How can I make my builds line nicely??

I'm trying to desperately learn how to build houses. I'm not here when building events happen if they actually do any longer...


I've been able to do the windows in paint shop pro so that I can now create a view from inside the house, and closed windows from outside...lots of fun with transparencies


My major problem is that although I line my walls up using position, size and rotation coordinates, they STILL do not appear correct when I look at them from different angles. Does ANYONE have any good, easy advice for me to follow...PLEASE??

Thank you in advance.

It sounds like you are building *by the numbers* which is the best way to insure that your walls will line up correctly. Can you be more specific about what you are seeing that does not look correct?

One problem that people experience is with flickering *seams* appearing between two perfectly aligned prim, when viewed from an oblique angle. This is just a quirk in the rendering engine and there is not a lot you can do about it. However, you can reduce the visibility of these seems by coloring and/or texturing the inside surfaces of your prim (the faces that touch each other).

I hope this helps. If not, please describe what you are seeing in a bit more detail.

Create one wall panel.

In the edit window,click the Create tab.

You will see a checkbox [ ] Copy Selection.

Check this box, and while you still have the original wall panel you just created highlighted/selected,click on the face of the wall you want the next panel to go.

You should now have 2 wall panels,side by side,perfectly aligned,with no gaps.

The best advice i can give you is to mess with the copy selection function. Its a great tool when you understand how it works, and can cut construction work in half.

Actually, I think that VzNevada is having problems with alpha sorting issues.

You mentioned windows? And transparencies? Ah, that sounds familiar...

Try this test.

Build a room, using textures that have NO Transparent parts at all. Like just use the default plywood texture, for now.

Does it look OK?

Now, without moving anything, apply your window wall textures. Does it look screwed up now? Especially when looking at corners where two walls with windows in them meet?

If it looks OK when the walls are opaque, but screws up when the walls have transparent windows in them, it's the alpha sorting problem you're fighting. Search the forums for 'Alpha-sort', and you'll find a raft of information on the problem.

In a nutshell, openGL, which SL uses for rendering, has issues when two planes with alpha transparent surfaces overlap in your field of view. It sometimes messes up, and shows the rear one in front of the closer one.

Unfortunately, there is no easy fix. If you put two window walls made with alpha textures too close to each other, they will look screwy from certain angles.

I'm seeing that my walls aren't lining up correctly. For instance: I stand my walls up in a square...say I want to make four individual walls... They are all positioned, rotated and sized exactly, but when I look at them from inside, from the top view or along the side...I see they are not lined up well. It's driving me crazy. LOL! Thanks so much for helping me.

I'm going to take the time tonight to do the above. I can't wait to see how my walls line up. Thank you so very much

Actually I've been working with regular wood before trying out my windows etc. The problem is that it's not the texture or the windows lining up, it's the wood itself. I'm going to try some of the things that were suggested to me, and we'll see if this will clear up for me...ever...LOL! Thank you so much for helping

Did you happen to have rotated several prims at once? This will easily cause it to drift and leave seams.

Another handy tool to use is the Shift-X function. With prims selected, if you hit it, it will round of the X and Y positions to the nearest grid position. The grid granularity has to be something big enough tho, like 0.5m.

To me, being new at this...some of the things I'm trying feel advanced. I'm going to practice all the things I'm reading here, before I try again at actually building. I have to learn how to manipulate the coordinates first. Thanks for the tip Everyone is helping me more than they know

Vz, I have a feeling that we are not really understanding the problem you are having. Perhaps you could post a picture of what you are seeing? Better yet, how about contacting me in-world? I am online most nights, I am a mentor, and I would be happy to help you.

prim drift IS a PITA...
one thing that helps is if you lock your prims before leaving it, drift usually happens while your offline, or your not there.

- just a quick suggestion - go visit the Ivory Tower of Prims and go thru it from step one till its done...its fun and I was surprised how much I didn't know before I went there.

Hi I was there when I first arrived. I guess it's time to visit again now that I know a little more. Thanks for reminding me

Oh my- YES! - its a great place!! LOVE IT!

Tks for reminding me to!

Time for me to do a new visit and learn more.. you can never learn to much.. no way..


/Tina

its not the alignment...or rotation, and the PRIMS are NOT moving......I am having the same problem.........I have built some objects that are perfectly aligned, and linked....I am using a concrete texture when I build them first. but.....when I place them, they are perfect from a distance...but when I use camera controls to pan around the object....the pieces sort of fade into each other...and look like the arent aligned....This has only started to happen in the last four days on SL so maybe its a bug in the updater? But yes there is an issue......If anyone knows what it is ...PLEASE let me know

I finally DID begin to build...nothing big or special...and absolutely NOT ready to even WANT to show a soul...avie or ghost. LOL! This is my rl issue with making a zillion mistakes: First I find why *I* can't figure it out the right way and then when I finally do come up with a solution, I ask for help and ask WHY it took me so long to do it...LOL!...

Well this morning when I finally made it all come together and it finally looked GOOD, I linked it! BIG MISTAKE....it moved and didn't look a bit normal after that. I was so angry that I just turned off my computer and went to work. Is this a SL glitch?? I surely do hope so.

ive been trying my hand at learning how to build and having a p[robelem aligning prims before linking, or appearing to be misaligned; i linked several prims togther to form a floor, using 10 X 10 prims, checking that each piece's postion was increased by 10 relative to the one next to it, but when i check the spacing (visually) between them to make sure i it looks ok, there are gaps between the prims; is this a bug created from the update or am i doing something wrong?