Current Second Generation Premium Linden Homes (Updated March 31, 2021)

To get a Second Generation Premium Home:

1. You have to be a premium member, and
2. You have to have 512 (for campers) or 1024 (for all others) free tier available.

On your account dashboard go to Premium membership - there will be a screen showing the choices available, and a place to "Claim your new home." You are assigned a place at random, and if you don't like the first pick you can abandon it and try for a new one for a limit of five tries in a 24-hour period.

Houseboats:

One of several houseboat styles "The Wallower"


View from the top deck


Additional information for those unfamiliar with Second Life: 

For years Second Life has been offering a free home to those who signed up for Premium accounts. Most of these homes are in huge subdivisions located on continents that were separated from the Mainland. There were neighborhoods with different styles of architecture and with themed surroundings and community areas. Although many of the surroundings were beautiful and interesting, the houses themselves were becoming outdated. They also were on small 512 plots (new rules give Premium members a 1024 allotment) and there weren't roads or access to other Continents without teleporting.

The new Premium home continent, Belliseria, has been in the works for some time. Residents first noticed the continent on the map back in August 2018, and interest has been high. The first residences were two types - traditional house or houseboat, and each of these types had four variations. They expect new types to be offered in the future.

The new homes offer quite a bit of improvement over the old homes.
  1. - larger parcels (although I understand there may be some 512 plots offered in future - maybe                trailer parks?)
  2. - more prims to decorate. The prims in the structure itself don't count.
  3. - ability to add a skybox if you want privacy.
  4. - a choice of four styles of structure within the type you chose - You can change the style of  your traditional house at the mailbox, or the style of your houseboat at the life ring on the dock.
  5. - more roads within the suburban areas, and more community areas like swimming pools.
  6. - the structures themselves are better engineered.
  7. - Best of all, yesterday we were told that they would be eliminating the ability to set up ban lines* in Bellisseria and supplying residents with a free improved security orb** 

*'ban lines' are a privacy device set up by the homeowner that keep other people out. In my opinion they are unsightly, and they are traffic hazards when they are too close to public roads and skyspace. Sometimes vehicles get stuck on them.
**'security orbs' are another privacy device that have sometimes been set up with 'zero' warning. If you inadvertently find yourself in an area controlled by one of these orbs, you may be summarily kicked back home without warning. The new security systems being given out to residents of Bellisseria are supposed to be more passerby friendly.

Update 7-23-19. After some time spent decorating, I decided that I needed to go back to being a tourist, so I changed the houseboat to a different style, and set it up as a small art gallery to try to contribute something to the community. My 'home' there is a sky platform, but anyone is welcome to visit the Art Gallery. Just go to Echo Cove and look for the sign.


Notecard with landmarks at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Maryport/243/17/22

How to Find Free Textures in Second Life

After
This is a summary of a notecard. The notecard (available in the Tourist Information Center) has the inworld teleport links. 

The newcomer to Second Life usually starts their building practice using prims (short for 'primitives'). Their default texture is plywood, and most things you make look nicer after having some other texture applied.

A good texture can improve even a mediocre build or object. You can also use textures on some clothing so that what you are wearing is unique. This guide is for the person who would like to try playing with textures, but isn't sure where to start.

Look in your inventory first: You already have a lot of free textures there. Just scroll down to "Library" and then go to the different texture folders. The terrain textures, which match the ground in different parts of Second Life,  are particularly useful for camouflage. If you have a parcel on the Mainland, you can click on the 'World' tab, then 'Region Details', then 'Terrain' and you can see what terrain textures will match your ground.

Each of the First Generation Linden Communities also has a small kiosk in their welcome area where you can pick up copies of the textures that were used in that particular neighborhood. (Since these First Generation Linden Communities are supposed to be closed in the future, they may be gone soon.)
  • The texture dispenser for Tahoe Infohub is at Tahoe Springs.  You will land inside the building. The dispenser is outside on the porch overlooking the larger lake.
  • The texture dispenser for Elderglen infohub is in Elderglen. This time you'll land outside the main building. Go upstairs and to the right to find the dispenser on the left. Also, check out Silent Mole's outhouses (for use of Tahoe residents only).
  • The texture dispenser for Shareta Osumai infohub is in Shareta Osumai but you can't teleport directly. Walk uphill and after you've gone past the Temple of the Mole Gods you will find the dispenser on the porch of the next building. It's a nice walk
  • The texture dispenser for Meadowbrook infohub is not in Meadowbrook, it is in Bucksnort.  For once, you should land right next to it if you teleport.
The Second Generation Linden Communities (Bellisseria) provide a few textures as part of the housing pack, but you have to claim a premium home to get the pack. That is, if you want the texture pack and accessories for a Victorian home, you would have to claim a Victorian home.


The DPW (Department of Public Works) has also placed free items used in their building in other places.

  • In Zindra (The "Adult" continent) I found a dispenser that has modern textures, landscaping items, and some futuristic houses at the Port of Kama City. Go up the stairs and you will see the kiosk on your left.  
  • A good resource for textures used by the Linden Department of Public Works is the Mole Mart at Leafminer. There are road textures here, and objects that you might find along roads, like lampposts and hedges.
  • There are three places in Bay City to pick up textures, houses, and other items.  These are the Airport, the Train Station, and the Community Center.  The Bay City Textures are in fushia containers.  You may want to pick up some other freebies.
  • Half-Hitch Island - This is a location that seems to have only one landing point. You will land on the pier. You will have to walk towards the land, then through the tunnel to a boathouse. You will find the textures in a crate marked "Slop Bucket"
  • Nautilus. 

Resident-Made Textures

Many residents have donated their own textures to the community, and boxes of these textures can be found at different freeby sites.

Torley is an amazing person who has created hundreds of free textures. You can find his textures in several places, but I recommend getting them at Torley Island.

One of the most venerable resources for free textures used to be Yadni's Junkyard. Alas, it is no more. I just put a collection of Myst/Riven textures I got at Yadni's in my Marketplace store (Look for "My favorite freebies")

Worth a look: Freebie Galaxy has Fifteen floors of freebies, but no textures that I could see outside of the paintings on the fourteenth floor. Still, it is worth going to see at least once. Look out for griefers.

The Nix Bazaar at Stillman. Stillman has an interesting collection of freebies which include items that used to be in the old library. I found several boxes of freebie textures on the second floor on the west side.

Newcomer Island: Free textures are now located near the Building Tutorials.

Dreams has some free textures in boxes near the Northwest Corner.

USC Lucky Dip
If you want to see what the leading-edge texture artists are doing, and want to familiarize yourself with the wonderful texture resources there are in Second Life,  I would recommend joining a few "texture hunts" where you will have the opportunity to visit different shops that sell textures.. Since dates and locations change, try looking at someplace like USC Textures. Outside the larger USC building there are other, smaller, texture stores.

Arcadia Asylum made thousands of free objects that she gave away while she was in Second Life. Her fans have set up a freebie site on the Marketplace called "Aley Mart" - after you find the Marketplace shop, look for 'textures'. Note that 'search' in Marketplace is wonky, so try putting in different key words if you don't find the textures right away.
Mieville Pond is a great place to go ito see many of the wonderful things Aley made and to learn more about her..


NCI: More textures are on their freeby board.

I know I've left out some great sites, but I hope this is enough to get you started.

Please note, even the best-curated sites may inadvertently include a "freebie" texture that the original creator meant to be for sale. If you are not sure about a texture you want to use, you can IM the person who is listed as making it to make sure it is all right to use.

Now, before you go out and try to texture everything in sight here are some suggestions -



Example of free texture organizer
First - go to the Marketplace and pick up a free texture organizer to help you manage your inventory. Today I found two free organizers on the Marketplace. The one I had been using was from Rayne Keynes and came with the disclaimer "If you paid even 1L$ for this you were ripped off." I notice there are some not-free texture organizers on the Marketplace that look remarkably similar to the free one I have. Makes you cynical.

Second - Once you've tried out a few free textures, you will probably want to learn more. There is a GREAT course on textures at the The Texture Tutorial building.
Texture Learning Center
There is also a building nearby that sells some of Robin Sojourner Wood's excellent books on how to make and deal with different kinds of textures. She also sells textures and instructions on the Marketplace, and has some excellent on-line tutorials.

Some basic rules for texturing.

1. Don't use a large texture when a smaller texture will do. (512 rather than 1024).

2. Don't texture what you or others can't see.

3. Try to use Library textures before you purchase or make exotic unique textures. Yes, sometimes you have to have a special texture, but don't overdo it. Multiple large and/or unusual textures can cause 'texture lag'.


See the SL Wiki on Texture Usage for more information.


Have fun texturing the castle!

Note: Sometimes when you buy a texture, you will find it has 'diff', 'normal', and 'spec' versions. See Jeremy Linden's excellent explanation of how to use these when texturing. 







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