Texture Offsets
Someone once said, “Variety is the spice of life.” If everything looks like it was stamped out of the same mold, it doesn’t look real.
Instruction
You can add variety to your texturing by using the Offset feature in the Texture tab. Offset will allow you to slightly change the placement of the texture as applied to your objects.
Practice
Let’s say you want to make some wood steps. In real life, you know they would each have the same wood pattern. But you also know that they would look different from each other.
Step 1: Making some steps
Rez a cube. Stretch and flatten it to form a step. The step in our example is:
- X: 1.500
- Y: 1.000
- Z: 0.225
[image – intro2build.18.a]
Step 2: Texture with a wood pattern
In the Edit window > Textures tab, click the Texture box to open the Texture Picker. In the OpenSim Library > Texture Library, select the texture named “wood1” and adjust the front repeat of the step to:
- Horizontal: 1.000
- Vertical: 0.500
[image – intro2build.18.b]
Step 3: Duplicate Prim and Move to Create Stairs
Now hold down the shift key and drag up to duplicate the step. Duplicate and position three or four steps to form stairs.
[image – intro2build.18.c]
NOW: Do you see how each step looks exactly the same? It looks pretty good – but not great.
Step 4: Using Offset
You can use Offset to adjust the texturing on an entire prim, or just one side at a time. It will depend on the texture and look you want. In real life, these wood steps would look like they were each made of different boards instead of the same ones. Let’s change how our steps look to make them look more natural and life-like.
In Edit mode, select the bottom step. In the Texture tab, change the Offset to:
- Horizontal: 0.300
- Vertical: 0.800
[image – intro2build.18.d]
Select the other steps one at a time. Change the Offset differently for each one. You don’t have to use “round” numbers. When you’re done, you’ll see each step looks slightly different than the others, lending a touch of realism to our steps.
Tip:
Combining Offset with Flip might give you even better results! You now have the power to modify, or change, the texture of objects!
If you are using the PRIMLAND Tutorial game, stop here and continue on the path!