Second Life Hover

If you have played with the new avatar Appearance Setting HOVER you may have noticed it is less than ideal. The slider ranges from 0 to 100. At 0 the avatar is lowered 2m. At 50 the avatar is neither lowered nor raised. At 100 the avatar is raised 2m.

Since the sliders are integer settings each setting increment of 1 moves the avatar 4cm (1.6 inches) up or down. If you watch the change from 50 to 49, it looks like it moves more than 4cm to me. (see image below – click to enlarge images)

New Appearance Setting: HOVER

New Appearance Setting: HOVER

I’ve used third party viewers (TPV) to adjust my height and found much better control. But, with the release of SSA (Sever Side Appearance – baking) those adjustments in TPV’s will stop working.

SO… how do we get our height adjusted now? Well, the choice for now is Appearance HOVER. But, what if you only need to adjust 1 or 2 cm?

If you have always been using the SL viewers you don’t miss the height adjustment. But, if you have gotten use to adjusting your height for walking and sitting I a third party viewer, this is an annoying development.

There is a fix for walking. Unfortunately there is no good fix that I know of for sitting. Plus a bug complicates sitting. However, the Lindens are trying to figure out a workable solution for human and anon-human avatars. There is a fix, I think, in the server RC. I have yet to test it.

For walking the fix is just make a new SHOE item. It doesn’t matter if your shoes have mod-ok shoe items or not. The Shoe item is always a separate item you can wear or not. You just make a new one and wear that with your shoes or bear feet.

You can use a combination of HOVER and SHOES to get your walking height exactly as you want.

Right-click your avatar and select Edit My Shape. Look in BODY and scroll to the bottom of the Body settings. HOVER is at the bottom. The default value is 50, no change. Adjust until your shoes/feet are just above or below the floor/ground.

HOVER is about the only setting in shape that can help with getting your feet or butt on the ground/floor when Walking or sitting. However, you can use the Shoe Item you wear to help with the walking positioning.

You can try to edit your existing shoe item, but many shoes come with shoes made as no mod. Not to worry, just add a New Shoe item. Now go into Edit My Outfit. Click the GEAR icon. Select New Clothes then select New Shoes. With the new shoe item you can adjust HEEL HEIGHT and PLATFORM HEIGHT to tweak the avatars height.

You’ll quickly find changing HEEL HEIGHT and PLATFORM HEIGHT does not move your shoes in relation to the ground. Instead it moves the avatar up and down. I’ve made some pictures to convey the idea. One must ‘Edit’ the shoe attachment to change the relationship of the shoe with the ground/floor.

HEEL HEIGHT - Shoe Attribute

HEEL HEIGHT – Shoe Attribute

Above I show HEEL HEIGHT at 0, 50, and 100. The bottom yellow line shows the toes are not moving. I have a red, blue, green, and white pointer thingy showing the attachment points. The upper yellow line at A, B, and C shows the effect of changing HEEL HEIGHT.

PLATFORM HEIGHT - Shoe Attribute

PLATFORM HEIGHT – Shoe Attribute

Above I show an image similar to the previous one. This one shows the effect of changing PLATFORM HEIGHT. Neither of these setting is moving the toes. After all your toes are supposed to be on the ground. Any changes to a real foot or leg would leave you foot on the ground. People’s head move up and down in relation to height changes. That is what we are seeing here.

Shoe Item & Attachments

Shoe Item & Attachments

The above image shows the avatar in gray before it fully rendered. You can see what the shoe item is doing to the ‘foot’. I’ve also shown the shoe attachment I was adjusting to ‘touch’ the floor.

Most shoes that show sculpted toes will be using an Alpha Layer to hide the feet. The Alphas are separate items too. You can use the Alpha that comes with the Shoes to hide the ‘shoe’ altered feet you make with the new shoe item. So, most of the shoe-settings won’t matter, as they do not affect avatar height and can’t be seen.

The next image below shows the last adjustment to make. This is made in the Build Panel’s Edit mode. This requires you leave Outfit/Appearance edit mode. So, there is no easy way to make a simple adjustment. We have to trial and error or way to a good fit between the shoe/foot attachment and leg and getting things adjusted so the show touches the ground.

 

Editing the Attachment

Editing the Attachment

This is a tedious trial and error adjustment. But, it only has to be done once per shoe and shape combination.

If you want the walk on the floor, HOVER gets you close. The Shoe Item’s HEEL HEIGHT and PLATFORM HEIGHT adjustments are the next step. Editing the shoe/foot attachment’s position is the final tweak.

It looks like the third party viewer (TPV) developers are on the verge of finding a work-around for the SSA changes that break existing TPV height adjustments. So, we may see an easy height adjustment come back. Then may be the Lab will adopt their fix or come up with a better one.

3 thoughts on “Second Life Hover

  1. Pingback: Second Life News 2014-37 #2 | Nalates' Things & Stuff

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