Sunday April 7th marks the last opportunity for people to enjoy Neva Crystall’s beautiful Neva River for a while – at the end of the day, the region will once again be closed to public access. This does not mean the region is going away – just that it is Neva’s home, and she understandably deserves some peace any quiet to enjoy it with her friends.
Since my last visit in March, the region has gained an enchanted forest, made by Alex Bader, down in the south-west corner, close to one of the beaches. Here paths wind between a variety of trees, a now-shaded bridge crosses the river, and people can wander and enjoy or simply sit on the beach and admire.
If you have not yet visited Neva River in its current form, I really urge that you do before the end of the day; once it is closed, it may not re-open until after Neva has once more remodelled it at some point in the future. so why bot make a little time and pay a visit; it’s unlikely you’ll be disappointed.
I had intended to write-up my most recent experiences with region crossings and vehicles; some of which were a tad bizarre following yesterday’s RC deployments, which should have seen the fix for vehicles reach the entire grid. Things were initially a lot better today – until Firestorm decided it was going to repeatedly crash on me due to texture memory errors (likely down to my poor old GPU struggling), and then the official beta viewer repeatedly refusing to render worn attachments / attach additional items (like my flight HUD).
In these circumstances, there is only one of two things you can do. Rant at the screen or go seek something more calming. While I’m getting rather good at the former (my PC and I are going through the “adversarial” stage of our relationship at the moment), I opted that this time I’d do the latter and visit Chakryn Forest.
This is a region which at first glance lives up to its name: it’s a sim and it’s a forest – but it is also much more than that. It’s a collaborative effort by Bettina Tizzy, Thomtrance Otoole (who provides the Homestead region), landscape / sim artist Andrek Lowell (who has a store in the forest) and Eshi Otawara. It’s also a natural work of art.
You arrive amid stunningly tall redwoods and, if you have sound on (and I recommend you do), the sounds of a forest – and more. Here you can wander between the tall trees and admire the flowers and other flora or you can find places to sit and watch the world go by.
Floating on the water / among the trees are Elementals, some of which may have a communications orb floating nearby. Click on this, and the Elemental will task you with a quest which will see you roaming the forest in search of certain items which, once gathered, must be returned to the Elemental.
For those not given to quests, there are caves to explore and hidden places to find. The latter may be as simple as a hammock nestled in a rocky dimple, or as encompassing as and entire underground room by Eshi Otawara. There are also other lovely “finds” to discover.
Object entry is open (although auto return is set to one minute), so if you’re minded to put down a blanket you can; just make sure you’re sitting on it before the minute expires – and remember to pick it up.
For those who enjoy photography, this is another of those regions which encourage toying with windlight. I seriously doubt I’ve done the forest any justice at all; but for those who enjoy their SL photography, there is also a Flickr group.
Andrek Lowell is responsible for a number of forest themed regions across Second Life, including: Fruit Island’s Tropical Rain Forest, the Enchanted Unicorn Sanctuary and Magical Forest, and Brooks Forest, a part of Indigo Mertel’s marvellous East River Community (and adjacent to the airport there (see how I cleverly circled the subject back to the theme of my opening comments? 🙂 ).
And speaking of flying – region crossings can wait another day. I’m just going to sit under a tree here and ponder for a while…
In November 2012, Salome Strangelove opened The Garden, an absorbing, immersive puzzle which is open to all to try their hand.
I reviewed The Garden as it opened last year, and for a time was a regular player, and also found myself attracted to it purely as a place in which to take pictures. In December 2012, I started working on putting together a video for The Garden, but stopped in early January with the project incomplete. Part of the reason for this is because I can’t actually do decent machinima on my current PC; I lack the skill (and hardware) for decent mouse control of the camera, and the PC / GPU has problems trying to run both FRAPS and SL side-by-side without a horrible loss of frames, even with Draw Distance down low and most bells and whistles turned off.
Anyway, for what it is worth and because I hate leaving things unfinished (they eventually all nag at me for attention), I decided to push the video through and upload it to You Tube.
As to The Garden itself, if you’ve not spent time there, I really do recommend you pay it a visit; it’s a fabulously immersive place in which to spend time – and the puzzle is quite addictive!
OK. I admit it. I’ll come clean. I’m Honour McMillan’s sekrit stalker. It’s her fault, actually – I know she’ll deny it, but it is. Honest. She keeps pointing to these marvellous places in SL to visit and blogging about them, and I keep reading about them and, well, drooling at her pictures.
Just the other day, she blogged a piece which featured Julala Demina’s The Haven on the Sea of Beckoning. Intrigued by honour’s pictures, I set out to take a look myself.
A photographer in both rl and SL, Julala has put together a region where nature and spirituality combine to present the visitor with both a delightful landscape to explore and photograph, and places to simply sit and rest and renew.
This is a place to come to when you want to get away from in-world pressures, be it on your own or with a close friend or loved one. The woodlands, rivers, walks and various points of interest have all been composed with care while retaining a completely natural – dare I say “harmonious” feel.
For those looking for a tranquil place to live, Julala offers four modest places to rent – all of which perfectly fit the theme of the region. During my wanderings, I noticed that three are occupied at present, so please be aware of and respect people’s privacy should you visit. Even if you’re not looking for a home, perhaps a rest at the campfire alongside the Romany caravan might be to your liking …
There are lots of little details here which make visiting a pleasure; lanterns hanging from branches and arches help light the paths at night, the paths themselves blend unobtrusively with their surroundings so as to feel a natural part of the landscape.
Up on one of the hills you can meditate under an awning, candles flickering around you, the ground lit by lanterns held by carven figures. Down in the valley, a short distance away, you can dance with a partner within stone walls. for the more energetic, there’s always the boathouse where you can rez a rowing boat – although getting around the island takes a little care.
For my part, I loved simply wandering around the island, walking under tree and over bridge and simply playing with my windlight settings and seeing what came forth. There is something very relaxing about simply being on ones own in such a region as this; it’s calming and renewing.
People sometimes come here looking for answers…..sometimes they find them….sometimes they don’t.
Sometimes people come here for comfort, reflection or have someone to listen in a safe and peaceful place. This is more easily found.
So reads the description for The Haven – and it is entirely apt; you may not find the answers you’re seeking when visiting – but you will find somewhere where reflection comes easy and peace presents you with a reason to stay. And that alone makes a visit more than worthwhile.
Update: Neva River is currently closed to public access.
I covered Neva River very briefly last year. The region is Neva Crystall’s private home, and every so often she will remodel it and then open it to the public for a couple of weeks, so that everyone can enjoy her builds – anyone who has visited Neva River will know why.
I recently saw word via Ziki Questi that Neva was moving towards re-opening the region. Since then, I’ve been waiting (not a little impatiently, I admit – along with a lot of other people!) for the doors to once again open.
This is inevitably going to lead to a stampede to get to Neva River – indeed, but the time I got there, the place was fairly teeming with people; it’s a measure of the popularity of Neva’s builds. If you have 30-40 minutes some time in the next couple of weeks, I urge you to join the queue, particularly if you are, to borrow from Honour McMillan, a landscape junkie.
Last time around, the region focused on a water theme, with low sandbanks, waterlogged copses and small fields of grass beneath an orange sky. This time, Neva has gone for something far more undulating, but with a few little eclectic twists. From coastal beaches through rural country to deep gorges, with high bridges, meandering streams, and broad lakes, Neva River presents a landscape which offers much to see, and not a few things to do.
Starting at the tall lighthouse, located at the headland at one end of the region, you can follow wooden walkways, paths and rutted tracks across the region, encountering other visitors, the local animals (mostly sheep) and various delights and oddities which make a visit to Neva River something of an exploration (just how did a fishing boat end up so land-locked…?).
The region come with its own late afternoon windlight setting, but as is my wont, I opted to go for my “standard” settings, based around a couple of windlight presents I’ve slightly tweaked, and which I like as I feel they give a more natural look and feel to places (one is actually my default viewer’s standard windlight setting nowadays). If the images here don’t do the build justice, blame me, not Neva Crystall!
I will confess that I had a few problems during my wanderings through the region. However, I think these were pretty much down to the fact that the place is rather busy, people-wise, right now and the fact that I’m using a pre-release of a viewer, so SL is a little bit on the bumpy side for me right now.
All-in-all the rebuild has been worth the wait; once again Neva River is on the list of “must places” to visit in SL – but those wishing to do so had best hurry; the doors may not be open for ever!
Update August 5th, 2013: Wretched Hollow has reloacted to Rainbow Coast.
Rolling Restarts run every Tuesday and Wednesday (well, as a rule). For the uninitiated, and without delving into the deeper intricacies of what goes where and how, Tuesday sees updates to the Second Life Server (“Main”) channel, which accounts for about 70% of the regions on grid, and Wednesday sees the three “Release Candidate” channels (called BlueSteel, Magnum and LeTigre and which account for around 10% of the grid apiece) get their updates. For those wishing to know more on this, info on the various deployments can be found in my SL projects updates.
Wretched Hollow
I mention rolling restarts, because they often mean that when logging-in to Second Life you don’t always get to go where you intended, be it home or anywhere else. At best you end up being diverted to a “location nearby” or to a “safe” hub (some of which seem, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, to have some strange new meaning of the word “safe” we’ve not been previously aware of), at worst you get a message pop-up during the log-in process stating the viewer has been “unable to connect to a simulator”.
Such was the case with me recently. I had planned an excursion to a specific region, but a rolling restart left me delving into the Destination Guide and opting for pot luck after I was left unable to connect to my desired destination.
Wretched Hollow
So it was that I ended up at Wretched Hollow, which describes itself thus:
A dark, whimsical sim inspired by the love of Gothic Romance and Neo-Victorian things. As one of Second Life’s best-kept secrets, Wretched Hollow is home to the Wretched Dollies store and has several places to explore, including a small town and a fishing inlet with dock.
The first part of the description was enough to have me teleporting over to check things out. What I found was very much a curious mix, possibly sliding more towards the Victorian than the Gothic, but certainly which touches of whimsy, be it with the 18th century ships anchored offshore, or the very much more recent oil drums providing a little warmth for those out on the streets of the township.
Wretched Hallow
The region is roughly split into two parts: a more rural, open setting, with a couple of private residences (one of which appears to belong to region holder Star Fairymeadow) The other part of the region forms an urban setting which provides a home for Star’s Wretched Dollies brand, offering a range of products – clothing, doll accessories, furniture – with a Gothic / Victorian leaning, as well as Star’s own textures and her range for Petites. For those into the club scene, the town also boasts an underground – literally – club featuring a broad mix of music (although Gothic Rock / Industrial / Darkwave, etc., seems to bt the primary theme).
I was drawn to the town because of its strong Victorian look and feel which, together with the default windlight setting and style of buildings, immediately put me in mind of the East End of London, and specifically the Whitechapel area and going out towards the old London docks of yesteryear. A newspaper billboard passed as I explored the streets heightened this feeling even more.
While Robert Downey Jr didn’t scuttle by me hurriedly swapping one disguise for another as he pursued clues to the mystery of the East End murders, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised had he done.
Wretched Hollow
Like many store-front regions in SL, Wretched Hollow has been put together with a creative skill which is deserving of time spent exploring it, and which lends itself to a lot of playing around with windlight options. The town certainly offers an opportunity for the avid SL photographer to come up with some memorable images and possible vignettes (although just clearing matters of using the region for photography with Star ahead of time would obviously be for the best).
For my part, I enjoyed my little unexpected excursion to the streets of Old London; Wretched Hollow came as a very pleasant surprise in my meanderings and allowed my to focus on a subject and setting a little bit outside the norm for this blog.
