BOM Layer Order Optimization: Move Universal Layer Beneath Tattoo Layers
tracked
vnucci Resident
Currently, the Bakes on Mesh (BOM) baking stack places the Universal Layer above standard Tattoo Layers. Because the Universal layer covers all texture channels simultaneously, using it to distribute a full skin (Head, Torso, Legs, and auxiliary parts) completely cakes over and hides a resident’s existing inventory of standard Tattoo layers—including makeups, hairbases, and body art.
As a result, creators are heavily discouraged from utilizing the Universal layer for complete avatars, forcing its use to be almost entirely restricted to isolated attachments like mesh ears.
Moving the Universal layer's position in the baking hierarchy to sit directly under Tattoo layers and directly above the System Skin layer would fully unlock its original design potential.
Use Cases & Community Benefits
• Complete-in-One Asset Creation: Skin creators could leverage a single Universal layer file to package an entire avatar skin. This includes simultaneous coverage of the head, body, left/right ears, custom eye textures, fingernails, and auxiliary channels without forcing residents to give up their cosmetics.
• Massive Inventory De-cluttering: Instead of a customer having to locate and wear separate system skins, auxiliary body appliers, and independent tattoo layer extensions for specialized mesh parts, everything fits perfectly into one clean wearable asset.
• Seamless Customization Workflow: Residents could wear a complete full-body baseline asset via the Universal layer while safely overlaying their existing library of traditional standalone tattoos, hairbases, and cosmetic makeups right on top of it.
• No Structural Disadvantages: Because the Universal layer natively supports alpha masking and transparency channels across its target outputs, positioning it underneath specialized tattoo cosmetics introduces no regressions to traditional layout styling or transparency blending.
Proposed Technical Change
Modify the server-side and viewer-side texture composition pipeline so that the texture baking order stacks as follows (from top/visible to bottom):
- [Upper Layers: Jackets, Shirts, Underwear, etc.]
- Tattoo Layers (User-reorderable cosmetics, makeups, hairbases)
- Universal Wearable Layers (Unlocks baseline full-body/asymmetric texture baking)
- System Skin Layer (The absolute baseline texture)
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SL Feedback
Thanks for taking the time to write up this request—and for the detailed breakdown of why the current BOM stack makes Universal wearables impractical for full-body skins.
We did find this is a duplicate of an older report from Second Life’s previous bug tracking system (the Jira archive):
BUG-227585
. That issue is specifically about moving Universal
wearables to bake between Skin and Tattoo layers
so that Universal can be used for opaque “baseline” textures without wiping out residents’ tattoo cosmetics (makeup, hairbases, body art, etc.).Because this has been raised before, we’re going to set your post to
Tracked
and associate it with BUG-227585
so all feedback and use-cases stay consolidated in one place. While we don’t have an ETA to share, keeping it tracked helps ensure it remains visible for review as BOM-related work is prioritized.We appreciate you outlining the creator and resident workflow impacts (inventory reduction, single-asset skins, and preserving tattoo overlays)—that context is exactly the kind of detail that helps when the team evaluates changes like baking order adjustments.
SL Feedback
updated the status to
tracked