I used to be more flabbergasted by how many of Second Life's ripe opportunities are available in plain sight… and aren't more readily seized. A large part of why I blog is to share — and emphasize! — things of interest to me, that I hope will be of use to you, too.

A fine example in recent memory is Filter Forge, a superfantastic tool which lets you make your own Photoshop filters… AND OMG SEAMLESSLY TILING TEXTURES.

I speak from experience, as I've been sic'ing Filter Forge on my Alternate Virtual Reality series:

I've also found it helpful during the creative processes of my recent LOVE TEXTURES:

(Yes, on "Threads of Destiny", that is "The Architect as an Abstract Painter", by filter-contributing heavyweight Crapadilla.)

Currently wrapping up beta with a free 30-day trial before you have to pony up $$$ (US$249 preorder), Filter Forge also has a standalone version, but oddly enough, even with the amount of content creation in Second Life involving textures (imagine how bland the world would be without any), it's gone massively missed!

How much missed?

Let's see: I did a SL forum search and came up with one (1) mention of it — a thread which sank pretty quickly without further participation, I'll note. Perhaps it's because the words typed didn't have contextual imagery to excite and inspire. But y'know what, that's just anecdotal. So… I googled for:

"filter forge" "second life"

and not surprisingly, a number of the top matches are from me, encouraging others to give Filter Forge a spin. But aside from a few odd mentions like CDB Barkley aka Alan Levine's — I believe that's because one of his colleagues, my wife, spread the word — we've got dead air.

To lend historical credit and examine other evidence, previous procedural texturing programs such as Genetica have been mentioned a number of times, as shown here and there. And a cut-down, free version of that is Wood Workshop.

LET ME BE BLUNT:

MORE RESIS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FILTER FORGE!

But on the whole, if this my first day in SL, or even first few weeks, I wouldn't have the damned faintest idea where to get this info. Which connects to yea, why I'm being so blatantly joyful about video tutorials I've made, and why there'll never be a dearth of quality documentation and education. Don't forget, I made some of my first L$ by editing and writing notecard manuals, a tradition which I've since taken to a much higher level.

So, if you want to up the quality of your builds' textures, I recommend hopping aboard Filter Forge and seeing how you like it. It's easy to get started — the usual sliders like many Photoshop filters have — and it's also simple to generate many variations on a theme, so you have a cohesive set for your latest inworld projects. There are many customer-submitted — a parallel of SL's user-driven content creation! — filters, some of exceedingly high quality like Crapadilla's Sands of Time, or Richard Barlett's Burninator, and heck, it does great banged-up walls too, fitting for your newest industrial warzone and/or domestic sanctuary.

Even some of our existing masterbuilders who have fine taste in textures, like Damanios Thetan, could benefit from Filter Forge if they aren't already aware:

Those are gorgeous works of his, and a testament to how beautiful textures can uplift your Second Life experience — and impress others, heh heh heh. Especially with all the development job opportunities available now.

And especially if you're new to Second Life and hungry to get a piece of the action, let this stand as proof that there are always going to be holes, and even as the world is so large, there's gaping lack of marketable geniustry across a wide variety of avenues.

Here's another hole: talented sound designers to add enriching ambience to choice locales. We already have so many visual artists… but where the heck are all the audio experts?
 

Disclosure: I found out 5 min. ago after writing this that I won a free copy of Filter Forge. It doesn't change my already-high opinion, but transparency to let you know what my motives are — in this case, stimulating SL content creation — is healthiest.