Overlapping Textures

Is it bad to overlap prims that have the identical texture applied?

I see there is a tool that lets you apply a texture to a set of prims, and as long as the surface is on the same plane, it seems to not matter what the shape of these prims is.

Will that cause flicker?

Hi! As long as the texture matches perfectly on the two prims, you won't see any flicker.

The problem will persist, of course, and SL will render first one, and then the other; but if they are identical, you won't be able to see it.

Hope this helps!

yes, I am thinking about using this technique to make some more realistic or more interesting looking arches etc. As it is now the hollow is way too restrictive.

In a way it is a slopjob but until we are given a tool that lets us offset hollows, this will have to do as sculpts are just not an attractive option for walls IMO.

Actually I still cannot understand why hollows cannot be more user friendly

why not just go and find a really good sculpt there are tons of really good arches in SL

That would be something, I looked but cannot find. Perhaps there are recommendations?

While I admit the need for sculpts, there are a few reasons not to use them if you do not have to. One is that they are all one surface, so you can't apply one texture to the face of an arch, and another to the interior surface, for example. Another is that they often take a long time to rez as opposed to "real" prims.

Lately I've been dealing with megaprims a lot, and as they cannot be resized, it is often impossible for me to make a given structure with them without overlapping. Imagine, for instance, trying to make a 20x20x20m cube using 20x20x.5 mega walls, ceiling, and floor without overlapping them.

Or how about this one? You want an oval with a round hole in the middle, and a different texture on the top, bottom, and the edge of the hole? This can't be accomplished with a sculpty, because you can't texture them differently on each surface, at least without a custom texture that is specifically created for the purpose. In order to do it with normal textures, you must do it with normal prims, and overlap them.

Ordinarily, I abhor overlapping prims. Oh, sure, there are certain things like this that you just can't do without overlaps, but in most "examples" you see, it's just sloppy building.

Regarding the textures matching perfectly on overlapping prims and not flashing, this is true, but it is VERY hard to achieve, at least unless your math skills are MUCH better than mine, and you write scripts to do it. Rez a prim, texture it, drag copy it, and then move the copy back so it occupies the exact same space as the original, and the resulting two-prim combination MAY not flash.

However, move it so it only halfway covers the original, and THEN try to get it to not flash. It's tough, trust me. It's not just a matter of offsetting the textures by .5 and flipping one. This typically yields results that are very close, but still with plenty of texture flash.

As near as I can tell, this is because from within the client and with the normal edit tools, we can only adjust as fine as to within three decimal places. So, if your viewer sets something to .5256 when you entered .525, for example, the textures will flash.

Fortunately, I found a tool that deals with this quite admirably. It's called EasyTexture, and it can obviously calculate and set textures to far beyond three decimal places. It's kind of a hassle to use, and doesn't do everything I would like it to, but the main thing is that when it comes to overlapping prims, it works. No flash whatsoever. And, no, I am not in any way affiliated with the creator, nor do I receive any commission. It's just a tool I use, and one I consider indispensable.

thanks, I have had my eye on that for a while and might get it eventually.

Overlapping is a slop job I have seen some victorian houses that use the overlap technique a lot and considering the price they go for, it is a crime that the builder uses this technique.

If you set up the sizes and offset of the overlap to use round numbers or numbers less than 5 points past the decimal then you can get exact. ( you can punch in 5 digits past the decimal)

Again.. a simple added feature of being able to offset a hollow would eliminate the need for this.

Why can't they make it so you can offset the hollow? Arr they making too much money on all the uploads of bad sculpty maps that they figured its cutting their own throat or is it technically impossible?

Matching textures on overlapping prims is not hard at all, I do that all the time.
The key is: keep your prims in sensible sizes

Start practising with using rounded number prims, that will sure help.
Rounded offsets on textures and offcourse rounded numbers on the positions.

I have overcome many problems using this technique and I love it. I use the BBG texture to align the prims.

Example:

make 2 walls 10x10
put them not 10, but 9 meters apart.
Meaning 1 meter overlaps

Make your texture 1 x 1 repeat
then the offset should be 0.1 or -0.1

Test it, it works!

Now if you create prims by stretching without bothering if it is 10.000 meters or 9.893, then forget it, you will have too many issues alligning the textures, it's nearly impossible.

Feel free to contact me inworld if my explanation here is not clear enough.

Ben