Just Started Building...

I've got a couple of questions.. These are probably !duh! questions, but I'm pretty new to building here in SL.. I'm in the process of building an inground spa, and I've got everything looking pretty good, but ..now for the question #1.. How do you simulate realistic water and make it so someone could get into the spa, and secondly, is there a way to make simulated steam come off the water? I assume it would be something like a particle script or sumsuch... I'm also really unclear on linking/unlinking prims, and how one can unlink a group of prims, delete one from the mess without losing the linkage of the rest (or assuming you manage to unlink them, how to group-link the whole mess of prims back to one).. While putting my house together I managed to unlink the roof, and was nearly ready to rip my hair out by the roots, trying to get everything positioned and linked back together again... I guess I'm asking, is there a tutorial on this aspect of building? I've yet to find anything close... So I guess I actually had more than two questions.. :=>

Thanks
TasPerth

Tas -

First off, check out the Ivory tower of Primitives if you haven't already. There's some tutorials you can run thru there that'll answer a lot of your basic questions.

Secondly, to simulate water, many folks use several layers of transparent water texture with an animation script on them to give a 'shimmer' effect. Steam or splashing can be accomplished with particles - again with a special script

Luckly, some basic examples of these kinds of scripts are already in your inventory - just look in your 'Library' folder, and search for 'Waterfall'. (Under Textures, I think).

These should hopefully get you started!

Thanks Travis! I hadn't looked in the library for quite a while and had forgotten what all is in there.. Using the waterfall water ripple texture, and dragged a copy of the particle script into the thin phantom water surface object and voila! I've got what looks like water and vapor coming off it.. I even embedded a running water sound and looped it... I'll need a bit more practice in multiple linking stuff, but I got the house all connected up.. I just wish they had an 'un-do last' command.. I've heard ^z works sometimes.. Not for me... Damn this stuff is FUN!!! See you at the Shelter tonight...

Tas