IMAGOLand Galleries: Blip Mumfuzz – Black and White
Currently open within the Suburbs sky gallery space at Mareea Farrasco’s IMAGOLand, is an exhibition of photography by Blip Mumfuzz. Entitled Black and White, it is perhaps a slight departures from Blip’s past exhibitions in that – as the name implies – Blip eschews her usual lean towards a richness of colour palette and explorations of tone and colour within her landscapes and images, as seen with the likes of Exaggerations (reviewed in 2022), or for capturing the mood and tone of entire regions, as seen within Images of Skrunda (also reviewed in 2022) in favour of a dive into the world of black-and-white photography / image processing.
And it is another tour-de-force demonstration of both images capture and processing; the section of images found within the two hangers of the gallery space (and outside on the tarmac!) are simply eye-popping in their depth and content.
IMAGOLand Galleries: Blip Mumfuzz – Black and White
I’ve long admired Blip’s art because of her many abilities and approaches. She has, for an example, an eye for creating images that hover between offering a complete scene whilst simultaneously encouraging the eye to focus down with macro-like intensity onto individual elements – a pot apparently tossed aside here, a towel draped over a bath there, and to on – imbuing the completed image with a layer of prompts which may prompt the imagination to create a story.
For example: who hung the cap on the handle of a garden fork? Was it the gardener taking time out to mop his or her brow, or a youngster who has decided they don’t want the encumbrance of the hat whilst playing? Or is it simply, like the sheets hanging on the line behind it, just set out to dry in the day’s sunlight? And what of the corner of an old building (or barn?) where a door stands open, the darkness inside beckoning? What might we find on stepping through? At the same time her compositional skill can produce images that blur the line between the digital and the physical to the point the eye can be tricked into thinking it is looking at a scene from the latter rather than the former.
IMAGOLand Galleries: Blip Mumfuzz – Black and White
In other words, Blip has an innate ability to draw us into her images, to not so much see them, but experience and explore them; and this is more than evidenced within Black and White. Admittedly, not all of the images presented are necessarily new creations; there was at least one I recognise for certain from Blip’s Images of Skrunda and one I seem to recall from Urban and Industrial Images (2021, and reviewed here), although I’m not 100% certain on the latter.
But the fact that these images may well reply of post-processing to achieve their monochromatic finish doesn’t matter. Black and white photography / processing is in many respects a lot harder than working with colour; it is an unforgiving mistress prone to highlighting errors and imperfections – and this is true when converting colour images to black-and-white; yes, often the software will do the basics for you, but to get the genuine look and tone of a black-and-white image, with its clarity of line, light, shadow and so on, takes time and practice. And as these piece show, Blip has an artist’s skill in bringing this factors to the fore such that the pieces in this collect stand more as monochrome “originals” that anything that started life in the world of colour-.
IMAGOLand Galleries: Blip Mumfuzz – Black and White
In being completely honest, I could have perhaps done without the nose and wing of a 747 being shoved through the the roofs of the hanger galleries – by a quick right-click derender soon eliminated that such that it did not intrude on my enjoyment and appreciation of this collection – and as such, I again strong commend it as being well worth viewing.
On Tuesday, September 17th (SLT), Firestorm released version 7.1.10.75913 of their viewer.
This release is primarily focused on a merge with the Linden Lab Atlasaurus release code base, which combines initial performance bug fixes to help correct some of the issues seen with recent viewer releases with the WebRTC code in preparation for the switch away from using Vivox Voice with Second Life.
In addition to the above, there are some cherry-picked updates from the Lab’s upstream code (DeltaFPS), and also updates from the Firestorm Team.
Note that the following is not a complete review of the 7.1.10 release and all the changes made therein; it focuses on the more visible and user-facing updates. Those requiring a list of all changes and updates to Firestorm 7.1.10 should refer to the Firestorm 7.1.10 release changelog, which also provides all proper credits for the work.
Note: as this review was going to post, Linden Lab promoted the DeltaFPS viewer to de facto release.
General Notes
Installation
Only download Firestorm from the Firestorm website. Do not utilise and other third-party site purporting to offer the Firestorm viewer, and remember Firestorm will never ask for log-in credentials in order to download a release version of their viewer.
There is no need to perform a clean install with this release if you do not wish to.
Do, however, make sure you back-up all your settings safely so you can restore them after installing 7.1.10.
Date of promotion to release status: 26th August, 2024.
WebRTC
WebRTC communications protocol (RTC=”real-time communication”) is the new Voice communications protocol for Second Life, replacing Vivox Voice.
Why Make The Change?
Voice in Second Life has been supplied through an arrangement with Vivox. This has required Linden Lab to utilise a viewer plug-in tool – SLvoice.exe – to manage voice services within the viewer., which in turn has made LL both reliant on Vivox for bug fixes for the plug-in, and subject to changes in support for operating systems imposed by Vivox such as the latter ending native support for Linux some years ago).
WebRTC by contrast is the predominant telephony protocol used by web-based applications, such as Google Meet, and is integrated into most common browsers. It has almost all the features common to Vivox in supplying a voice service – spatial in-world voice; peer-to-peer sessions; Group voice (including moderation) and multi-user Voice conferencing – although the are some limitations (see below).
Benefits and Improvements
WebRTC Offers a range of benefits over Vivox, including, but not limited to:
48khz audio bandwidth providing cleaner sound.
User control over:
Audio noise reduction – high reduction for noisy environments, no reduction for clean audio sources (performers, etc.)
Automatic gain control – less need to individually tune other user’s audio levels.
Audio/video device selection.
Improved: spatialization, audio echo cancellation and audio sampling rates for improved audio quality.
Options for managing WebRTC Voice quality can be found under Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice
Most significantly, WebRTC removes all reliance on a third-party plug-in for the viewer. Instead, it is supplied as a a library and wrapper within the viewer. This means:
Linden Lab has greater ability to address Voice related issues directly, without having to await fixes from a supplier.
Potentially opens the door to adding features and capabilities to SL Voice in the future, including some which have been long-requested.
Limitations
WebRTC does not support the existing Voice Morphing capability in Second Life.
This is because voice morphs are tied to the Vivox service, and cannot be utilised with WebRTC.
Those who do use the current Voice Morphing capability are directed to this SL Wiki article on Voice Morphing, which provides a list of solutions which can be used with WebRTC.
Conferences and group voice calls are limited to 50 participants.
Security
The Second Life implementation of WebRTC addresses security issues such as potential eavesdropping, exposing users’ IP addresses, etc., by routing communication through proxy servers managed directly by LL .
Deployment to RC channel should commence on Wednesday, October 2nd, when the code will be deployed to the BlueSteel RC channel.
During this deployment period both WebRTC Voice and Vivox Voice will be supported.
LL will turn off the Vivox support on the simulators some time after WebRTC has been fully deployed and there is sufficient support for the service across all viewers.
LL’s new object Take options, as displayed through the Firestorm right-click context menu
When picking-up in-world objects you can now chose to:
Take As Combined Item: return all the selected objects to inventory as a single, coalesced object.
Take Copy As Combined Item: return copies all the selected objects to inventory as a single, coalesced object, leaving the originals in-world as individual objects.
Take As Separate Items: return all the selected objects to inventory, but list them as individual items, not as coalesced.
Take Copies As Separate Items: return copies all the selected objects to inventory, but list them as individual items, not as coalesced, leaving the originals in-world.
Note that for Firestorm 7.1.10, these options are ONLY available as a sub-menu set in the right-click context menu; they have not as yet been added to the Pie menu (see: FIRE-34438).
Avatar Rendering Updates
Linden Lab added new options to enable the prioritisation of rendering avatars using the following criteria:
Limit by complexity – any avatar with a complexity greater then your Avatar Maximum Complexity” setting will be rendered as a Jellydoll.
Always show friends – your friends will never be rendered as Jellydolls, no matter what their complexity
Only show friends – all avatars except your friends will be rendered as Jellydolls.
Within Firestorm, these options can be found as follows:
In the top menu → World → Avatar Display.
In the Performance Floater → Avatars Nearby.
Linden Lab’s avatar rendering options, as located within Firestorm 7.1.10
Notes:
In addition to these updates, Firestorm 7.1.10 retains the Firestorm option World → Show Friends Only. When enabled, the viewer will only renders your friends.
The now redundant Always Display Friends In Full Detail checkbox has been removed from the Performance Floater → Avatars Nearby.
Avatar-Related Improvements
Avatar height now correctly displays in edit appearance window (see: FIRE-34192).
Worn clothing layers now all correctly report as such in inventory (see: FIRE-34343).
Fix for integer underflow causing issues with wearables.
Fix for avatar attachments & surroundings not rezzing after teleport when teleport screens are disabled (see: FIRE-33981).
Setting for AvatarRotateThresholdSlow and AvatarRotateThresholdFast added back into Firestorm following their removal as part of a viewer code clean-up by LL (see: FIRE-34196 and LL Bug #1963).
General Updates / Improvements
Add Images to Inventory Items in Bulk: select up to 50 inventory items → Right click selection → Image.
Option to control the amount of lights: Preferences → Graphics → General → Max Nearby Lights slider.
Control nearby lighting through the nearby lighting slider
GLTF model preview: use a prim to preview the appearance of a glTF scene / model:
Edit the prim. then Top menu bar → Developer → GLTF → Open.
To enable the Developer menu, either go to Advanced → Show Developer Menu or press Ctrl-Alt-Q or go to Preferences → Advanced → check Show Developer Menu
Note that this feature is still in the early stages of development and that glTF models will only appear locally in your own viewer, they will not be rendered for others to see in their viewers.
Better MOAP URL handling in order for users to not only be able to CTRL-C or Cmd-C copy but also to see decoded URL payloads for easy inspection. In the nearby media list, you can also right click a media/data link and Copy URL/Copy Data.
Performance Improvements Summary
Mirrors disabled by default for all graphics quality levels to improve performance.
You can choose to enable mirrors manually in Preferences → Graphics → General → Mirrors.
Improved general performance with PBR – Issue 1769.
Fixed performance regression since Graphics Featurettes viewer – Issue 1831.
Fixed viewer failing to detect more than 4Gb of video memory on Windows – Issue 1583.
Improved PBR viewer performance on Apple Silicon – Issue 1527.
Fixed setting a map beacon causing extreme lag on Mac – Issue 999.
Fixed severe stall and stutter in PBR viewers on Mac when editing objects – Issue 1203.
For the full list of fixes and improvements from Atlasaurus, please refer to the Atlasaurus release notes, linked to above.
Upstream Fixes from LL
Added error handling for intel crashes from the GLTF Scene shader – this fixes the login crashes on systems with older Intel HD graphics (see Issue 1856).
Fixed visual corruption caused by divide by zero in lighting functions – this fixes black & white areas in certain locations (see Issue 1852).
Fixed the voice call button being greyed out when you logged in to a voice disabled parcel (see this Canny bug).
Significant Firestorm Updates
Camera Roll
Ever wanted to physically roll the camera with ease when taking pictures? With Firestorm 7.1.10 you can, using an update based on an Alchemy viewer feature. Both the large and the small camera control floaters have new camera roll buttons (see image below):
The new camera roll buttons and the button for re-centring the view
The left button will roll the camera view clockwise on your screen through 360º.
The right button will roll the camera view counter-clockwise on your screen through 360º.
Clicking the button at the centre of the rotation controls will revert the viewer to “normal”.
General Improvements
Check folder limit safeguard:
If you select the Wear Items option in the Inventory folder context menu, and the total number of items in the folder(s) exceeds the maximum limit for wearable items / attachments, a warning pop-up is displayed.
This prevents multiple items withing a folder (and sub-folders) being worn / removed / worn in excess of the limit when the Wear Items option is clicked.
A new safeguard warning is displayed when clicking on the Warn Items Inventory menu option for a folder containing items that exceed the maximum number of wearable items / attachments
Raised the 512×512 limitation for uploading snapshots to inventory to 2048×2048.
Multiple bug fixes for memory issues, RAM detection, texture management, UI bugs, stability and improvement fixes, crash fixes and more – please refer to the Firestorm 7.1.10 changelog for specifics.
OpenSim Updates
Fix for inventory fetching issues on OpenSim (seeFIRE-34403).
Fix for occasional crashes on large inventories or slow grid asset servers (see FIRE-34403).
Previously, an assertion failure would occur if mComplete.size() was zero. This has been downgraded to a warning message and early return, improving stability especially for large inventories or slow grid asset servers.
This entire code path is only accessed by OpenSim pending their implementation of AISV3, when it will be removed.
Feedback
As with the PBR release, I have no feedback to offer with this release, as I’ve not had time time to bounce around with it to any great degree.
Note that the performance improvements from the Lab’s Atlasaurus viewer constitute a first round of fixes; more will be coming with the upcoming DeltaFPS viewer (promoted to release status, Tuesday, September 17th) and the ExtraFPS viewer (still to be issued by LL at the time of writing).
The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, September 17th, 2024 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript, and were taken from my chat log. Pantera’s video is embedded at the end – my thanks to her for providing it.
Meeting Overview
The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.
Simulator Deployments
On Tuesday, September 17th, the SLS Main channel was restarted without any deployment.
On Wednesday, September 18th:
A new version of the Picnic simulator release (which includes the WebRTC support) called Doubtfire should be deployed to the BlueSteel RC channel.
Ferrari and the remaining RC channels will be restarted without update.
SL Viewer Updates
The DeltaFPS RC, version 7.1.10.10708851543, dated September 11th, was promoted to de facto release status on September 19th. This includes:
Performance boosts. Memory management has been optimized and users will experience a higher FPS across various systems. A comprehensive range of bug fixes are also provided. This includes better PBR material handling and resolving frequent crashes. See the release notes for more.
UI for scheduling region restarts now available via a new button located in the Region/Estate floater. (Note: there is currently an issue with scheduled region restarts working correctly and a fix is due to come in the next server release).
Release channel cohorts:
None at the time of writing.
Region Crossings Update
We have some attachment fixes available for testing on the Beta grid. Channel is ‘ghi-1419’.Some Blake Sea regions are running on it: Binnacle, Flotsam, Half Hitch, Hawser, Jones Locker, Lanyard, Swab.
– Monty Linden
Note that these fixes are entirely separate to the general tweaks Monty has been making to improve simulator performance on avatars entering / leaving a region, which are due to be deployed to the main grid soon.
In Brief
Please refer to the video below for the following:
2K BoM texture bakes on mesh now available for testing on Aditi (the Beta grid). See my 2K BoM blog post for more.
A further discussion on attachment losses / attachments getting stuck following teleports. In the case of the latter, Monty suggested a potential workaround:
As for the stuck attachment, there may be a workaround: 1) once stuck, TP to another region (not adjacent), 2) wait one minute, 3) TP back. You may find your attachments in the correct state. But they will get stuck again on re-attachment.
Rezzing delays affect all scripts in an object is currently being tracked, and Rider Linden indicated he hopes to get to grips with it and have it available for the Barbecue simulator update package. Barbecue (or BBQ, as the notation seems to change between meetings) will be the simulator update to follow-on from the WebRTC deployments currently in progress via Picnic and Doubtfire. This issue sparked a discussion commencing roughly half-way through the meeting.
Note that the next SUG meeting (Tuesday, September 24th) will be a party to mark the autumnal equinox.
† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024 – click any image for full size
I recently had the chance to visit Evermore the Folklore, a full private region leveraging the Land Capacity bonus, held by Persephone Smythe (LeriaDraven) and landscaped by her and Elfie (WeeWangle Wumpkins). It’s a curiously delightful setting, mixing together a range of elements to offer a blending of the natural, the whimsical, the mystical and the fantastical, with just a hint of things that sit well with the approach of Halloween
Welcome to a dream inspired by the world of Evermore and Folklore. Take my hand, wreck your plans, and let’s go to the lakes were the poets went to die. We are so enchanted to meet you and hope you enjoy your time in this era!
From Evermore the Folkore
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
To be honest, I have absolutely no idea if the reference to Evermore and Folkore concern to Taylor Swift albums or something else – so please forgive my ignorance on that; but to be honest, the meaning of the references barely matters when it comes to exploring and appreciating the region – it genuinely speaks for itself.
Visits begin to the north-west side of the region, on the platform of a little train station that once served a (very modest) little hamlet – it’s little more than a couple of little cottages overlooked by the local lighthouse up on a bluff. Small it might by, but the hamlet has it own industrious-looking wharf and boat repairs warehouse / fishing centre.
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
The north coast is fairly rugged for the first part of its run, albeit with a couple of sandy points. However, once past the lighthouse it drops down to a sandy stretch of beach backed by gently sloping grasslands occupied by a small farm. But as gentle as the beach might appear, the wreck of a trawler and the remnants of what might have once have been a set of piers and moorings suggest the sea here can be a little unkind to the unwary.
From the little hamlet it is possible to follow the winding railroad tracks as they pass through a tunnel and appear to set out across the countryside – only to come to a abrupt end, indicating that whilst there might well have once be a little service between the hamlet and its fishing wharf and somewhere else, those days are long gone. No matter, because the tracks point the way to both the lighthouse atop its headland bluff and to the farm – the route to the latter being via a covered bridge passing between headland and rocky hills. The bridge is old, but clearly safe – as testified by the highland cattle meandering across it!
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
The tunnel use be the train burrows under a small hill which also has a footpath climbing over its back to lead the way inland. It is here that things start to get more mystical and fantastical. Crossed by rutted tracks, the land is a mix of low-lying grasslands, rugged hills and headlands, a broad body of water served by the sea to the east, where it gains access to the land between two high thrusts of rock; and a gorgeous waterfall-carved horseshoe of rock into which the water of the falls drops. Up on the rocky cliffs above, meanwhile, stone fairies dance, an almost Ent-like Autumn Guardian weeps silent tears into his cupped arms and an ivy shrouded piano awaits someone to sit so it might be played for the spirit of the lake as she stands over the waters below.
And that’s just the start of the region’s mysterious and captivating elements. Ruins high and low await discovery, each with their own attraction; gazebos offer places to sit on land and over water; grassy paths run under the bough of tall trees, mixing with sands and giant mushrooms, whilst coves hidden between the rocks await discovery.
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
But of all the elements awaiting exploration, the great castle is perhaps the most obvious and demanding. Straddling the rocky uplands where the sea enters the region, its tall towers and high windows command views right across the landscape, whilst inside it offers an intriguing welcome. But beware – here, quite literally, there be a dragon!
With mist wrapped around its legs and bat circling its towers, the castle is an imposing sight, standing tall over the little farm and over the damaged remains of a lone tower topped by a statue of the Lady of the Lake as she holds aloft Excalibur (presumably), and lighting arcs all about.
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
Statues abound throughout the setting, from the village to the hills and towers, adding to the beauty and mystery of the region. Several (understandably) are to be found within the graveyard sitting down below the flanks of the castle’s hill. Whether this be the burial ground of those who have occupied the high towers, I’ll leave you to decide; it is, however, the place with that little twist of Halloween to be found.
Throughout all of this there are multiple places to sit and pass the time, whilst local fauna and creatures add their presence to the mix, bringing more of a sense of life and beauty throughout, and in some cases as sense of mystery (just where has the puppy’s owner gone, leaving behind the little fellow, their bags and books – and a bag of fresh groceries?
Evermore the Folklore, September 2024
All of the setting appears open to exploration, although there is one gated A-frame cabin on the region’s west side; while it is not specifically marked as private, the sign outside – which might well be meant in harmless fun – suggest folk don’t rick crossing the gate. As such I took this as a gentle hint to keep out, and didn’t wander further so as not to invade privacy, if so.
Rounded out with a well considered soundscape and with more to discover than I’ve mentioned here, Evermore the folklore is well worth visiting.
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, September 15th, 2024
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: version 7.1.9.10515727195, formerly the Altasaurus RC, promoted August 26.
Performance boosts. Memory management has been optimized and users will experience a higher FPS across various systems. A comprehensive range of bug fixes are also provided. This includes better PBR material handling and resolving frequent crashes. See the release notes for more.
UI for scheduling region restarts now available via a new button located in the Region/Estate floater. (Note: there is currently an issue with scheduled region restarts working correctly and a fix is due to come in the next server release).
Isla Myvatn, my Second Norway home, now completely converted to represent the remnants of a former fortification, and now forming a series of semi-wild courtyard gardens, with the exception of the pool house and boat moorings (bottom of picture) and the little cliff-edge summer house. The ruins are elevated above the pool house so it does not interfere with their sense of age.
Two of the things I love doing in Second Life are landscaping and building / kitbashing; I have in the past droned on about the commercially available houses I’ve purchased and then adapted for personal use (as well as some of my personal prim-based builds modelled after real and film structures). The former have been written in the hope of encouraging others to give kitbashing ago (with a couple of additional articles being written to help with this; however, regulars have probably noticed that over the last year-ish, I’ve not said much on the home front.
Well, buckle-up (or run away!), because here I go again 😀 .
As it used to be: A copy of Marcthur Goosson’s NO Cottage Bizar converted into a comfortable house opening onto the main courtyard of the original “castle ruins” which utilised some of Marcthur’s Ruined Wall kits
The major reason for not writing is because in Marcthur Goosson’s NO Cottage Bizar, I found what – for me – has been the perfect design from which to create an ideal home. I did provide a articles about a couple of my projects to adapt it for use as both a house and also to contain a swimming pool; but since those first went out, I’ve continued to refine and improve upon ideas, creating What I like to think of as a cosy home – I’ve just not wanted to bore people by banging on about all the updates and changes!
Some of this work has included a move to a larger island within Second Norway, which has allowed me to play with ideas for extended gardens and yet more ruins, making further use of Marcthur’s ruined Wall kits (all five of which can be purchased as a single full perm pack as well as individual Copy / Mod items – see his Marketplace store for more). Whilst this hasn’t been written about, some of the on-going work has appeared in my Primfeed gallery.
With the removal of one set of internal walls and a re-panelling of others (and using the structure’s tower stairs to reach the upper floor rather than the metal stairways), the NO Cottage Bizar lends itself to providing a large living room area with the remaining lower floor room making an excellent kitchen + dining space.
With the latter, I’ll freely admit to being inspired to play around with designs using Marcthur’s kits thanks to Lilly Blackwood and her SL and RL partner William Winchester, who have used seveal of the wall kits to great effect within their Winchester Harbor region design which I visited in August 2024, and their work did more than a little to prompt me to look at my own use a little more creatively – so thank you, Lily and William for the inspiration!
The thing I like about the NO Cottage is the fact it so easily lends itself to so much in the way of kitbashing: internal walls and stairways can easily be removed to open-out interior spaces; new internal walls can be linked into the design; the external courtyard is easily converted into an additional room, if required – it is just and absolute joy to work with and tweak. However, throughout all the recent work, an itch I’ve suffered on-and-off for a fair number of years now decided to make itself felt again.
I re-worked the swimming pool in the pool house version of the NO Copy Bizar Cottage earlier in the year, and more recently added a mirror to the far wall, together with a stairway to reach the upper gardens and summer house.
As a Premium account holder, I’ve often availed myself of the Linden Homes perk provided to such account by LL. I’ve both reviewed themes as they’ve been released and I’ve shared ideas on how to customise them to offer more unique and personal interiors (notably with the Houseboat theme, which has long been my favourite). However, I’ve never really lived in any of the modern Linden Homes for any real length of time; rather, I’ve simply furnished them and then used them as a bolt-hole into which I could dive in order to avoid the Ravenous Restart Beast of Agni. Yet I’ve often wondered how I might somehow more comfortably link island home and Linden Home in a way that lets me make more use of both.
Although it took a while to register (because I’m not exactly the fastest train on the tracks), the answer has been staring me in a face for about as long as I’ve been going through my on / off phases in thinking about the issue. In short: why not simply extend the local experience I have on the home island for various purposes (such as maintaining privacy from folk randomly teleporting in), and use it to include the Linden Home in a manner that makes passing between the two feel as natural as possible?
One of the summer houses on the island – this one is used with the re-vamped “castle ruins” and utilises one section of Cory Edo’s Yara Treehouse. Cory is another go-to building designer for me, because many of her designs are extremely flexible in terms of modding or kitbashing them
One of the key benefits in finding a means of linking the Linden Home with the island home as seamlessly as possible meant I could potentially remove the (much loved) No Cottage Bizar conversion and extend the ruins and gardens to present a place of quiet retreat, with my Linden Home becoming the “house” for this setting. Admittedly, this did mean moving out of my Linden Houseboat (as it just didn’t sit well with the rst of my ideas), but this was offset by that fact that the Linden Home theme best suited to matching the rest of my design ideas was that of the Log Homes – and these happen to be a style I’ve always liked but never actually held; this therefore seemed to be the perfect opportunity to try them on for size.
So, for the last couple of weeks, and using the aforementioned kits from Marcthur, plus plants and landscaping kits from some of my preferred creators – such as Cube Republic, Alex Bader, Sasaya Kayo, and Krystali Rabeni – I’ve been once more re-doing the grounds of the island home to extend the ruins and gardens to occupy the space previously taken by the NO Cottage house; I left the pool house and boat moorings in place because I still want to make use of the waters in Second Norway (and beyond) for sailing / boating / flying, and because – well, where else am I going to “own” property with a large private swimming that come maintenance free?
One of the “garden courtyards” that replaced the NO Cottage Bizar house. Maybe at one time it was a hall or something. Now it is occupied by some of the statues from CioTToLiNa Xue and ArtemisGreece I’ve collected or have been gifted over the years
Not that the House has gone forever; I’m a great believer in rezzing systems, keeping a number available in my inventory toolbox. One of these, Seedro Lowey’s Magic Rezzer, is ideal for swapping between scenes quickly (well, once you’re sorted through want is to go where and as a part of which scene!). This has allowed me to take the No Cottage house and its immediate surroundings – lawns, summer house, plants, trees – and create a scene, and then do the same with ne expanded ruins and their flora and immediate surroundings. Thus, with a click on the rezzer and then on the dialogue box, I can happily switch between the two, and without affecting the rest of the build.
In doing so, I’ve also been able to maintain additional individually between the two settings through the simply use of different summer houses, etc. For these I turned to Cory Edo, one of my go-to building designers, because her structures are generally very kitbashable / moddable. In particular, her Moosehead Lake Log Cabin formed the basis for a summer house to go with the No Cottage house layout, whilst one of the two structures from her Yara Treehouse became the basis for a small “hideaway” outside of the ruins, complete with a little “balcony” from where passing boats can be observed.
One of the garden paths winding around the island to connect the ruins
As to the “integration” of the Linden Home, that was simply a case of installing a doorway in one of the archways within the ruins. Behind it, I placed a TP-on-collision-scripted prim using the local Experience to direct Group members to the Linden Home location. A photo of my Log Home taken at the appropriate angle and in the right ratio means that when the door is opened, it seems to give you a view through the arch to the Linden Home on the “other side” of the wall; then when you “step through” the arch, you arrive in the Linden Home parcel on the “other side” of the doorway.
Using an identical door set into an identical wall on the Linden Home parcel does the same in reverse – the door opens to reveal the island gardens beyond, and “stepping through” the archway teleport you to them. This is not a particularly new trick with portals, but it has achieved what I want, and to further assist in the sensation that both island and Linden Home are connected, I’ve used the same EEP 24-hour Day Cycle in both (obviously set to UK time!), thus maintaining the same overall ambience between the two.
The teleport portal leading to my Linden Home, allowing me to “connect” it with the island, making them sort-of extensions to one another
All that’s needed now is for me to add a further script to the TP prims so that the images they show switch between daylight and night-time to (roughly) match the EEP settings, and I’ll be done 🙂 . However, that’s an “if / maybe” project for another day!
Whether or not this approach to help “conjoin” or “integrate” a Linden Home was other property you may hold is of any use to you is obviously up to you; all I can say is, it keeps my little mind happy 🙂 . If it does appeal, and it’s something you hadn’t considered / would like to try – feel free to run with it; as noted, the basic idea isn’t in any way original to me and has been used in various forms for years – so just take it and run with it as you please!
And with that, I’ll shut up and leave you in peace!
My Linden Log home showing the door of the portal to the island off to the left of the house, within the old walls (it’s closed in the picture because I felt it looked odd seeing it open to show the gardens of the home island through it, whilst over the wall above it, my neighbour’s house is clearly visible!) Each end of the teleport is oriented so people arrive as if they’ve simply opened either door and walked through
On Tuesday, September 17th (SLT), Firestorm released version 7.1.10.75913 of their viewer.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 