having the directions doesn't mean you ought to go

First up: Meeroos are creepy on occasion, not just annoying:

(from the bizarre album)

It really took me a while to figure out what I was staring at, and even then, I got it wrong the first time. I took this for two Meeroos sharing the same space (sort of).

(from the bizarre album)

Instead, as this shot shows, there were three of them, all curled up, little pixel lungs breathing together. Or whatever passes for breathing in a Meeroo.

(from the bizarre album)

And I'm fairly sure this one was just blinking, but--no eyes! It had no eyes! Aaaaaah!

In the meantime, some demo stuph. Now, I won't lie--while I understand the push to get mesh out there and working, I--and a fair number of others--think it was pushed out too soon. Not in terms of the timeline--people have been asking for better mesh implementation for over two years--but in terms of its readiness to...well, "play well" with Second Life as a whole.

Case in point. This was taken at the Lassitude and Ennui booth at this month's March Mesh Madness fair:

(from the mesh album)

Now, I should say, these are pictures from a mesh-enabled viewer. There was so much lag on Fate Island, both trips I went, that even with less than six avatars on sim, there was lag. I took off all scripted items (save for my lowered AO: it contains one stand, one walk, a very limited animation loading notecard, and NO other notecards or scripts beyond the two necessary to run Zhao programming), removed my shoes, dropped the multi-panel flexi skirt, and tracked down one-prim hair. Even with these changes, walking was impossible, and flying was barely possible.

But this. I shudder to think of what people who can't see mesh would be seeing at this point. (Of course, why would they go to a mesh fair if they couldn't? That does seem particularly pointless.)

At any rate, I was determined to wait until they looked better. Sure enough, five minutes later (and I'm not kidding, I timed it out):

(from the mesh album)

Oh, much improved. Now they look like attractive severed feet.

...that didn't come out right. But they look like shoes now, not mathematical problems.

...and, hell. I went back in world tonight with the express purpose of tracking down and photographing a couple specific demos I was handed in world, and rats. I got pulled into the Twisted hunt, may all their names be cursed, and it took me an hour to find the box.

Argh.

So mesh dresses and makeup tomorrow! Rawr!