Pyramid Prim Texturing (Beginer here obviously)

I was trying to use the Pyramid prim on a roof structure and texture it with shingles.. The texture skews, and I know in most 3D applications (I have played with TrueSpace and 3DSMax when it was just 3DSMax not a version number) you can skew the texture as to straighten it. Can this be done? Or do I have to strugle with taking 4 flat pieces and making a pyramid myself? (which is 3 prims more than I would like).

In my limited experience with pyramid texturing, there is no built-in way past this. Depending on what you're doing you might be able to get away with adjusting the texture's rotation property, but it's more likely you'll have to take and manually skew the texture in your photo application of choice. If you take a 512x512 square, I am pretty sure by drawing a line from the upper right corner to the lower left corner, you can use the lower right hand triangle as a "template". Keep in mind that you'll have a triangle like this in photoshop...

<TERRIBLE ASCII ART>

.... /..|
.../....|
./___|


<... and when you put it into secondlife it will stretch the top over into ...>

...../.\.....
.../......\...
./_____\

</TERRIBLE ASCII ART>


Happy texturing, good luck! ^_^

This Feature Suggestion thread has a full discussion of this issue and possible fixes:

/13/11/39693/1.html

You can do a lot with the texture rotation, if your working with a good texture.

While editing the prim, select "edit texture" and click on the face you want to work with and amend the rotation. Click on each face and repeat until your done. The texture you use is important however. If your good with creating textures, you may be able to make creative textures that will solve your problem.

The attached pic is two pyramid tops, the left one is default rotation of zero, the right one has 90º rotation applied. The texture is very simple, but you can see the difference rotation makes.

The reason the texture skews is because every rectangle in SL is actually composed of two triangles (this is common for 3D applications). When you shrink the top of a cube to create a pyramid, you are shifting the size and shape of both triangles on each face, and the textures laying on top of them end up getting bent and compressed in correspondance with the borders of the tiangles.

If you're creating a true pyramid (top size = 0), then you may be able to correct the problem simply by rotating the texture on each face. However, if your object has a top size greater than zero, you will need to prepare your texture in advance to compensate. See this thread for a great example (view the images attached about half way down the first page).

You guys are the best, thanks for all the great information!

I will have to use the information later though, I think I should work on upgrading my TV so that it can support streaming media.

*hugs* to the SL community at large!