RAW Terrain Files

I'm having trouble finding a good source for sample .raw terrain files. I got the one sample from the SL website, but don't know where to find others (free ones or ones for sale). I found this site, http://instantisland.blogspot.com, that sells RAW files for 30,000L, but none are what I'm looking for. Is there a good resource for these that I can't seem to find? Thanks!

There is an article in knowledge base for do it yourself

http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=288

If you are looking for someone to help you, you could im me. I could give you a quote depends on how complex the terrain you want.

Thank you. I will need to play around in Photoshop to see if I can do it myself. I don't understand what Channel 2 does. A multiplier for terrain height? Why is this necessary? What can you use this for that Channel 1 cannot handle?

This site sells boxes containing thousands of various textures. (Not to mention thousands of other products) You will need to create and account at this site and find an atm machine in world to transfer Linden dollars to. (This site also has freebies) If you need help finding an atm in world or verifying your slexchange account send me an IM in world.

http://www.slexchange.com

~Good luck~

SLX does not sell RAW terrain files. At least I couldn't find any there. I'm talking about terrain files for private islands, not textures. Thanks anyway

There are other posts here (some by me) that describe in some detail how RAW files are constructed.

I can send you some, if you send me an email at

[email]lee.ponzu@yahoo.com[/email]

People are charging 30000 for RAW files? Good grief, I oughtta start cranking some out! Rockwell, do you have an island? If so, you can actually download the current terrain as a RAW file. Sorry if this is old news; it's how I learned about the format.

Also, regarding the channel for the terrain height multiplier: My understanding is it's a blanket method for you to raise or lower the entire terrain. For example, if your lowest land in the sim is at five meters, but you wanted to raise the whole sim another 10 meters, you'd just pick a slightly lighter shade of gray in the multiplier channel. I imagine you could even make drastic changes, like turning a flat beach into a big wedge by filling that channel with a color gradient.

I made my own island by creating a 256x256 Photoshop file and using the paint brush tool to lay down progressively lighter shades of gray, one shade per layer. Each layer I painted was 5 meters higher than the one before it. I determined the appropriate color values by using 8x8 land levelling prims on my island and adjusting them to specific heights. I then downloaded the terrain into a RAW file and used the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to get the color values that represented real heights in the SL terrain. I then flattened the image and pasted it into both of the bitmap channels (the main and the backup) in my RAW file, and re-uploaded. Voila!

I didn't mess with the multiplier channels, as I was pleased with the terrain when it was done.

IMPORTANT: Only upload new terrains in empty sims. I messed around with my terrain when my sim was partially furnished and all my objects got randomly returned as they began appearing underground whenever I uploaded a new RAW file. (There are some photos of the disaster.)

"I blew up my sim" was hysterical!

Can't you request a rollback of your island? A friend of mine had to request one recently when someone inadvertently changed permissions and auto-return decimated the iland buildings.

Excellent, thanks for the tips Wildefire!

Yeah, that was an option, but I was unhappy with how things had been set up anyway, so it wasn't too much of a pain. The only thing I really regretted was losing the work that my friend was doing on our house. He was okay with it though.

I have a zip file containing 4 island raw files, and also 4 tiff images that are 3D views of the islands. I cannot attach them to this post. If you want them, send an email to [email]lee.ponzu@yahoo.com[/email].

I will try to post them in New Products as well.

EDIT====

Zip and 4 jpg files in New Products.

30k is a bit XTREME... I taught myself how to make them in about 5 minutes (or less) by simply downloading my current raw from a new island and seeing how it was done, very easy stuff, do it yourself, or find someone else to do it for you... I know the going rate is 1-5k max, I wouldn't pay more than 5k for a RAW file!

Cool, thanks. The going rate? Where are they sold?

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nico%20Island/161/166/25/
New Island Raw Files to switch out with the one second life gives you.
Come take a look at our store.
Lots of Designs

I played with photoshop when i got my first island and after some arrangements i got what i wanted. Of course on photoshop it is hard to "guess" how it will actually look like once uploaded on SL.
I found a free program that helps a lot to have a better look of what it will look like, even if it's still on 2D, at least it shows what is under water and what is above, and you can check any point height.
It is buggy, at least on my puter, so I couldnt change multiplier within the program (crashes all the times).
The program is Bailiwick, and has some nice features to slice parcels too.
THe multiplier channel is very useful to obtain smooth results, but it's hard to understand how it will make it appear. So I worked on photoshop, got the image on that program and checked heights. Changed multiplier, chenged heights (grey tones) and checked again until i got something i liked.
Then first attempt uploading on SL wasn't perfect, so i changed again something and got what i wanted.
At least I needed a sim with nice islands, smooth, kinda flat but that smoothly dropped into water. And i wanted water to be a certain depth.
There are other programs like Terragen, but I couldnt have them work as i wish.

Use BACKHOE on a mac. Piece 'o cake.

Is there a tool for PC ?

My partner (on his PC) uses a combination of Terragen, Photoshop, and Bailiwick.

HOLY CRAP Backhoe is awesome!

it looks it - now i just need a Mac!

Anyone know a good OSX emulator for Windows?