Meadows Become Possible

Written 9 March, 2011

Meadows Become Possible

I don't know who first came up with the idea, but my hat is off to him or her, for he or she made meadows and grasslands possible in Second Life..

Around 2008 (as far as I can tell) someone came up with a simple idea: hollow a cylinder, hollow it to 95%, and paste textures on the inside and outside, creating a ring of flowers. One prim.

A single circle of flowers or grass looks a little sparce,  especially when viewed from above...

...but dragging and dropping a few times will make for a beautiful field of flowers...

... unless you look directly from above:

The round plants made the creation of lush meadows and grasslands possible without breaking the prim bank.

The first such grasses and flowers Sweetie and I saw were at the gorgeous Forest Feast sim. The plants were low-prim and stunning, but were sold no-copy, which would have made even a small meadow prohibitively expensive-- unless you owned Forest Feast (the photo above the title was taken there). Fortunately, we soon found a Buddhist sim with Real Flowers, which were inexpensive, and copyable. They were modifiable, too, which allowed Sweetie to give subtle shadings to the plants she put on the ground.

The gardens at Whimsy take advantage of Real Flowers' flowers and grasses.: