Category: Reviews

It’s been two years since I first visited Jilin Estates, the Full region design by Jin Zhu (KidDreamz) and his SL partner, Li Zhu (JamaicasianBaby). It was a visit I can still recall and enjoyed at the time, so when Jin extended a personal invitation to drop into the latest iteration of Jilin – DYNASTY at Peony – Jilin Estates – ahead of the official opening, I was delighted to accept.

For those who remember the 2019 Jilin build, this latest iteration – which opened its doors to public access on at midnight SLT of the 21st / 22nd August, 2021 – is very different in presentation, but still retains the same Far East themes throughout, and more than maintains Jilin Estate’s to present an engaging design. With this new setting, the rural focus of 2019 is completely absent, replaced by a setting suggestive of a city borough or precinct, the shining towers an gleaming apartment blocks of the more affluent parts of the city forming the surrounding horizon / backdrop.

The focal point for the build is the tall, modern headquarters for Dynasty, Jin’s brand of oriental furnishings together with décor items and avatar accessories. North and south, this is bracketed by two squares, one of which forms the landing point for the region, the other the home of what might have been an old Shinto temple, now protected by a huge Tori gate even as more recent buildings attempt to hem it in on three sides.

Roads completely surround the Dynasty building, separating it and the square that is home to the landing point from what is clearly a much older neighbourhood, one perhaps looking down upon figuratively as well as literally by the distant shining towns of the city’s heart, that mixes utilitarian concrete blocks of buildings old than the glamming skyscrapers but more youthful than the wooden places of business and homes with which they mix. Besides the main square of roads around the landing point, this a neighbourhood rich with side street and alleyways and smaller squares (some one always obvious) that mark it as a veritable melting pot of ideas and opportunities for photographs.

It is also a place dominated by advertising, suggesting a society in which consumerism is the main deity. Along the side streets and alleys, neon signs hang much as up might expect them, but along the broader streets, the advertising is almost overpowering: great screens give life to adverts for faster, sleek cars, military careers, shows, and more. Not even the tall fingers of what have might once been the towers guarding former city gates have been spared, their faces covered in smooth cement on which still and animated advertising hoards have been hung, the spread of the city having long ago rendered the need for protective walls moot, their presence washed away in the drive to develop and grow, the towers left behind given a new lease of life.

Nor does the advertising end with hoardings, boards and signs: drones periodically swoop along the main roads, “pushing” holograms before them, deftly avoiding the traffic lights that also hover aloft, periodically directing traffic that many or many not require the surface roads and local expressway. These drones, together with a Deckard-style decommissioned Spinner parked alongside the landing point, suggest this is a place sitting in our not-too-distant future, a future that is refreshingly less dystopian in presentation than can be the case within SL.

The advertising perhaps initially suggests Japan as being the home to this city scene, but exploration around the landing point is likely to lean opinions more toward China. Places like the Yu Hua and Tai Fung Lau restaurants help with this push, as does the presence of  Fu dogs ornamentation around some of the building, lending them a degree of Feng Shui  protection as Chinese lanterns hang from rafters ore are strung along or across alleyways. But the truth is, this is a blending of oriental themes to which a soupçon of western elements have been added to provide a perfectly balanced mix of ideas that is both rich without in any way unpalatable.

And for those who might feel intimidated by all the advertising, a trip down one of the side streets / alleys might offer comfort thanks to the words DON’T PANIC! appearing above the roof of one building in large, friendly letters. One of these signs actually overlooks a small Cybermart – but whether the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation has a stall there or not is open to debate (see, two Hitch-Hikers Guide references for the price of one!).

But the advertising is not the only thing to be found here – there is a wealth of attention to detail to be found through the build, from the appearance of several of shiro0822’s delightful Maru Kado cats (including a couple serving behind the counters of the Izakaya food bar!), through the detailing in the various restaurants to the placement of little market stalls, vehicles and other elements that bring the setting to life as a place, and all of which await the patient explorer.

As well as being offering for exploratory and photographic delight (if you join the region’s group for L$250, you can also have rezzing rights for props – just please make sure you clean up behind yourself!), the region retains opportunities for rentals; Jin informed me there are apartments available, and that commercial opportunities are available, be these “regular” stores or pop-up opportunities. Those interested in either should contact the Jilin Estate management team for details.

In terms of viewing the city, I will say it is pretty heavily loaded with textures, and these can take a while of render, particularly if you have Shadows enabled in the viewer. As such, it might be easier to toggle these off except with taking photos. Given the lighting employed through out, I would recommend you keep Advanced Lighting Model (ALM) active, or you enable it on arrival (Preferences → Graphics → check Advanced Lighting Model). And while the setting works under a range of EEP settings (I used my own for several of the images here purely for illustrative purposes), do make sure you enable Use Shared Environment (World menu) to see the region as Jin and Li intend it to be seen. Finally, do make sure you have local sounds enabled – it’s worth it to hear the supplied sound scape, which is perhaps not quite what you might expect in places (the robot commentary in particular!), but it again adds a further layer to DYNASTY at Peony.

Another engaging and photogenic design by Jin and Li, well worth the time to visit and appreciate – any maybe pick up some household / personal bits from Jin’s store!

SLurl Details

• DYNASTY at Peony – Jilin Estates )Peony, rated Moderate)

This is going to be a shorter than usual travelogue piece – which might be a blessing, given the way I can ramble on 🙂 – but I’m caught between several personal projects at the moment, which are limiting my time a little. However, Shawn Shakespeare pointed me towards half-region design  called Kailani, designed by Peter (Peterkes Beaton) with assistance from Sakira Mirabella.

Kaïlanï, a place between heaven and the ocean! A place created to hang with friends by friends, come and enjoy the chill mood at the beach or other photogenic spots.

Wander around at the plaza or play a little game just enjoy your stay…

– The About Land description for Kailani

Recently opened (August 7th), this is a setting of two distinct halves that blend together as a whole, making for an easy-to-tour location that is – as the About Land description notes – nicely photogenic.

The landing point sits within the walled yard of what looks like it might be a gallery space in the future. It sits tucked into the south-east corner of the region – Kailani has an east-west orientation – forming part of the small split-level town the form one of the two major areas of the setting.

The lower aspect of this town forms a waterfront area, complete with a small beach and wharves for fishing boats. Above it, reached by steps, is a square piazza and a cobbled street that sits between two paved sidewalks shaded by palm trees and the broad umbrella of a monkeypod tree. Brightly coloured houses line one side of the street, pointing the way to the Kailani café sitting in the little piazza, while a number of static NPCs add a sense of life to the setting.

West and north, separated from the rest of the region by a curtail wall of high cliffs and from the little town by a narrow channel of water, is a broad beach that arcs around a tropical forest that holds its own little secrets awaiting discovery.

This beach itself is home to the Hermit bar, while there are numerous places to sit both on the sand on on the water. At the western end of the beach, a boardwalk passes over the shallows to a circular sand bank where further places to sit and / or escape can be found. A second board walk skirts a small set of falls at the forest’s eastern end to reach a little set of facades nestled beneath the cliffs almost is if they are a little holiday home for visitors.

To reach the second board walk explorers must make their way through the forest to where wooden steps descend down to it. The route will carry visitors past the locations event space (and claim a group gift if so minded), and find a further place to sit and relax beyond it that offers a nice little view back towards the town.

There’s more to be found here (will you find the little cavern, for example?) as the setting sits beneath a setting Sun that casts long shadows photographers may enjoy playing with. However, other then repeating the fact Kailani offers multiple opportunities for photography and kicking-back (trying alternate EEP settings is recommended), I’ll leave things at that and suggest you hop along to witness things for yourself.

Thanks again to Shawn for passing along the LM!

SLurl Details

• Kailani (Destiny Isle, rated Adult)

I finally made time to drop into Endless: Permafrost, the latest design by Sombre Nyx that occupies her Full region in Second Life – my thanks to all who have been poking me to go over the course of the last week or so.

Sombre has a talent for capturing the essence of physical world environments from fenlands to the rugged beauty of Scottish / northern hemisphere islands and more. I’ve followed her work since she opened the first iteration of Endless – La Camargue – in 2019, and have always enjoyed the sense of place she incorporates within her designs – and Endless: Permafrost is no exception to this.

The setting offers a take on the sub-arctic permafrost that stretches beneath 65% of the Russian landmass and under nearly a quarter of the northern hemisphere. It is a layer of soil up to several hundred metres deep that has been frozen for two or more years (most of it having been in a frozen state for hundreds of thousands of years). Only now it is changing – and it is this change that Endless: Permafrost uses as its focus.

In short, the permafrost is thawing as a result of global warming, and it is doing so at an increasing rate year-on-year – on average, temperatures with arctic and sub-arctic areas of the world are warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. This is both revealing a new landscape within the permafrost regions, and having serious implications for the planet as a whole.

By coincidence, I’ve recently been reading about the effects of permafrost thawing in the Chersky region in the far north-eastern tip of Russia. Around two decades ago, the main town in the region was referenced in western media as being “buried under ice and snow for eight months of the year” with temperatures averaging around -6ºC. Today, the periods of snow-bound isolation are less long-lasting and  the average winter temperature sits at -3ºC. Current estimates suggest that in the course of the next two decades this average will rise to around 0ºC – all of which is a stunning change in climate.

As a result, the once-solid permafrost around Chersky has been degrading: the few roads within the region that were once passable (in summer at least) by any type of vehicle are now the preserve of 4×4 drive vehicles, the thaw having caused the ground under them to collapse, breaking their surfaces. Similarly, buildings have been exposed to subsidence and severe structural damage and / or collapse – and not just houses and other structures that may not have deeply solid foundations.

Chersky was once home to the largest building in north-east Asia, a water treatment plant that had been built upon steel piles driven into the permafrost, held in place by the frozen soil. But with the thaw had come a melting of the ice and softening of the ground, opening sinkholes and craters that robbed the piles of support, causing them to sag and / or fall over, bringing down parts of the building such that it looks to have been struck by a massive earthquake.

I’ve no idea if Sombre has in any way used Chersky and its surroundings as a basis for her Permafrost design, but I was drawn to thinking about it, because Sombre’s landscape bring elements of it to mind. For example, close the the landing point is the Arimat-Lubyn Research Station. Leaving aside the slightly Russian sounding name, its presence brought to mind the climate and permafrost research facilities also located in Chersky – facilities noted for being among the first to raise concerns over permafrost thaw back in the 1990s.

Sombre’s research station sits at the western end of the setting’s upland are. This curves around the southern extent of the region, centring on high peak tall enough to rise above the tree line, its upper reaches bare of vegetation but still the home of paths that climb to its summit, where one the region’s sitting spots can be found.

To the north of these hills, the region offers a lowland setting reflective of more of the changes being wrought in northern latitudes by the thawing permafrost: the grass is potted by flooded sinkholes, while the broken remains of buildings and structures brought low by ground-level subsidence as the ice has melted. It’s an enticing setting, made all the more rich and photogenic by the presence of a sound scape and suitable wildlife – foxes, reindeer, geese, rock ptarmigan, all are awaiting discovery – while there are numerous sit-points for those who wish to make use of them.

Those who check the landing point should spot the information giver. This provides a note card with Sombre’s comments on the permafrost and the risks involved in its thaw. In them she comments on the fact that the permafrost is perhaps the largest carbon sink on the planet – an estimated 1,400 gigatonnes of carbon is believed to be locked in the frozen soil. This is a worry because as the soil thaws, so organic processes within it resume. These consume the carbon and produce the greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide and methane. and the consumption of the carbon alone could produce 1.5 times more carbon dioxide than is currently present in the atmosphere.

Also to be found within the information note card are a pair of additional LMs that give access to other locations in the region: the Light House and the Endless: Islands. The first of these is a gentle, dream-like setting created by Sombre, offering a long boardwalk over water, places to sit scattered along it, the surrounding waters home to ice floes and a lone green island. The second is another fantastical setting of from the imagination of Jackson Cruyff: series of floating islands visitors can lose themselves within, and populated with their own delights.

Beautifully conceived and executed, Endless: Permafrost is once again an engaged visit.

SLurl Details

• Endless: Permafrost (Heraiki Bat, rated Adult)