Thursday, January 1, 2015

Omega's a Win Win

This will be the first ever joint blog from SPANKED and Gatherings. We felt this blog needed to be written to make our fashion lives just a little bit easier by hopefully convincing a few content creators to "get with the times". If after reading this blog you feel the same, then please forward the URL to all your friends and especially to the mesh body and implant makers of your choice.

Stacia: I am really excited to finally do a blog with you Shayna! I know you have a lot of experience creating in SL but you also have experience helping other creators, being that you are not exactly shy. LOL. Can you tell me about a time when you helped another creator?

Shayna: I'd be happy to. Back in October of 2011 I was shopping at Slink and picked up an awesome pair of shoes called Destiny Heels.

Stacia: Oh, I remember those. You made me go buy a pair and they were my favorites! They were sculpties right?

Shayna: Yes, the sculpt feet in the shoes were absolutely fantastic and I thought "WOW I wish someone made bare feet like this without the shoe." So I sent Siddean Munro (creator of Slink) a notecard requesting the feet only. She thought it was a great idea and soon she was offering a series of sculpt bare feet.

Stacia: No one had feet and ankles that blended like hers. They were revolutionary.

Shayna: Exactly. As predicted they became a huge hit and as you all know Siddean later went on to create the Slink mesh hands, feet, heads and body all of which became a huge success. To be honest I really don't know too many people who don't own one or more of these products.

Stacia: You are absolutely right! They just make our lives better, not to mention prettier.

Shayna: But..... there's a problem. Appliers! For designers like myself and Stacia to make appliers for Slink products we had to apply for permissions and the designer kit via the Slink website. Once we got the applier kits there is a process to making each applier and I must say it a massive pain in the ass.

Stacia: Agreed. To make stockings and gloves it isn't too arduous. But clothing, well it is simply harder than any other system. The thing is I really like the Slink body, but I find myself not creating for it perhaps as often as I should or would if it was a simpler system. Shayna, could you comment on the Mesh Project? I actually don't own it for reasons I am sure you can comment on.

Shayna:  I was pretty impressed with the overall quality of the mesh heads offered by The Mesh Project or TMP for short when it first came out, but the price... WOW! At the time is was $5,000L for a head with facial expressions. I sent them a notecard explaining that the price was a little over the top and that eventually someone will come up with something just as good or better and for half the price. They told me that they thought the price point was good and had no plans on changing it. Well as I predicted less then a month later Slink released the Visage head series for half the price and was a huge success. But that's not the main issue here ;)

Stacia: Wow.  I had forgotten about that. I have both Slink Visage heads and love them! So tell me more about the bodies.


Caption: Here we have Stacia on the left wearing the complete Slink mesh body, hands, feet and head with the new SPANKED Silk Line Skin. On the right Shayna is wearing the TMP body, hands and feet as well as a very fancy paper bag over her head because she refused to pay $5k for a head. She also did not apply her skins due to the third party server requirement of TMP.

Shayna: TMP bodies are also very high quality and for the top of the line version a bit over priced. But the main issue with this body is the applier system using a Third Party Server to upload your texture UUID's to in order to apply skins and clothing to the body. This is a ToS violation not to mention a major inconvenience for content creators.

Stacia: To clarify it is a ToS violation if the designer did not create the original template, even if they have modified it. Let's be honest, so many designers use templates designed by template makers. They may be heavily modified but they still cannot be given to others or uploaded onto a website.

Shayna: Yes, and I see that as a problem with their system. Convenient perhaps for customers of TMP to have access to all of their clothing in one HUD. But I am not willing to hand over my UUIDs to a website, regardless of how secure it is.

Stacia: That is my problem too. Which is why I have yet to buy anything from TMP. To be honest it was getting difficult and time consuming to create at least 12-15 appliers for all of the mesh bodies, boobs and butts for every piece of clothing I designed, and sometimes more because you know I am crazy with options! LOL

Shayna: So what do we propose you ask? Well Omega Appliers by Love-N-Lust set out to make applying textures to mesh a universal system that makes it easier for designers and customers alike. No more packing 20 or more appliers into a single outfit. No more cluttering up your inventory with all the appliers accumulated from your clothes shopping. Omega is here and THANK GOODNESS!!!

Stacia: But some mesh designers are still not onboard with Omega? Why? Don't they want what's best for their customers?

Shayna: Well we think it's time for you to speak out. Contact your favorite designers like Slink and TMP and ask them to work with Omega. It's a win win situation for everyone.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Brava for creating OMEGA. I am a Lena Lush body user, Slink Feet and Hands, and I LOVE the fact that with OMEGA my options for clothing are so much more varied. Designers need to move from making 15 different appliers to embracing what OMEGA can do for them now. I will NEVER support TMP because they strip rights from Designers by making them upload their UUID. It is a ToS, and LL needs to take action against them and make them change their practices. It is an insult to designers who put their time into making an original creation.

Anonymous said...

I just switched to Belleza, and put Maitreya on an alt.

Both of them support Omega. No more hassle with closed system mesh bodies.

There's really only two mesh bodies that are refusing to go along, TMP and Slink. Their popularity is not likely to last as a result.

Everyone else seems wise enough to either be modify, or go along with Omega.

Unknown said...

Bravo! Reposting this!

Unknown said...

Bravo! Lets hope this will open some eyes and some changes happen!

If Slink and TMP would go with the times they can only benefit really. I make Slink appliers but I refuse to upload my stuff to some strangers website. Not going to happen.

Reposting.

Cute.Sexy.Cool said...

hehe I love this. I've spoken about this issue vaguely in my blog too.

There are a few points to consider from my viewpoint regarding Omega - I agree that it is by far the best system I have come across as far as convenience is concerned. I love Omega and will back it to the end of days. Designers, create Omega appliers - it saves you time and opens your customer base up immensely.

Now, I understand the apprehension some designers feel about creating Omega Appliers. Prior to December's update, Omega relied on config cards which exposed risk to designers in terms of having their textures stolen or misused. The system is much more secure now, and the UUID's are no longer visible - so take another look designers!!

Now for TMP. The price point is over the top, I agree, but my main concern here is the bypass of the SL TOS. The process for customers is as follows:
1) Change linden to 'theshops' currency to purchase
2) Purchase item
3) Use item (body/head) supported by a third party server.

This raises questions for the buyer - if the purchaser is no longer covered by the SL TOS, what TOS are they now protected by? What would occur if the 'third party server' were to go down/shut down completely?

Now for designers - to design for TMP, you are required to submit UUID's so that they can exist on this 'third party server'. Now, once uploaded, who owns the texture? You, or TMP? If you think it's you, do you have a TOS to that effect from them? Or an agreement? Or, like SL does, do they now own your work?

Okay I've written a novel, just some thoughts!

Unknown said...

I'm with you with Omega. Slink isn't that bad for clothes, simple notecard system and their scripts take care of the rest.

Like you, I also refuse to design any more for the TMP body because of the UUID issue. Not just that but what happens if the owners decide to close up shop and shut down the servers? You got it; the body owner is SOL for the stuff they have paid for and will no longer be able to use. Makers do leave for one reason or another and at least with inworld systems of Slink and Omega, the bods are still usable. Wowmeh and Phat Azz/Cute Azz are prime examples of this.

Like you, I've been talking to every skin and clothing maker I run into to try to convince them to do Omega. I remind them that if they do, with one exception, they can totally replace all the appliers they make. The exceptions being Slink, which isn't an arduous problem since the script is easy to use, Belleza for anything for hands and feet since Belleza chose not to use the SL standard map, and TMP. I've actually succeeded in talking several people into switching to the Omega because not only will the Omega work on the standard size, but the same appliers can be used on the modifiable Yabusaka petites, Immortals petite and giant avis as well at the minikins and other. This would open up a new market for their clothing with no additional work on their part too. I will continue to talk til I'm blue in the face.

For any designers reading this, if you don't wish to purchase any of the bodies, please feel free to contact me inworld as I have at least one in the various mesh bods except for the Eve and would be happy to try things on for you to see how they look.

Bobbie Faulds, Quoth the Ravenn designs in SL.

Brush Of Chaos said...

As somebody who has been trying out the various mesh bodies, I really have to say the Venus has given me the least amount of issues. I love it. There's just enough alpha layers, but we could always use a few more. After discovering the omega system, I am happily using the Venus as my choice mesh body, and I am hoping in the future Belleza can put it back up for sale and give us some awesome new updates!

That being said, I recently tried out TMP's body. I figured judging by that price it'd be worth the quality, and... don't be fooled, this is not a L$5000 avatar. If you buy the highest option body and head, you're out L$10000. But that's not enough, because if you want to use the head, you need to not only buy a skin for it, you need to buy eyebrows, eyes, and optional makeup. Overall, you're spending around L$12000-L$14000, which is roughly $52!! And at the end of the day, after going through all that trouble to use the stupid thing, guess what I find out? My shoes do not fit properly, as my avatar actually FLOATS above the shoes. And I can't exactly modify the shoes or adjust the positioning via scripts. Now I'm discovering that TMP makes you go through a third party system that not only violates LL, but strips designers their creative rights on clothes? As an artist myself, I am disgusted and ashamed to have this crap sitting in my inventory. $52 for this was not justifiable, and never will be.

So yeah, I would love nothing more than to see Omega become the universal standard in mesh bodies, especially this way nobody has to scramble to create different appliers and create new headaches.

Lana Mathilde said...

I am all about Omega because SL is all about the creators. I do not want to live in a world where my wardrobe is limited for any reason.

Soul Train said...

TOTALLY for the Omega system, it just makes things so much easier from the designer perspective (ONE applier system to work with) and from the customer perspective (ONE applier system to worry about).

I posted something to this effect before Omega came out, how we so NEEDED a single applier system that anyone could use to apply textures to mesh parts, using the standard avatar UV map. And thank Goddess, Love-n-Lust has Stepped. Up.

And as much as I understand how Siddean wants to maintain her 'brand integrity', you gotta get on board, girl. There's a lot of creative people who frankly aren't going to take the time to wait for your approval for applier kits, and if people buy their stuff, they'll also buy bodies/parts that their stuff works with. This means your product, as beautifully done as it is, will become a boutique item simply because it's Hard. To. Support.

As for TMP - wait, WHAT? store the textures in an external database? What happens if that DB should suddenly vanish... or worse yet, someone buys it and starts to charge people money to keep their stuff on file (or sells it all out from under them)? What then? No no no. This won't work at all.

So yes! to Omega.

Lastly... what the **** happened to Wowmeh? Did that whole DMCA mess get sorted out?