Safari does Particles and Prims

         There are some weeks when, I'm not going to lie to you, organizing the Safari is like boxing an octopus while wading through molasses. And then there are weeks like this.

         Two stops, with a retro feel. Our first stop on Metropolis grid, at a place with a name you may well know... The Lost Gardens of Apollo. There. You're sighing. Well, if like so many of us you came into SL in that golden age around 2007, you may remember it.

          The sim has been rebuilt in opensim (and, incidentally in SL) by Delphi Bernard, it is part of the Carima community on Metro, which is as exquisite as it is welcoming.

Center : The inimitable Delphi Bernard. And George with legs - a sure sign of low lag.

         But you're not reading. You're remembering those heady days when an hour in SL felt like a week, a week was a very long time, and a build that was a year old was considered a precious ancient relic. A time of magic and romance and discovery and the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could really have a second life, love, career, home. Or maybe not. Either way, some poignant memories.

Torben at the controls sweeping us all off our feet with his light and music show

Torben Asp has been playing his electronic music, frequently accompanied by particles, in virtual worlds since 2007. He's been in opensim for ages too, and this Danish dish, with his smooth and subtle showmanship, created the perfect atmosphere on this beautiful sim. We had about 40 present, and the sim withstood it to perfection. Primus Caproni who administrates the sim did a sterling job in setting everything up for us, including working with the Metro crew to make one of the most rock solid parties we have ever had on the Safari. Outstanding.

Primus Caproni

Thirza Ember: Primus, maybe you can just tell us a little bit about this build? Is it true there is also a version in SL?
Primus Caproni: yes, Delphi Bernard made it here in Open Sim. After she finished this sim here, she decided to build a second copy at SL on her homestead. Delphi knew Apollo, like most from us from her SL times, she spent there her first times as she entered this Virtual world. Like many of us she was very sad as Apollo was shut down in SL. With our [group Carima's] decision to leave SL and move into an open grid (Metropolis), Delphi took the chance and so Carima hosted this additional sim where she started rebuilding Apollo. I know this wasn't the first try to rebuild Apollo. But Delphi did something different, She asked Dane Zander for permission and help, and he answered her, he even did come here and visited the sim, so Delphi really can say this Lost Gardens of Apollo are approved by Dane Zander.

Cherry Manga: please make the magic carpet to fly in the lost gardens... :)
Ni Lemon: this is Torben Asp music a relax for our body and minds
Pathfinder Lester: very chill
DabiciStraulino: beautiful effects
Cherry Manga: many thanks for letting us enjoying this wonder again, here in opensim
Pathfinder Lester: yes, what Cherry said. :)

Thomas Swift: It is BEAUTIFUL and I LMmed it to explore
Anna Carlberg: People who want  a lm from Carima, ask me than you can also see the other work from Delphi
Cherry.Manga: Lost gardens of Appollo, Svarga, Zero Ground and Kowloon, maybe the fisrt intense metaverse emotions...(sorry but those gardens are special!!♥)

Christy Bendan: Our first time here at The Lost Gardens of Apollo since we have visited in SL so nice surprise for us
Dabici.Straulino: indeed
Isolde Caron: cool christy-)
Christy Bendan: yes, one of the first places we went dancing in SL back in 2010 :)

Sunbeam Magic: My first SL kiss was in the gardens he he
Cherry Manga: my first fly, i kept bumping the mountain, hazardous fly, but cool
Sunbeam Magic: He was a Irish poet too ... so romantic
Isolde Caron: ohmy sunbeam
Truelie Telling: Such lovely music, thank you Torben, and Gardens folk... what a delightful place to visit
Primus Caproni: we were happy to have you all here. The place is open 24 / 7 so If you like to visit, you are welcome at any time

But wait! there's more! Our second stop this week continues the prim promotion... the Isle of Barr, belonging to OSGrid game maker and prim-per, Fu Barr. Here is his blog

Fu Barr: In 2007 I was doing research for the new semester at the college I was teaching at looking for web related stuff, put second life on my list, without understanding that it was not web related - lol. Anyhow - I've been building with prim ever since. In 2008 i came to the original incarnation of OSgrid. I left after a few weeks and came back in 2009/2010, I spent about 3 years on OSgrid doing nothing and everything and then left the public Virtual Worlds completely, then a got involved in a RL game project and we started using a private opensim-based grid for the prototype. Everything you'll see today is somehow connected to that RL project - mostly as experiments in scripting. The prim you see is 'mock' ie. not super detailed it's just window dressing or 'sets' if you like for the scripting: of course the scripts are in a constant state of WIP/broken and I've chosen to not show it - because it'll drive you bonkers :)
George Equus: There is beauty in simplicity also
Dabici Straulino: sounds like L. da Vinci
Fu Barr: So, before we get to the walk through, just a few comments about how I build: first of all, I build in pure prim: no mesh: at all. The basic idea behind it is that i like/love the 'puzzle'. How do I get prim to look like X. How to i deconstruct shapes and ideas into basic shapes. The other thing is that I like the social element during building. Sitting in maya or blender etc. can be v lonely - in world work can be social and fun too. But often i'm just lazy - and i will always steal your trees :)

Pathfinder Lester: watching someone build with prims is such a great way to learn
Christy.Bendan: ditto
Dabici.Straulino: I agree, I love prims too
Fu Barr: ...anyhow the idea was to have a classic MYST style adventure game with a narrative
Dabici Straulino: ahhhhh Myst,,,,!!!!
Fu Barr: I've developed a HUD and a backpack for game inventory etc. total has seen it as have others
George Equus: THE game - MYST
Fu Barr: it's quite good, but not quite ready for prime time. I work on the mages because I always play a sorc/healer in other games :). So this is the intro island. First place we're going to is the work shop. It consists of a garden below and a lab up top. In the lab is a library - in the game this is where a new player learns about magic
Christy.Bendan: it is gorgeous
 Fu Barr: in my world/game magic only effects INORGANIC stuff. So stone metal etc. cut wood also, but any live organic stuff isn't affected, so magic cant take your arm off, but it coulD affect a sword, so that's why we have gardens everywhere there's magic: or were people work with magic
MalvaRose Rembrandt: why did you invent that game?

Cherry.Manga: can feel the gamer, world of warcraft, Tolkien spirit... :)
Fu Barr: The game was invented to be a backstory for resilience training, and the most important factor in resilience is BALANCE, not too much or this and not to little of that, so the HUD keeps track of all of that. Here the player learns about basic magic and gets told that magic appears raw in nature in crystals and coral and rocks. He/she is sent on a quest to get more of the raw stuff and purify it: so let's go to there the raw magic might be found, please click on the turning compass behind me and we'll go to the mer lab

MalvaRose Rembrandt: Fu Barr Looks like a vampiresque willy wonka
Fu Barr: so the merlab is where the mages work like scientists with the mer people. I have some meravvy's and stuff made for me by the fabulous Eryn Galen. The mer people do their thing and tend the coral - which i didnt rez just to make it simpler and less script intensive; the junior player mages need to deal with the mer peeps and get raw magic coral - that's the basic game narrative here. The mer people can get dangerous - and that gives the game element. Once the player has some raw magic coral - he/she needs to learn how to refine it  and then he/she needs to get out of the water and learn how to meditate (find balance) to release the magic

Pathfinder Lester: wow, the delicate support-wire-thingy-parts on that shell are so beautiful
Total Sorbet: very pretty, i love the shell
Wizardoz Chrome: bellissimo qui
Dabici Straulino: what a beautiful architeture this shell, and only with prims - Kudos

Fu Barr: this is where players in the mage class learn about meditation, or restoring balance,: each alcove here is a meditation type relic.: Through the game levels you come back here to learn the correct meditation per magic or level type. So this is a place players come back to. Again - this will be set out in the next few weeks to actually work. The idea here is stolen a bit from EVE online.: EVE uses time as a game mechanic, and i as inspired by it to try something like that in my own game. Also The Witcher games have meditation as a mechanic, though less advanced than EVE
George Equus: spent a year wasting time in EVE
Sunbeam.Magic: lol I only played it a couple months
Fu Barr: i played it 4 weeks, just to learn to understand, PVP bores the hell out of me though so 4 weeks was my limit :)
George Equus: Yes = mainly was there for graphics
Cherry.Manga: a mmorpg here is ambitious, anyway you have a good environment to play with
George Equus: I wear the right shirt tonight
Fu Barr: so i'll get on to my stone...  the player has the meditation knowledge, the raw coral or crystal and comes here to extract the raw magic from the item,  here he/she sits and does the meditating
George Equus: You read D'ni, Fu?
Thirza Ember: your shirts are never a problem George...
Sunbeam.Magic: it's the invisible pants
George Equus: Shirt has my name in D'ni

George's shirt.

Fu Barr: in the HUD version of the game there's magic lightning going on and pyrotechnics and the whole garden lights up. There's also a multi player part to it - if you have the game HUD, three people need to meditate together to fill the middle crystal with magic - when the crystal in the middle is full: you need to use the crane to move it to the little ship which will take the crystals to the next region - Vardell.

Fu Barr: so - this is where the crystal is supposed to end up. By this time in the game the player has completed the stuff on this region/island and is ready to move on to the next main chapter in the game - the City of Traders, Vardell. If you go into the ship and click on the seat - you'll tp to Vardell....
Thirza Ember: so it neatly represents the sea journey
Dabici Straulino: yes indeed

Fu Barr: welcome to Vardell! this is old prim, more sketches and less real finished work, but it does the job for now. Let's walk to the marketplace and then to the guildhall, I've rezzed a bunch of market stalls and market NPCs etc. here, but for the moment and to make sure we dont have too many crashes I've removed them so we can get this done without issues. The trader faction live here, it's all about wheeling and dealing, so we'll see the little guild garden and then the secret passages in the walls!

Cherry.Manga: very neat build Fu, bravo for the hard work
Fu Barr: As you can see the trade faction has their own ship seal and their colour is Blue, to my right is the guild hall to my left the guild garden, think Venice for intrigue :)
Cherry.Manga: I have a question Fu, I see your world, how do you translate it here in opensim, how do you show the civilization, will you use npc or such? or will you count on the players only?
Fu Barr: I'm not sure i understand the question but yes there will be NPCs I have coded a whole NPC dialogue controller so each player can have conversations, and the system can track which conversations the player has had with which NPC
Cherry Manga: cool
   ....There's a cathedral, too. But that will have to be for the next time.

Inside the Guildhall

HG Addresses
Lost Gardens of Apollo   hypergrid.org:8002:the lost gardens of Apollo
Fu's sims   hg.osgrid.org:80:isle of barr     and hg.orgrid.org:80:vardell