Custom Avatars (or CAV) are customizable avatars, using sliders and options to create a completely unique avatar.

The Custom Avatar system is designed to give individual users the ability to create a distinct, modifiable, universal, and easily portable avatar than can be used in multiple worlds. Unlike other methods of providing avatars, the CAvatar system does not create geometry for users to download. Instead, it is a collection of numbers and settings that is used to generate the avatar on the client side.

The system uses one or more base models, which are then deformed (making them fatter, more muscular, etc) to produce the final geometry. The textures are created through layering and blending effects and are then applied to the finished model.

To use custom avatars, you must have at least one avatar type. An avatar type is a model which begins with a single base model. Male and female would be different types. Likewise, if you created something very different from a base human (like a robot or a lizard) it would also be another type of avatar. Each type requires three types of assets: Templates, Models, and Textures.

Each avatar type begins with a base model. (These are currently created in DirectX ASCII format.) These base models are downloaded by the browser before any individual avatars are constructed. In-house, Activeworlds Inc. uses Blender to create these models.

A number of base textures are required to generate the final model, including textures for skin, hair, and clothing. Because these textures must be layered together to build a final texture, PNG file format is used, which supports transparency.

Templates are the files which define what parts each avatar type uses, how they go together, what textures are used, and what deformation sliders will be available to the user. Templates are XML files.

Using CAVs with the SDK

Structure of the CAV system

CAVtemplates.xml