Measured in meters, the Low value represents the maximum elevation for texture 1 (Low). The low and high values in each corner affect detail and base textures alike. Texture elevation range values can be adjusted for each corner of the simulator and are labeled accordingly. These numbers reflect each texture's position in the elevation hierarchy. The thumbnails are labeled 1 (Low), for the lowest elevations, to 4 (High), the highest elevations. Upload any or all of the textures, and simply drag-and-drop them from the texture directory in your inventory onto the appropriate thumbnail in the Texture panel. To access the Region/Estate window, select World > Region/Estate from the menus at the top of the Second Life viewer. For more realistic terrains, consider lowering the amount of saturation in your textures. Tip: In general, the more saturated a texture, the more "computer generated" it will look. If the elevation ranges will be small, you might allow them to have very different values - which can yield very interesting results. If the elevation ranges will be broad, consider making the value of each map somewhat similar they'll blend much better with each other. Color value and saturationĭepending on your environmental goals, color may be an important element for you. The controls at the bottom allow you to adjust both the black level output and white level output. Photoshop's Levels panel, displaying the histogram of a grass texture. Also consider changing saturation (In PhotoShop: Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation). While the panel is open, raise the black level slightly, and lower the white level slightly. Tip: Reduce the effects of tiling (visual repeats) in your terrain textures by adjusting the "Levels" of the texture (In PhotoShop: Image > Adjustments > Levels). Frequently, maps with less contrast will look the best in every lighting scenario. These will help you greatly when trying to eliminate light or dark areas that cause undesired tiling effects.Īdjusting the Levels histogram (in Photoshop: Image > Adjustments > Levels) helps you achieve proper balance in brightness, contrast, and gamma. Tip: In Photoshop you can set the clone tool to "lighten," "darken," or any number of transfer types. There are also a number of books available on this subject, as well as many other image editing techniques that are useful when creating textures for use inworld in Second Life. There are a number of tutorials and instructional pages on the Internet that show how to tile textures. ![]() They must be 512x512, 24-bit Targa (.tga) files with no alpha channel.įor obvious reasons it is important to make sure your textures tile correctly. Land in the Second Life world has four elevation ranges, and requires a texture map for each of them. If you own adjacent Regions the job of matching texture sets is straight forward, but if someone else owns an adjacent Region it's beneficial to contact them to get copies of the textures they're using.Ĭreating Terrain Textures Texture format requirements Be aware that textures will "stretch" or "smear" on steep slopes, and more experimentation may be necessary to make them look good.Ĭrossing Region boundaries can be a tricky situation, so it's always best to develop adjacent Regions in tandem. A texture might look great on subtle, rolling hills, but look terrible on more extreme slopes. Steep slopes can have undesirable effects on terrain textures, depending on their complexity, contrast, and saturation. Creating and loading textures will be much easier and faster, and you'll have greater continuity and visual appeal. Simplify the process of creating a terrain by planning properly in advance. 3 Generating terrain using RAW image filesīefore You Begin: Environment Considerations What type of environment are you making?.2.7 Simulator-to-simulator range settings.1.1 What type of environment are you making?.1 Before You Begin: Environment Considerations.
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