myself...find something you're comfortable with and everyone else can go to hell.

5'-anything is short. My ava is 6'2" and gets towered over ALL the time.

But, be yourself. I don't mind not being an 8' gorilla.

I have a free to copy height detector in my store. It looks like part of a yellow tape measure.

But really you can just guestimate it -

50 height with 50 legs and 50 torso length is about 5'6" for women based on a measuring tool.

The height detectors are a little off of course (do to LSL limitations), but its the best we've got that works easily.

I made a textured prim lately as a scaled height bar. It's translucent, phantom, and no-mod to whoever I give it to. All you have to do is rez it on a flat surface, make sure it's resting at the level of your feet and walk towards it to eyeball your height. (^_^)

I think I'll take a minute to rez one at the hangout. I'll make sure it freebies a copy of itself to anyone who wants it. (^_^)y

The only problem you might have with a shorter (5'-something) avatar is with things like poseballs and sit scripts, etc. They're generally made with the average SL user in mind (6'+ females, 7'+ males) and thus you might find yourself floating above (or buried halfway inside) chairs and beds and the like.

It is hard to find hair that fits if your head isn't tiny, too!

/me grins. Hair's usually too small for me. (No comments from the peanut gallery, if you please... *g*)

Well, if you buy modifiable hair then you can edit it. Make a copy first, if you can, then try stretching it a little bit at a time, making fine adjustments to its positioning on your head as you go along, to make sure you don't stretch it too far. If you do mess up, then Edit > Undo is your friend. You can also Edit Linked Parts and just click on individual strands or locks to move them, if some of them are poking into your face or leaving you with small bald patches.

At 4'3", I would be lost without my trusty Adjust to Fit script system.. wish I could remember the creator's name right now, but it is wonderful!

That, and I have learned to be very good at creative resizing

A folks have said, there's the unreliable height-detector and the prim-as-a-ruler method. In the end, nothing beats ignoring them all and having a height you're comfortable with. If you aren't 'normal' height you'll get the odd crack made, and occasionally an uninformed threat of an AR.

Prim attachments will be tougher to fit too... mind you, despite being a modest 5'10" (by prim) my usual problem is that my arms & legs are too chubby. You wouldn't think it to view my av either. It's odd to go from RL where 5'10" makes me unusually tall, to SL where it's unusually short.

Oh, and you (or anyone else) can IM me in world for a free prim-based measuring system.

Imeena - you're not supposed to be any particular height, you can be as tall or as short as you want, and don't let anyone tell you anything different!

I make the assumption that the SL metre is smaller than the RL one - about 85%. Same goes for SL feet and inches. That gets round the size problem nicely.

I'm 5'6" in RL measurement. I'm not actually any bigger physically in SL, but because the measurements are smaller, that makes me 6 feet! That's how I look at it.

But there are a lot of very tall women in SL and even more very tall men!

The problem is that there is no real consensus on normal height, or measuring height, as you've already seen in this thread.

Your best bet is just to get a height that, on average, make you happier when comparing yourself to other avatars.

You spend most of your Second Life time seeing yourself in relation to other avatars, and very little time making precise measurements of everyone. (At least, I assume that's the case.) Worry about the visual aesthetic, not mathematical accuracy.

There's actually at least one good technical reason to decide that, just because you are playing a female avatar, that you want to be "realistic" by being shorter than men, on average. Couples animations tend to play poorer with partners who are of mis-matched heights. So there is one advantage to having the same height as one's potential romantic partner, in Second Life.

Keep in mind that high-heel shoes do, in fact, influence an avatar's height. It's rare to find a high-heeled shoe in Second Life that doesn't add at least 3" inches.

Height is all relative as you can stretch out an avatar's legs, neck, or torso in addition to the actual body height. For instance, an avatar's height can be set at 80 yet still be shorter than someone's set at 70 who has longer legs, neck, etc. There's really no set yardstick. Just find a shape that is proportionate and modifiable and makes you feel smexi.. its easy enough to change height.

Glamazones are kinda the norm in sl LOL