The Vicious Texture Cycle.

Spendin' some time today working on the tree village. Not that you could tell by looking at it, considering that I have been working on some new ideas in the sky. I am pretty much satisfied with a proto-type for a new building shape I want.

But damn it, it is always the textures that hang me up. I have a lot of textures. I have spent more money on textures than I really want to think about over the years I have been in Second Life. I end up using a very big handful or two of good reliable textures (I think every builder does, or so I have observed) But damned if you don't get a new project, and nothing you have works.

I would really like for the Tree Buildings to match, but all be a little different. From interiors to exteriors, because why wouldn't they be? But to keep it from looking like a train wreck, I have to be careful to make sure everything co-ordinates. This is no small task.

I have a growing list of uses for the various buildings. For instance, I want to build a Tavern, and have a little infirmary. Places for trades people, and of course, places designated for homes. The smallest building nearest the dock is destined to be a fish monger (at least, I think. I could change my mind.)

There is one thing I am growing very irritated with, and that is Foliage. The foliage that comes with the tree houses we have used as a base, is your basic, 1- prim plant sculpty. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but when you get it in Megaprim form, It intersects objects, and makes it hard to touch things that need touching. Like doors. Re-sizing and repositioning these HUGE prims tends to leave the tree looking awkward, and the buildings over exposed. I really want the tree village to be un-obscured while you are in it, but fairly well hidden when you are on the outside of it, with a few rooftops and structures peaking out here and there.

Also, by un-linking and moving all the foliage so I could build, I more or less lost the ability to control the textures in the trees. It kind of defeats the purpose.

So I am not sure what to do about all of that. I do know that I think the foliage that came with the tree is needlessly primy., but I may find that I have to re-rez them in their original form and add them back to trees after the building is done, in hopes I can make it work. But before I can get rid of all of the foliage, I have to get those buildings perfect.

Which brings me back to textures. A vicious cycle.

zomg

My dream tree village is real!

6 Fictional Places You Won't Believe Actually Exist

Where's my passport?!

Giddy

Giddy is the only word to describe how I feel at this very moment.

After rambling on and on, I decided to give myself permission to go ahead and do a tree village build. I have enough prims, why the fuck not? While it is far from finished (it has barely begun!) I have had my first taste of that tree village of my dreams, and it feels so good. Not only that, as I tried to ambulate through the foliage and platforms of the prefab Oiolairë Tree House I am modifying for the village, I got lost and disoriented.

Exactly what a new comer should feel! What a giddy feeling. Like stepping into your best dreams and getting lost in them.

The road and the under water tunnel look a little silly, but I don't care.

At the moment, nothing is connected, everything is a mess of miss textured prims and wonky trees. But all that will change, and I want to do it as close to how my tree dwellers would have done it themselves.

I reckon, that buildings would be placed in the most suitable location of the tree for adequate support of the structure. The Oiolairë Tree Home (which Eaken purchased nearly three years ago) already does that for me. So by rezing multiple trees, scattering them around, and rotating them, that much is provided for me.

However, this does not make for neat little rows of suburban cookie cutter buildings. (and who would want that anyway?) Thus, bridges and lifts would be put in to accommodate the houses, not the other way around. Making for the feeling of winding paths high in the sky.

Tree dwellers, loving their trees very much would want to save as much of it as possible... so the foliage would only be removed as needed to clear the walk ways and the homes.

So in essence, I am rezing tree houses, building bridges to connect them, and picking out the plant prims and moving them to where I need them to be.

One thing I am surprised with (so far) is that the trees provide a pretty good privacy screen on their own. They will of course, be aided by more landscaping on the ground to help hide the uglyness of mainland, but that alone is a boon I had not expected!

Perhaps, if this all goes well, I shall also be able to use my tiny bay of water. Water on the Mainland is hard to come by. I am lucky to have it, how grand would a majestic ship look next to a tree village? Pretty fucking grand. I know people with majestic ships, but whether or not they want them on the mainland, I do not know.

My inspiration for laying out the trees, was the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.





Because a build like this could only be better with some Esoteric elements. Unfortunately, I found that I would need a much larger piece of land and more prims to do that well, so I made a template of the Tree of Life, and used it as a rough guide for placing trees and future platforms. Even though it is not my initial plan, it has served me well so far.