Matching New Homestead T-Formed Water to SL Ocean

[Cerebrogasm]

Hello all,

I'm still fairly new to land development (as well as SL - 1 year), and I need some advice. I had to leave a pre-made homestead sim I rented this week when the owner of the entire group of sims (21 or more, I believe) decided she wanted to return to RL (how dare she! haha) and sold off nearly everything, after 11 years of being an SL real estate tycoon. 

 

Upon recommendation from a few "SL old timers," I was directed to a realtor - Weesels (something) - an office where a gallery of homesteads was displayed.  I choose an especially well-designed homestead from the real estate agent - and asked her repeatedly - "Is this what I get for $125 US Dollars per month?" - She said yes. However, what I got was a simple undeveloped square 256mx2656m (65K) isolated in the middle of the Linden Ocean.

 

She asked me what texture I wanted - and I told her - "whatever is n the photo you showed me, I guess" - she also told me (after I gave her the $125) that all I get is a texture and access to their library of Inventory to use on the land - land I now realized I had to terraform - to match the gallery photo. I truly felt deceived - after she implanted a sand texture, she told me she had to go - she had new babies in RL to tend to...she is not the owner - but some other title. I would expect she would at least give me advice, knowing I was a land noobie, and after taking my money, as to what to do next. That was over a week ago and nobody from this realtor has contacted me. The last thing she said to me was that some long-gone land designer/terraformer had created the images in the gallery.

 

So now I am terraforming my square. I have lowered many parts of the land below sea level to create water-ways through the homestead square. I have noticed I can never lower the water-ways enough to match the surrounding Linden Ocean - except - if I place black colored square prims under the water of the surface. The raised sand ignores these prims (prim size is limited in stretching, so I have to tile many of them) and now the water-ways (when on the square, from above I see the sand return) allow the water-ways to match the surrounding Linden Ocean.

 

I realize this is a kludge - there must be a better way - if you have any suggestions or need more clarification as to what I am asking - please drop me a tip. Greatly appreciated!

James (cerebrogasm resident)

 

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi Cerebro!

First of all, you should ask yourself, "Do I really need all the land of an entire region?"  Starting out with a whole region can make the land more of a burden than a pleasure.  I usually recommend that people start their experience with virtual land by simply getting a Premium membership and a free Linden Home, or buying or renting a small parcel of land, perhaps 1,024 square meters or so.  After a month or so, move up to a 4,096 parcel.  That's big enough to support a large home, landscaping, and lots of decorations and toys.

But if you simply love terraforming and landscaping, a Homestead sim is great.  You can't have as many prims as a full region, but you have more than enough to create an interesting natural environment.

I gather your problem with the ocean is that in the area surrounding your region, there is either NO sea floor (you are surrounded by "void", areas where there is no land, only the illusion of endless water, and you cannot physically go there), or the ocean floor is set much deeper than your terraforming limits allow.  Therefore, from above, you can see the sandy bottom of your channels, but not the bottom of the ocean beyond your borders.  

There are a few things you can try. 

• Your idea of large, dark prims on the channel bottoms is actually pretty clever!  The biggest prim you can make with the land tools is 64 x 64 m, but there are still some pre-made "megaprims" floating around.  These were non-editable prims made during a couple of periods where a loophole left open by LL allowed the creation of larger-than-standard prims.  A few of them were as large as a whole region, 256 x 256.  You can buy packs of them on the Marketplace.
• You can contact the management of the estate you are renting from and ask that they either increase your terraforming limits, or assist you with terraforming.  Private estates have a terraforming limit of +/- 100m, but most of them don't allow their tenants to go that far; it's too easy to mess the land up and make it look awful.
• Ask the management to change the lowest level terrain texture, and set the level at which it takes effect so that your channel floors are below that level.  Land can have up to four terrain textures, and the elevation of the land determines where each will come into play.  (Note, you MAY have the ability to change the terrain textures yourself, depending on how your estate owner has set things up.)
• Try an off-sim landscaping surround.  These are objects which have a root prim on your land, but protrude out into the void surrounding your region.  They can be reefs, surf, even ocean textures providing a different water tint.

I think you either had a miscommunication with the sales person, or they deliberately misled you about the terraforming thing.  There is one possible thing going on that would be miscommunication...in the textures you were provided, was there a terrain file texture?  This is a file in the RAW terrain data format, and it works on land the same way that a sculpt texture works on a sculpted prim.  It appears as an RGB texture in your inventory.  You apply the texture in the appropriate place in the land tools, and the terrain automatically assumes the elevations in that file.  You can sculpt an entire region in one click, instead of spending hours with the land tools.

If the estate did not provide you with a terrain file, and is unwilling to terraform the region to match your expectations, I would certainly not renew your rental with them (although $125 is about the best price you will get...that's what LL charges them, so they're not making any money.  Most people will charge you $140 - $160 for a Homestead region.)

 

[Alwin Alcott]

12 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

$125 is about the best price you will get...that's what LL charges them, so they're not making any money.  Most people will charge you $140 - $160 for a Homestead region.)

yes it's a really good price.. but the sim can be grandfathered, and/or the landlord can be in the Atlas program.

There aren't really a lot that rent out sims for the same amount as they have to pay LL

 

1 hour ago, Cerebrogasm said:

- please drop me a tip. Greatly appreciated!

look at your environment settings for the water... it will never match if (for example) your water is set to transparants or tropical and the linden ocean is on standard.

[MoiraKathleen]

You might want to check with the owner - or a different sales rep - to see if in their inventory of things you can use, there is the RAW terrain file for the design you had picked.  It may just be a miscommunication or a misunderstanding.  If there is, find out if you need to restore the sim to how it was when you received it before applying the RAW file, and ask the best way to do that, if that is the case.