Tag: My SL

Flying the CLS Ryan Navion (via Firestorm) in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion
The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion

Firestorm recently held their Christmas Party, and as a part of it, they’ offered Firestorm users holiday goodies in the form of a pet leopard and a CLS Aviation Ryan Navion aeroplane in the Firestorm colours.

I’m a bit of a flying fan in Second life (albeit not necessarily looking for full realism, just the fun of getting into the air and pootling around), and as I’d never actually come across CLS Aviation before, I cheekily saw the opportunity snag the gift and see what the plane was all about.

The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion
The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion

The retail variant of the plane is prices at  L$1,099 at the time of writing, and is supplied Copy / Mod – the accompanying photos showing it can be re-painted (although I have no idea if templates are supplied – so check before buying). The Firestorm version, for obvious reasons, is supplied No Mod, locking-in the Firestorm paintwork, but otherwise it is the same aircraft model.

The Navion is a post-war single-engined light aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage and seating four, many of which are still in use today. Wikipedia informs me that CLSA model is based on one of the later variants of aircraft, which had wing-tip fuel tanks.  The model weighs-in with a Land Impact of 77, a physics weight of 2.2, and a render weight of 49072.

CLSA Navion instruments: legible and reflect aircraft's operation
CLSA Navion instruments: legible and reflect aircraft’s operation

The Firestorm finish is pretty good, with the exterior of the ‘plane looking quite eye-catching. Elements of the finish continue inside the sliding canopy cockpit, where the trim on the seats and instrument panel includes colour nods to Firestorm. The instrument panel is fully readable and the instruments  respond to flight movements, making it perfectly possible to fly and navigate in Mouselook and using keyboard / chat commands.  For those who like HUD-based flying, one is also supplied, offering access to essential controls and instruments and gives access to the plane’s menu, which can also be used when flying.

Usage-wise, touch the canopy to open it and hop in (it opens automatically on shutting down the engine). A headset is supplied for those who like that kind of touch, and the “usual” control options apply (“s” / “start” / “stop” for the engine, WASD / arrow keys for turn / climb / dive; PAGE keys for throttle, etc). Multiple camera pre-sets are offered as well, accessible via chat (“c0” through “c9”, which can also be selected by menu (accessed through the HUD) or cycled through via the HUD.

The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion
The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion

I found the plane handled reasonably well in the air, although turns felt a little “flat” and lacking roll at times while acrobatics such as looping felt a little on the “tight” side (albeit with nice camera motion). Allowing for the current state of region crossings, the Navion handled things reasonably well, although recovery did at times seem a little sluggish. Camera scripting in particular seemed to try to handle slewing issues on crossings by giving a forward view of the plane then gently panning around to the over-the-tail default. This mostly avoided instances of finding the camera pointing into the side of the plane after a rough crossing, but when these did occur, cycling through the camera pre-sets generally cleared it.

Flying in Mouselook  / via instruments was more than acceptable, although I need to practice my landings in this mode! And on the subject of landings, a novel aspect of this plane is that while it senses Linden Water as water (listen for the splash), it will nevertheless quite happily land on it even though devoid of floats – and will also take off from Linden water as if it were a runway, feeling very much like the Terra Stingray in the process.

The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion
The Firestorm CLSA Ryan Navion: works on water! 😉

Overall, not a bad ‘plane, particularly if you’re looking for something to start out with. One small word of warning – should you go ahead and buy this plane (any plane?) from CLSA, or get the Firestorm variant (whilst available), make sure you rez the package in an open space. I rezzed mine in the living room and almost squished myself between it and the wall!

And, also, as this one is in Firestorm colours, are we going to see a Firestorm aerobatics team form? 😀 .

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Second Life: my ten (and counting!)

Posted on by Inara Pey
Pey time: over the years from then (top left) to now (main)
Pey time: over the years from then (top left) to now (main image) – first published in 2013

Ten years. 120 months. 521 weeks. 3,653 days. It all adds up to a long time. For me, on this day – December 5th, 2016 – it means I’m marking my 10th anniversary since re-entering Second Life (I’ve previously dabbed with it, but had wandered away).

Every year on this date for the past three or four, I’ve look back over my time in SL. Each year that gets harder to do because really, there’s only 12 months of “new” stuff to go over each year – the rest is a re-tread of things already said. But still, ten years is ten years, so pardon me if I ramble for a bit.

Perhaps the most surprising is that I’m actually writing about the fact that it is now ten years since Inara Pey burst forth onto the digital scene as I decided to give “that Second Life thing” another go. Little did I realise just how much a part of me would enter her – and  indeed, how much she would become a part of me. Back then, I re-entered SL With A Purpose, and determined not to be a wanderer looking for a role-play home. That purpose may now be a part of my virtual past, but it was enough to encourage me to stick with SL, meet like minds, make friends, explore and, eventually, to start writing about Second Life. And so the snowball started rolling.

Holly Kai Park: continues to occupy a portion of my time as is still proving to be fun
Holly Kai Park: continues to occupy a portion of my time and is still proving to be fun

Of course, there have been many ups-and-downs through the last decade, both in terms of SL and personally. With the latter, there have been a fair few times when I’ve felt I really should just quietly put everything back into inventory and silently slip away. With the former – well, I’m not going to rehash the good or the bad; we all have our opinions on that! Suffice it to say, Second Life continues to roll (and sometimes creak) forward despite all the proclamations that The Sky Is Falling along the way. My one passing regret is that I couldn’t earn L$250 for every doom-laden prediction which has appeared in comments on these pages over the years 😀 .

But all that aside, I continue to do what I’ve always enjoyed doing: logging-in, meeting friends, exploring, taking pictures, writing, and trying to understand more about what lies behind the curtain of this incredible world in which we invest so much of our time and energy.

Yup, I'm still flying!
Yup, I’m still flying (and boating)!

I’ve no idea what lies ahead for 2017. Again, being honest, there was a time when I’d targeted my tenth anniversary as the point at which Inara would quietly bow out of Second Life; but plans have a habit of changing as time moves forward, so I don’t see that happening any time soon (touches wood!). Frankly, it’s hard to think of a day where I’ll get up without a thought about Second Life, the friends I have here and what the day might bring when I log-in.

Anyway, I’m not going to ramble on. Instead, I’ll finish with a few words of thanks. These go to everyone who has passed on rezday congratulations via blog comments, Twitter and IM, and to all of you who give you time to read and comment on this blog: you are genuinely the one reason I keep writing. Thank you, especially, to Caitlyn, for making the last 15 months so much fun throughout all our adventures and expeditions; and thank you, Linden Lab, for providing us all with this digital playground to share with one another. Long may it continue!

The DSA Aerohawk in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The DSA Aerohawk
The DSA Aerohawk with floats and my attempt at a custom finish

I think I’ve established the fact I quite like flying in Second Life, and I particularly enjoy DSA aircraft as they are fun to fly, look good, are nicely customisable, paint-wise,, and many have both wheel and float options – the latter being essential when living on an island. It’s been a while since I’ve actually purchased anything in the aeroplane line; truth be told, I hadn’t intended to get anything beyond what is already sitting in my inventory.

Then I saw the DSA had released the Aerohawk, and for the last week it has been nagging at me, finally reaching a point where I had to just give in and buy it. As it is not (at the time of writing, at least) available on the Marketplace, so in-world store visit is required to see it.

Like most of my aircraft choices, I was drawn to the Aerohawk purely on its looks – in this case, stylishly retro. It was only after talking to my friend Jodi, that I discovered it is modelled after the ERCO Ercoupe, which first flew in 1940 and was designed to be the safest fixed-wing aircraft that aerospace engineering could provide at the time. It is still popular today, and during its time was licensed to manufacturers the world over.

The DSA Aerohawk in its supplied finish
The DSA Aerohawk in its supplied finish

The DSA aircraft faithfully reproduces the look of the original, and is supplied in a silver metal finish with red trim by default. As is the case with all DSA aircraft, the texture files can be downloaded from the DSA website, allowing owners and third parties to produce custom  / alternative paint schemes. In terms of land impact, the aircraft hits 53 LI, which is “heavier” than my DSA G58 Baron (46 LI), but is just over half the Baron’s rendering weight, being something of a simpler design.

I’m not the world’s greatest when it comes to graphics, but in lieu of VetronUK having an Aerohawk kit at present, I took to GIMP and imported the PSD files to produce an initial personalised paint scheme I’m reasonably happy with in about 15-20 minutes. I still need to add materials to give it a decent finish, but it’s enough to keep me happy. Manual application of colour schemes follows the usual route for DSA ‘planes: edit the aircraft, select the face, apply the texture file; repeat as the faces require.

Side-by-side, the floats and wheels are interchangeable via chat commands, as per DSA 'planes offering both
Side-by-side, the floats and wheels are interchangeable via chat commands, as per DSA ‘planes offering both

Handling-wise, the Aerohawk comes with the usual DSA HUD, but it is a little more hands-on (when compared to the likes of Baron and King Air, at least), requiring manual toggling of lights. The engine sound is nicely “veteran”. In the air, I found it to be nicely responsive and  – while it may simply have been a placebo effect or down to conditions being a little different – I encountered no significant issues region crossing issues when only a few days ago, I was finding myself climbing out of Blake Sea and digging my Baron out of Lost and Found sufficiently often enough to have me packing up and going home.

Interior-wise, the Aerohawk is in keeping with its looks: it’s all vinyl and cloth. The instrument panel as reasonably well detailed; DSA aircraft can sometimes suffer from blurred textures of the instruments, but there is little of that here. On the ground and in flight, it handles pretty much like any other DSA ‘plane, making it an ideal easy flier for those who simply want to get out and in the air without getting overly close to trying to fly like “the real thing”.

The Aerohawk at home, alongside Caitlyn's Baron
The Aerohawk at home, alongside Caitlyn’s Baron

A very minor niggle with the plane is the sliding cockpit doors can be a tad tricky: click on one and the other can sometimes go down when “opening” them; I now click the white bar marking their edges rather than clicking from the side to avoid this (not that you need to have them open to get into the ‘plane, of course, hence this being a minor niggle).

If I’m totally honest, I’m hoping that VetronUK (if she is still active in SL) will bring out support kits – painting, float rocking and enhanced lighting. In part because my graphics skills do sucketh the proverbial lemon,  but mostly because her kits really bring aircraft in SL to life. Until then, however, I’ll make do with my own painting efforts, and at least the Aerohawk looks at home alongside Caitlyn’s Baron 🙂 .

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More home decor in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Leafy Hollow Cottage by Domineaux Prospero - our little island home
The Leafy Hollow Cottage by Domineaux Prospero – our little island home

We’ve been having fun at home. Or at least I have. Caitlyn has probably wanted to throttle me half the time …

At the start of October I wrote about the Leafy Hollow Cottage we’d come across entirely by chance. As I noted at the time, for those looking for a reasonably sized cottage with plenty of scope and which has some charming features, it really is just the job.

The garden offers place of space and locations to dsiplay our little collectio of sculptures by Ciottolina Zue (shown) and Silas Merlin
The garden offers place of space and locations to display our little collection of sculptures by Ciottolina Zue (shown) and Silas Merlin

Since then the rest of our little island home have been undergoing a face-lift and a “bit” of re-arranging, largely thanks to Alex Bader (as always!) and Mandingo Quan, with assistance from Cory Edo and Kriss Lehman. In particular, the wooded area now has Mandingo’s Summer Trees rather than Alex’s Scots Pines. The former are more in keeping with the intended theme of the estate, and they give exactly the foliage cover I was seeking for the southern end of the island. They are also low impact and low rendering cost.

However, Alex’s Enchanted Wood is still used to give a nicely uneven ground layer with path winding between the trees and through the ruins, with undergrowth and plants from a number of his packs providing a suitable blanket of flowers and foliage as the path winds up towards the cottage.

The woodland walk and old ruins leading to the cottage
The woodland walk and old ruins leading to the cottage

One of the problems we had in changing things around in October is the island ended up being a place of two halves which didn’t really blend: the cottage and its terrace and lawns, and the “wilder” wooded area. Enter Alex’s Ancient Stone Wall building set. It’s made the perfect divider between the more “curated” gardens around the house, and the more overgrown woods. The dry stone design (we think) sits nicely between the modern design of our tiered lawn of the garden and the rougher, more aged stone of the old chapel and ruined keep, which both now sit in the middle of the woods.

Cory Edo is another of my favourite designers; in the past I’ve made use of things like her Rustic Pavilion, as well as still using her indoor and outdoor furniture. One of the things I particularly like about her work – besides the fact it a well made – is that it is nicely modifiable: Cory seems to go that extra mile to allow many of her items to be modified with textures and materials across faces where others might be tempted to use a single face to represent difference surfaces of their models.

Our little ourdoor entertainmnet area, courtesy of Cory Edo and finished with items from Alex Bader (tree) and Mandingo Quan (hanging seat)
Our little outdoor entertainment area, courtesy of Cory Edo, using her Keliana Pool (modified & with the pools replaced by grass) and her Dorina Outdoor Hangout, finished with items from Alex Bader (tree) and Mandingo Quan (hanging seat) – steps and footpath by Kris Lehmann

For our redesign, we turned to Cory’s Keliana Pool (no marketplace listing) and  Dorina Outdoor Hangout. When put together (with a little bit of modification!). These have made an ideal outdoor area for entertaining friends, rounded-out by a hanging chair from Mandingo suspended from Alex’s Twisted Tree which enjoys widespread popularity among region designers.

Having dug out my copy of Alex Bader’s Willow Pond, it was obvious some wildlife would be needed. For this I turned to TLC, who offer a great range of fish, birds, ducks and so on. The prices are exceptionally reasonable.

The TLC swimming ducks are superb: low impact, a good price, and so easy to set up on any kind of water.
The TLC swimming ducks are superb: low impact, a good price, and so easy to set up on any kind of water.

The Mallard family of ducks arrived first. Eoth copyable adults and ducklings, swimming and static (in a nest), I really cannot recommend them highly enough. The swimming versions work on both linden Water and “artificial” prim / mesh water, and set-up is an absolute breeze. You’ll likely  fine the adult duck may need resizing a little – they’re slightly on the large size for “normal” sized avatars, but this is also easily taken care of.

Fish, and possibly a woodpecker are likely to be next in line 🙂 .

With our new beach to at the north end of the island, moorings for our matched pair of floatplanes,and the boats nicely docked to the south,  we’re once again ready for a spot of quiet living, and I’ve promised Caitlyn that, other than tweaking, the hard hats can be put away again 🙂 .

A (Leafy Hollow) Cottage in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Domineaux Effect Leafy Hollow Cottage, as seen for our revised garden
The Domineaux Effect Leafy Hollow Cottage, as seen for our revised garden

I recently mentioned that after spending a good few months on-and-off sorting out the island home and getting it just so, I’d started fiddling with it again.

It’s not that either of us was really dissatisfied with anything; it was simply the case that a hunt for a building which might form the basis for making a new house along the lines of Scotney Castle, started a hunt in-world and through the Marketplace, which uncovered a delightful cottage by Domineaux Prospero. It wasn’t precisely what we were looking for, but it – and Propsero’s popular Cottage Dock were enough to get me wanting to tinker and play again; and truth be told, the cottage really is a lovely unit.

The Domineaux Effect Leafy Hollow Cottage
The Domineaux Effect Leafy Hollow Cottage with modified exterior wall texture

The Leafy Hollow Cottage, to give it its full title, is a 94-LI single-piece, materials-enabled mesh build (+ extras) – no rezzer required. It’s perhaps the first dwelling to appeal to me since getting into Alex Bader’s house designs two years ago – which is saying something; it generally takes a team of wild horses and a stout harness to drag me from Alex’s work!  With a 27 x 12m footprint, this is a two room build, the larger one offering the full 12m width, the second being slightly narrower, and suited to use as a bedroom.

Core features are a working fire (with the nice touch of smoke rising from the chimney when the fire is lit), lockable front / back doors, opening / lockable windows, working exterior / interior lights (the latter provided by boards of candles suspended from the roof, complete with colour options), and control options accessible from the light switches. The main room offers room enough for a comfortable lounge and something like a kitchenette for those so inclined, but for me the main attraction of the house is the ceiling. This has beautiful exposed beams with arched bracing, giving the interior of the cottage a classic look and a feeling of age which perfectly contrasts with the plaster-like finish of the interior walls.

The cottage has a beautiful interior, ripe for furnishing and with plenty of wall space for pictures, all set off by the gorgeous ceiling detail
The cottage has a beautiful interior, ripe for furnishing and with plenty of wall space for pictures, all set off by the gorgeous ceiling detail

Being Modify, the cottage is open to a range of opportunities. For example, I’ve swapped-out the exterior wall maps for a set which match other elements on our island and re-tinted the roof tiles. LI can be reduced, if required, by removing the external uPVC style guttering. The extras included comprise planter boxes, semi-circular steps for the front / back doors, rain barrels, and plants for the planters.

The Domineaux Effect Cottage Dock is the first prefab dock facility I’ve really liked (as opposed to using pier building sets). At 54 LI, it provides room for up to three boats, one of which can be under the roof. An additional floor section allows the covered area to be used as a party deck, if preferred. Various accessories – chairs, a beer cooler, dock extensions and two versions of a little boat –  are provided, and the dock itself is provided in two finishes: weathered or “new”. Being Modify it is also open to some degree of personal tweaking.

The Domineaux Effect Cottage Dock provides moorings for up to three boats - if you don't mind jumping over the dock's handrails to get to one of them! Note the flag pole is not a part of the dock
The Domineaux Effect Cottage Dock provides moorings for up to three boats – if you don’t mind jumping over the dock’s handrails to get to one of them! Note the flag pole is not a part of the dock

So what of the rest of the island? I won’t bore you with reams of details. Suffice it to say we took the opportunity to make things look a little more natural. The southern end of the island is perfectly suited to the Cottage dock, and so behind this, I put Alex Bader’s landscaping kits to work, using his Scots Pine, Rocky Trail and Enchanted Wood (minus the trees, which I swapped for his Scots Pines) to offer a more natural feel to the island as things gently slope upwards trough a wooded area in which sit some of the old ruins.

Kris Lehmann’s Botanical forest Ruins Tower –  which really started the whole “house among the ruins” thing for me – now sits at the north end of the island, giving arched access to a new, broad ribbon of beach looking out over totally open water. We’ve also retained the little “formal” garden, built using Alex Bader’s Tiered Garden Wall Set – fast becoming a feature in many public regions, which offers a natural break between the more “natural” end of the island and the house with its lawns and terrace.

Some of the castle ruins are retained, but relocated. Sculptures by CioTToLiNa Xue and Silas Merlin remain features across the island
Some of the castle ruins are retained, but relocated. Sculptures by CioTToLiNa Xue and Silas Merlin remain features across the island

For those looking for a small, comfortable house offering a fair degree of flexibility with the internal space without running to multiple rooms, the Domineaux Effect Leafy Hollow Cottage could be just the ticket. The Cottage Dock is similarly a great addition to land which features water, whether or not you have boats to dock. My only quibbles with them are really, really minor: the Cottage Dock could perhaps benefit from a gap in the handrails on the left side for boarding craft moored there, while the default texture and materials maps on the exterior of the cottage can require flipping in order to make the mortar between the stones look recessed, rather than raised – but this is easily done. Certainly and obviously, neither of these factors prevented an investment in both cottage and dock.

To see the Leafy Hollow Cottage and the Cottage Dock in-world, hop over to The Domineaux Effect at Musing Meadows. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

A slight pause in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Island building ... again ...
Island building … again …

I’ve been a little quiet blogging-wise these last couple of days because I’m at it again: re-building the island home. It’s Caitlyn’s fault (or at least that’s my excuse … until she says otherwise 🙂 ); she showed me some photos of Scotney Castle, which sent us on a hunt for something that could be converted into a similar-looking place.

Nothing we found really appealed, but in mooching around The Domineaux Effect  by Domineaux Prospero, I came across a cosy little two room cottage. And of course, Domineaux also makes a great boat dock (imaged above, now at the southern end of the island). And, well, once discovered things have to be purchased, don’t they?

Anyway, the work is almost done in getting things ship-shape, so normal service will be resumed very shortly! 🙂 .