Category: Exploring Second Life

Update November 2013: Tatty Soup is no longer on Whispering Wind, but has been replaced by a private parcel with limited access. Tab Tatham’s store, Junk, can now be found in a sky setting at Tagus.

When I was growing up, winter was always marked by one thing in our household: the return of Mum’s home-made potato soup. Nothing was more warming or comforting to me when I was very little, than knowing that when I got home from school on a particularly cold day, or after I’d been running round in the snow and frigid air at weekends, Mum would invariably deliver up a hot mug of potato soup. Even today, potato soup, made to Mum’s recipe, is still very much a winter feature.

Coming across the name “Tatty Soup” within Second Life, therefore, had me intrigued; finding it to be a region themed for winter had me instantly in love with the place. For the last two weeks I’ve been back and forth snapping away, capturing the region for a blog post and posting thoughts to my feed in the form of images captured in the region.

Today, Tatty Soup is no more. The sim extenders have gone, the region is largely underwater, Tab Tatham’s store in the south-east corner – all gone. Not that Tab herself has quit SL or stopped marketing or anything like that; she’s just used the magic of Second Life to move to territories new. To Whispering Wind, in fact, a region she now shares with the L2 Studio group.

As with the old store, the “new” Tatty Soup sits within a beautiful, wintry region where the snow lies deep and one is invited to wander freely on both sides of the region – Tatty Soup and L2 Studio, which is owned by Lindini2 Lane – both being open to the public.

The entire region is beautifully put together, and for her part, Tab has retained the windlight settings from her old location for both sky and water, as well as having done much to recreate the look and feel of the original, all of which encourages one to explore and enjoy.

I’ve written elsewhere of my love of the winter time and snow, so I’m not going to repeat comments here. Suffice it to say that it does bring out something of the romantic in me, particularly when thinking back to my early childhood years and all those snow-filled winters I remember and the wonder of seeing (sometimes at least) snow on the ground actually at Christmas…

One of the things I love about Tatty Soup is the windlight; it reminds me so much of long wintry walks through the January / February snow, often early in the morning (so I could catch the snow in its “virgin” state before footprints appeared everywhere), with perhaps a hint of fog or mist still lifting in the air, and the snow that perfect, fresh-fallen blanket which would give just a hint of resistance with each step before the crust crunched underfoot and collapsed almost with s soft sigh…

Over the hills running along the centre of the region, the L2 Studio lands continue the winter theme, but the windlight presents you with and more “winter’s afternoon” feel, with the snow bright on the ground, and the sun warm on your back.

Both invite you to play with windlight and see what effects can be created – although I admit, I tended to stay with the Alchemy Immortalis sky setting Tab uses, mixing it occasionally with Blizzard and Torley’s  Ice-like for the water.Night settings also enhance the winter magic of the region.

Photographers in particular should have fun with Whispering Wind right now, and the snow and places to sit make it something of a nice place to visit and sit awhile either on your own or with a friend. Tatty Soup store and the L2 Studio builds are more than worth a visit as well, and you might even find Christmas purchase or two in Tab’s store.

If you do get too cold in your wanderings, you can always warm yourself up….

I’m actually not much of a “Christmas” person if I’m totally honest; I wouldn’t say I’m Scrooge’s wife in any way, but overall, Christmas as a holiday is something I can take or leave. Snow on the ground and a crisp freshness in the air, however, well that’s something else entirely. Give me snow-filled fields, trees with branches sprinkled white and places to explore and wander, and I’m yours.

If you enjoy snowy walks, photography and capturing moments in time, Whispering Wind is more than worth a visit. For now, however, I’m off for a hot bowl of – yes, you’ve guessed it, potato soup.

Related Links

• L2 Studio Group SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• SL Destinations in this blog

My favourite time for exploring Second Life is after dark. Not after dark in SL, you understand, but after dark in RL. At the end of the day, with the house quiet and little chance of being disturbed, I can cozy down in my little study / office and go a-wandering to my heart’s content. Sometimes doing so leads me to staying up well past silly o’clock.

Fortunately, I work from home most of the time, which allows me to large set my own schedule; I also have a weird body which is generally satisfied with around 5 hours sleep a night before it decides I need to be up and about (and bits of it are given to complaining if I don’t get up) – although occasionally it will demand a good, solid 8-9 hours under the duvet. Even so, there are times, generally when staring at the bathroom mirror first thing after getting up, when I ask myself  just what the heck I thought I was doing sitting up to 4:00am in the morning, and whether I’m completely, certifiably bonkers.

Most of the time, however, it is worth it. There are so many beautiful, creative and inspiring places to visit in SL that trying to catalogue just a small selection of them in my own way makes the late nights worthwhile.

Sometimes I stumble upon a place, sometimes it is recommended to me or I stick my finger into the Destination Guide and see what comes up, sometimes reading other blogs piques my curiosity and off I trot to poke a nose into things. Whatever I find, there has to be a certain something which “clicks” with me. If I’m honest, it doesn’t always happen; there are many places in SL I’ve visited and not blogged about because, while they are in their own way amazing or fun or immersive, I personally don’t find that indefinable something which grabs me.

Sleepless Nights, the home of :Fiction and Chaos and [House of Usher] is one of those places which definitely has “it” for me. I first came across it in Honour McMillan’s blog, and her images were enough to convince me this was a place I had to visit. Honour is someone I read daily and whom I admire for her skills with both the written word and with SL photography. She’s also someone I tend to find I’m frequently following around SL, as there are times when we are drawn to the same regions even within me finding inspiration in her blog pages, and Honour is invariably 3 or 4 steps ahead of me, so I invariably put a planned post back on the shelf for a bit, so posts don’t clash :).

I love regions with a focus on water wat the best of times, and so in some ways, it’s hardly surprising Sleepless Nights appeals to so much. It has been brilliantly and evocatively framed, and I confess to having gone a little snap happy the other week during my visit, pumping out shot after shot to my profile feed. Pity I initially made such a pig’s ear of things.

A couple of weeks back LL finally got the snapshot tiling issue somewhat fixed. It’s not a perfect fix, as issues can still occur if you push your graphics card too hard, but it does allow those impacted by the issue to take snaps at significantly higher resolutions than perhaps they’ve been able to for quite a while.

I’d spent the days following the release happily bimbling around SL, revisiting old favourites and seeing how much better things look at 3500×2134 compared to the maximum of 1440×900 I’ve had to use pre-fix. So it was with huge delight that I arrived in Sleepless Nights, whapped up my snapshot floater to 3600×2195 and started posting away to my feed. The problem being that at the time I was using Firestorm – which doesn’t yet have the tiling issue fix.

Cue curses and a number of feed reposts, followed by a late-night revisit to re-work the images also saved to disk.

Leaving that crisis aside, there really isn’t much I can say about the region. Not because there isn’t anything to say about it, but simply because it speaks very eloquently for itself, as anyone arriving will immediately see for themselves. Suffice it to say that is it one of the most evocative I’ve visited, and I look forward to the day when I have a viewer / PC combination (and the skill) to really do it justice through photographs.

The region is minimalist in style and water-focused (something which will immediately attracted me, as I love water-based regions). The default windlight is enough to generate a deeply atmospheric feel and is absolutely ideal for SL photography. Together they combine to present a place which demands you simply experience it and let your thoughts roam free.

It’s also a place which can be quickly tweaked using viewer-side windlight options to create some truly remarkable frames – as I hope some of my offerings here go some way towards showing.

If you’ve never visited Sleepless Nights, I really recommend you do.

Related Links

• Sleepless Nights SLurl (Rated: Moderate)

Breedable animals aren’t exactly new to Second Life. Chickens, bunnies, horses, meeroos, cats, dragons … we’ve had them all and more. We’ve even seen the odd legal punch-up between brands; never a pretty sight where cuddlies are concerned. They’ve been the delight – and at times the bane – of regions across the grid.

Strangelings are the latest offering to turn up in-world, and they’ve done so in quite a different way. Follow the yellow brick road, and I’ll tell you more – if you haven’t heard already, that is.

Strangelings are a kind of breedable fox (with elements of unicorns in some, which itself suggests some interesting interbreeding…). However, whereas other breedables we’re familiar with live in-world, Strangelings have an entirely different domain. Or will, once they’ve fully launched, because they are creatures of the web and iOS.

Strangelings is the first creation to come out of Flying Monkey Interactive, a company founded by two former Linden Lab employees  – Chris Collins and Hamilton Hitchings, both of whom were apparently engaged in the ill-fated Second Life Enterprise product – and the people behind Ozimals.

The game itself is described as:

A pet breeding focused game for iOS and web.  Strangelings are fantasy fox-like animals that have many different traits and colors.  Breeding these animals will produce outcomes that are based on the genetic code with dominant and recessive traits passing through to the offspring.

Which is great. But what does that have to do with Second Life? Well, given the popularity of breedables across SL, it is possible that Strangelings could have a strong customer base in in-world keen to give the game a go as they are on the go. With this in mind, the team at Flying Monkey have developed a series of customisable, fully rigged avatars people can purchase and use to create copies of their favourite Strangelings and wear them in-world.

To accompany the avatars, the team have also created two neighbouring in-world regions: Strangelings and Magic of Oz. The former looks like it might be offering land rentals in the future, while the latter takes familiar settings from The Wizard of Oz and gives them a new and interesting twist in the form of a series of mesh builds. It features a munchkin’s village (store area for other merchants) the Emerald City (home of the Strangeling avatars) and the Wicked Witches’ castle.

Magic of Oz is very well executed and avoids all of the kiddie-toon feel of Linden Realms in terms of trees and flora. As such, it makes it an interesting place to visit and explore, and offers more than a few opportunities for photography. Exploration doesn’t take long, but it does show what can be achieved mesh-wise in world to create an attractive, fun environment.

I’m not one to have ever been attracted to breedables in-world (I remain firmly of the opinion that the best meeroo is one served roasted, with seasonal vegetables and a suitable jus). As such the Strangeling game is unlikely to appeal. Nor, if I’m honest, are the avatars (because I’m a boring fart and prefer sticking to a human form in-world). I am, however, a little curious to see how the promotional aspect of things works out for Flying Monkey and Strangelings – it’s an interesting approach.

as to the Magic of Oz itself, it is a finely crafted region and well worth a look around if you’re curious.

Related Links

• Magic of Oz SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• Strangelings website
• http://www.fmigames.com/index.html
• SL Destinations in this blog

Update August 5th, 2013: The Faberge region has been redeveloped and Point of Derivation no longer appears to exist.

I had planned to write a follow-on to my post on the media myth that Second Life has “failed”. However, Honour McMillan has written on the matter far more succinctly and perceptively than I, so it is far better that I point you towards her wisdom on the matter, and turn my attention elsewhere.

Sort-of.

Exploring the grid is a mixture of three parts having some familiarity with a place – such as having seen it in passing while attending and event or visiting a store it holds; two parts recommendations from friends and one part pot luck – sticking your digital finger into the Destination Guide and seeing what it lands on.

Steering well clear of Grump-isms and comparisons between life and chocolates, it’s fair to say that even armed with the Destination Guide description, there are times when you zap to a region never actually quite sure as to what you’re going to find.

The Point of Derivation is a case in point. It appears in the Adventure and Fantasy category of the Destination Guide, where the text provided for its entry describes it as, “A dark forest-themed sim in which the last remnant ruins of a long abandoned theater are becoming slowly reclaimed by nature”, together with an evocative picture. There is reference to arena combat, dancing and walking with a loved one – which is all quite a mixed bag. But what does it all add up to? A post-apocalyptic place where people engage in Thunderdome-like combat? Zombies? A haunted lover’s walk?  All of the above?

The reality is that The Point of Derivation is one of those wonderful regions which present a fabulously atmospheric environment which invites the imagination to go where it pleases, to make up stories, develop free-form role-play – to simply immersive oneself, either in exploring alone, or with a friend or friends. Yes, there is the opportunity for arena combat, there’s an opportunity to throw darts at a set of target on the other side of a stretch of water (if your thowing arm is up to it!); there is even a local scavenger hunt, with some eight prizes to locate and collect.

But the real power in The Point of Derivation is in nature of the region itself, the wonderful combination of landscape, builds and windlight which have been combined to create an environment and ambience which call out of the imagination and beg to be captured in role-play, photographs or machinima. This is enhanced by the fact that your arrival is not marked by notecards setting out theme, time, backstory or rules; there is just you and the environment – and an open invitation to dive in.

I love regions like this, free from the structure often required in more formal role-play environments, simply because of the freedom they present. Some – like the Point of Derivation – may give your mind a little nudge purely because of the environment and settings; others – such as Scribbled Hearts or Wanderstill – may softly welcome you with a simple invitation to enjoy whatever you find.

Rod Humble received a lot of grumbles when he started referring to Second Life as a “shared creative space” alongside the Lab’s newer products. Yet the fact is that in many respects, that’s precisely what Second Life is. An immersive environment in which we are free to create and share. And the sharing can take so many forms: through direct involvement in activities, or through the adoption or a character or role by which we interact with others, or through the sheer joy of collaborative creation, and so on.

The sharing can also be a lot more subtle – such as by simply taking time to explore someone else’s creation, taking photographs and showing them with friends or whomever. In this, and while the viewer is packed with powerful (if occasionally arcane) tools, perhaps the most powerful is the humble snapshot floater; it provides us with memories to both enjoy and to share.

However one goes about it, it is the ability to create and share and participate either directly or indirectly on one another’s creations and imaginations, which is perhaps the greatest ability Second Life gives us.

I started this post by stating I wasn’t going to talk about the “failure” or otherwise of Second Life. Well, I lied.

The fact is that, while LL may indeed have problems in fully understanding the platform, while SL does have warts and sores, it has provided us with an immersive environment in which we can dream, create, explore, and share. It has become, and continues to be, as Steve “Cubey Terra” Cavers so eloquently stated, “The mingling of a million dreams; a reflection of our collective imagination”. As long as this continues to be the case, then it is fair to say that for each of us, Second Life has enjoyed its own unique success.

With thanks to Steve Cavers for permission to use his words in this post.

Related Links

• SL Destinations in this blog

Runestone is a place I’ve visited on a number of occasions, but have never blogged about. The region is a rustic landscape which can change over time and with seasons, owned and landscaped by Portia Lytton and the Run Keeper’s group. It is open to the public at ground level and offers a picturesque place to visit – particularly with a loved one.

Winter has yet to reach Runestone, and the region is currently in the golden and green shades of autumn – colours which heighten the romantic feel of the place. What you do once you arrive is entirely up to you; whether you opt to keep to the cobble paths which run through the region, spanning stone bridges, or whether you wander at random through tall grass and under the shade of trees, or seek-out places to dance or swing – or simply find somewhere to sit and ponder, Runestone offers you an open invitation to simply relax and enjoy.

The rustic feel of the region is heightened through the use of a number of Maxwell Graf’s excellent range of houses, one of which visitors can also enjoy (including the Greedy Greedy table inside one. For the more energetic, the water-mill offers the chance to knead dough, or there are hidden places to be found.

Runestone, like many places in SL, invites you a fiddle with your windlight presets as well; while the normal day / night cycles is used, the fact that the footpaths are lit by lamps, as are the bridges, tends to encourage one to fiddle around with the time of day slider – which is good, as this also can add to the romantic atmosphere of you so desire. As per usual, I roamed the region, constantly playing with the presets and sliders, looking for options which work and then making a note of them…

There is something of a nautical feel to Runestone as well; to the north-east side of the island a tall ship – one of Lia Woodget’s unmistakable builds  – lies at anchor in the lee of the island, hinting at the location of a hidden horde, while across the water to the north, the sister region of Syrinx has a distinctly piratical feel to it. Parts of this region – also operated by Portia Lytton, appear open to the public, although I confess, I’ve not made the trip over as yet, despite the rowing boat drawn up on the shore (which is actually Syrinx itself, even though it looks to be a part of Runestone – watch out for the line denoting the boundary between the two).

There are lots of places for couple to share their time on Runestone, with love seats, places to dance and so on to be found scattered across the island. There is also much to offer the photographer as well, particularly given the ease with which Runestone allows you to use many different windlight settings, as mentioned above. Should you need a prop or two when taking snaps, rezzing is open – just please remember to pick anything up again once you’ve done with it!

All-in all a delightful place to visit, and a welcome break when otherwise leaping from point to point across the grid.

Related Links

• Runstone SLurl (Rated Moderate)
• SL Destinations in this blog