Just how do YOU design your new home?

I've started several builds now and given up near completion for various different reasons! Because of this, I would love to hear (in simple numbered steps please) how you master builders come up with a new home, i.e.

1) Decide on the size
2) Lay ground floor (do you texture at this stage?)
3) Place windows and doors
4) Copy ground floor to use as upper floor
5) Place stairs
6) Decide on layout of rooms to fit windows/views/fireplaces etc?


My problem is, that if I texture as I go along I then spend hours lining each one up and change my mind part of the way through.... or if I place the chimneys on the ground floor, I'm limited to the layout on the top floor (a fireplace cutting through the stairs is not a good look!)... or my balcony ends up leading from the bathroom etc.....

This may seem like a dumb request (apologies if it is), but I feel that there must be some obvious logic to starting a new build that I am simply missing!!!

I'm currently on my sixth attempt and as much as I thoroughly enjoy the challenge, it would give my confidence a little boost if I actually managed to complete one!!!

I'm hoping that others would find this post useful too (in the hope that I'm not the only one that wasn't given the 'logic' section of the brain upon birth!).

Thanking you in advance.
Twirly

1. Draft a rough floor plan on paper
2. Build prim floor including 'proto-walls' - correctly located 0.5m high prims that give me a better view of the 'big picture', and will be increased in size at a later stage to make the walls. The larger the build, the larger the benefit of this, in my experience.
3. Build stairs.
4. Put in ground floor windows and doors (already textured and scripted)
5. Build ground floor ceiling (first floor floor) to line up with top of stairs.
5. Build walls around those windows and doors (working with the proto-walls in 2.) up to that ceiling
6. Continue the above for the next, floor, etc.
7. Texture. I find it best to leave this until last as you often end up making minor changes to the build, and that can affect where textures are placed, etc. I think it's also best to texture when you have the 'whole picture' in front of you to work with.

If have a pretty complex roof design, I may go with building the roof first - it's easier to build simple parts of a building to fit the already constructed complex parts than the other way around. Once the roof is built, build a ceiling to match the underneath of that roof. I shift-copy that ceiling down to form the basis of the ground floor, and then work through the points above.

Roofs are my bugbear.

I agree with Hiro to leave texturing till last. Often, I start with a colour theme in mind and it goes out of the window for whatever reason

I'm ok with building roofs, it's just the roof textures/colours I have problems with. I've searched all the big texture stores, on the net, tried creating them myself, but nothing. I've probably now got about 200 roof textures, but none of them I am happy with. I suppose it helps if you know what you're looking for lol. Most of the time I end up changing the colour of the exterior walls that work with the roof, as I struggle to find the right roof texture to do it the other way around.

Mind you, I can be pretty fussy, and I usually end up rebuilding a creation about a dozen times before I start feeling happy with it

I agree that texturing is best left til last - and working from the ground up when building etc.

I am not the SL world's best builder and have a tendancy to build ideas in rough for my partner to see (who is much better at building than me) and if he likes it, he will build it properly (I know he also leaves texturing til last)

Be aware that the beauty of building is that you can change your ideas at any time, but to do it properly, it takes time, dedication and certain level of skill, after which you will get a worthwhile result. Happy building!

after many many many attempts, i have just a couple of houses in inventory wich i`ve created and settled with a bench

rez, click, sit & workd great
http://klsl.net/images/home.jpg

Things to consider are prim allotments for the size of the plot, let alone the different layouts of the plots in that size. There are a few flavors of people. Ones with preferences for low prim simple houses where the furniture eats the prims, high prim houses where it lacks being fully furnished, and somewhere inbetween where everything appears balanced. Obviously someone on a 512sq is going to want something that looks good, prob 3d textured to make it seem more "full" and rich, and low prim as possible. Size is only one thing to consider in the totality.


I refrain from texturing until last as it keeps me focused on the structure itself. Texturing is it's own animal in and of itself. I've seen some wonderful builds that come off as horrid, just from the texturing alone. So I tend to spend a bit of time on a color theme for the insides.


One thing to keep in mind is to try many variations. People are angled differently depending on the plot they own. So an entry on a horizontal house might not be as ideal as one more based like a townhouse/city apartment style and vice versa. With windows it all depends on what would be interpreted as inviting for neighbors while still allowing for some privacy that also doesn't seem too copy and paste (ie, millions of windows all around the house on every floor)


Depends on the setup, some situations it might not be ideal to use them, in which case teleporters are your friend. If I'm using stairs I'll typically keep a set out to reference for size.


Biggest thing with this is keeping the size of an avatar in perspective. Some things in SL are made out of proportion, but if you build things in relative size for the av, then it looks less silly in the end. Obviously some things need to kept, like a certain height/length for the camera perspective in the UI. Again it also helps to keep a few random props handy to see how things are "sizing up" in the long run.

Zee list?

1) Get inspired. Take note of likes dislikes of existing housing or what would make the build unique (aka what you don't see much of such as doors on side, more roundness, different roof styles, moulding? etc)
2) Doodling phase. Build something out of raw wooden prims.
3) Questioning phase. Would I live in this? Does the layout make sense? Too many prims? Too Little? Is it consistant?
4) Dissatisfaction phase. Something bothers you, edit a few times until happy.
5) Texturing phase - which usually involves more of numbers 3 and 4 along with many caffeinated beverages.
6) Finished phase. Knowing that the reason your neighbor is standing on his roof is because s/he's trying to figure out how you have such a structure fully furnished and landscaped using less prims than their attempt.

1: What is the environment? Tropical island? Hilly snow country? Flat-as-a-pancake sand bar? Rolling green hills? Sky Build?

2: What is the prim allocation, dimensions of the parcel it must fit on, and terraform limits for the parcel? The limit for how many prims I can use will have a definite impact on what styles and sizes of home are viable. Wouldn't want to design a fancy Victorian mansion on a 512 M2 starter lot. No sense designing a basement if the ground floor is at 22 M.

3: What architectural style do I want? Modern 2000 era ranch-style? Victorian Bungalow? Medieval castle? Edo period Japanese? Wacky avant-garde design? Organic tree house?

4: Do some research on the type of home I chose in step 3, and get a bunch of photos off the Internet of similar buildings, for details, inspiration, and possibly photo-source material for making custom textures.

5: Determine what features the home needs to have. Is a bathroom or a kitchen necessary? Fireplaces? Hot tub? Pool?

6: Do I want to re-create something specific, like Hikone Castle in Japan, or the Jefferson Rotunda at the University of Virginia? Can I get the original floor plans or blueprints?

7: Depending on the design choices above, I may come up with a set of detailed floor plans in Photoshop, and then I will use those plans to texture an array of prims, to build directly on, full-scale.

Or I may make a scale model, to play with ideas.

Or I may just start building, winging it as I go along.

8: I generally make textures as I build. I may rough in a design with textures that I already have, and then exchange those for custom textures as the build shapes up. Sometimes the limits of what can or can't be done with textures will affect how I shape or position prims.

9: In some cases, I might start with the roof and work down. For example if doing a complex oriental roof design, that may be the hardest part to get right, and it might not scale easily. Normally I start on the ground level and work up from there, and then down for basement levels after the above-ground part is complete.

step 1: go with the flow

(um that's it no other steps)

I just kinda build as I go, no plan no layout nothing.

sometimes someone will hire me for a build, and from that I will develop it further (add rooms, or redesign the interior)

I like the "homeless box"
Rez and enjoy.

I had to hunt around for the solar panels and dome for my Utopian dream.
It even has a wind farm and a nuke plant.

I love to just go with the flow. I find if I have a rigid idea in my mind I'm never happy with the results.

I generally start with a vague idea of what I want and get started. By the time I'm done I find that what I've finished is usually nothing like what I originally envisioned in my head. This is true whether I'm designing in SL or when I use to do it in the old days on my desk with pencil and paper.

decide which few scripts I'd be make for it. if I were ever to get a decent sized plot I'll like go with a walk on the ceiling attachment that I have a feeling I could make with enough work.

1}Decide on Size
2}Lay out ALL floor. First floor, then copy it up for any other floors, and change shapes of upper floors if need be.
3}Texture ALL Floors and ceilings, making sure lined up right and looks good to me
4}Erect outer walls. Wait until all up to texture, or if all using same texture, texture one panel then copy it to make the rest of the walls. Sometimes copy floor for walls.
5}Place stairs or TP system, deleting floor/ceiling tiles if need be.
6}Erect inner walls. Texture completely.
7}Add in windows and doors. (I plan where doors will be and just leave a hole in the wall until I put it up)
8} Final accents and decorations

From there my Home is a continuing effort. I've changed the roof many times, added a basement and sub bunkhouse, done some gardens.. its fun. And I'm probably rebuilding soon. Smaller house, larger gardens and such.

If its a skybox then add

0.7}Lay sculpted ground
0.8}Lay groond edging (Logs, small walls, rocks, etc)
0.9}Add under-mountains for 'floating island' look if needed/wanted

I'll pay you to make that o.o

Would be so awesome.. I seriously have about 10 designs that use this lol...

My eyes blurr when building by looking at all that plywood texture...............so I throw on a few textures from my library while building just so I can see the corners and angles better. Any texture will do, even sand or grass. Then put on the real textures later when I'm done or very close to done.

I like that idea of building the roof first that Hiro mentioned. That may solve my problem of spending two days putting the walls, floor, stairs and what have you up then spending two weeks fighting with the roof.

i never tried building but could you build a home by using a RL blueprint. loading the blueprint and laying it flat on the ground and building that way?

yes, Lex its doable. the mister and i own a home we found on a blueprint website andhad it built, came out very very nice. and yes while we still have it we don't currently live in it as we are comfy with our 1.5 rm self built log cabin

also, make sure you scale it down or up to Sl measurments or you could have a giant or doll house on your hands.

Wow!! These are fantastic tips - I've just given up on my seventh build (I guess that's why I'm called Twirly) and have (probably for the first time since my Second Life existence) closed it down and walked away. THIS time I'll take a breather, read what you experts have to say and plan it properly!

I cannot thank you enough for your time and advice - my eighth build may just survive!

Twirly x

Plywood will hide overlapping textures if you build by eye. I don't let anything stay plywood for long. Even though I build by numbers and/or snap to grid, I need to see to make sure it's visually correct. Plywood just doesn't do it.

That said, you can do some texturing if you are sure of certain elements you want - like walls with molding, or tile floors. But don't go overboard.

I agree about the plywood making alignments hard to see.

When I remember, I always texture at least one prim in a wall, or any other part that will take multiple prims. I texture all sides of this "master" prim...inside, outside, and edges.

This makes for a lot less work later on, since the prim can be copied, then stretched to fit the next place over...and it will fit right and be pre-textured.

When I forget to do this, Select Texture and the eyedropper tool are my best friends.

A note on building from real-world plans. You'll find that if you build *exactly* to scale in Sl, things seem way too small and cramped. This is in part because the camera is above and behind you most of the time. So small rooms and low ceilings don't work well.

Enlarge real-world structures between 25% and 50% above their initial size, and you'll get pretty good buildings for use in SL. A 50% increase gives you 4.5M to 5M ceilings, which allows people to TP into the room without landing on the roof or the floor above the intended destination.

I did not know a lot about building houses but I do now and the wonderful thing about all your replies is that "Nobody said that this question was on the wrong forum". Well done.

Just goes to show how eager you folks are to help, thank you very much.

Now that you mention it....

This post would be more appropriate for Building tips.

Somewhere, there is xml file where you can change the default texture (plywood) UUID to any texture you want, but I usually just keep it plywood.

I recently made a menu driven script that changes textures/colors/bumpmaps on all the features of the home - the roof, tile floor, carpet, inside/outside walls and so on. So, when it is time to align textures, I simply apply the Alignment Texture found in the forums posted by Chosen Few and what use to take forever now only takes a few hours instead. When I want to see what the build looks like with a chosen texture, it is quick to see.

All my newer homes are southwest american design - I sometimes look at a real estate photo to get general idea of the layout and then flow from there.

First I research books, magazines and websites for inspirational architecture. Once I've found several structures that I'm fond of, I decide on which aspects of the referenced images will inspire my overall design aesthetic--each concept is integrated into my own design, without actually stealing recognizable 'units.'

I start with the floor, then build upward. I create the 'shell' or 'hull' of the structure (working windows and doors in as I move upward). Once I've placed the roof on, I begin to construct the middle-detail on both the interior, and exterior of the structure. Once the middle-detail is created, I start placing the smaller details. Keep in mind that texturing is always on my mind as I create the structure.

Once the modeling is completed, I'll begin researching and creating textures for everything. My work generally consists of my own textures...either from my own digital photos, painted from scratch, or manipulation of stock images, Google images, and magazines/books I have.

After I'm done, I link the building (if I'm able to). Then I name it.

Done.