Duncans Thoughts

Since a world only consisting of plywood gets rather dull, there is the possibilities of adding textures to the objects you created. Good textures, and even more the good use of textures and their settings. can make the big difference between a bad and an awesome looking object.

Although you can upload textures in quite a few formats. From JPG, BMP, PNG to TGA. However, second life converts all images to TGA for internal use. Way TGA? well it has advantages of being able to handle all colors (unlike gif) and is able to handle transparency (unlike JPG or BMP). PNG has the same capabilities as TGA, and even produces smaller files, but it takes longer to process. This last factor is the reason Second Life uses TGA over PNG.

Graphic Programs

• The Gimp
  GNU License € 0,-
  The gimp is the most extensive free paint program around. But the learning curve is steep and it does requite quite some resources. Personally, i don’t like the navigation, but if you can handle it, I would suggest this package.
• Paint.net
  Freeware
  Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plugins.
• Imagelys
  Freeware
  Imagelys Picture Styles is a way of creating an unlimited number of beautiful graphic images in a minimal amount of time. You can create seamless backgrounds for your desktop or your web page, original wallpapers, textures for 3D modelling, skins for your favorite programs, and much much more. You don’t have to be an expert designer to be able to produce truly amazing results.
• FastStone Image Viewer
  Free for Non commercial use
  FastStone Image Viewer is an image browser, viewer converter and editor with an easy to use interface and a nice array of features, that include resizing, renaming, cropping, color adjustments, watermarks and more.
• PhotoFiltre Studio
  Shareware € 29,- (€ 34,51 including VAT)
  This is my personal favorite. I found the way Photofiltre Studio works easier then The gimp, Photoshop or even Paintshop Pro. Although there is a freeware version. This is not useful if you really want to work with transparency and layes, as the free version lacks this.
• Photoshop Elements
  Photoshop Elements € 83.00 ( € 98.77 incl. VAT)
  Without doubt the most used painting program. But at over a 1000 euro’s quite expensive. Besides it still has a rather steep learning curve, and would for most people not add to the free GIMP program. If you still want to go for an adobe product, You might like Photoshop Elements. It lacks some features from the CS version, but not too many people will miss those
• Paint Shop Pro
  Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 € 74,79 (€ 89,00 including VAT)
  Paint shop pro is just a little bit different from Photoshop, but has the same capabilities. It is reasonable priced, and certainly up to any Second Life job you trow at it.