SL JIRA - Second Life designers might find themselves doing a double take when they see that a specific issue with a gray cast on clothing designs disappears in SL v. 1.21, a future client release with no specific release date as yet. The issue was reported in the SL Jira VWR-8012 on July 1, and already has been assigned and fixed, according to CG Linden on the Jira, despite there being only two votes for the issue.

VWR-8012, reported by Bublee Bing, states, "It's the hell for every designer in sl: Since version 1.19.1.4 even in daylight, avatars (skins) and clothing have a gray shading which one can't get rid of because it appears only in world, after uploading.

Now, more and more attachments are getting used for clothing. On these attachments pretty much the original designed colour appears in world, but the rest gets this gray shading in world."

Bing goes on to say, "Darker textures (dark blue jeans, dark gray shirts etc.) lose all details under this gray "blanket". Designers try to work with extra light in their shops so that you see what you are buying - until you go outside in the "noon sun"..... Ever since, it becomes "night" on the clothing and skin.

It has nothing to do with natural appearance anymore! It's just annoying!"

Because the workaround or "fix" for this issue is adding more and brighter face lights, avatars are finding themselves either blinding or blinded by other avatars wearing the bright lights to stop the dinge-y appearance. The workaround of adding facelights, however, does create an issue with the graphics looking like overexposed film, with whites appearing far too bright.

Designer Nicky Ree posted a second workaround in her blog a few weeks ago, urging residents to slightly tint the prim skirts of her designs to realize a match for clothing on the mesh layers. "Our older dresses with prim attachments worked and looked fine before windlight. But with the new viewer with windlight the prims now look brighter and do not match the system skirt, pants etc..." she said.

The issue was assigned to BigPapi Linden on July 8, and a reply from CG Linden on July 14 states, "This won't make it into 1.20, but will likely be in 1.21. This will allow designers to test and adapt their designs back to the "way it should have been"." CG left no comment on how the issue was fixed, however, only that one will be coming.