Monday, July 30, 2007

The Good

About a month ago I wrote an overview of prim breasts intended to be put on a notecard to give out to people. That may yet happen, but in any case I shall post first a list of the advantages of prim breasts, and then a list of disadvantages, along with JIRA entries that might shift the balance. Here, the advantages:
  1. Prim breasts bypass the limits on breast size in the standard female avatar, which don't come close to accommodating the natural variation that occurs in real life. (JIRA entry VWR-1258 requests that SL extend the size limits on body part sizes in the standard avatar, and I hope you'll all go vote for it, but one has to admit it's probably low on LL's priority list.)
  2. The standard avatar shapes use relatively few polygons compared with other computer representations of the human figure, so that at the limits, breasts on the standard female avatar look blocky. Prim breasts are built of prims with curved shapes (or more recently, sculpted prims with curved shapes), avoiding that problem. (JIRA entry VWR-1258 also speaks to this issue.)
  3. The standard avatar has no nipples; they are at best painted on with the skin one wears. Prim breasts have nipples.
  4. The standard avatar cannot lactate. Prim breasts can include particle generators that allow lactation and scripts to control it.
  5. Humans usually have two breasts, but there are mammals with more. Prim breasts can be found in sets of four and six for furry avatars.
  6. Standard clothing, being a painted-on texture, shows its non-realism most severely with breasts. T-shirts look vacuum-sealed to your body, distorting art and text beyond recognition. Straps don't look like they're supporting anything. Clothing for prim breasts, on the other hand, is built from prims, and can act more like real clothing in those respects. (OTOH, JIRA entry VWR-1080 proposes a control to allow standard tops to span cleavage, and again, I hope you'll all go vote for it.)
There... Next--the Bad!

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