What's The Status?

New member/resident/person-who-wants-to-be-involved here.

I've been reading these threads, and checked out the website on the card I received at yesterday's meeting. It's clear that a lot of thought is going into this. However, and maybe I'm jumping the gun here, what is being done in the city itself? Will those copied houses be replaced? Will the Senate building have a path to it? Will the dome be finished? Where will the castle go? Has building halted while ironing out the details of the government? Are there Saturday meetings where the townspeople come together?

Since I'm new to this project I'm trying to figure out a starting point, and for some reason it hasn't come clear to me where that starting point is. Is there a timeline somewhere?

I went to the city today, and the only person there was another person who joined yesterday as well.

I'd like to participate in architecture and the government.

Thanks,

Rock Psaltery

Work is progressing on structures everyday. The senate dome just went up a week ago and was textured within the last couple of days by Skunken. I spent most of the weekend making the modern suspension bridge that joins the East and West parts of the city just this weekend. BladeDancer is working almost continuously on the church, adding recently spires, a tower with a bell, and a small cemetery in back. This week Kendra just started work on our first official store.

Yes. The goal is to replace them one at a time with high-quality unique structures.

Yes. Although the path won't be added until the castle is complete. I will be doing the castle myself sometime in January.

Yes. It just went up a few days ago. I'm sure it will evolve slowly as the member who is building it works. It probably won't be completely done until the castle is, as the castle will effect its textures, height, and placement.

The castle will go on the hill where the senate dome is. What's interesting is that it will actually be split across two sims on the hill. I purchased the adjoining land next to the castle for L$8k and donated it to the group. It will be quite large.

Urusula Zapata and BladeDancer Pendragon are continuously adding to their builds. Kendra and I work on structures, the government, products for sale, and the vendor as time allows. Now that I've just put up a bridge, I'll turn my attention back to the constitution and bill of rights.

I believe that Pendari would like to start meeting every other Saturday or have staggered meetings every week one for USians and the other for Europeans. It would be best to contact her directly.

This is a good start.

Yes. It's in the online documentation in the proposal. As we draw nearer to the elections expect several short-term timelines to pop up concerning the government. For instance we just agreed that all city documents must be complete by the 31st of December. I'll also have to have the voting system complete by then as well. I imagine we'll have all factions finalized by the 5th of January. Elections will be on the 8th of January. Haney will let us know whether or not they will extend the lease on the land on the 15th of January. As for structures and buildings, we do those as we have time.

We don't have shifts in the city and come and go as our RL allows. Sometimes there are 5 people there (Friday night we decorated the city for Christmas). Other times there is no one.

Groovy! We had a sign-up list in the forum but it's since gotten quite out of date. Following this post I'll start a second sign-up sheet for districts and buildings within the city. In order to work on one, you'll have to first select a structure you'd like to work on and then join the artisanal branch. To join, you have to have a Master sponsor you and give you feedback on your work. Either Kendray, Urusula, BladeDancer, or me can act as your sponsoring mentor.

The best way to get involved in the government right now is to read through the constitution and bill-of-rights thread to see if there are any points that are unclear. As new thoughts are posted on the constitution, offer your opinions and advice. Once it's finalized you can pick a faction to either vote for or to participate in. As a new member you are also particularly valuable, as you are best suited to write a FAQ on how to get started with government.

~Ulrika~

It just hit me! We should have an orientation class for new members, where we give an overview and answer all their questions. We could even have mentors, which work with new members until they get a feel for the new city.

How do you all feel about that?

~Ulrika~

Hello Rock, welcome to the gang

Ulrika, that's an excellent idea! I once mentioned the "Tourist Office" as something vaguely resembling your proposal - a place where someone would explain things about Neualtenburg to new members. On thing that I remembered last week is that it would be cool to have a "pager" in Neualtenburg - something that visitors could touch, and it would send a message to a group of volunteers who are currently online and would eventually be able to teleport to Neualtenburg and help out new visitors.

Speaking strictly for myself, when I'm online, I'm not always in Neualtenburg - but I could certainly come over if someone pressed the "pager button"!

But regular "mentor-type" meetings for people interested in Neualtenburg is certainly an excellent idea (BTW, I usually do a 10-minute introduction to Neualtenburg just at the start of the church services )

Thanks for the welcome Gwen.

I enjoyed your article about the projekt you put on your own site about government in SL. I've been both of types of typical SLers you mentioned. I've been the socialite, and I've been the hermit. I appreciated your viewpoint in that article, and I think that your points were very valid.

I agree! Excellent idea Ulrika! I had also thought about (and talked some with Gwyneth, still need to run it by Kendra) the idea of hosting public meetings and tours on a semi-regular basis. We had 4 new members join after the last one, and I received a lot of positive feedback!

Welcome again Rock and the others!!

I would be happy to work with Gwyneth on these "new member" orientation meetings. And Gwyneth and I are both also mentors and are hoping to bring regular mentor events into the city as well. I think these ideas fit together perfectly!

While of no great import to anyone else I am compelled to write of my first texturing experiment.

I decided to try to create a custom Rothenburg-like texture for one of the walls of one of my new residential builds. I used Macromedia Fireworks, and I was extraordinarily pleased with how it turned out. It looks very much how I expected it to look on the wall. It may look a tad cartoonish, because I didn't use any authentic wood textures (only shadowed brown rectangles), but the overall look and feel of it was very nice.

Unfortunately, I learned that Fireworks doesn't export in .tga format, so my windows didn't turn out transparent. I didn't know the requirements for a file using transparency. I spent a good portion of the night trying to figure out how to get my image into targa format. Image converters don't seem to work, because the output targa isn't the correct quality for use in SL (must be 32 bit). Eventually I was lead, thanks to live help, to a free graphics program called The Gimp. I didn't have enough time to play with that somewhat non-intuitive program last night, and my attempt to convert my file to targa within Gimp did not maintain it's transparency either.

I am excited to have been able to create the custom texture so easily, though. If anyone wishes to take a look, the texture is on the house I built on my roof in Moen (just a couple of sims away from Neualtenburg). I think my property is called Rock's Mountain Theater & Event Center. There's also a build in my yard, but it's not finished yet.

Rock Psaltery

Rock, if you send me your texture, I would be happy to make it targa for you. Either way, you should check out the Design and Textures forum here on the SL board:
/109/1.html

I know a lot of other designers that work with Gimp and you may be able to find your answers there! And of course you can also ask. It is a great forum for these types of issues.

Oooh! Thanks for the offer. I'll do that, but it will have to wait until tonight as I'm at work right now. Unless you tell me otherwise I'll probably just drop the texture on your profile in-world. If you'd rather do it by email that's cool too. It's [EMAIL]rockpsalt@sbcglobal.net[/EMAIL] . Do you want it in .gif format? (Hopefully this question makes sense to you -> Would a .gif file need Alpha Transparency or Index Transparency, or will you have to go in and put the transparent spots in?

What program do you use to convert the image? Is it fairly easy? I only played with GIMP for a little bit last night, and I couldn't find where I could manually set height and width (of a rectangle), or where I could snap a rectangle to certain coordinate. I really enjoy those two features in Fireworks -let's me be very precise.

I'll start reading through the tutorials in the forums today if I can.

You are welcome and tonight is fine. As I won't be available till later this evening anyway as it is my little one's birtday. Just because of the weird permission system in SL (sometimes it gets goofy), it would probably be better if you email the image to me at [email]pendari_pen@yahoo.com[/email] If for some reason it doesn't go through, you can just drop it on my profile. Just make sure it has full Next Owner MOD/COPY/TRANSFER options so I can download it to my computer.

A .gif file is fine if you send it through email. If you have to upload it to SL it will have to be in .jpg form or .tga (even if your .tga isn't working). I was just going to go into the spots you wanted transparent and make them so. If you want to put a simple T on the spots, that will help (unless you feel it is plainly obvious). hehe Once I have them transparent, I'll upload the .tga file and drop it back to you.

I don't have any experience with Gimp unfortunatly. Though I do hear it can be a great program once you get the hang of it. I use Photoshop 7. And I love it because making transparent images is super easy in this version of Photoshop. I think Photoshop is an excellent program, but of course it can be expensive depending on the version. And Version 7 is the only one where the transparencies are super easy (though in other versions it is still possible).

I never messed with textures till I came to SL, and I'm having a blast with them now! I was planning to make some walls the same way you describe, from scratch. So I'm getting excited thinking about my layouts and studying some of the architecture from some German sites I found.

Now I"m rambling. haha.. Talk with you soon!

The Gimp (version 2.0) is exactly what you want to use. That's what I use.

Make sure your image is RGB:

Image -> Mode -> RGB

and that you have an alpha layer:

Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel

If you save it as a targa file it will have its alpha layer preserved and be in a format that SL can upload. I turn off RLE compression, as I thought it improved the quality of the texture in SL. I might have imagined this.


Don't save files in gif format. While it preserves transparencies, it is only an 8-bit format and will reduce your colors down to a maximum of 256. For portability I recommend saving your files a PNG. They support 24-bit color with transparency (32 bit) and are compressed using a lossless compressor (even smaller than targas). For some strange reason, SL doesn't support PNG files, so you'll always have to export to targa to upload a transparent texture.

~Ulrika~

I've done that too (looked up German pictures). Yesterday I just typed Rothenburg into Google, and hit the images link. There were plenty of sites to look at.

My texture has windows, so it will be obvious where the transparency goes. Can I give it to you in PNG format as Ulrika says I should?

---------------

Ulrika, what you said about PNGs really bums me out. Fireworks default saving file is PNG, so that would've been perfect if SL accepted those. Transparency is a pretty easy task in Fireworks.

Thanks for the advice on not saving as GIFs. Hopefully, I can give my PNG file to Pendari to work with.

For now, I'm actually fantasizing about just learning how to convert my Fireworks creations into targa. Hopefully, I'll find GIMP easier to use some time soon.

I'm not familiar with the PNG file format. Not certain if photoshop takes it, though it takes some weird extensions.. so who knows!

If you follow Ulrika's example, you should be able to get the transparent aspect on your own. But, I'm still happy to convert this one for you while you are still learning. And I hear gimp can be hard to learn, but that once you do it is fantastic. So great things ahead for you!

I just read the tutorial for creating a transparent window in GIMP. All I can say is that I hope the person who wrote it just wasn't the most logical person. The steps this person took ... well I'll summarize them here:

1. Create a transparent background. Not by taking the transparent option when starting a new image, but by creating a transparent layer, and then deleting your original background.

2. Completely cover your transparent background with a new wallpaper layer.

3. Create a window frame.

4. Erase inside the rectangle window frame with a round eraser. If your window frame is on a different layer than the wallpaper layer, then you'll have to erase your framed area on that layer as well.

5. Manually add a shadow to your frame.

Am I crazy? Here's how I think it should be done:

1. Create a transparent background.

2. Cover all the area you don't want to show as transparent with your own artwork.

3. Add effects to your artwork using effects tools if the program's got 'em.

I don't know. Maybe I am crazy. I'll play with it tonight.

Woohoo!

I just opened my Fireworks PNG file in GIMP, and transferred it to TGA without creating an alpha layer or anything. Transparency stayed how it was when I designed it, and uploaded to SL just fine!

So now the hassle is my own. I can create in the program I like, and convert in the program I don't like. I'm so happy!

I did turn off the compression as Ulrika had advised.

First residence building complete. I'll admit it's not perfectly symetrical (well not the roof anyway, but it's fun and it looks Rothenburg. The walls do lean in slightly, and it's really only an 8m x 8m place.

Rock,
Heya oldtimes neighbor ! I have been using Gimp now for a while and am becoming proficient with it. If you have any further questions feel free to approach me. I'm not in the group any longer but still friendly and have a sentimental fondness for Rothenburg so am following this projekt in the architecture sense.

Yeah, I've seen you posting around these boards. I even saw your rant against the project. Thankfully, I seem to have missed all the drama at the start. I was actually away from SL for a few weeks before logging on one day, and finding an event explaining this project.

I'll be sure to ask if I need help with Gimp. For now, I'm just going to use Gimp to convert my PNG files to TGA. When converting files last night it seemed that the conversion would cause a bit of blurring. I'm not sure what that's about. Does Gimp have tools for sharpening an image?

I'm finally selling my plot in Kiha. It hasn't really served me any purpose in quite awhile. I'm asking an exorbitant, though, for the time being.

Hope all is well with you.

Rock

Vee have vays ov making you change your mind....

Muhahahahaha

Hey Rock,
hehe glad you got to see my rant. I'm over it now though and just standing back watching.
Yes Gimp has all of the tools that Photoshop does just not quite as straightforward. I think the price though vilifies that. You can do anything with it that any of the other proggies do imho. I have a thread over in designs/textures where someone responded with some great links for tutorials for the Gimp check it out.

Regards to Kiha, you may want to approach Angelica Zuma. She bought me out when I left for a mutually satisfying price.
Be well.

Heh

Neualtenberg Projekt - Amsterdam-style Coffeshop - I'm about 50% of the way done building the thing, currently looking for some textures to put up in it... There will be an upper level balcony and chill-out area as well as a lower level w/ tables and chairs and benches... psychodelic artwork on the walls, the works!

I do have 1 question though, can I have a modern-style rooftop? Basically just a flat, slightly pitched city-type roof? (would save me a couple of prims that way!

I was gonna call it Freier Gedanke Kaffegeschäft (Free Thought Coffeshop) or something to that effect. Any suggestions for the name???

Artillo

I think you could have a modern style roof. If I'm not mistaken (and I don't think I am) Ulrika endorses various architecture styles. I'm pretty certain the focus is just to maintain a certain Rothenburg feel to the place, which can be accomplished via the majority of the buildings in the city. Every city achieves a certain character by having a mix of styles present.

I'm responding to your IM here, cause I have a bit to say.

Thanks for commenting on my build. I love feedback even if it is just one line.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I know how to make my own textures now, but blurring occurs somewhere between my PNG file and the final product in SL. It may in be the conversion to TGA in Gimp. Does Gimp have a process to sharpen an image?

The textures I've got now, in my opinion, are passable. They're a tad blurry up close, but I still think they might be ok. I'd like to get anyone's second opinion on that...or would I?

I got stuck last night on a triangle texture. I thought I could somehow rotate a texture into proper position. Silly me. (It's good that I couldn't too, because the color green I picked was awful) So I went to Neualtenburg, and learned the secret. I'm glad that even when something is locked you can click to edit and see it's shape. I don't know how long it would have taken me to figure that one out if I hadn't tried that. I'm starting to understand what you meant about creating the textures as you build.

I gained a whole new respect for the builds that are already there in Neualtenburg (though, truth be told, I secretly am not in love with the church's architecture).

Hey Rock

Yes, I very much am fond of that "unity in diversity" (or is it the other way around? Or both).

Nice to hear how the textures are coming along for you. I think I've gained a whole new appreciation for the intricacy of it all, and how subtle welcome effects go a long way towards enjoyable architecture.