newbie here be gently got a few questions :)

Hi Everyone

ive just come from cybernet worlds / active worlds
ive been there for a long time and made hundreds of modles for use in them

because CW and AW do not have on the fly building i have been useing
3DsMax to make the meshes and UV map them then converting and scaleing with accutrans, and im used to these programs.

ive just started out building and love the interface and on the fly building in SL but i cant find a Booleen feature where i can subtrack object A from B etc like i was trying to make a window wall in 3ds i would make a cube then place it in the wall and subtract the cube from the wall and that would cut the window opening out of the wall, but i cannot find that feature in SL ?

also the UV mapping for textures seems limited, i am used to joining objects together then textureing them as a whole so no joints where one starts and another stops, but again i cant seem to do that in SL ?

any help guys is much appreciated

Hi kobi

I'm new to building as well but I can answer 1 of your questions.
There's no Booleen feature where you can subtract object A from B.
You'll need to be creative and use the hollow feature and play around with taper/shear/and I few others -- sorry can't remember the names offhand.

If you haven't done so yet, go to The Ivory Tower and browse through the tutorials.

Also note that prims do count in the SL environment. If you're into detailing and creating a high prim object to be 'placed' on the land, remember that it eats up the prim allocated to that land. If its a high prim object to be attached on your avatar, it doesn't count toward the land prim.

hey Eis
thanks for the reply


the Booleen feature is one i probly use the most in Max when moddleing so not having it
to hand now is going to litterally chnage the way i make stuff, but thats okay i guess as you say theres ways around it.

i found out about the prim count yesterday, i was building a camp with a friend and she said about keeping the prims low so i had a look round and found the about land menu
and it all makes sense now, again not something i'm used to as for the last few years prim count hasnt matterd but ive always tried to keep the vertice count down low to reduce frame rate drop ( lag ).

Hi,

Have you tried creating a wall texture in PSP that includes a frame, and then a blank space (an alpha layer needed) for a window. Any time you use a totally clear texture, or an black space in a layer of a texture, you will be able to see through it on SL. The trick is to then create the outside texture to have the same dimension so that the window on the outside of the building is also blank, and in the same location so it makes logical sense. If you prefer a house with privacy, you can make your inside texture empty, or framed like a window, but your outside texture could show blinds or a curtain, or slatted shutters. The sky is the limit. All the artwork has to be done before importing. If you're making a box, and you're texturing 4 walls inside a room at once, then the texture has to be equal in four sections that when bent by the prim in SL, the texture makes sense. This is possible as well but takes some sense of spatialization in the concept stage so that your finished product comes out with a seamless sense of perfection. I'd play around with the first suggestion first (just getting one wall right on the inside and outside, then move on to the more complicated "bent" texture that allows for fewer prims to be used to reach the end result.

jes

One more thought. I believe that a good use of texturing in the art stage is the key to lower prim designs for buildings as well as items used inside the building such as furniture.

jes

hi Jessika

i totally agree no point in using more prims if you can do the same job with a texture,
although i can see most people useing prims because of the time envolved making custom textures and people cant do it there and then.

i havent looked at alpha channels yet but im fairly proficiant in Adobe and PSP
( shame my speeling isnt so good )