Indigo Mertel

Thank you for your effort, Dree. This is very helpful and I have shared it with my community partners and social followers.

Thanks, Dree. That would be very useful.

Interesting post. Thanks for sharing, Dree. You are right when you say the tool is intimidating. I tried to get the hang of it a couple of times and never figured it out. I need to look into this again. Is there any tutorial you could suggest? I have shared your post through my social accounts. Some people will find this interesting.

@Raven, cutting a parcel out of an existing one is very easy. Follow Pamela's advice and do a search, you'll find tutorials on how to do that on the web.

@Pamela, if the land is deeded to a group cutting a new parcel out of an existing one won't deduct the prim count. The prim count of all parcels belonging to the same group in a region are the max prim allotment that can be used in that region. As a matter of fact, this is true even when the parcels are not bordering. I believe the same is true when the land is owned by an avatar rather than a group but I haven't done that in a long time to be sure.

Allegorithmic has a very good pricing policy. In the past couple of years they sold their tools at significant discounts allowing indie developers and hobbists to buy their products. They have recently increased annual revenues to $100K/year to qualify for their indie license. Their indie license allow indie devs and hobbists to buy pro tools at a fraction of the cost for similar tools Their "substance" technology is being widely adopted and brings significant advantages in terms of quality and download speed due to the small file size. Their products are first class, I'm a big fan of the company. If LL adopted the substance technology for SL2 it would be awesome.

If you are interested in buying Allegorithmic Substance tools this offer may interest you. You can pay a monthly fee, pause payment at any time and you'll own the software when you pay the full amount. Offer: http://bit.ly/1BzN3ko Visit the Allegorithmic Tools community on Google+ for more information: http://bit.ly/1CLmNp9

Pamela, I know you are already a member of the Allegorithmic community on Google+ but I recommend that you post your question there as well: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/108955098539774060748

That's not necessarily true. If the location is really nice the final price may be high but for regular parcels you may take it for not much. I have bid for many parcels and often took them for a few thousands L$.

If you really wanted that parcel why don't you bid for it instead?

@Pamela, I don't know where you got your copy but based on what I see on the official site CrazyBump is not free. It's actually quite expensive unless you qualify for a student license. Check this out: http://crazybump.com/buy.html

@Sara, tools such as CrazyBump creates a number of maps. SL supports only two of them: the normal map (sometimes also called bump map) and the specular map. Drongle showed where you can apply these two maps. Another useful map that you can use is the AO (ambient occlusion) map. This map adds a light shadowing to the edges and crannies that adds depth to a model. SL doesn't support AO maps directly but you can blend them with Photoshop or any other image editor to your diffuse map (the texture). Have you checked CrazyBump's price tag? It's rather expensive. I suggest you try alternative tools such as ShaderMap or one of the free tools suggested in the thread.

@LoveAshley89, just to clarify things a bit: the difference from buying land versus renting land is a bit blurred in SL. When you rent land from another user or group you effectively rent land from them. When you buy land from another user, group or Linden Lab you actually buy the right to use the land but ultimately the owner of the land is always Linden Lab. That said, the praxis is that when you buy land you are a "de facto" owner and your "ownership" is rarely challenged by Linden Lab (when it happens it is usually for serious reasons). Be aware that when you buy land your cost doesn't end there. Land ownership involves the payment of a tier, a monthly fee that you have to pay to Linden Lab. A good analogy for the tier is the payment of a tax to a governing body. Translated into real life terms, the tier you pay is a maintenance fee you pay to Linden Lab to maintain the server where the land is located.

Ah, ok... now I get what you mean: you need to access your dashboard and go to the Land Use Fee page. There is a grid called Update Tier where you can reduce the tier. Sometimes the grid doesn't list the size of land you want to switch to. If that is the case you can ask support to add the listing you need. You can contact Live Chat for that.

You have two options: either you sell the land you don't need or you abandon it. If you are in hurry to reduce tier abandoning land is the faster option, of course. If your empty land is in the same parcel of land you use, then you need to divide the land into smaller parcels and sell or abandon the part you don't need.

@Sara, do yourself a favor a get a dedicated tool. There are several available, my preference is for ShaderMap. It's inexpensive ($ 39.95) and easy to use.

As Arton suggested, a 3D paint tool is big help for texturing. I recommend Allegorithmic Substance Painter, it's an excellent tool with very good value for money. The indie license is US$149.00 for a program which is on par with similar programs that costs hundreds of dollars. But, before you commit to Painter please take this into consideration: Substance Painter is a professional tool with a steep learning curve, as complex as programs like Photoshop. Not everything Substance Painter can do is supported by the SL rendering engine. Case in point is PBR. Don't expect to get the same results displayed in the product videos. Allegorithmic runs about 3 or 4 special discount offers a year, so if you don't mind waiting you may get the program at a significant discount. I have created a community on Google+ with some sections dedicated to SL users, in case you are interested. Please note that I am not connected with Allegorithmic in any way and don't get any perk in recommending the program.

Prim-to-mesh tools are tools which can export a prim-based model and have two imprtant uses: to have a copy of of a model that was built inside SL, that is not with an external 3D editor. to create a mockup of what you want to build with an external editor so to have a better idea of proportions and how a model will fit in the environment. This is particurarly useful for buildings. The exported model is usually in the DAE format and can be impoted into any 3D model editor that supports the DAE format. Take note that the resulting model is not optimized and needs some cleaning up if you want to import the model back to SL. As an example, usually things work this way: I build a rough mockup of a building inworld to get an idea of the building volume and how the building must adapt to the environment (i.e., I need to build on a steep hill). The exterior walls may be sufficient, no need to get into details. I export the model with a tool and import it into Blender. I clean up and optimize the model, then start to define the model the way I want it and add details. When the model is ready I import it into SL. There are tools available in the marketplace but note that some third-party viewers have an model export feature as well. Generally it is not as good as the dedicated tools but good enough when you need to export a mockup.

@JingleWorm, 1. anything can be made with mesh. As a matter of fact, even SL's prims are a mesh. The fact that SL users make a distinction between the two ways of building is just a convention caused by the fact that the import of external models is a feature that was introduced in recent years. With the import of models made with external editors (what we call by convention "mesh") you can have more detailed models but sometimes building with prims can be more efficient in terms of time, ease of building and "weight" on the rendering system. 2. Please note that Substance Painter has a steep learning curve, so please take that into account. On the other hand, most things related to building have a steep learning curve. Even Photoshop is a complex program. However, perseverance pays off and the results can be very rewarding. Also, even if Substance Painter is an excellent tool there is always a need for a good 2D image editor, so you need to have Photoshop or Gimp in your toolbox. If you are serious about Substance Painter, try the trial version first and then make sure to get the Indie license. US$149 is a steal for such a sophosticated tool. Also worth to note is that they run special discount offers 3 or 4 times a year. I have created a community in Google+ you can follow if you wish to know more about the tool. 3. There are tons of tutorials on the web. Just do a Google search on the tool of choice and you'll find videos and text-based tutorials, also dedicated to building in SL. However, don't limit your search only to the use of the tools in SL, as most of the tutorials apply to SL as well. But, remember that SL's rendering engine has limits and not all the most advanced features are supported. This is particurarly true for Substance Painter, which supports phisically-based rendering (PBR) and that is not supported in SL. Don't be fooled by the great results you can see in the Substance Painter's videos because not all of what the tool does can be reproduced in SL.

1. Maya and Blenders are two of the several 3D editors available on the market. You need a 3D editor if you want to build with mesh. But, you don't necessarily need a 3D editor to build in SL, you could also use the internal prim system. Many people still build with prims or with a mix of the two. Building with mesh gives the best results but it has a steep learning curve. If you want to sell your creations it is necessary to know how to build with mesh, as that what most people expect to buy today. 2. Mesh requires a 3D editor, so the answer is yes. Photoshop does not make mesh, as it is an image editor. You can make textures with it that will cover the mesh to make it look more real. Photoshop does 2D image editing but it also has a dedicated module to paint on a 3D model (that is, a mesh model) to create the textures which will be applied on the model. However, please note that there are better dedicated 3D paint tools which do a better job. Once you get more confident with your building skills you may want to take a look at tools such as Allegorithmic Substance Painter to paint on the model. For 2D image editing Photoshop is definitely the best editor on the market but you could also use a free tool like Gimp. 3. I can't say how hard Blender is to learn compared to Maya as I never used Maya. All 3D editors have a steep learning curve as they are complex tools, but Blender may be a bit harder than others. In reality, once you get its logic Blender isn't really that hard. Blender also has the undeniable advantage that is free while being on par in terms of capacity and features with professional 3D editors that costs several hundred US$, or €...

@Megan, I don't know your level of expertise with SL so please forgive me if I say obvious things. In theory you could bake shadows to a texture and that was a popular technique with creators in the past. Some people may still use it but in my humble opinion it is not worth it since we have advanced lightning. Of course, not everyone has a graphic card that support advanced lightning but what is the point of adding shadows for those who can't see them when everything else is shadowless? And the added realism given by baked shadows is good only to a certain degree because the effect is static, so the shadows don't change when the light conditions change. Baked shadows may have their use in some very specific conditions but they don't make much sense for a building. What is more important -- and my guess is that is what you were thinking -- is adding Ambient Occlusion (AO for short). AO is an effect that adds a light shadowing effect at the edges of models to add depth. That is a very valid technique that adds realism to a model. You can't add an AO map directly to a model in SL as you do with a normal or specular map, you need to bake the AO on the diffuse map. There are several tutorials on the web that show how to do it. Try this: http://bit.ly/1Hhc3O9 [Edited for clarity]

@Megan, the shadows in the picture are more likely created by advanced lightning rather than baking shadows to the textures. You could bake shadows but, is it worth it? By baking shadow you have a static effect that never changes when the light conditions change. It would also use extra resources when you can get it for free with advanced lightning. For the lightning effects you could just add some parts and enable light emission. By carefully trimming the emission you can get fairly good effects. [Edited for clarity.]

One more thing: I think it is better to get a computer made by single parts rather than one enclosing all into a single part. That Mac looks great but doesn't look like it is easy to upgrade or replace a faulty part. What if you decide to get a better graphic card or a bigger monitor one day?

@Priscilla, the short answer is: not necessarily. IMO, there isn't any significant advantage in running SL on a Mac. What is more important is the computer specs, and either a good PC or Mac with the rights specs can run SL well. As a matter of fact, based on what I read in blogs, Mac users have a number of issues caused by software. I don't remember the details, you may want to Google it to verify this yourself. I am not fond of Apple products and I'd stick with a PC, but this is my personal preference. What is important is to have plenty of memory (8 GB is good, a bit more is better) and a good graphic card. Definitely go for an ATI or NVidia card, forget the Intel card. My personal preference is for NVidia. Make sure to get one of the more recent geeration cards. When you write NVidia GeForce 2 or 4 I suppose you mean the series 2 or 4. Those are not latest generation cards, they are rather old, in fact. Latest NVidia generations are series 7 and 9. Again, Google for specs before you buy.

@Priscilla, IMO you have a problem with the graphic card's driver. When you updated your system with Windows Update, did you see if one of the updates was for the graphic card? Or, the driver may have been corrupted by the clean up you did, or by some system crash. What I suggest is that you go to the Intel website and search for the latest driver for your graphic card. If the problem still happens there may be a chance that the driver is faulty, then you could try installing an older version. Good luck.