As a result
of Second Life viewers being updated for Bento, it seems that the Second Life
community is in a tail spin over Bento mesh heads.
For those
who still do not know about it, Bento is the newest and greatest improvement
from Linden Lab for Second Life. It
allows more realism for avatars by adding ‘bones’ and attachment points to the
avatar skeleton.
As the
Bento Project makes changes to the Second Life avatar skeleton, avatars
(specifically those who use the new joints, bones and animations allowed by the
Bento Project) have the opportunity to have a much wider range of avatar body
types, facial expressions and animations. New mesh avatars and mesh attachments
make full benefit of new joints and attachment points.
A summary
of the new bones and attachment points:
·
New
limb bones: for extra wings, arms, or legs.
·
Tail
bones: Include your tail in the avatar animations.
·
New
hand bones: for finer control over hand animations.
·
New
facial bones: for complex facial expressions, ears and animated antennas.
·
New
attachment points - Associated with the new bones.
Bento does
not affect any content in Second Life. What has changed, for the average user,
is that older graphics cards and controllers may be finding it hard to process
the increase in the number of joins. This has forced Second Life users to
upgrade their operating systems or drivers to the latest version to be able to get
on board with the Bento era. And now, after a long wait, we are starting to see
a variety of avatars with additional Bento options.
The
curiosity for Bento has been increasing exponentially. What people want to know is what the main
advantages of the additional options are.
Let’s compare
the standard mesh head versus the Bento head. Basically, the advantage of the Bento
head is the uncountable customization options for which it allows and the
facial expressions tend to be much more realistic. This means that Bento heads
allow adjustments and modifications to suit our characteristics. We can make
use of the facial sliders to create our own face shapes.
Here are
some Bento Mesh head options available inworld:
CREATOR
|
HEAD
|
PRICE
|
Absolut Creation
|
Male
Female
|
850L
825L
|
Altamura
|
Female
|
3.499L
|
Catwa
|
Male
Female
|
5.000L
5.000L
|
Genesis Lab
|
Female
|
4.000L
|
Lelutka
|
Female
|
5.000L
|
Niramyth
|
Male
|
2.766L
|
Although
the delightful additional options of Bento heads are appealing, the cost is
somewhat restrictive. But don’t worry,
you can keep the mesh head you are currently using, if you use one that is, for
some time to come. Mesh bodies won’t be changing for the foreseeable future. Although Bento hands and feet are now being
released to add to the already complicated mix.
The
"classic" avatar of Second Life will continue to function as planned
and will not have to be updated. You do not have to change anything if you do
not want to.
The adoption
of the Bento head as de rigueur will initially be slow. In my opinion many people will keep the mesh
heads that they are currently wearing and will keep their mesh bodies as they
are for now as well. Obviously there are
always those are early adopters who will want to use the characteristics of the
Bento head, wings ears and tails, to make Second Life more realistic that it
already is.
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