Build and Skin:

As DERP matures as an avatar creator, we can see that they have taken some liberties to adjust their style over time. The bovine avatar is one that shows this shift, starting with the skins. DERP skins are usually imaginative, but at some times a little unclear or incomplete. The DERP Bovine comes in a few different subspecies, but most are of the splotchy variety, such as Holstein or Guernsney. The details for these splotches are very well done, and the standard level of shading and highlights that DERP includes with their skins makes the skin all the more vibrant. Another improvement in general is the new offering of DERP of both male and female-based skins. That way, males receive a skin that looks slightly more befitting of a masculine bull. Additionally, females receive a skin that effectively communicates feminimity. Additionally, despite how cows are sometimes known for their body fat, these avatars come with rather lean body shapes, which is a likely answer to some complaints from some users over their prior avatars.

As a whole, the DERP Bovine’s textures meet their standard and exceed them slightly, although it would have been nice to see variation in the skin. That is; the left side of the skin is exactly the same as the right side. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this, but the avatar would have certainly had more going for it if there were more marking variation. A much less important area where improvement could be applied is in ensuring the line between top and bottom skin areas (under the belly button) is minimised.

Attachments:

Lower Body:

DERP was the first creator we had reviewed who had offered Viewer 2.0-compatible body parts (DERP Tiger) with their avatar as the norm. This avatar does not include Viewer 2.0 parts because it is, at this time, not a popular option. It will, however, be included again in their future avatars.

That said, this avatar uses invisiprims to hide the shape legs underneath, making way for thick, but functional unguligrade leg attachments. These form a very good connection with the shape and the hoof, and appear poised to hold the avatar’s supposed heftiness. The hoofs themselves are the simplest of the avatar’s assortment of attachments; a single large brown hoof that merges with the leg neatly.

The only other attachment on the lower body is that of the tail; of which, only fully sculpted tails come with this avatar. Users are able to choose one of three states; those being Up, Middle, or Down. While some users may have appreciated a flexible-prim version of the tail, the sculpted tail does a good job of appearing tasseled and cow-like. All the same, the sculpted tassel end maintains the style of the rest of the avatar’s appearance and adds to its organic quality.

There is another attachment for the lower body, but the user is able to purchase the avatar with or without the udder. Because of this and all of the details surrounding the udder, it will be covered later in the review.

Upper Body:

The only other attachment for the upper body before the head is just that of the hands. Like other avatars before it, the DERP Bovine strives to create an appropriate merger of human hand and ungulate hoof structure. They have succeeded with sturdy hoof-hands that do not require users to wear wrist attachments to smoothen the visual transition. As such, the hands are fairly simply a semi-human palm, but with three very thick, triangle-ish hooftips for each finger-digit.

Head:

The head comes in two different versions; one for males and one for females. The only difference between the two are the type of horns on the head. Females get simple, medium length horns that point straight upwards, while males get more masculine ‘bull’ horns that are a fair bit larger, but also point forward slightly. The textures and sculpts of the horns are both well done. Both sexes also get their own hairs; females with a mid-length bob-cut. Males receive a shaggy hair cut that’s slightly longer than the female’s. Users are able to swap textures for the hair by clicking on the prims and choose one of the four offered textures.

DERP heads are constructed to be relatively simple, but the advantage is that there are little to no sculpt wrinkles or seams between them. As a whole, the shape of the head is very bovine-like, and the muzzle is appropriately shaped. There is a considerable enough width between the eyes to give the muzzle a boxy appearance. Recognition goes out for the texture and shape that went into the appropriately  wide cow-nose at the end of the face.

Inside the muzzle is a full compliment of bovid teeth; flat and thick for the obvious gnashing of plant matter. The tongue inside the muzzle is well sculpted, and allows users to stick it out. When users choose to stick their tongue out (with the HUD), they will find it really quite long; almost funnily so. Otherwise, the expression of the muzzle is set in a slightly enigmatic neutral tone, which works well for the face as a whole.

One trademark of DERP’s avatars is their eyes. Some of their prior avatars had a seemingly semi-disinterested look in their eyes. With this avatar that isn’t so much the case as the shape of the eyes gives the large irises a bit more room, so that the face looks less disinterested and more lively. Thus, the facial expression is a bit more neutral, while still others might see a gentle and lazy creature through the eyes.

The last detail of the head are the cow-shaped ears that point horizontally away from the sides of the head. They twitch on their own and respond to clicks from the user and other avatars, but have no settings of their own. The addition of these competent ears rounds out the features of the avatar’s head fully.

Features and Heads-Up Display (HUD):

This avatar is completely controllable through the two very user-friendly and graphical HUDs. Both HUDs are colourful and minimise the amount of text in favour of intuitive graphics and icons.

Cow HUD v1.0

• Tail: Up/Middle/Down Toggle
• Mouth: Muzzle Talking Function On/Off, Mouth Width Slider, Tongue In/Out/Side
• Eyes: Open – Closed Slider, Blink On/Off

Eye Colour HUD

• Choose the Eye Colours of three parts: Middle, Edge, and Shadow
• Saturation Level slider
• “Automatic” random eye colour generator
• Independent Eye Colour Options
• Export Colour Settings to Text

As mentioned, there is a guide that comes in the notecard which helps users who wish to modify the shape to ensure that the head still works well with the avatar.

DERP. Bovine Udders:

Users are able to buy this avatar with or without the included udders. To get the version of the avatar with the udder, users must select it in the vendor and buy it for 1300L instead of 900L for the base avatar. The udder itself comes as a box inside the unpacked avatar’s folders, so you must unpack it and choose one of five different colours to wear. These colours are: Black, Dark Pink, Light Pink, Medium Pink and White. If you read the notecard about the Udder, you will find that you are able to re-tint the skin of the udder to a new colour, or even tint the white fur to something else manually.

The udder itself is very self-explanatory from the included images. Users are provided a large  udder that is worn on their stomach between the thighs. It hangs down towards the legs as one would expect a bipedal cow’s udder to rest. Each of the colour choices are well done, and the shading suits the style of the avatar with ample shading. One can see the veins and the thickness of the skin on the udder, complete with wrinkles. The teats themselves follow the design style of the udder itself, and have a few options of their own.

By clicking the udder, you can choose whether you wish tiny droplets of milk to drop downwards from the tips of the teats in a number of different intensities. That is, you can choose whether you want milk to “dribble” on heavy, medium, light, or turn it off.

The other options are that you can enable or disable the udder’s “milky” texture in which the tips of the udder’s teats become covered in a thin layer of milk. The last one is that the teats will pulse ever so slightly on their own, suggesting that either the wearer is in need of milking, or throbbing from having already been milked.

Needless to say, the udder is not for everyone, and it may fill certain peoples’ fetish interests and not others. Despite costing a little bit more, people who would want an udder receive a well-made attachment. Those who aren’t interested can just buy the avatar without the udder and save 400L.

Customisation:

This avatar is modifiable and copiable, so users are able to make modifications as they wish. The head-shape is slightly more spherical than third-party hairs come sized for, but with a little modification, they could be made to fit.

Conclusion:

The DERP Bovine is certainly an interesting avatar, and adds to the small number of ungulate avatars that we have reviewed here on SLARF. The company is still growing and maturing, but we can see refinement and tweaks in their style. This avatar is one of their strongest to date; with an appeal to both those who are just looking for a strong bovine avatar or for those who want an avatar with fetish-appeal. As a whole, this avatar is a fairly complete package that emulates and expresses what one might expect from this unique species of farm animal.