Not sure what to call this - sculpted terrain?

I'm looking for prims to use as the base of a sky build. I don't want to just use flat prims, with a texture on them. I'm looking for something using sculpting/sculpty/scupy (what IS the official word?) on its surface, so it looks more like the land on the ground. I'm looking for 10x10, and 20x20 prims.

Any ideas what it's called?

Any ideas where I can find some? I struck out on SLexchange, but that was probably in part because I didn't know what search word to use, and probably used the wrong one.

Thanks,
Princess Ivory

Princess, you might look at the store called Botanical. It has some sculpted ground cover that might work for you. You might have to lay it over a flat platform though to get the right look.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check them out!

Princess, I have a gadget called The Rock Wizard and I have the version that produces mega-rocks.

I'd be happy to help you out.

However, I'd like to point out that sculpties are not well-suited for use as foundations. Sculpties are basically a sphere, with an optical illusion applied to them. For this reason, they are almost always set to phantom. If you make them tangible, your av will bump into the unseen sphere that is the "real" sculptie. This is why scuptie stairs are always at least two prims...one sculptie prim, to give the appearance of the staircase, and one invisible ramp prim that is what you actually walk on.

[EDIT: If it's grass you're looking for, one solution is a (shudder) temp rezzer. I have one that makes a field of grass for our underwater reef build. Be aware that use of temp rezzed ground cover (or anything else) may be against your landlord's rules. Even if you own your land, you may not like the lag that they can induce.]

[EDIT: Have you tried using a grass texture and bump mappng? Bump maps can add quite a bit to the illusion of depth in a texture.]

Thanks, Lindal. I forgot that about the sculpties. Probably not the best choice, then. I guess I'll just have to start with a flat prim, and use rocks and other prims to add some 3D texture to the place, and play with textures so everything isn't monochromatic.

What is bump mapping?

Princess Ivory

Generally speaking, a bump map is a grayscale image that a 3D program uses to "fake" high spots and low spots on a surface. The illusion can be very good, until you look at the surface edge-on, or nearly so, and see that it is really flat, and not "bumpy" as it appears to be from other angles.

Specific to SL, there's a Bump Mapping checkbox in the texture tab. You can't apply a custom bump map, but it gives you about ten choices of "built in" bump maps. The one I usually use is "darkness". Dark areas of the texture are "bumped down", making it look as if there are, for example, cracks between bricks and paving stones. I also find the Stucco and Concrete bump textures to be very useful.

Wow - Thanks Lindal! I knew nothing about the SL bump mapping choices. I will certainly play with them. But what happens when you walk on them? Do you stay above them, or do you sink down into them?

Gosh, trying to recreate a realistic terrain on a sky platform is a pain!

I picked up some things from Botanical that were mentioned in an earlier post, but I haven't had enough time to try them yet. I was displeased to see that while a small set is only L$150 (and it is "no copy", if you want a version you can copy to cover larger areas of terrain (which many of us do), it is L$1500, if I am remembering correctly.

I'm going to start playing, but I'm open to any other ideas you all might come up with. I'll have to post a picture in Flickr to show you what I come up with!

Thanks, everyone!
Princess Ivory

You stay above them. The illusion of depth is just that...an optical illusion done by a shader.