Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Why I Don't Wear Mesh -- Yet

The recent release of the Phoenix Viewer version 1.6.0.1591 with mesh support finally convinced me to try mesh. Prior to this release many, if not most, viewers used inworld could not render mesh properly so why wear it ? You would just look all garbled and partly naked to those viewers without mesh support. But now most viewers would render mesh properly so I thought I would give it a whirl.

I found a nice looking semi-sheer cropped lace tank top from Beetlebones @ Existence. I like the way mesh drapes nicely:
Unfortunately, body parts can still poke through mesh clothing items producing the familiar wtf look:
Mesh clothing cannot be resized like normal clothing or sculpted prim clothing. So, mesh clothing vendors provide several sizes to select from. This item comes in 5 sizes - XS, S, M, L, XL. I tried the XS since my shape is smallish but it was too small and my torso poked through in several places. Medium size was way too big so here I am wearing the Small. It fits fairly well but notice how the front of the top hangs a few inches out in front of my chest:
Normally I would simply move the top back a bit by selecting it and editing the position. You cannot even position a mesh clothing item! So, no mesh for me. Yet. It is possible that with improvements to mesh like the mesh parametric deformer project that mesh will someday be a significant improvement to Second Life. Maybe even as-is there are some mesh creators who design clothing for avatar shapes that do not have huge boobs. Till then, thanks but no thanks.