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Onyx LeShelle, the maker of the extremely popular, nearly ubiquitous Maitreya Lara mesh avatar body for female avatars, has just released an update, version 5.0. Of course, the Second Life vloggers are already all over the news. Here is Naria Panthar’s video:
And here is NovataSecondLife’s video:
The updated HUD includes a materials section which allows you to control the glossiness and the intensity of shininess of the skin, which allows you to match your Maitreya Lara body with the newest features on the Genus line of Bento mesh heads.
There are also now five different feet positions (similar to what Slink has offered for quite some time), including a new kitten heel height and a new, ballet-style, pointed-toe setting that might work better with the various sitting and kneeling animations in your animation override. You can also adjust each foot separately, which you were never able to do before this update!
(screen capture from the NovataSecondLife video above)
It would also appear that you have much finer control over what sections of the body to apply layers to the skin, such as tattoos. In addition, the Bakes on Mesh activation button is now built into the new HUD.
Also, the updated Maitreya HUD now gives you a finer set of alpha sections in the wrist and ankle areas, which might come in handy with certain clothing and shoes!
Obviously, the Maitreya store (SLURL) is absolutely jam-packed right now with avatars trying to get the version 5.0 update, so I would wait a while before trying to get in, until the rush dies down.
UPDATE Feb. 18th, 2020: Strawberry Linden has shared a link to another vlogger who has provided a quick start guide to Maitreya Lara version 5.0, including Bakes on Mesh:
Also, I forgot to mention that, instead of going to the in-world store to get a redelivery of your Maitreya Lara mesh body, you can join the official Maitreya V.I.P. group (which is free), then check the group notices for a remote redelivery HUD that you can use anywhere in Second Life to obtain the latest version of the body.
Just download the attachment from the group notices to your inventory, find the Maitreya Mesh Body Update HUD in your Objects folder and double-click it to load it. It will appear in the upper right-hand corner of your SL viewer as shown here:
Click on it once, and your update is automatically delivered! You can then detach the HUD. You won’t need to use it again, since you can use the redeliver button on your Maitreya Lara 5.0 HUD to get updates after that.
You can apparently join the Friends of Lara (or something similar to that name) and get a hud that will deliver the now body. So no need to wait if you are in a hurry to try out the new release. There are some downsides to the new model (not being able to take of feet and hands to save bandwidth downloads for one) so not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon right away. This from many SL forum posts.