Doll

This teddy is FREE for members of SLF&O, which is also FREE to join.  “What goes around comes around” as they say.  The mesh for this outfit is quite old, I blogged an outfit based on it way back in 2018!

But, come up with a beautiful lace pattern, and a huge HUD with over seventy colors, and everything old is new again!

The teddy is sized for Lara, Legacy, Legacy Perky, Hourglass, Freya, GenX Classic, GenX Curvy, eBody Reborn, and Kupra.


Red Panda

I put a new furry avatar together for an event!  A red panda!  Note, this one is not made of free stuff, sometimes you gotta pay to get what you want 🙂

Cute, or what?!  As with most furry avis, there’s a lot going on here.  You generally can’t just buy a complete furry, you have to put all the right pieces together.  Be warned, this means you need building skills, for this one, mostly texturing skills.

This look is dictated by the skin pack, which contains a BoM skin and mods for the head and ear combination, and the tail.  I’m using Lara in the photos but the skin would work for any BoM enabled mesh body.

You could use human legs for this, but I don’t think you’re thinking “furry” enough without digitigrade legs, so this avi uses some fennec legs.  These are only partially BoM, you have to tint the feet, but with a little bit of patience, it’s not too difficult.

I used some hand paws that I bought for my snow leopard a few years ago.  These are similar to the legs in that you have to tint the fingers, so I just used the same color for the fingers and feet.

The head is what makes this one come alive though!  It’s fully bento and comes with a range of expressions and animations, and is perfect for a fox (or a panda in this case).  This is also a different version of the head in the pack that you can easily use for a feline, hence the name “Foxcat”.  There are a set of fennec ears included with the head, but again, the skin mod is dictating the build, and the required ears are only L$50, and come with some cute twitch animations too.

The tail is really the only bento fox tail worth buying in SL, and I already owned this too.

With a little trawl through my huge collection of hair, I found a group gift from ages ago that suits this perfectly!  Et voila!

  • Body: Lara by Maitreya
  • Skin: !!!redpanda!!! by Kawaii Ghoul (marketplace link, L$250)
  • Hand paws: Furry Hand Paws by Catseye (L$499)
  • Legs: Fennex Legs by SugarCult (L$449, marketplace link)
  • Head: Foxcat Bento Head by Happy Paw (marketplace link, L$280)
  • Ears: Puffy Ears by Happy Paw (marketplace link, L$50)
  • Tail: Vixen Tail by Aurascape (marketplace link, L$500)
  • Hair: Kiwi by Besom (marketplace link, past group gift, no longer available)
  • Bikini: Splish by Blueberry (past group gift)

Total cost, not including Lara: L$2028


Spring Mini Dress

There hasn’t been too much free fashion worth blogging lately.  I’ve gone gift hunting at most of the major monthly shopping events (including Cosmopolitan’s 12th Anniversary) and have come away rather underwhelmed by clothing gifts, although there have been some nice deco pieces available!

But this dress popped up in one of my feeds and not only is it standout, it’s also for Lara X!

There are two versions, the normal one I’m wearing here, and a sheer version.  It comes with a fourteen color HUD that lets you color the dress and the diamonds separately for some outstanding looks.

Sizes are for Lara X, Legacy, Legacy Perky, Waifu, and Reborn.


PBR

A new rendering system is coming to Second Life, known as PBR, or physically based rendering.  This is the industry standard these days, and it’s really nice to see LL stepping up and making the major code change needed to support it.

If you have no idea what PBR is, and you want to know all the gory details, you can read about PBR on Wikipedia.

Some of the most eye-catching effects have to do with reflections.  For example, realistic metals are one of the most difficult things to represent with the old rendering system.  And PBR makes it a piece of cake!

The official SL viewer already has PBR enabled, and it’s coming to Firestorm Real Soon Now™.

Which brings me to the reason for writing this post… I’m revisiting some of my products to redo their textures to support PBR, starting with the carbon truss scope, which I textured before PBR became the way to do things, even in Blender.

Here’s a new render with the recommended SL HDRI sky lighting the scope.

Updated render of the BF Carbon Truss Telescope using PBR (physically based rendering)

I’ve redone all the materials using what Blender calls the Principled BSDF shader, which I’ve been using in Blender since it arrived there.  Only now I can take the shader outputs directly into SL and expect the textured object to closely match how the render appears in Blender.

Some noticeable changes in the above image:

  • You can clearly see the resin overlaying the carbon fibre
  • The steel counterweights and support rod look much more realistic (and should provide realistic reflections of what surrounds them in SL)
  • The matte black inside the tube and the optical path now has just the right touch of gloss to make it look believable (nothing in real life is totally matte)
  • I’ve added a finder scope on the OTA, which you can easily remove from the scope if you like the plain look.

I can’t wait for the version of Firestorm with PBR to launch so I can try this out in SL!


Line4

You know the game, connect four in a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and win!  Now available from Blues Fantasy in Second Life, the game is six land impact, and can be played by one or two players.  As with all Blues Fantasy scripted products, it comes with updates for life.


Japanese Teapot

I’ve released a new BF product today!  This decorative Japanese styled iron teapot would make a lovely addition to any kitchen, and would obviously be right at home in a Japanese theme.

The item is modify, so you can resize it if you like, but be aware that resizing mesh will change its land impact.  As delivered, the teapot is only 1 land impact, and fits my stove top nicely.

See it at the in-world store, or you can find the teapot on marketplace!


Lizzie

Spotlight is offering a very pretty spring dress as a FREE group gift.  Their group is FREE to join.

There are sizes for Lara, Lara X, Legacy, Kupra, GenX, GenX Curvy, and Reborn.

Also included is a HUD with twelve fantastic floral prints, so you are sure to find one that you love!


Gift LBD

This LBD is a prior group gift from Smesh.  Their group is FREE to join, and they have a number of group gifts available.

There are sizes for Lara, Legacy, Venus, Freya, Isis, Physique, Hourglass, eBody Curvy, Tonic Fine, Tonic Curvy, and Dragon (I’m assuming the Jomo Dragon).  The texturing is very nice, which is why I wanted to show it to you.  Unfortunately, at least on the Lara version, the skirt is so tight that you may get a little clipping at the back of the thighs that alpha cuts might have problems with.  What’s to lose?  It’s FREE 🙂


Maricotinha

My friend Kat pointed out a new-to-me store called Patty K.C. Fashion.  Of course she did this by turning up to an event an this stunning set of lingerie from the store!

I had to go and grab it.  This set is just L$30 and is just to the right of the desk as you enter the store.  It consists of the top, skirt, and panties, and all pieces are sized for Lara, Lara Petite, Altamura, Freya, Isis, eBody Curvy, Hourglass, Legacy, Legacy Perky, Tonic Fine, Tonic Curvy, Tonic Minimizer (whew!)

The lingerie comes with a HUD that allows you to color various faces on the pieces.  The HUD has ten solid colors and four lace colors, which I think are the standout!

The store also has a huge range of group gifts available once your join their group at a cost of L$10.