help with a fence

Hi, i posted this same question in Building forum, and people started talking about transparencies and alpha channels...errrrrggh. Someone else suggested i ask over here, so...

First of all I’m a newbie so go gently on me. Now, I am attempting to build a little fence that goes around my property. I know how to build one, that for sake of simplicity can be described as 1 wooden plank running across the top, 1 plank across the bottom (on the ground), and say 5 shorter planks running vertically, equidistant from one another, connecting the top plank to the bottom. So, my five plank fence is made of 7 “pieces of wood”, 7 prims (if I understand the system correctly).

But, ideally, I’d like to make one square (or rectangular) piece of wood, and CUT OUT four vertical, rectangular holes, so that I appear to have the five plank fence described above.

Let me know if you have any ideas, the point of course is to minimise prim usage. If you want me to invite you to my land so you can have a look at what I'm talking abou, let me know. Thanks in advance for any advice...

Hiya

Ok in order to make a 1 prim fence all you need is a fence texture, now you can out source one from a texture site and upload it to secondlife (costs $10L)

Or you can visit a texture store in secondlife and buy fence railing textures.

Or you can make your own using paint shop pro or photoshop.

If you choose to make your own or upload a texture you will need to use alpha channels to make the "holes" in between your planks invisible, There are a few tutorials up top of this forum.

If your not too comfortable making your own I suggest buying them in world, If a texture place doesn't have what your looking for you could also IM the creators as a few of them do custom jobs aswell.

Nat

i'm just an idiot, but here's a few more details...

A texture is just a picture. A photograph, maybe, or a drawing. if you make your own, you use Paintshop or something similar. Create a picture maybe 512x128 of one section of fence. If you repeat it over and over, you get a longer fence.

The tricky part is the transparent part. You have to paint that with "alpha" or whatever your tool calls "transparent". Save it as 32-bit Targa.

In SL, you make a long, tall, thin prim. Put this texture on it and it will look like a section of fence. Repeat as needed...

You might also have to worry about the edges. You might see a glow. To get rid of this, you need to put a totally transparent texture on the edges. IM me in game and I can send you one.

thanks guys, very helpful, I'll have a look and see what I can find out... I have access to photoshop software, but not to photoshop talent, skill or brains... we'll see what happens. Cheers/moonshine