Kitely Starter Avatars world

[Ada Radius]

In case you missed it, Kitely Starter Avatars world is open! https://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Il ... er-Avatars

This is a world, hosted by Kitely, with thousands of avatar components to get new people started building their avatars. Experienced users seem to like this place too . This world replaces the starter avatars that used to be in a kiosk at the Welcome Center.

Everything is free, mostly full perm.

MODESTY/MATURITY: General-rated as defined in Kitely's Maturity guidelines https://kitely.atlassian.net/wiki/space ... u%20create.

LICENSING: As far as I know, everything here has been released into the public domain or is licensed under CC-0 or CC-BY.

ATTRIBUTION As you may know, Creator name, in object properties, is often broken, or reflects the avatar account that uploaded it rather than the actual artist. I researched who made what, as well as I could, and listed the attributions in the boxes or other displays.

IF YOU FIND ERRORS, please let us know in this thread.

TODAY's ADDITIONS: I added AO's (animation overriders) from my collection to the Animations shop. Kayaker Magic also put out boxes with his KHAOS scripts, so you can update AO's you already have with better scripts. You will need to change the name of your AO notecard to "Default".


Ada

[Snoots Dwagon]

I'd like to add a note of thanks to this.

Several months ago at one of the weekly Kitely meetings, being up to my dwagony mischief I suggested changing the Kitely Welcome Center (evidently for the fifth time since Kitely has been open). One of those recommendations was to replace the severely-outdated starter avatars with something more impressive. Ideas were bantered back and forth and (evidently) somewhere behind the scenes, Ilan and Oren gave it some serious thought.

When Ilan asked Ada, Dot Matrix and myself to begin a project to replace the Starter Avatars... we had the basic idea of simply replacing the 10-year-outdated avatars at the avatar kiosk with new ones and possibly add a dozen more.

We literally spent weeks (months?) discussing the project, making sure to cross all the i's and dot all the t's. I don't know how many times we re-wrote proposals, instruction manuals, simplified text, had four people (including Ilan) proof reading for typos, looking for the best wording etc. And that was just initial planning. We hadn't even gotten to the part yet of actually choosing the avatars themselves. It was time well-spent.

Somewhere in there, Ada came up with the idea of hey, instead of a Starter Kiosk... how about an entire Starter Avatar Island? Then to show what it would be like, she bought her own island, set up the stores using the basic inventory starter textures to reduce lag, and went avatar hunting. She then spent weeks sorting, assembling, weeding out. After she did all that major work she called me and Dot in to double-check things, which took very little time because Ada had already done such a good job setting it up. A changed texture here and there, a small building modification, some avatar updates (and some necessary deletions for the avatar not meeting the Kitely G-ratings). Ilan was in there too of course, actively participating and explaining to us what could and couldn't be done. (Hey, put a dwagon and a kitteh in the same room, you're going to wind up with all kinds of ideas.)

The result was Kitely Starter Avatar World. I think visitors will agree that while the avatars are mostly well-known and common, there is such a variety that it's impressive even to experienced users. Then there's the intention of teaching new users how to assemble your own, custom avatar, something we haven't had before.

This could be one of the most interesting and useful starter avatar selections we've seen anywhere. We're expecting it to be an area of major interest to new users.

So while we were all involved, I wanted to give special thanks to Ada for going above and beyond and turning a simple concept into a really-useful presentation. It's great. Now you can get anything from tinies to robots to "regular" avatars... to avatars you design and dress up yourself, with different shapes, skins and accessories (along with easy-to-follow instructions on how to do so).

On top of that: we tried not to step on merchant toes. If anything, this world will encourage people to shop for their own avatar modifications. Because now that they know how to put an avatar together and the concepts behind avatars... they'll want to make something really special. History has proved that's a difficult lure to resist. So this World is intended to encourage people to take a good look at Kitely Market as well. As the name implies... this is a Starter Avatar world. Where users decide to go from there is according to their search for that great look they want to achieve.

This project wound up being so much more than the original concept. We all hope you enjoy it.

[Kim McCabe]

I'd like to add a note of thanks to this.

Several months ago at one of the weekly Kitely meetings, being up to my dwagony mischief I suggested changing the Kitely Welcome Center (evidently for the fifth time since Kitely has been open). One of those recommendations was to replace the severely-outdated starter avatars with something more impressive. Ideas were bantered back and forth and (evidently) somewhere behind the scenes, Ilan and Oren gave it some serious thought.

When Ilan asked Ada, Dot Matrix and myself to begin a project to replace the Starter Avatars... we had the basic idea of simply replacing the 10-year-outdated avatars at the avatar kiosk with new ones and possibly add a dozen more.

We literally spent weeks (months?) discussing the project, making sure to cross all the i's and dot all the t's. I don't know how many times we re-wrote proposals, instruction manuals, simplified text, had four people (including Ilan) proof reading for typos, looking for the best wording etc. And that was just initial planning. We hadn't even gotten to the part yet of actually choosing the avatars themselves. It was time well-spent.

Somewhere in there, Ada came up with the idea of hey, instead of a Starter Kiosk... how about an entire Starter Avatar Island? Then to show what it would be like, she bought her own island, set up the stores using the basic inventory starter textures to reduce lag, and went avatar hunting. She then spent weeks sorting, assembling, weeding out. After she did all that major work she called me and Dot in to double-check things, which took very little time because Ada had already done such a good job setting it up. A changed texture here and here, a small building modification, some avatar updates (and some necessary deletions for the avatar not meeting the Kitely G-ratings). Ilan was in there too of course, actively participating and explaining to us what could and couldn't be done. (Hey, put a dwagon and a kitteh in the same room, you're going to wind up with all kinds of ideas.)

The result was Kitely Starter Avatar World. I think visitors will agree that while the avatars are mostly well-known and common, there is such a variety that it's impressive even to experienced users. Then there's the intention of teaching new users how to assemble your own, custom avatar, something we haven't had before.

This could be one of the most interesting and useful starter avatar selections we've seen anywhere. We're expecting it to be an area of major interest to new users.

So while we were all involved, I wanted to give special thanks to Ada for going above and beyond and turning a simple concept into a really-useful presentation. It's great. Now you can get anything from tinies to robots to "regular" avatars... to avatars you design and dress up yourself, with different shapes, skins and accessories (along with easy-to-follow instructions on how to do so).

On top of that: we tried not to step on merchant toes. If anything, this world will encourage people to shop for their own avatar modifications. Because now that they know how to put an avatar together and the concepts behind avatars... they'll want to make something really special. History has proved that's a difficult lure to resist. So this World is intended to encourage people to take a good look at Kitely Market as well. As the name implies... this is a Starter Avatar world. Where users decide to go from there is according to their search for that great look they want to achieve.

This project wound up being so much more than the original concept. We all hope you enjoy it.

Wow, sounds like a really good and ambitious project, one that I hope grows. One of the problems I found with open sim and Sl alike is the learning curve and incompatible equipment. During the pandemic I invited a lot of my real world friends and family to join so we could all be together. I thought this would be a fabulous way for us to chit chat and "see" one another. I even made them all avatars that looked like them in RL and created our neighborhood and local watering hole. Unfortunately, not many made it in. Some did though, but they were the computer geeks, the Artists and ones that still had a real laptop and or desk top computer. It seemed that many people only use their phone or IPad. But some that had perfectly compatible equipment found it frustrating to even get started, which I found completely frustrating as well. Maybe we can have an explanation greeting island that can guide the people that are not as computer savvy. Anyway, I have to say, Kitely got me through the pandemic. I would have gone mad sitting here all year. I did in fact have some friends come in and we had some laughs. An Artist friend of mine worked with me to create an entire American Horror sim for the last year too. I took some classes which were informative. I met a few people here and even opened a shop. I love this platform and I think so many others would too. Maybe we need a stronger social media profile. I don't know. But what I do know is, there a lot of people missing out.

[Ada Radius]

I also want to give a shout out to Linda Kellie aka Shelby Moonlight, if she's in the hypergrid anywhere these days. The shop architecture and most of the avatars, clothing and accessories came from her prolific and fertile mind, over a decade of work generously donated to the metaverse. I was so used to them that I forgot how good she is until I started modifying components for Kitely's g-ratings. Amazing body of work.

[RainO Magic]

Wow the place looks great! Great job!

[Ruth Ellison]

Yep, nice job!!

[Ada Radius]

Some of the AO sets are coming down; I trusted the people who sent them to me, who probably also don't realize they're stolen, and I must have been having a brain fart when I did the searches. ARGGH. MANY THANKS to Moonrise Azalee who spotted the copybots.

To repeat: everything on the island should be 1) public domain, 2) CC-O 3) CC-BY. If you spot anything questionable please let me know, either in IM or in this thread, so someone can check it out and either get permission from the creator or take it down.

[Snoots Dwagon]

In defense of the Starter Island Team (Ada, Ilan, Dot and myself), one would not believe the hours and weeks and months of discussion and research that went into trying to make sure everything was family-friendly and totally legal. I remember discussing at the beginning of the project that these days, telling whether something is legal or copybotted (or copybotted but still legal, etc) can be very difficult. We have tried our very best, but will be relying on the community to help us weed out the occasional item that slips through the cracks. Even the best-intentioned and law-abiding of us can come up against the occasional copyright infringement (or claimed such but actually isn't). I can guarantee such rare happenings are handled promptly and with all honor.

Plus, throw a Chompy Kitteh and Dwagon into da mix and well... you might wind up with items like boxes that make people pee a little. (Just kidding. no really. No, KIDDING.)

But as those who've been there have witnessed, this has been a project of luvs. The ultimate goal is to allow those totally new to virtual worlds to immediately be able to learn not only how to wear an avatar, but to mix and match avatar components to make a unique individual. That's where the real fun of virtual life starts... and it continues from there. Because if they can put together an avatar... they can put together a home, furnishings, a yacht, an cookie factory, stink bomb, you name it!

*** give dwagons cookies ***

[Ada Radius]

There is another criterion for inclusion on Kitely Starter Avatar world, much discussed by the Kitely Starter Avatar team, and that is the Avatar Complexity, or AC number. While curating the collection, I avoided items that would raise our AC number too much. Usually that's hair and shoes, and there were also some lovely Linda Kellie mesh dresses that didn't make it. LOD upload settings are crucial. I'm hoping to eventually find those dae or blend files so I can re-upload them.

If you haven't considered Avatar Complexity before, here is some information. Sim owners who don't want visitors to crash are interested in this, especially educators who have students with older or less powerful computers.

Avatar Rendering Complexity, "AC", is a number score for the data needed to render, or "rez" each avatar on a sim.
If our AC is too high, some people may not see us, except as a blank silhouette, called a JellyDoll or "jelly".
If our AC is too high we risk slowing or crashing our own viewer as well as other viewers logged into the sim.

SUGGESTIONS:
aim for AC scores below 100K. I try to keep mine between 20K-40K. I want to be seen!
check the changes in AC score while looking at demos, before buying avatar components
ctl-shift-r to see the wireframe - anything that's too dense will look black instead of showing the triangles that make up everything we see inworld.

VIEWER SETTINGS (depends on your viewer, this is for FS)
We can see our AC by clicking, in the menu bar:
Avatar > Avatar Health > Avatar Complexity.
We may also see a small notice in the upper right of the screen when we change what our avatar is wearing.
We can also set Preferences > Advanced > Show Advanced Menu
then in the main menu:
Advanced Menu > Performance Tools > Show Draw Weight for Avatars.

Avatars will be rendered as a jelly if they exceed the avatar complexity threshold set by the Maximum Avatar Complexity slider in the Advanced Graphics Preferences window.
Preferences (ctl-p) > Graphics > Advanced

Lowering the Maximum Avatar Complexity slider greatly reduces the amount of data your computer must process, which will improve its performance when there are high AC avatars in the sim. Setting the slider to zero = infinity, no limit.

Your own avatar is always rendered fully, even if you are over your own maximum complexity threshold.

If there are specific avatars we want fully rendered even if they are over the limit, we can right click them and select Always Render Fully. This has to be reset each time we log in.

The viewer calculates the AC number from avatar basic components plus clothing and attachments, depending on camera position (Level of Detail, or LOD). Scripts don't affect the avatar complexity number nor viewer performance; they do affect sim performance.

AVATAR COMPLEXITY CALCULATION
This is an edited version of the Second Life Wiki, which is not clear on all points. I tested it in a spreadsheet with one of my mesh avatars and got close, but not exactly, to the AC number displayed in my viewer.

1000 points for the base avatar
shape, skin, eyes, hair/browshaper
Baked on Mesh: -200 points for each texture marked invisible

+ Base cost for the triangle count of prims, sculpties and mesh prims:
weighted average of the number of triangles times 5.
Triangle count is weighted by the count of triangles at each Level of Detail (LOD) and the area each LOD is visible from, giving the average number of triangles visible within the visible range of the object. This means: camera distance affects the AC number, along with the LOD upload settings for each mesh attachment.

Multipliers per prim, sculpt or mesh attachment
Texture settings per face:
glow x 1.5
bump x 1.25
shiny x 1.6
alpha x 4.0

Prim settings
flexi x 5
invisiprims x 1.2
rigged mesh x 1.2

animated textures x 4.0
This explanation needs more detail - per face?, number of animated textures on a face?

Additions per prim
particles: + 100 points per prim
note: maybe true for calculating the AC, but viewer load varies a lot depending on particle script settings.

Additions per face
light emitting prims: + 500 points per prim
media-enabled faces: + 1500 points per face

for each unique texture, including sculpt maps, normal maps and specular maps:
+ 256 + 16 * (res X/128 + res Y/128)
note: so a normal map or specular map is calculated into this formula, plus the bump or shiny multiplier? Good question. It seems to be.

references:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Avatar_ ... Complexity
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mesh/Rendering_weight
https://community.secondlife.com/knowle ... xity-r770/
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Wireframe

[Allyson Wunderland]

Having just availed myself of all coolness at Kitely Starter World as I get my avi built for this grid, I wanted to say Thank You Thank You!!

Allyson