What a Difference a Day Makes

I just finished reading Honour McMillan's fabulous blog post "On Mainland & Fences & Rusty Toilets in Second Life" about her visit to Tatty Soup (SLurl) and a rumination about land in Second Life. After seeing her pictures I thought the location would be perfect for a writing topic that came to me as I was drifting into a turkey coma yesterday. Basically, how important is hyperrealism to the suspension of .... no, wait. Let's save that for another day.

As I was composing the first picture that I needed to illustrate the topic I thought about the Region Default Windlight settings. Normally when I explore I keep the Region Default set so I can enjoy the area as the buildscaper intended. Tatty Soup is set to what appears to be a modification of "Alchemy Immortalis - Fog Lifting" Fixed sky option (I peeked in the Environment tab of the Region/Estate tools .. it comes installed on some Third Party Viewers or can be found with a bit of Googling). The effect of this pre-set is perfect here. Actually, it is perfect most places, but I like fog – just this morning in Real Life I was up early, glued to the window to watch the densest fog we've had in some time. But that's all aside at this point. Here's what the region looks like (maximum draw distance plus everything but Depth-of-Field active in the graphics settings):

At this point, I was ready to break down the tripod, pack up the ol' Tamrac camera bag, and head back to the Lydia Rose Memorial Park (SLurl) to grab the next shots I needed for my original idea. Then another idea hit me ... Moar Shadows!! The picture was a bit flat. Well, snow, fog, overcast, lack of greenery, etc. So I thought "Sunrise!" and started a whole series of pictures, totally shelving my original idea. So let's look at the same shot above but changing its character via some different pre-sets.

Midnight: In the Garden of Frost and Snow. Pretty much as you might imagine it would be, but no fog. No weather at all, actually, so it is rather dull if you ask me.

Sunrise: Here Comes The Sun. As you can see, East is behind me and slightly to the right of me. This is the standard sunrise, though the East Angle and the time of day can be changed in the Environment Editor. I like how the cabin catches some of the first rays of the sun. Looks cozy.

 Midday: Checking out life in the park (thanks, Yusuf). Crisp, clear, and I have my shadows. A careful photographer with time on her hands would watch a complete cloud cycle to pick the best sky/water reflections, but one cycle can take nearly an hour before it repeats.

Sunset: Hopin' to promote a dream somewhere along the way (thank you, Mike). I did watch the clouds for a bit here to catch the faint rainbow that sometimes appears (never noticed that we had those, did you?). Still a little warm, but the over all feeling is still chilly. And far different from the region default, you'd have to agree, but all within the bounds of "normal" weather.

And that's where Day Cycles come into play. Look for them in the Environment Editor. Unlike the usual Windlight pre-sets, Cycles work with the flow of time as Second Life skies regularly do, but have some color and weather effects.

This is the Default cycle, the one that is synchronized with the Mainland. Based on the coloration and the extent to which the sun's rays reach, it looks like the time is a few minutes past the 6:22AM time where default "Sunrise" is fixed. So in effect I was in Tatty Soup at about quarter till 7:00AM, I'd guess (I could have looked at the clock at the time, but I forgot and I'm writing this about an hour later, so close enough). The subsequent pictures were taken with different cycles no more than 10 minutes after this picture, so all are morning images.

The Dynamic cycle differs little from the Default cycle, but if you look closely (and your monitor allows) you can see there is a slight increase in color saturation. As clouds and sky can color the land and water, there may be some change due to wind shifts, as well. After this, things can become strange.

The Colder Tones cycle is dark this time of day and the sun is either in the West or that is a really bright moon. Not one of my more favored settings, I seldom use this cycle for pictures.

The Pirate's Dream cycle is very, very nice for this shot. It looks quite similar to Midday, but the contrast is amped up and the sky has a slightly violet hue and that, of course, colors the water and the shadows. There is also a bit more haze in the atmosphere and that picks up the same hue.

I'm wondering if we can just assume that Torley Linden is responsible for the Psycho Strobe! cycle? I can hear the meeting now ... "What's wrong with pink and green? The Residents love it. They love ME! They'd want a pink and green cycle. What? Oh, well. Orange clouds and deep purple-blue skies. Go Broncos *sheesh*"

The Tropicalia Cycle sometimes works in tropical locations, but not often, and it certainly doesn't work here. The contrast is just too harsh. Notice the azure/topaz water, though. Cycles change how water looks as much as fixed presets do, but and the way the sun's coloring and general coloring is set gives the default water this more tropical look. You can always use different water pre-sets to change any cycle effect.

The Weird-O Cycle is just that ... weird. It always strikes me as some post-apocolyptic, radiation-enhanced thing. That's about all I can say about this one.

I've made some fixed Windlight pre-sets for places I frequent and for various photographs but sometimes I'll slip out the Dynamic Cycle just to be different. So even if you have a hyperrealistic setting like Tatty Soup, you can easily suspend ... oh, that topic again. Maybe in another post. Now go explore!

Project Coming Soon!

Uccello hasn't been posting much here lately so I've staged a coup and taken over her blog (at least until she notices) so I can tell everyone about more of my explorations. Since the Isle of Lesbos closed I've had a hard time finding a job as a Junior Assistant Gardner (3rd Grade) so I've had plenty of time to roam Our World.

An interesting place I ran across today while following some railroad tracks is called Project Coming Soon! in the Owens Beach region (SLurl). What makes it of note is not the complete lack of beach or anyone named Owen (they might have been away), but rather there is construction litter that bears marks characteristic of Squishy Mole of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW). Based on the dust I examined the materials have been here a while so that puts the "Soon" in the parcel name in some doubt. Rome wasn't built in a day, and all, I guess.

The land has all the basics you'd find at a Second Life construction site. If there's a builder in SL that doesn't have Carl Metropolitan's basic grid then there's a builder I haven't met. You'd think that the Moles might have something more sophisticated like with frickin' lasers or something. I knicked a laser-based orientation gadget from Uccello once. Maybe I should send a copy to Squishy to make this site look a bit sexier (the lasers merely look good ... Uccie often builds stuff with little real value).

Hard to tell what these components will form. They look more like raw materials that need to be shaped or otherwise transformed before being used. I don't see a CNC machine (Web) around to do the work so I'm guessing that Squishy will resort to old-fashion prim torturing (Web). You'd think that The Lab would have cutting edge options such as a Maker Bot device (Web) for custom crafting. I think the Moles are worth the expense.

What, Ho! A mine of some sorts? And next to a railroad spur. Me thinks someone has been ore-ing around. Like the construction area, this seems to be old and not used recently. Someone should tell Michael Linden that security could be better here.

I magicked a torch and started my descent. Right away I could tell that this is a very old prim mine, probably unused since the ANWR prim-drilling rig went into operation (Web). Still, with modern techniques prime prims like these could be mined for a profit when the economy improves.

Often, mined prims show a variety that prims from a drill field don't. It's almost like barn wood. There's an sense of heritage when using mined prims, even the cubical ones, that make prims from drilling seem rather artificial. I prefer the more organic nature of mined prims when making landscaping items.

After a few hours of going down, down, down into the tunnel I finally found the terminus. An old mine car sits, rusting and lonely. It's hard to imagine early builders bringing up one prim at a time. No wonder there was a prim tax of in the early days of Our World (Web). This had to be an expensive undertaking back in the day. This deep one is likely to find Heritage prims, the cream of the crop when it comes to prim quality. I could almost smell the potential once I got past the smell of decaying critters.

Without tools and what little that pixy magic could do to help, I did no more than look over the mine car. There was no way I'd be able to use it to get back up to the surface. Good thing pixies fly.

Being crushed under the weight of earth above since an era long time out of mind can do amazing things to a prim. When this baby was first formed it was probably cubical like fresh prims, but the combination of pressure and time makes a prim do strange things. I can imagine that given enough time this prim would eventually become a rhombicosidodecahedron.

The journey back up the mine seemed to take much longer than the journey down. Maybe I shouldn't have spent so much time looking at the amazing prims further down the shaft. At this point I was getting very hungry and berating myself for not bringing a snack. It never occurred to me that I could have eaten the camera-wielding butterfly following me this whole time and taken my own pictures.

Back outside the mine and it was clear how long I had been down in the hole. The sun had set and I was glad I had my jacket against the chill. A quick flight back to near by Bay City for some food then a quick nap before more exploring. Unless Uccie catches me, maybe I can post something here again tomorrow.

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Editor's Note: Maybe I should give Zyx publishing rights on this blog. Currently only I can press that button. Thanks for the story, wee pixy, and feel free to submit another at any time.

Not Posting Every Day

Thinking about blogging.

Sometimes I feel bad about not posting something here every day. When I had a personal blog (or contributed to other blogs in a similar vein) I even set up assignments to make sure I blogged every 24 hours ... Song of The Day, Word of the Day, LOLcat of the Day, etc. After reading the Oatmeal comic today, I don't feel so bad about not posting with diurnal regularity. Check it out here (NSFW and a wee time consuming, but worth it).

New Premium Gift! [Update]

The Premium Sandboxes also have Premium Airports like Limia (SLurl) and feature Mole Gas for your birds. 

The Lab has a new premium gift out today, a Lindy Premium Airplane v1.04, and you can grab it at any Premium gift spot such as the one in Sandbox Mirificatio (SLurl). The plane features seven texture schemes, 10 animations (mostly hanging off the wings), and customizable controls, all available via menus when you click the plane. Use the Help option in the menu for a note card explaining everything and a list of places to rez your new toy so you can go flying. This is just a quick post for now. I'll write more about this cool gift as soon as I get back  .....

Update 01:38pm SLT

Looks like there is a new Premium airport! Check out Orville (SLurl) with your new plane. More updates to follow.

Update 03:48pm SLT

My first full flight in The Crate. I left from the Bay City Municipal Airport (SLurl) because no matter which direction I went, I wasn't able to exit the Premium regions to visit Mainland if I left from Orville. I noticed a few issues such as dramatic altitude drops upon region changes and as often as not direction changes, too. There seems to be no way to maintain consistent altitude in any case. Constant vigilance in the cockpit is required as it seems the SL winds will buffet the plane and force X,Y,Z direction changes. Combine that with controls that are far too delicate at the standard (Advanced) setting and the plane is a bit tricky to control. Beginner mode can be set to make this a wee bit easier, even in mid-flight. I'm working on figuring out the throttle, but I was able to determine that when you are taxiing that take off happens at 40% throttle whether you hit the flaps or not. Most notably, there is not food or drink service.

Happy Skies, y'all!!

Happy Yet Sad: A Touch of Ireland

How did I not know about A Touch of Ireland (SLurl) before yesterday when I got the news that it was closing and was having a massive sale? Admittedly it looks familiar and I think I saw one of the Oktoberfest dresses on the SL Marketplace (SLM) when shopping a couple months ago, but I don't think I've been here ere now. Yes, the sale makes me happy yet I'm sad that the shop is going away. Take a look at some pix of the amazing clothes and product shots in the shop.

Tons of holiday costumes, many with special skins or accessories, like these for Día de los Muertos. If there's a national holiday somewhere, I bet you can find a costume for it in this shop.

I bought these devil and angel costumes for only L$50 each, normally L$375 apiece, wings, horns, halo, and skins included. Most items look to have the same markdown. And aren't these pictures stunning? Each product prim is like a work of art. I also bought a Wizard of Oz Scarecrow Girl costume at a huge discount (Web).

I bet pictures like these could be sold as art either in Second Life or on Web sites that feature art.

Squeeeee! I'm so not femme enough to pull this off so I only looked. Despite the gown being just L$50, the matching jewelry pack to the right was L$200 – a fair price or a steal combined.

Of course A Touch of Ireland has Irish clothes! I don't remember if I bought this one or not because I was just clicking and paying, clicking and paying until my L$500-something purse was nearly empty. I bought one item for just L$1!

I hope that AliciaKay Kilara can bring her shop back in-world sometime but until then you should stock up now, ladies, as the shop is going away on the 16th!!. Only a few items will be available on the SLM (Web) at full-price. Guys, too, should stop in as there are many outfits for the gents.