Posts by Vsabra:

Going in style

January 20th, 2010


There are all kinds of ways to get around in Second Life.

You can walk, of course, although that’s rather bland. You can run and swim, or try flying to spice things up a bit. And for instant gratification, teleporting is great.

There are also a wide variety of vehicles to take you from point A to point B in style. I’ve tried out a number of them; even tried making them myself (rather disastrously – my first attempt at a boat turned itself 90 degrees when I sat in it). But possibly the best Second Life vehicles I’ve seen are the airships and blimps created by Carrah Rossini and sold at her shop on Dreamfall.

There’s an airship for every budget, from the “Nessie” explorer (249L) to the Selene “Cloud Hugger” fantasy airship coming in at 2699L. Each model offers some serious bang for the buck – security systems, built-in aquariums and TVs, and some of the best texture work you’ll see anywhere on the grid.

The larger ships such as the Cloud Hugger are both big enough to live in and appointed well enough to do so royally – cushy beds and sofas and window seats, even hammocks, provide plenty of elbow room. The interiors are richly appointed and more luxurious than many high-end houses I’ve seen.

But the real fun comes when you take one of the ships out for a spin. I got to try out my friend Poogie’s “Nereide” submarine (although we used it in the air), and I was hooked. The larger ships are out of my Linden range, but I got the cute little “Nessie” explorer and have been having a great time with it.



My little explorer zoomed me all over the sim where I live. The handling was smooth and precise, and being physical, it allowed me to take it smartly right down through my roof and land neatly in the center of my living room. It has a realistic engine running sound effect to add to the experience.

The fun really started, though, when I took it underwater. The particle bubbles from the exhaust and the moving headlamp really made me feel as though I were exploring an undersea world.

For 249L, it would be hard to beat “Nessie.” And the larger ships are priced very competitively with better-quality houses of the same size, with the added bonus of being able to transport you.

So the next time you’re getting bored with walking, flying and TPing, get yourself over to Dreamfall and check out Carrah Rossini’s airships – then start traveling in style.

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A helping hand for Haiti

January 17th, 2010


Like many people, I’ve spent a lot of time the past few days staring horrified at my television screen while images of the Haiti earthquake aftermath burned into my eyes.

The photos and videos made me angry. They made me cry. They made me feel helpless; I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what.

Then a friend pointed me to a Haiti fundraiser that’s been set up in a skybox on Radio Signals’s sim Scribble. The brainchild of OMGWTF Barbecue, aka Barb, the event is open to any Second Life merchant, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.

Radio and Barb set up the skybox Thursday night, January 14.

“I’m just very emotional and empathetic to these sorts of things,” Barb said. “I sat down on Thursday morning with my coffee and read the news and just lost it and started sobbing. And then I realized no one I knew had really mobilized in SL yet, so I IMed Radio Signals and asked her if we could set up a skybox in Scribble.

“I did a friends conference with all of my content creator friends, and people started making stuff right away. It was great. By Friday we had a nearly full skybox.”

Initially, Barb hoped to raise “a couple hundred bucks.” But as of about 3 pm SL time on Sunday, January 17 – less than 72 hours after going live – the fundraiser had taken in 1,311,781 Linden, or about $4,800 US dollars.

The skybox will be set up through next Sunday, January 24, and Barb has already adjusted her goal.

“I think it would be amazing if we could reach two million Linden,” she said. “Yeah, it’s a big goal but… we have another week and tons more stuff happening… I think we can do it!”

That would work out to nearly $10,000, far above her early hopes. In the meantime, she’s also lined up a sponsor who prefers to remain anonymous – “It’s a large communications company” – which is going to match the donations raised by the project.

For anyone concerned about just where their money is going, all funds are paid to an alt named RedCrossDonations Guardian that Barb created specifically for the event.

“Daily screenshots of the total are being uploaded to my Flickr and Plurk, and at the end of it I will show screenshots of the Lindex cash out, as well as the receipt of the donation being made via the Red Cross website,” Barb said. “I will also provide a spreadsheet of all the donation transactions to anyone who wants to see it. Also, as some people have asked – I do have direct permission from Carol Robinson, Director of Creative Resources at the Red Cross, to use their logo and to fundraise on their behalf in Second Life.”

Merchant participation is simple – just get a folder from Barb that contains donation boxes you can set up in your own store, a landmark to the skybox, and a copyable script with instructions to put in your own vendor, which you can then rez in the Scribble skybox.

Friday, January 22, is Fifty Linden Friday. Many participating merchants will set out red items for 50L with all proceeds going to charity. Barb noted that one of those vendors will be AOHARU, with items also expected from Maitreya, fri.day, CheerNo and others, so it’s a good idea to check back every so often.

I’ll never be known as one of Second Life’s top content creators, but even I can do my part to help out. I have some nice real-life photos of hibiscus flowers – the national flower of Haiti – that I sell on deviantArt, so I made a mahogany frame and will be putting them in the skybox. I also made a pair of drawings, a computer-drawn sailboat on a serene ocean, and a hand-drawn one of a hibiscus and a Hispaniolan Trogon, the country’s national bird. They’ll be going into the skybox late Sunday night, January 17.

There are all kinds of items already offered in the skybox – jewelry, furniture, clothes, skyboxes and more – and many are priced well below what they normally sell for. So instead of hitting the malls and designer stores, check out the charity skybox at Scribble first – you might get a great deal, and your Lindens will help the Haiti earthquake victims.

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Sweet escape

January 15th, 2010



I use Second Life as an escape. But did you ever have one of those days when you even needed to escape from SL?

Well, I just did. A few in a row, as a matter of fact. I had a lot of things to get done and it seemed like every time I turned around, someone was IMing me about something trivial, even AFTER I told them (sometimes more than once) that I was busy.

In hindsight, I was overly crabby. And snappy. And a certain word that rhymes with “witchy.” Turns out I had a migraine coming on that was seriously interfering with my ability to concentrate, and every little IM interruption got blown out of proportion.

Trouble was, I didn’t want to talk to anybody – seriously, not ANYBODY – but I NEEDED to be online, and some of the things I needed to do couldn’t be done with an alt. I went into busy mode but still felt snappish. That was when I decided to dress to fit my mood.

There was just one little thing wrong with that idea. When you have 40,000-plus totally unorganized items in your inventory, finding the one you want is a pain. And I didn’t even KNOW what clothes I wanted. So I started scrolling up and down, looking for something to suit the occasion.

That random scrolling landed me on my lovely Gisaci trenchcoat, and that was when my mood started to turn around. What a great part of a spy outfit, I thought, and after all, I am incognito. Not wanting to be mistaken for a flasher, I added a black EverFaith tank (sadly no longer sold) and the black tights from my “Angelina” outfit by Adored underneath. Black socks (a freebie pair I tinted) and a manicure in black polish were next, followed by my shiny new NOT boots by Miel.

Something was missing, though. My hair was just… hair. By now I was getting into the spy look, and topping it with any of my favorite hairs just wasn’t quite right. Then I found a Maitreya hair that had been lurking in my inventory but for some reason I hadn’t yet tried – la femme Hair/Hat in Coffee, a dark messy braid under a fedora pulled low. It made the perfect complement to my undercover look.

Feeling a bit less crabby even though I hadn’t crossed much off my to-do list, I got a couple of snaps of myself and then crawled into bed, where I stayed for nearly two days while the migraine did its thing. Still, it’s nice to know that I can use Second Life even when I need to escape from… Second Life.

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A voyage through the veldt

January 10th, 2010



Soar high in a balloon over a gorgeous desert landscape, get up close with lions and rhinos, hang glide off a cliff, take a raft down an alligator-filled river, adopt a meerkat… step in dung?

You can do all that and more at Virtual Africa, four sims (Virtual Africa, metaAfrica 1, Cape Town Africa and Robben Island) set up by Uthango’s metaAfrica Project where you can take your own personal African safari.

Uthango Social Investments is a South African not-for-profit company.



Start at the welcome hut, where you can get a T-shirt, a bike or a raft – or all three, plus some other cool goodies in the vendors. There’s also information on what’s where on the four sims to help you find your way around. The balloon tour is a good place to begin your adventure. Besides giving you great aerial views of the landscape, the tour will also direct your attention to points of interest, such as the 7Seas fishing area or a lone heron in the reeds. It also drops in jewels of info, such as these:

Uthango whispers: Warthogs ahead! They are found in moist and arid savannas and avoid rainforest, deserts and high mountains.

Other notable places include Eagle Outlook, which “offers a good spot for lovers to relax with a stunning sunset view” according to the balloon tour; Mandela Day; Porcupine Theater for concerts, conferences and fashion shows; and Owl Outlook, a cozy treehouse where you can sit with friends or swing from a dangling rope.

But the wildlife is definitely one of the main attractions here. Right by the welcome hut, you can even get to know your very own African mammal by adopting a meerkat.

Though your new pet will stay in Virtual Africa, it will respond only to you. You can name him (or her, if you prefer), and the adoption fee – 250L as of the time of this writing – includes a HUD that allows you to interact with your meerkat – feed him, call him, tell him to go to sleep or go to his den, have him follow you, play catch or hide, and “dig here.” Telling my meerkat, whom I named Severus, to dig caused him to unearth a meal, although it was a little disturbing that his animation made him appear to have his head up my skirt when he said this:

[2010/01/08 18:30] Severus: *Yip*

[2010/01/08 18:30] Severus: Your Meerkat finds:

[2010/01/08 18:30] Severus: Some tasty bugs!

I told Severus (via the HUD) to follow me, and then set out to explore with a couple of friends. Apparently the adoptable meerkats have a limited range, because Severus only went a short distance with us before stopping. However, when we returned to the welcome hut area quite some time later, he came dashing up to greet me. Adopted meerkats need to be visited at least once every 20 days, or they’ll die and you’ll need to adopt a new one.

Most of the other creatures you’ll find in Virtual Africa are expertly crafted by Jon Haskell of Sculpty Creations. Nearly all of the vegetation was commissioned specially for the project and was created by Lilith Heart of Heart Garden Centre.

One highlight of our trip was a rainy area where several wildebeest and giraffes roamed. As we walked around them, getting snapshots and marveling at their details, the following happened:

[2010/01/08 19:34] Shade – Dung: Victoria Sabra just stood in dung!

Sure enough, there was an all-too-realistic pile of prim dung at my feet – or rather, ON my feet. It even steamed!

The dung provided a fun touch of whimsy to the trip, but Virtual Africa is serious stuff. The project relies heavily on donations for its continued existence (as a bonus, you get to donate to perhaps the cutest donation jars in all of SL – adorable baby hippos), and is open about its struggles to stay afloat. The December 2009 Update and Appeal notecard detailed this:

We find it tough to maintain our presence consistantly in Second Life – despite almost 3000 visitors a month now. One of the main challenges is the financial implication for an African-based nonprofit and its staff to be here. We also need more volunteers at our region to receive visitors and take them around. Please drop Alanagh Recreant (me) a notecard if interested. Naija Avro is leading our volunteers.

For your Information – and because we were asked recently to share more details about this specific challenge that we face. Some anecdotal reports maintain that internet accessibility for an individual in Africa costs about 300 times compared to that in most European countries. We consider it a LUXURY to play a YouTube video or use Skype, for instance. The DIRECT cost (excluding human resources, e.g my time) for our participation in Second Life can be broken down as follows PER MONTH as per invoices received:

Connectivity: ADSL Line (telephone company) > R650,00 (87 USD)

Bandwidth: Data Down/Upload via Satelite > minimum R2100,00 (280 USD) or (9.33 USD a day!)

Tier for the 4 Sims: R3210,00 (428 USD) or (2568 USD over 6 months)

Estate Management: R0,00 (Pro Bono)

TOTAL MONTHLY Direct Costs (minimum): R5 960,00 or 795 USD or 214 560 Linden Dollar

So by all means, go to Virtual Africa and enjoy yourself. And if you can afford it, please leave at least a small donation so that other SLers can continue to enjoy it as well.

More about Uthango

Uthango’s metaAfrica project blog

Virtual Africa’s Twitter

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Carnivale will take you for a ride

January 7th, 2010



Spinning rides and flashing lights, rapid descents from dizzying heights – if you like real-life amusement parks, Second Life’s Carnivale is definitely worth a look.

Admission to the park is free, but donations are appreciated. According to a sign in the park, maintenance costs for Carnivale are more than $300 U.S. dollars per month.

From Ferris wheels to flumes to carousels to rollercoasters – even stands where you can get free popcorn and cotton candy – there’s a wealth of thrills throughout the sim. And unlike real life, when you’ve gotten your fill for one visit, you can take some of it home with you – nearly every ride in the park is available for purchase (generally 2500-5000L per ride, all copyable) or seven-day rental (500L). Should you choose to rent, your seven days don’t start until you actually rez the ride.

But before you can think about renting or purchasing your own amusement park thrill ride, you’ll want to tour the park and pick the rides you like best.



One of the park’s featured attractions is the Minebuster rollercoaster. Comprising some 800 meters in length, it’s one of the longest coasters on the grid and is based on Coney Island’s “Cyclone” from the 1950s. As of this writing, the Minebuster – a nice rendition of an old-time wooden coaster – isn’t available for sale or rent, but it’s well worth a few turns while you’re at Carnivale. While the speed could be a bit faster, it has some really nice animations; you’ll wave your hands in the air as you go around sharp curves, just like you would on a real coaster, and bounce in your seat while you’re waiting for the ride to start. There’s a bit of jerkiness, but that adds to the wooden coaster feel rather than being a distraction.



Another ride that’s a can’t-miss is the SLipper. Its brightly-colored gondolas will toss you high in the air and fling you in all directions at lightning-fast speeds. The effect in mouselook will make your head spin, which is exactly what it’s intended to do. It’s a great ride to try with some of the Windlight sky and water settings.



There are tamer rides for those less adventurous. The Spider and Carousel (which weighs in at a hefty 400-plus prims) rotate you gently around their center points. The Vortex is a sort of rollercoaster/Ferris wheel hybrid; you sit in a coaster-like car that travels in vertical circles, both backward and forward, on a track that resembles a Ferris wheel. The Vortex reaches impressive speeds, so while it’s tamer than the Minebuster or the SLipper, don’t be lulled into thinking it’s a granny ride. It’s also satisfyingly long-lasting.



Water park enthusiasts will enjoy the flume and the water rapids. The latter is a bit slower and choppier but features more drops and curves. And of course, no amusement park would be complete without a giant Ferris wheel. The one at Carnivale is called the Grand Ferris Wheel and sits next to the water and runs both backward and forward. You’ll get great views of the rest of the park and the surrounding terrain from the top. Like the Vortex, the Grand Ferris Wheel gives you a nice long ride, with plenty of time to look around, check out the other rides and maybe get a few snapshots.

The Spookhouse, located next to the Grand Ferris Wheel, is another amusement park staple. Carnivale’s features eye-boggling graphic effects but is unfortunately rather short – take an extra trip or two. It’s just a few steps from the Spookhouse to the Spin, another whirl-you-in-the-air ride that will leave you a bit breathless.

There are plenty of other Midway-style rides at Carnivale – Scrambler, Chance of Flurries, Dark Wheel and Graviton, just to name a few. Writing about each of them would be easy enough, but who wants to sit around and read about thrill rides when you could be experiencing them for yourself?

Once you’ve checked out the rides, make sure to stick around for Second Life night to fall – a great way to wrap up your trip to Carnivale is with the fireworks show shortly after “dusk” of each SL day (or about every four hours).

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Breedable pigs have pet lovers in the pink

January 4th, 2010



First there were chickens, then turtles, then bunnies. Now the breedable pet realm has been expanded with the addition of PinkyPigs – cute little polka-dotted porkers who eat, wallow in the mud and produce piglets.

As the info notecard states, PinkyPigs “are just like any other animal you’d raise as a pet; they age, they grow, they mate and become sad and/or sick. And just like any animal, they pass away from old age or negligence when their time comes.”

A PinkyPigs starter pack will set you back 675L but contains everything you’ll need to get going: three piglets, one PinkyPigs HUD, three food bowls, a mudpit and a healing kit.

PinkyPigs can breed at two weeks and die at three months – “Whoa!” you say. “Three months? That’s ALL?” But there’s a reason; the short lifespan combined with a relatively low reproductive rate – two piglets per week – should help keep the PinkyPigs market from becoming oversaturated, as has happened with other breedable pets.



The pigs do have some things in common with other breedables. The piglets’ color – their spots – is determined by the parents’ color vectors. First-generation pigs are red, green or blue. A red sow and blue boar would produce piglets in shades of purple. With each generation, more and more colors will be produced.

Of course, pigs need food. One bowl, which should last one pig about two weeks, is 125L, or you can save by buying in bulk and get a 10-pack of food for 1150L.

Pigs also can become sad. Toys will be available in the future and anyone will be able to make them; in the meantime, pigs must have a mudpit to keep their sadness at bay. If they get too sad – when their sadness meter reaches 75, which the HUD will tell you – they’ll stop breeding. Playing in the mudpit decreases sadness. A single mudpit runs 125L and lasts a single pig about a month. As with the food, you can save with the bulk pack – five pits for 525L. A cool feature of the mudpit is its appearance. “The texture of the mudpit will change from nice, wet, shiny mud to dry, cracked mud when it needs to be replaced,” according to the notecard.

Male pigs are also susceptible to getting sick and won’t breed if their sickness meter reaches 50. A healing kit (included in the starter kit or available separately for 25L) will fix up a sick male pig in a jiffy.



The HUD (75L if purchased separately) is a MUST for pig farmers. Pigs can’t be taken into inventory, even if boxed, or they’ll die – they must be loaded into the HUD. The piglets in the starter kit come pre-loaded into the included HUD (just click the Vend Check button on the HUD to register additional piglets purchased from PinkyPigs vendors).

That has its advantages, though. If a pig is “griefed,” it can be resurrected through the HUD. Another nice HUD feature is “Teleport to pig,” which lets you TP to within 10 meters of any pig registered in your HUD. Any chicken or turtle farmer who’s lost track of one of their charges has probably wished for something like this.

The pigs are whimsically designed, a nice combination of lifelike and comic. The item descriptions on the vendors are humorous; pig food is described as “Quality slop for hungry bellies,” while the mudpit’s description says, “Dirt + Water = Something you’re paying money for.”

Pigs can be traded and sold, just like chickens, turtles and bunnies, and give pet enthusiasts a fun new choice in breedable pets.

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A Visit From Saint Linden

December 20th, 2009



‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all ‘cross the sim

Not a creature was stirring, not one single prim.

Stockings were rezzed to hang from the mantle

While particle streams lit the flickering candles.

Child avs snuggled under warm sculpted sheets

Drifting off into dreams of bright textured sweets.

My friends in their prim skirts (though some were still Ruthed)

Attached skates to their feet – we were having a hoot!

When from the stream came a ching-ching-ching noise

Everyone heard it, both girl avs and boys.

Away to the window, that’s where I stood

And clicked on the sill, with its nice texture of wood.

What with glowing and full bright, and the grid moon on high

The scene spread ‘cross the snow was clear to my eyes.

A man in a red suit and premium skin

Had just landed his sleigh smack dab on my sim.

His flexi beard shone and he had a large sack

Attached to his spine so it rode on his back.

With twinkling eyes (from his facelight, I’m sure)

He leapt from the sleigh to my snow-covered shore.

“Hi Vic! Hello Addie! There’s Brandi and Rai!

“And Sarra and Dylan, Netty, Skyee and Jase!

“Hey there Carl and Gorden, Bent and Abella!

“And all of you others, the gals and the fellas!”

His jolly mouth laughed as his sack he threw down

While eager and curious, we all gathered ’round.

With a click of his mouse, he was sitting on my roof

As particle snow off his red suit went poof.

He clicked on the sack and it started to spin

Must have had a rotation script hidden within.

The presents spilled out, floating right through the air

And each person got one – hey, that’s only fair.

There were gizmos and vehicle and gadgets galore

With gift cards and poseballs and gift cards for stores.

But most wondrous of all, and I don’t mean to brag

With all of this traffic was not one bit of lag.

The script meter was glowing a bright, healthy green

I must say I wondered how this could have been.

Then the man in the red suit and white flexi beard

Pressed shift-Enter to whisper, “There’s nothing to fear.

“It’s a magical night,” he went on to say,

“A time for all residents to be joyful and gay.

“That’s hard to remember when you can’t move around

“So for this one night, nothing will slow you down.

So we danced and we skated and we cheered the man on

And the party went on till the sky signalled dawn.

Though our night had been lovely, still we were sad

For we knew it was ending, this fun we had had.

But the red-suited man had one last surprise

As he reached in his pocket (attached near his thigh).

Out came hundreds of Linden which on us did shower

And brought even more glee to this last joyful hour.

Then with a click of his mouse, he was back on his sleigh

While below we all waved as he went on his way.

Just before he TPed, he called out with all his might,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

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PlantPets Will Grow On You

December 20th, 2009

An unsuccessful hunt for virtual flowers led the creators Bruce Leibknecht and Maniac Choche to develop PlantPets; growing plants that will thrive and reproduce when cared for properly.

Part plant, part pet, part decoration and all fun, PlantPets come in an astonishing array of varieties and colors, from shamrocks to orchids. Just click their pots to keep them watered properly and they’ll be happy. You can choose how fast they grow or pause them if you’re going to be offline for a while. If the worst happens and they die, you can revive them by just clicking their pots. There’s no food to buy (although you can speed up the time it takes them to reproduce by purchasing optional spawn boosters).

“More than two years ago my good friend Maniac Choche searched for growing flowers on SLX (XStreetSL today), did not find any and thought that then we should make them!” said Bruce Liebknecht, one of the brains behind PlantPets. “I liked the idea and decided to give it a try. After many nights of development and discussions the first PlantPets, Eleusis Roseus, was born in November 2007 and soon was joined by another three Eleusis flowers.”

Lit Oberth, a mutual friend of Maniac Choche and Bruce Leibknecht, designed the prims for aster and poinsettia PlantPets.

“With those three PlantPets we opened our shop in early December 2007,” Liebknecht said. “Then Marika Dagostino, Viva Laval and Gonzo Morales joined us as prim designers and our family of PlantPets has grown to nearly 20 types of plants, most of them coming in more than one variety or almost 60 different PlantPets.”

That’s a lot of PlantPets, but you only need one to have it reproduce. Without using spawn boosters, it takes 52 days for a PlantPets to produce a baby. The new plant can be kept, sold or given as a gift, and it’s not copyable; this coupled with the long time between spawns helps ensure that the plants will hold their value.

What they DON’T hold are prims. The plants are incredibly detailed but are scripted to be friendly to prim-pinching residents.

“Technically speaking, the PlantPets work by rezzing temporary plant parts above the soil prim. Because they are temporary, they do not take from the number of available prims on your land,” Liebknecht said. “Thus, we can allow ourselves to build very detailed plant parts.”

They’re also carefully scripted to be as lag-free as possible, as lag is sometimes an issue with temp rezzers. I decided to put both lag and prims to the test by setting out two different performance meters and then rezzing a pair of PlantPets (bird of paradise Reginae and Delft Blue hyacinth). I kept an eye on the meters as I named the plants, watered them and set their growth rates, and neither meter even flickered. I turned on their particle effects – this option allows your PlantPets to send out a stream of particles when it’s happy – and there was still no effect on the sim performance.

Once the plants had grown a bit, I checked how many prims I was using and then took the PlantPets back into inventory, one at a time. Although there was a single stalk on the bird of paradise that used 32 prims according to the edit window, it wasn’t reflected in the sim load; the two plants combined used just eleven prims.

Each plant comes in a decorative pot, but you can also use your own. Simple instructions are included with each PlantPets.

Besides the colors available for each variety in the PlantPets vendors, there are additional colors that can be obtained only by spawning. Baby plants are the same variety but not necessarily the same color as their parents.

“There are PlantPets which come only as babies. At present these are 6 single-stem amaryllis PlantPets and a red calla lily,” said Liebknecht. “We are working on more rare PlantPets which will come only as babies. Our plan is to have at least one rare PlantPets of each kind soon.”

There are more varieties on the way as well, and PlantPets welcomes builders capable of creating new flora.

“Recently we have decided to open PlantPets to any prim designers who would like to create plants for us,” Liebknecht said. “We offer 40% of the sales to prim designers and anybody can apply by submitting a demo/portfolio. Currently we are working on bonsai and bamboo designed by Qahri Fireguard and daisies created by Macey Kiama. They will be in store very soon.”

PlantPets prices as of December 18, 2009, range from 450-895 Linden. That’s very reasonable compared with most reproductive pets, especially considering that plant owners never need to buy food or pay to have a plant revived if it dies.



I’m having a great time watching my plants grow, and I can’t wait until I get my first baby plant. Check them out! There are several winter varieties that look great for the holidays, and they make terrific gifts as well.

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A Float Through The Clouds

December 20th, 2009



Imagine floating over an expanse of delicately rainbow-hued cubes that move up and down gracefully like the hammers on a piano when its keys are struck.

You soar over and through the giant cubic cloud watching as each square’s colors evolve subtly, stretching and retracting in a soothing rhythm that becomes a great shifting tide of misty hues.

This is Storm Cells, created by Oberon Onmura, which opened on November 15.

Each of the 8×8m cubes (the “cells” in Storm Cells) – about a thousand of them – is scripted to react to Second Life cloud density. According to the note card you’ll be offered upon arriving at the exhibit:

“As the cloud density over each cell increases, it simultaneously lightens its color toward white and increases its height. The result is a dynamic multidimensional map of Second Life’s random cloud function.”

Upon arriving at Storm Cells, you can walk around on top or to really immerse yourself, hop on a “tour vehicle” – a prim that will glide you seamlessly through the cells, moving forward, back, up and down.

One especially nice feature (as if floating thousands of meters in the sky over an intricate color and light display isn’t enough) is that if you’re the first person to reach a particular cell, your avatar’s name will be displayed via floating text on that for the duration of the exhibit. It’s a really cool feeling to be floating through a beautiful, translucent, rainbow-hued cell and suddenly see your name appear on it.



If you like playing with Windlight settings, Storm Cells is a can’t-miss destination. If you do not – well, the exhibit might just get you to start.

As the welcome note card will tell you:

“Oberon has thoughtfully considered the viewer experience, and scripted several sits – one with aerial view of full installation, and several with scripted tours through the storm cells. The tour provides an up-close appreciation of the fluid cloud scripting through the cells, and the beautiful color gradations throughout the sky For additional amazing color palettes, try different sun and sky settings, and fly around.”

Take that advice – Teleport over to Storm Cells and fly around. Your eyes will thank you.

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Can you stomach this?

December 15th, 2009



Lately I’ve taken to checking out some of the places listed under “Showcase” in the Search tab. I’ve found some really incredible sims and nearly doubled the number of files in my snapshots album.

And I’ve also found the Virtual Stomach Museum.

According to the description in Showcase, which classifies the museum under the “learning” category, “In this virtual Stomach Museum, visitors will learn the basic morphology of gastric disorders, including stomach ulcers and cancer.”

Hey, they had me at “Virtual Stomach Museum” – who could resist the pull of a name like that?

So off to Hoshi Island I went. I’m not sure what a virtual stomach museum should look like, but I wasn’t expecting beautiful trees and plants and decorative bridges. Nestled into this pastoral setting was an open design, clinical-looking building with pictures of stomachs.

Yes, stomachs. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a CSI: autopsy scene; there are macro shots of stomach ulcers and stomach tumors displayed for your viewing pleasure.

Having had several friends and family battle various forms of cancer, I’m certainly not going to knock a place that’s trying to educate and enlighten. But putting up graphic photos in a beautiful Oriental garden setting is a little incongruent.

The tour, if that’s what you want to call it, starts with a model of a stomach neatly labeled to show you which parts are what. There are a couple of info boards there which are mildly informative, though they seem to have been written by a non-native English speaker – some of the phrasing might sound a bit strange to American visitors.

From these displays, you wander out into a courtyard of sorts. It’s got cute little tables and Japanese lanterns and flowering trees, perfect to sit and spend some quality time with your sweetie – well, except for those stomach photos, which feature some lovely pics of gastric carcinoma.



In all seriousness, the Virtual Stomach Museum is a great place for anyone dealing with stomach disease or cancer to get some facts. And if you’re facing serious illness or are close to someone who is, the tranquil setting is a nice alternative to a hospital or clinic build.

And if nothing else, it’s worth a trip just for the oddity of it all.

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