In-world, I tend to build my own homes (and bore people reading this blog with the details…!). But ever since I came across it while looking at the slow spread of mesh, I’ve been fascinated with a mesh house designed by Novocaine Islay (who has in fact supplied one of my past houses). As I didn’t splurge over Xmas in-world, I decided to treat myself and give the house – called Jewell – a closer look.
Packaging
Like all of Novocaine’s houses, the unit comes in a neat “cardboard box” of “house bricks” you unpack to inventory to reveal a rez-faux unit, and various other goodies (in this case a radio, the “helper” and the expected notecards).
The rez-faux containing the house elements and furniture is perhaps the biggest I’ve seen, standing about 6m tall from base to highest point! One possible reason for the size of the rezzer is to make it easier to select for repositioning purposes once the house is rezzed.
The House
The house has a footprint some 30×15 metres, making it ideal for smaller parcels / skyboxes. Unlike some of Novocaine’s builds, there are no extensive grounds – although there is a front patio, complete with potted sculpted plants and modest pool.
The exterior textures are a little flat in terms of colour, but beautifully detailed nonetheless, with baked shadowing that adds to the feel and look of the place.
Inside you get two rooms – a lounge downstairs and bedroom upstairs (with a bath area at the back), linked by a spiral staircase. One is able to move around freely inside and get up and down the stairs without issues. The doors (one to the house itself, the other to the upstairs balcony) are individual prims, as are the stairs & helper.
The house comes fully furnished – all of it removable, so if you prefer to use your own, you can. The furniture comprises a sofa with multiple seats and an MLP cuddle selection, a chair, fireplace, cushion, rugs, vases and plants in the lounge; upstairs is a double bed with pose system, rugs, a bath, modesty screen and plants.
The total Land Impact for the house is 91. Remove the furniture and plants and this falls to 52, of which the main structure of the house (walls, floors, roof, patio, windows (tintable), and balcony) is mesh at 29 (remove the rezzing script and this drops to 14), the rest is the lighting, doors, stairs, pool water (with MLP) and window frames. Even at a Land Impact of 91, the house is hardly breaking the bank, and tends to stand as proof that mesh can be used to provide “low prim” builds.
Overall, Jewell is a nice, clean design, and with a price tag of L$350, represents very good value for money, and is in keeping with Novocaine’s overall price range. Certainly, and taking into consideration all the options and extras, it stands as a practical demonstration as to what can be achieved using a combination of mesh and prims without a massively heavy LI.
That said, I’m not sure I’ll be using my new mesh house right away – not because I have any issues with it, but simply because I’m still enjoying my time living in a rock. But I have to admit, the temptation is there to give it a go…
The Jewell house is available from Inside, by Novocaine Islay both in-world and via the Marketplace.
Specfications
- 30×15 footprint
- Land Impact 91, fully furnshed
- House elements Land Impact 52
- Permissions: Copy / Mod
- Price (at time of going to press): L$350
Note: with the exception of the balcony shot, all photos of the Jewell house were taken with deferred rendering and shadows disabled to help show the texture baking and effects.
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