Thursday, January 8, 2015

Janufari

            Pathfinder.Lester: hear circus music and feel a sudden crushing weight? that's just the Hypergrid Safari. we come in peace.
      Rome wasn't built in a day. It took Joe Builder about a month, if you add up all the time he spent on the magnificent region on Lost World Grid. The Coliseum, a Theater of monumental proportions, an exquisite bathhouse, and a shipyard.As always, the Safari took just the briefest look around. Another place to return to!
      Joe is up there in the pantheon of OpenSim Creators. He is an absolute machine when it comes to building, whether it's military vehicles, delicate classical textures, racing cars, or whole environments, from dinosaurs to science fiction - his latest project is a Borg ship, just a tiny piece of his massive Star Trek themed environment. All this, and much more - over two hundred sims and counting.
           That's a massive amount of  creativity. But complex builds + avatars = lag, right? And it's often worse in opensim. Not only because of the instability of the platform, but because people are so focused on their building they don't stop and wonder about other people's ability to see it.
           But again, Joe is in a class of his own. All this fabulousness... from his own home!
PatriciaAnne.Daviau: wow it is pretty lag free for being on a home pc!
Joe Builder: I have over 60 regions online now.
Pathfinder.Lester: yeah!
Serene.Jewell : This is all running on your home PC. :-) wow
Joe Builder: there is a trick to that; many may not agree
Fuschia.Nightfire: wow
vladimir.Djannovic: very good pc?
Serene.Jewell: You have a crazy computer at home?
Joe Builder: One is to use only 7.6.1 and 2 I have 16 gigs on PC :) 0.8's, var, and bullet use almost 2 x more resources so I use the older versions
Thirza Ember: the theory that the latest version is the best is proved wrong
Joe Builder: yea well, I tested all of them
Pathfinder.Lester: interesting
Joe Builder: Like I said I use a home PC, and resources is most important
Joseph Ros: 2 cpu in? graphics card?
Joe Builder: my cpu is old. The secret is ram. Instances and regions love ram, bullet is a hog in resource department. Plus, ODE physics is faster and better than bullet as videos clearly show. It's a developer thing that bullet is, not really for the everyday user on home PC's. As now, I can run 258 regions at one time, not smoothly, but its do able -don't let them fool ya!
Lucy.Afarensis: !
James.AtLLOUD : ooh my
Pathfinder.Lester: wild stuff -  i had no idea
PatriciaAnne.Daviau: wow!
Joe's worlds are not open 24/7, but if you contact him in Google+ he will be glad to make them available to you at a mutually convenient time. And there are some pretty amazing outfits too - this Centurion outfit modeled by part-time superhero Stephen Xootfly. Again, ask and ye shall be given.
           If you're tired of reading forums containing longwinded, unsubstantiated whingeing by SL content makers about how OpenSim is all stolen unoriginal content, then go visit Joe's builds. You could also be smart and stop reading that crap.

            Our second stop was Rutgers University. It's a much smaller grid than Joe's, just 35 sims. This is a lovely mixture of real University history, scale models of actual buildings, and virtual architecture, not an easy balance to achieve.

Rick Anderson: We have a class that meets in delta/charlie. They are building Voorhees Mall from the 1920s. We have a orientation learning path starting here around the stadium. Then the gardens are great for 1 on 1 meetings. We also had guest students from Greece make a colossus of Rhodes project. We have such a great combination of student work, Gwenette, and campus projects . The gardens are a recreation of the Rutgers Gardens. We crossed reality with fantasy.  The plants are acutally correct. We created Spring in Winter. I have 4000 plus snowy reference shots used to make spring. Then we embedded art installations like wind chimes. But cool animated ones by OpenSim artists. Also, we have little class room and hang areas in the gardens
Pathfinder.Lester: I love the reference photos you used on the food trucks for the menus and details. makes the trucks look totally real. I'm craving a Fat Cat now
Rick Anderson: They are based on real Grease Trucks at Rutgers. Unfortunately, they now only exist virtually now. The University disbanded the real ones after about 20 years
Pathfinder.Lester: awww they're gone in RL? noooo
Alizarin.Goldflake: they made me go get a snack lol
Thirza Ember: we are a simple people with simple needs
PatriciaAnne.Daviau: indeed we are
Fuschia.Nightfire: oh yes and we reduce Rick to our level
Pathfinder.Lester: Rick, are you doing anything still in SL these days? It's great to see you still doing cool stuff in Opensim.
Rick Anderson: Actually, Self Society and Virtual Contexts is still taught in SL.  I need to get the course to find communities alive and kicking in openSIM
Rick Anderson: I ceated a game from global Game Jam last year, and we got an NSF grant around it.
Pathfinder.Lester: oh congrats on that! that's great. The Safari has an embassy in SL if you and your students in SL are ever looking for political asylum, y'know. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sistiana/90/80/2
Rick Anderson: Cool. I'll get the teachers this semester to check it out.
Al Scot: why are u all sitting on the sign ?
Wizard Gynoid: because it is there
Thirza Ember: Al, it's traditional
Pathfinder.Lester: Al, because sitting under it was too uncomfortable.
Rick Anderson: It's a people flag?
Thirza Ember: a cairn
Fuschia.Nightfire: HG Safari, see something, sit on it
Thirza Ember: Alizarine, that pose is illegal in New jersey
Wizard Gynoid: sssh. Aliz, pass me that pose.
Rick Anderson: I'm not there any enforcement of pose rules in NJ.
And before you knew it, it was time to go. For now- we'll be back.
Rick Anderson: Also, let me know if I can join in on projects or adventures
Truelie.Telling: and thanks Rick, fun and informative
Wizard Gynoid: "the great haul-ass to 3dcolab"
Pathfinder.Lester: you bet Rick. you should come on future Safaris too!
Rick Anderson: We can try this again. I can bring up the Livingston Campus sims, They are amazing.

Our last stop was the great railroad station on 3DCOLAB. This gorgeous build is a precise reconstruction of one of Detroit's most important buildings. Like Rutgers, there is a wealth of historical photography here, and the attention to detail is fantastic.

There were a lot of us, and some entertaining rubberbanding, and I can't lie, there was a lot of hair and shoes missing, not to mention ceilings and floors, but Casias Falta, aka Paul Emery, was ready to sing us the blues, and that was the main thing. He mixed it up with humor and commentary, and got us guessing the songs as he played. It's been a while since he's played regularly, he used to be on stage at Stiofain MacTomais's Maritime club every other week, back on OSGrid. The club, a replica of the famous night spot where Van Morrison used to play, often called the cradle of Belfast rhythm and blues, was a great meeting point for folks from all over the metaverse. But while the news about OSGrid continues to be grim, there is better news about the club.
Stiofain MacTomais: will be re opening maritime club very soon
Thirza Ember: oh I misread the sign... I thought it said Railroad trespassing is forbidden because it involved a peril as great as dinosaurs"
Alizarin.Goldflake: Linden Labs Bug Shipment is the name on the side of a truck outside LOL
Fuschia was still glowing from her special visit to the Borg ship on Lost World - she always gets the VIP treatment.
Wizard Gynoid: he invited you up to see his borg ship????
Thirza Ember: I bet he has etchings on board
Wizard Gynoid: that's an original line
Fuschia.Nightfire: oh he gave me quite a tour
Thirza Ember: well Alien offered me three peeled grapes and a massage
Fuschia.Nightfire: omg!
snowbody.Cortes: ahahah -  also a massage ? smart guy !
We better behave ourselves, or we will start getting banned...
Thirza Ember: lmao Vlad's dance is unforgettable
Fuschia.Nightfire: oh yes
Wizard Gynoid: lol
vladimir.Djannovic: lol
Thirza Ember: what is french for Blackmail
Alizarin.Goldflake: noir poste?
Fuschia.Nightfire: is he doing some kind of interpretive dance?
Thirza Ember: LOL what the hell is he interpreting???
Fuschia.Nightfire: i don't like to imagine
snowbody.Cortes: lol fuschia
Wizard Gynoid: gingers rule
James.AtLLOUD: apluzze

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