Texturing land with minimum terraforming permission; adding a sandy bottom.

[Fennet]

I recently bought my first tiny piece of land. Terraforming is allowed within limits but I am not able to change the texture, so I have green grass everywhere, including underwater. I know there must be a way to add a new texture, maybe some kind of painted mega prim or something. I don't want to add a texture override with scripts etc. because I have a very small prim allowance, besides, I don't want to pay hundreds of lindens.  I was thinking along the lines of some kind of rug or liner that might conform to the ground underneath and have faded or transparent edges so it blends well. I'm willing to learn how to make this if i'ts even possible.

It MUST be cheap! Any ideas?

 

 

 

 



[Zepharine]

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.

[Fennet]

OK, so I wrote I don't want to spend hundreds on a texture overide, the one you gave me the link to costs thousands. Thanks, I already saw that and decided not to get it.

Sorry, but that's a month's rent on my 512m plot, and it isn't going to happen.

That's why I'm looking for a small, non-scripted, simple, cheap way to sand bottom my pond, and I'm betting one exists, too.

I tried a "tropical water" texture adder, (L$49), which was interesting, but not quite what I had in mind. It has transparent edges, sort of, and changes the color, but since it floats just under the surface it doesn't look right at all angles. 

I need a textured or sculpted prim that will fall to and conform to the bottom. Can it be done?



[Zepharine]

You're welcome.

[arton Rotaru]

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Fennet wrote:

I need a textured or sculpted prim that will fall to and conform to the bottom. Can it be done?



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Nope.

[Qie Niangao]

You're trying the hard way 'round. Instead, make yourself a plausible pool bottom from what's handy (for starters, you can just carve up a hollow sphere, until you find a mesh that's suitable), then terraform out from underneath it. Trying the other way -- to fit a surface over terraforming -- is much more difficult, and hence more expensive.

There are reasonable underwater and beach sand textures in the Library folder; I'm not sure, but I think there may also be some in a Zindra content folder, which would entail a trip to the Port of Kama City in the Mosh region.

[Fennet]

Great suggestion, sounds like a plan. I've never owned land before, so I quess I expected it to have texture zones (if that's what you'd call them) according to altitude, and sand under the water like so many places I've seen.

Meanwhile, I've made a satisfactory pond by adding rocks. It looks great, but I am going to try out the sphere idea. 

[Fennet]

I have another question for you; 

The rocks I added aren't solid, I can't sit on them and walk right through them. (see pictures)

They're able to be modified; Is there a way to make them solid?

I don't mind walking through my trees, but walking through rocks is most disconcerting.

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I found the wiki and answered my own question. Now I know why they checked "phantom"; I walked around on top ot the invisible prim outline surrounding the rocks for a few seconds before I figured it out.

Oh, well, can't have everything, I guess.

[Qie Niangao]

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I expected it to have texture zones (if that's what you'd call them) according to altitude, and sand under the water like so many places I've seen.

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Yeah, it's odd that it doesn't, but I can say from experience that setting up a region's elevation-based ground textures can be a challenge -- and to add to the fun, the specific points of transition are subject to slight random changes each time a viewer connects to the region (or something like that) so they'll look a little different tomorrow than they did today.

Phantom rocks: There are several different kinds of "rocks" and the ones based on "sculpted prims" are limited to a simple blob-shaped collision envelope. Some mesh-based ones aren't much better because they were given at most simplistic physics models to save Land Impact. I've sometimes buried regular non-phantom prims, set transparent, inside sculpty and mesh rocks to approximate a collision shape corresponding to their appearance. That burns some Land Impact, though, and it's better when the modeller goes to the effort of make a proper physics model for the mesh.

 

[Fennet]

Mine are 1 prim "sculpted stones" from 3D Trees, so I assume they're the "limited to a simple blob-shaped collision envelope" type you wrote about. They're pretty enough, though, and super inexpensive, not to mention very low land-impact.

I'm going to have to try to make some rocks myself one of these days.

I think the person who has the estate rights added the all-over grass texture, or maybe he holds it jointly with someone who did. I found some sand, very deep down under the water, between the islands. It's a very low-lag, sparsely populated location, so I'm willing to work a little harder to get the visual effect I want.