Category: Exploring Second Life

Cathy Foil is a creator of note. Among her many talents, she was the first to introduce fully sculpted foot in SL and put it in a high heel; she is the creator of the MayaStar mesh rigging plug-in for Maya, and she is, alongside the AvaStar folk, one of the prime movers in the Bento project. She is also a huge fan of The Original Series of Star Trek^TM.

How big a fan, you ask? Well, let me put it to you this way: in 2008, before the birth of mesh in Second Life, she start started building an avatar-sized, scale replica of the Enterprise itself.  Almost two regions in length, with interiors from the Bridge to Engineering, it was a huge undertaking – albeit unfinished.

Part of the ship is currently once again rezzed in-world, although unfortunately in a location that is not open for public access. However, given July is being used to mark the 50th anniversary of Star Trek^TM with the release of the 3rd film instalment from the “Abramaverse”, I took the opportunity to join Cathy on a tour of the original starship Enterprise NCC-1701.

“You best be in Mouselook when we beam up to her,” Cathy informed me as we arrived at two innocent-looking transporter disks lying in the sand. Following her instructions I stood on a pad, brought up the menu and slipped into Mouselook before alt-clicking my destination: Mr. Kylie’s Transporter Room 6. For a second, nothing happened; then a familiar hum filling the air, the beach before me started to sparkle, my universe flickered for a second, then the sparkling and noise faded and the transporter room emerged out of the glow.

Never have I felt quite so “on” the Enterprise as I did at that moment; stepping off the pad, I expected to see Mr. Kylie himself behind the transporter station and then hear that magical high-pitched hiss of the doors as Kirk and Spock arrived.

“The entire project took about eighteen months to get this far,” Cathy said as I admired the transporter, the control console and monitoring station, all beautifully re-created in prims and sculpts. “Most of the ship is rendered as sculpts with prim walls and floors,” Cathy said, leading me to the door which did give that squeaky hiss of opening at we approached. “That way we could reduce the prim count and make things manageable.” Sculpts they may be, but sculpts designed with care: no waiting for things to pop into existence in my view at all during the tour.

The corridors outside were equally marvels: the familiar bold colours born of 1960s colour television programming, the intercoms at junctions, the gaudy doors (behind which, and depending upon which deck you’re on, sit crew quarters, officers quarters, the sickbay,  briefing rooms, offices, and main engineering), doors hissing in greeting or departure as you enter / leave. At the end of many of the corridors sit the familiar triangle archway of a turbolift station.

“These are all a single sculpt,” Cathy told me, as we walked to one of the arches, triggering an automatic call for a turbolift. “It includes the walls that connect the archway to the sides of the corridor so everything blends.” The car arrived and we stepped in. Touching the familiar handles gave a choice of destination. We headed for the Bridge.

“Most of the ship, including the textures, I made,” Cathy said in answer to my question as another spine-tingling sound – that of a turbolift in operation – filled the air. “Lora Chadbourne also contributed the shuttlecraft bay and some of the consoles like the monitoring console in the transporter room, another builder produced the interiors of the warp nacelles.”

The detail is extraordinary. The bridge stations are all painstakingly reproduced, the centre seat has the expected wood trim, Spock’s science station has the familiar scanner. Elements within the bridge are interactive. Touch the helm console, and up come a range of options – go to warp, fire phasers or photon torpedoes, accelerate to warp 8, etc., while the viewscreen offers a range of images, including that of the destroyed USS Constellation, as seen in the episode The Doomsday Machine and the Romulan Warbird from Balance of Terror. And all around are the familiar background noises.

This level of detail and interaction is present throughout the ship – as are the ambient sounds. Back in the transporter room for example, you can toggle switches and operate the famous transporter activation sliders, while in Engineering, you can examine the ship’s dilithium crystals in their rack. A clever “stacked” use of textures gives an excellent a 3D effect in grilles and grates.

Drop into the briefing room, and you can flick individual rocker switches, call up images on the tri-screen, or use the intercom to call someone elsewhere in the ship. Down the corridor at the ship’s medical facilities you can work out to “Bones” McCoy’s satisfaction or pop into his lab where he has one of the parasites from Operation: Annihilate! under observation – although the little bugger is not averse to getting loose! Against the back wall of the lab sits the decompression chamber from Space Seed nearby. With working food replicators in the mess hall (fortunately tribble-free) and all the ambient sounds from the original, this is s ship that is really alive.

To ensure accuracy, Cathy used a mix of the Franz Joseph blueprints from the ship, together with plans from the studio in laying out the interior spaces, although as she notes, she had to upscale things a little. “The whole ship is like 115% to scale, she said. “Had to be bigger than 100% because average male avatar in SL is like 7 feet tall, and then there is the camera position on top of that!”

As note above, the ship isn’t a completed model. Circumstance brought the project to a halt in 2009 when the two regions over which the Enterprise was located were let go, ending all Trek role-play there. When touring the ship, signs that it is still a work-in-progress can be found on the floors, some of which are textured with copies of the original Desilu Studio set plans from the show. Rather than detracting from the model, these add a further layer of authenticity and care in its construction.

Continue reading “A Starship Enterprise in Second Life big enough for an avatar crew” →

Elysium City of Templemore – click any image for full size

Whilst perusing the latest Destination Guide Highlights, I was pleasantly surprised to see a new entry for the Elysium City of Templemore. by Luis Lockjaw. In the past, I’d visited the old Hesperia of Templemore, but never managed to blog about it; the closest I’d come was a piece on isle of Mousai, Templemore’s former sister region, also designed by Luis. So the new DG entry spurred me into jumping over and correcting things.

A new design this may be, but the magic of the “old” Templemore is retained. Folded within the within the arms of tall mountains, and reached only by the single channel of water cutting between them, there is a sense that Elysium City lies hidden from the rest of the world. It is a place which invites exploration and which suggests stories lying just around the next corner or behind each door – a place which awakens the imagination and draws the visitor into its tales and whimsy.

Elysium City of Templemore

From the landing point in the west, bordered by a narrow band of beach curving away to the north and south, you walk across sandy grass to the city gates, standing slightly ajar and silently beckoning.  A short walk away, across sandy grass, the city gates beckon, drawing you to them, and the cobble streets beyond. Step through them and you enter a new realm, a place where time both passes with a steady heartbeat whilst everything also seemingly caught within a single moment.

The cobbled streets, mostly bordered by tall brick buildings of a bygone era, appear at first glance to have been lifted from the heart of an English metropolis -but look again. Among them sit Tuscan villas and French street café booths, while a distinctive American wood-framed house sits within an eerie green light, drawing you towards its hidden mystery.

Elysium City of Templemore

To the north and south sit a tall factory and the Elysium Theatre, their respective bulks standing sentinel-like on either shoulder of the city.  Along the streets, clocks hang from walls marking the passage of time, yet pages from a book and leaves freed from their life on boughs, hang motionless in the air, whilst statues watch all who pass before them.

Eastward, across the city, lies a river spanned by a single bridge, its arches shrouded in mist, the wreck of a once proud brig, now broken against the rocks. Winged fairies, like brightly coloured lost Boys and Wendys, hover over bridge and water, and while the ticking of a clock cannot be heard, it’s not hard to look down at the misted waters and imagine the tick of one echoing faintly from under an arched span of the bridge…

Elysium City of Templemore – click any image for full size

Beyond the river, the city gives way to a rustic setting, wherein sits a little farm, a loose wooden board walk pointing the way to another mansion-house rising above the trees. This area is a place of whimsy and smiles, as can be seen as soon as you reach the end of the bridge.

As noted at the top of this article, music is still at the heart of Templemore, and the landing point gives news on upcoming events (at the time of writing, the next concert was due to be held on Sunday, July 24th from 13;00 SLT).

Elysium City of Templemore – click any image for full size

Elysium of City of Templemore is a joy to visit. While there are welcome echoes of Hesperia for those who remember it, the City offers a richly layered sense of immersion which is entirely its own. The mix of urban and rustic settings is perfect, and needless to say, photo opportunities abound, both under the atmospheric default windlight and in those of your own choosing.

If you’re so minded, your photos are welcome in region’s Flickr group. Should you enjoy your visit, please consider a donation towards the region’s future upkeep.

SLurl Details

• Elysium City of Templemore (Rated: Moderate)

Hestium – click any image for full size

I first wrote about Hestium, the home of our friends Boudicca Amat and Anthony Westburn, back in October 2015.  The land forms both their private home and a public venue for exploration and storytelling – among her many talents, Boudicca is a landscape designer, a visual artist and a Voice artist.

More recently the land has been closed while Boudicca redesigned it, so I was delighted when she forwarded an invitation to Caitlyn and I to pay a visit as she and Anthony re-opened for public visits.

Hestium

For those familiar with Hestium of old, the new design contains much that is familiar whilst offering much that is new. The result is a pleasing mix of feelings: on the one hand, there is a sense of returning to a familiar, loved location, whilst on the other the sense of exploring somewhere new is reborn, allowing us to share the joy of discovery with making their very first trip to Hestium.

A visit starts at the landing point in the north-east corner over the land. Here, just beyond the greeting hanging gently in the air, a set of stone stairs (another things Boudicca and I share is a love of Alex Bader’s landscape kits!), which winds up the cliff to a small collection of buildings designed by Boudicca herself, arranged around a small, fountained square, with a terrace overlooking the beach and water below.

Hestium

It is here that Hestium’s stories begin. All of the apartments around this little piazza are furnished and apparently occupied. But by whom? And what are their stories? Why have they come here and settled? That is for you to decide: just open your mind, wander the apartments look through windows, peek around corners, down arched alleyways and behind homes and let your imagination take flight.

And if your love of stories runs deeper, and you wish to listen to a good book or tale, then be sure to drop into the Cat and Mouse, the pub in the square. It is here that Boudicca reads in Voice every Tuesday and Thursday between 15:15 and 16:00 SLT.

Hestium

Make your way through or around the buildings, and you’ll reach the cliffs on the north side of the land, where you can travel over rocky span and under rocky arch to where the rest of Hestium awaits.

Here a path runs along – for those who remember Hestium from its last incarnation – a familiar sandy coast, behind and above which sits Boudicca’s and Anthony’s home (please do respect their privacy)  to a little pink cottage charmingly nestled between tall trees, and offering unspoilt views out over the sea. The path ends at the cottage, but walk around it, and you’ll find another leading to the pink windmill nearby, while not too far away sits the ruin of a small house and, up on the rocks and shaded from view, a crypt.

Hestium

Hestium has always been a marvellous place to visit, and with this new iteration, that tradition continues. Throughout the land there are numerous places to sit and pass the time – the terrace above the landing point, seats and benches scattered across vantage points and nestled on balconies. There are also many small touches to delight the eye – both Caitlyn and I came close to attempting squirrel-napping after seeing a little chap repeatedly raid a bird feeder during our explorations!

Congrats to Boudicca on the design and to her and Anthony on the re-opening.

SLurl Details

Hestium: where stories begin (Region rated: Adult; Hestium is requested PG)

Hermoupolis Village – click any image for full size

I first visited Hermoupolis Village by Nitsuko’s Nits’ (putanakio) back towards the start of the year, after finding it in the Destination Guide. At the time, I didn’t get the opportunity to blog about it, so I thought it was about time I put things to rights.

Occupying the east side of a full region, Hermoupolis Village is beautifully photogenic, nestled between rugged peaks on one side, and what might be the tongue of a large lake cutting inland on the other, the green hills of an off-sim surround giving the impression of a rolling landscape on the far side of the water.

Hermoupolis Village

The northern end of the land is dominated by the imposing bulk of a department store, in front of which sits a series of terraces, each one the focus for a sculpture. These are beautifully created by Valtum, with at least two  – the Discobolus of Myron, and the Barberini Faun – being drawn from the physical world. On other side of these terraces, a tram track emerges from a tunnel and winds its way past a town house, the interior of which looks ideal for telling haunted tales, and a small drug store, before running along the water’s edge.

The middle of the land is occupied by a tall town house flanked by two smaller houses, a paved rod looping in front of them. Across this sits an inviting lakeside café bar. Together these form a smooth transition between the more urban look of the department store and its terraces and and distinctly Mediterranean village of the title, sitting to the south.

Hermoupolis Village

Within the village, stone paths wind between the various buildings – which, like all the building here, are open to the public – while an open market offers fresh produce and farm animals wander the grass. For those looking for a place to soak up the sun, the southern end of the village offers a pool and hot hub enclosed with the walls of what appears to have once been an ancient courtyard.

This is a place which is deceptive in its attractions, as there is so much to discover. Each of the houses is individually appointed, inviting exploration. There’s a little Romany camp to be found at the edge of the village, while a little stream running beneath the lee of the jagged peaks running along the west side of the land also invites exploration.

Hermoupolis Village

There are also numerous places encouraging visitors to tarry: the café mentioned above, the pool and its hot tub, benches along the terraces, a small orangery offering cakes and ice cream at the north end of the land – even the verandahs and terraces of the houses themselves.

Nitsuko’s tells me he does change things around from time to time, but prefers not to make huge changes. Doing so tends to offer people reasons to return – quite aside for those making use of the stores – without the heart and look of the land being lost in a major reconstruction.  For my part, I thoroughly enjoyed this long-overdue re-visit, and will be making sure it’s not such a long time between this and the next time I drop in!

Hermoupolis Village

SLurl Details

• Hermoupolis Village (Rated: Moderate)

Bridgewood Barrow – click any image for full size

I’ve said in the past that it is not always necessary to have an entire region in order to create something worthwhile, either as your home or as a place for others to visit. Such is the case with Bridgewood Barrow, a 8192 sq m parcel offered as a place to visit and spend time within by Aby (Abysinnia – also known as Harper Quinne), with a little help from Darthenian (DarthHill) and Marcus Keown.

Located in the south-east corner of its home region (Aurore), Bridgewood Barrow offers visitors a cosy corner of Second Life in which to relax or wander – without having to worry about breaking out the walking boots in the case of the latter!

Bridgewood Barrow

The landing point is a small pier located over a little beach. Here visitors can collect a note card about the parcel, and update themselves with the latest news.  Facing this and a very short walk away is a brick-built house offering a place to dance, a little café and, up on the roof (reached via the fire escape ladders at the side of the house), Greedy, Greedy and cuddle loungers are available.

A small lawned garden sits behind and to one side of the house, a tree-lined track pointing the way east from it. Following this will as it passes above a small lake will lead visitors to a dirt track switch-backing down to a second building sits partially nestled among trees, the bedroom looking out over the lake.  A footpath runs around the back of this, pointing the way to a short climb to a bridge crossing the entrance to the lake, and so back to the beach and the pier.

Bridgewood Barrow

Within this deceptively simple layout, there is a lot to enjoy, both indoors and out, with plenty of places to sit and cuddle, and views to be found. There is a Flickr group available for the latter, although it was looking a little forlorn when I visited; which is a shame, as couple with the right windlight settings, Bridgewood Barrow offers a picturesque setting for photography.

The parcel notes make it clear that Bridgewood Barrow will remain as it is through until the end of August, after which Aby will be working on a new project, which I gather will also be open to the public. So, if you fancy spending a little time in charming surroundings, either on your own or with a close friend, one without the need to explore an entire region, Bridgewood Barrow could be just the ticket.

Bridgewood Barrow

SLurl Details

• Bridgewood Barrow (Rated: Adult)

Furillen, Serene Footman’s homestead region, is a beautifully atmospheric place (see my last post on it from December 2015). Given this, it is quite possibly the last location you might expect to come across a celebration of English rock band Pink Floyd. But for a short period of time, that’s exactly what has happened.

“I enjoy transforming the sim for events – the Bowie and Radiohead weekends will always be highlights for me of the sim’s first six months – but this one really did get out of hand.” Serene says of the region’s current incarnation, as he introduces it in a post he’s called Pink Floyd Ate My Sim.

In place of the region’s normal sombre skies and brooding landscape (some of the familiar buildings remain), sits a marvellous tribute to Pink Floyd which includes iconic album covers through to commemorations of live tours and scenes from the group’s music videos – and more.

“It was carnage as some of Furillen’s biggest landmarks were hoovered up into my inventory,” Serene states. “When this is over, I’ll be taking full advantage of the option to ‘restore to last position’!”

In the meantime, visitors can variously enjoy Battersea power station, complete with pig floating overhead (Animals, 1977), which brackets the landing point between itself and that iconic wall from the 1979 album of the same name, whilst alongside the power station sit the rows of beds from 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. And that’s just the start of things.

With Pink Floyd songs playing in the music stream (a 13 hour play list featuring every studio album made by Pink Floyd, in chronological order, no less!), a spinning CD of The Wall forming the landing point (courtesy of Tizzy Canucci) and a terrain texture taken from the album, Furillen is a veritable nirvana for Floyd fans. So much so that it’s hard not to get entirely snap-happy as you wander / cam around!

As well as the references to album covers visitors will also find references to individual songs by the group and to members of the band – Serene helpfully provides a list of all the points of interest if you don’t want to miss anything.

This is a spectacular, fun exhibit Whether viewed as a tribute to Pink Floyd or as an artictic statement or simply as a little bit of fun, the end result really is eye-catching and a must-see. So if you haven’t done so already, now is the time to hop over to Furillen. Serene has promised to hold off hitting the “restore” button until around mid-week after July 10th; and when you visit, do please consider making a donation towards the region’s upkeep so Serene can continue to provide us with delights like this.

SLurl Details

• Furillen (Rated: Moderate)