Disturbing bug - skins turn black

I was hanging out with friends tonight and one them showed me the result of what I can only assume is a bug. She had been changing clothes and skins; and as she put on the new skin, she popped off the clothing adjuster and next thing she knew, her entire face had turned black. But on closer inspection, it appears that her skin somehow took on the texture of her outfit - skirt (brown) and shirt (blue). I cannot attach a photo here I don't think but you can check it out at this link

In this photo, she is wearing something else and only put on the skin to show me what had happened.

Any ideas about what she can do or what happened here?

I told her to bug report it and also contact the skin creator to see if she can get a replacement.

It isn't the skin, it's a SL feature. Ehm, a bug. Rebaking the body textures usually helps (ctrl+alt+d, client --> character --> rebake textures). If not, clearing the cache and relogging should get rid of the effect.

Rebaking didn't work. Nor did clearing cache and relogging...

Maybe she can try again today and see.

Why does this happen? Anyone know?

I had this yesterday and did rebakes till I went dizzy - after about 3 it cleared but then it happened again after about a third of teleports. For the last two days I've been sinking into the ground too and not at especially busy areas.

Here's a trick I found to clear it up. It works most of the time for both the black areas and the glitch when landscapes/builds/Windows Applications/etc. get baked onto your avatar.

Note that this only works if the skin or article of clothing is modifiable.

*Go into Appearance Mode, then go to the affected skin or clothing item(s)

*If it's a skin glitch, click the texture picker that corresponds to where you are having the problem - i.e., upper body, lower body, or head. The texture picker will open. Now, click on any texture from your inventory. DO NOT choose "Select" in the picker. Once you've SINGLE left clicked any texture in your inventory in the texture picker, back out of the picker with "Cancel". Then get out of Appearance Mode. At this point the texture should be fixed. Note that for some reason snapshots didn't work for me, so try to use a texture. If you don't have any textures in your main inventory, there are some in the Library that we all get when we start SL. The Library folder can be found by scrolling to the bottom of your inventory. There is a textures folder in it. You can use any texture in any subfolder under Textures.

*It's the same process for clothing that is texture glitched, IF you have modify permissions. Again though - DO NOT choose "Select" in the texture picker, just SINGLE left click any texture to rez in the clothing item's texture picker preview, then "Cancel" out of the picker and out of Appearance Mode.

I cannot stress enough, the importance of not clicking "Select" in the texture picker. If you do, you've basically destroyed that skin or article of clothing (Unless you have the source textures, which you likely will not).

If this process I have outlined doesn't work, and you've restarted SL/cleared cache, rebaked, and all that other good stuff, then I would suggest uninstalling and then reinstalling SL.

Thankfully, this hasn't happened to me yet...but I will pass all the info along to my friend thanks.

There's also a bug with black baked textures if you're on a multi-monitor puter. You'll have to search the forums for a solution if that's the cause.

Another process a liason suggested worked for me:

* change to the default skin in the library folder
* Ctrl-Alt-D for the debug menu, then Rendering/Character/Rebake Textures and go to Appearance
* Quit SL and relog
* Change to a skin that used to work (rebake & appearance once more)
* Quit SL and relog
* At this point you should look like yourself again

If it only ever happens with one single skin and all the rest of them work fine, then that skin went corrupt and you'll need to contact the creator for a new copy which normally shouldn't be too much of an issue since they're all no transfer.

Thanks, Kitty. I am telling my friend to look at this thread. It has not happened to me...but to her!

Here's another tip that works -- I got this from my skin's creator -- similar to others but it has a 90 percent fix ratio for me -- clear cache, reboot, and rebake. You may to do it more than once but it works. Its the only useful help I got with the problem.

If you're using multiple monitors and your avatar's textures all go black, it is likely because you tried to change clothes or your skin when you were running SL on your secondary monitor. Move SL to your primary monitor, then rebake your textures. Once they're good and baked, you can put SL back on your secondary monitor.

A Linden once walked me through the method Kitty describes in #7.
Kitty was smart enough to remember the sequence.
I was too paniced to write it down.

Thanks again all. The skin is not modifiable I don't think so she is stuck....it really stinks.

Wow I tried everything and nothing worked except this method. Thankyou!

Ive got a *kit* from one of the other mentors that fixes this bug...its a skin, shape and clothing that the person wears...then removes...seems to work...just dont ask me HOW lol

If anyone would like a copy of the folder, let me know via an inworld notecard, ill gladly pass it along.

Fai x

I had the multiple monitors black skin bug for a bit after I swapped monitor plughs, then the solution was to swap them softwarewise too between primary and secondary. For I while it looked like I could only run SL on the right side secondary monitor. The got it to work on left one by swapping plugs and software primary/secondary.

I am having the same problems or very similar ones, it has only happened since I upgraded to the new SL viewer.... but here is the catch for me, it is taking my base hair textures and changing the skin tones on my face ..

Found out by following some samples and tips in here, that it is actually going through , and loading for the texture for my face one of the prim hairs in the library..

updates....
Tried a few different viewers , and it is the same in all of them ..... it seems like the issue is more with the asset or login server than anything else for us affected , i even checked out my alt accounts,
and they seem to be doing okay , everything as it should be.

I'm having this problem as well...although with a bit of a twist.

It happens when I put certain pairs of shoes on and certain pairs of jeans. The shoe issue has something to do with the "shoe shape" on the avatar, not the prim. It makes it appear as though I have black pants on. I've tried several things to clear this up, but to no avail.

It seems like it only is happening with certain pairs of boots and newer shoes. I tried on some of my "ancient" shoes and didn't have any problem.

I've tried clearing cache, rebaking until I thought my fingers would fall off...even going into appearance mode but none of these work.

It happened to me last night.. so now I am all black.. I changed everything to black.. I tried fixes listed ..no good.

so now I am a phantom

I had the multi-monitor issue happens several times, but also, black rectangles (somtimes big enough to cover the whole visible area of the textures), it seems it was happening cause I had another program (3ds Max) running at the same time, my guess is SL and Max were fighting for the usage of the video memory and things got messy, try closing all other programs and playing with the vram usage setting on SL see if that helps

There is a known conflict between the newer NVidia graphics card drivers and the 1.20 and 1.21 series clients which causes clothing to change appearance. Affected items will texture the entire upper or lower half of the avatar body. Have you tried rolling back the video drivers to at least the 175.xx series which corrects the issue, and as the still usable 1.19.1.4 and 1.19.0.5 clients are not affected rolling back the client to one of those versions also usually corrects the issue, although you may need to Edit->Appearance with the affected items to correct them.

Just some thoughts for you to try perhaps if you are running NVidia cards

I tried this for an issues I am having w/ white eye lashes, on some differently created skins,
even when they are set to 0 on my shape. It was visible to others and it seems to have worked,
but I have to readd the setting when I log back in.
I tried everything, switching stuff out like mad, doing appearance and rebakes.
Did this and no more albino lashes, if it pops up again I do rebake and it holds till I relog pretty much, so I'll see, it seems to be working? I hope so!

Using the latest RC and NVidia card.
Thanks Lord for the suggestion (that reads funny! ahhhhhmen!)

I did update the drivers for that ...ughhh..

I like looking like a Ninja from Hell

This happened to my alt a little while ago. But I really like the effect, so I'm trying to not do anything that messes with it. Look at me! I'm a Eudeamon!

Another idea: It is possible that your avatar has become corrupted such that it isn't handling textures correctly. Fortunately, it's easy to start over with a brand new avatar ... just be sure that you know where all the parts (shape, eyes, bald cap, etc.) are that you usually wear!

Advanced > Character > Character Tests > Test female (or male)

will give you a completely new avatar to start from. Do this, clear cache, relog, and then put on your shape and everything else you usually wear.