Day: November 1, 2011

There have been a couple of recent Viewer updates in the last 24 hours. Yesterday I reviewed the latest Exodus Viewer release; it wasn’t alone – Dolphin 3 also saw a new release – 3.1.1.21151.

Both of these are interesting as they include support for two new avatar attachment points: Neck and Avatar Centre.

• Neck will allow the wearing of items at the neck point (such as necklaces, collars, etc.), which will move with normal avatar body movement
• Centre is a “fixed” attachment point which is static – so it does not move with your avatar’s movements (i.e. in response to an animation such as a dance, etc). This allows attachments that do not need to be seen to be attached to the body, or can be used with reference to vehicles, etc.

Both attachment points are also available in the latest SL Development Viewer (3.2.2.244260 or above) and in any self-compiled builds from the latest Firestorm code release.

There are a few things to remember when using these new attachment points:

• As one might expect, items will require a degree of adjustment to fit correctly – especially on the Neck attach point
• Don’t use the Avatar Centre point for anything you wish to be visible and needs to move with your avatars movements – it won’t. Avatar Centre isn’t the place for skirts and belts, unless you want them standing on their own on the dance floor while you gyrate!
• Until the code is fully supported across all Viewers, to anyone not using a Viewer supporting these attachment points it will appear as if you’re wearing items incorrectly (as with the old Emerald multi-attach issue). Once the code is absorbed into all Viewers, this issue should go away.

If I’m totally honest, there is perhaps too much movement encountered with the neck attachment point – if your AO causes a lot of natural head movement, you may find necklaces, etc, vanishing into your collar bones or into your chest rather a lot. Those familiar with wearing collars may find that rather than the collar remaining relatively static compared to head movements (as when attached to the Spine or Chest points), the collar moves rather disconcertingly.

However, if you want to try the ne new attachment points out, why not give the SL Development Viewer (3.2.2.244260 or above), Exodus 11.10.31 (b) or Dolphin 3 3.1.1.21151 a go?