You Wanted In, And Now You’re Here…

Let the Bodies hit the Floor…

*** Disclaimer: I am using the same base shape for all of these mesh bodies… my own regular shape.  Also, I am wearing the same skin, so that I can try to give as much of an objective look as possible.  That said, I know that TheShops Body is a beta concept… that’s why it’s free.  It’s not backwards compatible with third party skins yet, so I had to just color it as close as I could.  I’m also aware that TheShops Body comes with it’s OWN hands and feet, however, I chose to use the same hands and feet for ALL bodies… the Elegant hands in XS and the Mid feet in XS.  Some of the fit issues with hands and feet between my shape and TheShops body is because of this and can be fixed by using the free hands and feet available for that body, should you choose to use it.  I just wanted to be up front with all that before anyone made a comment about it.  ***

*** One final disclaimer: ALL THESE PHOTOS ARE RAW.  Nothing is touched up or repaired.  The only things done to these photos were that the individual bodies were copy pasted next to each other, and the bar of text was added over each to be sure that the bodies were easy to identify.  I took all these photos in CalWL, for anyone’s reference. ***

Alright.  So.  It appears that since GamerExpert Resident of Gamers Inc made the fitted mesh Perfect Bum, fitted mesh body parts have been all the rage.  You can change their appearances with your regular shape sliders and yet they have all the fluid, smooth lines of mesh that we crave.  Since then, I personally have seen the release of the WowMeh mesh body, TheShops mesh body beta concept, The Gamers Inc Perfect Body, and most recently the Slink Physique.  I do apologize that I was not able to fit the Perfect Body into this review, as I only was able to review and compare the mesh bodies I am in possession of… and right now, that is the WowMeh version 3.1, the Slink Physique, and TheShops mesh body beta concept.  I compare all three back to my original shape.

Also, I am going to release the numbers that I’m using for my shape sliders under the Body, Torso, and Legs tabs.  (Sorry, my face is unique to me and I will never release those numbers.)  This is because I want to make sure I am as openly transparent as possible during this review process.  IF YOU SKIPPED THE DISCLAIMER ABOUT THE HANDS AND SKIN I’M USING, PLEASE GO BACK AND READ THAT.

Body Slider Numbers:

• Height: 40
• Body Thickness: 25
• Body Fat: 10
• Hover: 51

Torso Slider Numbers:

• Torso Muscles: 35
• Neck Thickness: 40
• Neck Length: 45
• Shoulders: 25
• Breast Size: 65
• Breast Buoyancy: 40
• Breast Cleavage: 25
• Arm Length: 60
• Hand Size: 10
• Torso Length: 60
• Love Handles: 30
• Belly Size: 0

Legs Slider Numbers:

• Leg Muscles: 50
• Leg Length: 65
• Hip Width: 60
• Hip Length: 30
• Butt Size: 35
• Saddle Bags: 45
• Knee Angle: 50
• Foot Size: 0

Ok.  Now that all the logistics mumbo-jumbo is out of the way… let’s get into the comparisons and my opinions/impressions, shall we?

 

You can see some big differences right off the bat, yes?  The thing that draws my eye first is the hip size.  Now… my Hip Width is set at 60 and Hip Length is set at 30 in all these photos… but it’s interesting to see how the way each creator rigged their mesh interprets these numbers differently.

The other thing I see is that the fit between TheShops mesh body concept and slink hands and feet is atrocious.  (See the disclaimer before you make a comment about the hands and feet TheShops also sells.)  Backwards compatibility is a must to succeed in a market where people have already spent a lot of money on things they like… like their Slink hands, slink feet, slink shoes, slink nails, etc etc.  If you can’t provide compatibility, then you’re pretty much hosed.  I really hope that as this concept develops into further stages, it will fix this fit issue, much like the WowMeh body did.

The serious disappointment at this stage in the game, other than the lack of fit of the hands and feet to TheShops body is the total lack of hips on the Slink Physique body.  Even my original shape has some hip action going on… but it’s like the Physique just sucks all that definition out of them.  Take a look at the WowMeh and The Shops… they both manage to keep the wider hips while making them curve nicely into the torso size.

But!  I took pictures at more angles… so let’s see these bodies from the side, shall we?

 

Ok… now we start to see some more issues all around.  Note in the original shape where the stomach is just… flat.  That’s unappealing and unrealistic to me… but at the same time, I didn’t want to add to the belly size, as that widens the hips little too and expands the stomach at the bottom, around the hip/crotch area.  On the original SL avatar, there seems to be no way to get a little bit of curve there like what would be realistic in that relaxed, slightly slouched pose.

You see the same flat, unappealing line in the Slink Physique body too, as well as some pretty harsh bowing where the thigh meets the hip.  There is almost no difference in the bowing between the original shape and the Physique, except that the bow is actually LONGER and therefore more prominent, because it’s more rounded, rather than the jagged bow of the SL avatar.

The WowMeh proves to be a little bit of a disappointment as well.  While you start to see some definition in the torso, where it’s not just a flat straight line, you can also see that there’s some bowing where the thigh meets the hip as well.  While it’s not as harsh as the original shape or as pronounced and long as the Slink Physique, it doesn’t flow together in a nice, natural curve like we would want out of mesh.

What I’m SERIOUSLY impressed with at this angle is The Shops body concept… while we still have fitting and coloring issues you see that the torso has a nice subtle, realistic curve to it… and the bowing at the thigh is non-existant.  Also, what I’d like to point out as well is that in my original shape as well as the WowMeh and Slink Physique bodies, my avatar is relatively flat-chested… even with having the Breast Size set at 65.  Now, I’m sure I could tweak the Buoyancy a bit and perhaps fix that, but look at how The Shops body concept interprets the already existing numbers?  Them’s some perky boobs, right there, if I do say so myself!  The only thing is that I wish they were a bit… like… longer?  They look a little like I squished them, vertically, so they stick out more ‘pointy-like’ rather than just being large and resting naturally.

And yes, I know my hand is covering all the butts… because I took a picture from more of the back as well.

 

The butt seems to be a very distinct point of rigging for all of these bodies as well.  Each takes the same numbers and does something different with them.. and it’s definitely really intriguing to see what each rigging and each creator does.  (I think I said that already… it’s the meds… sorry.)

Other than the original SL shape, that gives me pancake-ass… *Chuckles*… I find myself the most disappointed, again, with the Slink Physique.  Perhaps it’s the way the underwear make it look… but I’ve seen all these bodies nude as well and I still have the same issues.  It’s like, what did the Physique do with all my currrrrrrrves?

I’m really digging on how the WowMeh interprets my shape numbers.  It keeps my ass short, reflecting the short Hip Length, but it keeps it… plump?  (God, I feel like I’m describing cuts of beef… I’m sorry… LOL.)  From the back I love the overall appearance of the WowMeh body and how it keeps the curves nice and smooth, while still preserving them.  It gives the overall curvy look that I was trying to go for, while giving me the smooth appearance that I would expect to get out of wearing a mesh body.  (And before anyone says that the WowMeh looks better because I made my shape with the WowMeh on… I actually made my shape with the Physique on…)

The only thing I’m not too thrilled about with TheShops body is that the hips are a bit longer… which gives me more of an appearance of “put on a few pounds and they went straight to my ass” rather than “delicious curves”… you know?  It looks less curvy and more… ‘bigger woman’.  However, that said, it distributes the weight really well, for as much as it adds.

Now… you know I couldn’t just look at this simple pose in “reviewing” bodies like this… it’s really easy for them to look all pretty when they aren’t having to do a lot.  Let’s look at what these bodies can really do in a less… composed… pose.

 

Alright.  Now.  Look at the torso/waists of all of these.  I’m disappointed in all of them, to be honest.  They all have the bowing.  And I can’t exactly decide if the original shape, WowMeh, and Slink Physique is worse… because they’re all jagged and pointy.  The Physique looks almost identical to my original shape, which defeats the purpose of using a mesh body, yeah?  I can’t decide if the WowMeh is worse or better… the bow goes inward more, in an attempt to smooth it out, but it still isn’t smooth at all.

TheShops is a bit smoother, and has a curve to it, instead of a jagged bow, but the curve isn’t the most realistic, so it’s still slightly disappointing.  Overall, I think the rigging on all these could be improved in the torso area.

The other thing I’d like to look at while we’re in this pose is the way the textures stretch and distort.  You can see how the texture stretches a little bit in my original shape, and it’s mimicked almost exactly in the Slink Physique.  The WowMeh has a little less distortion of the texture, as it follows the body curve.  The smoothest in this particular pose is TheShops, in my opinion… HOWEVER, the Shops body does not have the Glam Affair skin that the others do… so I can’t say for sure if the body itself truly distort the textures less, or if the texture itself is different enough that it looks smoother.

The fun part, though… and one of the most distinguishing factors of these different bodies… is to look at them all in this pose from the back.  You’ll really get to see how they handle texture distortion.

 

Good god, look at all this mess.  LOL.

I always hated the way the SL shape does weird stuff with the shoulder blades, and you can see it on my originally shape, and… once again… mimicked in the Physique.  In fact, if you look at my spine, the distortion is actually harsher on the Physique than it is on my original shape.

However, in my personal opinion, the curvature of the spine, in this pose, on the WowMeh is gorgeous.  There’s a curve to reflect the pose, but it’s not god-awful and harsh and weird at the bottom like my original shape and the Physique.  Also the shoulder blades have a much softer, more natural curve on the WowMeh with my particular shape than the Physique or my original shape.

The back of TheShops body is gorgeous as well, but without wearing the applier for the same skin, I can’t tell how much of it is actual quality of the mesh and the rigging and how much is just the texturing.

So…. my personal conclusion?

All in all, for me personally… the WowMeh mesh body is better made, better rigged, and interprets the shape numbers a lot more similarly to the original SL avatar shape.  I feel like the sliders will give realistic changes to the WowMeh, and that it does exactly what a mesh body is supposed to do… maintains your unique shape while smoothing out the harsher lines of a standard SL avatar.

The Shops body has some REAL potential, as long as it can get on board with backwards compatibility to third party skins, and can fix the fitting issue for people who want to use their Slink Hands and Feet.  Making your own feet that fit the Slink shoes is one thing… but unless they’re going to be compatible to stockings, tattoos, nails, etc etc, then it’s not going to satisfy the customer base.  Same with The Shops hands.  There’s a “Relaxed” set out now, but people love the individuality and versatility of so many styles of slink hands… and again you’ll have the issue of compatibility with nail polish and gloves and tattoos and such.  Unless you’re going to create a whole new system with some HUGE incentive to make a bunch of people jump ship and “come to the dark side”, so to speak, it’s not going to be good marketing strategy, in the long run, in my personal opinion.

I will say I’m extremely disappointed in the Slink Physique as a whole, in comparison to the other bodies, and even to the original SL avatar shape.  There were times that the Slink distorted WORSE than my original shape, and that makes me wonder why someone would pay L$1,250 to have the same problems they have now, and to worsen some of the other problems they have.  The other thing that disturbs me is that using shape sliders to adjust is going to be much more complex with the Physique, due to unrealistic rigging.  You saw how much the Physique flattened my breasts and my ass, when even my original shape had them at least slightly rounded with some meat on them.  However, this can work to the advantage of runway models in SL who need to be flatter chested and flatter assed on a regular basis… or for avatars who are looking for a skinnier appearance and not a more curvaceous one.

For my SL and for my purposes, I’m going to stick with my WowMeh, or whatever name it comes back as after the issues are sorted.  I love the way it fits me, I love how easy it is to work with, and I just love it all around.  However, I will keep an eye out for updates to the Physique, as this is the inaugural release and I’m sure will have a few bug fixes to come out in the future.  I will also keep a HEAVY eye on The Shops mesh body concept, to watch it move out of beta phases and see how it handles the marketing challenges it is currently facing.  I will definitely be interested to see how it fairs out.

If I come into possession of the Perfect Body from Gamers Inc, I have no issues with putting it right along side my original shape and my preferred WowMeh body and doing another one of these comparison/reviews.  And also, I hear talk that Belleza is working on (or maybe it’s released already?  I haven’t checked…) a body of their own… so if I come into possession of it, I will be happy to do a similar review.

I cannot promise to put ALL of them side by side… as that would be a bit insane.  But I would be willing to at least compare any additional bodies to the original SL Avatar shape and to my preferred WowMeh body.

I hope you guys enjoyed this, or found it informative or helpful in some way.  It’s not like me to do reviews or comparisons or anything of this nature, but with so many people in my SLife recently asking questions about the different mesh bodies, I figured why the hell not, right?

 

*~* You Wanted In, And Now You’re Here… *~*

Shape: MINE
Skin: Lucy (Jamaica tone; Makeup 04; Red Brows) – Glam Affair
Body Skin (TheShops): “Skintone 20” via StyleMode Hud – TheShops
Eyes: Promise Eyes (Apex) – IKON
Hair: Shimmer (Hud 02) – Magika Hair
Hands: Avatar Enhancement Hands (Elegant) – Slink
Feet: Avatar Enhancement Feet (Mid) – Slink
Nailcolor Applier (hands & feet): French Manicure Pastels – Nailed It
*The bra and panties on the “Original Shape” are ones that I made from a cheap template on Marketplace ages ago
*The bra and panties on the respective mesh bodies are the default underwear for that body

Outfit in the Intro/End Picture: Dimije Harem Girl (Red) – Soedara

Body #1 (Far Left): My original SL avatar shape, made by me
Body #2 (pictured 2nd): WowMeh 3.1 – WowMeh  * currently unavailable *
More information in the meantime can be found via the WowMeh website, here.
Body #3 (pictured 3rd): Physique – Slink
Body #4 (Far Right): #TheMeshProject Body concept – TheShops  * currently FREE; in beta *

Poses: 1st pose from IsoMotion; 2nd pose from Agapee

Location: My Build Pad

Blogging Tune: “Bodies” – Drowning Pool