Tag: Exploring Second Life 2024

Gingerbread and the Woodies is the title Alpha Auer has given to her 2024 seasonal design for her Alphatribe Island. Alpha describes it as a “sort of” continuation of her Ragville – but if you didn’t see (or don’t recall) that work, have no fear: Gingerbread and the Woodies stands on its own two feet as a delightful place to visit.

Alpha notes that the installation is made possible through the support of Olympes Rhode – so to her also go thanks for making the setting possible. Alpha goes on to note that the setting is best seen using the supplied Shared Environment, Draw Distance set to 256 metres and that shadows are enabled in the viewer.

While I’d certainly agree that shadows and the Shared Environment are a must, I’d very politely disagree over the need to set Draw Distance to 256 metres; while the region has clearly been optimised to help boost performance, should you have a system that might get a little grumpy with things like frame rates at so high a setting, I’d suggest going for whatever your system can comfortably manage, rather than feeling you cannot visit on account of that setting.

Given Gingerbread and the Woodies is a seasonal setting, it should come as no surprise that it is a snowy location; possibly somewhere in the far north, or at least where the temperature is such that the trees have their trunks coated in frost, and the waters seem particularly cold.

The Woodies of the title are the local inhabitants of the land; they live in gingerbread and cookie homes – some of which are quite grand – and share the landscape with the local wildlife. They appear to be a hardy folk; despite the cold look of the sea, some have just returned from a voyage to collect more seasonal things to put out around their houses or perhaps with which to dress their gingerbread trees.

If any of the goods on the boat are to be sold, then the local market is likely where they’ll be headed; here to join all the pastries, cakes, wreaths and other goodies. And should you feel particularly taken by some of the offerings within the market – you can buy them as well; even Alpha’s raccoons, bears, squirrels and owls are available to be purchased and taken home!

The houses and Woodies are scattered through the setting so exploring is a must in order to see everything. Alpha suggests leaving the Sun as is within the environment settings, but I confess that for some photos here and when filming, I did move it a little.

There are some good opportunities for photography with the Woodies  (they’re very friendly in this regard!), with Santa and a couple of his little helpers ready to pose with you. Rezzing is open for those wishing to use props – but while Auto Return is set (60 minutes), please remember to pick up after, rather then leaving them to be returned.

But really, this is a setting not so much for describing, but enjoying.  As noted, the region is nicely optimised, so hopefully most folk can follow Alpha’s recommendations for viewing the setting when visiting. However, and as I also hinted at above, I did take the liberty of doing some filming whilst visiting – more of an entirely unofficial “teaser”, if you will.; I hope it encourages you to pay Gingerbread and the Woodies a visit!

Enjoy!

SLurl Details

• Gingerbread and the Woodies (Alphatribe Island, rated Moderate)

Sweet  Surrender is a Full region held and designed by  Giulliana Dallaʂ (Giulliana Palen) and Fotis Dallas. It offers a multi-faceted location, rich with opportunities for exploration and photography, making full use of the available space to offer a little something for everyone. Whether you like tropical beaches, ancient ruins, brightly flowered gardens, hidden coves, underwater playgrounds, romantic spots, opportunities to dance or simply having somewhere to sit and talk or cuddle, then you’ll enjoy Sweet Surrender.

Sweet Surrender is a dreamy, romantic haven where love fills the air. It’s a place designed for intimate moments and magical connections. Soft lanterns cast a warm glow over cozy nooks perfect for cuddling, while a charming dance floor invites couples to sway under a canopy of twinkling stars. The gentle melodies of live acoustic music float through the night, creating an enchanting atmosphere where every glance, touch, and step feels like poetry in motion. Sweet Surrender is where hearts meet, and memories linger forever.

– Sweet Surrender About Land

The Landing Point sits within the north-west quarter of the region, just outside the Café de Paris. After being greeted by the local bird as he sings from a Tsukbai just outside the café, The basin looking to be employed as a means for patrons to rinse their hands after eating. From here, gravel paths offer several routes of exploration – which you take is entirely up to you.

You could for example, set out westwards to where the local lighthouse serves as a little store for Giulliana’s products whilst offering a lookout point over the sea and the sailing ship passing by, and to the headlands sitting to the north and the south.  Between the lighthouse and each are, respectively, a shingle cove and the region’s tropical beach. However, the beach cove is only one of two to be found to the south; the second, and smaller of the two home to one of the region’s romantic / cosy locations.

The beach is accessible from the path running to the lighthouse and from a second path as it runs south to loop around a rocky hill topped by some of the ruins scattered throughout the setting. From here it is possible to reach the smaller cove mentioned above and also climb up along the top of the southern headland to reach another retreat, this one with a shine alongside it.

This loop of path also give access to another elevated lookout point, this with a southern beach below it. In forming its loop, the path also passes by one of the setting’s inland bodies of water. Another such body sits at the northern end of the region the broadest point of a spine of rock rising to run north from just behind the Café de Paris. This second body of water, fed by waterfalls, offers a place to dance or to sit on the deck of an overlook, a little camp site below.

A stream cuts the region in two from north to south, two bridges spanning it, one towards the middle of the region, the other crossing the gorge formed by the upland in part occupied by the dance area and waterfalls, and a large cabin presenting another retreat. A path runs running down the east side of this plateau to another shingle beach.

Is is on this eastern side of the setting that the region’s third inland body of water can be found, imaginatively formed by water piped through an old grand piano. Gravel paths wander over the grass and flowers and under the trees here, as with the western side of the region; and like that side of the setting, they lead visitors to the many attractions to be found here.

I’m not going to describe all that lies here – better for visitors to discover; What I will say that within this part of the region is an event space which – I think – will be the venue for music events within the region, starting on Friday, November 29th, and thereafter on the second Friday of each month; those who don’t feel like walking can take a horse if they wish. I’ll also say that the underwater element to the setting can be found to the north as well – look for the the arch under the stone and Poseidon standing guard.

With greenhouses covering dance floor, grottos hiding places to pass the time or dance, many places to sit with friends or a loved one, the aforementioned ancient ruins to explore, Sweet Surrender offers much for romantics and explorers alike – and with winter drawing in for those of us in the northern hemisphere, it offers and engaging summertime visit.

SLurl Details

• Sweet Surrender (Forest Knolls, rated Moderate)

Winter is the quietest and most peaceful time of the year. Nature lies beneath a soft, white blanket, sleeping in gentle stillness. Snowflakes dance through the air like tiny, sparkling stars, quietly settling on the ground. Forget your worries for a moment and enjoy a warming mulled wine at the festively decorated Christmas market or an exciting train ride through the snowy landscape.

– Frost Peak About Land

Occupying a Homestead region, Frost Peak offers exactly what its About Land deception states:   a winter’s setting rich in snow and opportunities to forget worries, relax and take photos, wander a little market or ride a train through the surrounding woods.

Designed by Yoyo Collas with the help of AmyDenise, the region near seamlessly blends itself with the outlying surrounds to present a place nestled within high mountains. The Landing Point sits towards the eastern end of the landscape (itself laid-out roughly east-to-west), where steps lead up to an arched entranceway passing under a grand festive tree.

At the foot of these steps is the first opportunity for photography – a horse-drawn sleigh with sitting for individuals or couples. A further place to pose can be found just across the track from the sleigh, in the form of a little glass-canopied bench and where a white stag watches over a small herd of deer.

Stand close the tracks long enough, and an open-topped train will clatter past, hauling a line of open-topped little carriages. Mindful somewhat of Stevenson’s Rocket (albeit with a cow-catcher on the front!), the little train huffs and puffs itself around an oval of track passing through the outer sides of the region at a speed that makes hopping on and off very easy.

The train is a good way to see the outlying woodlands of the region and the wildlife therein – bears, fawns, deer – and pass by the cosy home at the western extent of the land (and which appears open to the public if you fancy popping inside and warming yourself up). The tracks will also take visitors past a bridge and a deck which both provide access to the ice-skating track area.

Broad enough for ice dance around the little island in its midst, and close to the deck and below the slope leading up to the house, this frozen part of the setting throws two smooth arms around the middle of the landscape, possibly allowing a race or two around it, the route carrying skaters under the Landing Point’s huge tree in the process.

Passing through the tunnel under this tree from the Landing Point brings visitors to the Christmas / Winter market set within the innermost oval of the land, walls around most of it lifting it above the ice skating, other than at its western end where the snow-covered ground slopes gently down to the ice, a road also curling tail-like around it it from the market or offer a path from one to the other.

The market is home to a range of stalls and little shops, together with fairground rides, places to sit and plenty of life. One of the rides is a novel carousel in which the riders’ seating and mounts remain still, and the rest of the carousel itself  slowly revolves around them! A curio it might be, but it also fits within the setting.

The life and liveliness comes in the form of static NPCs who are set as if wandering the stalls, seated in conversation, bartering over snacks, taking phots, and so on. They are joined  by a couple of cats who look to be about to have a disagreement, and the local Elf and welfare team taking a break from sweeping the snow from the cobbles, before they make their way gnome (sorry! 😀 ), while pigeons and stags round-out the animal representative and snowmen keep their eyes on things.

The NPCs in the market aren’t the only ones to be found here, as those who ride / follow the train tracks will discover – folk are out for a walk around the tracks as well, while those looking for little places to sit and pass the time might want to seek out the old cable car cabin as it sits out on the ice or perhaps the cosy little forest shed across the ice from it, and watched over by a friendly owl.

Rich in details, easy on the eye, Frosty Peak is well put together to make a nicely relaxing visit.

Light in white satin, frosted trees on the hill
Cakes for the eating, ’til you’ve had your own fill.
Beauty in gentle mist with soft whimsy before
Fun for its own sake is here to adore.

OK, so that’s not precisely what Justin Hayward wrote at the tender age of 19 whilst penning Nights in White Satin (which coincidentally reached No. 19 in the UK charts when first release as a single in 1967), but given the title of the region design I’m featuring here and its nature, can you really blame me?

Lights in White Satin is the work of ChimKami and Leica Arado as a whimsical winter setting that is intended to be enjoyed for its light-heartedness and sense of joy. Folding within it charm, memories of childhood, holidays in the sunshine and on beaches lapped with surf and crisp winter’s nights when the snow crunches underfoot and the silver crescent of the Moon hangs amongst scattered jewels of stars.

This is a place where logic and detailed descriptions can, frankly, be thrown out the window – it is whimsy and delight should be experience first-hand. From Chocolate tumbling down the sides of tall peaks and turning some of the satiny snow brown, through trees growing like Magnum® ice cream, and paths formed by icing-tops biscuits and chocolate blocks broken from some giant’s bar, this homestead region offers vignettes and settings where time might be spent.

The latter are spread all around the region, far enough apart to offer a little privacy where seating is available. The seating comes in a wide variety of forms, from chairs cut from pieces of fruit to those of a more regular variety. Some are watched over by Disney-esque characters, others are home to unicorns or penguins, elephants or deer; but this alone is an insufficient description.

This is a place where lollipops and gum crops form the trees alongside ice creams and ice cream cones, wish fish and sea creatures swim underwater and under dome; where lanterns float and mushroom drip icing like stalactites, ladders climb trees and little worlds and puffs of little clouds hover in the sky, possibly ignoring all that passes below.

To put it another way and partially repeat myself, this is a place to put away grown-up thoughts and let your inner child free and simply enjoy the whimsy, the contradictions, the little wonders. Of course, if you want, you can hop around via the teleport near the Landing Point and thus find the horses waiting to be ridden or the little RHIB waiting for you to putter (or zip) around the island or the rowing bow moored for you to relax upon – but where’s the fun in that? Better to roam and find.

Also waiting to be found are a host of references similar to the touches of Disney mentioned above. From a certain ogre and his sidekick to Hergé’s heroes  or broomsticks hinting at games of Quidditch, all might be found here, together with opportunities for ice-skating, dancing  and those simple opportunities to relax and have fun.

As already noted, Lights in White Satin isn’t a place to be written about – it is a place to visited, explored and experienced – be sure to mouse-over things carefully or you might miss a few smile-raising things. So instead, rather than banging on about it here, I’ll just invite you to pay a visit. And, before closing, express my thanks to Sam Rougefeu for his blog post that led me to visit.

SLurl Details

• Lights in White Satin (Dreamworld Mermaid, rated Moderate)

In September 2024, I visited La Côte Sauvage (The Wild Coast), a natural location held and designed by Second Life artist-photographer Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte). Taking its inspiration from the Breton Coast, France, it was at that time located within half of a Homestead region.

And while people might say a year is a long time in politics, just a matter of a couple of months or so can be an age in Second Life! Because that’s all it has taken for La Côte Sauvage to change location and expand, offering a setting both familiar and new to explore.

Whilst still occupying one half of a region, the region in question is now a Full region held by Caly, with La Côte Sauvage running north-to-south along its western half, the Landing Point sitting roughly between the northern and southern extremes. I’m not sure when the move was made, but at the time of my visit, it did appear as if one or two things were still in the process of being placed / awaiting placement, with the little puppy happy in his sleep from the previous iteration still resting, but at the time I dropped in, floating serenely above and behind one of the setting’s little cabins, together with floating hovering overhead not too far away. 

The cabin in question is one half of the Trompe Loeil Yara Treehouse, as carried forward from the previous build, with its remaining half (also sans supporting trees) has been transplanted to the southern end of the landscape. They are not alone in being carried over, as those who visited La Côte Sauvage in its “old” home will realise as they wander; there is much here that is familiar – and rightly so – within the expanded landscape. But this is not to say the setting is the same; there is also much that is new. 

Take, for example, the  the henge-like standing stones and the ruined chapel on the headland beyond them; both echo the presence of the ruins that occupied the former Côte Sauvage, complete with the henge stones speaking to an ancient past; but the manner in which henge and chapel ruins speak of age is very different to the ruins which had resided in the former build. Similarly, while the Romanesque pavilion and its refreshments appears here, it now sits within a more shelter location, complete with a new view over the land as it sits at the edge of the setting’s rich woodland.

These woods occupy most of the eastern side of the land, set back and above stream and sandy coast as if ready to rebuff any harsh winds that might otherwise seek to make their way inland; and the winds and the sea here can indeed be hard and cruel, as evidence by the wreck of a ship driven on to rocks to the north. However, shelter from the harshness of the sea is offered by a headland, an island and a causeway of rock, all of which conspire to guard an inlet cutting into the land before the Landing Point. It is here that a stream bursts froth from rocks below the treeline  and bubbles and rushes the short distance to the waters of the inlet, passing under one of several bridges aiding walkers in their explorations as it does so.

It is within the trees that a meandering path might be found, offering another route of exploration running roughly north-to-south. It can be reached from several points, although probably the easiest is to take the steps winding up between the rocks at the north end of the setting, close to the cabin there, or by climbing the stone steps to the Romanesque pavilion and then making your way through the trees until you reach it.

This path actually straddles the parcel boundary between the two halves of the region, the woodlands doing to as well. This given the impression that the two halves of the region might be somewhat contiguous – although the different EEP settings used in each also belies this. I frankly have no idea if the two halves, even if thematically different, are supposed to run together and be open to all who visit; at the time of my visit, the east side was very much under development, so I kept my nose out as far as possible so as not to interfere.

Several places to sit can be found along the woodland trail, together with a mystical altar. Quite what rituals the latter might be for, I have no idea, but its presence added a shade of misty to the woods.

In terms of mystery, the altar might be matched by the mysterious building on the island protecting the inlet mentioned earlier. Built into the island’s peak and at first resembling an old bunker, it is in fact the entrance to Caly’s gallery space: take the teleporter inside to reach it. Built around a central lobby, the gallery offers four halls in which past exhibitions presented by Caly across Second Life continue to be celebrated. Just click the tree stump to return to ground level, either at the bunker or the landing point.

As with its former location and design, La Côte Sauvage remains a very visual and engaging place to explore and visit, so if you missed it the first time around, now’s your opportunity to catch up! 

SLurl Details

• La Côte Sauvage (Arvor, rated Moderate)