Terraforming guides?

I'm not scared at all. Frustrated, not scared.


I don't mean to pick on you, becuase you're not the software engineer who designed this, and it's not your job to write the specification. Nor are you the tech writer whose job it is to convert the spec into a user guide. I've never seen the steam cleaning of a rug change the shape of the rug, but it sounds like you're describing the removing of wrinkles when ironing. And if that's correct, then it's a reasonable analogy, a good start, but still not complete.

One could say, for example, that the smooth tool computes the average height of the selected area and moves each point a small amount towards that average. The highest points within the selection get lowered a bit, the lowest points get raised. I don't believe it actually does this as written, because that would wreck the edges, but it's an example of how to begin describing the behavior of the tool. The behavior at the edges still needs to be described, and that's the most critical aspect.


I think that's my point. You shouldn't have to play back and forth, at least not for simple stuff. The Ivory Tower has some fine explanations and tutorials for building with prims, combining both descriptive prose and walk-throughs, since people learn differently. There needs to be something similar for terrain.

Please, no need to apologize. It's not your job. And I have used the tools.

Some people learn primarily by doing, and that's fine for them. They're not going to get a huge amount of benefit from good docs. Perhaps it's a lot of people, which is why those of who learn best by reading good explanations wind up saying RTFM so often to the others.

I'm just pointing out saying "just use them" is a cop-out. It only works for some users. And that the documentation, at least at the rough draft level, is required as part of a decent software engineering process.

Heck, it occurs to me that if LL would allow me to see a decent set of specs for these operations, I could turn out good docs for less than $2K (US, not Lindens). In the absence of specs, show me the code and loan me a pre-configured test machine, and I'll write the docs, but add another zero to the cost.

Ah, but it is. That's what I do...teach people stuff. Which is why my shortfall here upset me.

If you've already used the tools, you must know the basics of each function by now. That's almost self-evident from the tool names alone, and any other uncertainty should be taken care of in the first couple of minutes.

And, you've undoubtedly seen how the land reacts more like bread dough than modeling clay...pooching up in one place while you poke it down in another, or dragging a bunch of stuff along the edge that you had no intention of changing along with the stuff you DID mean to affect.

I don't think better documentation is going to help with your frustration. I mean, how much more can you say about the Raise Land tool except "it raises the land under the brush cursor as long as you hold down the mouse button."? These tools, at least used freehand, simply require patience and practice. But it's more of an acquired skill than it is book-learning. Possibly one of the scripted gadgets like the Terraformer would give you the more precise control that you seem to be after; I wouldn't know, I haven't tried any of them.

Kidd, I was right where you are before I terraformed my island. I asked the forums for guides or tools, too, because I learn best by reading, then doing, same as you. And I was told exactly the same thing that I'm telling you: the best way to learn this set of tools is to use them. Fristrating, yes...but I'm not at all sure that anything can be done about it in this case. Stop yowling for documentation and go forth and terraform!