Tutorial: Making a private space

(Well, as private as one can get in Second Life…)

One of the things that seems to concern many newbies (especially females) is the lack of privacy in Second Life. There are very few places where one can unpack boxes and try on clothes without other people walking by. Well, I’m afraid that the fact that anyone can use their camera to get into almost any place you might be means that privacy is something of an illusion, but nonetheless there are ways to maintain that illusion a little bit more.

One of those ways is to find a quiet sandbox and create a small, enclosed skybox that you can whiz up several thousand metres into the air, so you can open your boxes and get changed in peace. The higher you go, the less likely you are to be disturbed, although I can’t guarantee that someone won’t get nosey and start poking around. You can take your private skybox as high as you like, although the building limit is 4096m.

Hop behind the cut, where I will take you through a fully-illustrated complete beginners’ tutorial on making just such a private place.

WARNING: This post is image-heavy, and the images are quite large, to allow for the interface to be seen. I have optimised the images as jpegs, which should make them faster to load, but you might want to open the page and then go make a cup of tea while it loads ;)

Freebies: Urban textures and items

I think I just hit the motherlode of freebie urban items and textures. Head on over to Urban Spirit in Shiot. The entire build is available for free. Yes, every single grubby mattress, garbage truck, cardboard box, trashcan, skip, dumpster, etc is set to ‘free to copy’. Not only that, but the build has a freebie textures store, too. You’ll find that by the TP point (it’s the place with a giant clown’s head above the door). There’s also dumpster diving to be had just inside the shop doorway. Look for the trashcan on the left, with the sign poking out of it, right-click the can and select ‘harvest’. You never know what delights you might come up with…

If you can, drop a few L$ into the tipjar there, because owner Astin Miles has created a treasure trove for urban junkies at Urban Spirit :)

All builded out

*mops brow*

Whew! I’ve been working on this damn castle skybox for about three days now, and it’s finally finished. A total of 73 prims, counting the door, and I am so incredibly pleased with it.

I’ve also got the two-storey, 29-prim Tudor house all ready to go, and I’ve put together a free garden-in-a-box kit, containing loads of freebies: the best trees, plants, flowers, planters, etc, plus seating, a mailbox, a fountain, and birdsong sound effects. All were freebies that I’ve found elsewhere. A couple of them I modified (the fountain was originally an urn planter, plus a particle water sprinkler, but I put them together, re-textured them and they made a great little fountain) but it’s a nice little selection.

Finally, something that makes me giggle every time I think of it: My D.I.Y. Hedge Kit. Yup, make your own hedges. I’ve uploaded two hedge textures, and put them into a box with a smooth cube sculpt map, and a sample hedge.

Piccies behind the cut.