Newbie questions (again)

Hello People,

These are going to sound like really stupid questions im sure, but stick with me as im very new.

Question 1) I have just purchased some land, and want to build on it, but how do I get rid of all the undergrowth thats there?

Question 2) Where do I get textures from, I seen them around but dont know where to get some good ones of my own.

Question 3) (and probably the most simplest) When im building I find it very hard to see what im building as the camera angle is very awkward, How can I change the camera angle so that it is actually focused directly onto the prim im editing.

Thank you very much in advance for any help that you guys can give.


Cheers

Ben
XxX

The undergrowth is probably Linden-owned. You can either select the plant objects individually and select "Return..." from the pie menu, to return them to their owner or:
in the "About Land" menu, on the "Object" tab, there is a list of how many objects belonging to what person are on your land. Click on "refresh", the list will be updated and you should see some objects belonging to Governor Linden. There's a "return objects" button there that will return them to the owner.



Check the Library -> Textures folder in your inventory for Linden textures. Also, there are free texture packs all over the world - check Yadni's Junkyard in Leda. I personally really like the free texture packs available at Little Rebel in Gallina. Or just roll your own, there's enough websites that provide textures that are free for personal and sometimes even commercial use.



Use View -> Camera control to adjust the camview, and open the "Edit" menu using the shortcut (crtl+3) instead of the pie-menu, it won't swing your camera angle around wildly.

You know your a real diamond Jackal. Thanks a lot, this is the second time you helped me out.

Cheers again mate!


Ben
XxX

Hi Ben. Don't worry, there's no such thing as a stupid question.


By "undergrowth," I assume you mean there are things like bushes, trees, and grass around. You should be able to select them and delete them. You clould also right click on the ground and select "about land" from the pie menu. Then go to the objects tab and clear the land entirely.


You can either make them in a program like Photoshop or you can buy them from others who make them. I'm hoping you won't do what is all too common in SL though, which is for to pull images off the web, or worse, out of video games, and then go "look what I made." Just yesterday I visited a beautiful Starwars-esque build, and I recognized the textures instantly as having been ripped from a Jedi Knight game. It turned my stomach, but I resisted the temptation to confront the "creator" about it. I really hate it when people do that.


Good question. Mastering camera controls is the number one most important aspect of 3D modeling.

Hold down alt. You'll see the cursor change from an arrow to a square magnifying glass. As long as alt is held down, whatever you click on becomes the focal point of the camera. Keep holding it, click on something, keep the mouse button down, and drag the mouse around. You'll see that the camera will rotate around the clicked upon object. Now do the same thing while holding alt and ctrl at the same time, and then do it with alt, ctrl, and shift all at the same time. Here's how it works:

Alt + click + left or right drag = orbit focal point laft or right
Alt + click + up or down drag = zoom in and out on focal point

Alt + Ctrl + left or right drag = orbit focal point left or right (same is just with alt)
Alt + Ctrl + up or down drag = orbit focal point up or down

Alt + Ctrl + Shift + left or right drag = pan left or right
Alt + Ctrl + Shift + up or down drag = pan up or down

To cancel the focus, touch an arrow key (without holding alt, ctrl, or shift). I recommend the left or right arrow so your av rotates instead of blindly taking a step. Any movement of the avatar will instantly snap the camera back to its normal position.

You'll find that as you start using the camera controls, they become instinctive. After just a few minutes, you won't have to think about what bottons to press; you'll just do it. Just so you know, there are also buttons for camera movement on the GUI (View -> Camera Controls) but they're much slower and much less controlable. I wouldn't recommend using them.


You're welcome. Come back any time with more questions. Never be afraid to ask. For everyone who asks, there are hundreds more who read, but never post, so know that every question helps a lot of people. One again, there are no stupid questions.

Cheers peeps for all the help. I do have one more question though

I got some free textures from the junkyard place, but I can not figure out how to us them?

Can I ask one of you lovely people to enlighten me with some of your infinate wisdom again please.

CIA

Ben
XxX

First, I'd recommend you read the help guides on the downloads section of this site. I don't want to sound like one of those "RTFM"-shoutin' people that plague so many gaming forums, but reading the instructions really would help you a great deal.

Anyway, to answer your sepecific question, textures can be applied in a number of ways. You can drag them straight out of your inventory onto a face of a prim for instant application, but the most precise way to do it is to use the editor. Try this:

1. Right click on the cround and select "Create" from the pie menu. The editor window will open, and your cursor will change from an arrow to a magic wand. Make sure the editor is showing all the options by clicking on the blue "more" button if it isn't already. At the top of the editor window you'll see all the geometric shapes (prims) that you can create in SL. Select cube, and click on the ground. A cube will appear.

2. On the editor, click on the texture tab. You'll see pickers for texture and color, and a bunch of options, which are fairly self explanatory. To apply a texture to the cube, open the texture picker by clicking on the thumbnail next to the word "Texture" (the thumbnail is the postage stamp sized picture, which right now should be an image of wood, the same wood that's on the cube you just made). On the texture picker, you'll see a file tree with all the folders in your inventory, and all the textures that are in them, and a viewer so you can see what each texture looks like when you click on the file name. Navigate to the texture you want to apply, click on the file name, and cick "Select".

3. If you want to apply a texture to one or more faces of a prim, but not all, click the "Select Texture" radio button on the editor. Then rotate the camera around the prim (using the mouse controls; the GUI controls SUCK!!!), click the first face you want to affect, and then shift-click whatever others you want to affect at the same time. Use the texture picker to choose a texture, and click "Select".

That's really all there is to it. The options on the texture tab are pretty straight forward, but if you have any questions, come on back.

If I recall correctly, the boxes in Yadni's Junkyard give you a folder with the content, that should be somewhere in your inventory. It is advisable to move it to the Textures subfolder so you easily find it. Now, for texturing an object, there are different possibilities:

1. Create a prim, drag a texture from your inventory on the prim. It will texture the face of the prim onto which you dragged the texture. Quick & easy until you try to texture a multi-prim linked object

2. Create a prim, and click on the "More" button in the "Edit" menu. Now select the "Texture" tab. Click on the small "Texture" preview window (which will show default plywood if you just created the prim) to get a menu with inventory browser from which you can preview and choose a texture. This will apply the texture to all the faces of the prim.

3. Create a prim, click on "Select texture" in the upper part of the "Edit" menu. The prim faces will be highlighted with white crosses - best visible on a cube. The white crosses indicate which face(s) is selected. Click on a face, it will deselect the others; or shift-click to select more than one face. Continue as in 2. by selecting the "Texture" tab and choosing a texture - this will apply the texture only to the faces previously selected.



I wish it was infinite Glad to be of help, feel free to hit me up in-world anytime if you have more question or just to say hello.