Hi !
Here is a big update to the MdlM Latex Catsuits, Bodysuits and Socks & Gloves to add support for BoM ("Bakes On Mesh") !
In a nutshell
To use
the BoM version of the Catsuits, Bodysuits or Socks and Gloves, you need
to wear one of the provided Tattoo wearables, and to apply one of the
skin shine appliers from the provided HUD, preferably the one that
corresponds to the Tattoo you wore.
Bakes On Mesh
Before I explain what's in the update, let me try to explain a few things about Bakes On Mesh first, so you understand what you'll get and how to use it, because it is not obvious at first glance. If you already know what Bakes On Mesh is and how to use it, you can skip the part in italics.
Bakes On Mesh ("BoM"), in principle, is a set of special textures that the viewer renders differently from the usual ones. A BoM texture, when applied to a surface of an attachment, renders a part of your system body including its skin and all its wearables at the time. For example, if you apply the "upper body" BoM texture to your Maitreya upper body skin layer, then you will see your system skin top body part, plus all the wearable items you are wearing on the upper body at the time (I mean actual wearable items, not mesh objects, so for example a tattoo, an undershirt item etc). If you add or remove a wearable or change skin, the texture on the mesh body updates accordingly without you having to do anything. Think of it as a dynamic texture that the sim recalculates every time your appearance changes and that projects your system avatar onto your mesh body (and/or head) as if your mesh body was your actual avatar. A little like "media-on-a-prim" in fact.
Bakes On Mesh works well for wearables, unfortunately it does not support materials (that's the normal texture, the specular texture and the shine values). In plain English, there is no slot in an Undershirt wearable for the material textures, for example, there's only one texture (that we call "diffuse" in 3D design) and that's the one BoM manages and lets the viewer render. Normal and specular textures, however, can still be applied onto your mesh body skin layer while still keeping it BoM-active and that's the point of this update.
As the MdlM latex outfits use materials and BoM does not support materials, the solution here is to provide you with additional appliers that will replace your skin shine (but not your skin textures, which are supposed to be the Upper and Lower body BoM textures), and many Tattoo wearables that contain the diffuse textures of each latex outfit (that's 129 tattoos for the Catsuits, 129 for the Bodysuits and 252 for the Socks & Gloves, yes that's a bit much but that's what it takes).
What's in the update
The update contains, for each product, a new HUD called "something something skin shine appliers for BoM something something" (for example "MdlM Latex Catsuits skin shine appliers for BoM OPAQUE" for the opaque catsuits) and a bunch of Tattoo wearables, one per color. All those new wearables are contained in boxes because the Latex Outfits can be updated either with a Marketplace redelivery or with the provided updater which gives you the new product from a server in-world, and you can't include sub-folders in a box unlike in pure Marketplace products. In some cases, like the Latex Socks & Gloves Fatpack, that makes quite a lot of new boxes.
How to use
Wear one of the wearables provided in this update and the corresponding Skin Shine HUD. Click on the button of your choice to apply the corresponding shine, and if you chose the correct button the shine will match your tattoo and you will look like you are wearing the latex outfit you wanted. Easy, right ?
Wait I'll give you an example. Firstly, and most importantly, make sure your mesh body is set to "Bakes On Mesh" (on Maitreya Lara V5 that's the big "Bakes On Mesh" button in the "Skin" tab of your HUD). Notice that I'm wearing the Proud Girls, in BoM mode too (that's a switch in its Options menu) to show that they work seamlessly with the rest.
Then wear the "Catsuit Opaque - Black" Tattoo (provided you own the Opaque Catsuits, if not, replace with whatever variant and color you prefer).
This is what you see :
It's not really a catsuit yet, but we'll get there. Now wear the "MdlM Latex Catsuits skin shine appliers for BoM OPAQUE" HUD, it looks like this :
(there's a reason why there is so much empty space, as you'll see below)
Click on the rightmost button and you get this :
Aha, you can now distinguish the seams and creases, the catsuit shine is still dull though. All you have to do is manipulate the shine of your skin, and most likely the shine of your Proud Girls too. I'll do both here, setting the Glossiness and Intensity to max on my Maitreya Lara mesh body, as well as its Environment to 30 (that's three clicks on the right of the "+" button next to the "Environment" slider on the Advanced Skin Panel of the Maitreya HUD). Same for my Proud Girls, that I set to "255 30" to match (open the Proud Girls menu, go to "Layers", then "Skin shine", then write "255 30" in the text box and click "Submit") :
And now we have it, and no layer is necessary since it is all directly on the skin. Notice though that the catsuit is very sticky, it is like painted on your skin. Depending on your mesh body, you may or may not have some "BoM parts" to loosen the fit. Maitreya provides such parts, no need to demonstrate them here though, I have written a full blog post that explains a lot of things about Maitreya, including BoM and BoM parts at the end.
So, what really happened ? You have noticed that wearing the BoM version of the catsuit is done in two steps. Wear the Tattoo wearable and apply the skin shine, not necessarily in that order. And you don't have to do both if you don't want to. For example, if you only apply the skin shine without wearing the Tattoo (or you unwear the Tattoo), you will look like you are wearing a clear latex catsuit, like this :
This is, actually, almost exactly the same thing as wearing the Clear Latex Catsuit with the regular appliers, on the Tattoo layer. With the notable difference that unlike the applier version, the BoM version lets you see reflections (there's an Env Box in the room I'm in) for a more realistic look, while the applier version cannot do that because it is alpha-blended (i.e. transparent).
The skin shine
So, now that you see what it does and how to use it, let's get into the nitty-gritty stuff. It is important because you will see that this update does not merely port existing appliers to BoM, but also offers you a few new features that you can use to your advantage.
In a nutshell, every applier you see on the HUD is a stripped down version of the corresponding latex outfit applier, meaning it only applies the bump and shine to your Skin layer, but not the texture itself -- you have to do it manually by wearing the Tattoo layer of your choice. The part in bold has notable consequences.
Since it applies the latex shine to your skin layer, it replaces whatever shine was applied to it before. Usually, the factory shine (for Maitreya, that's one of the three "Material Presets Skin" buttons on the Advanced Skin Panel).
Attention : If your skin shine is custom, make sure you know how to re-apply it after you're done wearing your latex suit, because the HUD cannot do it for you.
This is not really an issue when you wear Latex Catsuits because they cover the whole body, but what about Latex Bodysuits which don't cover the legs ? Or Latex Socks or Gloves ? What happens to the exposed skin when you apply these ?
The answer is : instead of making the exposed skin dull and without shine, it replaces its existing shine with a subtle sheen. The key part is that although the shine values (glossiness, environment and shine color) are the same as the latex since it is on the same layer, the exposed skin shine is toned down a lot. In other words, when you put some environment on your latex to reflect your surroundings (if you have a reflection box or an env box around), your skin won't reflect it at all unless you crank the value to the max. Likewise, your skin will shine in a subtle way, a lot less than your latex.
Here is an example :
Max skin shine (gloss max, intensity max, environment 30), you see a subtle shine, and even a little environment reflection on the skin, while the latex shines brightly.
Since there are cases where you may want to wear only a part of the latex outfit and not cover the whole body, for example when you wear only the nipple or pussy pasties in the Transparent Catsuits, or just gloves or just socks, I have included appliers to only apply the skin shine, either on your body or on your head, or both.
This allows you to have a matching skin shine over your whole body (mesh body, mesh head, Proud Girls if you want) in a seamless way. In the Socks & Gloves BoM HUD, you can even apply skin shine only to the upper or the lower body part, to match the skin shine applied by the socks or by the gloves, respectively.
I quite like this skin shine because it's subtle and allows for a slight environmental reflection (as if you were slightly wet or oiled), even on my Lelutka Origins mesh head which normally does not provide any control for environment shine. See for yourself with the Glossiness and Intensity to the max, and Environment set to 30 :
With this update, you can therefore give your skin (body and head) this new custom shine without even using the latex suits.
The HUD
As you know, the Catsuits, Bodysuits and Socks & Gloves come in 4 variants : Opaque, Sheer, Transparent and Clear, each containing around 30 colors and/or patterns. The Socks & Gloves are actually double that since you can apply the gloves and the socks separately. This is why there are a lot of Tattoos included in this update.
The Fatpack HUD contains all the buttons while the other HUDs only contain some of them, which is why some HUDs have very few buttons and a lot of empty space.
Each button contains a Maitreya applier for your skin (unlike regular Maitreya appliers, you won't get a menu asking you where to apply since it goes to your skin directly, no need to ask), and triggers the corresponding Omega applier as well, plus modifies your accessories (neck piece and shoes) if you are wearing them, except when you apply the naked skin shine. That way, clicking on a button applies to your Maitreya body if you wear one, to your Omega body if you wear one, and to your Proud Girls if you wear them and if they are set to execute Omega appliers. This HUD does not send Lolas appliers at all, since Lolas and Omega conflict for the breasts.
One thing that is important to keep in mind though is this. Unlike the Maitreya appliers that only replace the skin shine without touching the skin texture (which means you can actually use them even while not in BoM mode, if you want), the Omega appliers require to set a texture, which is the BoM one in this case. In practice, this means that when you apply to your mesh body (not Maitreya), your skin will be replaced by the BoM "textures", if not already done.
The small head button on the left applies the naked skin shine to your head through an Omega applier (obviously not a Maitreya one since Maitreya Lara has no head) so make sure your mesh head is Omega-compatible. The remark in bold above applies here too : clicking on this button will de facto turn your head BoM since it will set the head BoM texture.
Attention : I noticed that applying the skin shine to the head resets the tint of the head skin to white, at least on my Lelutka Origins (Simone 2.0). It might be a quirk with Omega or with Lelutka. I don't know if it does that on other mesh heads but that's a thing to be aware of. If you don't want to lose your skin tint, save it somewhere first.
Here is what each button does on the Catsuit and Bodysuit HUDs :
And here is what each button does on the Socks & Gloves HUD, which doubles the number of appliers since you have separate ones for the upper body and for the lower body. This is why each button has a separator to split it in two parts. Notice it has the head naked skin shine applier too.
Notice the two "plain" buttons (that's four appliers). The one on the left is for the opaque socks and gloves because it contains a crease near the top edge, while the one on the right is for all the non-opaque socks and gloves, not having a crease near the top edge. Of course feel free to use the one you like, just be aware of the difference between the two.
Note : The socks and gloves have a subtle shadow outside the edges to give the illusion that they are tight enough to press the skin inwards. It works quite well on the appliers, also quite well on BoM, but with BoM there is a better way to do it, by adding normals to make the surface of the skin near the edges reflect the light in a more realistic way. I tried, the effect looks better than the painted shadow, I really like it. However, the tattoos also have the painted shadow, which makes the edge doubly as dark so it doesn't look good when wearing the tattoo plus the skin shine. To remove the painted shadow from all the socks and gloves tattoos represents too much work, there are hundreds of them. So maybe one day I will, but for now the socks and gloves skin shines do not include that additional edge normal, even though I wish it did.
Tinting your suits
Since you can tint your regular suit appliers with your mesh body HUD (Maitreya V5 also offers this option, it didn't in V4), it is normal that you can tint your tattoos as well. For this reason, all the Tattoo wearables in the BoM suits are modifiable.
Using your accessories
As you know, the latex catsuits come with a neck piece and shoes, the bodysuits come with the neck piece and the socks come with the shoes. Those are also impacted by the BoM appliers (yes, I know "BoM applier" is an oxymoron but I have no better word for them) but since they are not BoM themselves, they are applied an invisible texture, and the shine to match your skin. I recommend you do not set an environment value on them though, since they are transparent they would not reflect the environment like your skin would. And it they did, it would make the reflection twice as bright anyway.
The advantages of BoM
So, now that you know how to use it and how it works, why would you want to use the BoM suits at all, you might wonder ? I'll be fair with you, I've been wondering that myself for a long time, not really seeing a point. However, it was a popular request, I kept getting messages from customers asking me why there were no BoM versions of my catsuits, and when I would make them. My answer was invariably "BoM does not support materials so there is no point". Well that's not entirely true, there are a few good points to using BoM, but only one of them really decided me to go ahead and make them, regardless of how much work it represents (and when you see the number of tattoos, you understand). So what are they ?
It makes layers unnecessary
Obviously, if you want to use a BoM catsuit, that would be primarily to dispense yourself from using additional layers. With Maitreya V5 in particular, you can then avoid wearing a layer just for the latex outfit you want to wear, since its texture and shine are on your skin instead of on a layer. This allows you to save one attachment slot (other mesh bodies may not provide that option but Maitreya now does), and to lower your complexity count.
It saves a layer for more latex
Well, yes, by extension you can wear more appliers since your latex suit does not take one.
It solves alpha-blending conflicts
This is a big advantage of BoM. Since the latex suit is applied to an opaque surface (your skin), there is no alpha blending conflict with other layers or with your hair anymore, even if the suit is transparent !
See for yourself :
Transparent suits reflect environment
This is the one that really decided me to go ahead and make the BoM suits. If you wear an Env Box or any reflection box, you know that you can see the reflections only on an opaque catsuit or on a masked latex suit (which is not always possible to begin with), but not on an alpha-blended layer, which means the sheer, transparent and clear catsuits could not reflect your env boxes, sadly.
With BoM it is different since the shine is applied to your skin layer, which is always opaque (or at least masked) ! This means that you can finally get the dynamic reflections on your transparent catsuits !
You can mix materials and textures
This is a side effect of the fact that you wear a BoM catsuit in two manual steps instead of one. You can for example wear a black fishnet catsuit and the plain catsuit applier instead of the fishnet applier. Nothing keeps you from doing that and the result you get is something you can't get with the transparent catsuit applier :
Likewise, you can wear a catsuit with holes for your tits, but with a plain latex suit applier, covering your tits too but not hiding them :
Or you can even wear several tattoos :
You can't do any of these with regular appliers, although you could do the third one if you set the clear black layer to mask mode. But then you would need two layers anyway while with BoM you need zero.
The disadvantages of BoM
BoM is not the applier killer some would like it to be, there are several drawbacks that make the regular appliers still useful, and sometimes necessary depending on what you want to achieve.
It does not cover the whole neck
Obviously, the mesh body does not go as high as the neck piece, which means that if you want your catsuit or bodysuit to go as high as your jaw, you still need to wear the neck piece. Which is a problem sometimes, because as pointed above, transparent latex on the neck won't reflect the environment (because it is alpha-blended and all that). So you see your neck under it, and only half of it can reflect the environment. There is no real solution to this problem, at least not at the moment.
Painted on the skin
BoM makes the outfits (not only these latex suits) painted on your skin, that's even the whole point. This is not always desirable though, you are wearing a catsuit, not latex paint, so you might want some looseness. Typically, the latex goes under your fingernails and toenails, and you certainly don't want that. Depending on your mesh body, you can hide your nails or not (Maitreya lets you hide the fingernails but not the toenails). And depending on your mesh body, you may or may not have additional "BoM parts" that let you loosen the fit a bit. Maitreya V5 offers that capability. Of course, having to wear BoM parts kind of defeats the "save one attachment slot" advantage but at least BoM parts are not as complex as full layers.
It replaces the skin shine
Well, yeah, that's even the whole point. If you've read the whole post you already know that and what it does instead. But you may or may not like the skin shine included in the bodysuits and socks. If you don't like it, lower the glossiness but that makes your latex less shiny.
You can't combine bodysuits and socks
Since the BoM skin shine appliers apply to the skin, and since the bodysuits and the socks are different products, I could not merge the bodysuits and socks in the same applier. That option is not entirely close though, I might make some at some point but I don't know how to distribute them at the moment. So if you want to wear stockings and a bodysuit, one of them has to be a regular applier.
The skin tint also tints the suits
Since the Tattoo is part of the skin, it is also tinted the same way if your skin tint is not fully white. So keep this in mind if you want to wear a white catsuit but your avatar skin is made darker by a custom tint you've set, the white catsuit will not be so white.
How to update
Simple. Either rez the updater contained
in your folder (the one that was delivered to you by the Marketplace the
day you bought it) and you will get your update automatically, or
request a redelivery on the Marketplace website.
Have fun !
Marine
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