Hm.. Not sure what to think of this one. In what appears to be a PR move of some kind, Congress held a subcomittee hearing about online virtual worlds in Second Life. The actual setup was complicated, and I’ll leave it to the article to explain, but I will throw a spoiler and say that one of the congressmen did make the obligatory clueless reference to WOW.
Well, I have not posted much for a few days and this is why. This is a wire frame view from Second Life of the TonHalle and SchlossTurm in Düsseldorf Germany. Jack, myself and several others have been commissioned to reproduce a significant amount of the landscape for a joint real-world/Second Life event. The Dome and turret on the TonHalle alone is over 500 objects.
Theres actually 10+ landmarks we are creating as well as the landscaping, railroads and canals the rest of the team is working on. Jackie has been concentrating on reproducing 13 some sets of ethnic clothing for use in SL on avatars that will interact and perform native dances for people.
More information on the exhibit can be found here.
Well friend.. leme tell ya..
In this session Rez showed everyone the rotating sculpt texture scripts. This one is a little tricky.. When you rez a prim in SL, like a box, its square. Normally you can apply any texture to it and make it look like any square thing you want. A sculpt texture on the other hand, is something all together different. It allows SL to modify the shape of an object based on the color of the texture applied. So if you take a square, and apply a white sculpt texture with a red band in the middle, it will warp the shape of the object around the red color band. Different colors cause different actions. The scripts we explored last night will take a standard texture and apply it as a sculpt textur to a prim. It will then rotate through any other textures you have included, morphing the shape of the object on a schedule.
It was all pretty freaking cool. The sculpts you see changed shape every two seconds or so. I really need to get on uploading the code for these sessions…
This post is going to be necessarily vague. I’m writing it more for my own edification and to commemorate the day as opposed to providing any real information to outside sources. Astute readers may have pieced together that not everything in my life is the perfect ideal that one would wish for.
Well, last night certain Damoclesian situations partially resolved themselves. All parties involved are finally on a (mostly) level playing field. Now I’m faced with the reality of living with the current situation. Even though this is certainly not the trip I wanted or signed up for, there is no way I’m getting off.
Its a little like a cell phone contract. You love the phone so much, your willing to put up with all the crap and maintenance that goes with it. It becomes an indispensable part of your life, even with the headaches. You can’t imagine going a day without it, and the phone number becomes a part of your persona to everyone you know.
I still hold out hope that the situation will resolve itself someday. After all, taking that phone to another country would involve heavy roaming charges and penalties. 
Ah the things you do for love.. of a phone.. Now if you will excuse me, I think I need to plug this baby into a charger. maybe twice if she..er its not ..fully charged? damn.. Give me a break. its hard to be clever *all* the time…
Last night the Virtual Artist Alliance held another Artists building session. These sessions are designed to show new and experienced users new techniques in scripting and building in Second Life. This week we went over particle paths. The demostration code and objects showed how to rez particles on one object and have them automatically flow to another object. After a brief demonstration, we were turned loose to create and experiment with the new code. I’ll post the code as soon as I can.
Holy crap these are useful. Even the basic ones tend to drop a new nugget of information..
It would look like this…
Tonight was the final hurrah for a long time Second Life standard. The Oyster Bay art gallery and venue is now closed . Owner Morris Vig has had much good luck this year. So much in fact that his real life commitments did not allow him to give the Oyster Bay community the attention he wishes he could. In the end, he decided to close it rather than let it languish. I think this sample from the evening says it all. We were discussing the efforts of Cyanide Seelowe to pump up the Virtual Artists Alliance and the similarityies between that and the Oyster Bay community…
[19:38] You: Shes trying to build a community. it seems very important to her
[19:38] Morris Vig: But gosh, SO MUCH has happened over the last year
[19:38] Dale Innis: yes yes!
[19:38] Morris Vig: And THAT is what most don’t get, Welcome
[19:38] Morris Vig: That’s why Cy is special
[19:38] Morris Vig: (Well, 1 reason()
[19:38] Isolde Flamand: Oyster BAy is a community
[19:38] Isolde Flamand: a family almost
[19:38] Nyx Ivory: “community” is a tricky thing
[19:39] You: all that and I force her to clean the cat boxes. what a life.
[19:39] Isolde Flamand: LOL
[19:39] Nyx Ivory: LOL
[19:39] Morris Vig: but for all of the art…it’s about the PEOPLE
[19:39] Dale Innis: Yay people!
Morris will continue on as a part of the Second Life art scene. We certainly have not seen the last of him. More pictures to come.. just have to upload them…..
Tonight we did our first run of the Photohunt activity for the Virtual Artist Alliance in Second Life. This was a test run limited to members of the VAA only. Each contestant had 30 minutes to go to the landmark provided and take the best snapshot they could find. Once they returned, they submitted the photos to the new scoreboard system we have put together (Thanks Dale Innis).
Tonights competitors were Peli Dieterle, Veronica Quackenbush, Sunn Thunders, Rezago Kokorin and Jeanni Nishi. The event was administered by Welcome Doobie and the always fabulous Cyanide Seelowe.
The location for tonights event was Light Sorcery - Jopsy’s Particle, Teal (76, 143, 22).
The winners in order were 1st place- Sunn (100ln) Second Place-Rezago (50ln) and third was split between Jeanni and Veronica (25ln each).
A few bugs and ideas were found and the next event should be open to the general public.
