Truthseeker Young and "Voices: Orion's Arm"

Posted by Alpha Auer
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Yes, that's it folks! Absolutely no need for any further pontifications from yours truly on this newest one by Truthseeker Young. Teleport directly from here.
:-)

My basic OpenSim Travel Kit

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

While living in California, I put together a backpack filled with all kinds of emergency supplies to get me through a bad earthquake. There were Powerbars, a flashlight, a hand-cranked radio, a first-aid kit, some single dollar bills, etc. I tossed it into the trunk of my car and figured it would be with me at most times. In fact, I've given backpacks such as these to all my closest friends and loved ones in California as gifts. I usually tuck in a deck of cards, a pencil and notepad and sometimes a funny book. Even a yoyo!

Most of us have a little travel kit for toiletries, and frequent international travelers take that a few steps further: noise-cancelling headphones, jet lag meds, adapters, converters, a cozy pair of socks... you get my drift.

Nowadays, I am more in need of a kit for the virtual traveler, and these are especially important - and appreciated - if you are not a builder or a scripter.

These are all things I carry with me as I travel from one OpenSim to another...

Bettina's Basic OpenSim Travel Kit:
- One script for personal radar
- Good freebie skin, such as Sezmra Svarog's Splendor skins
- One transparent texture (I forget where I got mine)
- A basic particle script (good for testing), such as Jopsy Pendragon's Barebones Particle script (thanks for posting it, Ordinal!), or Ama Omega's ExampleParticleScript
- Eye textures, such as Vint Falken's pretty, free, and very NPIRL creations for Valentine's day.
- Of course, Torley's funtastic textures!

What else should we pack in our virtual travel kits? Got any good links? What could I be doing better?

On my wish list:
- Portable prim hair
- My fave June Dion bodysuit (ARC friendly!)

Arrival tips:
- Friend a few folks right away
- Ask for LMs, where the sandbox is, and where the freebie area is
- Check out the map right away. Where are you? Make a Landmark!

"at home" with Truthseeker Young

Posted by Alpha Auer... ;-)

How easy can it be to write about someone that you really like and yet maintain your objectivity? Well, if the reasons that you like the person have something to do with the context of what it is that you have to tell, I personally see no big conflict of purpose...

Truthseeker has imagination. This is why I befriended this person. Truthseeker has a sense of humor. Again, this is why I befriended this somewhat androgynous personage, of whom I have absolutely no idea as to their gender, their age, or anything else related to their Real Life flesh and blood existence. And guess what? I am not even remotely interested in any of that. Truthseeker is possibly my one true solely virtual friend and I have befriended him/her through my interest in his/her art work, writing a glowing review of one of his/her installations basically during a time when I did not know this wonderful person from Adam/Eve. So, methinks that it is perfectly possible for me to write a blog post that does not reek too strongly of nepotism about the extraordinary home and the charged virtual days of my colleague Truthseeker Young.
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(Photographs courtesy of Truthseeker Young.)

The obvious place to start I suppose would be Truthseeker's avatar. This slender creature of vague Meso-American or possibly African descent undergoes the occasional modification but some features have stayed in situ, more or less since we met: The back pointing open jaw, displaying an ominous set of teeth ready to bite the living daylights out of anyone who would dare to sneak up on this seemingly frail individual from behind... The staff, of course. The staff has had its share of transformations, however it is always there, in all of its glory... And of course, the goatee. But is this just a plain old a goatee? Or some magic appendage that seems to miraculously sprout forth from Truthseeker's chin?

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And then of course, there are the stories that happen around Truthseeker:



We are crouching on the rooftop in anticipation of any kind of "undesirable element" to creep up. In which case, I guess we will proceed to pour hot virtual oil on them or something?

As it turned out later, an eminently sensible strategy it was too. Recently the place was in fact taken over by some highly undesirable squatters...



Alpha Auer: You were invaded???
Truthseeker Young: More like infested! A mother fighterjet & her miserable little young tried to roost in my front yard! Execrable vermin...

One day later:



Truthseeker Young: oh! OH! OMG!!! d00d, where's my gun... ohhh, nonononono...this ain't good...

One day later:



Truthseeker Young: aah, crap! I thought I'd chased them off, but last night when I came back home, they were back, and they'd built a NEST outta my FENCE!!
Alpha Auer: the "crouching on the rooftop watching vigilantly" pose thingy isn't helping you too much over there is it? :)
Truthseeker Young: /me glowers & mutters curses from the acceptable distance established by the mother jetbird

(Photographs courtesy of Truthseeker Young.)

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And then there is Truthseeker's house, what this proud parent of a three year old Real Life minx calls the "space_age_bachelor_pagoda", rezzed high up in the skies of Extropia. When first I saw it, it was a thing of floating splendor, imagination and grace, the likes of which one would be hard pushed to find maybe even in places like Bangkok.



But, recently this magnificent dwelling has acquired a far more anthropomorphic cast - indeed to the point where Truthseeker could not help but remark that he/she thought the house looked somewhat stoned.





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We make art in Second Life. We rezz sculptures and buildings. Installations and soundscapes. Entire sims even. But isn't the thing that we are really busy creating, the thing of paramount importance, the thing that has never really happened before (or only in a very narrow "staged" context), our "self"? Indeed our many selves? Our very lives? The endless stories that we spin, the tales we tell to ourselves and to others. The magnificence of the fairy tale narrative come to life as an avatar.

Avatar Art?

It seems to me that we all do it. That every person who becomes immersed in a virtual world becomes involved in this strangest and most hard to explain and analyze of creative processes. At least this is my sense as well as my own personal experience. However, when a person possessed of the levels of visual talent, of imagination, of intelligence and of humor that Truthseeker so obviously is, becomes entangled in this magical mesh of make-belief the outcome becomes what I have tried to feebly describe above.

Extraordinary!

You can teleport to Truthseeker Young's home directly from here. More images and stories of Truthseeker's virtual life can be found on his Flickr photostream here.

Industrial Steampunk =Thomus Keen

Posted by Alpha Auer


"The Spine Jetpack". The mechanical neko ears and tail, the steampunk clock bracelets and the boots are designed by Thomus Keen as well.

I cannot possibly have one favorite designer in Second Life®. Indeed I cannot have 10, or 50 or even a hundred - there are that many talented, imaginative people out there, all of whose output never ceases to delight me - not to mention of course, totally bankrupt me ;-)... However, if someone were to push me up against a prim wall and hold a virtual gun to my head - under such dire circumstances of duress, I might conceivably divulge the name of Thomus Keen as being on the very very top of my list.




"The Steampunk Glider"

Being the builder of Steam Forge and Steam Isle, one of which also houses his design enterprise Steam Powered Nuts; as well as the quite recently rezed Role Play environment called Apocolyptica (intentionally mis-spelt ;-), Thomus Keen's prowess as a virtual architect will definitely need to get covered in a separate future post. Today I will focus on objects and vehicles designed by Keen. I have not been able to interview Thomus Keen at such a length as I would have liked to have done, however looking at his Renderosity homepage I am inclined to think that the artist T.King, who is Thomus Keen's Real Life manifestation, is a professional game environment designer who has worked on the likes of Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.




"The Airship Davintus"

In the one brief conversation that he and I had some time ago, I did manage to gain some insight into the working processes behind his fine output when Keen told me that he "fuss(es) a lot over details and quality, so sometimes it can take a month or more for a single release", after which point he changes very little of the original design, adding that like all Second Life designers worth their mettle he too has his ongoing battle with prim counts, particularly in attached objects, with regards to avatar render cost. Thus a very long time is also spent in prim reduction processes; a good example to which would be a Katana which started out at 130 prims, and when it was finally done, was down to 49 prims, thanks to numerous custom made sculpties.




"The Gearwing Raptor"

In Second Life, Keen describes his area of design expertise as "Industrialized Steampunk". Now, the gentle reader of this blog will probably have surmised by now that my personal preferences definitely lean towards the man made. Not to put too fine a point on it, I am not really much of a "nature girl" at all. Hardly surprising then that the mechanical, the industrial interests me and holds my imagination. And Second Life certainly proliferates in the type of output that captures me, over and over again. Even so, Thomus Keen's design work I find particularly fascinating: These absolutely Impossible in Real Life gadgets, flight equipment, jet packs and gigantic airborne vessels seem to me to hold a mechanical precision that is such that were they to be constructed in Real Life there would be no question that they would be fully operational. Structures like the Airship Davintus or the Gearwing Raptor, are such that every nut and bold, every joint, seems to adhere to an impeccable design logic which culminates in a Gestalt utterly convincing in its functionality. Keen also manages to convey this functionality in his textures which to me are probably the most convincing ones that I have ever seen in Second Life. Thus, the webs that join the mechanic/metallic poles of the flight attachment called the Steampunk Glider are textured in such a way that that we visually sense that these webs are of a far lighter material - possibly canvas or maybe even some kind of light durable parchment - than the dark poles and central flight mechanism that tie the whole thing into one cohesive structure - one fully capable of flying, one which conveys the very logic of being airborne.


"The Stephenson Rocket", 1829. Collection of the National Museum of Science and Industry in London.


"The Apollo 10 Space Capsule", 1969. Collection of the National Museum of Science and Industry in London.

However, it is not only the precision of the design but also the way in which Keen's work seems to reside upon very firm historic design references, which for me, ultimately sets him in a class apart. This strikes me to be very much the case throughout Keen's output, but becomes especially apparent in the way in which he endows wooden objects with mechanical usage, as was indeed very much the practice during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Although not too overly fond of museums as a rule, I do make an exception when it comes to Science Museums, and particularly the one in London, where I have most probably spent entire weeks pondering upon the mechanical object throughout its history, but particularly during the 19th century, the age of the Industrial Revolution. But not only that period either: Gazing at the Apollo 10 Space Capsule in close proximity to Stephenson's Rocket one becomes aware of the unique aesthetics residing within the functionality of the mechanical object and how this provides a continuity of a visual language of design from spacecraft and early day steam engines to astrolabes, cannons and armillary spheres. It is this aesthetics of functionality that Thomus Keen seems to be tapping into and which he displays in his many gadgets and vehicles at Steam Powered Nuts, where incidentally you can also find wonderful industrial jewelry, mechanical neko attachments and various other avatar apparel such as boots and weapons, all crafted by the extraordinary Thomus Keen.

It should be added here that Steam Powered Nuts also carries a wonderful fashion line specialized in Victorian Steampunk and Badlands apparel, designed by Thomus Keen's talented business associate Destany Laval, who in all likelihood will provide material for a future blog post before too long.

You can teleport to Steam Powered Nuts directly from here. You can also see larger, more detailed images of Keen's flight objects and vehicles here.

Wizard of neko refinement: eko Merlin

Posted by Alpha Auer

Quite surprisingly, given the immense quality of his design output, eko Merlin is from a non-visual background. An electronic music producer in Real Life, eko describes his venture into Second Life object design as follows:

"When i started to play with prims, someone asked me to build a belt. I had a wonderful time working on this and since I enjoyed the process so much I proceeded to make several others , trying to push the details a bit more each time and aiming for better and better texturing. So, Second Life® is my first experience in object design and I love it.

"My first inspiration in Second Life was urban/neko/punk, but I didn't even know enough to call what I did by these labels. I was just stunned by the level of detail that I saw on some of the neko items, especially the things made with tiny prims. So, I suppose my first inspiration was not a style but the detailed building practice concealed within the style itself.

I have not yet designed too many items, since it takes me a very long time to complete a project, with the amount of detailing that I like to put into my work. However, I can see that my output can already be divided into two broad categories: Possible and Not Possible in Real Life. I am really not someone who can stick to one style only. It is just like music. I need change and diversity."

And indeed, along with all of his highly NPIRL objects, eko is also the designer of my much beloved Builder's Belt, a highly possible in Real Life item and as such really not at all suitable content for this blog. But besides this cherished item I do seem to have bought most of what eko has on display in his shop.


This headset has a lid, which when popped open reveals the brain inside. All components are color changeable and furthermore the object has a menu driven play list of tunes.


The Mechanics Belt: And what is so NPIRL about this you might ask? Well... What do all of these gauges measure exactly? My virtual blood pressure? hhh...


The crazy steampunk watch would need a machinima, which alas, I have not yet ever attempted in Second Life: The arms of this watch move completely randomly - backwards and forwards, unsynchronized and at great speed...


The first generation of the neko-backpack TV held a static image. I still loved it...


The new version will playback a slideshow of your choice.

eko is very much my kind of content creator: Unselfconscious, subtle and very very refined. One for whom the journey of creativity itself is what is paramount - over and above whatever the results of it may turn out to be. His creations do not scream out their self-importance in a bellowing voice but wait to be discovered, in all of their splendid detail, in a quiet corner of the metaverse - a wonderful neko shopping island named Blitzed.


Blitzed Island. whether it is truly NPIRL, I am not sure - however, truly lovely it most certainly is.

All in all, a truly delightful person is eko Merlin:

"Second Life is the most wonderful thing I know... The creativity is amazing - the scripting, in combination with objects, the fact that people can think, build and insert scripts, and thus get their creations to work, to do things... I find the whole thing so crazy... I see such clever creations (especially HUD's I love them), like a software in the software.

I think with all the things we are hearing now, several grids are in the process of being created and then in time will surely be integrated... We are just at the beginning of the story. We are the pioneers, our kids will see things unimaginable and I will be proud in 20 years time to say "I was there when it all started, I was in Second Life..."

You can teleport to eko Merlin's shop at Blitzed directly from here. You can also see larger, close-up images of his objects here.

Torley's art of life in Second Life - Part Three in a series

A few days ago, I asked our readers to name the first three words that came to mind when they thought of Torley Linden. Eleven of you responded with this:

High-octane Generous Resourceful Fun Love Watermelon Crazy "On" C*R*E*A*T*I*V*E Pink Green Torley Amazing Inspiring Awesome Video Cool Brilliant Artistic Kind Friendliest-Greeter-Ever! "Over the top" Exuberant! Ever-expanding-outward Giving Open Positive Super-teacher-extraordinaire


This watermelonish eye is Torley's trademark

To these I would add:

Eccentric Energetic Bodacious Giving Knowledgeable Bright Altruistic Unique Different Benevolent Magical Boundless Imaginative Weird Funny Patient Succinct Transparent Fascinating Entertaining Active Animated Bizarre Maverick Accomplished Thoughtful Quirky Soulful Vibrant Evangelist Sparkling Understanding Powerful Wacky Significant Loved Surprising Colorful Talented Wild Detailed Organized Unbelievable Credible Freestyle Inspired Inexhaustible Artful Big-hearted Open-handed Hard-working Smart Prolific Original Inventive

In fact, Torley is easily most everyone's favorite Linden and his sphere of influence is as broad as the grid is wide, for he is everyone's passport to understanding and enjoying Second Life®, from the basics to the most esoteric information imaginable.

While he may be an employee of Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, he has taken what could have been a thankless job and turned it into a magical one.


Torley's many Windlight Presets are among my favorite things in Second Life. A true gift! Download them here

I recently had occasion to ask Torley a few questions regarding his seemingly inexhaustible contributions to our world.

Torley, in my earliest days in Second Life, I thought you were a woman and married or in a relationship with Philip Rosedale! (It’s true! Sorry about that!). I vaguely knew that you loved watermelons and watermelon colors. Of course, it turns out that I was only right on one count. When I think of innovation in Second Life, you are the face of it. Your lively and rich communications are infectious, in the best kind of way. But do you sometimes feel the weight of this responsibility?

Torley Linden: LOL! It's certainly true I am a big fan of Philip, and one time when he was AFK, I prayed to him at the edge of the Ahern-Morris Welcome Area.

I used to feel more weight but things have changed, Linden Lab has grown, and we have more specialized Lindens helping with communication — for example, Katt is our Communications Manager, and our I-World Team in Support often gets the message out to Residents in-world and on the Grid Status Reports. As Resident Enlightenment Manager, my communications are focused on "bridging the knowledge gaps" and helping Residents solve everyday problems.

Can you point to one area or topic that we (your followers) aren’t especially “getting” yet that we need to pay more attention to

Torley Linden: I'm always fond of the opportunity to highlight little things that make a big difference: there isn't a single area/topic, but look for underused features with big benefits. For example, click actions (make buying and using objects easier) and FollowCam (better camera angles for machinima and general exploring) are SEVERELY UNDERUSED! A CRYING SHAME. It's true some stuff could be more intuitive to use in the first place, but there are plenty of possibilities which aren't being exploited. I'll continue to call out those specifics with applicable results.

Like NPIRL, I also strongly believe in getting more exposure for creativity and philosophy in Second Life, and coupling that with business stories — there are too many dry biz stories which don't have a personable, memorable touch. (Reference point: see the book Personality Not Included by Rohit, it's a gem.)


Who among us does not own many of Torley's textures? Get yours here


Torley's office hours are the stuff of legend

How can the Residents of Second Life help to promote quality content more to the Real World, beyond blogging? Do you have some insight and advice - or even requests - based on your experiences?

Torley Linden: Simply put: BRIDGE GAPS. Always, ALWAYS be looking for what other people are missing out on — unmet needs and unfulfilled desires they may not even know about yet. I get sick to my stomach when I hear "Everything's been done already!", that's so lame and myopic, because in plain view, we keep seeing innovations and incremental improvements march forth.

Sometimes on my personal blog, I'll state specifically what I want to see more of in Second Life. It's not just for my personal amusement; it's because it could bring joy to others. Get involved with coolhunters and other "trendy" groups — yes, there's a certain clique-ness to it, but PEOPLE WANT TO BELONG. PEOPLE WANT TO FEEL SPECIAL. And like it or not, to paraphrase Tim Sanders, life is a series of popularity contents. You'd rather be loved than hated — not by everyone, but by those who matter to you. And it's far better to be focused within those deliberate interests than trying to appeal to all (hint: it won't work).

Think of problems in your own life, and make something that solves your problems. Or team up with someone who has the technical ability. E.g., I started video tutorials because doing too much text was both a time-suck and insufficient to SHOW what's happening in SL. It's been both a professional + personal boon.

The usual maxims apply: be persistent (don't give up), believe in yourself, be likeable, etc. — but always, ALWAYS BRIDGE GAPS. In case we haven't made that point strongly enough, let me just say how impressed we are by SL fashions which draw from first life influences, but are wildly eclectic enough to stand on their own, and fulfill unique spots where nothing has been before. Some of it is even physically impossible, but... it creates waves of opportunity for first life to be inspired by Second Life. Therein lies the magic.


Torley doesn't preach to us about how to live our Second Life. He lives by his own maxims and shares them with us as his formula for happiness. This extraordinary list on the topic of Creativity is viewable in the sky at Here, the new sim Torley and his wife Ravenelle recently inaugurated

Is building that is NPIRL (Not Possible in Real Life) important, in your view?

Torley Linden: It absolutely is, depending on intent/purpose. I love what bridges the alien and familiar, and obviously, there's no point to Second Life if all it can do is create mere knockoffs of what we already know to be true in their analogue forms. By taking first life and extending it to areas which are physically unfeasible (for the time being, anyway), we heighten the imaginations, invigorate the senses, and demonstrate — live in 3D! — fresh possibilities.

(And yet, should we be scared, we can always return to our "ground comforts" before flying — as our avatars do — again.)

NPIRL building is also important when it's intrinsically essential and a special, unique part of Second Life. That someone can see it nowhere else and experience it the same way. That someone who's sufficiently intrigued WILL come into Second Life to witness it. (And hopefully as the registration/login process gets easier, this will become more lucidly true.) I'd love to hear stories of people who, say, have read your blog, Bett, and CAME INWORLD because they were enchanted by what you shared. I know that's true of me and Hamlet's (Au) New World Notes way back.

Editor's note: In fact, I'm extremely grateful to a number of very special people who have contacted me to say that this blog enticed them to hop in for the first time, or return after a long absence.

Torley Linden: For the record, I don't think it's sad that we have accurate recreations of things like food and toilets in Second Life where our avatars don't need them. But I do love seeing those forms extended (e.g., a commode that roams the fields and cleans up after your sculptie-goats) and think unnecessary constraints suck. I hate being in buildings that are tough to navigate because the ceiling is arbitrarily impenetrable. That's just... ugh!

Beyond any labeling, I like to see reactions, and those of delight and surprise and novelty that come with much NPIRL-ish creations is a wonder indeed.

As I like to say a la infomercial: "ONLY... IN SECOND LIFE!"

See also:

* Celebrating Second Life's Power Couple
* Ravenelle and Torley sound out on maintaining balance between both lives

Grab your recycled shopping bag and head over to Sabine Stonebender's temporary store

October 6, 2008 update: Sabine has been hard at work rebuilding Zero Point. Her permanent store is now open for business (teleport directly from here).

On Thursday, Sabine Stonebender woke up to some dreadful news. Due to a billing error bug, her Zero Point, certainly one of the most admired and NPIRL sites on the grid, had vanished into some database limbo and gone from this...





... to this...



The situation has not yet been resolved. This is particularly painful because Zero Point, which housed her store and an important source of income for Sabine, is also gone. Effective immediately, Sabine has a temporary store and you are cordially invited to shop.

You might pick up an elegant Radiant Nebulae Chamber...



... and by all means, get yourself a proper telehub!



If dancing is your thing, you'll be needing a glamorous floor...


The Psycho Vinyl Dance Floor changes colors


For black tie dancing, I recommend this one prim marvel that brings the universe into your living room


Her lastest release is both a sculpture and a toy


He goes boom


Her dragon sculptures are considered the finest in Second Life®

And here's a sneak peak at something coming down the pipeline...


BIG guns... and if you are in the mood, the whole thing blows to pieces (literally)

Sabine's textures (I own a bunch!) are jewels in the hands of any builder, and there are numerous sculptures, skins, particle effects, vehicles and all sorts of toys, too.

Show the love, why don't you?

The Archipelago of Konica Minolta

I admit it. I am sometimes too easily dazzled by new tricks, and the new Konica sims - discovered by Blackwater Gallery owner Jurin Juran - boast a few fun ground shakers. Given the scope and the nature of this enterprise, it seemed especially important for another builder to review them, so I was pleased when Alpha Auer (aka Elif Ayiter), creator of the deservedly acclaimed Second Life® island Syncretia (teleport directly from here), agreed to critique them for this blog. Alpha is an artist, designer, educator and virtual worlds investigator who has wedded her areas of expertise to explore hybrid art forms to much success, and Second Life is part and parcel of her PhD coursework. In other words, she really knows what she is talking about. That said, I want to go on record and say that I am anxious for corporations to succeed in Second Life. - Bettina Tizzy


by Alpha Auer

Building in a three dimensional environment devoid of two of the most essential elements of volumetrics - i.e., shadows and reflectivity - can be a tough proposition. Current global bandwidth conditions as well as the hardware configurations of most of the users, not to mention discrepancies in viewing conditions between platforms would make ray tracing almost impossible to implement at this stage of technology.

Future generations of Second Life will doubtless see the incorporation of spectacular three dimensionality, but as far as current building conditions are concerned, the situation is far from perfect. Indeed, some of the builders of mettle within Second Life have been challenged with these environmental conditions to the point where they have been prompted to develop solutions and techniques to either circumvent or incorporate these conditions into their creative output. In some cases these propositions have already gone as far as engendering the first tentative steps towards the development of a three dimensional, virtual, visual language unique to the metaverse.

One of the most effective approaches is to make a virtue out of necessity and to incorporate these shortcomings into the visual language itself. Two approaches that come to mind are monochromatic structures, in which the juxtaposition of surfaces becomes sufficiently interesting in itself, thus eliminating the need for shadows...


Whitenoise Church on the island of Die Angewandte (teleport directly from here) by MosMax Hax is monochromatic

...or the usage of structures assembled out of components with high levels of transparency, wherein the construct becomes a conglomerate of layers.


Elros Tuominen creates interesting content through the use of visual layers

A second approach in circumventing the problems surrounding the absence of ray tracing, and one that is employed by the bulk of the builders of Second Life, is to incorporate heightened levels of detail, especially (but not only) where textures are concerned. In its default state, a Second Life island presents us with an almost cartoonish appearance but there are countless islands in which texturing and detail work have been implemented to achieve stunning effects. Many of the cyber punk sims would constitute good examples, however the ones that I think of foremost are Saeya Nyanda's island "Silent” and Abramelin Wolfe's "Devil's Moon."


Silent by Saeya Nyanda


At Devil's Moon by Abramelin Wolfe, effective faux reflectivity is achieved through the intelligent usage of textures alone

What these examples and many others like them show us, however, is that good building in Second Life cannot be achieved on small scale economy: Not only will you need to spend vast amounts of time and energy in the development of an effective island sim, but you will also need to devote considerable financial resources by bringing in textures, weather systems, and scripts, and by deploying huge quantities of prims in the creation of content that has the necessary "depth" for the sustenance of a credible visual language.

The Konica Minolta archipelago (teleport directly from here) is comprised of three linked-up islands and from the onset I have to voice my disappointment that a huge corporation, with all kinds of resources at its disposal, seems to have done so little towards the building of effective island sims. It would, in fact, appear to me that many private owners spend more on the propagation of islands maintained entirely out of their personal income.

True... there are a couple of scripted wonders at Konica Minolta, one being a rising pyramid and another is a water tunnel, but the wow effect is eliminated most thoroughly through the usage of very cheesy textures compounded by the absence of any detailed prim work whatsoever. Thus, the rising pyramid turns out to be nothing but a series of mottled brown surfaces, albeit rising with slow majesty out of a ground that has been simply left to its own, sad, "SL default grass texture" fate.


The parting waters of the water tunnel: Clumsy texturing wrapped around a mega prim diminishes the effect. The glowing directional arrow pad, dead center in front of it, doesn't exactly help matters either

The inside of the pyramid can be accessed through a particle door. (And again, I have seen some beautiful, graceful particle effects in Second Life - this is definitely not one of them!). Once inside, the "dramatic" Meso American exterior of the pyramid reveals itself to be nothing more than a shopping mall (with no merchandise!?)/photo booth - all very shoddily built and very, very meagerly textured.

There is a stage for posing your avatar against a backdrop illustration wrapped around a concave surface in simulation of a three dimensional photo booth. I stood there for almost 10 minutes to see if the blurriness in the photo (suspiciously like a half rezzed tga file) would eventually go away - but no, that was how it was meant to be and that is how it stayed to the very end.



The inside of the "rising" pyramid revealed itself to be nothing more than a shopping mall, with no real merchandise and a photo pose stage with a blurry photo...

Unlike mainland sims which do not give their owners the option to change ground textures, island sims have this unique advantage and much can be achieved through the importing of rich, deep textures to this end. It is surprising then that at Konica Minolta this was so totally overlooked. As far as I could tell, the ground textures on their islands are the default textures of Second Life.

It appears that economies were realized with the foliage, too. Yes, there were trees and shrubs that I recognized from my own visits to Lillith Heart's Heart Garden Centre (teleport directly from here), but the bulk of what has been rezzed in terms of planting seems to have come from the default Second Life inventory’s library folder.

One might say that there is nothing wrong with that, "how were they going to fill three islands with enough plants?" Except that there is: I have worked and worked on those trees, played with their transparencies and their color values and nothing that you do to them will make them become anything other than what they are – default trees. There are plenty of sims where I've seen the default trees and do not feel so bothered by their presence. Something that the content builders do there is obviously different than what has been done at Konica Minolta. My guess would be that there the trees are grouped differently, they are rotated to achieve a more natural look, they are scaled to form clusters of varying height and so on. But in any case, default trees are OK to use if you really and truly are on a shoestring budget. Definitely not OK when you are multimillion dollar corporation!

Color and especially the glow effect are yet more things that I had huge problems with at Konica Minolta. The glow effect is a godsend – if you know how to use it adroitly! The effect is powerful and thus really needs to be incorporated into the overall design and repeated at intervals throughout the scheme so that it does not fragment the design system. Second, it helps if the effect is used with a purpose, such as the emulation of light. Third, the effect can be absolutely lethal if you push the slider since it really does provide a very powerful input. Here it has been used haphazardly, only in isolated instances and at great force, causing the glow ridden objects to completely break away from the overall visual language.

The colors used on the glow objects has not really helped things any either: The neon purple of the particle doors and the vitriolic green of the navigational arrow platform are overwhelming in their intensity and are not present in sufficient quantities elsewhere to establish a coherent visual language, such as the glow paths by Spiral Walcher seem to have done in the Garden of NPIRL Delights sims (teleport directly from here).


Spiral Walcher's glow paths weave four sims together at the Garden

In fact, the color and glow intensity of the paths in the Garden are almost identical to the arrow pads at Konica Minolta. What seems to work remarkably well in one instance utterly fails in the other due to the fact that in the Garden, the paths achieve continuity whereas at Konica Minolta they remain as isolated objects.


The glow effect remains isolated at Konica Minolta and thus breaks down design continuity throughout the island

One of the most effective ways of dealing with the lack of volumetric perception in Second Life is the usage of weather systems and fog scripts. Besides the lack of shadows and reflective surfaces, one major perceptual problem in Second Life is the lack of aerial/atmospheric perspective so that everything you see is equally sharp regardless of whether it is foregrounded or backgrounded.

Windlight, which is now integrated into the official Second Life viewer, goes some distance towards the elimination of this problem. However, by itself, Windlight is hardly ever sufficient. I took several shots of the identical location at Konica Minolta using different windlight presets and there really was no noticeable difference in what I saw.


The Meso American "rising" pyramid, photographed under different Windlight settings

What brings out the magic of Windlight are the things you use in conjunction with it: weather systems and fog dispensers. Now, these do not come cheap. The best fog emitter that I have found in Second Life is a "no copy" object and I think I ended up buying something like 20 of them but the difference that they have made has been worth every penny spent.

The same can be said about weather systems, which give the atmospheric depth that Windlight alone achieves only to a limited extent. My guess would be that the sims of Konica Minolta would vastly benefit from a large scale introduction of atmospheric aids of many different varieties, but most particularly fog emitters.

There are spaces at Konica Minolta which, had they only been implemented with good craftsmanship, would have become highly interesting visual experiences. The Sea of Babel is the most conspicuous one. The Fireworks Tower and the submerged (amphibian) arrow pad can also be considered within this category. In all three cases, the texturing combined with the utter clumsiness and lack of detailed prim work dampened the effect.

The Sea of Babel is accessed through yet another rising edifice, this time built to the resemble the Tower of Babel in Brueghel's famous painting.


The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, c. 1563

Once inside (the entrance being yet another purple particle door!) one can make one's way to a basement lab where a cart will take you on a journey through the human gastrointestinal system. This is, in all likelihood, (the absence of any kind of informational material throughout the sim is somewhat bothersome, I might add) the demonstration of a medical visualization technology developed by Konica Minolta, whereby a tiny camera is swallowed for interior scans of the body.



Now, had this journey been created with attention to detail, with good textures and effects, it really could have been the sort of thing that half the metaverse would have trekked out to experience. As it stands, it is nothing more than a conglomeration of internal body shots arranged along a prim tunnel.


Journey into the human gastrointestinal system: Could have been amazing, but...

The same can be said about the Firework Tower. The poor exterior textures, not to mention the fact that the structure can only be accessed from the top, makes the tower an unattractive proposition for further investigation when looked at from the outside. I did, however, venture inside and again, if the craftsmanship had been executed with greater finesse it would have become very interesting metaverse content.



The entire effect is severely curtailed given the appalling graphic design on the huge instructional panels, that stand out in stark light contrast to the overall dark ambiance of the interior

Finally, what bothered me about the sims is a lack of clarity of purpose. I had a really hard time understanding what these sims are here for. Are they promotional or recreational or educational or artistic - what is the purpose here exactly? Not that I wish to imply in any way that purpose is essential in the creation of good metaverse content or indeed metaverse activity. However, these sims are confusing: They are obviously not "play" or artistic environments, since there are far too many Konica Minolta logotypes, far too conspicuously displayed. Then again, if they are promotional/informational sims - where exactly is this information? The note card dispensers? The bi-lingual signage? Even Japanese signs are awfully thin on the ground - English ones are pretty much non-existent.


Confusing purposes and incongruous content - both of which would probably not have raised any questions whatsoever had the visual language been strong enough to sustain them

And, how does the content actually hang together? What logic brings together the Tower of Babel, a Flying Saucer and a Fireworks tower? Why does the exterior of the shopping mall need to become a Meso American pyramid? Again, not that I am looking for logical thought processes within creative activity - I would be hard pressed indeed to explain my own creative process if I did so. But unlike a purely artistic environment, where one would certainly not pose any of these questions, these sims are caught in a twilight zone between a concern for displaying informational content and a haphazard conglomeration of structures aspiring towards artistic expression.

Sadly, neither aspiration can fulfill its brief due to the lack of a sufficiently well defined and coherent visual language and a lack of attention to detail, be it textures, prim work or atmospheric conditions.

The bottom line, for me, is that - presumably with every good intention in place - not enough time, resources and thought has been devoted to the creation of these islands. And given that a huge corporation capable of providing all that would have been needed for satisfying results is responsible for their instantiation, visiting them and writing about them has been very saddening and thought provoking indeed.

Editor's note: In fairness, Alpha contacted the creators and waited for several days to hear back before she finally went ahead and prepared this blogpost.