Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld
Second Life, virtual worlds and virtual realities
Draxtor Despres tapped me about a fun little video he put together for Mayah Parx’s Ravenshard build at Fantasy Faire 2013. It’s just 50 seconds long – so enjoy!
I’ll be visiting Ravenshard later in the week in my Faire travels.
With thanks to Draxtor Despres.
The elves of Yuale Nura would not allow me to travel onwards alone. “Your way must take you through the Valley of Ish’Nar, filled with wonders great and also dreadful, and where the heart can be drawn to seek the Key of Hope,” they told me. “And while that is a great and noble quest, perhaps it is one for your return, when our kinsmen of Caras Calar will bring you back to us, and we well all seek the key together…”
And so, with heavy heart, I departed the tree tops of Evensong Woods; but I did not travel alone, for a small company of elves travelled with me, longing to hear the sound of water against rock and see their brethren on the high walkways of Caras Calar.
At first our journey took us deeper into the great forest, the path winding between great trunks which gradually thinned as the road began to climb. As the days passed, so the deeps of the woodland fell ever further behind us, and my companions began to sing less. High peaks rose before us, their tops held by sunlight when all below was deep in the day’s end twilight. Eventually, we came to a great gorge, as if riven into the high peaks by a great axe: the Valley of Ish’Nar, guarded by the tall, silent figures carved into the living rock, great swords held at rest before them.
Here our mood became sombre as we travelled through the valley, passing among those who had come in search of the Key of Hope – and what I had been told was true; my heart yearned to join them. But I knew my quest lay in another direction for now. And so we followed the stone road, passing ancient ruins and lonely buildings of which my companions would say little, until we reached a great falls, and before it, a stone-built bridge, with one arch collapsed into the waters below.
“That is the way we must pass. Beyond the bridge lay the stairs and the road to Caras Calar. But beware! the water is swift and cold; tread with care as we have no wish to fish you from the waters a dozen leagues from here!”
So we crossed the bridge and threw down ropes which we used to descend to the waters below, crossing with care yet with haste; yet another day was drawing to a close and my companions were eager to show me the wonders of Titan’s Hollow as the sun set. Beyond the waters of the falls, after a steep climb, we rejoined the path and climbed broad stairs which soon became a carven path, cut into the rocks of the valley. And so it was, as the sun descended before us, another valley opened before us, this one deep and wide, surrounded by tall cliffs and filled with clear waters and over which, suspended like a hundred gleaming lanterns, lay the cliff city of Calas Calar.
Those who have not visited the city can scarce understand the magnificence of its beauty or the wonders of its design; crystal-walled houses, framed in gold, glass-like walkways and crystal stairways, all suspended on great golden chains cast across the clear waters of the valley from the high cliffs, and everywhere flowers and plants the likes of which the world has not otherwise seen!
Swiftly, we descended the path to join the broad stairs leading up to the great city and, spied from above, we were quickly joined by the fair folk of those high houses, eager to greet their cousins and brethren from the deep woods. I was welcomed as well, and many a wish for may stay to be long and refreshing were given; and looking up at the great houses and passing the tall flowers, inhaling their rich and delightful scent, I knew that my journey would again face a pause.
Region designs: Valley of Ish’Nar by Rynn Verwood and Titan’s Hollow by: Elicio Ember
Titan’s Hollow sponsored by: Cerridwen’s Cauldron; featuring: FATEwear; Dragon Magick Wares; L’Uomo; Spyralle; Mermaid Treasure & Boutique; FANTAVATAR & MOONSTRUCK; and with themed stores: Dreamscaped Designs; Sterling Artistry; [][]Trap[][]; [Gauze]; [ni.Ju]; Arx Loricatus; AZE Jewelry; Bliensen + MaiTai; Southpaw; yo bailo.
Update
April 29th: Don’t forget my additional piece on the new cloud options in Firestorm 4.4.0.
Firestorm 4.4.0.33720 made its formal debut on Monday 22nd April, although it has been well and truly put through its paces by both the Firestorm beta testers and the preview group for some time now, in order to ensure it is as ready for mainstream release as possible. It includes a huge number of updates and revisions, both from the Firestorm team and their contributors and from Linden Lab.
Given the size of the release, this is not intended to be a review of absolutely everything within Firestorm 4.4.0 – please refer to the release change log for that. Instead, this review focuses on what I regard as the key updates / changes. As always, credits for the various updates and contributions to Firestorm which re mentioned here can be found in the release change log – again, please check them there.
Note that this item is Second Life-specific.
This isn’t actually a visible change to the viewer in term of UI, etc., – but it is an important one.
Server-side Baking / Appearance is a major change within Second Life which is primarily aimed at reducing or eliminating issues of “bake fail” (when the avatar skin & clothing layers fail to render correctly and with remain blurred or show the avatar wearing the “wrong” outfit). This capability is being introduced in two parts: viewer-side support and server-side support.
Viewers which do not have the viewer-side support will not work with the Server-side Baking / Appearance service once it starts being deployed on the grid – people using them will increasingly see grey avatars around them. Therefore, it is essential that Firestorm users update to Firestorm 4.4.0.
For further information on Server-side Baking / Appearance, see the following blog posts:
This release sees a large number of Preferences updates, all of which are reported in the change log, and which include:
A popular feature with Firestorm is the Quick Preference floater which, as the name suggests, provides fast and easy access to some of the most frequently used options in the viewer without having to open the “full” Preferences floater.
With release 4.4.0, the Quick Preferences floater has been made somewhat customisable – essentially allowing almost anything which is a debug setting to be added to the floater. However – be warned that this capability is considered to be for advanced users, and does require a willingness to delve deeper into the viewer than some users may be used to. Further, not every debug setting can be added to the floater.
For those wishing to find out more, Firestorm have produced a tutorial video on using the Customise Quick Preferences option, and a Firestorm wiki page.
Often, when installing a new version of a viewer, the recommendation is that one performs a “clean install” – removing all cached and settings files. This can make any viewer installation labour-intensive, as settings all need to be restored after the installation is complete, and this can take time and effort.
Firestorm 4.4.0 attempts to ease some of the pain by presenting users with a Preferences option which allows them to back-up many of their global and account settings to a local hard drive. Once done, the back-up can then be restored to an updated version of Firestorm following installation; so providing the back-up is kept up-to-date, restoring the majority of preferred settings is no longer a chore.
The back-up option can be found in Preferences > Backup. To use it, simply select a folder on a local hard-drive as the back-up location, then select those options which are to be saved; you can then delete all files associated with Firestorm prior to performing a clean install.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 