Layer discussions

I need your opinion on a problem that's haunting me since forever. It's about the layer order.

As you might know every SP-Studio item has a certain layer assigned to it. Higher layer numbers appear on top of lower numbers. Here is an example of the current order:

79 eyes

88 hair a (behind glasses and beards)

90-93 beards

96 some mouths (big teeth, tongue)

95 face masks
98 hanging eye

99 glasses

100 hair b (in front of glasses and beards) – most hair!
109 scarfs, stand-up collar, epaulettes

Since the relaunch I use two different layers for the hair because long bangs or braids should be in front of beards and glasses, but other hairstyles are behind the head. Hair is complicated because it's in front of the head and behind the back at the same time, but it's one single item. The main problem with the current order are the scarfs (and similar "shoulder accessories"): Long beards do not work with scarfs under the chin because the beard is cut off by the scarf.

The logical solution would be to put these scarfs in a layer under the beards. Problem solved!

79 eyes

88 hair a (behind glasses, scarfs, beards)
89 low scarfs

90-93 beards

96 some mouths (big teeth, tongue)

95 face masks
98 hanging eye

99 glasses

100 hair b (in front of glasses, scarfs, beards) – most hair!
109 scarfs in front of face, stand-up collar, epaulettes

This helps the beards. But wait... now the scarfs are under most hairstyles so some scarfs are cut off at the sides by the long hairstyles.

I am currently seeing no solution for this but maybe you have an idea? But I guess the new order is better than the old one because the beards now work with scarfs.

Quote from DavidSchwarz

I guess, it's not possible to somehow link objects to each other that are on different layers or in other words, to create an object, that has multiple layers in itself?

I wanted to do this in the old SP-Studio to split a hairstyle in "behind the head" and "in front of the head", but it turned out to be too complicated to link both files. The two colors must be linked as well and it will be especially probleamtic when moving the item. Right now I see no way how to include this.

Quote from Paul/Tony Maroj

is there anyway to arrange the items so that the scarves are both BEHIND the beards and in FRONT of the long hair?

If I do this the logical consequence would be: beards would be in front of the long hair. This brings new problems, because often parts of the hair is in front of the face as well. I already do this for some hairstyles, but it does not work for all of them. For example it would not work for the hair in the example, because the beard would strangely cover the left and right elements of the hair (difficult to describe, sorry).

Quote from DavidSchwarz

Probably, meanwhile there are too many objects and body parts to make them work in any possible combination. It could be useful to study other avatar creators. But most of them will simply have fewer options to choose from.

I actually think it's still possible, because I have built a system over the years that works fine with most items. Only the hairstyles are the HUGE problem, because of this "behind the head and in front of the head at the same time" issue. I'd assume good coders can solve this problem by linking two layers. But I will not ask Lars about it because the list of ideas for updates is already really long. And splitting up all the old hairstyles would be a lot of work.

Quote from DavidSchwarz

What, if you had a category for hair that's mainly behind the body and another one for bangs that cover other items? Then you could even combine them and create a broader variety of haircuts.

This is how Nintendo did it in the (really good!) Miitopia editor and I am angry at myself for not coming up with this earlier. It is a good idea, but changing all the hairstyles now is nothing I can do in thhe near future. It would take too much time and I want to focus on regular updates again after bringing back all the old items after the relaunch.

For the distant future I still hope for a layer system so you can optimize the layer order yourself. This way you will be able to select the layer for the hair depending on your other items and how they fit with it. It should solve most problems (not all though).

And I think about using the "highlights" category more in the near future. With several hair pieces for the back and the front it might become more helpful as well. I just won't change all the existing hair.

By the way: This is my current "system" how all items are sorted. There are some gaps between the numbers so I can easier add new items if they need their own layer. This is the version after the update I am working on at the moent.

Level.pdf

Quote from Art Vandelay

I kind of wish belts could be placed under jackets and coats, as opposed to on top of them. And long ties would be under waist coats.

I could add a new layer for open jackets and coats on top of belts, ties and shirt motifs. The only downside is you will not be able to wear other shirts on top of open jackets and coats then. But I guess this option might be less important anyway.

What do the others think about it?

I think I want a system for the shirts that's still easy to understand. So I would move all open coats / jackets on the bottom of the list and give them their own layer. The waist coat is not open, so I'd keep it where it is. To fix the issue with the tie I'd add a simple shirt with a tie because this is something that's missing anyway (not everybody wants to look for the tie as a single item).