Why does architecture in SL lag so far behind fashion?

That and the fact that not everyone is good at designing buildings, but people still want to have buildings without having to pay. Does anyone know if there are any architecture classes in SL?

Hmmm. I've seen this same cottage-and-background for sale in the real world. At a gas station outside of the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Done on polyester velvet. In neon colors, slightly muted.

Why not... something different?

I agree. Particularly on small parcels, there ain't enough prims to do much.

I'm not uploading pics, but there ARE nice looking prefabs that fit on 512, some even free and not prim heavy.

Honestly, it's the lack of zoning and the godawful commerical builds, spinning cubes and the like that make things really ooogly.

I was bumped into a city sim that is in the process of being built the other day and I have to say it looked great. It was just nice to be in a place that didn't look like a bad acid trip and had some rational use of space. I understand and want the freedom that SL gives us, but would it be too much to ask to zone a bit on the mainland? Maybe there could be a place zoned "experimental" or for people who just use their land for a sandbox. And move the damn slingo parties away from Jane Newbies little home.

What is architecture in a virtual world? I don't think it's been defined yet, nor do I think it ever will. Or at least, the definition will be brief, and wonderful

In a virtual world, the very constricting needs that exist in the real world aren't present. Those needs are so strong to us, that they're hard to let go of. Once virtual worlds become so much a part of our life experience that we're able to more easily step out of those confines, what we make on what we're still calling our 'land', will, I think, be truly delightful.

I wish I weren't so old that I won't be around for that. I'd do anything for a sim (or twelve) and a few good friends with whom to create a virtual environment that is aesthetically pleasing and just plain fun. No houses - no building at all - we don't need them, and personally I don't want them.

I have a whole collection of pictures of environments I'd love to participate in creating, or just be able to visit and run around in and have fun in.

I've thought a lot about all this, and talked a lot about it with a friend who's a rather well-known architect. When you put aside the needs of the human body, what do you need and want in an environment?

People seem to like to climb and run and fly in a virtual environment. What else is enjoyable? Again, I'd love to get together with others interested in exploring this, bring in people to experience what we create and get their feedback, and keep going until people start to branch out and try more and more and more.

So far as fashion and clothing and what we do with avatars, it seems easier for us to quickly grasp that we have no need to protect our avs from weather and damage and so forth, and we quickly begin to explore various means of decorating them. People quickly realize they don't have to even be a human, and experiment with making their avs into things humans can never be or never look like. (e.g., What if I were really tiny? What if I were a bird? What if I were a giant bird? What if I were a machine? etc.)

We need to do the same with the environment, e.g., What if I lived in a giant flower? What if instead of a store, I simply put my aircraft I'm selling on staggered platforms leading up into the clouds?

We're so tied to the real world when it comes to environments. Maybe it's because of the dangers in r/l of not living, working, shopping in buildings that will protect us from the elements.

Sorry to have written a tome about this. I just do love the subject. If anyone plays around with this sort of thing, please let me know. I'd love to see what's created and come play in it

Candie

Exactly!

Why can't people apply the same "virtual aesthetics" to their living spaces as they do to their physical representations? Prefabs, by definition, are "Ruth-like". I very much like the idea of looking at the issue from an environmental point of view, and engineering around the functionality of an avatar without some human limitations, and with limitations that humans don't have. Some of this is done already - of course - but I've seen very little in Second Life that follows through to a coherent, comprehensive, and "diversely-beautiful" design.

(I'll say it again, I've seen lovely, interesting, detailed, unique prefabs for sale in SL of every kind.)

That aside, the problem with your ideas Candie, as you said, is that you would need a private sim to realize them. A place where people lived in flowers would be charming. But, as it stands, if you built your flower home, it would be next to an ugly casino next to a tudor house next to a rocket spewing particles next to a star wars build next to a spinning cube next to a yard sale next to a clothing mall next to a farm...

It's hard to even see a really interesting build in this mass of confusion. The only places you can see interesting ideas realized in a way that you notice them is either a very large parcel of land or a privately owned sim or island (or old areas which were *gasp* built by LL). SL could help by having some zoning guidelines so that at least you know you are looking a group of residences or a commerical area, no matter how different they may be from each other. (this is also confusing to newbies because they have difficulty telling the difference between a store, a home, a private or public space, etc.)

Builds don't have to be realistic type to look ugly. I see all kinds of fantasy builds jumbled together on first land areas. Giving more prims won't help if people just build bigger low prim houses with more furni inside. People want the freedom to build whatever they want so let them. You get in a lot of trouble if you criticise it tho.

because a primcount on first land really limits architectual design, I could build an incredibly 2 story house that fits on first land, but you'd have enough prims left over to put down a 3 prim chair and a single prim coffee table

Good architecture involves imagination, creativity and a knowledge of proportions as they affect preceptions. The ancient cultures knew this, just look at ancient buildings in Greece, Turkey, China, Japan, Italy, just to name a few. Proportions are very tricky to master if you don't have a natural talent for it.

I for one know I am very poor at creating something new in buildings. I made a few attempts and everytime my ideas seemed great in my head, but once out there in SL, they were unsatisfactory.

What I'm good at are replicas of RL buildings. Give me a detailed layout and I will replicate it. At the same time, I learn a bit about the building techniques involved in the actual building.

As example, check out the slurl below.

Because the great majority of the residents are "social tourists" -- they're here for the casinos, the sex clubs, the nightclubs where they can dance and do sexy chat. They're not here to contribute to the building of SL, they're more interested in the things that make them look good while they're socializing.

How right you are.

So, the lesson to learn from this thread is: given that people care more about what avatars look like than what the background looks like, it would probably make good sense to cut back as far as possible on spending on landscape and building and spend more on avatar appearance items. Spending on avatar appearance will likely produce greater satisfaction per linden buck for both the spender and the spender's viewer.

So don't waste your money on more landscape and building prims, hop on down to Jonquile Noir's Little Rebel and have a multi-thousand Linden dollar spending spree!

Great advice!! And my architecture looks hot too, thanks to Juro Kothari!

(Shameless Plug.)

This is actually a pretty good thread - most along these lines detour directly to "my neighbor's house is ugly..."

I build...it's what I do in SL and it's what keeps me here. The limitations inherent to SL do make this a challenge even for those with skills or an eye for 3D constructs. People in this thread have spoke to the prim limitation aspect of SL, and this is an issue for creating really good looking models.

Friends don't hesitate to dub me a prim hog, and at one point I owned 2/3rd of a sim for just my home (loved that 600 prim dining set ). People have already commented on the issues with building on 512m2, and I have the same problems building on 5120m2.

I love detail, and refuse to let my builds be a cube with textures that make it seem to be more. Sure it's a necessary way to add detail given our tools and limits, but as a builder - I strive to create more with the prims then just illusion created by textures on a box. The problem is I still run into prim allowance issues using this method. It limits me. This is not because I can't get creative and develop prim saving techniques, it's because the prims are so...primitive.

Understanding why prims are the way they are doesn't make it any less frustrating. I would wet myself to have the ability to hollow and cut in different manners. Sometimes I do create the effects I am going for, but it takes on average eight prims rather then potentially one if I had the tools.

It's a tough balance, and I end up with fancy builds without many decorations inside since most furniture that looks good is super prim heavy. If we can get to a point where either the building blocks have more options, or we get more prims allocated so we can deal with the limitations of the prims themselves - I would be one happy SL Builder!

Until then...even those that are quite capable architects are going to have handicaps in creating a truly magnificent horizon in this virtual world.

I've noticed that the majority of builds out there aren’t of the prettiest in my opinion. Many of the issues of why that is have been explained in this thread. So I won't repeat them lol.

I build homes, commercial buildings, civil buildings, furniture, made some very ugly clothing and fairly crappy poses in Poser5. My "success" in this world has been focused around the prefab and custom buildings.

I myself build in a realistic, true to earth style. Buildings, with "glass" windows, trims, asphalt roofing, stucco, brick, etc. I attempt to keep my work in the realm of "could survive in RL if built." Even though I have NEVER studied building, architecture, design or the like in any real world classes. I have always been impressed on how things work, engineering and the like, and I express this in my builds and gadgets.

Builds in SL are sadly very limited on smaller land. Most 1024 or smaller builds require very basic prim and rely very heavily on texture detail. Builds that rely on 100% texture detail are very un-user friendly (almost impossible to remodel or customize). That’s why, I use prim everywhere I can, and thus am one of the heaviest prim consumers in the prefab building market. Although I try to curb my prim usage for low prim land. (It aint easy!)

Never the less, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and even the ugliest builds to some will be the best looking structures ever to others. Anyway, I must get back to my new furniture and clothing line.

- Sam
HELP A BUILDER OUT, BUY MY STUFF!!!!!!
Dominion Custom Homes - Chaotica

The problem is that all the calls to "improve architecture on the grid" usually actually come down to meaning, "only a few people (the more talented/skilled) should be allowed to build".

That's probably why it doesn't happen so much

It's not really possible to make things look good in SL. Making the shapes right is not worth the effort, and what you can do with textures is very limited since they're just basic textures and not materials. You can't add shaders other than shiny and bumpy either so surfaces usually look ugly.

I think you've been proven wrong by the builds in SL which do look good.

99.99% of everything in SL is pretty ugly, there's lots of buildings that look half-nice at first sight but then there's always something wrong.

Gotta' bake dem texturz foo! (That was hard to type.) Truly to make a build look good, you have to have taken a good look at the tools, and take a good time learn them. Also it is a VERY good idea to know Photoshop or the like (or better) tools.

- Sam

I get it. You're a glass half empty kind of person.

It comes down to this;
Construction is a technology, almost anyone can train to do it with a reasonable efficiency.
Architectural design is an Art. It requires not only the technical skills, but the necesary Vision to create something bot Functional AND Beautiful. In short, Talent.
We have Tools that allow anyone to Build, but as long as some peoples Idea of Beautiful Architecture is a vynel sided double wide, We are going to have Bad taste in SL construction.
Just as in RL, if you want it done right, Hire a Pro.

Angel.

Of course you can upload lots of really huge textures, but who wants to wait half an hour just to rez a building. Simple stuff like a noise function to make tilable textures not look the same everywhere would do a lot.

I think it also should be pointed out that expectations for architecture are higher than those for fashion.