partial-build etiquette

i have often wondered the answer to this..

what is decent etiquette when building something new and it's only partially done, what's the best way to leave it until your return?

i'm assuming we would all agree that leaving a slew of plywood textured prims isn't really visually pleasing.. but what is?

i ask because i've finally started to build again on my land after a VERY LONG period of leaving my land barren due to a creative block. i just burnt out on my current stage of building and have left my partial-build sitting there. i selected the whole darn thing, gave it a blank texture, then colored it completely black.

it's the most non-intrusive look i could figure, except for maybe a mid-tone grey.

i thought about making the whole thing nearly transparent to ease the look of having an unfinished buildsitting there, but realized that people may bash head-first into it.. so decided against that avenue.

any suggestions? comments? thought?

thanks.

Good lord Cybin, why's this in Off-Topic? It's such a graceful, relevant subject of discussion.

Plywood to me looks generic—I really wish it was possible to easily set a new default texture. I can see how it'd be an effective boon for those who prefer to prototype in something else rather than the ol', oddly yellowy stalwart.

Additionally, this is something that isn't given much thot to but when you really get down and ponder consideration, it's something not to be taken for granted by the neighbors and flyers-by!

leave it however it is! screw visually pleasing! The rest of SL looks like a plywood and neon acid induced nightmare so why should you care about your unfinished build maybe being unsightly?!

Cybin - I think you've just inspired me to create (far in the future when I have time to play )scaffolding, wheelbarrows, cement mixers, and half plastered wall textures. Leave them scattered around your site while building, texture the walls with a half-built until you are finished building - and your half-built builds could actually enhance immersion rather than detract from it.
Thanks for the inspiration - and good luck with your builds!

LOL they done this on the Avalon sim already

I used to be concerned about this. I put a "Men Working" sawhorse sign next to it, but that irked me, since there WERE no "men" working there.

Then I realized that anybody having to watch my build in progress probably (a) didn't care, (b) knew it was temporary, (c) probably couldn't see that far ANYWAY, and/or (d) maybe has worse eyesores of their own which are permanent, some of them maybe right next door to me.

That said, if I were going to leave something up half-finished for a fair amount of time, I would draw a box around it and collect it into inventory in one piece. And have done so.

coco

Anything but plywood/default. Please.

Other than that, I guess whatever you want. I gave up trying to get aesthetics ingrained into people a long time ago

I go for the dark grey / untextured look myself, and if it's a really huge structure with no apparent purpose, it'll get some transparency and phantom too.

I leave it there, flying in the air, unfinished, and partially textured... for about 6 months... While I struggle to find the time to work on it....

Until in a drunken fit of rage, I tear it down because I've decided I hate it.

Had a "Under Construction - Possibly forever" sign there for a while... But then I got rid of that because for some odd reason I decided I hated the sign too... I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I try to clean up something if it's REALLY bad or very obviously unfinished...

I find High shine silver or gold makes lining up easier.. and doesnt hurt eyes

White and semi-transparent for me, at least in the very early stages of roughing-in a building. Two reasons:

* Not as intrusive to others
* You can see the ground and work better with the terrain

I work in sandboxes until I'm done usually. Or I work on the land then take the build into my inventory until i want to tinker with it again.

This quote must be saved. It made me burst out laughing!

I heard it said once that the plywood texture actually sucks the creative juices right out of ya.

However, leaving something up in plywood is a kind of a visual clue that you're not finished with what you're doing. Sometimes i've thought about leaving things plywood, just to kind of say "it might suck now, but just wait til i'm finished!".

That reminds me of a build I never finished. It was taking so long I created two avies of a builder and an apprentice, took their pictures and put them on the wall over a table, two chairs, and a couple of cups of tea.

I'm doing what I would never do in RL -- I plan whilst I'm building.

Anyway, my castle took forever to make and was never quite finished, and I never got any IMs of complaint. My current project is a skybox, so few people will be seeing it anyway.

If you're offended by your own shambiliosity, put up an "Under Construction" sign like they do on webpages. Or put that in your land's description.

I personally just pick it up and carry it with me until I'm ready to work on it again. However, I understand in many cases this may not be possible, as the project may not actually be assembled.

The other thing that I've been doing lately is simply covering it up with 10x10x10 cubes, with some sort of plain texture thrown on top. That way, you don't have to worry about doing anything to the build itself, and just let it sit until you're ready to go again.

Ben, I love this. I will offer to loaf around the unfinished builindg, smoking and catcalling passersby while I take a lengthy union supported break.

Kex's "store" is actually a build that looks permantently "under construction" with beam and raw materials piled up!

I copied this and put up "framing" for my new project to see how the walls would "Feel".

When I leave it plywood, it's to expressly convey that it is underconstruction.

make sure to do it on a camping chair. LOL

A wall of invisibility prims.

many more responses here than i expected!

i considered just selecting the whole thing and "Take"-ing it into my inventory, but was worried something would get messed up along the way.. plus, i can go in and look at it and decide what to do next by leaving it up.

i may turn it all back to plywood to work on it though.. it helps when aligning edges and stuff, so you can see if the testures are lined up correctly.

and yeah.. if my neighbors had builds that weren't the most appealing in nature (to put it nicely), then i probably wouldn't think about it so much.. but alas, i'm surrounded by Barnesworth Anubis and Marcos Fonzarelli!! ..in the city, nonetheless. ..so i feel a certain obligation to leaving things as non-intrusive as i can.

and yeah.. i do make mention of the land being under construction in the land name itself.

oh, and Torley, good point.. i guess this would've made sense in General, huh? *shrug* oh well, c'est la vie.

Clearly this thread is off topic in the Off Topic forum this it has been moved to general. Please try to keep your threads truly off topic when posting in the Off topic foum.

admit it...just how long have you waited to post something like that?

I guess if you really really really don't want it to bug the view, all you need to do is link it all (or not, in fact it doesnt matter) but give it a 100% transparent texture, until you work on it again!