So… You probably noticed a lot of us in Second Life like to wear high heels a lot of the time. Unlike real life there is no such thing as impractical footwear. Go for it – wear your stilettos on the beach! Run in them! All day! Zero blisters. Yay!

And for the uninitiated: most of us have a mesh body right? The thing is your underlying (hidden) system avatar has no idea you are wearing highs. It thinks your feet are flat. So when some poses get set (we are talking furniture poses typically) and the animation tells your avatar to point her feet, the hidden system flat feet do just that but your mesh body feet, which are already at their limit in your 6″ heels, bend way past that point.

So this is the result:

Source: anon (Flickr)

OK so I gather that with some pretty niche extreme high heel training in RL (really not recommended) it is possible to push the limits of your ankle a bit but nothing like that!

Am I the only one for whom this makes them feel a bit queasy? It looks to me like someone’s come along and smashed your ankles with a sledgehammer.

Now each to their own and all that… Maybe hobbled ankles are your thing. But last time I checked heels are meant to look sexy, so this just kills it for me. Makes me feel a bit…

What’s weird is:

• It’s super easy to fix.
• Half of people either don’t notice or don’t seem to care.

Maybe I’m just fussy about details (I am) but a big part playing with avatars is to create an immersive simulation. Stop me if I’m wrong. The avatar is *all* about the visual. So why leave a glaringly obvious deformity?

OK… if you just forget for 5 minutes IW no big deal. I’ve done a lot worse. But to actually take photos and post them on Flickr like that. Like… can’t you see?

I mentioned this to a friend the other day. She was completely oblivious to the problem or (once I’d pointed it out) how to solve it.

If you really don’t know then read on.

• If you have a Maitreya body it’s built into the HUD. Just turn that on. Done.
• Strawberry Singh made a simple Broken Ankle Fix, like forever ago. It’s $1L. Wear that all the time. Done. StrawberrySingh.com Broken Ankle Fix – Ankle Lock – MP
• Some shoes come with an ankle lock. Use that! Done.
• For a few more Lindens there are HUDs that also fix hand positions and eye movements such as this one: Fix Your Mesh Feet, Hands & More! – MP

See? That wasn’t so hard now was it?