Creating a narrow channel for a stream?

Hello,

I have been playing around trying to build a stream on my plot of land. I keep on stumbling over creating a channel for my stream to run in. When I use the land editing tools, it only lets me select a block it says is 16m2. If I select a line of such blocks and select the lower tool, sure enough, it lowers and I get a channel. But it is huge!

I've looked at lots of gorgeous waterfalls and streams in SL, and I've seen a good few that have channels narrow enough to bury the edges of a 5x5x0.5 water-looking prim, some are even narrower.

Could someone please tell me how to make a narrower stream bed?

And apologies if this is the wrong forum.

Thanks, Fairge

you'll have to simply use prims to make your channels. Plenty of people do it. animate a few long, thin prims and place them in your desired configuration. The lay of the land only amters lsightly for effect (i.e. running downhill) but no channel is needed. If the water looks too fake (i.e. it is higher than your land) you'll have to create some sort of natural barrier for it. Rocks, cement, just something for a containing boundry.

~Lefty

Assuming you are in a limited terraform sim (as most are these days) you probably can't dig down to the water table. Even if you could, even using the small tools, terraforming prevents you from making slopes greater than 45 degrees (?) and likes to keep the land surface smooth and differentiable. So in order to dig down with the small tool, ground surrounding it is pulled down for smoothness. This is why most surface water that people build is faked.

I'd be happy to show you how to do this, I also have a stream course plotter that will follow the angle of repose of the land to show a natural stream course. It lays markers that you can remove after completing your construction. I'd drop the plotter on you but it is undocumented and non-intuitive.

Dig your "big" trench, then flatten the land next to it in such a way that it makes the trench smaller (overlap the brush).

Fairge, you're using the wrong tools.

Do not push the "Apply To Selection" button.

Hell, don't even select land.

Just push "Lower Land", select the smallest brush size, THEN click on your land.

Thank you all for your explanations - with a combination of all the suggested techniques, I have almost managed it!

I am using prims to make the water, but I wanted to bury them a bit to look more natural. By using the land tools without using a selection, I did get a nice narrow channel, and I flattened the land slightly on either side. I think I'll need some more practice before I'm completely happy, and I'll put in some rock and plants to 'untidy' the edges.

Malachi, I'd love to see what your stream course plotter does, because without terraforming, my land is a fantastic rough slope with lots of uneven drops, I'd love to see what a natural stream course would turn out like.. I can't log in for the next two weeks (holiday in a land without broadband) but I'll get in touch when I get back, and see how busy you are.

Thanks again for all the help,
Fairge

Hi, I'm still really new to the game too, but I put in a little waterfall on my land. (it's the first thing I've built, haven't even put in a house yet!). I did something similar with the lower land tool on the smallest setting, and used long thin rectangular prims with the corners buried to make the water. I put in some rocks and ferns to try to cover the places that the edges of the water would stick up. It's kinda blocky looking where the angles change as the water goes down the hill, but if you're doing more of a stream than a waterfall, that might not be a problem for you. I hope to improve my waterfall as I learn more about the building tools, but so far I'm pretty proud of it

Here's some pictures of what I made, if you want to see it in person, its in Arena (I don't know the coordinates right now cause I'm at work, but its where the land kinda juts off in a tiny penisula, separated from the mainland by a small river, bordered on the other side by the Void)

(pictures are a little big, sorry)

Shane