The last year and now still, Second Life is rapidly changing where it comes not only to building, but also to avatar apparel. Mesh enables builders to build incredibly detailed objects, and this is starting to affect avatar apparel in a big way. Basically every body part can be replaced by a mesh object and right now that is just what is happening. Where I really had to warm up to the idea of mesh boobs, now hands, feet, even a head can be replaced by mesh versions. as the first prim breasts just didn't look good enough (imho too big and bulky), this changed when Lola Tango mesh got introduced.

When I found out that textures created for the Lola Tango mesh boobs showed in full 1024 x 1024 pixel resolution, I got interested. Up until then designing basic clothing for an avatar had it's limitations, especially on the problem areas like the breast(s) and between the avatar legs. Textures get twisted and stretched around these areas and detailing possibilities there were very limited. (Aside from the fact that avatar clothing textures are automatically scaled down to 512 x 512 pixels anyway!) Sure, the Lola Tango boobs can't be seen as realistic, but luckily that is not the only brand for sale in Second Life. A more realistic pair of mesh breasts is available from Lush (and yes, the appliers built for Lola tango breasts work on Lush too!). I personally like the Lola Tango's since they seem to fit the fetish style of my designs... or at least that is what I think. There is a new set of Lola's out there called 'Mirage', which is more of a push up shape. The menu of those is a delight compared to the standard set! The ones that have an old Tango set should have received an updated set by now.

Something that was released recently was a mesh replacement for the lower part of the avatar, called 'Phat azz'. The name basically says it all :) It has a pants and underpants layer and works the same as the mesh breasts: with clothing appliers. I do have some reservations when it comes to the shape (the ass is a bit big and wide for my personal taste) but the upside here too is that clothing textures are rendered in 1024 x 1024 pixels! I've always created textures in this resolution so when applier creation for this set starts, the pants will look a *lot* better and more detailed.

The only downside of all of this is that creating appliers for all these mesh body parts takes time and makes it incredibly time consuming to create a complete set. Creating the appliers (as HUD's like I do) takes so much time that creating a complete set in all colors has at least doubled in time.