Tag: SL Product Reviews

A Kitchen on a prim? now that’s PrimPossible!

Posted on by Inara Pey

A while ago I blogged on Ample Clarity’s remarkable Prim Possible range – and how he has managed to squeeze an incredible series of furniture items into single sculpted prims – notably lounge suites and bedroom furniture.

At the time of my original article, I mentioned Ample was working on a range of kitchens, again using his skills with bending sculpts to his will. The range actually launched in December, but I’ve been so caught-up bouncing around with other bits, it has taken me a while to settle down and give them a good look.

And I have to say that, once again, they are remarkable.

The units current come in left- and right-hand L-shaped galley units (a “straight” galley style is listed as “coming soon” in the store), and stand as another demonstration as to what can be crammed into a single prim in terms of looks and capabilities.

Each unit comprises a series of base and bridge cabinets, with a double refrigerator (or ‘fridge / freezer combo), a sink, a dishwasher and an oven and hob. Pretty standard stuff for a kitchen – and on first looks, little different to other low-prim options. That is until a) you remember these are just a single prim, and b) you touch them.

PrimPossible 1-prim kitchen

A New Kitchen Every Day

Clicking on a unit will bring up a menu which allows you to:

  • Change the colour of the cabinets
  • Change the appearance of the appliances
  • Select from a number of pre-set cabinet / appliance colour styles
  • Change the cabinet finish from matt to shiny
  • Set the tap to running water or turn it off
  • Menu-driven resizing
  • Access controls.

You can even have the kitchen dispense a range of food and beverages, which you can either hold, or put out on display…

So, if you don’t like the default finish to the kitchen, you can remodel with a click. In fact, you can, if you want, have a “new” kitchen every day of the week with a couple of clicks apiece! Pretty amazing from a single prim…!

All change

Some might argue that the units lack detail – there are no handles on the cabinets, for example; the hob is a texture, doors don’t open. Given the fact that the entire kitchen *is* only one prim, such “compromises” are inevitable  – but they hardly detract from the value of the units, particularly when many multi-prim offerings “only” have textures for hobs, etc. What’s more, Ample hasn’t skimped on things, the texture he uses are crisp and detailed.

Crisp appliance textures

I’m actually someone who doesn’t tend to go for kitchens and the like in my homes in SL – but with these units, and Ample’s single-prim dining sets, the temptation is there to add something, if only for display purposes.

Running water – no extra prim!

New Furniture Set

Alongside the kitchen, Ample has also released a new lounge suite for those that wish to have more flexibility in placing their chairs and sofa. The set consists of a sofa and two armchairs, all with a more “traditional” look to them compared to the suites I reviewed in November 2011, and each item comes as a single prim – so 3 prims for the set. The complete set includes over 150 animation between the various seats, and 108 texture / colour combinations – the chairs and sofa are all individually menu-driven.

If I’m brutally honest, some of the textures within the set (to me) suffer some scaling issues – but there are enough options in the set to provide some nice finishes and looks.

Sofa & armchairs set (3 prims), with kitchen behind

Overall, this items – the kitchen especially – should appeal to the prim-conscious who like their homes to have a high level of detail; they expand the PrimPossible range perfectly, and again, the kitchen cleanly demonstrates what can be done with sculpties with time, patience and talent.

Specifications

  • Permissions (kitchen and sofa+ armchairs): NO COPY /NO MOD / NO XFER
  • Price: kitchen: L$950; sofa+ 2 armchairs: L$950
  • Obtained via PrimPossible in-world, or search “PrimPossible” or “Ample Clarity” on SL Marketplace.

Related Links

Meshing about at home

Posted on by Inara Pey

In-world, I tend to build my own homes (and bore people reading this blog with the details…!). But ever since I came across it while looking at the slow spread of mesh, I’ve been fascinated with a mesh house designed by Novocaine Islay (who has in fact supplied one of my past houses). As I didn’t splurge over Xmas in-world, I decided to treat myself and give the house – called Jewell – a closer look.

Packaging

Like all of Novocaine’s houses, the unit comes in a neat “cardboard box” of “house bricks” you unpack to inventory to reveal a rez-faux unit, and various other goodies (in this case a radio, the “helper” and the expected notecards).

The rez-faux containing the house elements and furniture is perhaps the biggest I’ve seen, standing about 6m tall from base to highest point! One possible reason for the size of the rezzer is to make it easier to select for repositioning purposes once the house is rezzed.

The House

The house has a footprint some 30×15 metres, making it ideal for smaller parcels / skyboxes. Unlike some of Novocaine’s builds, there are no extensive grounds – although there is a front patio, complete with potted sculpted plants and modest pool.

The exterior textures are a little flat in terms of colour, but beautifully detailed nonetheless, with baked shadowing that adds to the feel and look of the place.

Jewell house on my build platform

Inside you get two rooms – a lounge downstairs and bedroom upstairs (with a bath area at the back), linked by a spiral staircase. One is able to move around freely inside and get up and down the stairs without issues. The doors (one to the house itself, the other to the upstairs balcony) are individual prims, as are the stairs & helper.

The house comes fully furnished – all of it removable, so if you prefer to use your own, you can. The furniture comprises a sofa with multiple seats and an MLP cuddle selection, a chair, fireplace, cushion, rugs, vases and plants in the lounge; upstairs is a double bed with pose system, rugs, a bath, modesty screen and plants.

Lounge

The total Land Impact for the house is 91. Remove the furniture and plants and this falls to 52, of which the main structure of the house (walls, floors, roof, patio, windows (tintable), and balcony) is mesh at 29 (remove the rezzing script and this drops to 14), the rest is the lighting, doors, stairs, pool water (with MLP) and window frames. Even at a Land Impact of 91, the house is hardly breaking the bank, and tends to stand as proof that mesh can be used to provide “low prim” builds.

Bedroom

Overall, Jewell is a nice, clean design, and with a price tag of L$350, represents very good value for money, and is in keeping with Novocaine’s overall price range. Certainly, and taking into consideration all the options and extras, it stands as a practical demonstration as to what can be achieved using a combination of mesh and prims without a massively heavy LI.

That said, I’m not sure I’ll be using my new mesh house right away – not because I have any issues with it, but simply because I’m still enjoying my time living in a rock. But I have to admit, the temptation is there to give it a go…

On the balcony

The Jewell house is available from Inside, by Novocaine Islay both in-world and via the Marketplace.

Specfications

  • 30×15 footprint
  • Land Impact 91, fully furnshed
  • House elements Land Impact 52
  • Permissions: Copy / Mod
  • Price (at time of going to press): L$350

Note: with the exception of the balcony shot, all photos of the Jewell house were taken with deferred rendering and shadows disabled to help show the texture baking and effects.

Furnish a house in 10 prims? PrimPossible!

Posted on by Inara Pey

Note 8th January 2012: I now have a review of Ample’s new kitchens.

I don’t really do product reviews in this blog, mainly because others do them so much better than I. But that said, there is a product range I’ve recently become aware of that is worth a mention, as it is pretty neat – especially for those living on a prim budget. It’s the PrimPossible range by Ample Clarity, and it means you can pretty much furnish the major rooms of your house without taking up more than 10 prims.

Yes, that’s right, 10 prims.

Ample uses sculpties to create his furniture – and uses them to great effect. Take his lounge suites. The “full” packs include a 2-seat sofa, an armchair, rug, and generally a coffee table & side table, furniture shadows, together with various extras depending on the set (such as a set of books or a plant on the coffee table, a lamp on the side table, etc.) – and all in a single prim! They even come in a number of styles, either with or without exterior frames.

Lounge suite

Fully menu-driven, the suites include a comprehensive range of male, female and unisex sitting and other animations (massages, dances). All of the animations are fully adjustable, and as Ample uses AVSitter, there are no poseballs and the scripting takes care of where to sit additional people – little risk of you finding a friend ending up on your lap by mistake! The range of sitting options is impressive, and all of the animations are of an excellent standard, and fully adjustable.

A further button on the menu – EXTRAS – provides access to colour-changing options, an allows you to remove unwanted elements – don’t like the potted plant? remove it! want to use your own rug? remove the supplied one! The DEFAULT button will return removed items – although it’s a shame they cannot be toggled on/off individually.

One prim, but still a choice of colours and rug styles

There are also other packs comprising an armchair and sofa (1 prim each) for those that would like the option of adjusting the relative position of their furnishings.

The beds are similar to the suites, but with far more colour combinations. Available in two styles – one somewhat Japanese Gaijan style, the other what I’ll describe as “European modern” – and both nicely styled. They again include a comprehensive range of animations, options to remove unwanted elements (bedside lamps, etc.), and colour changing – and once again, they are a single prim. Like the lounge suites, removed items can be replaced once more by selecting the DEFAULT option from the menu.

Modern bed style

Obviously, it all being one-prim, the lounge suites and beds don’t include scripts for the table lamps (not unless you want a glow-in-the dark sofa or bed!), but it’s a simple matter to add scripted illumination if you wish via phantom invisiprims, suitably scripted and placed over the lamps themselves.

The prim perfect range also includes:

  • A selection of dining table options with 4 chairs & seating animations
  • Hot tubs (currently only available via the SL Marketplace due to the adult rating of some of the animations)
  • A range of three pianos
  • And – coming soon – one prim kitchen ranges.

Pianos

I came across PrimPossible as a direct result of the pianos. As friends know, I’ve had an ongoing love affair with my Musical Alchemy concert grand by Persephone Milk; I regard it as the finest prim piano in SL and the options it includes are stunning. However, even in its basic display mode, it does eat-up 85 prims; that’s a lot when you’re on a budget. At one prim, the PrimPossible pianos offer those with limited prim space a worthwhile alternative.

At the time of writing, Ample has three models in the range, priced between L$450 and L$1200. All have the same selection of 15 pieces of music, the same seating animation and the same clarity of playback with a good volume range. However, there are other differences.

PrimPossible concert grand installed at home

I initially tried the L$450 model; it is nice enough in terms of styling and is apparently very popular. I’m sadly a detail nut, and I was personally disappointed with the out-of-scale texture used for the piano’s interior workings. Those who are as obsessive as me in this regard may find the L$950 model a better option. This not only fixes the internal texture issue, it also adds colour-changing and the ability to have the lid open or closed.

However, for me the Rolls-Royce of the range is the L$1200 model. It is simply stunning. The look is very refined and the traditional black lacquer finish (there are other colour versions available, but I’m a traditionalist) is excellent. This model lacks the lid open / closed options, but includes a very nicely-done shadow effect. It is also slightly larger than the L$460/L$950 models, so I think of it as a concert grand. All told, it’s a beautiful item, and I’m now proud to have one at home.

Opinion

PrimPossible is an impressive range. At L$950 for a suite / bed, they are around the mid-price level, and given the range of animations include and the fact that they are only one prim, represent a fair price. The sofa with armchair options come in at L$800 (at the time of writing) and offer flexibility of placement for those who need it, for only 2 prims. All items are NO MOD, NO TRANSFER / NO COPY (which seems to be the way with a lot of furniture nowadays), although copyable versions are available at a higher price depending on the item in question.

Do remember in the case of the lounge suites, that they are only one prim, and so individual items in the suite – tables, chairs – cannot be freely repositioned independently of one another.

If I’m totally honest, the overall texture finish on the sofa and armchair in the suites is a little bland: the cushions appear to be almost plain in terms of texture, which leaves them looking a tad odd with some colour options, but when presents an acceptable “smooth leather” look with colours such as the deep red and blue. That said, I would also pass comment that I’ve come across multi-prim furniture at far higher prices in SL that have the same weakness. I’m actually still seriously considering a lounge suite to replace my current set of furniture. I don’t need to save prims in this instance – I just like the items!

Overall, the range cannot be faulted, especially if you are on a prim budget. And even if you’re not, the furniture will still more than grace a home. For those that like to put their prim allowance (or should I say Land Impact!) to work in other ways but still enjoy having a comfortable SL home, then PrimPossible offers an excellent option for doing so.

Sales Aftercare

Ample provides outstanding after-sales care. A rare server-side bug meant I encountered issues with my lounge. While the issue was not Ample’s fault, he immediately offered one of four alterntives to correct the problem. When that failed, he immediately offered a second option which resolved the issue. No fuss, no bother no question.

Now, that’s service!

Recommended.

Related Links

 

I love music

Posted on by Inara Pey

I love to sing; I enjoy playing both the guitar and the piano. While I have a very eclectic taste in music, I was raised on the classics when it came to piano – although I managed to sneak in my fair share of ragtime and popular pieces from the Great American Songbook without getting told off.

I’ve tried to reflect my rl love of music in-world in a number of ways: I’ve supported various clubs that reflect my style of music and I’ve considered the possibility of singing live at a venue somewhere (the major problem here being I have absolutely NO idea how to go about doing so…).

Given all this, it will come as no surprise that a piano features as a central part of my SL home. My particular piano is a concert grand (something I’d love to have at home in rl, had I the physical space), made by the outstanding Persephone Milk as the flagship in her Musical Alchemy range. I’ve been the proud owner of this piano since version 3.0, and it has featured in every home I’ve built for myself in Second Life.

My Musical Alchemy concert grand in my current home

For those not familiar with Persephone’s work, it is – quite simply – the finest in SL where musical instruments are concerned. Her attention to detail is simply stunning. While her attention to detail and styling is seen throughout her range of instruments, it is with the piano that I think she has achieved something of outright beauty.

Sitting at Persephone's piano in my lounge

From the brass castors of this wheels, up through the ornate legs, right to the top edge of the raised lid, absolutely gorgeous. Not only that, it is packed with features, including:

  • The ability of up to 3 people to play the keyboard at one time
  • A series of high-quality poses for use by individuals and couples, allowing them to sit, lie or simply rest on the (closed) lid of the piano and listen to the music
  • A hinged, multi-position lid: have it fully open, half open or simply with the front open
  • A hinged keyboard cover that can be raised or lowered
  • Colour options for the exterior finish and interior detail
  • A selection of rezzable “extras”

Take these features, and combine them with the selection of pre-recorded pieces Persephone has taken time to put together, and her piano becomes a hands-down winner.

I learned to play using pieces like Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata (who didn’t) – so these tend to be staples of many pianos in-world (which isn’t to say they are not favourites of mine). With them come another couple of “popular” (as in recognisable) pieces by Mozart: his Sonata No 11 and Sonata Facile. But Persephone adds (for me) a winning combination of pieces that place here piano well ahead of the rest, even allowing for the huge range of features.

The stunning level of detail (credit: Persephone Milk)

There’s an excerpt from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (a piece that is simply superb when heard on the harpsichord), Satie’s haunting Gymnopedie No 1 (which I originally learned as a result of hearing John William’s arrangement for Sky’s debut album while I was little) and even Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag.

The music selection is rounded-out by Schubert’s Impromptu D899 No 3 and Persephone’s own Persephone’s Theme – itself a wonderful piece.

And as if all this weren’t enough, Persephone has just release version 6.0, which not only refines the look and styling even further – it removes almost all of the stuttering playback common to in-world musical instruments when they play and adds a built-in “speaker” system that massively enhances the listening experience compared to other systems.

One of the endearing poses included in Persephone's concert grand

All-in-all, Persephone’s concert grand pushes my buttons musically and aesthetically. It has been – and remains – one of my all-time favourite purchases within Second Life; I really cannot recommend it enough.

If you’d like to see Persephone’s concert grand – and the rest of her excellent range of musical instruments, why not drop by her in-world store? I doubt very much that you’ll be disappointed.