Tag: Exploring SL Archives

Winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, and for Second Life, it means regions are starting to get snowy make-overs and – in some cases – Christmas and end-of-year holiday décor has started to appear. Given this, we’re entering the time of year when a lot of winter / holiday themed regions will be subject to blog posts and Flickr photo streams.

This being the case, I thought I’d get things started here after Caitlyn and I received an invitation from Milly Sharple to visit this year’s edition of her Let It Snow! region design. I’ve actually been writing about Milly’s wintertime designs since 2014 (allowing for a break she took with them), and I’ve always looked forward to seeing them each year, as they’ve tended to offer something beautifully photogenic and with a sense of magic.

For 2019, Let It Snow! offers something a little different to previous years – at least to my eyes. There is the same winter feeling – a crisp, cold looking sky which looks as if the air entering your lungs would give you that cold, hard thrill of being alive; there’s the familiar blanket of snow thrown across hill and dale with the trees coated in frost, and there are the trappings of the season: hot chocolate, holly strung above shop doorways, lights strung across lintels and over tree branches and so on.

But at the same time, there is something that feels a little different with this year’s build. In the past, Let It Snow! has perhaps been a contiguous landscape, flowing from place to place, while the flow is present in 2019’s design, but so to is a feeling that elements of the setting stand a little apart from the rest, as if they are mini vignettes, the surrounding landscape as much a buffer between them and the rest of the region as it a means of connecting them.

Which is not to say this year’s Let it Snow is any the less photogenic than previous years or is in any way disjointed in its presentation of its different locations. There is still a lot – as always – to appreciate, from the little village square that brings with it a touch of England with its red telephone box, Royal Mail pillar box and  country-style pub, through the crystal palace crowning a flat-topped hill and the skating rink and cabins sitting among snow and frost heavy trees.

From the landing point, visitors can turn north to the village or south towards the crystal palace or eastwards across the low-lying part of the region. The latter direction leads visitor past some of the detailed touches within the region: one of the furnished cabins, stone rings, snowmen and ruins.

Scattered throughout are places to dance or to sit – one f the more amusing of the latter being the opportunity to pose with a seated snow sculpture in the village.

There are also some familiar touches to the design – motifs seen in past iterations of Let It Snow! – that help to give a sense of connection between this and the past versions of the setting for those who remember them. Chief among these is the aforementioned crystal palace, whilst elsewhere are deer wandering in the snow, and little hideaway snugs.

For those who like a little activity, the skating rink to the west of the region, while the cable car close by offers a ride up to the hilltop overlooking it, where a toboggan-style sled rid awaits those waiting to ride back down the hill.

With plenty of opportunities for photography, Let It Snow! once again offers a charming visit and opportunity to welcome in the coming winter season in Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Let It Snow! (Sun Sky, rated Moderate)

ElizabethNantes has a reputation for producing some eye-catching region designs (see Follow your Bliss in Second Life, March 2016; and Following an Oriental Bliss in Second Life, July 2017). she now has a new design that is elegantly simple yet perfect for keen photographers.

Fusion is a Full region that features an urban setting of distinctly Japanese looks, complete with some stunning wall paintings which are, I believe, also Elizabeth’s own work. Located on a sky platform, the setting is a lot smaller than the area for a region, but there is a lot packed into it to keep visitors engaged.

Such is the size of build, a blow-by-blow description is perhaps overkill; from the landing point, situated within a concrete block of a building that offers the opportunity to join the local group (L$500 fee, rezzing rights granted), it is easy to find one’s way around the town, given the buildings are set around a series of small roads.

Which is not to say there is nothing to see; this is a place where attention to detail has produced a setting worth taking the time to appreciate.

Take, for example the marketplace just outside of the landing point building. Offering multiple food outlets, it points the way to a sake bar with adult overtones, but which also offers a place to sit. Eastwards, across a central square bounded on two sides by apartment houses is a school with furnished classrooms, playground and general facilities.

To the west, the town gives way to a ribbon of countryside sitting between buildings and cliff-like surround. This offers a haven of peace from the possible hustle of the city. Water tumbles from the north end of this reach, feeding a stream that flows rapidly south to enter a large pool. With a opportunity to fish and places to sit and appreciate the view. it offers a place of sanctuary typical of many a town or city environment, giving Fusion a further sense of reality.

With plenty of opportunities for avatar photography, Fusion makes for an engaging visit that does not over-tax one system, but offers opportunities for discovery, all wrapped in a gentle sound scape. Recommended.

SLurl Details

• Fusion (Fleur de Sel, rated Adult)

Alia Baroque is one of Second Life’s foremost fantasy designers. His avatars, clothing, and accessories for fantasy role-play in SL are legendary – as are his region builds for each year’s Fantasy Faire. His base of operations in-world has been – and remains-  a set of regions focused on his in-world store at Selidor, which had additionally been places for exploration and photography.

I mention this because Annie Brightstar brought to my attention the fact that Alia has decided to retire Annon, one of his regions and a well-known setting in Second Life, and will be doing so at the end of Sunday, November, 17th 2019; so I decided to hop across to take a last look.

Annon, a homestead region, is the home of The Tower Gate of Annon and Flowing Monastery. It’s a place I’ve visited on numerous occasions – although I’ve only actually blogged about once, far back in 2012. It’s also a place with a long history, dating back to 2010.

The Tower Gate originated as a build for the 2010 RFL of SL weekend, and was constructed in just 7 days. A prim build, it is has been standing guard over the Fallen Gods regions largely unchanged since being relocated. Alongside of it, just across the water, sit the Flowing Monastery, another prim build sitting atop a rugged knuckle of and island. But for a single blossoming tree in the cloister, the monastery is an empty building, lending a haunting beauty to it and the island on which it sits. The Tower Gate, however, offers multiple points of interest for those exploring its halls.

As Alia notes, both builds have stood for almost a decade, almost unchanged through the years – and certainly untouched by Alia for around half of that time. Thus, while they are in some ways monuments to Second Life’s history, they are also something that now sit outside of his Second Life vision. So, he plans to retire the builds to inventory before returning the regions to Linden Lab on November 20th, 2019.

In retiring the region, Alia has emphasised hie is doing so not because of issues with tier or anything like it, nor does he wish to have donations made towards their possible upkeep or enquiries about purchasing them, noting:

They need to go to allow Selidor and Athan to flourish and be reborn … I am not interested in selling them or any contribution for their extended existence, the tip jar was always there so it won’t make a difference as I take this choice happily and without regrets. So please, if anyone has a sudden moment of making a fund-raiser thinking I am doing this because of a dire need, don’t.

I hope you enjoyed it until now and will remember the region with fondness, happy memories and longing, but I also hope you will be excited to see the new rebuild and update of the rest of the Archipelagos of Fallen Gods that I plan, hopefully soon.

– Alia Baroque, November 13th, 2019

Those who wish to pay a last visit to Annon are encouraged to do so before the end of November 17th, 2019 (SLT). In addition, those who can are invited to join a Fantasy Faire LitFest tour of the region that will start at 14:00 SLT on Sunday.

SLurl Details

• Annon – The Gate (Annon (rated Moderate)

We first visited Frogmore in August 2019, when it was located on a Homestead region. It has now relocated to a Full region that includes the full region land capacity bonus, and we were invited back to take a further look at the expanded setting by Bengta’s SL partner, Atze Boucher.

In the original build, Frogmore offered a focused interpretation of a childhood in Öregrund, Sweden. with the new Full region installation, that focus is broadened somewhat, with Bengta and Atza noting, ” we share with you a touch of life in Sweden and the magic that is Scandinavia”.  This has resulted in a location that blends much of what will likely be familiar to those who visited the original Frogmore with much that is new, thus presenting a setting that carries with it a sense of returning to a familiar place in life, whilst also offer more opportunities for exploration and discovery.

For those who have visited previously, that sense of familiarity is imbued on arrival: the cinder road is still there, forming the landing point and pointing the way between wooden buildings sitting on a narrow waterfront with the sea on one side and rugged steps of hills on the other. The ocean-facing wharves are still there as well, but a walk along the road will reveal that the buildings fronting them have been a little thinned out, before the road arrives not at a rocky headland, but at a large harbour market that may well be past its prime.

I say “past its prime”, because the main pier looks to be in need of repair, and the waters next to it don’t appear that welcoming to fishing boats (there’s even a poor piano caught in the detritus floating there), while the buildings on the headland look tired, with a couple now given over to entertainment, rather than serving market buyers with fish and produce. Even what might have been a large, solid warehouse looks to be in the process of being re-purposed as a art gallery.

Elsewhere, other familiar sites await discovery. The rocky stream bubbling its way through one of the original setting’s two main islands, and which drew my attention during or first visit is still waiting to be found – although I don’t recall it being blocked off at both ends.

Other familiar elements include the need to scramble over rocks to get from place to place in some part of the region, which can give a sense of being on a hike when exploring, while the oyster bar still stills above that main cinder-topped road.

The move to a Full region has also allowed for expansion, with several new areas appearing in the new design. There are coastal camping cabins, inland paths switch-backing through the landscape between rocky spines and hills, leaping narrow brooks with the aid of bridges and fallen tree trunks. An old cable-car system runs somewhat diagonally across the largest island, while the two smaller island to the north and east show signs of more occupation that I recall from our August visit.

All of this makes the “new” Frogmore – or as Atze termed it to me, “Frogmore 2.0” – well worth exploration, as there is so much that is new – including multiple new spaces to sit on your own, share with friends or experience a little intimacy with a lover. However, it does come with a caveat: perhaps a little too much has been packed into the region in terms of unique textures and volume of mesh, as a visit can really impact viewer performance if you have options such as shadows enabled or have a mid-to-high draw distance (e.g. 120m or more).

I also found the issue of the region surround taking time to render to be apparent here (an issue I experienced and other commented on with the original Frogmore). In my case it took some 70-80 minutes for the surround to pop into view, hence why it is absent in the majority of images here – all of which were taken in that time period. I’ve no idea how common this issue might be with this build – but a lack of the surround doesn’t unduly spoil the region’s looks.

However, those points noted (both of which can be dealt with by either ignoring the surround, or by making some adjustments to the viewer), the new Frogmore is as photogenic as the original. Those who do take photos are invited to submit them to the Frogmore Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• Frogmore (Frogmore, rated: Adult)