Chakryn Forest - Virtual nature by Andrek Lowell, or the real reason I still have a Second Life

Chakryn Wolves, as photographed by Lano Ling at Chakryn Forest. Lano is posing here with Beolas Whitfield who calls his friend a "photopainter"

Life's not just for Paradise,
or places out of time,
for there's something even stranger yet,
that wont fit in a rhyme.
Just when I thought I'd seen it all,
and whilst sitting on a hill,
I saw, quite all around me,
the final Cosmic thrill
Paradise on Earth (The Consummatum Incarnate), by Dick Richardson


Music: Narayanam, performed by Suchita Parte
Video: Bettina Tizzy

"Get a first life," the cynics say. We know, of course, that The Cynics haven't tried Second Life®, or maybe they just dipped their Ruthy toes in our virtual world for a fleeting moment and bolted at the first lag.

I was almost A Cynic. Even with the initial unpleasantness behind me, the spectre of living two lives inside the same 24 hours terrorized me, and that is precisely what was on my mind as I stood in an elven sandbox, toying with a few helpless prims like brussel sprouts on my childhood dinner plate. It hadn't taken me long to understand that, in Second Life, the builder is King, and looking at my feeble work made me feel doomed and without purpose. I am not a builder, you see. Today, I can cobble a few things together, and I know the steps, but the magic is not in my fingers or my brain, hence the reverence I feel for those who have it.

The comely Elvenmoor sandbox of those days was already a favorite place of mine, and noobs like me were still allowed to mingle and rez alongside the prim sorcerers. I recall that a friend urged me to come and see something on the far end, and that is when I saw it...


The very first Chakryn Forest, as discovered in a sandbox on February 22, 2007

It was the lushest, greenest virtual forest that I had ever laid eyes on and it simply beckoned further exploration. Such a pretty thing! We soon discovered that once in the forest, we were transported to a secret place with no end. I later understood that its creator, a hobbit who would become one of my dearest friends, Andrek Lowell, had made the outside walls transparent. You could see into the forest but not out of it.

Finding a place to permanently rez that forest and build a community around it became the instant purpose of my Second Life. There are so many stories...

Today, four locations and five iterations later (including the introduction of sculpties and Andrek's ingenious idea of adding sun rays), Chakryn Forest is still my home and now sits on its own void sim thanks to the hospitality of my good friend and OpenSim guru, thomtrance Otoole.


The second Chakryn Forest no longer exists. Here is the third, now known as Silvanus and belonging to Kirk Nabob, as photographed by Wellington Bahram


The third Chakryn Forest (now known as Silvanus Forest), as photographed by Moon Over Belgium

Here is a lovely video of Silvanus (then Chakryn) by Chriz Palen, also featuring one of those glimmering, sunny "swirly" prim abuse sculptures by Gore Suntzu that I had rezzed there.



He made it with 1,400 prims
I think it especially notable that Andrek created the new sim-wide Chakryn Forest, open to the public since July 15th, with just 1,400 prims, complete with caves, an underwater forest feature, tunnels and many hidden secrets that no one - to my knowledge - has discovered yet.


This dreamy photo of Chakryn Forest today, by Maxiums1id

I asked Andrek how many more prims he would have needed to create Chakryn, were it not for huge prims. Between the trees, foliage, "mountain bits," waterfall, sun rays and grass, he felt he'd need ...

Andrek Lowell: Each tree would of probably cost 10 prims, and in the end, not even come close to matching the detail. The foliage... well over 1,000. The waterfall... around the 100 - 300 range, and of course, not nearly the detail. Grass... another 90 prims, light rays... another 20, and it would also be a pain. And then there are the 256m mega prims that make up the mountain top, river cliff, and waterfall wall...


I've looked at forests in other virtual worlds such as The Endless Forest, where all is flat and no nightime falls and water is still and lifeless...

It is true that I understand my own Second Life to be a mind-altering privilege, so rich with startling and radical opportunities around nearly every corner that I am in a perpetual state of excitement. But in the end, it is Chakryn Forest that I must come home to. It is my lifeline and my greatest source of serenity.

Teleport to Chakryn Forest from here.
Teleport to Silvanus Forest from here.


See also:

The Chakryn Forest and Silvanus Forest Flickr group

Other forests by Andrek Lowell, as photographed by Moon Over Belgium:
* Ile des Amis
* Greenbrier Wood

Other videos that feature Silvanus Forest:
* Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey - A ten-part HBO film
* "Chameleon" by Brigitte Kungler
* "Chakryn Forest," by Morris Vig
* Fenix et Gala by Eiko Ivory

Mega sculptie prim skies

The+Abyss with RenderGlow...



As is...



Is anyone else ready for Windlight?

Megaprims for science

Megaprims breathe life into outreach programs that empower human exploration of space.

Builder Jimbo Perhaps and his partner, Rocket Sellers, routinely work with megaprims to help real life rocket companies demonstrate their programs in 3D. Jimbo was also responsible for building most of the rockets at the International Spaceflight Museum.

The Terrestrial Planet Finder is a mission NASA hopes to launch in 15 to 20 years. Slurl: Explorer

Jimbo explained that he would not have been able to achieve the smooth outer hull with regular prims.

The Bussard Ramjet - built here at about 1/4 scale - is a huge spaceship that scoops up interstellar hydrogen and uses it for fuel. Slurl: Bussard Ramjet, Space Frontier


This Sun Tower is a recreation of a plan that recommends that the U.S. Government continue studying the feasibility of solar power as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Slurl: Space Studies Institute, Frontier Spaceport

Yet another solar power satellite has huge particle beams to show the sunlight being gathered and converted into microwaves.

All this would not have been possible without megaprims.

Dear Linden Labs: Give us some editable megaprims, bigger prims, manageable prims... but don't take away our megas... and Michael Linden? It's been two weeks now... Two weeks that builders have been stalled on many projects. Please give the waiting (second) world a favorable answer, and soon!

Without Megaprims...

this post by Douglas Story

Without megaprims...Light Waves' Man Angel would have disappeared.
photo by Finny Yates. slurl

Ah, the power of them three little dots! I refer to the ellipse... Useful in this case because we were all ready to write a scorching propaganda piece with the theme, "Without Megaprims... All This Great Shit Will Go Away!" But now with things looking up on that front (latest word is that the all-powerful Lindens are leaning toward keeping megaprims) I only have to change the part after the ellipse to "...All This Great Shit WOULD Have Gone Away! And What A Damned Shame That Would Have Been!!!" Hmmmm...the first title was snappier though, you have to admit.

Without megaprims...DanCoyote Antonelli's Hyperformalism would have disappeared.
slurl


Without megaprims...Rezzable's Greenies' Home would have disappeared.
slurl

Without megaprims...the irritatingly prolific Juria Yoshikawa's Liquid Light would have disappeared.

I make something new about every seven months. With Juria, it's about every two minutes. I find this annoying. slurl

Without megaprims... Sabine Stonebender's Zero Point would have disappeared. slurl

You'll find a lot of shots here that include Bettina's booty in them. The author wishes to point out that most of the pictures here were taken by Bettina herself. Any booty issues should be taken up with the management.

Without megaprims... The International Spaceflight Museum would have disappeared.
slurl

The thing is...the artists and builders who use megaprims tend to be the most creative, charming, and well-dressed avatars who bring us joy in SL. How lucky we are to have them!

Without megaprims... Douglas Story, Aldomanutio Abruzzo & Desdemona Enfield's FlowerBall would have disappeared.
slurl

Without megaprims...Artoo Magneto's anyMOTION would have disappeared.
slurl


Without megaprims...Gazira Babeli's 'Gaz of the Desert' would not have been possible.

I don't like most of the machinima I've seen. This is 23 minutes of spell-binding, slow-cut magic. See it. slurl

Without megaprims... Cube Inada's Alien Flying Circus would have disappeared.
slurl

Without megaprims...Earth Primbee's Inspire Space Park would have disappeared.
slurl

Yes, it's true that I took this shot myself. But you'll notice - there's no booty. My pictures are entirely booty-free.

(photo by Wellington Bahram) slurl
Without megaprims we would not have Bettina's forest home - Chakryn - by Andrek Lowell,

nor this,








nor this (spanning three effing sims!)
slurl








nor this.
slurl




I'm sure we've missed many wonderful items (I'm sure you'll point them out, gentle readers) but I think we made our point here. The loss of megaprims would be a cheapening, deadening blow to the fields of imagination and creativity that Second Life opens up to people. We hope that this wonderful creative tool remains open to us, for both our creative impulses and for those who appreciate same.

Yoo hoo! Linden Labs? Paging Mr. Michael Linden... Please give the waiting (second) world a favorable answer, and soon!

This just in! The future of huge prims is looking good

Andrew Linden, the man in charge of Havok4, just posted a transcript of a meeting about huge prims that should cheer you all up. Our very own Seifert Surface was present at that meeting and stood up for the big guys! (I'm referring to huge prims, of course). Thank you, Seifert <3

Worth underscoring:
[16:41] Andrew Linden: Currently there are a bunch of big estate owners who use megaprims to make cool content (IBM, greenies, Electric Sheep, etc)
[16:41] Andrew Linden: There is no way anyone is going to be able to nerf megaprims.

Here's where you can read that transcript.

In a funk

It’s Fashion Week in my home town of Los Angeles, and there are before-parties, after-parties, up-the-wazoo parties all over town. I can’t get up the energy or the excitement to attend a thing… not that I’m invited to the really good ones. I'm also over the little bit o'fun I had with our readers in my last post - guess nobody caught it - or maybe they all feel the same way I do.

Seems all I’m good for is to pop open a Red Stripe and just sit here glumly, contemplating the future of Second Life without huge prims. Granted, I keep checking back on the Second Life Community blog to see if anything new has been posted there; likewise the SL Forums, which as of this writing has 555 comments on it, the last one by Charlie Omega who pretty much summed up my feelings:

OK Michael, now that you have seen many opinions.....what is LL's take on this before it becomes too much of a flame fest based of differing opinions.

Will LL take the easy way out again and remove or limit something that already exists, thereby seriously damaging or destroying existing content?

OR

Will a harder headed stead fast approach be attempted against abusers?

I think after many of the comments here, the best choice is obvious from a 'customer' standpoint, so what is the best choice from the 'provider' standpoint?

Remember, we pay fees etc. for this, make enough people mad, and even bad publicity won’t be enough to pay the bills given enough time.

Linden Labs, please spare us this growing knot in our tummies. I’m all for dialogue (something we missed on the VAT introduction), but this is taking too long. If I were a builder – which I am not (I merely revere great builders) - I would be frozen into inaction, too worried and demoralized to continue.

Not Possible in Second Life? Without huge prims...

Top two photos by Wellington Bahram

Without huge prims... Light Waves' poetic giants at Rezzable Hallucinogen would evaporate.
Slurl: Rezzable Hallucinogen

Not Possible in Second Life? Without huge prims...

Without huge prims... time would run out for Urasima Clock Island.
Slurl: Clock Island

Not Possible in Second Life? Without huge prims...

Without huge prims... Greenies Home Rezzable by Pavig Lok, Light Waves and Littletoe Bartlett would cease to exist.
Slurl: Greenies

Second Life's "Huge Prim Problem" - What we could not say on SL's community blog

UPDATE: (Posted at 7:55pm SLT): Rather than post your opinions here, please proceed to the SL Forums where the discussion is continuing. You can do so here.

In addition, you will find valuable information here posted by Andrew Linden regarding Havok4 and object-parcel collisions.

***
Dear Not Possible IRL'ers:

Michael Linden has blog posted a piece called The Big Prim Problem, where he invites the community to consider whether huge prims should be done away with. As there is no more room for us to post something on Second Life's website, I would like to invite your opinion here.

We conducted a group IM in-world and here is where we left off:
[15:50] Bettina Tizzy: http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/12/the-big-prim-problem/
[15:51] Kid Kuhn: Yeah I saw. A bit annoying, prim reduction wise
[15:52] Light Waves: hi betti!
[15:52] nand Nerd: then get your vote up there to keep em ;-)
[15:52] Kid Kuhn: Vote where?
[15:52] Sysperia Poppy: ive misssed something i think
[15:52] nand Nerd: they're asking for people to sign the blog entry
[15:52] Alec Paragon: me too, what is getting rid of and from where
[15:53] Kid Kuhn: The comments are full, 150
[15:53] Osprey Therian: I think they need to take away all the enormous ones and replace the medium big ones with scaleable versions.
[15:54] Sysperia Poppy: ty
[15:54] nand Nerd: I'll be happy to say goodbye to the ones over 256x256
[15:54] Osprey Therian: yes
[15:55] Osprey Therian: just 2 or 3 very large things like a box, a sprere, a cylinder - scaleable and useable as a normal prim - well, that would rock.
[15:55] Kid Kuhn: Well taking them away would pretty much be the same as charging cause builds will take up more prim space
[15:56] Devo Pedro: gold: Gene Replacement Says: October 12th, 2007 at 1:43 PM PDT You should remove them all because they enable terrorism.
[15:56] Osprey Therian: They haven't been around forever you know.
[15:56] Alec Paragon: lmao
[15:56] Jolly Jedburgh: perhaps they can charge for a large prim? sorting it out the linden way ;)
[15:56] Devo Pedro: for anyone who doesn't know, most of them are created by Gene
[15:56] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: Agree with Kid.... I'm not so sure about abolishing them unless they have a good alternative
[15:57] Osprey Therian: I can see enabling huge sizes for PI use.
[15:57] AM Radio: I'd be up for giving up more options on them. no hollow, phantom... etc.
[15:57] Osprey Therian: not on the mainland
[15:57] Kid Kuhn: And besides, how are you going to be able to make a huge circular platform without giant prims?
[15:57] AM Radio: and anything over 256 is a bit silly.
[15:57] Devo Pedro: the racing sim i spend most of my time in and that's becoming more and more popular each day is highly dependant on them, removing them would be catastrophic
[15:57] AM Radio: but I do love those 20x20 slabs.
[15:57] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: I don't know if I'd miss the ginormous ones... but 20x20 is a standard for me
[15:57] AM Radio: yeah
[15:57] Kid Kuhn: 20x20 and 25 rocks
[15:58] Osprey Therian: I'd say scaleble shapes up to 40m a side
[15:58] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: Scalable would be awesome, but I doubt it happeneing
[15:58] Chime Desoto: hmmm I think they are like anything else here, wonderful if used properly and as abuseable as anything else here.
[15:58] Osprey Therian: and that's it except on PI
[15:58] Jolly Jedburgh: plenty of good uses all they have to do it increase the standard prim size as it needs to be done, and no one will look for th elarge prims apart from people wanting to annoy others
[15:58] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: That's a thought
[15:59] Osprey Therian: The griefing that goes on with them is horrid.
[15:59] Jolly Jedburgh: then destroy the large prims in a big bon fire
[15:59] Bettina Tizzy: I would like to continue the discussion on these prims on the NPIRL blog, since there is no more room for us to say anything on the Linden post, and invite all of you to have your say
[15:59] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: But griefing is griefing... ban them and something else will pop up
[15:59] Jolly Jedburgh: good idea Bettina
[15:59] Bettina Tizzy: I will post something and invite your opinion
[15:59] Bjorlyn Loon: I would really like that Bettina.
[15:59] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: here, here Bettina... to the blogs :)
[15:59] Osprey Therian: No, that's not correct when it comes to sim-sized prims on the mainland.
[16:00] Devo Pedro: link please once it's started
[16:00] AM Radio: Thanks Bettina. The wheatfield would use about 148 more prims without the 20x20
[16:00] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: Allright, I'll move to the blog... but osprey I wouldn't argue in favor of prim sized, I just don't want the sortof-megas to get thrown out with it...
[16:00] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: prim sized = sim sized
[16:01] Dancoyote Antonelli: it is not the prim that causes the problems, but the wielder of the prim
[16:01] Bjorlyn Loon: lol Dan
[16:01] Dancoyote Antonelli: do not outlaw potential because some misuse it
[16:01] Dancoyote Antonelli: would you like to outlaw scripting too?
[16:01] Tezcatlipoca Bisiani: Cheers
[16:01] Osprey Therian: I advocate several shape choices up to 40m in size that are useable as normal prims.
[16:01] nand Nerd: I hear ya DC
[16:02] AM Radio: what I would want is a buffer time. if they say no more megaprims and launch a rretuyrn campaign, I'd want time to convert them to regular prims.
[16:02] AM Radio: scary
[16:02] Ravenelle Zugzwang: and those dirty strippers
[16:02] Dancoyote Antonelli: I advocate no limits on creative tools
[16:02] Kid Kuhn: Thats cool though, basically we seem to agree its ok to ban giant prims over the size of lets say 50
[16:02] AM Radio: imagine not being able to rez an item because it has a mega in it
[16:02] AM Radio shudders
[16:02] Dancoyote Antonelli: push Linden Labs
[16:02] Dancoyote Antonelli: dont cave to limitations
[16:02] Osprey Therian: Good idea, AM
[16:03] Dancoyote Antonelli: no we do not agree to ban anything
[16:03] Kid Kuhn: Ayone needs those gigant ones? If not why should they stay?
[16:03] Osprey Therian: Dan, I don't think the limits should be on PI, but there is no legitimate use on the mainland for these children of an exploit.
[16:04] AM Radio: so perhaps the limit is set as an estate option.
[16:04] Ravenelle Zugzwang: don't ban any of them on Private regions
[16:05] Dancoyote Antonelli: ...tap tap tap... is this thing on?...
[16:05] Bettina Tizzy: posted
[16:05] AM Radio: bettina, I would post this conversation as well. as longas everyone is up for it. Dan's opinion is LOUD AND CLEAR.. :)
[16:06] Bettina Tizzy: will do
[16:06] Light Waves: so what's a megaprim?
[16:06] Kid Kuhn: Yeah fine with me
[16:06] Dancoyote Antonelli: ban the griefers not the tools
[16:06] Keystone Bouchard: I'm in agreement with DC
[16:06] Devo Pedro: yep
[16:07] Osprey Therian: PI are an entirely diff case - on the mainland we need to coexist and these things are making that hard. Plus I'd rather have useable prims than the set sizes we have now.
[16:08] AM Radio: An outright ban would be terrible. Megaprims have spurred innovation and allowed people to brainstorm amazing ideas. But management toolsfor megaprims is probably prudent
[16:08] Darkle Sands: Lightwaves massive sculpture is 7 prims, what would happen to that
[16:09] Dancoyote Antonelli: we need a full range of sizes starting from 10M on up to the max Megaprim size
[16:09] Chime Desoto: we need to be careful about changing the way things are just because there are a few problems with megaprims. Every change to the nature of our collective "reality" can have unexpected and disasterous results. Make a hard and fast "ban megaprims" because some noob uses them to grief is one more step down the slippery slope that will ultimately turn this place to just another chat room
[16:10] Kid Kuhn: Darkle, sculpties wont be affected
[16:10] Osprey Therian: Oh, please.
[16:10] Avi Arrow: LL should wipe the grid sized prims from the server--any prim over 256x3 in size. keep the rest.
[16:10] Juria Yoshikawa: i say ban prims all together. let's use particles!
[16:11] Bettina Tizzy: ok, just posted this convo as well
[16:11] Bettina Tizzy: have at it peeps
[16:11] Darkle Sands: Sorry Light Waves, I thought your big sculpture that's about 200m tall was mega spheres with a sculptie texture
[16:11] Darkle Sands: my bad
[16:11] Kid Kuhn: Im on mainland and seriously I cant figure out how to make a 20x20x5 cylinder without giant prims. I need them!
[16:11] Light Waves: nah, I kid! I know full well what they are :)
[16:12] Bettina Tizzy: my own forest would cease to exist... landscaping would take such a hit
[16:12] Kid Kuhn: You are saying that they are giant prims?
[16:12] Dancoyote Antonelli: hehe
[16:12] Bettina Tizzy: Chakryn forest's trees = megas
[16:13] AM Radio: youch
[16:13] Kid Kuhn: Seems to be a shitload of megas out there then. Big problem
[16:13] Osprey Therian: So does anyone agree with me that we need useable shapes up to about 40m and PI should set their own limits?
[16:13] Chime Desoto: don't forget your sunrays, Bettina those are megas too aren't they?
[16:14] Kid Kuhn: Yeah Os, but I dont think we will be getting any new ones if they ban the old ones
[16:14] Gwen Carillon: nods in agreement with Osprey
[16:14] Devo Pedro: i'd wager the reason behind bringing this up is a technical one in conjuction with the physics upgrade and the greifing aspect is just arguement that'd support removing them but has nothing to do with their goals
[16:14] Dancoyote Antonelli: no institutionalized limitations, nay.
[16:14] Light Waves: I think prim size should be limited to parcel size. But LL say that they cause lag. I feel no lag where I am. I feel no lag in Greenies sim. What lag?
[16:14] Osprey Therian: I'm all for deciding what would be best then telling them.
[16:14] Avi Arrow: in agreement...i'd be grateful for prims that go to 12 or 16m3.
[16:15] Osprey Therian: Yes - 20m would be grand, 40m, a treat.
[16:15] Devo Pedro: they're just putting the feelers out as to how many people they'd screw over if they did it
[16:15] Kid Kuhn: Addfarms cause lag. They should get rid of those before anything else

Thank you.