Tag: Exploring Second Life 2013

I’ve had Dawn of Radiance on my list of places to visit for a while, but have only just managed to move it up the list and hop over to take a look. A Homestead region, held and landscaped by Silvermoon Fairey, it’s a place which changes looks to suit the season, and right now is in the grip of winter, presenting a gorgeous world of show-covered hills and valleys, rustic scenes and much to see and discover, be it the Romany encampment, the cottages with their steeply-pitched roofs laden in snow, the frosted sands of the beach or the rugged coastline, to name but a few of the picturesque spots to be found here.

As you arrive in the centre of the region, everywhere is within easy reach – but do remember that there is a lot of “everywhere” to be seen and enjoyed. A lot of care has been put into Dawn of Radiance to create a series of individual settings ripe for appreciation and photos, all interlinked with footpaths, avenues of trees, tracks and wooden board walks.

This is once again a very photogenic region, as many before me have already discovered, and it is worth taking time to look around as you wander, as there are some very subtle touches which help to bring it to life. It’s a place which looks good with the windlight preset, and which can also come to life under and range of viewer-side windlight settings – I personally found that those offering an early morning or an evening look and feel worked really well, but as these are my favourite times of the day in winter, I am a tad bit biased.

Being wintertime, the beach is looking a little forlorn. The shutters on the beach shop might be open, but a sign outsides tells visitors it’s closed (presumably for the season), and the coastal snow is piling up on the sands. Up on the hills overlooking the beach is a frozen pond – keep an eye out for the skates dispenser if you fancy going for a spin on the ice.

One of the clever aspects of Silvermoon’s design is in her use of hills to break up the region, allowing her to create the individual scenes found across the landscape. This enables each scene to be individually present to the visitor and to the photographer when walking through the region.

In many respects, I’m sad I didn’t visit Dawn of Radiance sooner, I would have loved to see it dressed for autumn and Halloween; the photos I have seen from the pre-snow period have been stunning. As it is, I’ll be sure to be coming back again and again to see how Silvermoon dresses the region through the year.

Related Links

• Dawn of Radiance SLurl (Rated: General)

I don’t generally hop from region to another when they share a common theme; variety is the spice of life, as they say. But after seeing Jomo in Honour’s pictures recently, I had to scurry across the grid and take a look for myself.

Jomo is the home of **JOMO** avatars, skins and accessories, operated by Duo (Xiaoduo Abbot), and has been built to resemble an ancient Chinese walled palace. It’s a stunning build, with a wealth of detail and excellent use of space. So much so, that it really speaks for itself, and written words can only scratch at the surface.

The main “palace” building contains the Jomo skins, and is flanked on either side by buildings containing **Jomo** avatars and accessories. While the build exudes ancient China from the outside, inside all three of the store areas are ultra-modern in design, with crisp lines, panelled flooring and lighting by which skins and demos can be more than adequately examined.

However, a visit to the store alone misses much of the sheer beauty and power of the build, almost all of which has been custom-built by Duo, and which really is deserving of the time taken to explore it in detail. There are stairways to climb, parapet walls to walk beside, rooms to discover and tunnels to explore – some of which contain treasures of their own. In the south-east corner of the build there is a beautiful stage area, fronted by an intricate guzheng, and with a magnificent painting centred on a lotus blossom which has to be seen to be appreciated.

To say the build is utterly photogenic is an understatement; this is a place which lends itself to a multitude of lighting conditions and windlight-induced atmospherics; where a slight smearing of haze gives the build an added feeling of depth and scale, something I’ve tried to convey in some of the pictures I’ve added to my Flickr stream and which are in the slideshow below. I know I could happily spend the better part of a day taking snaps and experimenting with windlight while visiting Jomo, which also had me again dabbling with oil painting effects for the images used in the body of this post.

For those who have a hankering for traditional / ancient Chinese buildings, check-out the front of the main store building as well; Duo has a range of building on sale, up to and including a palace which is almost region sized (240×240 metres).

Whether you are looking for a new avatar  – the mesh models are quite stunning – or a new skin or avatar accessories with an oriental touch, Jomo, is more than worth a visit; equally so if you’re looking for a stunning period build to photograph.

Related Links

• Jomo SLurl (Rated Moderate)

One of the difficult aspects of being a chronicler of Second Life is that it is constantly evolving. Not just technically, but also in terms of the ebb and flow of life. Regions arrive, are built, grow, change, are rebuilt, exchanged, and sometimes lost. This means that in documenting one’s own travels, it is sometimes necessary to retrace footsteps just to see what has occurred since a last visit, particularly if that visit was six or more months ago. Many are just as they were, some, sadly, have vanished, quite possibly into memory as they are no more. When the latter occurs, it’s generally noted with sadness and regret. Fortunately, however, not all builds which vanish from their former locations have necessarily gone forever; some have simply relocated.

Such is the case with Taka no Sakura, a wonderful gem of a build I came across in July of 2013. While engaged in one of my periodic walks back across Second Life to see what had changed, I discovered this Edo period Japanese build had indeed vanished from its former home, but rather than having been closed, it had been moved to Midnight Dream and has been completely rebuilt. So it was with a sense of anticipation that I set out to rediscover it.

One of the many points which attracted me to the original build was the way in which it had been composed with a number of focal-points, each with its own attractiveness. all of which drew one in, and which encouraged the artist in me to try to produce images just a little different from those for other destinations. While the “new” Taka no Sakura is of a very different design, it has lost none of that attractiveness; nor has it lost any of the other aspects which drew me so powerfully to the original.

The theme is still that of Edo period Japan, and there are still the little quirks in the build which immediately brought a smile to my lips simply because of their charm – such as the little vendor carts scattered around the region, all fitted with bicycle wheels and rubber tyres, and some hiding propane gas cylinders!

This is a rocky, mountainous landscape, cut through with deep channels of water which surround the island and one of which almost cuts the region in two, forming somthing of a narrow harbour where sits a quayside and commerce area. This is where you arrive on teleporting to the region via search. Paths lead away from this area wind through the region, stone lamps lighting the way as the sun sets, talking you on a journey of exploration, up hill, over dale, and through bamboo forests.

Follow these, and you’ll be taken across bridges to high wall gardens and down to a village sitting nestled between high cliffs. Steps and paths will also show you the way to high temples and an impressive clan house and shoreline hideaways.

Along the way there is much to discover and enjoy; there is an artful attention to detail here and also flashes of a whimsical sense of humour – or quite possibly opportunities for quite serious swordplay which leaves the vanquished quite possibly hanging on for dear life! 🙂

Windlight plays an important role here; the selected preset – Bristol – complements the setting perfectly. so much so that it’s hard to find reason why one would want to fiddle around for alternatives. such is the care with which sky and sim surround have been brought together to create an impressive sense of depth to the region. Not that the region doesn’t lend itself to experimenting, of course; just that it’s worthwhile looking through the camera’s viewfinder using the default and simply tweaking the time of day.

Last time around, my old PC was suffering mightily with graphic issues, leaving me reliant on basic screen captures for images (which also formed a reason for trying to put together images of the region that were just that little bit different). Although I’m not a great believer in trying to get lightning to strike twice (you only tend to end up getting burnt, after all), I couldn’t resist playing with the images I took this time around to try to emulate the look and feel I managed to develop back in July. I hope you’ll forgive me that indulgence!

Related Links

• Taka no Sakura SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• When your curiosity is piqued in Second Life – July 2013

Whispering Wind (Flickr) – click any image for full size

In December 2012, I visited Whispering Wind, a Homestead region neatly split between Tab Tatham’s Tatty Soup, and Lindini2 Lane’s L2 Studio. At the time of that visit, I focused more on Tab’s Tatty Soup, and really only made passing mention of L2 Studio.

Now, 12 months on, Tatty Soup is no more, Tab having moved her store to a new location, but L2 Studio is still there, and while winter holds sway over the northern hemisphere in the real world as well as making its presence felt across numerous regions in-world, L2 Studio remains firmly in the grip of a balmy late summer.

Whispering Wind (Flickr)

It’s a delightful region to visit, whether you’re looking for a new place to explore and photograph or simply want to while away a little time. Two houses sit across the length of the parcel from one another, separated by what is perhaps best described as flooded lowlands. Don’t be concerned by the presence of the houses, however; they are not private residences, they are show homes from the L2 Studio range, and visitors are welcome to explore them.

Nestled under the narrow hills which divide the region in two, and located slightly closer to one of the houses than the other, sits the L2 Studio store itself, which has on display vendor board for the L2 Studio range. A cobbled path links the store with the nearer of the two houses, crossing a narrow causeway overlooking water on each side.

Whispering Wind (Flickr)

As well as the houses and studio, there are wooden walkways, beaches, places to sit, wildlife and animals to observe  – in short, more than enough to keep the SL explorer and photographer well occupied as they wander around.

Given the beauty and setting of the parcel, it should come as no surprise that it naturally lends itself to many different windlight presets, and looks marvellous by day or night – taking your time to experiment is the key factor here.

This is likely to be the kind of place that makes the latest improvements to interest list loading (at present available in a release candidate viewer, but up for promotion to LL’s main release viewer “real soon now”) a real joy. The design of the parcel is such that once cached, it’s liable to pop-up in front of you as soon as you make a return visit.

Whispering Wind (Flickr)

If you’re looking for a little break from all the wintertime wonderlands which are very much a part of the grid at this time of year, L2 Studio could be just the tonic. While other regions may have you longing for a warm fire and a big mug of hot chocolate to wrap your hands around, right now L2 Studio will have you wandering in shirt sleeves and perhaps dipping a toe or five into the waters which form a part of the parcel’s charm and character, just so you can feel a little cooler in the summer warmth.

Related Links

•        L2 Studio @ Whispering Wind SLurl (Rated: Moderate)

Winter is coming. At least in the northern hemisphere it is. I know this not so much because the days are getting shorter and colder (although these are both the case), but because today my car went to the garage for its pre-winter check-up. I’m a bit of a Sloane Ranger in that I don’t exactly live in the countryside (although I’m not far off it), but I do drive a 4×4 in the shape of a Land Rover Discovery. It’s a bit of a monster, I know, but I in part got it after my previous car was totalled in a head-on, courtesy of someone deciding going around corners on the wrong side of the road was a good idea. My other reason for getting it was that at the time, spending a good deal of my winter time in the woolly wilds of Northumberland, and having a 4×4 up there in winter really is a good idea.

Anyway, all the talk of winter checks and making sure everything was topped-up, cleaned-up, safe for the rigours of winter driving (ice, frost, snow, slush, salt, etc.), left me feeling I needed a little bit of an early winter wander in SL. There’s obviously going to be a good many regions switching to winter themes over the coming weeks (many already have, I know), so I opted to start my winter travels a little modestly, visiting a region I dropped-in on back in summer, but never actually blogged about.

Small Town Green has been completely redesigned since my initial summertime visit. Most of the region has been sunk to form a deep water bay surrounded by a U-shaped island, with a rocky central islet. While the theme is again winter in look and feel, rather than presenting a contiguous scene, the region is perhaps more of a series of interlinked tableaux, which makes for interesting wandering.

You start at the small town (village?) of the title, which lines a winding road leading away from the railway on the west side of the island and which meanders around to wilder country to the north-east, and the towers of an old stone bridge which looks to have once spanned the mouth of the bay.

Meanwhile, the railway line, running from nowhere to nowhere on the west side of the island, forms a little tableau of its own which links with the town with the snowy hills to the south. Here sits a log cabin, possibly a house or perhaps a hunting lodge, with trees bereft of their leaves climbing up the hills behond in orderly ranks.Wander through the trees and you’ll pass reindeer and come to a small camp at the top which someone has managed to reach in their own 4×4, ready for a spot of snowboarding.

Each of these elements, together with the central island, linked to the rest by two slender rope-and-wood bridges, present the visitor with individual scenes to be enjoyed and photographed, while also leading one on from one to the next, encouraging exploration.

Within each of these scenes are additional stories, each of which is separated from the others and yet part of the whole. In the town, for example, there’s the pizza bar, clearly a takeaway service, sitting at the side of the road with only an old telephone box from the UK to keep it company.  Is the ‘phone box actually where orders for pizza are received? And what’s the story at the cottage at the foot of the hills? Clearly someone is living there – someone with a good taste in literature, given they’re reading F. Scott Fitzgerald. Are they a resident, or someone here for the hunting season? If so, are the reindeer further up the hill really safe?

There are also odd little juxtapositions here as well, such as the old cart, complete with solid wooden wheels from a bygone era of history, slowly hauled down the street by a shaggy ox while shiny new cars sit parked at the roadside.

All told, Small town Green is an ideal location if you’re seeking somewhere that offers a number of unique locations linked by a central theme or series of idea for a photo shoot. It’s also ideal for the SL traveller who is looking for somewhere to simply enjoy a winter’s feel; the region lends itself particularly well to early morning misty settings in windlight, or early evening / night scenes.

I was also going to mention that you should make a point of crossing the bridges to the central islet and taking a peek at the frozen pond there, complete with penguins. On ice skates. Sadly, the penguins vanished at some point during my visit, to be replaced by a couple of ice sculptures.  While they are not quite as wacky as penguins on ice skates, the sculptures and the pond and its seats are still worth a visit.

Related Links

• Small Town Green SLurl (Rated: Moderate)