How to save money uploading textures

This is a simple trick I invented few days ago. I do not know if anybody already invented it before me (probably yes), but just to be sure, I decided to publicly share it since it may save you a lot of money.

I had to create several simple boxes with all the faces having the same image, but using different images for each box. In theory I had to upload an image for each box. That was a lot of money, but... I found a trick. I created 8l square images 100x100px and I joined them in a single strip 100x800px. I uploaded the image (10L$, you know). Then I applied the image to a cube and duplicated it 7 times. I edited the texture of each cube by setting offset to 0.0 (first cube), 0.064 (second cube) , 0.128 (third cube) , and so forth up to 0.448 (eighth cube). Now each cube uses a different image, but I had to load it only once.

Of course this method may be use also if you need to apply different textures to different faces of the same prim. You can use it for any shape that completely covers a plane, like squares, regular triangles, hexagons, and so forth. Using alpha channel you can apply it to circles too and other shapes that can be bounded by a square. Practically, you can subdivide a 512x512px image in pieces that can be used as different textures by properly setting repeat and offset values.

Maybe it is something you already know, maybe it si not. It is only a month that I am in SL and nobody told me that I could do that, so at least it will be useful for newbies.

Enjoy

Thanks for sharing that.
I hadn't thought of that.
Another suggested a friend gave me for testing out textures to see how they intereact in the game is use beta SL
You get 5000L everytime there is restart and while you're not able to keep you inventory when there is new version, its cheaper way to test things out before uploading in regular version oF SL.

What's beta sl??? And how to get there?

You have discovered the technique called a "Texture Sheet" - mapping multiple textures to a single upload.

Not only does this save on upload fees, it also rezzes fastter. I use this a lot when I make signs for use in a build. I make a sheet with several signs on it, and use repeats to show specific ones. When one sign rezzes, they all do at once. It is great for textures that don't need to repeat, and which can be smaller than a full 1024 x 1024 texture in size.

The down side of this is that it reduces the max pixels available to you (since the textures are all on one sheet, limited to 1024 in any one direction), and you can't use this to upload tiled textures that need a repeat value greater than one.

Remember to size your upload to powers of 2 on each side. 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 or 1024 in each direction. Otherwise SL resizes it for you, and you get distortions.

You need to install the beta verison of Second Life.
It sort of way for Second Life to test out features before its released in regular Second Life.
You don't get to keep anything you make there though when they update.
The Beta download should be somewhere in this site sorry don't remember exactly where.
Probably search in downloads or knowledge base more about this.

How do you go about creating Texture sheets?
I have put multiple textures in on texture for like display purposes but I don't entirely understand how one would use each indivual texture that way.
I have though discovered if I shade textures in certian tones I can recolor them on prims in different hues and patterns.
There also are certain textures that appear one way in art program, another on prims, and another way in appearance clothing some of those textures I discovered are very interesting and beautiful but I don't really understand how I did it in first place because I tend to mess with things and then forget how I have done them.
LOL

yes its a nice trick that's been around since the early days of 3D. Always good to remind ppl of it.

First, texture sheets can only be used on prims, and not on clothes, because you need to be able to specify repeats and offsets in the horizontal and vertical direction to use them.

There is no way to specify repeats or offsets on clothing textures. They map to wherever the UV map for the clothing template sends them. For that reason, a texture that is a solid square of vertically striped fabric will kind of make a striped shirt, but the stripes on the arms would be going roughly sideways, while the stripes on the body are more or less vertical. And seams wouldn't match, and the stripes may not be the same width in all places... Overlay a texture square with one of the clothing templates, and you'll see what parts show on the clothes.

Most texture sheets can not be tiled at all, or can only be tiled in one direction (see below). If the textures are all in a row, vertically or horizontally, then the direction where the texture touches opposite edges might still be tilable semlessly.

The most simple example I could give you is 4 square textures in one sheet. In your graphics program, make 4 square textures, perhaps 256 x 256 each in size. Then make a 512 x 512 texture, and paste the 4 textures in the corners of the larger one. I use guide lines in Photoshop to make sure they line up. You import that into SL, and apply it to 4 square prims. On all of the, set the repeats per face to 0.5 in both directions. Now you see the inside corners of all 4 textures. Set the offset to 0.25 H and 0.25 V, and you'll see just one of the 4 textures. 0.25 and -0.25 gets another. -0.25 and -0.25 another. And -0.25 and 0.25 gets the last one.

To get the values for other layouts, you just need to do some math, or some experimentation. They don't all have to be the same size. You could, for example, make a single texture for a large rectangular table top that also had on it narrow textures for the table edge, the table legs, and a few small square ones for an ashtray that will go with the table.

Obviously a 4 x 4 texture layout can't be tiled to repeat just one texture. But let's say you wanted to do a texture sheet for trim to go on the edge of a table. You could take several wide, short textures and stack them vertically, using vertical repeats and offsets to select thye texture, and could still use horizintal repeat values of 2, 3, 5, or whatever to repeat the pattern around the edge of the table.

One gotcha with texture sheets. Sometimes when you specify to show just part of a texture, you get a little of what is beyond the chosen edge showing. So if a texture sheet was a black rectangle and a red rectangle, and you were showing the black half, you might get a little of the other area showing on the joining edge. Tweaking the repeats to 0.49 instead of 0.50 will push that past the visible area.