I just installed the Second Life Viewer 2.0 this evening and am slowly getting use to it. It is a change and I know I have to take my time to give this new viewer a chance. But one thing is annoying me. While I love the new My Appearance tab feature I find it still lacking. So much so I have to blog about it.
Fact: Almost every store in SL sells clothes, hair, shoes and other items you wear.
Fact: One of my coworkers uses her garage to store her shoes. She has that many. 100s of pairs. Second Life is an enabler for such behavior.
Fact: SL doesn't offer the equivalent of a walk in closet, let alone an improvement over one. For a virtual environment spatial relations should not be a constraint.
Now I admit I'm not an expert at SL. I may be unaware of some tricks or features. If so, please share your wisdom in the comments.
Here is how I work with clothing in SL. I mix-and-match items to create complete looks. These looks are organized into individual folders. In order to do so I specifically look for items with copy permissions. Especially hair, shoes, nails, eyes and jewelry.
A few items, like AOs and HUDs, I have to manage separately because they are nocopy. Because of this I cannot use the "Replace current outfit" feature because it will strip off things like my AO. So I have to manually find the folder for the outfit I am wearing and "Remove from current outfit." I usually need to use the inventory search feature to find out what I'm wearing. (Type "worn" in the entry field under the "File Create Sort" menu and anything currently being worn or has 'worn' in its name will be displayed)
Below is what one outfit looks like in my inventory. (Click the image for the full size version.)
Notice I categorize my outfits using folders, in the above example having a folder for my casual outfits. Within each category I have separate folders for each outfit. I labeled the above outfit's folder with the designer name, outfit name, color and the hair style (Abrupt). At the moment I only use one shape, one skin and have only two hair styles I switch between, each in multiple colors. (I have other avatars I use with different shapes, skins and attitudes.)
I have dedicated a folder for one of my favorite designers where I have folders for each style of outfit and then folders for each color combination. It can get crazy fast.
If the merchant includes a landmark to their store with the clothes I keep that with the outfit so I can share it with anyone who inquires on where I purchased something. Unfortunately with relocations and closings the landmarks usually end up out of date (another issue for the Lindens to figure out- smart landmarks that can update themselves).
At this point I love the "My Outfits" management feature of My Appearance in the 2.0 viewer. For those unfamiliar with this feature, it gives you a special view into your inventory and allows you to create outfits. Each outfit appears like a normal inventory folder does, but it isn't. This outfit folder only appears in the special My Appearance tab. These outfit "folders" don't actually contain items but instead links to items. Also known as shortcuts. This means you can have multiple outfits that all use a single nocopy item.
This presents an interesting shift in how designers and merchants should look at permissions. There is an thread on the matter on the Second Life Commerce Forum.
Since I have 12,378 inventory items, most of which are copies, the My Outfits feature should make my inventory management easier. Unfortunately this is not so. The My Appearance > My Outfits virtual view into my inventory does not support nesting folders. So all of my outfits will be in a long list. I won't be able to sort out my beachwear from my ballgowns. That is unless I name each outfit with keywords and use the search function. I am very use to clicking through my virtual closet and having to type keywords seems old fashioned.
A feature I wish Linden Labs would introduce is including an image of the outfit, much like how they include people's profile pic in the People tab. It would just have to be large enough to be useful. One of the projects I've been meaning to get to is to create a second blog of just photos of my different outfits so I can remember which is which. Along the lines of the above photos. The text "leather boots" as a description is insufficient when dressing for a specific event or locale. And trying on clothes that have to be downloaded first is time consuming.
After some more time I'll fill out the Viewer 2 Feedback Survey.
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