Landscape/Lawn Question..

I've got some adjacent lots that I'm building on, which have some areas that are lawn-like green, and others that are grey rock in color. Unfortuantly, the way the house sits, most of the grey rock-area is exposed.. I'd really like to change the rock areas to a green grassy -astroturf-ish texture.. How/if this is possible is not clear to me...Help!!

Tas

If you are on a mainland sim it is not possible. I believe that the ground texture is based largely on altitude in the mainland sims (I base this conclusion on what happens when you terraform the older core sims and the way the terrain texture changes.) The private island sims have more control over ground textures.

What many people do is build a flat prim ground and texure it with a Library grass texture. This is not the most attractive of solutions, but it does get the job done. (This post to be followed by several others who will opine that prim astroturf is evil and should be banned.)

Only the original 75 mainland sims had the ability to terraform to +40/-40, which makes it easier to customize land. The list of those sims is here:
http://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Sim+Terraformability+List

You might try lowering the land where the rocks are, just in case you are at the top of your 4' limit and it may bring you down to "grass" level".

grrr.. Thanks for the reply.. I'm in Rydal, which, of course, is not on the above list... I'd thought about the flat prim, but I'm really new at the prim game, and wouldn't have a clue as to how to form a prim to accomplish the flat prim ground above. I recently ran out of prims, and wound up buying an adjacent lot mainly for the prims.. Since the land I'm wanting to 'green' is pretty bumpy, and my last attempt at using the land editor, back on my first-land, was a sorry mess, I'd hoped for a relatively easy way to 'green' the area..
I'll -carefully- give the land editor a try and see if I can get down to 'grass' level...

Again, Thanks
Tas

I think what you're "supposed" to do here is sell the rocky land and buy green land somewhere else.

I think LL should at least let you paint any textures allowed for the sim to the ground you own, rather than forcing people to blow prims on ugly non-grass or move...

Tas, the best way to get what you are trying for is to use "Flatten Land" in the land editing tools. One thing to keep in mind is that you need to start your flattening from a point that you like the level of -- as you drag the tool across, it will flatten the land in relation to the starting point. I like to use the smallest tool size and "feather stroke" from one corner outward until I get things flat.

Your terraform range depends on the original profile of the sim when the Lindens created it, thus you can only terraform 4' in either direction from the starting land terrain. "Lower Land" will lower the selected area as low as you can go within your range.

As much of an eyesore as prim ground is, sometimes it is the only way (short of buying land that has the terrain you want in the first place.) Just create 10x10x.100 prims and make a "deck". If you choose to go this route, you also need a plan for deaing with the edges of the "deck", otherwise it looks even worse. I will help you if you need, just IM me.

Personally, I hate it when people use "flatten land" indiscriminately.

I spent a lot of time making my land look realistic, including making sure it *isn't* too flat, doesn't have sharp transitions, and so on.

I suspect if other people did the same Linden Labs wouldn't have so tightly restricted the terraforming on newer sims.

Argent, I both agree and disagree with you. It strikes me as the utimate in waste and foolishness when people buy into the old, fully terraformable sims only to flatten the land like a pancake for their mega prefab house.

However, the other side of that coin is that we all get to live our ideal "other" lives here, and my ideal and your ideal are not going to be the same thing. For some people, recreating a RL fantasy of expansive lawn surrounding a McMansion is what floats their boat. Others want to build giant, anatomically correct sheep or flying toilets (or giant, anatomically correct sheep on flying toilets...shudder.) True enough, some of the terraformable sims look absolutely terrible because a few residents have done some extreme things to the land, but that is their choice as a landowner. We've all been spoiled a bit by RL, where neighborhoods tend to follow similar architectural styles and people naturally expect SL to be the same.

The only way to control your environment is to own as much of it as possible and choose your neighbors with care.

Then buy green flatland and build your McMansion there. It's not like there's any shortage of flat green parcels.
Even the new sims look terrible once they get built up, and you get these lovely rolling hills suddenly chopped up like a ghastly parody of rice paddies.
Or, for people who don't have hundreds of dollars a month to spend on SL, rent in the Islands from an estate owner who cares about what their sim looks like.

Thanks for the tips.. I didn't want to start a 'potato/patato' war here.. I've taken the path of least resistance.. The ole' 10x10x.25 slab, with a nice rock texture, duplicated several times, makes a nice patio.. I didn't realize I'd be sort of stuck with the type of terrain of the land I bought. Funny things, us noobies assume... Oh well, still having fun...

Tas