Pointy Prim Hair?

I suppose this belongs in General forum. I was just wondering, am I the only one who has noticed that many prim hair pieces these days are particularly "pointy" and sharp? Its just a small thing that has been bothering me as i'm seeing many many new hair-makers and twice as many new styles, yet all the same similiar techniques used on hair. Its that kind of hair where it looks like it was molded out of plastic and glued onto a bald avie's head.

Don't tell me you havent seen it before! The tips of these hairs are super sharp, and look like they could stab somebody. Maybe a softer effect would look better? Just my opinion. Real hair doesnt dwindle down to a sharp point, so why do most prim hairs? I dont have much of a problem with it, im just wondering, do many people like the looks of these pointy hairs? Or is natural, soft hair a better sell?

Let me know what you think!

My real hair dwindles down to points . . . in ringlets past my waist.

Very sharp.

My hair usually consists of razor stubble over my head.. I'm told its sharp as a bastard.

I poked myself in the finger with my own hair one time... and drew blood!

That freaked me out for a good five minutes then life returned to normal.

KAY, heres what im talking about.

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8120/primhairs13xb.jpg

left (not pointy) right (pointy)

A lot of the hairstyles i see are made up entirely of (right) pointy.

The alpha-channelled, softer hair textures look great in pictures... until you buy 'em and put them on your head. Then the wonderful LL "alpha sorting" problems come into play, and you get hair that resembles an Escher drawing or Mobius strip. I think that's why hair stylists in SL are opting to use non-alpha textures for their hair.

Fix the alpha sort problems, Linden Labs? Pleeeeeaase?

It's not just LL... Alpha sorting is a problem all over the place. Any virtual enviroment or game that uses alphas. Thats one of their flaws.

For example. In guild wars the hair is alpha on the head. The moment your avatar's head is submerged in water... you are bald. (thats why most water is neck level if you are able to get in it at all. The developers of Guildwars have complete control over what you have available to you. SO with our extended freedom in SL we see the flaws that constricted places can hide.

Also, the softer hair works fine in matte black. Which kinda sucks for everyone else... Also some people get around this by doubling the prims of their hair. They make the very tips alpha, and the top of the hair opaque. THis works quite well if you get the textures to match up.

I rather like the stylized type of hair. I find in most of the things that try to be realistic that their flaws are obvious and stand out much more. Even the most expensive hollywood movies still have trouble making realistic humans. Look at the matrix fight scenes, most of the time it was very easy to point wich sections where done completly with computer models.

But if you make a style that considers the limitations of the platform you can often make something that is much more believable and immersive.

What would be really cool would be a decent vertex program that simulates the flowing movement of real hair ( no, we don't have one already ) then we could all go back to using a single texture instead of lagging everyone in sight to death. Of course that'd not be good for the hairdressing industry, but I have to say (, even in RL,) that might not be a bad idea!

::runs and hides::

My client is allergic to prim hair. It gets all drowsy and sometimes falls asleep altogether.

I think we need a balance of the two. The ends of the hair really should be alpha. Using over a hundred prims to simulate every strand of hair lags the rest of us down and just plain looks bad. Textures do a much better job of it, provided the alpha doesn't cause too much of a problem.