I am so excited to announce that we are finally able to release our huge body parts update to bring Bakes on Mesh to Slink.
We have been working on this update for well over a year now and have really been looking forward to this day when we can show you what we’ve been working on and how this update improves our products now and going forward.
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Demonstrating layering of tattoos and makeup on unreleased BOM compatible Slink Visage head, Jacquie, with a beautiful 2013 skin from Glance.
First up – what the heck is Bakes on Mesh?
I have created a little FAQ for this very question which I will update as people ask questions while they are exploring the new body bits. You can read it here: Slink Bakes on Mesh and Redux FAQ
In short – Bakes on Mesh is a Linden Lab project that is designed to let us access the baked system texture worn by the default SL avatar, and send it to our mesh bodies. This means that Redux is a true system body replacement now – instead of needing to use appliers and scripts to texture your body parts it’s as simple as wearing a system layer.
Linden Lab have increased the resolution of the baked texture from 512 to 1024, and DOUBLED the number of layers we are able to wear all at once so the options are.. well unlimited.
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I have created a tutorial video to show you through the new HUD and the new features and changes we have made to the Slink body system with this update.
Bakes on Mesh is currently available on the Official Second Life viewer, with 3rd party viewers to follow as they get their code updated.
But I hear you asking – “but what about the current body and all those appliers I have purchased or made over the last few years??” They aren’t going anywhere! The current body has been labelled “Classic” and you will find it packed along with the Redux update as a separate unpacker option. We have decided to leave a significant amount of time before we even consider removing it from the pack, to give people a chance to adjust and make the transition at their own pace. And even then, everything “Classic” will continue to work for as long as you want it to.
However having said that, we do recommend that you give Redux a try. It’s super easy to use, and there is already a ton of content that will work with it, both old and new. If you are a creator, there is no need to give your textures away! All you will need to do is turn them into system layers after you upload them, the way we used to do only a few years ago before mesh bodies were ever a thing. (It was only late 2014, for those who are curious)
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Point of note – for those who care about reducing their avatar rendering cost – the Classic version of the Physique Original body, Dynamic Hands and Deluxe feet had an ARC of nearly 16k. Still low when you think about the fact that some mesh items run in the hundreds of thousands ARC, however, the new Redux bundle all in one attachment that includes hands and feet? Around 3600 ARC. That’s a substantial reduction and worth upgrading for! Almost feels like wearing nothing at all!
I mentioned above how this will improve our products going forward. Well, removing all the extraneous layers, extra sizes that will never be used, consolidating the body geometry down into 2 pieces from 27 and removing all of the alpha zone cuts significantly reduces my overhead in maintaining and updating all of that content, as well as that of my scripter as he has completely overhauled the underlying script system and streamlined it all to make it much more efficient and consistent across all body parts. This opens us both up to spending less time doing body updates and more time creating new content, which is what we both really love doing. And boy do we have plans!! First out of the gate though – Updates for Emma and Becky to both Bento and BOM, and then new heads. After that.. well it’s a secret for now
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