Category: My Bits

Getting cheeky with a Stilt Home design

Posted on by Inara Pey
My reproduction of the linden Tortuga house at Isla Caitinara

It is pretty well known to readers of this blog that I particularly like a couple of things: kitbashing house designs for personal use, and mucking about with ideas for use with the Linden Home designs I’ve used. In particular, this has led to frequent changes of house style on our home island, and a recent piece on how the Linden Home Tortuga style of Stilt Home lends itself to a far amount of modding (see Modding a Linden Stilt Home).

All of which recently led me to a cheeky idea: could I recreate the LDPW’s Tortuga design in we could on our Second Norway home island. And the answer is pretty much, yes, helped in no small part by the Moles themselves.

My “Tortuga-inspired” house at Isla Caitinara and the original (inset)

In order to recreate a Tortuga style house I had to initially construct a template marking out the overall floor size of the house, the window & door positions, and to set a height for the ceiling. Once this was done, it was a simple matter of cutting the prims and gluing them together (I’m not a Blender user, so a mesh build is currently beyond me).

An advantage of building a personal variant of the Tortuga is that it allowed me to make some additional changes. Those who read my piece on modding the original Tortuga will remember I split the larger of the two through rooms to create a smaller living area with a vestibule to the front of the house.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Building my own variant meant I could include this directly into it. Texturing was made a lot easier thanks to the texture packs Linden Lab supply with Linden Homes, with a selection of textures from this pack, plus a couple of my own, and I had things pretty much set.

In addition, I could adjust the layout to suit my needs – such as by reducing the archway of the large through room, when using the smaller half as a bedroom – again, the use of a handy rezzing system means I can switch elements of the layout with ease to suit moods.

My take on the Tortuga from the garden

There are a few things working in prims didn’t allow me to reproduce – the detailing of the roof sidings, the curved coving in the rooms, etc., but overall I’m pleased with the outcome.  At 137 LI (utilising Convex Hull physics), it is lighter on the land than the original (221) – although admittedly, I’ve yet to add some of the materials featured on the original.

Of course, all this is a bit of a cheek – given the original design does belong to the LDPW (my apologies in particular to Magic Mole, who appears to be responsible for the Tortuga design). In my defence, I can only sat that it’s a design I like, and the version I’ve created is purely for personal use. Certainly, with a couple of minor tweaks to Isla Caitinara, and the house fitted in quite well, even if I do say so myself – and I hope the pictures here demonstrate.

So, that’s the latest house to come to Isla Caitinara; a little different to my usual, but one that could be sticking around for a while – although I have said that before.

 

Modding a Linden Stilt Home

Posted on by Inara Pey
My Linden Stilt Home on an evening …

One of the things I like doing in SL is messing around with houses and homes, kitbashing and modding – as I’ve often yabbered on about in these pages. This fiddling has also included those Linden Homes I’ve utilised, again as I’ve tended to record here as well, as a part of my general coverage of Linden Homes in general.

I currently have an over-the-water Stilt Home, to which I applied a modest amount of modding to produce something a little more individual. However, the release of the Chalet style of Linden Home with its open-plan variants of each house style got me thinking about doing something more extensive by way of mods,  notably with the Tortuga style of Stilt Home, the single-floor, largely open-plan layout of which just cries out to be played with.

So, over the past couple of days I’ve been fiddling around with ideas and looking at what might be done with the design.

Now of course, given the time the Stilt Homes have been out and available, there are likely a lot of conversion / add-on / bolt-on kits for this Theme that can be had through the Marketplace – just as there are for the Houseboats, et al – and these can provide the easiest solution. But fiddling for yourself can result in something far more personal, particularly if, like me, you having a rezzing system such as Ydille’s Multi Scene Rezzer & Multi Scene Erazer Pro V5 (reviewed here) in which to store your layouts so you can swap back and forth between them whenever you wish.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Tortuga Stilt Home is a single-floor design, with a large primary room and single separate room to the front. That large room, split somewhat by a rectangular arch is simply ideal for modding. In fact, that’s where I started: putting in a “proper” dividing wall and door within the existing arch.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

However, rather than put in a solid wall, which would look odd given the wooden trim around the archway, I opted to put in two wood-framed windows and matching sliding door. To achieve this, I used the 2 x 6  windowsfrom the ER Sunroom Windows Mesh Multipane kit by Ecko Riven (EckoRiven). At L$200 full permissions, this is an excellent and flexible builder’s kit that I’ve used in a number of my own conversions and scratch-builds. These I rotated through 90° to stand them vertically, with a third offset to form the central sliding door for which I wrote a simple script – if you’re not up to doing so yourself, take a look on the Marketplace, there’s bound to be a script there that will work for you.

With the “window” sections linked, a simple room divider of this nature weighs-in at just 3LI. And as a side note, given the additional doors provided by LL for use with the Stilt Homes come in at 3 LI apiece, I opted to duplicate my “sliding door” and use it for the single additional room in the Tortuga, changing the “glass” texture on it for something more “frosted” as I use that room as a bathroom. So, for 1 LI more than a supplied Stilt Home door, I gained a room divider and two doors.

As I said, a simple solution, splitting the Tortuga along obvious lines to provide a large “main” room space and a “bedroom” space. But for me it was just the start – the “main” room still felt a little too big, so I opted to split that as well.

Again, this was most easily done by following the shape of the house. With it’s “stepped” design around the front door, it’s easy to put in additional walls to create a “vestibule” area between the front door and the rest of the house. So as not to have this feel too claustrophobic, I extended 2 solid walls part-way across the space, then created a rectangular archway in the same style of the one built-in to the house. This allowed me to again add elements from the ER Sunroom Windows kit to keep things feeling somewhat open between “vestibule” and main room, particularly as I didn’t add a door.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With the divider mentioned above linked to the new wall sections, I’d taken what was effectively a 2-room house and split it into a 4-room space.

From here it was just a matter of adding wall décor and other bits to the basic layout to give a more homely feel. Things like rugs, pictures on the wall, light fittings, and so on – even the fireplace – were all  carefully linked into the overall design, helping to reduce the overall LI (see the notes at the end of Modding a house in Second Life: tips and pointers for info on what to look for when linking items like this if you’re unfamiliar with the technique, and what to avoid).

With an exterior chimney added to the exterior and in line with the fireplace, I had a complete interior for the house at 42 LI, sans actual furniture and kitchen fittings, but including a lighting system that follows the parcel’s EEP Day Cycle. The completed space offers a vestibule (which I used as a “home office”), a large open-plane lounge / kitchen / dining space in the main room, and a good-sized bedroom space.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Nor is this the only option.

For example, if you’d like to keep more of the open plan feel to the house and don’t mind having a smaller bedroom, you can put a divider across the smaller section at the back of the house, creating a bedroom space that still has access to the rear deck, thus leaving you with a through room, allowing you have a separate kitchen, if you prefer or whatever else takes your fancy (in My case, room for my baby grand piano!).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You could even, if you wanted, split this part of the Tortuga two ways, to provide an additional room between the “bedroom” and “bathroom” (if that’s how you use them) – but to me, this felt again very claustrophobic and can can leave the camera on the wrong side of one of the added walls / dividers.

I’ve admittedly not looked at the other Stilt Home styles to see just how amenable their interiors are to a similar degree of customisation – but I doubt the Santiago really gives much scope given its interior design, whilst both the Lauderdale and Havana both off some room for fiddling in the larger ground from room found in each. I might get around to having a play at some point, but to be honest, I think the Tortuga really is the most flexible of the four styles for those who like playing with things.

Possibly Useful Links

From Kuga to home: a tale of 264 region crossings in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Using open water between Stilt Homes and Houseboats to try a turn of speed during my trip from Kuga to Second Norway

With the opening on the Alpine theme homes (see: Lab announces Linden Homes Chalet Theme released), Satori and all points north (including Blake Sea and Second Norway) have directly connected to Jeogeot and Sansara (and points north) via Bellisseria. This set me wondering what it would be like to complete an “epic voyage” by either boat or aircraft (or possibly both, and perhaps even with a land vehicle or two) through all or some of the connected lands.

I was by no means alone in this line of thought; in fact in just the last 24 hours Marianne McCann made a flight from Bay City to Hollywood Airport on the Eastern side of Blake Sea, a distance of 279 regions, as reported in the Bay City Post. So I thought I’d try a trip of my own.

Before setting out from Kuga, I make sure the boat was properly fuelled

So as not to simply follow in Mari’s prop wash, I decided to start from close to the location of my only Bellisseria Houseboat, on the western side of the continent and within throwing distance of the SS Galaxy. From there – or more particularly, the rez zone at Kuga – I’d attempt to cross Bellisseria by boat and air, and then continue onwards and around / over Satori, across the Blake Sea and finally back home to Second Norway.

For the first stage of the trip – Kuga to Pegleg Channel, I opted to take my Piaggio Little Bee. This classic tender style speed boat is still one of the best available in Second Life, packed with features and a joy to drive. My selected route took me south over relatively open water to Caladium, then along the river running west-east along the divide between the original Bellisseria regions and the first major land expansion.

My choice of water route across Bellisseria in places left me grateful I’d opted to use one of my smaller boats …

Of variable width, this channel is fun to navigate in a small enough boat, offering excellent views of the Victorian Theme of Linden Homes on both banks and well as a chance to discover some of the “hidden” nests of houseboat that lie inland.

PegLeg Channel can be found well into Bellesseria, in what is effectively the continent’s inland sea. It’s significant in that it has a local rez zone tucked below the familiar lighthouse’ allowing me my first switch of vehicles with an initial 33 region crossings completed at various high and low speeds. From here I would take to the air to cross overland using my DSA G58 Baron in floatplane mode, heading by way of Log Homes to my own Stilt Home.

All change! At Pegleg Channel I switched to my G58 Baron for an airborne leg of my journey

This flight was relatively smooth, although I did find myself climbing to over 150 metres to try to escape the nagging of security orbs. I also slightly miscalculated my course, so I arrived at the east coast somewhat south of where I needed to be in order to cross into the Stilt Home regions. However, a quick bank and short run along the coast and I was back on track, turn north-east(ish, with variations) to get up and cross to the channel where my current Stilt Home resides, and where I planned to swap back to water transport.

Mooring the ‘plane with a further 55 region crossings made, I took to my Bandit SRV210 to strike east once more and, after a second error (bloody mindedness in refusing to flick to my browser to check a functional map), it was across open water and into the Alpine Homes regions, which are divided by some very broad waterways that make for easy and fast navigation. Clocking up 68 more region crossings, I arrived at Buffalo Springs, where a rez zone would let me take to the air again for what I expected to be the hardest part of my trip – getting across the Mainland continent of Satori. 

Banking over the Alpine Homes in readiness to come around a start my descent in Buffalo Springs

For this leg of the trip I  shifted over to my Spijkers and Wingtips MD-900 helo and encountered my first and only region crossing mishap – a complete disconnect trying to cross from Buffalo Springs into Carmine Sky. This was actually a convenient point to have the problem, given I’d just left a rez zone, so no massive back tracking. It was also ironic, as I’d literally just boasted to a friend in IM that I’d made 140+ region crossings without incident…

The flight across Satori brought my only other mishap: an encounter with an utterly aggressive security orb that left me like a freshly fallen lemon, standing on the edge of the region in question. Again, not wishing to backtrack, I checked the Map, found a GTFO depot several regions further along the highway that sat just over a region away, and use a wearable horse to ride over to the road and thence to the depot. Then, with a fresh helo rezzed, I was off again, eventually passing back over water to fly on to Meauxle Bureaux, then shortly after turn due north to reach Blake Sea Kraken – another 81 region crossings successfully made (I’m not counting the security orb as a failure). 

Passing over the home of the Moles …

Twelve crossings later I was at Foliage, a grass airstrip with over-the-water helipads. It’s an airstrip I’m fond of, so with a sleight of hand to allow for the rez zone being entirely on dry land, swapped the MD-900 for a Piaggio / WALT Searoo for the final leg – a run up the Blake Sea Channel and into Second Norway and thence home – a trifling 15 more crossings.

The elapsed time for the trip was just over 3 hours, including the detours and re-log. In all I completed 264 region crossings and experienced just the one serious issue (although obviously, there were the expected losses of vehicle control for a second or so after each crossing – but no additional issues of camera slewing, etc.).  As such I’m counting the trip a complete success.

Almost home! cruising into Second Norway in my WALT Searoo

I admit to being surprised by the use of so many security orbs in Bellisseria, rather than the supplied security systems. I wonder if this might be down to orbs generally being 1 or 2 LI and the Linden supplied controls around 5. I  was also surprised at the heights to which some reached; growling at someone just 30 metres over your head is understandable – but when they are at 130+ metres? That’s excessive.

But anyway, this was a fun trip, and one I might repeat in the future, likely with a different destination in mind and using different vehicles / craft.

Taking flight in a Goose in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Wilder / Astral G-21 Goose over Isla Catinara

When it comes to flying, Wilder Skies is not a Second Life brand I’ve really been familiar with. However, For the last couple of months I’ve been toying with the idea of giving the Wilder Skies / Astral Technologies G-21 Goose amphibian a go, even though (at the time of writing) circumstances dictate that it is only available through the Marketplace – no in-world option to take it for a test flight.

However, one of SL’s foremost aviators, and someone I hold in a great deal of respect – Laetizia “Tish” Coronet – must’ve been reading my thought bubbles, as she recently posted a series of images to her SL feed focused on the Goose, and then gave it a solid thumbs up review in the Marketplace listing. That was enough for me to decide to spend the pennies and grab a copy!

The G-21 on the water with my work-in-progress paint scheme and the the restoration version in the background

In the physical world, the G-21 has an interesting history. It came into being as a result of a group of wealthy Long Islanders commissioning Grumman Aircraft Corp to build a small, reasonably fast light aircraft capable of commuting between their country estates and New York City. First flown in 1937, the twin-engined, almost entirely metal built monoplane was an instant hit. Its amphibious nature meant it could pretty much go anywhere, whilst the cabin – generally outfitted to seat two or 3 as a luxury cruiser, the rest of the space being given over to a bar and toilet – was actually very capable in both the passenger and the cargo roles.

The military particularly liked the boxy design, seeing it as an ideal light transport and spotter. The US Air Corps, US Navy and US Coastguard all quickly adopted it, as did the armed forces of a number of allied governments, including the UK’s Fleet Air Arm, who gave the G-21 it’s name: Goose. Woking alongside its sibling, the G-44, the Goose saw service around the world during the war, notably in the air-sea rescue role, and continued to prove popular afterwards – so much so, that two companies took over production and maintenance after Grumman stopped, and many McKinnon and Antilles variants of the G-21 still fly today.

The restoration version and one of the poses

The Wilder / Astral G-21 captures everything about the G-21 that made it so popular: its rugged, pugnacious looks, its roomy cabin and its amphibious capabilities, as well as some of its general handling characteristics. Priced at L$2,689, the package actually contains two versions of the G-21: the original version 1.0, and the updated version 2.0. Each of these is in turn supplied it three variants: – two that are flyable and in “civvie” and “ex-Navy” colourings respectively, and a “restoration” variant that has the ‘plane (in the ex-Navy finish and looking the worse for wear) up on stocks and partially dismantled, with a new crated engine, a workbench and ladder (with poses for working on the hull / dismantled undercarriage assembly).

Also included in the package are two sets of textures (the civvie and ex-Navy finishes) + UV files, making re-texturing possible, although at the time of writing, I’m still working on mine, so consider the images of it here a work-in-progress). Finally, a HUD is also supplied, which matches the working instruments on the flight console.

I didn’t find the G-21 amenable to Mouselook flying, the the view from the cockpit (with camera adjusted) gave a good sense of flying

Flight controls are the usual – a combination of chat commands / keyboard input / HUD options – Arrow keys for pitch and roll, Arrows + SHIFT for rudder, PAGE keys from throttle, etc. No reverse pitch on the P&W rotary engines, so manoeuvring on the water can be a little cumbersome in confined spaces or docks.

As with the real Goose, this is a hands-on flyer: walk away from the keyboard in flight and you’re liable to return and find you’re on the water or annoying someone by being an unexpected / unwanted garden ornament. The sweet cruising point is around 60-65% of throttle and a little care is needed on landing, particularly as this is a tail dragger and the hull really needs goo clearance. External poses are also supplied for when on the ground / water, accessed via a touch menu access through the radar egg atop the fuselage. Up to 6 can fly in the G-21 – two up front and four pax – although I’ve yet to try carrying anyone with me.

I confess I’ve thus far found region crossings a little spotty: the ‘plane handles them well enough, but as they mount up, the chances of the camera slewing into the side of the ‘plane and giving you a nice view of an retracted wheel tend to increase. I ended up banging about with the dynamic camera (“c”) and ESC to try to recover things, bit not always successfully and twice ran out of sky trying to get things sorted. However, the majority of the time, the ‘plane handles very well, and I’m gearing up towards some very long haul flights in it 🙂 .

Catching the G-21 from below

The lack of PSD files with layers included is a drawback for those who like re-texturing their aircraft. It doesn’t make things impossible, just harder; it would be nice to have them as a dropbox option, as Tish notes on the MP. The texture files also add up to a fair few to download and sort through. However, the fact I’m part-way through re-working a copy of my G-21 shows it is possible 🙂 .

Rugged, equipped with not-your-usual run-of-the-mill flight scripting, adaptable (will take a certain amount of careful physical modding as well as re-painting) and Get the Freight Out ready, the Wilder / Astral G-21 Goose is a nice intermediary SL aircraft. One that looks bloody good in the air or on the water!

Slurl Details

Discovering disc golf in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Disc Golf, The Raven’s Nest, March 2021

I’ve written about golf in Second life in these pages a number of times; whilst hardly a fan of the game in the physical world – I tend to be firmly in the Arthur Myers camp that “to play golf is to spoil an otherwise enjoyable walk” (Lawn Tennis At Home & Abroad, 1903, and often quite apocryphally attributed to Mark Twain as “golf is a good walk spoiled”), I do enjoy the occasional round with Caitlyn in-world. So, when Kali Rose recently invited me to pay a visit to The Raven’s Nest and try a round of something called disc golf – which I confess I’d never actually heard of before – it seemed like I should hop over hop over and try things out.

A full region utilising the 30K private region bonus, The Raven’s Nest is home to the Rose family (private residences are located on the south and west sides of the region, so do please keep that in mind if you visit) and also to Her GeekSpot brand and store, which has been rather neatly as a film studio lot. The disc golf course takes up the majority of the region, offering a good means to explore.

The Raven’s Nest, March 2021

Disc golf is essentially “regular” in-world golf, but with the club and ball replaced by a Frisbee-style disc and the hole by a basket you try to throw your disc “into”. Like golf, it can be played over 9 or 18 “holes”, with The Raven’s Nest offering the full 18.

The landing point for the course is the clubhouse on the east side of the region. Here, those wishing to play can join the local group (required, and needs a free in-world group slot). Once the group has been joined, players can obtain a disc and control HUD from the game vendor, and if they wish, a scorecard and game notes from the neighbouring givers. The HUD provides the means to play the game and also personalise both your disc and gameplay elements; however, if you prefer, it can be ignored and the game enjoyed directly through the disc itself.

Disc Golf: get your Frisbee into the basket

Note that once received, the disc must be worn while in close proximity to the vendor in order to activate it. Discs will remain valid for 24 hours after activation, so if you get interrupted in the middle of a round and as long as you return within that time, you can continue playing without having to re-start.

Each tee takes the form of a square, grey base,  the number of the hole on one side, indicating the direction towards the basket.The first tee is located on the deck at the back of the clubhouse. Baskets are quite low and can be a little hard to locate from a distance – so you may need to cam a little to spot some as you continue around the course.

Once at the tee for a hole, walk onto it and select your required club (generally the driver)  via the HUD (or by clicking your disc and selecting it from the dialogue). This will trigger a particle wind speed indicator alongside your avatar together with a direction of throw indicator itself.

Winding up for a throw

You can adjust your direction of throw to compensate for the wind by using the LEFT / RIGHT cursor keys (or A/D if you prefer); when you are ready to “throw” move the mouse pointer over the terrain or the tee base and press and hold down the left mouse button.

This will cause you avatar to prepare to throw your disc, and display a power indicator – the higher this gets, the more power will be applied to your “throw”. When you are ready, release the mouse button to “throw” your disc.

The flight of a disc is indicated by a line. By default, this is white, but you can use the colour button on  the HUD to select a preferred colour for it, your disc and the landing marker (handy if you part playing with friends).

The landing marker, a large arrow, indicates – as if the name doesn’t give it away 🙂 – where your disc landed. If you hover the mouse pointer over it, a teleport sit icon will be displayed, indicating you can teleport directly to the marker. Also, the colour button on the HUD allows you to toggle whether or not the marker, wind direction indicator, etc., are displayed.

Additional strokes are played the same way, with the ability to use the wedge for “chipping” up towards a basket when reasonably close to a basket and the putter when particularly close to it. Throughout it all your scorecard will track your shots and keep score, and when you’ve completed a round, you can return to the clubhouse and see if you’ve set a new course record.

My disc heads towards the basket (to the right of the tree, atop the old well)

Whilst playing, and if you use use an over-the-shoulder camera view by default, you might want to centre your camera up when playing to get an more accurate view of the ground pointer. Also, if you have double-click to teleport enabled, you might want to turn it off – an accidental click will have you routed back to the clubhouse – and be sure to avoid the local train (when it is running), which winds its way through the course!

I do have a couple of minor niggles: the holes are all par 3, no matter what their difficulty – which appears to be baked into the game;, unfortunately. Where this course is concerned, some of the signage could be clearer (it’s not obvious where the first tee is,  for example). However, this doesn’t overly interfere with things.

Playing a round of disc golf lets you discover the rest of The Raven’s Nest

Golf games are fairly common across SL, but disc golf is just that little bit different, and The aven’s Nest offering an interesting means to get to know the game, offering as it does the opportunity to explore the region whilst playing, maybe try out a little fishing afterwards, or simply sit and relax at the water’s edge. My thanks to Kali for the invitation.

SLurl Details

Postcards from home in SL

Posted on by Inara Pey

A little view of home

Apropos nothing in particular, I’ve been hovering around the island home a lot of late recently, fiddling with bits and pieces in the grounds, playing with old and new landscaping kits – notably Alex Bader’s Animated River Building Kits, which were sent to me when launched, but which I’ve only recently got around to being able to put to good use (and found them to be exceptionally versatile in making streams, rivers and even coastal edges for islands) and taking photos of the results.

So, this being the case, I thought I’d be self-indulgent and bore you with some of the resultant shots 😀 .

The Studio Skye Animated River Building Kits allowed me to build a set of streams to help break up the island land, while also offering the perfect setting for another favourite of mine, the Chapel Ruins by Marcus Inkpen. A bridge built using elements of IvanBenjammin’s Wooden Walkways & Stairs set is used to span the main stream

One of the things I like about Marcus’ Chapel Ruins is that they are easily customisable: with the use of plants from Happy Mood, Alex Bader, Cube Republic and others, they can be made into something of a garden space. It also forms a place for us to relax in, courtesy of a hammock, and the ideal place to display a sculpture by ArtemisGreece, an artist I’ve recently come to admire.

Another mesh sculptor I’ve long admired is Ciottolina Xue. Her sculptures have adorned the gardens of all the homes I’ve had in Second Life since I first came across her work in 2015, and they are part of the current design as well, some free-standing and others combined with plant displays.

Sasaya Kayo provides some excellent low-LI ground cover under the Happy Mood Brand, and also some interesting tree forms that can offer a nice twist on a given landscape (note the twisted trunk on the right). The board walk has been built using IvanBenjammin’s Wooden Walkways & Stairs set mentioned above.

Private corners are always good to have, and a combination of Krystali Rabeni’s Love Eternal Folly (with the swing removed and replaced with a picnic set by Follow Us!) and gardened by a dragon, provides one of ours.

Another tree I like is by AzaleaBluebell (seen at the centre of this image). A gift offered at a past Fantasy Faire, it’s a simple, effective design that resizes somewhat (LI allowing) and offers a nice amount of shade.

Hammocks make a great place to play spot-the-shapes-in-the-clouds…

Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s another glimpse of our little corner of SL and with it, I’ll return you to your regularly scheduled viewing 🙂 .