Using free textures and scripts in builds

What is your opinion of builds that use some free textures and scripts. I built a house for myself about a year ago that I now want to either put up for sale or give as a freebie. Since it was for me, I wasn't paying much attention to sale value, I just used whatever I thought fit. One texture happens to be a freebie texture I see occasionally (but not ubiquitously). Also, I'll never have the kind of time and concentration to learn how to script, so the two scripts it uses are right out of these forums.

I feel this cheapens the product somewhat. Though I now have a really good digital SLR camera and some general skills with Photoshop, I'm still baffled over alpha textures and I've never quite found the equivalent of these freebie alpha textures to use. They are those girder-like industrial textures that look like they were lifted right out of a game like Quake.

The rest of the textures are either my own or fairly rare purchased textures.

One cannot do it all. Do you use purchased or even freebie textures and scripts for your builds and how do you feel about that?

Alpha textures are a LOT easier than they used to be. Use Photoshop (actually Photoshop Elements, the inexpensive "home" version is rather nice) or other program and create your texture with the transparent areas. Here's the trick. Save it as a PNG file and upload it. Voila, you have clear areas. If you save as a jpeg or other format, the clear areas appear as white in SL.

My view on this is most certain biassed however that being said, for your protection as a
valid builder I would highly reccomend that you use textures you purchased or made yourself.
If you make them yourself you will never have to worry about anyone claiming that it is their's.
If you buy textures from reputable texture stores in SL then you have a reasonable level of confidence that they are legal textures. If you buy from my store for example I can guarantee
that they are legal textures as I go out of my way to create original textures either from elements I make myself or from photo sources I take myself or from the occasional legal source. (admittedly shameless plug there)

On the flip side all the freebie textures floating around SL & the net are not really free. What I mean is there are lots of textures out there that were set free by people who had no right to do so.
The only people who have the right to distribute original creative works are the artist who made them. Except for special exceptions where a legal distribution agreement is sold or endowed on a different individual. You Could use "freebie" textures on your build if you wish and chances are probably slim anything would come of it. However I have seen s***storms
occur over less, that is you will never know if anything will come of it or not. Thus the reason
I would suggest that it is best to take the responsible course and make sure that what you are distributing is something that you have the right to distribute.

You could always check with the person listed as the creator of the textures to ascertain whether they were in fact the original creator and if so that it is ok to use them.

Doing these things will ensure that you will not have any headaches over this in the future.
As Peace of Mind is a fairly precious commodity.

It's not the uploading I have a problem with, it's the actual making of them. I have managed to do one or two but much of the process eludes me with the use of masks and so forth - because I am older than I used to be and have responsibilities that don't allow for focusing on much of a learning curve any more. Mainly I was worried about the ethics of freebie textures.




By a strange coincidence I was in your store looking as I came back and read these posts. You have close to what I need in the window section - some windows that could double as fencing or gridwork. But it also occurs to me I could just build a section of the grid, make it as tattered as I need and photograph it in world against a blue or magenta background making it easier to cut out or erase those areas to be transparent.

I think I just didn't want to go to the trouble because I've been piddling with this thing for MONTHS and I'm kind of bored with it. But you are right and I probably knew this or I wouldn't have asked.

There remians nothing I can do about the scripts, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

Thanks.

I've used freebie textures in my builds, probably more than custom ones, and I don't feel it 'cheapens' it at all. Some people haven't got the slightest clue on how to even make a .5x.5.x5 box, and don't notice, or even care if you're using a freebie texture. Also, what's the point in overloading the asset server with my version of a wooden floor when there's already thousands of freebie versions of the same texture?

Good answer

~B

This is a valid point. I think there is a huge difference between an ordinary piece of work (slapping the textures on with a shovel) and a great job (taking the time to scale and align the textures creatively and skillfully, and actually giving your mind to the design process). Using a gazillion custom textures will not neccessarily guarantee a professional-looking job, but will slow down the load-time for visitors.

I've used a few freebie textures in some of my builds - just basic floor planks or maybe concrete or plaster. In most cases these were freebies from the LL Library folder so I'm happy with that.

If I gave away or sold a texture, I'd fully expect it to be used on items people sell.
It wouldn't worry me in the least. So I have no problems with using free textures in some of my builds.

Having said that, most of the textures I use these days are ones I've made myself.

I try to use common textures as much as possible in builds. It's not just for the benefit of the asset service, but also download bandwidth and caching on the client. I'm particularly fond of the textures distributed with Bay City content (although they have some errors), and the Atoll ones in the Library and the Nautilus ones can be good for some applications. I've gradually reduced the number of purchased textures I use just because I can never be 100% sure of their IP "provenance", and have been making more of my own when something special is needed, but I absolutely agree that "one cannot do it all"--and to me, every moment spent working in 2D feels wasted, yet others enjoy it.

In contrast, I rather enjoy scripting--another topic raised in this thread--so I tend to do that myself more than necessary. Often there are performance advantages to knowing exactly what scripts are in a build and what they're doing. There are a lot of simple texture animation scripts, for example, that are left in the running state in rezzed builds, despite having nothing but a state_entry() handler--which means they'll never actually execute another instruction, but they'll use some sim memory and get a tiny scheduling slice each simulation frame. Not a big deal, but with the pending script memory limits, such stranded scripts may be just enough to push a parcel owner over their limit.

an addendum on the scripting:
you mentioned that you felt the free scripts on the forum 'cheapened' your build, and Qie gave some good reasons why that might even be an accurate assesment.

HOWEVER, there are also many extremely wel thought out scripts and examples provide which could actually raise the value, despite being free themselves. a good script not only adds functionality, but is an improvement over other possibilities and can be both educational and reduce problems for your buyers down the road

the problem would be in recognizing which is which. A hard task if you only have passing to none knowledge of programming. This is why you want to go to a scripter even for minor things that there are a million free versions of. and stock basic scripts from experienced coders are often just thrown in, or tacked on to larger projects as a "I dug this outta my inventory" cursory fee.

consider that my Shameless Plug on behalf of every half decent scripter in SL. we're underpaid, give us your money, we make your 'stuff' work =)

(and please for heaven's sake don't call me for the next 2-3 months at least... assuming I can get out from what I'm under now, in that time)

That explains why I've never been able to get a scripter to respond to any of my inquiries about custom work. You are the arcane wizards of the virtual world and stay in demand. Where would we be without you?

I just used a standard door script and a light on/off script that probably everyone else uses. But I did change the door sound. Almost every door in SL sounds exactly the same! So I won't fret much over that.



Thanks to this and similar reassurances, I'll be happy to use whatever texture happens to fit in the future and not worry about it being unique. I worry about stuff when I should be just enjoying the experience.

But also thanks to Infiniview for the opposite view. I was able to build a fence in world out of lots of small prims that echoes the motifs that were used in the house. Took a snapshot of it against a full bright cyan backdrop and in Photoshop painstakingly cut out the parts that are transparent (still can't get the masks to work properly). It took a whole afternoon and part of this morning, but when I imported the texture I was dumbfounded how much better it looks. Goes with the build better.

So both answers are correct. Everybody wins. You guys rock!

I use both, mostly I use textures I payed for from well known stores. And also in a notecard in my builds give credit to them and the warning not to IM me for the textures because 'one messed them up' cause I won't distribute them since that is what the creator expects from me. (and the reason I sell with mod/copy rights on my buildings so there really is no need for them to worry about lost things)