Tag: Linden Homes

At the SL19B events in June 2022, Patch Linden indicated that among the on-going work related to subscription plans, the Lab and the LDPW would be re-visiting some of the original Linden Home designs associated with Premium Subscriptions, starting with the Traditional Homes to update them and offer additional , new, floorplans (see: SL19B MTL – Patch Linden: Premium Plus and more + video for details of the announcement).

This work started in November 2022 with the Traditional Homes, and on December 8th, with an update to the Houseboats theme. As I’d swapped back to the Houseboat theme a couple of months ago, I’ve been interested in taking a look at the new designs since their release. However, it has only been in the last few days that I’ve had the time to take a good look at them – so I’m now going to bore you with my thoughts on them!

In all the new update to the Houseboat theme includes:

• Four new Houseboat designs, with a custom tinting system, controlled via the house control panel.
• Updated House controllers to reflect the addition of the new designs; which now give the details of the theme, name of last house rezzed and parcel centre in their description field; use a common communications protocols with the rezzer and with houses on the parcels with which they are associated, so that all themes (except Fantasy) may safely be mixed and matched.
• The addition of the Linden Homes scripted house numbers have been added to the Contents Pack.

Again, just to be clear – this is an update to the existing Houseboat theme, not a new and separate release of houseboats; so if you already have a Houseboat as your choice of Premium Linden Home, you’ll find the new designs available in your houseboat rezzer.

The four new designs included in the updates are a very clear departure from the original four. Whilst the latter might be said to have their emphasis on the boat element of “houseboat” and looking as if they were specifically built for a life on the water, three of the four new design might be said to emphasise the house part – take away the hull underneath them, and they’d look as home on dry land as (say) any of the Traditional homes.

Not that this is a criticism per se; houseboats come in many forms, after all. However, I do wonder how sloping rooftops will look among the original designs, and whether their looks are just a little too “housey” for some. Along with the new designs has come a series of names which continues the use of word play which has marked the naming of groups of regions within Bellisseria; thus we have the Dock Holiday, the Shore Thing, the Knot Shore and (perhaps not quite as punny), the Jolly Roger.

To start with the Dock Holiday. This is a 2-storey houseboat of moderate size and featuring a large deck to one end, with a mooring-side front door and double doors accessing the large deck. The lower floor comprises two rooms, one accessed through the front door and the other connecting to the deck via the double doors. Both rooms are linked via an archway, with the deck-facing room perhaps offering a good lounge area and the larger, rectangular space possibly ideal as a kitchen / dining area. Upstairs is a single room roughly half the length of the lower floor.

Both the Shore Thing and the Knot Shore are single-floor designs with a superficial similar, with the Knot Shore offering a slightly longer, narrower house form compared to the wider Shore Thing.

The latter has a total of four rooms – a large main room with access to a large forward desk shaded by an overhanging roof, together with two smaller rooms at the opposite end of the houseboat, each with doors opening on to a small deck area. Between the front and rear rooms is the fourth, offset to one side, allowing space of a short hallway to reach the front room for the main side door.

Knot Shore, meanwhile features three rooms, two larger rooms to the front and rear, and a smaller room between the two, again offset to allow a hall to link the front and back rooms. A large exterior deck runs along two sides of the design. Overall, this is probably the smallest of the new designs in terms of internal floorspace.

Of the three thus far noted, I’d say the that Dock Holiday offers the greatest flexibility of use overall, thanks to it’s large, semi-open lower floor design and upper bedroom area. However, all three are liable to feel cramped in comparison to the fourth design: the Jolly Roger. To call this “roomy” would be an understatement, and its design is made all the more flexible by both the lower and upper floors being directly and easily accessible from dockside.

On the lower floor is an entry hall / room which could potentially double as something like a dining area for those wo wish, with stairs going to the upper deck, and two rooms opening off of the room which could form, say, a bathroom and a kitchen. Forward of this, via another door, is a large rectangular room which could form a comfortable living area. If you opt for a “traditional” up / down style of house layout, that is.

However, the upper floor – which runs to over 3/4s of the Jolly Roger’s overall length – is a single, large open space. This offers lots of opportunities for subdivision, should you want multiple bedrooms or more privacy. However, it also naturally lends itself to becoming the main living space – lounge, dining, and kitchen – leaving the rooms downstairs to become sleeping, etc., areas.

This is the approach I’ve taken with the Jolly Roger, the upper floor of the design providing plenty of room for me to install a living area, a dining area and a kitchen on an open-plan basis. What’s more, the size of the space means it is not in any way cramped and actually has room for some additional furniture; I’m thinking of a nice recliner / reader to go alongside the bookcases!

Nor does the flexibility end there: with careful placement, the upper deck area can be used to offer stairway to the flat roof of the Jolly Roger, which lends itself to a variety of uses – including (for me) a helipad, utilising a rezzer to call up my MC-900 Explorer whenever needed (and thus not being a blot on the view neighbours might otherwise enjoy from their houseboats or camping out on LI unnecessarily).

Overall, the new houseboat designs have much to offer,. The updated house control panels mean the new houseboats have about the same options for interior décor as some of the more recent Linden Home designs, providing them with a fair degree of options for decorating.

It’s too early to say how popular these additional houseboat designs might be – scouting around my watery corner of Bellisseria didn’t reveal too much in the way these designs being put to use as yet. However, given the low-key announcement of their availability and the fact it is the holiday period, more time is really needed for them to gain traction. For may part, I’ll continue to tinker with the Jolly Roger; it has all the potential to be a roomy second home – so if you have a houseboat, why not hop over to it and take a look at the new designs yourself?

On Monday, May 16th, just a month after their preview, Linden Lab released the Sakura Linden Homes theme for Premium subscribers. Thanks to the prior April preview, I’ve already offered something of an overview and thoughts on the house designs within Linden Homes: Asian theme in Second Life, so what follows is a very brief recap on them, followed by more of a look at the Sakura regions as a whole, and my thoughts on now having seen the regions.

Overall, the theme is offered with both 1024 sq m and 512 sq m parcels, with a total of 8 house designs split between 4 styles (each style having two versions, one with multiple rooms, the other with fewer rooms and something of a more open-plan feel). Some of the designs are specific to the 1024 sq m parcel size, but the smaller designs are available on both 1024 and 512 sq m parcels.

The houses are predominantly single-floor units, with only the Himawari / Haibisukasu (available on both 512 sq and 1024 sq m parcels) and the Kaneshon / Kuchinashi (available on 1024 sq m parcels only) having upper floors.

By default the outer walls of all the designs have been given stucco / plaster finish, and all have the typical steep tiled roofs we in the west identify with this style of house. The majority of doors are of the sliding variety, either fully glazed and set between glazed window panels, or for a degree of privacy between rooms, may be opaquely screened. I assume they include the same decorating options found in the more recent Linden home releases.

I confess that on first seeing the house designs, I couldn’t help be feel the variants with multiple rooms tended to feel as if their interior spaces were a little cramped and in places awkward. Some of the designs still leave me felling that way, but I confess to have changed my mind somewhat on others – the Shion, for example, with its central “courtyard” potentially offers a lot of opportunities for the imaginative interior designer.

The Sakura regions offer a mix of roads and waterways running through the regions, with the houses arranged in informal “blocks” between them such that the majority of properties either face onto either a road or waterway (and in some cases both), even if they don’t provide fully open access to due to a strip / belt of intervening protected land. The roads are similar in nature to those within the Newbrooke theme regions and cross the waterways using relatively low bridges (compared to some other bridge designs seen across Bellisseria), potentially limiting the waterways to smaller water vehicles – which as actually no bad thing; who really wants a honking great cruiser crowding its way inland?

As I noted with my preview piece, the waterways all have their own footpaths running alongside them, giving them something of a canal-like feel and offering the opportunity for waterside walks. Garden spaces both on land and on the water in places), ponds and copses help to break up the houses and provide a sense of space, while both roads and waterways have periodic rez zones for vehicles. A nice touch with some of the roads is that, rather than ending short of a waterway, they actually slope down into the water quite handy if you have an amphibious road vehicle or wish to drive your boat to the water on a trailer!

However, the most attractive parts of the Sakura theme come in the presence of Mount Soji and the Shobu community centre and surrounding gardens.

Shobu, meanwhile, is perhaps the most attractive community centre yet provided for a Linden Homes theme – and I’m speaking as someone who really likes the Fantasy theme community centre. It presents a marvellous mix of gardens, waterways, footpaths (complete with Torii gates), places to sit, places to meditate, water gardens and features, trees, and its own railway station (although the tracks don’t, as yet, run very far).

Within all this, the community centre itself sits as a grand, modern take on a feudal palace of old, complete with its own waterway sitting within cloister-like covered walkways. Shoji-style lanterns light the large, airy rooms inside the centre whilst stairways within either wing of the centre provide access to two rooftop spaces.

Approachable by road or water (or, eventually, I assume, rail), it’s a superbly considered design; the surrounding gardens offering an engaging series of walks. And, having been built as a part of the initial development of the theme, it very much sits at the heart of it, rather than feeling a little pushed to one side, as has been the case with the community centres for some Linden Home themes.

Taken as a whole, the Sakura theme – allowing for the caveat on room sizes in some of the designs (which in fairness applies to some of the other themes, such as Newbrooke and Victorian, IMHO) – is one of the more visually engaging and attractive Linden Home environments, particularly with this initial release built around Mount Soji and the Shobu Community Centre. So much so, that I’m actually tempted to make the jump from Newbrooke!

SLurl Details

• Sakura Shobu Community Centre (rated Moderate)
• Mount Soji (Sojisan NE, rated Moderate)

On Friday, April 15th, Linden Lab opened four preview regions featuring the upcoming Linden Homes Asian Theme. In all, 16 styles are to be provided, broadly split into into two groups of 8 apiece: those with rooms throughout and those of a more open-plan nature. Also, and like the Newbrooke theme (see here for more), they are also offered with either 512 sq m or 1024 sq m parcels.

While I have not been able to confirm this, these being preview regions, I assume the 1024 sq m parcels provide a choice of both the 512 sq m and 1024 sq m designs, with 512 sq m parcels obviously restricted to the smaller footprint designs.

Although defined as “Asian” in theme, these could also be referred to as “Japanese”: the overall theme name is Sakura (cherry tree/blossom), with each house style given a distinctly Japanese name (Ajisai = hydrangea; Botan = button, Himawari = sunflower; Kosumosu  = cosmos, etc.). They are presented in a typical (to western eyes at least) urban-residential style, the houses built around a network of roads. However, sharing the regions with houses and roads are navigable waterways and canals that give the regions a nice set of options for exploration, with rez zones to be found on both land and water.

A nice element of the regions is that many of the waterways are bounded by footpaths, making for gentle walks, whilst elsewhere water gardens have been created to further break up the landscape.

The houses themselves are predominantly single-floor units with stucco walls (by default at least) and the typical steep tiled roofs common to this style of home. The majority of doors are of the sliding variety, their glass either fully glazed or, or give privacy between rooms, fitted with opaque panels. I assume they include the same decorating options found in the more recent Linden home releases.

In all the, the styles of the Sakura comprise:

• Ajisai (1024 sq m): a front entrance opening off of a full-length front porch and providing access to a hallway extending to wings at either end. One of these forms a large single room, with other forms three rooms, one to the front, two the rear, one of which provides access to the rear aspect, shared by doors from the main room and the hallway.
  • Asagao: an open-plan version of Ajisai with a large L-shaped room and second large room occupying the second wing.
• Botan and (512 sq m): providing a front entrance to one side with vestibule accessing three interconnected rooms running front-to-rear.
  • Benibara: an open-plan version to Botan with a single large room and smaller room to the front aspect.
• Himawari (512 sq m): front entrance providing access to four ground floor rooms, three of which are linked, with the fourth separate and to the front aspect. Stairs provide access to two upper floor rooms.
  • Haibisukasu: an open-plan version of Himawari in which two of the ground floor rooms have been linked to form a single large room.
• Kaneshon (1024 sq m): a large house with front entrance leading to a hallway with stairs to a galleried landing. Four interlinked rooms run around the ground floor, separated by sliding doors. Upstairs, the landing provides access to two rooms, one at either end of the landing.
  • Kuchinashi: an open-plan version of Kaneshon with a large primary room downstairs with separate room to one side. Upstairs features an open-plan gallery room and a single room behind it.

• Kosumosu (512 sq m): a square house with front entrance leading to a large front-to-rear main room with two rooms opening off of it to one side.
  • Kinmokusei: an open-plan version of Kosumosu with a large L-shaped room and single small room with views to the front and sides.
• Renge (1024 sq m): a front entrance and hall opening out into front room split into two by an open arch, with hall to the rear and side hall accessing two further rooms.
  • Rabenda: an open-pan version of Renge with a large main room with doors to the rear aspect, and two rooms to one side, one reached via a short hall.
• Shion (1024 sq m): A square house built around a central “courtyard”. A front hall accesses a single room to the front aspect a large room to one side, a second room to the other and a further room to the rear aspect.
  • Sumaire: an open-plan version of Shion with a single large main room surrounding the central “courtyard” with two smaller rooms opening off of it to the rear aspect.
• Tenjikubotan (512 sq m): a front entrance accessing a perpendicular hallway leading to three linked rooms, one running front-to-back, and two to the rear aspect.
  • Tsubaki: a single large L-shaped room and second room to the front aspect.

In terms of room arrangement / shape, I have to say the styles with rooms felt to me to be a little cramped, and I couldn’t help but wonder how crowded they might feel once furnished. This is an issue I’ve also had with some of the smaller Newbrooke houses. However, given that Asian / Oriental has been a frequently requested theme for Bellisseria, the Sakura range will hopefully meet with the approval of those who have been requesting the theme – and it is certainly a considerable improvement over the original Oriental / Japanese themed Linden Homes – perhaps more so than is the with the Newbrooke when compared with the original Meadowbank style of Linden Home from 2010.

I’ve no idea how long the preview regions will be open for, or when the Sakura will be made available. For now the SLurls to the preview regions are below, and I’ll have more to say when the theme is released.

SLurl Details

All the preview regions are rated Moderate

• Sakura preview one
• Sakura preview two
• Sakura region three
• Sakura region four