So recently, we discovered an issue in some newer clients that was making invisiprims stop working completely.  We do have alpha layers available for most of our anthro avatars to fix this problem, but at the time we didn’t have anything for the critters!  So I hopped on the Critter Wolf and made an alpha layer version for them (It’s in the vendors now!)

But as I had the critter on, it bothered me that this avatar, which was made in 2009, is still fairly popular, and I still sell many of them to this day.   I’ve been wanting the Critter to be the first mesh avatar we make, but I’m still too timid to release an avatar as mesh  while I’m still trying to figure out the nuiances of it.

So I decided that if people are still buying an avatar with  2009 “technology” that maybe just updating the Critter to the Wild/Dire wolf style that people would still enjoy it even if it’s not mesh.

So this was born:

This is the Critter Wolf next to the Wild Wolf.  It uses a deformer like the Dire Wolf, only one that makes it smaller.  It still needs work, but we hope to have it available soon.  It will be free to current Critter Wolf owners. After that we’ll work on the dogs, coyotes, foxes, etc.  Cats will be some time out since we’re still working on the Dire/Wild versions of those.  (We hope to have them come out together when we make them though.)

I know I haven’t been very active on SL recently. I’m sorry about that.  My computer has been having difficulties, especially with anything that’s 3d intensive.  Games are crashing on me like crazy, and unfortunately SL is one of them. So I haven’t been able to do much on SL.

I intend to get a new computer by the end of the year.  I’m spending a lot of this time trying to learn how to build mesh so we can make some better animal avatars out of that for you guys.

The fennec is still somewhat being worked on. For some reason we found a major issue with the scultpy heads, we think the problem is on  SL’s end. It’s random when it pops up, it’s random on what viewers it pops up on but it doesn’t show up on old viewers which leads us to believe something newly added to SL’s clients that’s causing it. Regardless we can’t fix it so we’re making the head out of mesh instead.  It’s not going to be rigged mesh, it’ll work just like the old heads, only with an opacity flick instead of a sculpty texture change.

Yes we’re still trying to figure this out.

In the meantime, we’ll still support the avatars, fix them if something goes wrong.  I just won’t be able to do much until I get a new computer next year.

We were notified of an issue with the tail of the Dire Wolf that caused it to experience a run time error (out of memory) and then the tail would becoming unresponsive.  To address this, our scripter has split the Tail’s script into two so they separately handle the tail functions (positions, wags, etc) and another script handles the Dire’s special functions (Recolor, etc).  If you have the Dire Wolf avatar, you can use the updater that comes with the avatar to get the update.

This year The WereHouse is part of a grid wide treasure hunt for Xmas, and this is the prize that I’m giving away for it.  This is not available in our stores and the only way to get it is as a prize for “Quest Fur Cover”  (And perhaps another way that I’m not revealing yet!).
More info on the Quest Fur Cover hunt here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Upcoming-Events-and-Activities/Quest-Fur-Cover-Grid-Wide-Hunt/td-p/2325987

I’m proud to say I was nominated for 2013 Avi Choice Awards for Favorite Animal Avatar Creator! That’s pretty nifty!

But I need votes to win. If you guys could vote for me, that would be super awesome!

I’m Jakkal Dingo on SL, just scroll down to the Animal Avatar one.

http://avichoiceawards.com/vote-for-your-favorite/fashion-categories/

Thanks guys .

Even if I don’t win, it was really an honor to be nominated.  I really appreciate it!

I’ve finished all the work we’ve added/changed/edited/fixed on the Dire Wolf. We’re now in the testing phase. Since every single script on the dire had to be changed, we’ve got to go through everything to make sure there’s no bugs and everything works properly.

Some things Dire Wolf Owners need to know:

1. You must have a mesh compliant viewer.  Since Linden Labs made it so animation deformers will no longer function properly, the only way to make non-human avatar shapes is to use Mesh.  Because we didn’t want to make this entirely a mesh avatar , we are only using a mesh base.  None of the mesh is actually shown on the Dire Wolf, it’s still a sculpted prim avatar.

2. We have removed the “Eyes Attached” head. Since you have to use mesh, you’ll definitely be using a multiple-attachment compliant viewer.  People can request an eyes-attached head, but it won’t be packaged with the Dire Wolf.

Here’s the list of changes:

V2.5 – Nov 2013
– Deformer changed to Mesh deformer/shape due to SL update that rendered all prior animation based deformers inoperable.
– “Eyes Attached” version of the head removed as this version of the Dire Wolf requires a mesh viewer, which means all of them can handle multiple attachments.
– Script Updates – All scripts in the attachments have had tweaks or updates, notably to an issue after a recently SL update that caused the color changing to not fully progress through all the prims.
– Color/Texture changing is a bit slower now to give each prim/section enough time to change all the colors/textures on each prim successfully.  Added a command so users can manually edit the time it takes to change textures/colors (Making it slower for lagging sims could help, and faster again if needed.)
– HUD Update – Removed the deformer scripts and animations for use with the mesh deformer.
– Tail, Upper leg, Lower leg rebuilt to appear more streamlined/realistic.
-Animations redone to work with new mesh deformer.  Walk and Run animations made with less ‘kicking out’ so they no longer appear to be ‘prancing’.
-HUD Selected Animations that change facial expressions will now revert the expression once the animation is done being used/playing.
-If Tail is in sculpted mode, it will change position for some HUD Selected Animations (such as the Sit pose).  Also available in command form.
-Updating system has been added to the HUD for ease of use.  See “About” tab on the HUD for Updates.

Sorry for the delays everyone. Time Warner Cable accidentally disconnected our internet after our apartment’s contract for cable TV (Which we never used) expired. They didn’t stop to check and see that some of us had internet accounts. So they couldn’t bother to send anyone out for a week!

Anyway, I’m back online and once again working on the Dire Wolf sinking issue!