The Modular System

One of the problems that any virtual world like Second Life faces is "lag," a sort catch-all that describes when the world slows or grinds to a halt. There are number of factors which cause it, but lag has been exacerbated by the introduction of mesh avatars. Thus, responsible mesh developers need to work towards minimizing their avatar's impact on the virtual world as much as possible.

I've taken that to heart, and you'll find built into Viva three main design features to help in this regard.

• Foremost among these has been conscious effort from design stage through building stage to keep the triangle count low. (A high number of triangles, the small building blocks of everything in virtual worlds, is a major contributor to lag.)
• Secondly, it has one of Second Life's most extensive implementations of the Bakes on Mesh (BoM) system. The use of BoM cuts back on the use of layers which have triangle counts as nearly as high as the base mesh avatar.
• And, finally, it provides a way by which you can greatly eliminate unneeded mesh parts by use of the Modular System.

Many mesh avatars are pre-built with all parts wrapped into one package, but Viva's Modular System allow you to build an avatar with just the parts that you need. It provides you flexibility. You can add or remove parts as your tastes and needs change.

In your package, you'll find a "Modular System" subfolder. Open it and you'll find all the various modular parts that come with Viva.

First, remove any attachments from your avatar.

• Look in the folder and "Wear" the "Alpha: Primary." Your body will disappear and
you'll see only your head.

• In the folder and you'll find "Mesh Body (Viva) - Body Only." Wear it. Now
you have a body! Yes.

• Wear the Feet

• And . . . wear the Hands.

Voilà! This is your starting point: a basic mesh avatar.

Once you have the basic mesh avatar, you can add whatever is needed. If your neck area has been looking good without turning on the Neck Fix, then you can leave that out. If you don't use the Areola or Nipple mesh, there's no sense including those. More details on the Neck Fix found: here.

There are two types of gloves in the Modular System folder. One is a "regular" set of gloves that fits over the hands as you would expect. The other is "elegant" gloves. The elegant set has slender fingers and is smaller overall than the regular gloves, giving them a more feminine look and feel.

Because they are smaller, the skin of the hands will show through without the use of an Alpha. To handle this situation, you'll find a special button in the "Alpha Selections" component of the Master HUD: "Hands for Glove Use." When using the Elegant gloves, be sure to click this button.

Skirt

A BoM skirt has been included in the Modular folder. Included in the skirt is a Mesh Controller script. The controller script allows you to change the color of the skirt from the "Other Tasks" component in the Master HUD. Although many dresses that you might purchase are not BoM enabled, I think you'll find some fun uses for the BoM skirt. More details are found here: BoM Skirt

Saving Outfits

Second Life has the ability to save an outfit. An outfit consists of everything that you are wearing including clothing, the mesh body, and any attachments. You save an outfit by right clicking on your avatar and selecting either "Appearance" or "Edit Outfit." It's a very convenient feature since you can wear one outfit, switch to another and then back again without re-create each.

The items which make up a saved outfit are not actual copies, but rather they are links to items scattered about in your inventory. Included in those links is a link to the Viva mesh body. But if the link went to the body in Viva's Main Folder, you would always end up with a different set of body characteristics. Your body in the Main Folder is always changing. You might use a light skin one day and a darker one the next day. Or you may use Bakes on Mesh (BoM) for one outfit and Non-BoM for another.

For outfit purposes, you need a copy of the body (and its modular parts) that don't change. The way to assure that the body you use for the outfit doesn't change is make a copy of it. For example, let's say you want to save an outfit for Western Jeans and a T-shirt. To do that, you would copy the body and its various modular parts and place them in the Western Jeans folder.

You don't necessarily need to place the copied parts in the Western Jean folder. You can create one or more shared folders that hold the copied parts. If most of your informal clothing can use the same body that you used for Western Jeans, it makes sense to use a shared folder.

Once you have the shared folder sorted out, do the following:

• Wear the body parts in the shared folder
• Wear the clothing items you want included in the outfit.
• Use the Master HUD to make any adjustments in the body's configuration, such as skin, what layers you want and content of layers - or whether you are using Bakes on Mesh and what wearables you will be using along with Bakes on Mesh.
• Unless you have some reason for saving the Master HUD along with the outfit, detach it.
• Save it all as an outfit. (That's done by right clicking and selecting "My Appearance." If you need more details on saving an appearance, here's Second Life's help page.

If you follow the steps above, the links for the resulting outfit will go the shared folder and the body will always appear as you have set it up.

This is something that is not limited to Viva. All owners mesh avatars need to keep this in mind when saving outfits. It takes a bit more time getting things set up, but once you have a system established, having the convenience of being able to select and wear outfits is time well spent.

Links to Help Support | Viva Forum | Creator's Information | Comparison Chart of the 3 Levels