If you own a parcel of land, with this system you will be able to enhance it with one or more beautiful, walkable beaches that can be textured any way you want. If you own a complete region, you can drape long stretches of naturally shaped beaches along its sides, softening the hard sim borders, and place beaches in the middle of your region. The system can even be used to create walkable ground up in the air, where terraforming is not available to you.
Properties
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- The segments are made to be placed against each other to create complete, solid, natural beaches. In order to achieve that, you need to put the right sides against each other, like do you do when playing Dominoes.
- The beach segments are made of mesh technology. The meshes are made of as few 'triangles' or 'grid points' as possible in order to keep the land impact ('prim count') as low as possible. Yet, all segments have a natural shape.
- The segments all have a complete solid surface: you can walk, stand and build on them without the need to add invisible solid prims in the way you would have to do with sculpted prims. This is a huge benefit to your beach experience and to your effort for sim maintenance.
- You can modify and copy all meshes. This means you can apply your own surface textures and scale them if needed. You can also apply the newest materials (normal maps, specular maps) on them.
- Their size is 63.5 x 63.5 meters. They cannot be scaled above 64.0 x 64.0 meters, since Second Life does not allow that for meshes.
- 4 x 4 segments will cover the full surface of a sim, but 5 x 5 segments be possible too: about half of the outer segments will be off-sim this way, which gives the sim a naturally shaped border, much unlike the 'straight boxes' we see so often in SL.
- The land impact ('prim count') of the meshes varies between 1 and 7 prims. Most are around 2-4 prims, but more complex shapes, like C7 and C8 (see attached pictures), use more.
Preparations for use at sim land level
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You can use the segments to easily create naturally shaped beaches on your sim ground level. When you drop a segment on your sim, it will try to move to the height that fits best on regular water level (20 meters). Before you do this, however, you need to be aware that high sim ground may obstruct the segments from moving into place: they cannot automatically sink into sim ground. The notecard you will find in your purchase will help you to deal with this.
Preparations for use in the air
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Because the beaches are solid & walkable, they are perfect for use in sky builds, where there is no regular sim ground available for terraforming . Now you can create a beach environment with soft, natural shapes sloping away from your island in the sky. For example, you can use them to make tropical islands surrounded by one of my skybox environments. The notecard you will find in your purchase will help you to rez the segments in the proper way.
Rezzing and placing the segments
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The segments all have a script inside that starts when you rez it. You will find a notecard in the contents of your purchase with a detailed description what it does and what you should do in order to place the meshes in the proper way.
After deploy: merging the sim terrain with the meshes
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After you have deployed the beaches, you can merge them into your sim ground by terraforming the land in such a way that it softly emerges from the mesh beaches.
An overview of available segments
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The meshes are divided in four sets. You can see the sets on four charts:
Set 1 is meant to be used on sim edges. Some segments are typically meant to be used on sim corners (rows E, F, G), the others are meant to be used on the straight edges in between. Of the segments on sim corners about 3/4 go off-sim, of the others about 1/2.
Set 2 is also meant to be used on sim edges. You can use these if you want to continue with mesh beach elements on the inside of your sim. Row J is meant for sim corners, the others are for straight sim edges. Row L is added for extra options for creative users.
Set 3 is meant for inland use only. If you have surrounded your sim with beach segments from groups 1 or 2, you can use them to fill in the space in the middle of your sim.
Set 4 contains special meshes, meant for individual sandy islands, for example in water sims.
What is written above, is what I had in mind when I created them. It is BY NO MEANS necessary to follow these thoughts, I encourage you to be as creative as possible to get what you want.
Suggestions for differently shaped segments to extend the system are welcome!
See item in Second Life- Solid, walkable meshes for smooth, natural sim and parcel borders
- No need for sculpted prims or invisiprims. Low lag. Apply own sand textures
- For land level, on parcels bigger than 64x64 meters, full sims & homesteads
- Also for sky builds, combine well with our skybox environments
- Segments fit seamlessly like domino blocks. Merge to sim terrain by terraforming
Jolly good and brilliant! Must have for sky platforms.
When I told a friend that I was working on a beach platform on my parcel, she pointed me to this particular item. Once I started working with the assorted parts you get in this, I knew I had exactly what I needed for my build. As they are mod, you can resize as needed.
If you need to "landscape" on a sky platform, you can't go wrong with this. A definite must have for a virtual landscaper's toolbox.
Outstanding product!
I was able to create a very complicated landscape on a very small parcel (52x48). I haven’t seen another mesh beach system that would have let me re-create the design I previously had using SL terrain, but this one did. It took a moderate amount of editing skill to adjust the size, shape, and texture rotation/repeats. The result was absolutely fantastic!
Great system, great customer service!
Yes, it is a little complicated and there are unforeseen situations when making up a landscape - but the result is breathtaking and well worth the effort (and pulled hair :D). I had a situation that I could not figure out, but Sominel held my hand and walked me though it. This is the best $950L I ever spent!
great work
very easy to use and very low price for so many parts. thank you.
read the other reviews ..
wish i had read the reviews BEFORE i go this. I don't want shallow water and see a white thing even when textured it was still shallow. Co needs to have it out and showing the product and actual size of the mesh pieces... disappointed to say the least :(
Excellent
This worked perfectly for me, I have a nice beach to sit and walk about on now. I did retexture it to my taste though. A very nice product, thank you.
