Version 6 surrounds released with several innovations

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 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, which means they do not cause alpha sorting problems ("alpha glitch"). Pine trees for all seasons, palm trees... They're all there and can be chosen by HUD;
  • 31 Matching terrain textures are included, for all seasons: perfect to make your sim terrain match the surroundings;
  • These landscapes do not blank out the world map: a technique is used to prevent that from happening.
Gorges du Veron, winter scene

Besides these innovations, other succesful changes introduced with the version 5 landscapes have also been applied:
  • An advanced menu lets you remove all scripts after deploy;
  • They do not obstruct any kind of sitting animation (unscripted sit, multi-sit), nor will they cause spikes of lag on your sim.
Unfortunately, normal maps can only be seen when Advanced Lighting is switched on (Graphics section of your Preferences).

For now, this new set of surrounds is only available for single island regions. You can find them here in my store. Free demos are available, make sure to use them before purchasing a real one! You can get them all in one buy as well.

Comments

  1. Cyanide PixieMarch 12, 2016 at 2:18 AM

    I can't wait to check the new surrounds out when I get home. These look amazing!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NEW Solid Sky Landscapes: sim-wide solid mesh merging into a surrounding, off-sim sculpted landscape

Image
After several months of work I've finally finished the first six landscapes of a completely new type. I call them Solid Sky Landscapes. Peaky Islands Solid Sky Landcsape These sky landscapes are perfect for easily creating an additional level high above ground level, with a naturally shaped solid surface that almost looks like regular sim land. You can use them on full sims and homesteads. They only have a land impact of 80-160 (depending on the configuration you choose) so land impact shouldn't be a problem! The Six Lakes solid sky landscape... ...with the solid mesh part in the middle, highlighted for this picture by "glow" Two solid sky landscapes are already on display, and all six of them will be available in my store this weekend or at the beginning of next week. Solid sky landscapes consist of two parts: a solid mesh part within and a sculpted mega prim part outside the sim borders. These are their properties: The mesh on-sim part: The me...
Read more

Version 6 Sim Surrounds now in Sky edition

Image
By the end of 2016 I finished a new set of sim surround landscapes (version 6.0). These landscapes are now available in a sky edition, in three sizes: Large (1x1 km), Medium (250x250 m) and Small (125x125 m). Sweetwater Valley - Autumn Tropcal Paradise It took quite some time to develop these, especially because the new type of water that I wanted to use ( see also this blogpost ) required  lots of changes in several landscape and HUD scripts. This is also why the HUD was updated to version 6.1: previous HUD's won't work on these sky landscapes. Gorges du Verdon with functioning HUD 6.1 When rezzing the Medium and Small editions you will get a menu that helps you to rez a naturally shaped and textures solid mesh platform in the middle. You can bring up this menu afterwards too by touching the landscape for at least five seconds. Mesh terrain and menus The mesh platforms themselves have a menu to change the texture to another season. They are copy-m...
Read more

Introducing: The Mirror Box

Image
Time for some true innovation in Second Life! Today I'm introducing a completely new version of an already existing kind of item in SL: a skybox made of flat screens, and I'm calling it The Mirror Box. Reflections, even at low graphics settings As far as I can tell, two aspects are completely different from what's currently on the market: The pictures for the screens were all taken in Second Life itself. You can see Second Life skies and clouds on them, and the landscapes you see are also images of 3D landscapes of Landscapes Unlimited in SL; Halfway in the box is an animated water texture. Below it, the box is textured in a way that makes it appear as if the water completely and naturally reflects the sky and landscape images. Because this mirror effect of the water is so striking and convicing, I'm calling the box The Mirror Box. The Mirror Box from a distance, with menu The Mirror Box comes in ten sizes, ranging from 32x32x32 m till 1x1x1 km. All ...
Read more