A Trip to India!

Spending a bit of time in Real Life today so I've been following the MySL feeds and was pleased to see my friend Xandah found the Taj Mahal (or Taaj Mahal as they have it spelled in About Land) in Second Life in Lucky (SLurl). I asked her to take a few pictures for me and tell me more about it.

The structure seems pretty faithful to the original (see here) but she tells me it is very plain inside and far smaller than life-size, of course. I imagine the original would take more than a full region just for the building, let alone the magnificent grounds.

Despite using only about a quarter of the region (I should have asked if it was a Homestead or a full region), the build looks very impressive. Xandah told me that some men were there making a cushioned seating area for some planned live singers to entertain. Sorry I don't have more details, but I plan on stopping in myself sometime. Until then and just based on these pictures I recommend that anyone who likes architecture and/or Indian culture try to visit, too.

Retro SL: BSD Archer House

Who doesn't remember wandering Help Island as a noob and marveling at Our World and the idea that you, too, could have a fabulous Free House? Well, anyone who didn't go through that part of Orientation, actually, as so many relatively recent Residents can attest. But you can still visit any Help Island Public and pretend to be a Noob again and grab such a house (SLurl).

The BSD Archer House, as seen in the historic photo included with the house itself. Note how the land refused to rez clearly. Back in the day that was a common problem. The windows change opacity via touch script and the door is lockable. You can mod this build all you want and re-use the scripts in your own builds.

This classic of Second Life architecture, the BSD Archer House, weighs in at 39 prims as boxed and is a size just right to fit on what was once known as First Land, a parcel of 16m x 32m. It was built by Bill Stirling in December 2005 with scripts and some bits for the scripts made by Jo Sartre (no longer in-world, it seems).

If you visit the BSD Mall in Cranberry (SLurl) you can see what Bill is up to today either through his current selection of homes to buy or checking out pictures of his in-world projects. One such is the SS Galaxy, a luxury liner so big it needs three regions just to rez it all (SLurl).

A portrait of the SS Galaxy hangs in the BSD shop. Click it for a landmark to the ship itself or use the SLurl above. According to the ship's Website, it is the largest build in all Second Life. You can see the BSD Archer House history in the ship as they share some textures, such as the railing and the ship's decking is this house's ceiling.

The ship is an example of what I've called Deja Visit (Web) as I remember visiting the ship when it was new back in 2007, but here I run across it today during my serial exploration, starting with the Retro SL house. We live in a very big world that acts very small at times.

Retro SL: Starter Home

While I was at the sandbox for yesterday's post, I figured I could knock out another house, the September 2003 House in a Box: Starter Home, as 72 prims (finished) its a plain yet attractive structure with lots of possibilities for modding ... if I could get the doors to work. More on that in a moment.

Laying the floor piece with the main positioning pin. I set it at (X=128, Y=128, Z=36.5) in Sandbox Verenda to get started.

I snapped the walls to the same coordinates but found that the Z (altitude) needed to be different.

The Interior Walls and Cabinets had the exact same coordinates as the Outer Walls. A nice surprise. At this point it would have been easier to add the doors, but the directions said to add the Roof.

Better and better, the Roof shares coordinates with the previous two steps.

No position pins for the doors so I noted the X coordinate for the wall then used it for the door, eyeballing the Y and Z. The Front Door shown here is 11 prims. Each Interior door is 5 prims and the French Doors are 10 prims total.

The instructions simply stated "2. Select and reposition each of these in the locations they belong; Front Door at the front of the house with the vertical door handle facing outward, Interior Door inside the house (copy for more doors if you like), and the French Doors at the rear of the house." I put in three, with one that was a hair too small, but that was easily adjusted. 

Ah, the French Doors. Like the other doors, all the fiddling I tried couldn't get any of them to open. The scripts looked okay and I set them to Running, reset them, and more ... nothing. I wonder if there is a function in them that has been depreciated since the script was originally written. If I get the urge and am bored one day, I'll try them again.

Generally speaking this was a very, very simple house to assemble and the prim count was pretty reasonable, too. A dozen extra textures are included so the adventurous or experienced builder has a number of choices. With a little skill some prims could be trimmed to lessen the land impact, but if you have a 1024m² parcel you'd easily have about 160 prims with which to furnish your new home. The instructions you can get by with 576m², but that wouldn't leave room for furniture and you'd have no lawn.

Retro SL: The Wright House

Another Retro SL classic structure is the September 2003 House In A Box: Wright House — 282 prims (finished) inspired by Real Life architect Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house, Falling Water. It is a complicated build from the modern view because it is not in a build rezzer nor is it assembled as an unlinked coalesced object (i.e., you drag it out from your inventory while in Build mode so all the unlinked parts hold together). It is boxed with detailed construction instructions for aligning six "position pins" that are eventually unlinked and deleted. For some reason the instructions don't mention the idea of snapping the first part to a specific point on the grid then entering the same position coordinates for the subsequent pieces. Not that works any better than working by eye, though, as the parts dont align properly when following the directions.

 However, several warnings come first in a note card appears as soon as you rez the box to unpack it:

There are a few things you'll need to know and understand before you begin.

1. This is a fairly large house, and it will cost you a pretty penny to build. Depending on some customization choices, the actual building can cost as much as L$3000, and your maintenance taxes will be considerable. This house is better suited to someone with an established income than a first-time Second Life homeowner. packed before the idea of grabbing a coalesced object existed?

"... cost you a pretty penny to build ..." Remember that at one time, it cost homeowner L$10 per prim just to rez the structure — plus L$10 to rez the packing box just to get the pieces out. Each positioning pin was L$10, too. Total cost from start to finish if you use one copy of the extra decorative lamp: L$2,900 plus land costs (the maintenance costs mentioned).

Eventually the directions tell you to link everything together, except the doors, and run through how to use the window and door controls, then admonishing that you take a backup copy:

As a safety precaution, copy the entire completed, linked house object into your Inventory: Right-click > Acquire > Take Copy. This way if something goes wrong with your customization, you can delete the old house, pull out a new one and start over. 

Which begs the question "Why wasn't it all linked in the first place?" The answer may lie in the ten alternate textures included in the box. Every Resident was a Builder back in the day and Bill Linden the maker of the Wright House, probably thought folks would customize his build. Second life was a frontier and we were all homesteaders taming the wilds. Most regions like my home sim Nangrim didn't even have roads.

At the end of the assembly process, after deleting the position prims, I had to align the windows properly then the doors, and I was still left with what really appears to be a half-finished building with a poorly anchored roof strip, just like a few years ago when I built the first one. I fixed a couple prim overlaps and thought about the changes I made the first time ... adding an elevator, making a proper roof, etc. ... just as Bill Linden probably wanted.

The Wright House was way too prim intensive when it was "new" to use on the wee bit of land that I had at the time, so like today I built it in a sandbox, had my way with it, then deleted it and moved on to other things. And other houses were far nicer and far more land-friendly though I lived in a small cave when I wasn't on the Isle of Lesbos. Even today I wonder why people have houses, but that is another post and I have more structures from the early days to build and blog about.

Retro SL: The Alpine House

Way back in the day, it cost L$10 to rez a prim. Any prim. Marianne McCann reminded me about this once regular fee when she noted the Prim Tax prank in her April 1st blog post, and while I wasn't on the Main Grid to witness that, I remember getting a free Alpine House from a now-defunct freebie board in Waterhead (SLurl to the blank wall where the board used to be) and seeing the box labeled "... only $200L to build" (note the old-style of indicating the L$) which is what it would have cost at the time to rez all 20 prims of the house on your land. On a 117 prim, 512m² "First Land" lot, that was quite a dent in resources.

With a slightly larger than 10m² footprint, this classic building by Lifetime resident Juro Kothari was a regular sight back in the day and can sometimes be seen on most any trip around the Mainland. I've modified copies of this building more times than I can remember, making new houses and skyboxes, using the roof prims for the texture on other builds, or just practicing my building skills. With sculpties, I bet this could easily be re-created with just 8 or 9 prims and a talented Mesh builder could probably re-create it in 1or even 2 prims — maybe 3 with a door, which the original didn't have, either.

Checking out historical architecture at the Astutla Sandbox (SLurl)

I've been combing through my Storage Alt's Inventory and my own Inventory to find other classic builds of days gone by and I'll probably write some posts about them in the future because Retro SL can be as fun as current SL.

St. Illuminatious Cathedral

For several days I've been aching to write about St. Illuminatious Cathedral (SLurl) by Abel Dreamscape but have been thwarted by Real Life and other in-world projects. Today I made the time and I hope you make the time after reading about it here to visit this amazing site.

Let's get the basics out of the way. St. Illuminatious Cathedral is some 4075 prims without furniture and easily fills an 64 meter by 120 meter area with a height that almost strains draw distances, just over 102 meters. Like the real world edifices that inspired this structure, it is mind-blowingly big. And the beauty of the build is equal to or greater than it's size. You must see this to believe it. Here is the gratuitous, specially lighted and composed picture you'd expect.

Look very closely and you'll see a nun clad in all white in the main entrance. That is my 1.88m (6.16 ft) avatar. Take a breath and think about the scale here.

I could have taken more beauty shots like that with different Windlight settings and various tweaks and ... frankly, none showed the real beauty. Here are some detail views, with comments, that I hope give a better idea of how gorgeous this build really is.

This could have been a simple texture as it is about 15m above ground level and most folks wouldn't look that closely, but it is all prim. Looking from ground level as you move left-to-right it makes a difference as the block wall shows through the details making the depth real, not implied.

Look at the little "spires" ... they are all over the place. To me, this just shows the builder's love of being faithful to the source. There is a lot of love in this building.

Very skillful use of sculpts. Mr Dreamscape sells the parts in a Builder's Pack, by the way. Not like I'd have the skill to use them. *sigh*

Flying buttresses. Flying Buttresses! Holy Canoli, they are even faithful to Real Life architecture. Sadly, though, there is no "real" rainwater drainage system, gargoyles aside, but adding the little tunnels and all that would raise the prim count horrendously, I imagine.

The towers are stunning inside and outside. Look at the spires and the windows and the slats and the ... I'm having an Architecture-gasm. If you ever see some 'idiot' with binoculars outside a cathedral or other such structure in RL, it might be me. I love looking at all the little details.

One of the towers has bells. Big Bells. When you visit, look closely at the support arms. The clappers are odd, but not something I haven't seen.

Right. You have to climb into the bell tower, stand in a certain place, then cam in to see this detail of the ropes. Builders who bother with this level of detail are really passionate about their craft.

The staircase to the bell tower. There might not be any furniture included with the cathedral if you buy a copy, but the building is not bereft of decorations. Look for all the candles and you'll see what I mean.

Wonderous vaulted ceilings plus fabulous columns equal amazing beauty.

Above the altar space. Impressed yet?

An arcade beside the altar space, true to Real Life architecture again. And there is one outside under the flying buttresses on what is traditionally called The East End.

More beautiful stained glass in the transepts.

Again, this could have been a flat texture, but detail is important in a build of this majesty.

This staircase leads to a walk above the choir area.

Details are important, of course, but when you mind turns to mush you'll go back to saying "wow" as you focus again on  the scale of the cathedral

If you are like me and you really need your own copy of this magnificent build, it is available in-world or on the SL Marketplace for a mere L$45,000 ... about L$44,600 more than I have right now.

A new term is needed

A new term is needed to describe builds that look like they were made when Second Life was new and haven't been updated nearly a decade later. Not that this is bad, mind you. There are plenty of items at the Isle of Lesbos that are several years old or using build techniques that haven't changed over time. Due to careful texturing and component updates that include sculpties, most items look fresh and realistic (as far as my skills allow). What I'm referring to, however, are builds such as this place I found while map hopping:

The owner/builder has mostly taken care with the layout and it is generally pretty, but the textures are cartoony like most of the ones in our basic Texture Library while pose balls litter the build when "sitter" scripts could have been used (I'm still updating seating on the Isle to use these). I look at this and think "Its  2003 again!" I like this place and will probably visit again, but it is ... "off."

I don't want to say outdated. Heck, Jefferson's home Monticello home hasn't changed in a couple hundred years and Buckingham Palace is even older. But those are real world places, using the finest materials of the time that still look great today. And I'm pretty sure they get fresh coats of paint once in a while. In Our World, new paint comes in the form of better textures from more skilled artists. By itself, this upgrade can improve most any scene. Add in a few sculpties and everything gets even better.

Right. It costs money. And some folks don't have a problem with older builds. If it sounds like I do, then I'm sorry. Really, I don't. I prefer the newer looks, but there is a certain style to the older items. Just what it should be called, I don't know. What do you think?

Art Dreams

Recently I've come across a couple pictures that I'd love to re-create in Second Life, if I had the skill and the resources.

The first you may recognize from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (Web), the dramatic carved cliff faces near the waterfalls. While I don't have the talent to create the sculpts myself, I think I could make something similar. Maybe showing the work in progress so I could stick with prims that simply evoke the final image and lay out the trappings of a carver's worksite. Or make the sculptures more architectural, avoiding the human form entirely. Something like the carvings at Petra, in Jordan (Web), creating the facades of buildings or individual elements like columns. Another idea is to make something like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (Web). The JD Mechanical Toy Factory in Second Life (SLurl) has a wonderful arch that could probably be adapted for such a purpose.

Maybe floating islands are a bit trendy, but the concept is really timeless, and as this picture shows, the reason everyone loves them is the magical beauty. I have a wonderful small castle from a builder that seems to no longer be in-world, but it would look great in this context. Likely I'd want to use some of it's construction details to replicate this specific image. And I'd need to add to the floating island sculpts that I have to make a "chunk" like this one, perfectly suited for the structure. The two blend beautifully, the castle being very site-specific so the two form an "organic" whole.

I have folders full of wonderful architecture art and photos, some having been ear-marked as possible projects in Second Life should circumstances and talent permit. But these two are very high on the list.

Making the Real World Virtual

The Holy See has published a spherically 360º panorama of the Sistine Chapel interior (Web). Use the arrow keys on your keyboard or click-drag your mouse to move about then use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom. The detail is amazing! I once saw a really nice replica of the Chapel in Second Life, but I can't remember where.

Footnote: Geometricians are welcome to tell me the correct term for a view that is "spherically 360º" in appearance.

Uni-Jetstream Fun

Some time ago (last May to be exact, but I did write about it for the Lucky Kitty Crew blog at the time) I had planned to profile the Jetstream Pavilion in Ginza (SLurl) for it's great freebie and clever build but time gets away from me and I totally missed. But this is a must-see place for those who like to explore. The entrance is pure corporate vanilla, but still tasteful and attractive, and doesn't give any hint as to the fun inside. Go up to what looks like an empty elevator shaft and 'sit' to begin.

You are quickly whisked through a tunnel, banking and arcing along with a series of pens. "Aha!" you say to yourself. "Jetstream is about writing instruments!" Some very clever scripting has the pens writing around you as you fly.

The end of the ride drops you at a sales showroom. You can't buy the pens here, but you can learn more about various models and about the Uniball company. If you can read Japanese. With English as my only language I simply satisfied myself with looking at the well-made displays, silently complimenting the skilled builders. There is a great "cutaway" view of the product that describes in English and in Japanese how the pen functions.

Exploring around I found my way to the roof where I eventually figured out how to get a freebie flying-pen-surfboard-thing that is a blast to use.

The flying pen vendor actually has instruction in English.

It is good to cam around. The builders are very good and the design is very attractive. I wish more corporate sites in-world were this good. I learned about the product and came away with a positive feeling toward the company.

And I got a great pen I can fly! Go get yours. I checked today and the site is still there. Use your new pen to fly around the sim to visit some nice stores and other attractive builds. Maybe pick up the freebie tattoos in Lovely Hearts (SLurl).

Quick Pic - Machinima Studios

My breath was taken away at Machinama Studios (SLurl). Very impressive. I hope to get more time to explore here and a couple other places I learned about from the Lucky Kitty Crew group today. A guided tour is available at the entrance, but I'm going to need a handy translator as I don't read Japanese. I don't know what the rest of the place is about yet. I'll explore until my wife logs in tonight. From what I saw on the tour and this impressive sculpture I have to automatically recommend a visit.

Busy Busy Busy

I've been spending quality time with my lovely wife, Angela, busy at the Isle of Lesbos where I make signs, stand guard and have started a new "hunt" project. My hard drive is filled with pics backed up from my explorations, but until I get the time, enjoy these:


One of my recent projects at the Isle ... signs for the new area where folks can rez their purchases. This is the Instructional one. Another was a simple arrow. I work mostly in Acorn but often use GIMP for some of the trickier edits where I really wish I had a $700+ program.

I love Japanese sims. My friend Serenkitty is always recommending them for cool freebies. I go for the great architecture or unique builds ... and things like this :)

The Garden of Da Vinci. I don't know, but I keep wandering by the place. This is not my pic. I got it in-world somewhere. Possibly at the Garden.

Isle of Tranquility

A friend of mine nabbed an adorable cupcake costume and I had to have one, too. So I went to the nearest YumYum store and bought it (only L$99!!!). The box had a landmark for a "main store" so I had to go there (SLurl). Boy was that worth the trip! They had some nice freebies but mostly is was a beautiful build .. and I got to dive into a giant plate of cupcakes!

:::giggles::: The display is for sale, but I didn't get it. Instead I went outside and explored the rest of the Isle of Tranquility (SLurl).

Like the store, the rest of the sim is very attractively done. Some skimping on things like wrought iron railings, but most folks won't notice. In the pic above I'm looking westerly from a main square-like area. The water is nicely integrated and trees are everywhere. My biggest smile came from my whole visit came from the generally excellent textures.

The canals are really something and despite the lack of flora and fauna on the sea floor, I was pleased to find that some of the canals run under the buildings. Silly me, I should have checked to see how many prims were available in the sim whenever it occurred to me that the out-of-the-way places should have little details like leaves or animals or other signs of life.

One of the canal areas is a marvelous multi-level complex that made me want to go swimming, fishing, and shopping all at the same time. Many folks I know wouldn't go from shop to shop to shop in a complex as shown above let alone in a non-mall formatted sim like this so I wonder how the merchants fare. Not that I noticed many shops. I was busy playing with sky settings (Windlight) and composition.

There is one area of the sim that is .. well, tacky ... compared to the rest of the build. At one time in the not too distant past I might have called this a nice build but compared to everything else in the Isle of Tranquility, this is ... grr ... I'll say it again ... tacky. The textures are mostly nice but not realistic like the other builders used. The space utilization is also out-of-theme with it's typical retailer layout. And why is prim water used to make a stream about a half meter above Linden water?