It’s been two years since I first blogged about Mont Saint Michel in Second Life. As I’ve been having a few issues with my GPU when logged-in the Second Life – particularly when taking snapshots with the various bells and whistles active – I stopped by the Mont in order to try things out after having fiddled with drivers and such-like, and grabbed a couple of snaps.
There have been a few changes over the years since my first review, with the “car park” region having long since vanished and a few more cars now on the island itself.
This is a great place to explore, with shops and parks to wander through en route up to the abbey itself and – for those willing to find it, a hidden secret which I actually missed during my original visit, but had to go back and find after several friend nudged me in the right direction.
If you’ve not paid a visit in the past, I cannot help but recommend you do.
As regulars here will know, I’m kind-of into SL sailing and flying, have written about both rather a lot since tumbling into both quite by chance, with my most recent acquisition for the former being the E-Tech Sparrow, which is leaning me dangerously close to seeing if I can rent some water-front land somewhere (I have modest needs; nothing larger than 2048 sq metre & room enough for a cottage, a bit of landscaping and a dock…).
However, it occurred to me that while I have been out on (and over) the water rather a lot over the past few months, particularly on Blake Sea, I’ve never actually blogged about places there – and there is rather a lot to see and do, beside sailing / flying.
Take Half Hitch, for example. This is one of the areas in Blake Sea where you can rez your own boat (or seaplane or submarine – whatever takes you), and set out to explore the ocean blue. It’s like that many people arriving there never get beyond the quayside landing point and rez zone, which is a shame, as there is a lot to poke about at on the island – just take a wander through the cave at the landward end of the quay.
On the other side of the cave tunnel is a sheltered port, complete with breakwater, a lighthouse and warning buoys to guide boats in, and quays and buildings which form a part of a small fishing “community” – there’s even a trawler sitting dockside, either getting up steam to sail on the morning tide or which may have recently returned to port after a day’s fishing.
Now, the build is admitted not state-of-the-art. Some of the rock formations on the north side of the island are decidedly spherical, some of the textures are a tad low-res – but remember, everything around Blake Sea is designed to be low-lag to aid the flying and sailing and – in particular – to assist with any racing which may be going on. And anyway, “dated” doesn’t necessarily mean “not worth exploring”.
There are lots of little corners to poke and pry at here, and even more opportunities for the SL photographer. Those who want to try their hands with sailing can also find a demo boat rezzer which will help them take to the water and skim around a bit, and there are some nice little look-out points to watch the world go by or where you can watch any racing taking place.
Those who do take to the water and sail west may well encounter the Crow’s Nest Lighthouse, which has again featured in some pictures in this blog. This is actually a build based on a real life lighthouse (Fastnet Rock), and, if you have your draw distance down somewhat (something of a good idea when sailing / flying), appears as a reminded of what a lonely and isolated lives lighthouse keepers once had to lead.
I managed to grab one shot in particular of the lighthouse while flying east out of Hollywood Airport a couple of months ago, which I think really demonstrates this last point, even if it’s not necessarily the most artistic of shots.
Should you opt to land at the lighthouse, there’s not a lot to actually see inside the lighthouse – although if you look hard enough, you’ll find a picture of the real life original. – but that’s not the point, it’s a great little build in its own right which does much to enhance Blake Sea, as well as providing a useful way-point for sailors. Outside of the lighthouse tower, however – and as pointed out by Lance Corrimal in the comment below – there is a memorial for all members of the SL Sailing community who have passed away.
There’s a lot else to see out on the Sea – so if you haven’t given it a try, why not have a mooch around the waters?
The David Rumsey Map Collection is just about everything any cartographer with an interest in the history of the subject and a particular focus on the Americas could ever want. Over 39,000 maps are on file – although these also include various maps of Africa, Asia and Europe. The maps can be accessed through a number of online viewers and services – including Second Life!
The SL exhibit covers four adjoining regions and presents a number of displays, information boards and links to the main website which, taken together, form an interactive means of study and offers the opportunity to learn about cartography.
The arrival point comprises an information centre where you can learn about David Rumsey Maps, the SL exhibit and access teleports to the various displays. Directly outside of this is a push-pin map of the world, with the invitation for visitors to move one of several push-pin “givers” over their home location, add a pin and leave a message of up to 140 characters in length.
Below this, and covering all four regions is a gigantic topographical map of Yosemite Park and its surrounding areas, circa 1883, complete with a floating observation deck. Control options allow you to view the map with full bright on or off, and as a 3D relief display (using sculpts) or a conventional 2D map.
Above the 4-region map is a small orientation centre for those new to SL, and above that is a reproduction of J.H Colton’s 1836 map of New York. complete with models of some well-known landmarks (such as the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall) which help give the map context to modern eyes.
Elsewhere in the build are touch-boards on the Map walk which surrounds all four regions and the gigantic Tower of Maps, which provide direct access to various maps and pages on the website. You can also hop inside two globe maps or admire a Japanese scroll map.
All-in-all this is an extensive and excellent use of Second Life, with the information centre also providing audio / video presentations as well as a range of collectibles (40 in all), which you can pick-up as you explore. There is also a skyborne auditorium, but I’m not sure if that is still running the advertised programme (I’ve managed to miss hopping over there at noon SLT to find out the last few times it has crossed my mind to check…).
David Rumsey Maps makes for a worthwhile visit for anyone interested in cartography, and an engrossing use of Second Life. One word of advice should you visit – turn up your drawn distance to at least 512m to get the fullest benefit.
August 2013: Flocke, asdescribed here, has gone & the region is under redevelopment.
The world seen through a child’s eye, is a world full of wonders. A world where imagination reveals many paths. The world seen within the eye of an adult can sometimes be scary and make us want to hide and close the eyes. Still we are, even if grown in age, children of this world … A journey about ‘Reality and Illusions’. A visual discussion where you might explore sometimes beauty and sometimes the strange and odd.
This is the description Joanna Corith gives to her new collaborative project at Flocke, which she has developed with Pale Illusion. It’s a region that is bound to grab my attention, as it features water, so I was pleased to get the nudge from Baz D. to go take a look.
Flocke is a place which can be explored as an art installation and simply as a place to visit. As an art installation, the introductory notecard for the region (tucked neatly aware in a little signboard .. somewhere … :)) reads, “We’d like to invite you to a little visual journey of a discussion we have about ‘REALITY’ and ‘ILLUSION’ and hope you’ll have fun to explore our thoughts, questions and perhaps conclusions we will make.”
As a place to visit, Flocke offers places to dance with a friend, or to sit and contemplate things (or one another) and a little open-air movie theatre.
Given recent world events, with tornadoes and floods making the headlines, the region’s design is also somewhat evocative and thought-provoking, with shattered houses suspended in the air, flooded ruins on the ground and even a ravaged houseboat. As such, I admit I found my mind wandering in directions other than the nature of reality and illusion, despite the region’s designed being framed by Albert Einstein’s famous quote, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one”. I also found the inclusion of the little rafts with floating candles on one side of the region particularly poignant as a result.
That I was reminded of recent real life tragedies is not to condemn the build in any way. Far from it; that Flocke is so evocative on a number of different levels is to me a demonstration of the visual power of this open, almost minimal design. So I look at my own thoughts while visiting as reflective of the fact that we cannot avoid carrying matters from the real world into our second lives, and can thus find those matters resonating with us in the most unexpected of ways.
Often, when I visit a region, I tend to tweak my windlight settings, even if the region owner has set a complementary setting of their own. It’s not necessarily that I don’t like the selected windlight; it’s more a case that I like to have a twiddle and a play and present things in a (hopefully) interesting way in my snaps which still allowing anyone who may visit off the back of these pieces the broadest measure of discovery & the opportunity to perhaps tweak and place with their own windlight options.
Flocke, however, is one of the exceptions to this approach. The use of the Bristol pre-set with the region is simply perfect, and gives the region all the atmosphere it needs, so all the pictures here are presented “as-is”, so to speak, although I admit to twiddling with GIMP a little with a couple to get the desired monochrome results on the Flickr slideshow.
This may be an open and minimalist region in terms of landscaping, but you should keep your eyes peeled; there are some very interesting, subtle, charming and whimsical touches to be found as your wander around. For those wishing simply to relax, try the little movie theatre in the corner of the region or perhaps spend a little time sitting on the raft.
I spent a good two hours in Flocke with a roaming camera, poking, nosing and snapping – and the truth is, I could happily have spent another two doing exactly the same. Sadly, the needs of a rumbly tummy and the matter of sustenance proved to be increasingly distracting, despite my attempts to convince myself otherwise by repeating another famous quote on the matter of illusions: “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.”
Rest assured, however, I’ll be returning to Flocke. It’s that kind of place. Hopefully, I might see you there …
Two of my favourite builds in Second Life were Alpha Point and Omega Point. Developed by Masoon Ringo and Sweetlemon Jewell, these two regions were fabulous and intricate places to visit, offering stunning sci-fi and fantasy oriented builds both on the ground and in the sky overhead.
Nor were they static; Masoon and Sweetlemon periodically re-worked both Alpha Point and Omega Point in order to keep them fresh, interesting and well worth repeated visits.
Alpha Point and Omega Point, circa 2011
Now it seems both have gone from Second Life.
I was first alerted to their disappearance earlier in the week by Ayesha Askham-Ezvalt, who pinged me in-world to see if I knew what had happened. On checking the map, I discovered that both Alpha and Omega Points were coming up as “Not Found”. Remembering what had happened to the International Space Museum a couple of years ago, when both regions slipped off the map as a result of a payment mix-up on the part of the region holders, I dropped Sweetlemon a line to find out what had happened – but I’ve yet to receive a reply.
Today, I received an offline IM from another in-world friend, who had apparently heard the news that not only have the regions gone, but Masoon Ringo has departed SL. If this is true, then it may well mean that both Alpha Point and Omega Point have gone for good, which is a great shame because the regions were so well known to, and enjoyed by, a lot of people in Second Life.
Alpha Point and Omega Point circa 2012
Assuming both regions have now permanently passed into the annals of SL history, here’s a slide show of my last visit to them in 2012. It’s a little lengthy, I know, but as I said, both regions packed-in a lot to see.
The other day I was pondering on my wanderings, and how effective / readable they are (or indeed, how “samey” they might be to one to another); thank you, by the way, to everyone who responded to positively to my questions. All the replies were most welcome.
At the time, I mentioned I might try mixing things up a little and adding things like urban developments in SL to my list of places to visit. Well, as it happens, I have a list of role-play regions and estates (some of which I started to visit last year, but still haven’t actually got around to writing-up), and places people have suggested to me from time-to-time, or which I’ve stumbled upon when poking at the Destination Guide. One of the latter is the Forgotten City. As “city” and “urban” go together (as a rule), I decided to pop over and take a look.
Forgotten City is the brainchild of Jenne Dibou and Mandy Marseille, and it is immediately intriguing. The main build is a blend of several styles (possibly best described as Steampunk, Wasteland and Art Nouveau) which present a wonderful, multi-level city with a degree of industrial development and with little pockets of rural scenes tucked into it here and there. The arrival point will present you with a notecard which offer a number of places to visit via direct teleport, but I really recommend that you ignore it to start with and take time to explore on foot.
This is a place where the residents were once served by miraculous automatons, which took care of the city and saw to the needs of the people. But now it seems the people have gone, leaving the city behind, still watched-over by the faithful automatons. some of which can be interacted with when encountered.
The attention to detail is wonderful. I’ve often said when reviewing various places in SL that you need to keep a sharp eye out to see everything, and with Forgotten City this is certainly true. Whether you are simply out exploring or looking for something to do, Forgotten City has a lot going for it.
From the upper levels, with the museum and dance hall, you can travel down to the ground level and explore the streets of the Citadel of the Forgotten, the Marketplace and past the Abandoned Villas to the lighthouse and windmill. If walking isn’t to your liking, you can catch an airship tour of the city, but walking is good for you, and the exercise is, as I’ve mentioned, worth it.
The original inhabitants of the city may well have long-since departed, but part of the intrigue of this build is discovering what they have left behind. Who were the city’s royalty? What purpose did the Time Wolves serve? A simple member’s club, or something more?
One point I should make about exploring is that while much of the city is open to people to discover, please do keep in mind that some of the houses and apartments are private residences. Most of these are clearly denoted as such, and visitors are requested to observe the privacy of those occupying them.
For those who are seeking things to do, then the city is certainly worth a visit. There’s the airship tour, offering a view of the city from overhead, our you can grab a row-boat and explore the canals on your own. For the adventurous there is a steamboat which periodically stops at the row-boat station and which will take you “out” of the city to the post office and back…
Those seeking more active pursuits in the city can try the teleport destinations in the notecard. Theres a simple oval race track and vintage racing cars, the toy factory, and a winter park, complete with a ski jump for the really athletic. You can even take part in a couple of shoot-’em-ups or play (SL-legal) poker – and don’t forget the 8:00 SLT daily circus!
Those looking for an unusual venue for photographs would also do well to pay the city a visit; not only does the region windlight suit the place, it is ideal for tweaking and playing with other viewer-side windlight options.
All-in-all, it’s a great build to explore, and I’m actually keen to see whether Jenne and Mandy enhance it now that materials has all-but-arrived; the use of normal maps in particular could very well make this even more of a stand-out region.
Again, well recommended when you have the time! In fact, so good is this build that it has been one of the locations in which the Lab has been testing Oculus Rift!
