Decorating your new environment (property) or home is easier than it may look at first. If you have already been through the tutorials in Tutorial Island (click Destinations - Public Areas - Tutorial Island button) you should have a basic working knowledge of how the tools work.
Here we will go over some of those tutorials again to help clarify them.
Choosing An Environment/Property
Environments or Properties are the base of what you will be decorating with. You have a starter apartment when you first sign up which is an environment and the items in it (the furnishings) are objects. Knowing the difference between the objects you place and the environment or property itself helps better define what we will be going over in this article.
When shopping for a property in the online catalogue, or in world, you will want to focus on what your end goal is. Do you want to build a small island with open areas or perhaps a larger location that you can build up as a town or large venue? Perhaps you are looking for an enclosed area like an apartment or multi-story building. Either way, finding the right area for you is what is most important.
Keep in mind when you are shopping that if there is no buildings on the property and you wish to have buildings those will have to be purchased separately and placed down. Those buildings are considered a plopable object and will require additional costs to you as well as additional steps to place them. This can be very rewarding for some or a nuisance for others so ensure you are buying the right environment that suits your preferences.
When shopping in the online catalogue you can get a much better view of what you wish to purchase by clicking in the top right on the “View in 3D” button. This allows you to zoom in and out and rotate the camera around the property to get a good view of what you would receive when you purchase the item.
If you do not see what you are looking for in the catalogue there are many user developers that would be happy to accommodate your request. You can go to the forums and post a request for the developers under Developer Requests.
Adding Skyboxes and Lighting Options
Before you start adding your furnishings you may want to consider the overall look you wish your area to have. Do you want it to be dusk, dawn, night time, or a cloudy day? Perhaps you want a combination of those. Maybe you would prefer a more science fiction look and be on another planet with multiple moons. Whatever your taste is you will want to set that over all ambiance so that you can get a better feel of how the rest of it will fit together.
We will start with adding a skybox which can be found in the catalogue under it's own category. It is set like that because skyboxes in NuVera are not an item but better described as an illusion or panoramic background. It cannot be "placed" as it re-scales itself to the environment it is applied to, allowing for more diversity and multiple options for you to work with.