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What will it be alike?

We have started to investigate into the development of an alternative open source Standard for Mesh based SL Avatars, the AVA Meshes. The project is split into 2 phases Standard Definition and Reference Implementation.

For Cloth makers: If you like to support this project then please put your brand name and a link to your website into the comment section. And tell us your idea in which way you would like to support this project.

We also invite commercial Cloth Creators of Second Life to tell us what would make you interested to create clothes for the AVA meshes.

The Project Goal

We want to provide a Standard Mesh alternative for the SL Avatar that can be used as starter kit for any mesh project that creators can think of. We plan to make Avastar capable to handle this Standard Mesh as seamless as possible.

Standard Definition

This project is actually not focused on developing our own Mesh character. Our intention is much more general: We want to develop an open standard. And we need you (the SL Mesh community) to help us decide how this standard will look alike.

So our first goal will be to define basic design rules for a standard Avatar without actually implementing any mesh. This document can then already be used as development guide by anybody who is working on Mesh characters.

Reference Implementation

After we have created the basic design rules, the next step will be to create a Reference Implementation of a Mesh character.  How this is done and who will actually do it is a matter to be discussed.

 Our final goal is to make Avastar capable to handle “Standard Mesh character implementations” which are based on the basic design rules.

The AVA Meshes wish list

In this section we collect all properties of a Standard Mesh Character for Second Life.

  1. Open Source (preferably CC-BY-0)
  2. Provide Male and Female Meshes
    1. Use Shape keys (Morph Shapes) to allow to create variants. This includes morph shapes for Feet and hand positions.
    2. Provide SL compatible Morph Shapes (where it makes sense)
    3. Use the default SL Skeleton (users can add joint positions on their own projects)
    4. Allow using Collision Volumes for shaping
    5. Provide best matching Weight Maps
    6. Define cutting seams where parts can be replaced by custom meshes (like hands, feet)
    7. Define Alpha maps to hide parts of the meshes for various purposes
  3. Basic mesh clothes should be provided as well
  4. Skin Textures (prefereably CC-BY-0)
  5. Compatibility with the SL UV maps
    1. Compatibility can be restricted to all parts except hands and feet
    2. For hands and feet provide a mostly compatible UV Map
    3. Provide an alternative UV Map for texturing asymmetric limbs

Please add your own ideas into the comments section below.

The Machinimatrix Team