How can you make a forest privacy wall for your house?

[HenryCrawford]

Hey, everyone. I saw a nice house owned by someone I used to be friends with. They had these really nice forest walls outside their house at the borders of the land they owned. One of them told me I could make my own if I had a mega-prim. The problem is...I don't know how to make one and neither does she. And she had to go make dinner, so now I am here asking two things...1: How do I make a texture into a privacy wall? 2: Does anyone have a privacy wall of a lush green forest they could give to me if I cannot make my own?

EDIT: Do you need a megaprim to make a privacy wall? If not, then is creating one as simple as building a wall and applying a texture to it? If not, how is it done?

 

EDIT 2: I have walls around my house. Can I upload a photo of a forest and use it to texture the walls I've made? If so, how do I do this? How do I apply a texture to an object I have made? Once I do this, I will only have to find a nice forest photo and figure out a way to make it into a texture for my huge walls.

[Rolig Loon]

You can make a prim that is up to 64m in all dimensions by just using your standard building tools.  If you want to make walls to go around a parcel, that should be big enough.  If not, you can find packages of really big prims for free in Marketplace.  Just search for "megaprim".  Don't pay for them.  There really are lots of free ones out there.  :smileyhappy:

Now, texturing a big prim is exactly the same job as texturing a small one.  A prim is a prim is a prim.  You'll want a texture that can stand being enlarged to huge dimensions, or that can be repeated several times across your wall without looking stupid.  The largest texture you can upload to SL is 1024 x 1024 pixels, so that limits the resolution you can expect.

Where do you get nice textures?  Go shopping.  I suggest doing it in world, so that you can see demos of the textures before you buy.  Visit large landscaping stores as well as texture dealers.  You'll find that most of them offer a range of great textures for privacy walls. You will also find that there are several merchants who offer ready-made wall systems that are loaded with a stack of different textures, so you can change the feel of your parcel any time you want.  I use a very nice cylindrical one with a 50m diameter as a surround for my skybox, so that I can decide on any day whether to look out at a cityscape or the Rocky Mountains.

[Rolig Loon]

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HenryCrawford wrote:

 

EDIT 2: I have walls around my house. Can I upload a photo of a forest and use it to texture the walls I've made? If so, how do I do this? How do I apply a texture to an object I have made? Once I do this, I will only have to find a nice forest photo and figure out a way to make it into a texture for my huge walls.

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You can apply a texture to any surface of any object you have made.  You always have two options:

1. Drag the texture from your inventory and rop it onto the specific surface that you want to texture or

2. Select the object with your Build/Edit tool, go to the Texture tab, click the "Select Face" button and then click on the surface that you want to texture.  Then drag your desired texture from inventory and drop it in the Texture Picker window in the Build/Edit tool.

I suggest practicing a few times first.  There is no UNDO in texturing.  If you apply a texture to a face, you can't say, "Ooops!  wrong place.  Gotta go back."  You can't re-apply the old texture unless you have it in your inventory and can drag/drop it on the face.  Don't let that intimidate you, though.  Just be sure that you always have a backup copy of your house handy, just in case you screw up.  It takes only a few seconds to delete the goofy mistake and rez a new copy.

It might be a good idea to read >>> http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Textures-and-alpha-channels/ta-p/700157

[Lindal Kidd]

A couple of points about privacy screen prims...

• Make darn sure they are on YOUR land, not encroaching onto your neighbor's parcel.
• Make them Phantom so people don't whap into them
• Apply a transparent texture to all surfaces of the prim except the one facing you.  That way, your neighbors won't have to look at it, but it will still serve to screen your neighbors from your view.  (Some will say, "But I WANT to hide my parcel from my neighbor's view!"  This is not possible...they can de-render your privacy screen on their viewer with a single mouse click, or move their camera past it and see inside.  If you do not wish to be seen by your neighbors, uncheck the button in About Land/Options tab that allows people outside your parcel to see avatars on your land.)
• If your prim is quite large, use a high resolution texture...but remember, you can't upload anything larger than 4096x4096.  Use the lowest resolution you can get away with to minimize load times, and use texture repeats if needed.

[Rolig Loon]

The maximum texture size you can upload is 1024 X 1024 pixels. There are some legacy textures that are 2048 x 2048, but they were made ages ago before the rules changed.