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Zepharine

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Everything posted by Zepharine

  1. I think your idea of using docks and walls to make the sim edge more natural is a good one. Another idea is piles of rocks with trees or bushes growing on/out of them, right at the edge (even pushed over just a bit), to break up that hard edge.
  2. Still in the line of using landscaping to to soften that edge, is using off-sim decor as well. The various rocks with splashing water, small islands, etc. that can be pushed off-sim into open water (the root prim stays on your land and you still get the land impact of the whole thing.) A lot of people will push those things as far out as they can to give an illusion of distance, but you could set them right up against the sim edge so that they look like a continuation of your screen, giving a more natural edge to it. (You can't go on to off-sim decor, it's for looks only.)
  3. When you save your images as PNGs, are you making sure to select “interlaced”? Because I wasn’t, and was pulling my hair out over the terrible resolution inworld until a friend pointed it out. Also, I just love that you spelled “wracking” correctly.
  4. Thanks for taking the time to make and share this!
  5. Glad I could help! Now that you have the idea, you can run with it.
  6. I'm about to sign on so I'll contact you inworld, but you've got the hang of it. Seams happen when the texture you're repeating isn't "seamless" (doesn't match up at the edges). For now the easiest way to get rid of them is probably to merge the layers (see instructions in earlier post), and then use the Clone Stamp Tool. It looks like a rubber stamp in your tool palette. With it you can copy and repeat areas to paint over other areas. Select the tool, set a good size for it, and set its opacity to about 80% to prevent harsh edges when you use it. Then option-click (for Mac; I don't know the PC version; the cursor will turn to crosshairs) on the area you want to copy. Then regular click on the area you want to cover over, and it will "stamp" from the other area, covering over your seams. Your sand scale is still too large, so follow the grass instructions from before to make it smaller.
  7. You can make the sand edge more natural by using transparency in your image. So, in the Layers palette, make sure your sand layer is NOT the background of the image If it is the background, with a little lock showing, right-click (control-click on a Mac) and choose "layer from background" to turn it into a regular layer. Next, erase along the sand edges until it's the way you want. This time when you go to save it as a final PNG ("Save for web & devices"), DO check the Transparency box in the upper right. In the preview you should see the checkered background showing through around the edges. The final step is when you apply the texture to your platform. In the edit pane, on the Texture tab, next to the little image of your texture, is an "Alpha mode" drop-down - choose "Alpha blending." This makes sure the transparent parts of your image are displayed as transparent inworld. I'll be on a bit later and will check for your message.
  8. That's pretty good for a first attempt! Scaling the textures smaller will make a big difference, the grass is huge in comparison to you. So before you paste the grass into your image, reduce it's size by at least half. When you paste it in, it'll only cover half as much area, so you'll have to repeat it and move the copies around to cover everything. Then merge those layers (select the layers you want to merge in the Layers palette, then choose "Merge Layers" in the Layer menu at the top.) Now you'll have a smaller scale of grass to work with. You can do the same with the sand if it needs to be smaller.
  9. One more tip once you're inworld, so you can test your new texture without paying the upload fee every time you tweak it: Once you're in the edit pane for your platform, and go to choose the new texture, it will open that new pane for you. You'll see options to click, Inventory or Local. Click Local, and a blank box opens on the right. Click "Add" and it will open your hard drive to select the texture you want to use. Once you select it, it appears in that blank box and you can choose it to apply, without uploading or paying for it. However, this will only be visible to you, and only until you log out - next time you log in you'll see your platform grey and without texture. But it allows you to test it out and see how it looks. Once you're satisfied, then you can upload the final version and pay the 10L. Then be sure to apply it from "Inventory" and not "Local" so that it's permanent and everyone can see it.
  10. Super basic quick tips: in the Windows menu of Photoshop select "Layers" so that the layer palette appears. Create your new image at 512 by 512 pixels, at 72dpi resolution. Then paste in your sand texture first, as the bottom layer. Next paste in your grass layer on top of the sand layer. Then use the eraser tool (tweak its settings to make it soft or reduce opacity, so you get a nice blurred edge when you erase) and then erase the grass layer around the edges, allowing the sand to show through. Make sure you have the grass layer selected in the Layers palette when you erase (click on the layer you want to work on in the palette.) When you've got an effect you like, go to the File menu and select "Save for web & devices." When that window opens up, select "PNG-24" from the drop-down menu on the upper right. Just below that, make sure Transparency is NOT checked (you'll have no transparent bits), and that Interlaced IS checked. Then save the image to your hard drive. Besides buying textures, you can Google "seamless grass textures" for images to work with, but then you'll have to do more work resizing and scaling and such. If you get them from the marketplace they are ready to work with as is. If you get frustrated let me know, I'm happy to help.
  11. https://marketplace.secondlife.com is the link to the web marketplace, search for "terrain textures" - maybe add grass or other terms to narrow it down. There's a million to choose from! But as I said, they'll be "all one thing" - all grass, all sand, etc. - not customized. This texture pack is a really nice one with a big variety, including ones similar to your picture above: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/48-terrain-textures-for-sim-512x512-tga-full-perm/3156374
  12. If you can't do the texture yourself, let me know, because I could do this for you pretty quickly.
  13. Is the platform modifiable? If so then you can add your own texture (that's the word you want, for the graphics applied to objects) that has any terrain you want. If you are good with graphics programs then you can do it yourself. Textures must be uploaded to SL in standard sizes, so make a new image that is 512 x 512 pixels, add some beach texture around the edges and grass or land wherever you want. Then save the image as a PNG (never a JPG for SL.) Go back into SL and upload your new image/texture (it costs 10L to upload images.) Then edit your object, tick "select face" and click on the surface you want to apply your texture to, click the Texture tab in the edit box and then click on the texture image you see there, choose the new one from your inventory, and voila! You can buy textures in the marketplace but they will probably be all one thing: sand, grass, etc. For a custom texture as you describe you'd be better off making your own or having one made by a friend good with graphics. Doing your own is fun because you can add little details like shells or footprints in the sand, rocks in the grass, etc.
  14. This is what you need: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/LandMap-Change-your-ground-texture-without-land-powers/236734 . Easy to learn to use, and gives you the freedom to texture your land however you like. You can get elaborate, too, with varied textures (such as sand that blends into grass) and transparency to blend edges with your regular terrain.
  15. Void Singer wrote: instead of pre-"squishing", pre-expand.... it'll up the pixel density for the final product giving it more detail. Can someone explain just what this means... make your image larger, before downsizingto 512?
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