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October 18, 2008

Using GIMP Peter Krogstad has designed a hockey rink ice surface

Peter Krogstad was exploring winter sims and got an idea to build a hockey rink. Using Wikipedia to get the regulation size in meters and a graphic for the ice markings for an ice hockey game he built 10 m by 10 m section textures as 10 by 10 pixel sections. He did this by selecting the 10 by 10 pixel sections on the graphic. This was for ease of process, rather than graphic quality, as building graphics as powers of two pixels is best for upload to Second Life. When copying these 10 by 10 sections from the Wikipedia graphic into new files, the new files would open in exactly the right size to copy and paste the ice marking graphics. The GIMP new file would sense the copy and paste in GIMP. Some side parts near the boards are narrow because the rink is about 26 meters wide. The length of the rink is just under 64 meters by two meters. So narrow end sections are also needed. The length created is just 64 meters.

This means a lot of at least 32 X 64 is needed. Peter has been scouting out such a lot but the price is about 100 dollars Canadian. Also this would raise his tier to the 25 dollar range again. This lot too is not really enough room on the side for player benches and penalty boxes. He also might go for a 80 m long lot by 32. But unless he sells a 1024 lot he has for sale this extra 512 lot on the end of the 64 X 32 lot will push him into the 40$ a month tier.

Posted by robot17A5 at 11:44 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

April 6, 2008

Peter set up some particle effects devices he bought

Peter set up his Academy of Second Life 27 prim beach house again and was able to restore the cubicles and stairs. He could only save two desks of the four he bought in 2006 so the cubicles were starting to look empty with the cubicle divider looking like a bar. Figuring this looked like a pub Peter put in a fireplace he had gotten for free from Yanni's Free Junkyard. Not stopping here he made an outside chimney and then searched for chimney smoke and found a particle effects store. He explored this quite extensively using the new "objects found here" tab in the search function. So in the end he bought some smoke for the chimney but also bought some falling leaves in three different colours and set these up on a few trees beside the new drop in.

So he now has a stretch of land consisting of about five 512 sq m parcels joined along the long side with the backs of these going up to a cliff and the fronts joining some long parcels stretched out along the front of the 512's. and then down a hill into the rest of the sim. At one end of this plateau, because it is a cliff behind and hill in front, is the new drop-in house he built himself and at the other end is the beach house known as Crystal Computing Web Design. In the middle is a green field with benches like an open air auditorium with some trees behind the benches.

He now wants to explore the particle lab at Teal 212, 46, 295 as featured in Torley Linden's YouTube video tutorial #28.

Posted by robot17A5 at 10:37 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

January 28, 2008

Grass weave walls

Grassweave.jpg This is my Vietnam war inspired grass weave that I have used for the wallls of my latest building project. I would ideally like to make this a 3-D texture.

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 3:38 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

The velvet cushion texture

VelvetCushion.jpg This is a velvet cushion texure I made. I am thinking of using it for an outdoor ampitheatre for the benches

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 3:36 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

January 20, 2008

Pictures of Monty House with self made texture done in GIMP

I was inspired while trying to create a hidden self portrait in GIMP to try a GIMP filter for creating a texture to use on the walls of the new house. It was quite easy once I tried it and it worked well with very little experimentation. I had a definite vision of what I wanted and it seemed to turn out very easy. I put the new texture into Second Life and then applied it to all the solid walls. I was going for a grassy thatched look to the walls.

To find out the proper size for a texture graphic I searched Second Life using Google and found the size should be 64 by 64 pixels. I read about this on this page http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_FAQ at the Second Life Wiki. This page is about textures for sculpted prims but it had the size I was looking for and inspired me to think ahead. It would be neat to develop a sculpted prim wall that worked as thatched grass. This would move slightly when touched and have the physics of a real thatched wall. This would also give it a variable depth and allow for a real 3D texture.

Below you can see some pictures of my new house and the walls although the pictures are not clear it seems.

Picture 1MontyHouse08-01-20_001.bmp
Picture 2 MontyHouse08-01-20_002.bmp
Picture 3 MontyHouse08-01-20_003.bmp
Picture 4MontyHouse08-01-20_004.bmp
Picture 5 MontyHouse08-01-20_005.bmp
Picture 6 MontyHouse08-01-20_006.bmp

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 12:44 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

I continue to build and then line up objects by copying and pasting coordinates.

I am building a multi floor building. I am leaving large gaps in the floors for flying. It is built something like the present fall 2007 Orientation Island flying lessons building but smaller. I am also starting to think of an ampitheatre. I have been building walls and floors and fake corner posts for the second and third floors by copying and pasting coordinates and sizes and textures from the first floor objects to the objects that make up the second and third floors.

At the same time I am starting to build in absolute coordinates and sizes. I am slowly coming to a numerical understanding of the space in Second Life. This means I am just starting to learn Second Life engineering design. Meanwhile in my first life I am learning complex systems design methods. 

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 6:39 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

January 13, 2008

Building in Monty, learning and making mistakes.

At any rate I now have my old house set up in Monty, my crystal computing web design offices and have a roof or second floor started on the club building. I have at least 400 prims I can still use right now to build so should be fine. I got in some trouble when I joined the desks with the house and cubicles and then unlinked and the one desk became unlinked and then the house too. I think I have put the desk back together now. It was the first part to become affected because I tried to move the whole desk when it was unlinked and I took it apart in affect. I tried to put it back the way it was when I bought it. I think now I will unrez everything at the office and take it back to inventory and start with a fresh 27 prim beach house. Then only link the cubicles and stairs. They will have be all unlinked before I do this though.

Before this I learned it would be better if my z rotation for the offices were right angles to the grid so that when objects are moved inside they move right angles to the offices when they are being placed in the offices, because objects generally move right angles to the grid axis.

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 2:18 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

December 29, 2007

I had some troubles with a free "killer" elevator

I used a free elevator from Yanni's junkyard with the idea that this would be used to bring avatars up to the platform. But after adjusting the positioning and everything, the elevator turned out to be dangerous. It would lift me too high and then I would drop down only to be lifted again like some silent film comedy. I spent about an hour with the script and the objects trying to fix the problem but could not. So I unrezzed it and made a slopped walk up to the platform. I would like to build almost everything myself in this new home. The idea I think for a lot of people is to become a paid builder in Second Life.

Personally I am finding the game frustrating to move around in. I think I am going to scale back my playing of this game. 

 

 

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 10:45 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

December 26, 2007

Exploring Health Island and getting with the program

I practiced with a University library RefWorks aided search for a rare health topic that produced 994 records. This list I formated in APA style both with and without abstracts. I then started to copy these to note cards in Second Life. I am not done that but it was fun to push the length limits of note cards in Second Life and I broke up the bibliography into different letter sets. I mostly had to go one note card per letter of the alphabet with the long APA list with abstracts. This later copy and paste note card creation is not complete yet in Second Life. I did this while sitting and standing at the PubMed tutorial due to open in early 2008 on Health Info Island. I did not use PubMed at my school library but this time in Second Life inspired me to start my own thesis search at school. It did not really inspire this search it really only motivated me to get a move on with this study at that moment last night. The health topic search was inspired but is not my topic and was really used for more practice with RefWorks

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 12:23 PM | | TrackBacks (0)

I built a platform on some slopped land.

My new parcel has a slope so I decided to build a platform on pedestals. I first made two cylinders with basic Linden library brick and then repeated the brick at a factor of every 2. This made a nice narrow repeating brick pattern. I used my new lessons in coordinating x, y, and z locations to line the two pedestals up. I then made four floor pieces from resized cubes. The last thing I did was adjust these to fit snuggly and on the pedestals and inside the parcel limits. My average height avatar can walk under the high end. The low end also comes up against a cliff face and my parcel extends to the top of the cliff. On the top of the cliff is someone else's house with a tall wall. The other thing I did with this platform was give it a texture. I used the ASL free texture wooden floor tile and repeated this at a factor of 3 which gives a nice mosaic pattern to the floor.
I logged off and started to think of a free elevator I have from Yanni's junkyard and wondered if I could get that to work inside the 16 sq m parcel to allow access to to the platform.

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 1:28 AM | | TrackBacks (0)

November 23, 2007

I built a table and finally got some objects linked.

Peter Krogstad attended a workshop to build some snacks but got amazed with adjusting the x,y,z coordinates of a table he was asked to build during the class. Instead of continuing the class he took his futuristic table and went back to his new shop and then set it for sale for 100 L$. He had to come back a few times and adjusted the table pieces but he learned Link objects and Unlink in the Tools menu on the SL viewer. He also learned to centre objects to the same point by copying and pasting world coordinates to all the objects. This way they would all centre on the same point. He also learned to adjust the size and shape of objects and twists and hollows. He is learning a lot about building now.

He also just last night met a builder who is building a motorcycle and they became friends. She is in Vancouver but Peter won't write her name here as she did not give permission and Peter forgot to ask her about this.

Peter has kept up with the updates to Second Life link and should have the most current link device on his land in front of the shop now. He will post some shop pictures soon. He has also designed a clear sign for the front of the shop and for the roof. In the end the writing in Greek was not clear enough from TeXShop so he used Adobe Image Ready 3.0 to do the sign images.

Posted by Peter Krogstad at 2:09 AM | | TrackBacks (0)