Skip to content

Building tools

Slipstream adds a few helpers to the build tools (the Build window, opened with Build → Build or by right-clicking an object → Edit). This page covers what is different from other viewers; for a tour of the whole window see The Build window.

Zoom while editing a HUD

HUDs can be tiny and fiddly to edit, and sometimes a HUD ends up off the edge of the screen where you can't reach it. While you're editing a HUD, scroll the mouse wheel to zoom the HUD layer:

  • Scroll up to zoom in (up to 10×). The spot under your mouse stays put, so point at the part you want to work on and scroll.
  • Scroll down to zoom out (down to 0.1×), to find HUDs that have drifted off screen. Select one, then move it back into view.
  • When you stop editing, the HUD layer eases back to normal size.

The move, rotate, stretch and align handles all follow the zoom, so you can work at any zoom level.

Pivot at root prim

Normally, when you move or rotate several objects (or a linkset), they turn around the middle of the selection. Tick Pivot at root prim (in the Build window, under Snap) to move and rotate around the root prim of the object you selected last instead.

This is handy for doors, lids and anything built to turn around one end. A single prim (including one picked with Edit Linked Parts) always turns around itself, and stretching always uses the whole selection.

Level of detail for meshes

Meshes and sculpties have several versions of their shape at different detail levels, and switch to simpler ones as you move away. On the Object tab, Slipstream shows a Level of detail table for the selected mesh or sculpty:

Column What it shows
LOD The four levels: High, Medium, Low and Lowest. The one being drawn right now is highlighted.
Tris How many triangles each level has. A ~ means an estimate, because that level hasn't been downloaded.
Verts How many vertices each loaded level has.
Until How far away the camera can get before the object switches to the next simpler level.

Below the table you can see which level is drawn now and at what distance, the object's size, and how many triangles are being drawn. Use it to check that your mesh holds its shape at a sensible distance, or to see why someone else's mesh "falls apart" when you walk away.

The distances depend on your Objects detail setting in Graphics, which is shown in the title.

The Links tab in the Build window lists every link (prim) of the selected object, and every face of the link you pick:

  • Hover a link or face to highlight it in-world; click to select it (Ctrl or Shift to add or remove from the selection).
  • Each face shows a small thumbnail of its texture, its colour (with transparency), its type and its texture. Hover the thumbnail for a bigger preview.
  • Type in Filter by name, description or link number to find a link in a big build.

Copy to Blinn-Phong

On the Texture tab, Copy to Blinn-Phong copies the selected faces' PBR (modern material) colour and normal textures, with their tint, transparency and repeats, into the older texture slots. The PBR material stays applied. People on viewers without PBR support then see something close to your material instead of a blank surface.

Local Assets

Build → Local Assets… lets you try out things from your computer in-world before paying to upload them. Only you can see them.

  • Mesh (.dae, .gltf, .glb): Rez in World to place a preview, or Attach… to wear it.
  • Animations (.bvh, .anim): Play on yourself or on a selected animated object.
  • Textures and Materials (.gltf, .glb): Apply to Selected puts them on the selected object, or only on the faces picked with Select Face.

If you save changes to the file on disk, the preview updates by itself. When you're happy, Upload… sends it through the normal upload window (with its L$ cost). See Local Assets for the full guide.

Seeing invisible and see-through things

  • Highlight Transparent (Build → Options, or Ctrl+Alt+T) shows every see-through surface in red, including invisible prims.
  • Clicks normally go through see-through parts of textures (gaps between leaves, cut-outs, clear glass) to what's behind. Turn on Build → Options → Select Invisible Objects to pick those parts while building.

Other build helpers

  • Area Search (Build → Area Search) lists objects around you and finds them by name, description, owner, group or creator.
  • Edit Particles (right-click an object → Tools → Edit Particles) edits a particle effect with sliders. Copy puts the matching LSL script on the clipboard, and Inject puts the effect into the selected object.