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Nov 8, 2003, 10:53am

It would be nice if it was possible to have skinnable avatars. Two avatars
that you can choose from the avlist, are added as Custom-1 and Custom-2 on
the av list. When you do this, you get a texture map of the avatar which you
can edit to how you want the av to look. When you use this avatar, everyone
around you would download the jpg texture map only and it would be applied
to your avatar. This wouldn't take a lot of bandwith, and should be pretty
much virus free... (it's just a jpg image...) maybe have AW upload them to
their servers (and virus check them)?
I realise the possibility of *NC-17* rated avatars, but in this case,
possibly have a caretaker, or someone with eject/ps approve the texture
before it's even used in the world.
There would be an option in the user's features also to disable
downloading of custom avatar textures -- so you don't have to see other
people's custom avatars. In this case you'd just see the avatar as it is on
the OP. World owners can disable this option too for their worlds. There'd
have to be some way to check if the avatar was update as you have to delete
your cache now every time they are changed... maybe have something check the
"last modified" date on the avatar.

-ZeoFateX

Nov 9, 2003, 2:50pm

Oh so you can take scalps like indians?

Sorry

~John

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Nov 9, 2003, 3:28pm

Don't get it.

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Nov 9, 2003, 4:45pm

rofl! i got it. it the old west when indians hated whites they hated them
so much they thought they didnt deserve a head so they got a knive and
....peeled their scalp off.=E........and i think its a good idea..but yet
again...WILL AW LISTEN TO ITS PEOPLE OR JUST SIT ON ITS REAR ALL DAY AND
ARROGANTLY SNEER AT EVERY GREAT IDEA A CITIZEN COMES UP
WITH.....-pant...pant-...ty...-__-
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Nov 9, 2003, 9:57pm

I know what scalping is. I don't understand what john was trying to say
though heh.


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Nov 10, 2003, 9:18am

Skinnable avatars.... skinning.. scalping

Argh

~John

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Nov 10, 2003, 6:12pm

OH! ROFL!

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Nov 12, 2003, 1:12pm

[View Quote] I posted a suggestion in another thread about doing something with the
"Local Path" feature of the browser.

If a more controlled method of using a local path on each persons
computer were implemented, it would be quite easy for you to give
your custom avatar texture to all of your 'friends' so that they would
see you in your custom skin.

People who you didn't know would just see the 'standard' skin for
that avatar.

AW would not need to get involved at all in terms of 'approving' the
skins. You could give whatever skin you wanted to whomever you
wanted, and you wouldn't need to even give them all the same skin..

You could have a webpage for your world allow people to download
the version of the skin they wanted to use (you could give them only
once choice, or choices such as high or low resolution, G rated or
a more risque version etc.) This would give people the choice of what
content they see, and it would afford you the opportunity to warn them,
ask them their age, or otherwise let them know what to expect.

All AW would have to do would be to extend the local path feature
to look in a local directory keyed off of a given citizen number for
any textures associated with any avatar worn by that person.

So if citizen number 59991 for example has created custom avatar
skins, and you have those skins in your local path in the form of:

59991/
textures/
some_av_head.jpg
some_av_shoes.jpg
etc.

then when the browser sees an avatar being used by cit #59991
calling for a texture, it would try to find it first by looking in the
directories noted above.

If someone did not have the customized content installed on their
local machine, then they would simply see the stock avatar and
the stock textures.

This kind of mechanism could also be extended to allow for custom
models as well, and custom .seq on a per cit basis.

59991/
textures/
some_av_head.jpg
some_av_shoes.jpg
etc.
models/
some_av_custom_version.zip
seq/
some_av_custom_seq

It can already be done like this to an extent, but not in a way that
takes the citizen into account. You can replace a given avatar
locally with your own version, but all citizens using that avatar will
look the same, and that's not what you want.

The only changes needed in the browser to implement what I
described would be to distinguish between different instances of
the same avatar (i.e. append the cit number using it at the moment
to it's internal name so it becomes unique), and then looking in a local
path on your hard drive first for any models, textures, or .seq associated
with it.

But yes.. it would be cool to have individualized avatars, even if it's
just for your friends, and even if you have to 'install' them seperately.

Nov 12, 2003, 2:58pm

Someone emailed me that the method I described would provide
a way for tourists to customize their own avatars, and give them
less incentive to register.

Just a side note that if something like I described were done,
it would not provide a backdoor to allow tourists to individualize
their avatars since they all share the same cit number - 0

At most, people would be able to substitute their own model for
*all* tourists, which is actually kind of a bonus feature. I can see
the "kick me" signs now.

So it would not detract from the incentive for tourists to register.

Nov 12, 2003, 11:19pm

DOUBLE ROFL at Zeo.XD
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Nov 17, 2003, 3:20pm

is possible now to make one texture map for an av instead of pieces as you
usually see not sure if this what you call skinned though

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Nov 17, 2003, 5:57pm

That's what I mean, but the "skins" would be customizable by the users.

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