Saturday, June 28, 2008

Two-Minute Teleports: Second Life Shorts

As someone who wears the same suit day in day out (oh, and in SL too), I found myself a little out of place in Camelot Gardens. Luckily the people were still polite and I had an outfit waiting for me on the steps of the great hall.

In the past I've scripted vehicle weapons and RPG/combat effects, so I checked out The Cannon Company in Caledon Kittiwickshire. The Couples Hansom Cab out front was a virtuoso work of Victorian building and texturing, with seat cushion textures that, for once, didn't look like they were ripped out of a game of Pong, Surround, or Secret Collect. The rendered shadow was the crowning glory.

The cannons inside looked as good as authentic, with representatives from many eras of conflict. They fired easily enough, at a touch, and gave off clouds of smoke that rotated and drifted off in what looked to be particle six-packs (not quite my cup of tea, but people have razzed me for what I thought were fine particles, so until smoke looks like smoke, touche). On the walls I found some elaborately illustrated ads for Steam-Powered and Reactor Rayguns, the Sherlock Holmes Edition Hansom Cab, Steam Powered Chair, 2 Cylinder Steam Engine/Pump, and a wildly creative 3-level Shoe House with tracking eyeballs, doors, telescope, and an observatory. For those seeking a simpler good time, there were 29-prim white birch bark and aluminum canoes. Overall things were a bit primmy and pricey, but that's not a bad thing when you want quality, something that won't redraw itself every time you step around it, like sculpted prims. Going by the solid architecture of the shop itself and the professional level of the ads, combined with Caledon's reputation for fine things steampunk and Victorian, it's easy to infer there's some serious quality sitting up on these walls.

Stop by today and let me know what you think!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

You Have Been Warmed! SL Sweaters at MMD Designs



When I came to Mariana (Marianagelina11 Oh) & Mino (Minotaurus Whitfield) Designs, I got a chilly reception. It was freezing!

Since I lost my suit to an SL glitch that turned it into some overalls, all I had on was my poker T-shirt and some jeans and shoes. Standing in the virtual snow, I found myself reaching for a shiver animation.... when a sweater beckoned from across the open-air cabin. MMD must sure save on heating!



MMD mostly features women's winter outfits, dresses, sweaters, scarves, handwarmers, hats and pullovers (I'm guessing they're called Pullis on the vendors) and the like, but they do have wares for men like Chapkas (thick winter hats), five sweaters, and a shirt/sweater combo. Prices I found ranged around L$120 to L$350, about average for Second Life clothing.



The driveable sled (L$500) was a nice touch, but I got a shocking surprise when my friend Blurred tried getting on it too. Suffice it to say that it was made with couples in mind.

I bought a sweater and chapka here. My avatar was short, so the included collar went up through his neck, but all I did was take it off and it was a good fit without it. The sweater texture looked good, with plenty of texture detail and color variation. There is enough variety in the outfits, especially for women. The thick chapka looked fine too, enough to ward off a blizzard.

The environment is a well-designed winter mall setting next to a ski lift. The store is welcoming, with a pot of coffee placed at a small table for visitors. Icicles suggest a lot of cold, and the snow makes you want to bundle up... and buy a sweater.

Mariana & Mino Designs can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/MeetingSupport/226/19/21 .

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Lionel Oliva's Top 10 Favorite SL Gadgets & Items

In Second Life, there are a few things that I think SL would be a lot less fun without. This post will change over the weeks as new items enter the SL marketplace and my attention span wanes. Hopefully what remains will be my top 10 favorite gadgets. For now they are:

10. Cheshyr Pontchartrain's Tardis
If you own a store, chances are you have a teleport point set. The Tardis is great for getting around your land without having to whip out landmarks.

9. Apocalyptic Combat Vehicle
One of the coolest-looking and sweetest-handling vehicles in SL, especially in hover mode. A honking touch-activated cannon, Havok 4-based combat system and a sound relay HUD are frosting on the cake.

8. ASM-1000 Audio Stream Manager
I bought an ASM-1000 last year and I've been using it since. Friendly (or as public-friendly as I want it to be), well-designed and a pleasure for bringing out the best music to my land.

7. GGG Gold Nugget
Holy traffic increase, Batman! Aside from SLX and Apez I haven't seen anything linked to a website that works so fast in Second Life. When I first bought it I got my first visitor in ten minutes -- at 5 AM in the morning!

6. Black Box's Sculpt Studio
The manual still leaves me scratching my head, but it's a pretty solid system. I got a free upgrade to 3.8 from 3.0 so maybe I'll set some time aside and see how it works again.

5. Universal Destruction Kit
From destroying glass to fuel tanks to vehicles and RP items, the uses of this kit are many. My inventing it after 90+ hours of fine-tuning doesn't hurt the rankings either ;D

4. Jwoulf's minigun/Desert Eagle/Hellbring:
Great for testing collision scripts in whatever flavor of blow-it-uppishness you want.

3. Blurred Nightfire's Fountain
Ooo. Now at a low-low 8 prims from 33.

2. Loki Ball's Room Switcher
Handy handy. One prim can contain several preset rooms. Powerful, flexible, cheap!

1. Concrete shop -- copy/mod for L$30. Put four in a square setup. Stack them on top of one another. Mod to your heart's content.


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