Improvise, Adapt Part 3: Now to get clothiers to adopt it...

Wonderful news from eCorp in a notice today from Emeline Magic: she has come out with version 1.0 of universal appliers.

(I am not sure quite how that would work; would one have to come out with a new version for new breast attachments? Is there some standard way that prim breasts identify themselves, say, the way USB devices or monitors announce themselves and their parameters?)

I urge clothiers to get it touch with Ms. Magic; it would be a way to greatly expand your market. Thank you, Ms. Magic.

Improvise, Adapt Part 3... and Thank You, Whimsy's Closet

Woo-hoo! Emeline Magic of eCorp sent out the following notice:

Hello,I've started a grid-wide update of eBoobs v1.3.This version add compatibility with Tango's cloth system.Happy new year ;)Kisses

So... a third breast attachment maker is adding compatibility with Tango appliers. I'm hoping the trend continues...

But even more than that, I wish to express my appreciation to Whimsy Warrhol and Cindy Melgund of Whimsy's Closet. Head over to Maggie's blog (and if you don't subscribe to her RSS feed, you should. If you want to follow the SL busty community, that's as good as it gets) and read "A Note from Whimsy's Closet". Note in particular how Whimsy's Closet isn't just committed to supporting the major breast attachments, but goes to the effort of doing as well by each brand as possible. Now that's service.

More than tier...

Botgirl Questi posts a pointed reminder that when it comes to SL survival, tier pales in comparison with the minimal retention rate. Watch the videos and compare, or as my English teachers would say, compare and contrast.

UPDATE: Must-read: Honour McMillan's blog post "The Serpent in the Second Life Paradise". Must-watch: the first show of the new season of Designing Worlds, viewable on the Prim Perfect blog. Perhaps this is one reason newcomers to SL don't stay:

Imagine newbies being taken by the hand and given skins/hair/clothing by a “nice” older resident. Imagine that they are then informed they “owe” this person and have to work it off. Sound familiar? Immigrants being forced to work off a “debt” is not just a real world problem.

Improvise, Adapt part 2

For those of you who own both Tiny Things' Magnus Ubera breasts and Lolas! Tango breasts, Eira Kalil has posted a method by which you can use Tango appliers with Magnus Ubera breasts. I believe this is intended as a purely temporary fix, and I hope that before long there Ms. Kalil will adapt Magnus Uberas (or is that Magnae Uberae?) to let Tango appliers work with them as has been done for Lush breasts.

UPDATE: excellent news! "Goodbye Limitations. Welcome Tiny Things Translators."

The Map is Not the Territory...

...but it can come pretty close with a good cartographer and good data.

In particular, one advantage cited for Lolas! new Tango mesh breasts is that their UV map matches that of the stock Second Life avatar.

(No need for sunscreen; the UV map is the computer graphics version of a problem man has faced since the great Age of Exploration: how to accurately represent a three-dimensional shape (the round earth) on a flat sheet of paper (a map)? Here we aren't talking the great globe itself, but instead breasts, and having a consistent UV map makes life easier for clothes makers.)

Reading that in a comment in "The Explosion of Breast Implant Fashion in Second Life" (on Soul Train's SL and MMO Blog, and thanks to the ever au courant Maggie Bluxome for mentioning it on her blog) made me start rummaging through my inventory. I knew I'd read that before...

...and I had.

In particular, at Rygel and Lustbaby's Workshop web site, on the page describing Pixel's Paraboobs:

Pixel's Paraboobs are different because they were carefully modeled and UV mapped to match up with the default SL Avatar. This means that skin and clothing creators can make a single design for regular outfits/skins and those same textures will work on the Paraboobs. This saves a lot of time in the creation process and it also allows designers to make things for regular users and Paraboob owners all at once! This also means that it might be possible to get your favorite fashion and/or skin designer to take 90 seconds and create an "applier" for you.

Note the date at the top of the page: January 24, 2012.

I'm extremely happy that many clothiers have taken an interest in Tango--I just hope that interest spreads to other breast attachments as well--but I do wonder: why not a year ago?

See-through

So... I did take the L$1750 plunge and buy some Lolas! Tango breast attachments. I also bought a set of Lush breasts, the ones that can be used with Tango appliers.

They look very nice, but they're not for me. I can't make them as large as I'd like. They're shaped appropriately for being supported by one's torso, but too big and they look like they're suspended by a force field. Over and above that, at large sizes you find them transparent from behind. Of course, that is because you're seeing a portion of them that you shouldn't see, a portion that is hidden from view by your torso at smaller sizes.

I will experiment some more with them; I'd especially like to see whether anyone's made a Tango applier for a T-shirt with art or text on the front. I want to see how that works with Tango breast attachments.

In summary, though--if you are happy with the range of sizes that they support, they are a fine choice. If you, as Billy Joel sang, "go to extremes", you won't be happy with them.

Bewbapalooza

Bewbapalooza 2.0 is underway, and it's well worth a visit. I found a wonderful dress from Renee India:

and ellemeno's beautiful ruched gowns

(also check out Ximena McAndrews's blog). These are just two of the lovely outfits to be found there.

Compensating Disproportions

Second Life avatars tend to be very tall compared with real life, as many have pointed out. The average height of American women is 5'4" (that's 1.63 meters for you folks with a rational system of measurements), but despite the trend for more realistic avatar heights, I believe you'll find most women in SL are taller than that.

I like that trend, by the way--not because I want "height police", in either direction, but because, given the limits on avatar height, I can't be tall if everyone is tall. So please, if you don't want to be tall, don't be! :)

One problem with being tall is the limit on arm length. That gives rise to what people call "T. rex" avatars, avatars with disproportionately short arms. It occurred to me that one aspect of my disproportion saves me, at least a little, from another.

You see, I don't just want to be freakishly tall; I want to be freakishly leggy. Svetlana Pankratova and Iwona Syhre are among my role models. (Can I realize my dreams with a mesh avatar? Height, yes; legginess, I'm less sure of.)

So, when I set out to adjust my shape, I had an eye to maximizing leg length, and it turns out that doing so requires cranking down torso length. I wish it weren't so, but... it makes my arms look less disproportionately short, because they extend further past my shortened torso and down my lengthened legs. Alas, despite being cranked to 100, they really are too short--boxing with God is still out of the question--but it's not as obvious. Until that mythical day when Linden Lab improves the avatar, I can get by.

Improvise, Adapt...

I noticed some good news in a blog that is new to me, Big Boobie Babes: "Fantastic News From Lush Boobs". The maker of Lush breast attachments has made it possible for them to use appliers made for Lolas! Tango mesh breast attachments.

In view of the recent interest in Tangos, I'd say that's a wise move, and I hope other breast makers will take notice.

(BTW... I would love to see and try out a set of Lush breast attachments, but I can't find a vendor or store to save my (second) life. I saw a blog entry with a link to SL marketplace, but when I clicked on it, I just went to the Marketplace home page. If you could send me a landmark, I'd be greatly in your debt!)

UPDATE: Many thanks to Eira Kalil for the pointer (see comments); the page gives a link to the in-world store where one can find a demo. The next time you see me, I may be kicking myself for not having noticed the as-vigilant-as-she-is-beautiful-and-talented Maggie Bluxome's report on Lush breasts.

A new year arrives

2013 has arrived, and with luck and work things will be better. Second Life at least holds promise of some wonderful new capabilities, such as the mesh deformer and normal and specular maps, and closer to home, Lolas has made a breakthrough with their new Tango mesh breasts, gaining the respectful attention of mainstream SL for the first time.

Alas, we are not all here to see it. I hope that at some point during your celebration of the start of the new year you raised your glass in the traditional toast "To absent friends".


I wish you all prosperity and happiness in 2013.