Need a little help with a shop

Hello,

I am fairly new to the game 17 days . I have spent the last couple weeks searching out money trees and camping areas. I saved up enough to buy one of those "shop in a box". I bought it directly from the creator of the item and therefore paid more than the ones that just try to reseller them for half the price. I have found a new mall that is offering free space for a week or so and started setting up there. I have a few questions, please message me in game I will be online for a little while longer.

Thanks
Masdn Wiefel

Hello Masdn, maybe you could ask your questions here, in the forum? That way other people will be able to learn from the answers.

oh that makes sense, I was just sitting in my shop and thought it would be nice to do it in game. I need tod not make a sign and not sure how. I would assume I would make a square prim and put a texture on it? What can I use to make the texture? I think I got my other questions answered by trial and error.

Thanks

Masdn

Yes, basically you're right - make a prim and put a texture on it.

Rather than a square box, you should probably stretch it into a rectangle shape, and reduce its depth so it looks more like a real sign. Do this with the Edit menu - either using the 'stretch' option at the top, or the XYZ sizes in the Object tab.

To make the texture (assuming you want some sort of unique logo &/or design for your shop) you will need to do this outside of SL in a graphics program like Photoshop or Paintshop (there are a couple of free ones as well, sorry can't remember their names).

Once you have made it (hint - use sizes that are multiples of 128, eg 512x256 as these are the defaults that SL uses), save it as a JPG (or a TGA, but only if you need transparency - that is a whole other discussion

Then, in SL, use the 'upload image' option in your File menu. This will cost L$10 per image, and will get saved in your Textures folder (make sure you've given it a sensible name, like shop_sign.jpg or something so that you can find it again)

Finally, use the Texture tab in Edit to apply the texture and then move your new sign into position using the Position arrows.

Good luck!

TGAs are better even when not using tranparancy, only you save them in 24bit as opposed to 32bit with alpha channels.

Gimp is a free graphics programme that will do what is needed, though I don't know how easy it is to learn, but assume it's like photoshop, takes a little while to get used to how to work it.