Terraforming Advice

[Nalytha]

I almost zero experience with terraforming. I'd like to describe what I'm trying to do and then get some feedback on how to do it. If it's not too pricey, I might be willing to have someone with greater experience do it for me. I live in a private region, so I want this to not to ugly for my neighbors. 

I'm going for something like this... it's my work, and it was okay for a first attempt. Basically, I want the land to come in a bit and form a cozy little sort of nook for this platform bed and foliage. Attached is my current state of the project (on new land). I did a far zoomed out view so you could see what this little island looks like all together. I can not terraform the back (nor can my neighbors). I can't control how their current edges are terraformed, but I'd hate to do something that just makes the whole thing completely ugly because of my own crappy experience and design. Also, there are neighbors across from me that are forced to see this. Attached is their view. 

 

[Jerilynn Lemon]

For what it's worth, if you would like to practice terraforming, go to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Here/174/121/24

It's a decent practice area to figure the ins/outs of DIY. Terraforming can be tricky at first. Once you get your rhythm down, it's fairly simple.

[Callum Meriman]

4 hours ago, Nalytha said:

Looks like you are heading in the right direction, well done

To create a nook, or bay, you would nibble at the edges with the smooth tool set to about 1/4 strength at most.

A few tricks for you that I like using.

• Ctrl-Alt-Shift-7 will turn water on and off. This will quickly let you see what's happening underwater.
• Use prims to mark a rough outline of where you want your bay to go, then nibble the land to the prims
• Sometimes smooth will stop working, lower the underwater a little, or raise the land a little
• When lowering or raising you can set the power real low and tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap to finely sculpt
• If you mess up, flatten from a good part of the land and restart.

Once you get your bay, consider that a small mound or hill can also look nice on the opposite corner.

 

 

[Nalytha]

Thank you so much for the advice, everyone! Someone was even kind enough to stop by and help me. It was very useful watching him edit the terrain. This is where I'm at, progress wise. I'm trying to be brave and work on it for practice, using your tips. I even let my neighbor know that I was working on it, and to let me know if it was an eyesore, since she lives across from me. 

[Tari Landar]

The best advice I can offer when it comes to terraforming is to ALWAYS use everything at a very low strength. It's a lot easier to combat mistakes when you don't make drastic changes. It can take a bit of time, but it's much easier to fine tooth details in small increments than it is in larger ones. You're also less likely to make changes to the land around you that isn't yours, when you work in smaller sections and at a lower strength. Smooth is DEFINITELY your friend. Personally, I like to keep one section of my land perfectly flat, that way if I screw something up, it's super easy to use the tool to go back to that one flat, perfectly smoothed spot, and alter what I've just messed up by simply moving it over to flatten and smooth everything back out. Some folks use a prim with the proper terraforming script in it for that, I have a crap ton of them myself, but I haven't used those suckers since probably 2009, lol. 

Even the size of your tool should be minimal, at least until you've figured out which size you're most comfortable using (heh..I know, I know..stop that..  ) 

[asunda1]

I am purchasing a large piece of land that is under water.  I want to leave waterways around it so it is an island.  Is it better to start in the center, raise and work outwards?

[Alyona Su]

23 minutes ago, asunda1 said:

I am purchasing a large piece of land that is under water.  I want to leave waterways around it so it is an island.  Is it better to start in the center, raise and work outwards?

Unless they've changed things since I last did any terraforming, on Mainland the limits are four meters above and four meters below the default level of the land. So unless your parcel is in very shallow water, you may have to go with a prim or mesh island (which is what many do) and there are some very nice ones you can get at Market Place.

If your land is shallow enough then it doesn't matter whether you start from outside-in or vice-versa. I'd probably start from inside-outward myself as that will give me the most flexibility of island shape.

[Qie Niangao]

Yep. There are parts of the Mainland with wider terraforming limits (+/- 40m in the old color sims for example, and one undisclosed location with +/- 100m) but they're pretty few and far between.

On the off chance this is an Estate region or the water is very shallow, what I tend to do is flatten the entire area at exactly water level (usually 20m) which creates a very odd surface where the water and land shimmer against each other. Then I carve away the water surround and build up the land gradually, doing both as I move around the island and leaving as much shimmering strand as I can possibly spare between the water and the land -- either to preserve as flat marsh or to shape as very gradually sloping beach.

[Lindal Kidd]

On 11/5/2019 at 2:16 PM, asunda1 said:

I am purchasing a large piece of land that is under water.  I want to leave waterways around it so it is an island.  Is it better to start in the center, raise and work outwards?

This is a bit late, but if I were faced with this, I'd use the Select tool to select all of the land I wanted to raise, and then use the Raise tool, applying it to the entire selection at one go.  Just select the area, and hit the Apply button without hovering the mouse "brush" over the land.