Additional attachment points are always handy. We are apparently getting two more.
Neck
Those of us working with rigged mesh to make avatar bodies and clothes can see the neck bone in the skeleton. Even before a large number of people started looking at the skeleton and asking why can’t we attach things there, people were asking for a neck attachment point.
New Neck Attachment Point
If you are wondering how people knew about it… animators knew about it because the ‘neck bone’ can be controlled in an animation.
Now the neck attachment point is in testing in the Development Viewer. See JIRA STORM-1672. Previously labeled VWR-26120. If you like the idea, vote for it by clicking WATCH.
You may remember the Emerald and then Phoenix viewers used a custom set of attachment points before the Lab finally added their style of attachment points. During the time of custom attachments we saw that using any viewer without the custom points made for oddly dressed avatars. Attachments floated around the avatar in odd places or didn’t show. The same is true of the Neck Attachment Point.
Only the SL Development Viewer, Dolphin Viewer, and Exodus Viewer support the new attachment points. All other viewers will fail to render neck attachments in the right place.
Center
This is the second new attachment point in this feature addition. I’m not certain of how it is intended to be used. Some uses are listed in the JIRA, but they are of little interest to me. Something about worn vehicles and
It is not a bone visible in the current skeleton. Nor is it part of the animation controls I know about.
The Center attachment point does not move in animations. It moves when the avatar moves. I suppose Center will be the new anchor point for animations. Using the pelvis bone is common now and a pain. Presumably the center point is becoming the root anchor point for animations, superseding the pelvis.
But, where does it fit into the skeleton? I’m still figuring out how to add Center to my Blender files.
OpenSim
The current thinking is these new attachment points will just work in OpenSim. They may not, but that would not break anything. The attachment would just not show or not be in the right place.
More to come…
with center attachment will be poss to do interesting stuff
like wearing a maypole and skipping round it or mounting and dismounting a wearable scooter
could even make a wearable pet that follows you if the walking or flying animation is offset from center and when you stop then the pet stop also and not move when u reach down and pet it
if is scripted then yor pet be able to jump from ground into ur arms or shoulder and
jump back again to the ground and even walk round
could even chase ur own pet in circles (:
I like that circles thing… 🙂