Newb Question.....

I've been around and seen all these metal objects that are shiny; as in, they sort of look like chrome. Not reflective, but giving the illusion of being reflective.
If you don't know what I mean, just take a look at some of Marcos Fonzarelli's ARMORD designs...
Anyway, I just wanted to know how to put this effect onto my builds. Do I need a certain texture?

Well, you can set objects to be shiney in the edit mode. If you have that feature turned on, objects will be shiney. You set it in the edit window, under the texturees tab.

"Shininess" is a standard texture variable.

On the Texture tab, just look for the drop down menu to indicate HOW shiny you want that prim(or selected texture) to be.

I see. I've tried that a couple times, but it doesn't seem to work too well...
does it work better on a texture or a solid color?

I'd say it depends on the texture, prim, and color. For instance, a sphere is more noticeable as shiny than a thin cub laying flat on the ground.

Sometimes shiny objects may be harder to "see" as shiny if it's say, especially dark, or the sun is at an odd angle. Rotating your view around said object can help you gauge the effect of the shiny settings.

You also must have it selected in your preferences to be able to see it I believe. Hope this works out for you!!!! Feel free to IM me in world and I will help ya out!