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Showing posts from 2016

New Release: Mesh Terrains & Sky Water

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Mesh terrains I've just released a set of five solid (walkable) mesh terrains. Get demos or the real ones here . They each consist of 16 meshes (size 64x64 meters) and cover the area of one complete region. They can be used as terrain at ground level (like I have on my sim, to mix with regular terrain) or as terrain for additional levels in the sky. Soon we will be able to use a lot more prims on our sims and homesteads because of rising land allowance. Using these mesh terrains i nthe sky might be a great way to use the extra resources, without increasing lag at ground level! By using the HUD you can easily change the textures from one season to the other (four baked texture sets that match terrain shapes can be chosen) or apply another texture from the HUD. Each mesh can be copied and modified, so ytou will always be able to use your own textures if you wish. The baked texture sets match perfectly with the ones of the version 6.0 sim surround landscapes. This makes i

New 1/4 Sim Corner Parcel Landscapes released

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I've released eight off-sim landscapes meant for 1/4 sim (or homestead) corner parcels. The designs correspond to the latest version 6 sim surround landscapes, released in March 2016. Some of their properties: All textures have normal maps, which means shadows are sharper and lighting is much better with more details; All textures match perfectly with the land forms. Waterlines are horizontal, like they are in the physical world; Waterfalls have a natural shape, have a low-lag type of animation, and have normal maps to make them look 3D; All landscapes have baked texture sets for four seasons (except the Tropical Paradise, which has four scenes instead of seasons). Switching from one to the other is easy by using the HUD; There are more off-sim trees than ever before, as a result of using a billboard technique. As many as 42 trees are shown by one single mega prim. The trees have normal maps as well, which makes them appear fully 3D. The trees are alpha masked, wh

Landscapes Unlimited in The Drax Files: World Makers

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Draxtor Despres has made a video about me and my work in SL. It's episode 36 in The Drax Files: World Makers. Please have a look and enjoy the result of Draxtor's work. It was a true pleasure to work with him, and I'm very proud of the result! When Draxtor propsed to make a video about me and my work I was reluctant to go along with it, because, obviously, I'd have to be on camera in real life and I wasn't sure if I'd want that. Draxtor convinced me he wouldn't make me look (or sound) bad, so I agreed. I wish to congratulate Draxtor with the beautiful, visually very attractive result and thank him for the professional and fun way in which he produced it! Several customers helped in making the video by showing how they use my designs in Second Life, and many even agreed to record real life footage for Draxtor to use. I'm very grateful they did, it shows Second Life is all about real people realising their dreams in our virtual world, and it makes m

Version 6 surrounds released with several innovations

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It's time for a big new release: I've added nine completely new scenes to my collection of full sim surrounds. Pathagonia, with waterfalls I've regarded it a challenge to improve my work in as many ways as possible, and it's for you to judge if I've succeeded. Here is a list of all technical changes: All textures have normal maps, which means shadows are sharper and lighting is much better, and 3D details are visible that wouldn't be visible without them; All textures match perfectly with the land forms. Waterlines are horizontal, like they are in the physical world; Waterfalls have a natural shape, have a low-lag type of animation, and have normal maps to make them look 3D; Tropical Paradise, with waterfalls All landscapes have baked texture sets for four seasons (except the Tropical Paradise, which has four scenes instead of seasons). Switching from one to the other is easy by using the HUD; There are more off-sim trees than ever befor

Changes in store assortment: many items dropped, some items added

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The assortment of items that can be purchased in my in-world store has changed. I've noticed that in my old store there were too many things to choose from. This made it hard for people to decide what to use. Added together, there was a staggering number of 231 items in my old store. All Version 4 landscapes, that were originally released in 2009 and 2010, are now only available in single All-In-One items. You can select the landscape you want (and change its textures etcetera) by using the HUD. Because you cannot choose a cheaper single version anymore, I've lowered the price of the All-In-One items considerably. There is still one very popular original sim surround available in a 'Lite' edition: no HUD, but still copyable. All original (version 4) land level landscapes; four All-in-One items and one 'Lite' surround I don't distinguish between Gold, Silver and Bronze version 5 landscapes anymore. All are now copyable and have a HUD to change scene

The in-world store has moved to land level

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Today I opened my new store on Landscapes Unlimited. During the last few years, my store was in the sky, and consisted of wooden terraces surrounded by a sky landscape. From now on, the store will be at ground level. All people arriving on my sim will land on the top of a rocky island, covered by a pine forest. This island, completely made of mesh, is surrounded by the brand new Hebrides sim surround landscape. Read more about my latest sim surrounds in this blog post . The mesh island with the store in the middle, the new Hebrides surround around it A path on the Eastern side leads you down to several stone terraces with my products. Five terraces have a pit in the middle, where you can see a tiny version of the landscapes that can be purchased at that particular terrace. You can click the pictures on the boards, and the demo will change accordingly. In pits like these you can see what the landscape on the pictures looks like in 3D I've brought down the number of ite