Over the last 4 months, I have been settling myself in to
getting Fitted Mesh pinned down. Its never an easy process learning, and
ultimately finding out what the restrictions and limitations of new
technologies are.
In a way this is very akin to my initial investigations
in to Rigged Mesh back in 2011 where I spent a very long time learning about
Rigging, and what it could, and couldn’t do – with more emphasis on what it couldn’t
do.
Fitted Mesh is a very positive progression from Rigging,
and finally I have to admit, the idea of utilising rigging is a far more
positive proposition.
The ultimate goal here is to lock, stock and barrel,
replace the stock avatar with a new one and fitted does make this possible to a
degree, but there are still too many draw backs in my books for Fitted to
become a new standard.
Fitted Mesh – what is it really?
This is a serious problem really, because like it or not,
Linden Labs really don’t have that much of a clue how we use Second Life as
designers. Its nothing against them, but truth is, they don’t understand.
From our Perspective, Fitted Mesh should be a swiss army
knife. It should do everything. Bodies, clothing, hair, banana ears, tails –
the list could go on. The short version is, even if I am being tongue in cheek,
the tool should be representative of what our imaginations are capable of, and
that’s a tall order.
From Linden Labs point of view, this wasn’t a practical
problem of how can they do “this or that”. It was half an ear listening to the
needs of the designers, briefly passing over the forum comments and maybe an
occasional conversation with someone in world.
I am not being disrespectful there. I understand that if
someone was to sit down, and try to take all of what was needed onboard, it
would be the scene from the Exorcist watching their heads spin round as they
tried to grasp what was being asked.
Going back to the Lab’s point of view though. Fitted Mesh
was simply a way of getting mesh clothing to fit better. That’s it – nothing
more.
And before they even got it on the grid, loonies like
myself were really pushing it beyond their scope.
So... How does fitted mesh work, and why does it work
like that?
The first thing to understand about this is that Fitted
Mesh isn’t based on the same system as the Avatar is.
The avatar uses groups of Vertices that move, stretch and
deform in to different shapes – overall this creates the different shape files.
Fitted Mesh, while based on a part of the avatars
skeleton, is different in that all it is, is a series of balloons under the
skin that inflate and deflate when you use the shape sliders – putting in
simplistic terms.
That means Fitted Mesh is an Emulator, not a like for
like system. Those that know this, the Mesh Deformer project was in fact the
like for like system, and that for all intent and purpose is dead in the water
now.
The biggest issue with the fact Fitted Mesh is designed
to Emulate what the avatar does, means that with the complex series of variable
available to the avatar, while it does a good job, there are limits.
New Mesh, same flaws
I have just spent some time reading through my original
mesh investigation documents (they are on the site – just got to the earliest
blogs).
Since I originally wrote that things have changed not
just with fitted mesh but other areas too.
Removing the Physics, and the shape Sliders, and the
Appliers (as ADV is now available and I did finally solve the applier system
problems) you are still left with some pretty heady issues.
Fitted Mesh is a far more versatile solution with more configurational
options and physics. But this isn’t perfect – there are still limitations and
bugs simply down to the fact its an emulator.
Multiple clothing layers. Now, this is the show stopper
in my books. Some years back I said the best thing to do would be to use the
baked textures from the avatar and using scripting, let people apply those
textures automatically to rigged / fitted mesh parts. The works already been
done.
However as far as I know, this isn’t on the table at the
moment. Why – no idea as it really shouldn’t be that complex to do really.
This way, all you have to do to change your skin,
clothing etc, is wear the item, and let the bake files do the rest. In theory,
this could even solve the problem over alpha masking too by using a mesh hide
system or a unique mask for running with fitted mesh.
That said though, I know from all my experiments and
testing, that the SL body texture system isn’t capable of handling everything,
and the more extreme you push, the worse the system behaves. Not a good thing
as you end up with warped, stretched and distorted textures.
Oh, and this could get worse, as SL bakes its files at
512, not 1024 so those distortions will get worse.
Now, realistically this is a shorter list than before,
and at least one item on there is possible.
Have things actually got worse because of fitted mesh?
Well, in one way, they have.
For years now there has been talk and even official JIRA
about the AV2 project. A whole new avatar that would be theoretically based on
the current SL clothing and skins.
However it would be radically cleaned up, much more
configurable, and much higher quality.
However those kind of changes would require a whole new
Avatar skeleton, mesh and Slider options. Which means... Rigged / Fitted Mesh
items designed for AV1 wouldnt work.
After learning first hand how the SL textures behave with
more shapely bodies I think they may even have to redesign the avatars textures
too to be more adaptable on extreme areas.
So, in theory, the investment in fitted mesh, may have
scuppered the whole AV2 project, although that hasn’t stopped Linden Labs in
the past.
Finally, and I may be wrong here, but I was asked “Will
Fitted Mesh work with Micro / Macro Avatar Bodies?”
Well... I have experimented, tested etc and even though I
have not done this since I worked last on Blender 2.49, I can confirm that
sadly, it doesn’t work.
In fact trying to do fitted Micro or macros causes all
hell to break loose in world to the degree that on one worn session I had to
relog to clear a major viewer error.
