Category: Exploring Second Life

It’s hard to believe it is May and that summer is supposedly just around the corner. After a burst of sudden warm weather which suggested spring had finally arrived, the weather has been a riot: rain, odd bursts of hail, thunderstorms and high winds. They’re even reporting snow in Devon!

I’m not sure if the weather in real life has affected my thinking about Second Life (some of my thoughts about the platform and my involvement in it has been a little on the grey side this last week), but while running through my list of places to blog about and rifling through the folders of snaps I have of places, I was struck by just how summery my snaps look. So I set off to try something different, although I hadn’t a clue what.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to spend too long scratching my head over what it is I was looking for. As soon as I stepped into Winter Moon, Dream Shadowcry’s evocative homestead region, I knew I’d found it.

In a world of often bright, vibrant colours, it’s not often you come across something which is almost  – and quite naturally – monochrome in Second Life, but Winter Moon is precisely that – and it is precisely that in a most magnificent way.

Rain pours from the sky when you arrive, and breakers crash against the shore. The lowering sky reduces everything to shades of grey and washed-out colour over which bright white falls tumble, while muslin-like clouds scud across the sky. “Atmospheric” doesn’t come close to describing the way in which this region has been put together – I strongly recommend that you keep to the region windlight settings when you arrive for the first time and, if you can, run with Advanced Lighting Model (“Lighting and shadows” in older viewer versions) active – you can keep shadows set to “None”.

There are paths to follow around the region, and places to discover; wandering and discovery are invited, and in places handy camera and telescopes point to vistas and images worthy of a snap or two – not that the entire region isn’t highly photogenic. Here and there are places to sit, either alone or with a loved one or friend. Some of these lend themselves to quite introspection, others provide an opportunity to dance. All add to the whole.

The attention to detail is wonderful – make sure you drop into the little orangery on the south side of the region. This is a beautifully composed piece, complete with half-eaten pizza lying in is box, together with a couple of Pepsi cans alongside the bed which clearly evoke a feeling when seen, and the movie playing on the projector at the foot of the bed further enhances the mood.

I advise keeping to the default windlight when making a first visit – particularly if you can run with Advanced Lighting Model active – because the overall monochrome effect of the region allows for a number of quite unexpected surprises, with sudden splashes of colour appearing as you pass the lamps and lights marking paths and gates.

For those not into greys and rain, the region also lends itself to a wide range of windlight settings, making it another perfect location of the SL photographer and explorer, as I hope the few scattered through my sideshow from a previous visit will demonstrate.

A highly recommended place to visit.

(view slideshow full-screen)

Related Links

• Winter Moon SLurl (Rated Moderate)
• SL Destinations in this blog

Update: We can continue to Smile, as Kaelyn Alecto reports, “Thanks to many insanely amazing donations I have been able to keep my sim open! Come on by and pay a visit and have fun exploring :)” – so please go along and visit!

As I’ve mentioned in these pages a number of times,  I tend to use the Photogenic Spots section of the Destination Guide as a reference when looking for places to visit in SL. One of the places listed there is It All Starts with a Smile, located on Onyx Isle, the Homestead region of Kaelyn Alecto and her SL partner, Maxxster. While I’d frequently made a mental note to visit the region in the past, I’d never quite managed it.

Then I heard by way of Mona Eberhardt and Ziki’s blog that the region may be vanishing around May 15th 2013. This is not because the tier is too high per se, but apparently because the region’s tier is partially underwritten by one of the third-party exchanges (TPEs) hit by the Lab’s recent changes to the SL Terms of Service and the decision to write to all such exchanges and request they cease trading / providing Linden Dollars.

If this is indeed the case, then it is a shame, because the region is beautifully put together with a keen eye for composition and photography – Maxxster is a photographer himself, and there is a Flickr group devoted to the region.

From the seaside town frontage of the arrival point, complete with carousel and Ferris wheel, you can walk down to a sun-kissed beach, sit on a fading wooden dock or follow a path around the island (or simply climb over the hills behind the shops!) to reach beautiful and restful meadows. There are beauty spots scattered across the island where you can sit and admire the view or snap away with the camera to your heart’s content. Romantics are also catered for, with places to dance, places to sit and cuddle and corners to snuggle in and hide from the world – there is even a cute little caravan with a blanket and pillows spread on the roof, hitched to a sporty little Mini!

In short, this is a place designed to bring a smile to your face – and keep it there; which makes its potential removal from Second Life all that more poignant. I don’t – as I hope the destination reviews in this blog demonstrate – run with the “sim deathwatch” crowd; while SL undoubtedly has its problems, there are still many fabulous places left to visit. Even so, when it comes to one which is as beautifully presented as It All Starts With a Smile, then its possible passing is to be lamented.

I only wish I’d visited sooner.

P.S.  there is a donations piggy bank at the landing point, and as the saying goes, “Every little helps,” so if you do pop in to have a look around, a few L$ dropped into it would likely be appreciated and might even help keep the region going…

Related Links

• It All Starts With A Smile SLurl (Rated: General)
• It All Starts With A Smile Flickr Group
• SL Destinations in this blog

Whenever I browse the Destination Guide, my eyes are inevitably caught by the entry for SolAria, so much so that I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d have to pay the island a visit.

Built by Maveryck Breen, SolAria seeks to reproduce an oceanside Italian / Mediterranean village suitable for SL photographers and romantics. Covering slightly less than a full region (there is an area of grassland to one side which apparently belongs to another group), SolAria achieves its aims exceptionally well.

The arrival point is a raised piazza overlooking a sheltered harbour. Here you’ll find a fountain, the local trattoria and footpaths and steps leading both up and down and between and around an assortment of houses and shops.

For the romantics, there are places to dance or to sit together and watch the world go by and waterside walks which, for the inquisitive or those prepared to get their feet wet, might lead you to more than might at first meet the eye. Merfolk in particular might well feel at home in at least part of this build.

Everywhere appears open to explore, and despite the compact size of the build, there is a lot to see once you start exploring  – such as the park on the headland, the busy dockside at one end of the island, complete with ornate bathysphere, and two fortifications facing one another across the island, with a church sitting in between as if keeping two ancient families from sparring with one another.

This is a build which really is best enjoyed when running in deferred mode; great care has been taken with the lighting, and while there is no windlight pre-set I could determine (I received no pop-up asking me if I wished to accept local windlight), a late evening setting can really emphasise the beauty of the village with the street and house lights.

For the SL photographer, the island is a real delight, leading itself to a whole range of windlight settings which in turn can produce stunning images.  There is even a modest gallery in the village where pictures of the village are on display.

If I’m honest, there are perhaps one or two places – notably inside some of the buildings – where the texturing could do with a little more attention in terms of scaling / repeats, but this is a minor niggle on my part. Certainly, I recently spent a happy afternoon wandering and camming around grabbing snaps and twiddling with windlight – as I hope the slideshow below shows!

(view slideshow full-screen)

Related Links

• SolAria SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• SL Destinations in this blog

It is said that the greatest mystery surrounding the Lindens is that of the disappearance of Magellan Linden, the great explorer of these lands. However, Magellan isn’t the only Linden to vanish under mysterious circumstances while exploring these lands – there is another. His name is – or was – Professor Linden.

“Who?” I hear you say – and not without reason; for compared to the great Magellan Linden, the good Professor is rarely, if ever, mentioned. There are many reasons for this: Magellan, of course, opened up the continents for settlement and was ever pushing at the boundaries of the world to discover new places to explore and claim them in the name of the Lindens. He was a Hero (and as some might have it, a bit of a rogue with innocent young women), and many expeditions have been launched to try to discover his whereabouts (or fate).

Professor Linden, on the other hand, was always of a much lower public profile – or as his fellow Lindens prefer to put it, “completely barking mad”. This is because of his persistently stated belief that these lands were once the realm of a great and benevolent dragon, who was to many a friend, and a guardian to all before changes to the world led to his passing. Such was his conviction on this that the good Professor actually vanished while attempting to find what was left of the great dragon.

Some say he actually found it.

But how much truth is there behind the Professor’s belief and his disappearance? Did he really find the evidence he sought, or is he even now hidden in a cosy, padded room in the Battery Street basement? I decided to set out to find the truth.

My investigations led me to what had once been an untamed island far to the south and east of the great continents. On this island, in more recent times, the Moles had raised up a huge development of Linden Homes, leaving only the northernmost parts of the island untouched,  preserved as a protected wilderness. And it was in these northern reaches, my sources informed me, that the Moles had uncovered part of an  ancient road.

So it was that I travelled to Cape Ekim, where I found this ancient road – although “path” might now be a better description – its stones worn smooth with age, as they lead the way through a strangely rolling grassy landscape towards a distant tower which raised a battered head above the low hills and ridges bordering the winding path.

At length the road brought me to a strange a wonderful coastline, complete with standing stones which reminded me of the Giant’s Causeway, beyond which lay that lonely and battered tower, connected to the land by a great stone bridge.

Continue reading “Of forgotten explorers, dragons and mysteries” →

OK, so maybe the Eagles didn’t sing it quite that way, but Baja Norte, modelled on the northern Baja California coast is an eye-catching place to visit and for some reason did cause the Eagle’s song to pop into my head; possibly because at the end of my explorations, I didn’t want to leave…

The region wasn’t actually on my current list of places to visit, but I do keep an eye on the Destination Guide from time to time to see what is going on, and I was curious to note that the number of Photogenic Spots had increased by one at some point recently. Delving a little deeper into the listing saw my curiosity increase as I read the description of Baja Norte and saw the photo, and so off I toddled to take a look.

I don’t really tend to be one for the beach, either in RL or SL; in RL a beach-focused holiday / vacation leaves me cold. I much prefer going somewhere and exploring – which might explain my rambles across Second Life as well. However, with Baja Norte, Jac Mornington has created something very special.

Here one will find three islands, the largest of which could easily have been lifted from a section of rugged coastline anywhere in the world and dropped neatly into SL. Two houses can be found here – one rather ramshackle and weather-worn – and a small quay for sailing boats. A long beach follows the line of the island on its western side, offering panoramic views out to sea and past the lighthouse on the smallest of the islands, as an old fishing boat chugs across the horizon.

From the arrival point, one can stroll along the sand, or follow the board walks (yet again, Alex Bader’s presence is felt!) around the island or inland – and upward – to the house on the hill. Walk far enough around the northern headland and you’ll find another set of wooden steps leading upwards to the top of the cliffs above.

The remaining island in the region is also reached by a board walk which spans a stretch of sea and from which some magnificent views along the beach can be obtained. On the island itself are places to sit (and cuddle) with a friend or loved one, and a tree platform to reach via ladder and rope.

Once again, this is a wonderful region in which to twiddle with windlight, particularly if you’re into photography and love sunsets. There is a lot of wildlife scattered around the region as well, which can make for interesting snapshot subjects (and I’m not talking about the avatar variety who might be availing themselves of the various cuddle spots!).

If I’m totally honest, the waves in the bay don’t really work for me, but this is purely a personal thing, and their timing is such that they can easily be avoided if you don’t want them in your pictures. They certainly don’t detract from the overall visual appeal of the region, which has clearly been developed with a keen eye for detail and with some very imaginative sculpting of the land which draws one in very naturally, presenting an environment which is both attractive and which welcomes both the explorers and those content to sit and watch the world tick by.

Definitely one for the album  – and the landmark folder!

Related Links

• Baja Norte SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• SL Destinations in this blog