Prefer a feminine body and flat chest? You’re not alone! The V-Tech Boi Chest was created to fill this exact need, and has been a staple for many Second Life users for years now. Maitreya released their Flat Chest Add-on at The Itty Bitty Titty Committee event in September 2020. Both have a price point of L$499. This post is to go over each product and help you decide which is better for you.
V-Tech Boi Chest
V-Tech created the main flat chest mod for Maitreya back in 2016. Since then it’s gained quite the following and has the support of multiple skin and clothing designers. Their products have been featured at various events and their customers absolutely love it.
There are two versions included with your purchase: the regular version to use with appliers and the BOM version. The applier version has tattoo, underwear, and clothing layers that match up with Maitreya’s body and can be controlled via the V-Tech HUD. It’s Omega compatible and can also be modified with your own custom textures. The BOM version uses the system layers, so it cannot be used with appliers.
Overall it’s really rather straightforward and easy to use. When you put it on it will automatically hide the sections of the Maitreya body required. If you use the applier one you’ll have to apply your skin after putting the chest on so it matches your body. Please note you’ll need the Omega version of appliers since Maitreya appliers won’t work on the V-Tech. If you’re using the BOM version just pop it on and it’ll adjust to your BOM skin right away.
The main downside I’ve noticed with the V-Tech is seams. Using Maitreya 5.2 they weren’t very noticeable aside from around the neck area. With the 5.3 update seams are more apparent on the stomach area as seen in the comparison section below. This appears to have been a bug on my end of things. More info at the bottom of the post below the Credits section.
The HUD
Naturally you won’t be able to control your V-Tech Boi Chest with the Maitreya HUD. Thankfully Valentine Technologies supplies an easy to use HUD that doesn’t overlap on your UI with the Maitreya HUD.
The first section is the alphas. You can see here how in depth they are and how many options you really have when hiding parts of your flat chest.
The second section is the layers. You’ll use this only for the applier version of the chest. You can toggle each layer on and off, mask each layer, and clear all layers with a simple click.
The materials section can be used for both the applier and BOM versions. You can toggle them on and off from here, and also adjust the Glossiness, Intensity, and environment via sliders. It’s important to note that once you adjust those sliders you’ll have to adjust your Maitreya sliders to match.
The HUD itself is minimized by clicking the sleek V-Tech logo on the top right. It keeps it unintrusive yet quick to access if needed. On Firestorm I love how it nestles right under the notifications row. It just feels and looks really clean.
Maitreya’s Flat Chest Add-On
Maitreya is one of the most popular bodies in Second Life. They have a loyal fan base and tons of support from third party designers. This past summer Maitreya released their Petite Add-on which gave their users and easy way to use smaller breasts without deforming the chest shape. Many people speculated this was the first of multiple add-ons, and we’re now seeing the Flat Chest Add-ons debut.
The purchase comes with two flat chest options and one HUD that works with both (more on the HUD below). Lara Add-on Flat Chest is their standard version. Lara Add-on Flat Chest Adapted is a version designed to be “better compatible with flat chest content that has already been made prior to the Maitreya Lara Flat Chest release” according to the included notecard. Both chests come with their own underwear, tattoo, and clothing layers to replace the ones on your standard Maitreya body. Also included are BOM layers that match existing Maitreya skin tones (and the newly included Pink Fusion tones) and BOM layers for concealing the genitals on all the skins. The chests are both applier and BOM compatible just like the body is.
When you put the chest on it automatically hides the portions of your Maitreya body that need to be hidden. By default it displays the applier texture and with a simple click of the BOM button on the HUD it swaps over. As the chest is made by the same creator as the process is entirely seamless.
The HUD
Speaking of that seamless feel, the included Flat Chest HUD replaces your default Maitreya HUD. It’s identical to the main body HUD in every single way aside from the Skin/Base tab, which is shown here. In place of the HD nipple options that the default HUD has, you’ll see Pink Fuel skin tones. In addition the nipple shape options show a flat chest instead of breasts. The nipple options are a nice touch, but the differences are very subtle. The original is flat, hard sticks the nipple out a tiny bit, and puffy bring a little bit of the areola up around the nipple itself. It’s a change for sure, but not as noticeable as on the default body.
There is one big oversight I believe worth mentioning. The Alpha section of the HUD is identical to the default body. This means your chest alphas hide in curved patterns similar to the breasts. It is impossible to alpha your chest in a straight line using the HUD. At first I thought this was a simple mistake, however a customer service representative for Maitreya confirmed that this is working as intended. I do want to mention the representative also suggested that BOM users could make their own system custom alpha layers as a workaround. Applier users cannot alpha in a straight line.
Side by Side Comparison
Here you can easily see the differences between the two chests. Things that are an obvious advantage for one side over the other are in bold.
| V-Tech Boi Chest | Maitreya Flat Chest Add-on |
| Already has a wide array of compatible clothing and accessories | Brand new, so it relies on products that were made for V-Tech which may or may not fit perfectly. |
| V-Tech HUD is required to make any adjustments to the chest. | No separate HUD needed |
| The alphas use a flat chest so it’s not only easy to visualize what you’re hiding via the HUD, but you can alpha things in a straight line across your chest. | The alphas are based on a chest with breasts, so they curve. You cannot alpha a straight line unless you use BOM and make your own body alphas. |
| Chest is entirely flat – Nipple placement on skins isn’t an issue. | Nipples are built into the shape – looks more realistic but also more limits on skins. |
| Compatible with Omega and BOM, but not Maitreya Appliers. | Compatible with Maitreya appliers as well as Omega and BOM |
| Third party, so there may be a wait between a Maitreya update and the V-Tech update that may or may not be needed to make the chest compatible with the new version. | As both the Flat Chest Add-on and the Lara body are made by Maitreya there will likely be no wait for compatibility. |
The skin here is Pink Fuel in Apricot, used so you can see more than just the DeeTaleZ skin I use in the rest of the post.
V-Tech allows for straight line alphas.
Why Multiple Options Are A Good Thing
Regardless of which you prefer, this is likely to be a win win for flat chested users across the grid, and hopefully for both V-Tech and Maitreya. V-Tech not only makes the Boi Chest, but also flat chested clothing. They’ll hopefully see even more traffic as newly flat chested residents start looking for outfits. Maitreya will likely gain more customers simply by offering their own flat chest option as well. With even a small amount of luck we’ll start seeing even more designers making products for flat chested folks now that a majorly popular body has native support for them.
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly the Maitreya Flat Chest Add-on catches on, if fans of the V-Tech Boi Chest consider swapping, and if users who are introducted to flat chest via Maitreya’s release decide to purchase V-Tech’s instead. No matter what the future holds, both brands are supporting flat chested users and making them more visible which I think is a positive.
Do you have one of these chests? Are you considering getting one? Tell me what you think in the comments!
10/7/2020 – Post updated with where to find Maitreya Flat Chest now that the IBTC event is over. Also fixed a few typos and added sculpted nipple shape to the comparison graph (thanks Aleche Amat!).
9/9/2020 – After much testing on my end it appears that the stomach seam I was seeing with V-Tech’s Boi Chest was actually a graphical glitch on my side of things. As such I’ve updated the information and the photos in the post that were inaccurate. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused in the hour or so it was live before it was corrected!
Credits
Body – Maitreya: Lara
Chest (right) – V-Tech: Boi Chest (Available at their store and the Marketplace)
Chest (left) – Maitreya: Flat Chest (Adapted) (Available at their store)
Skin – DeeTaleZ: Rafaela in Nordic
Shape – DeeTaleZ: Shape for GENUS Bento Head BASIC 5
Hair – Magika: Lyric
Eyelashes – bluebird – Natural Eyelashes for Genus – 1
Outfit – V-Tech: Devil Slayer Gacha
Pose – Le Poppycock: Bright Ideas (gacha) Spotlight
Pose – Le Poppycock: Bright Ideas (gacha) Live Out Loud
Background – Foxcity: Glitter Box
Only just started playing, have the Maitreya with the Petite add-on, might switch to the Flat Chest now – at least I don’t have a wardrobe to replace. Hope we see more petites and flat chests out there to balance out the women with ridiculous ott booties and boobs. Honestly half the women in SL look like a tanker truck of silicon collided with Jersey Shore’s cast-offs.
I think as long as somebody is happy with how they look it shouldn’t matter what others think of it 🙂 That said, it’ll be nice to see more diverse looks gaining steam! I am really excited to see what designers start making for flat chests and for the Petite as well since that is also relatively new. I know V-Tech has been around for a while but I think some designers just didn’t and maybe still don’t realize there is a market for smaller to flat chests. The more options the better!
There’s enough body shaming in real life. Do you really gotta body shame peoples avatars? Whatever looks make people happy are just fine.
Would that all people in SL thought the way you do. Myself included, because I don’t pretend that I admire absolutely every last expression of pixels everyone brings, though I do prefer to compliment those I do and otherwise remain mostly silent. In my experience however, a good slice of the prejudice and body shaming seems to come from the “abundantly developed” crowd, shall we say.
I’ll give you an example. I used to hang out at a fairly popular femboy hangout in SL occasionally, wearing my V-Tech flat chest and Maitreya body and with a height. build and attire that was well within LL ToS and CS guidelines (when they used to enumerate them that is). One night, someone at the club insisted I was a child, I politely informed them I wasn’t and invited them to read my profile. When they continued to insist, I told them (again politely) that I couldn’t wasn’t interested in being a child, nor interacting with anyone who saw me as such and further that I felt my appearence and SL profile reflected this. When they continued to pursue the issue further, I blocked them and went about my business. I knew the club owner from previous association years before under an alt which was more diminutive, they had expressed no concern and I wasn’t expecting anything further from this.
Two days later I was informed by the club owner via private message that I had been banned as a result of numerous complaints, as was my partner (who I learned later had not been attending the club for three years anyway) and over the following weeks a number of my social circle were being harassed and threatened with bans under the presumption they were my alts because they all shared the same surname as I did. Around the same time this was happening, another friend of mine (who also has a V-Tech/Maitreya combo and plays as an eighty year old kender) one night found herself the target of harassment because she *wouldnt* go there when demanded to – an oversight which resulted in no less than four people over a 30 minute period messaging the owner of the sim where they knew her to be claiming that she too was a child.
This all happened nearly two years ago now and I haven’t been back since. After thirteen years on the grid I think I can claim I’m a reasonably competent role player, a few people with similar level of attention to their RP have invited me up there and my answer is a hard and fast “no”, along with my reasons if they ask. That level of toxicity and intolerance has no place in my SL I feel goes beyond mere body shaming and into the realms of slander and harassment. I don’t have time to waste on such threats, I am too busy enjoying myself, with people both taller AND shorter than I am, some of whom have the most amazingly over-proportioned figures. Which I am not a fan of mind you, but they do have other qualities more endearing and that helps me a lot in overlooking the occasional pair of boobs that arrive five minutes before the rest of them do.
If there’s a point in any of my ramble worth taking away, I hope that it’s this: we shouldn’t necessarily have to idolize each others pixels or ideals, but learning to accept the differences in place of tarring and feathering them on sight goes a long way towards fostering a better community. You never know the friends you might otherwise never make, or the positive differences you might otherwise have made in each others SLives.
All that said, I’m glad I stumbled across this page. I just bought the maitreya flat chest a couple of hours ago and came here looking to see how compatible it is with the existing availability of flat chest clothing. Valentine Technologies will no doubt be pleased to know you’ve convinced me to get their product as well.
Thanks and stay safe… each and every one of you. ^.^
Oh that sounds so frustrating! There’s a lot of people out there who assume any feminine body with a flat or petite chest is a child. It seems like tricky waters to navigate depending on the sim and the people on it.
I love seeing the wide variety of avatars and how people portray themselves. It’s something important to both the resident as a character and as the human behind the avatar. I feel fortunate to be able to have that small glimpse into somebody’s world.
As you very likely know, many SL residents tend to be SUPER tall (me included). I think this gives the more realistically proportioned avatars even more of a challenge, especially when they are petite. Many people expect everyone to be so tall that anyone under 6’ looks too tiny for a lot of people. It makes it tough for flat chested feminine avatars for sure.
I’m so glad that you found my post helpful! I’ve been very happy with both products and honestly I feel like owning both is the way to go if you want a wider variety of customization.
You stay safe too, thank you!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. This is just what I’ve been looking for. I appreciate you taking the time to write this up SO much.
You’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome! 🖤
I’m so glad to hear it helped you out! The moment I heard Maitreya was releasing their flat chest I wanted all these questions answered and wanted a solid comparison. So of course that means I had to make one haha.
The issue that I’m having currently is that the maitreya add on chest won’t alpha out the breasts.
That sounds frustrating! Are you in an area that allows scripts? Most of the time when a HUD isn’t functioning for me that’s the reason.
Sometimes restarting your viewer helps too or removing and reattaching. If all else fails I’d recommend a redelivery and see if that one works.
This is a great write-up! Thank you! If I may, I know it probably didn’t come up in your trials since you were using the included skins that were made for the Maitreya flat-chest, but I’d like to bring up one of the big drawbacks that I ran into: the built-in nipples, and the fact that there’s no *completely* flat/nipple-less version of the mesh, on the Maitreya version. Even the flattest version still has obvious nipple definition. I use an OLD mens BOM skin that I’m very attached to (it’s a particularly unique fantasy skin, and it’s become my signature ‘thing,’ so switching skins isn’t an option). On the v-tech, I have no issue with nipple positioning, since there are no nipples built into the mesh. But on the Maitreya chest, the nipples don’t line up and it looks silly. So the skin compatibility with other creators is pretty limited. (I COULD play around and try to make a BOM layer to cover my skin’s nipples, and then make some BOM nipples that go where they’re supposed to on the mesh. And I’ll get around to that someday. But that’s an awful lot of work when I can just wear the V-tech and not worry about it.) Also: some people just might not want nipples, for the same reason they might not want breasts at all. So, in my opinion, even though a lot of people may not run into this issue, it’s still a not-insignificant downside to the Maitreya flat chest addon.
That’s a great point! I did run into the nipples on Maitreya not lining up completely with the DeeTaleZ skin, but it was barely noticeable. It sounds like it’s something that’s super important for you, and likely for others as well. Thank you for sharing it!