Tech Topic: Just Meshy! - Jessii2009 Warrol Reporting…

I was helping a friend in Second Life with mesh clothing. This particular friend had been a slow adapter to mesh and was purchasing her very first mesh outfit. 

As I was explaining the differences between  the different type of mesh clothing (rigged, fitted, and regular mesh), I realized that not many people in Second Life may actually understand the concept of mesh and this may have led to the aversion to mesh that still prevails throughout some sectors in Second Life. In this article you will learn about the different types of mesh for clothing and builds.








According to the official Second Life wiki, meshes are “3D models created in popular tools such as Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, and so on”. The same article further states that mesh models “enable more detailed, complex, realistic, and creative objects and avatars”.

Of course nothing is ever simple in Second Life, so we have four types of meshes available for clothing and build objects. These types are simple, multi-faced, rigged, and the brand new fitted mesh. Below is an explanation of each type of mesh:



Simple Mesh – a mesh with a single face. Normally we refer to this type of mesh as having a “baked” texture. With this type of mesh you will need a 3D design program to change the textures on the mesh object. If you change the texture on one side of a simple mesh object, then you will change the texture on the entire object, as faces do not exist with simple meshes.

Multi-Face Mesh-this type of mesh has multiple textures and you can texture this type of mesh as you would a normal prim object.

Rigged Mesh-this type of mesh is found with mesh clothing and is a mesh with an internal virtual skeleton. This type of mesh can be animated and moves with an avatars skeleton or shape and frame.

Fitted Mesh-this type of mesh allows mesh clothing and avatars to be adjusted using an avatar’s body shape slides in the appearance editor. Clothing can be adjusted to fit your avatars own personal body shape and style. The following video contains a great overview of Fitted Mesh:



Before buying anything mesh, whether clothes or builds, read the description. Some viewers cannot see fitted mesh and if you are trying to purchase a building that is modifiable and want to change textures
you should check to see if it is a simple or multi-face mesh build. For more information about mesh, check out the official Second Life wiki section on mesh.