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I'm currently working on a custom look that I plan to publish in the next few weeks.
Perhaps I should have known better, but I started with one of the native skins that come with VaM, in this case the Kayla skin. I have made an entirely custom set of face textures, but do not plan to change the rest of the body textures, other than perhaps a few transparent decals.
The first issue arises when addressing the seams at the neck, scalp, and ears. If using a native texture, there is no way to access the actual texture data, since they have been turned into binaries. However, RenVR, the original creator of the native VaM skins has all of them available for download on his Patreon, which can all be accessed for an extremely reasonable $2. Another issue that I discovered is that the native Kayla skin has a built-in seam on the inner thighs. This appears to have always been there.
So, in my explorations, I played around with blending the trouble seams by using the Kayla textures from RenVR's Patreon. Also to note, the diffuse Kayla texture from Patreon solves the inner thigh seam that is baked-in to the VaM native skin. Simple enough to resolve locally, but this brings up several questions, especially when considering publishing the look:
- The first issue is licensing. Are these RenVR's skins? Are they VaM's skins? How are these skins licenced? Am I allowed to use them to blend seams at all?
- The second issue, dependent on the first, is how are creators expected to manage these sorts of issues? I can't be alone in trying to use custom face textures with native skins, and I also can't be alone in being confused with the lack of clarity around the licensing involved.
Of note, none of the skins from RenVR's Patreon have any licensing attached to them. They are just zip files with the textures inside, not even with a var extension. But, they do come with the implicit distribution license of having acquired them through a paywall from RenVR's personal Patreon.
Is the lesson, or takeaway "Just don't ever use any of the native VaM skins when making custom looks"? I really hope not, as that seems to go against the intent of VaM as a creator sandbox.
I have sent a message to RenVR both through Patreon (many months ago when I first wondered about this), and here on the hub, but have yet to get a reply.
Any clarifications welcome.
- Metix
Perhaps I should have known better, but I started with one of the native skins that come with VaM, in this case the Kayla skin. I have made an entirely custom set of face textures, but do not plan to change the rest of the body textures, other than perhaps a few transparent decals.
The first issue arises when addressing the seams at the neck, scalp, and ears. If using a native texture, there is no way to access the actual texture data, since they have been turned into binaries. However, RenVR, the original creator of the native VaM skins has all of them available for download on his Patreon, which can all be accessed for an extremely reasonable $2. Another issue that I discovered is that the native Kayla skin has a built-in seam on the inner thighs. This appears to have always been there.
So, in my explorations, I played around with blending the trouble seams by using the Kayla textures from RenVR's Patreon. Also to note, the diffuse Kayla texture from Patreon solves the inner thigh seam that is baked-in to the VaM native skin. Simple enough to resolve locally, but this brings up several questions, especially when considering publishing the look:
- The first issue is licensing. Are these RenVR's skins? Are they VaM's skins? How are these skins licenced? Am I allowed to use them to blend seams at all?
- The second issue, dependent on the first, is how are creators expected to manage these sorts of issues? I can't be alone in trying to use custom face textures with native skins, and I also can't be alone in being confused with the lack of clarity around the licensing involved.
Of note, none of the skins from RenVR's Patreon have any licensing attached to them. They are just zip files with the textures inside, not even with a var extension. But, they do come with the implicit distribution license of having acquired them through a paywall from RenVR's personal Patreon.
Is the lesson, or takeaway "Just don't ever use any of the native VaM skins when making custom looks"? I really hope not, as that seems to go against the intent of VaM as a creator sandbox.
I have sent a message to RenVR both through Patreon (many months ago when I first wondered about this), and here on the hub, but have yet to get a reply.
Any clarifications welcome.
- Metix
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