Tag: SL Product Reviews

Every so often it happens: you’re hunting for something specific on the Marketplace or in-world, when something else grabs your attention. It’s not what you’re looking for and it may even be something you’re not sure you want – but it’s there and it gets your attention just enough for you to think, “why not?”

Such is the case with the all mesh Hovercraft 1.0 by Kaliska (Yetius), which I happened across on the MP whilst looking for mooring buoys. Despite being into my tenth year in Second Life, I’ve not really seen that many hovercraft around, so the idea of a little single-seater (and which is offered free to boot) proved to be a little too distracting.

Kaliska describes the vehicle thus:

I recently discovered the dinkie avatar (a mesh tiny sized avatar), and just had to do something about the total non-existence of dinkie-friendly vehicles.

So this is primarily a diminutive hovercraft for dinkies.  It’s loosely modelled on pictures of single seat racers and personal/leisure/small utility craft, but based on nothing in particular.

By “dinkie”, I think Kaliska means “petites”; however, and as she notes, this is not a vehicle aimed at a single small market; there is a version included in the package suitable for tinies and one for “normal” sized human avatars (if you’re 7+ feet tall, some adjustment to the sitting pose may be required).

Everything bar the engine script is supplied Mod, offering plenty of opportunities for playing around with the vehicle and texturing / colouring it to suit personal tastes – maps are supplied to assist with both, and can be found in the instructions note card. For the purposes of testing, I simply recoloured parts of mine from white to red. I could well end up playing more extensively with it at some point 🙂 .

At just 12 LI for the human version and 8 LI for the “dinkie” / tiny version, this is a little craft which can easily fit within most land budgets. It is also, I have to say, A lot of fun once the controls are mastered – and these are not exactly taxing. Sitting in the vehicle and typing “start” in chat enables the engine, lifting the vehicle slightly as dust (is on land) our spray (on water) is blown out from under the skirt.

From here, movement is simple: the UP and DOWN arrows are your throttle (faster and slower respectively), LEFT and RIGHT turn you. If you prefer, WASD achieves the same). PAGE DOWN / C acts as quick stop, bringing you immediately to a standing hover. A couple of things to note is steering is only possible when in forward motion, and doesn’t work at all in reverse, which is accessed by coming to a standing hover and then pressing and holding the DOWN key.

In addition to the above, PAGE UP / E will toggle the headlamps on/off – note that these use projected lighting, so ALM needs to be enabled to see them decently. Finally, typing “HUD” in text shows / hides the vehicle’s hovertext info, and typing “stop” shuts down the engine.

Overall, the hovercraft handles very well; a quick few taps on the UP key and you’ll be zipping along; both water and terrain are handled well, and mesh terrain doesn’t prove a major challenge. I zapped from home across the waters and to Holly Kai Park in next no time and traversed from mesh beach to water and back to beach with ease at both ends of the ride.

I’d actually be happy paying for this little vehicle, and perhaps see it with group driving were it offered for sale, as it’s the kind of thing that’s fun to rez when friends visit, and then scooting around the sea together. Setting a nominal fee for it would allow it to be gifted, which is something I’d like to do with a few close friends as well, rather than nagging them to go grab it as a freebie.

But these are really minor point.As a freebie, there is absolutely no faulting it – and it really be worth paying for it were it to be offered at a reasonable price. As it is, if you’re looking for a little vehicle to mess around with on land and water, this could certainly be just the ticket. Now, if you’ll just excuse me, I’m off for a little more fun…

Links

• Hovercraft 1.0 on the Marketplace
• Hovercraft 1.0 in-world

I love to play the piano, something I’ve mentioned in these pages before. In the physical world, I’m fortunate enough to have a hybrid piano – but Second Life allows me to indulge my little fantasy of having a full concert grand, and I’ve had one in almost every home I’ve had. It’s fair to say I don’t feel at home in SL without one.

Over the years, I’ve upgraded a couple of times – the most recent being to a marvellous mesh creation by Pandora Popstar (aka Lainy Voom) owner of LISP Bazaar I learned about via a Tweet from Skate Foss, and which prompted this article.

My first SL concert grand was the all-prim Musical Alchemy grand by Persephone Milk (L$999). At the time I first brought it, this was the Rolls-Royce of pianos (and in many respects, it still is). It is beautifully crafted and comes with a host of rezzable extras as well as multiple playing and sitting poses, depending on whether the top is up or down.

What made this piano particularly attractive to me was (and is) the selection of music, which includes a piece composed by Persephone herself, together with the option of rezzing a set of ivory keys and the also the harp and strings, both of which fit the cabinet perfectly. These all enhance the piano beautifully, the only downside being that as the piano has a base LI of 85, rezzing these parts balloons that to 163 LI.  As I gradually downsized my landholdings over the years, this eventually became too big an overhead, driving me into finding a replacement.

In 2011 I purchased the PrimPossible concert grand from Ample Clarity (which has since been replaced by a newer model priced from L$950). A sculpted build, it appeared just as the mesh revolution was about to hit the grid, and offered a very nicely styled concert grand with a good selection of music at just 1 LI.  A further advantage with it lay in the fact that because the design was unconstrained by prim cutting, it could be better scaled for the “average” avatar than could be easily achieved with the prim build, meaning I no longer felt I needed the arms of an orang-utan to reach the full stretch of the keyboard 🙂 .

My only niggle with this piano has always been that as a sculpt, it stresses the rendering system with the attendant wait for it to “pop-out” from the initial spheroid shape. Hence, as the mesh market has steadily expanded, I’ve been seeking a replacement.

As mentioned towards the top of this piece, I finally found a suitable replacement in the form of the new LISP Bazaar concert grand thanks to Skate Foss. Currently only available through the Collabor88 event, Pandora’s piano is, in a word, beautiful. It weighs-in at just 6 LI, with and additional 2 for the padded bench, it is being offered in a choice of two finishes: traditional black lacquer and teak, all for an amazing L$288.

More to the point, it is exquisitely modelled along ornate grand piano lines, has an interesting selection of music and includes all the little details that attract me: adjustment wheels on the bench, top board prop cups, the soft and sustaining pedals offering a nice outward presentation and so on. In particular, Pandora has foregone the textured harp / strings / soundboard found in so many mesh offerings costing far more, in favour of a mesh harp and strings.

To be honest, there are a couple of little niggles around these from a purist point-of-view (I modified my piano to double the number of visible strings, for example, as I’m fussy that way), but these are certainly not enough to negate what is a super piano currently available through Collabor88 at a superb price. As it is, I have copies of the black lacquer sitting on the garden terrace of my “main” home, and in the lounge of my Linden Home (for those rare occasions I feel the need to go hide there).

I’m still partial to my Musical Alchemy piano, simply because it was the first piano I purchased in SL; it has stood the test of time exceptionally well, and is still worth considering if you have the land capacity to see it at its fullest advantage. But that said, if you are looking to replace your existing piano because it is a prim or sculpt build, or simply because you fancy a change, you really cannot go wrong with the new LISP Bazaar concert grand, and I have no hesitation in recommending it.

Thank you, Skate, for sharing your discovery!