MUV Assignment 3 – OverView

What I have learned

While building this ship I used a lot of skills that I have been learning and building up throughout this semester, things like prim manipulation and texture manipulation. I made extensive use of this during the build to get things looking right – like the decking and with a lot of other objects , e.g the barrel and chair.

I put a lot of the scripting skills I learnt into practice with most of the scripts I have on this build. Even though most are more ‘basic’ scripts I do have one which was quite a challenge for me – the particle generator on the torch. It was originally a jet flame script and with a blue flame. I had to play around with some of the values in this script to get the colour to change , the size of the flame to change and how intense the flame level was. After all of the fiddling with the script I am very happy with the out come on this script/build.

How do I feel about this build

This was my first time making anything major in Second Life. I surprised myself with just how emerged I became while building. Before I knew it 3 or 4 hours had passed. Although my build was far from perfect I improved heaps with my skill and speed. I could see my self enjoying making objects in second life for L$, – though only after more time and practice so my skills improve.

Overall I really enjoyed creating my ship – giving it the feel I personally wanted.

Problems that occurred

I came across a number of problems while building, in particular:

Problem: Textures not lining up

Textures across two different prims would often not line up and would take a lot of playing around with the repeats per face to get them to look semi decent.

Solution:

Changing the Repeats per face solved this most of the time, also a lot of patience!

Problem: Prims not lining up

One of the biggest problems I faced was getting some of my prims to line up, especially rounded prims with square prims!

Solution: Prim Aligning

I tried to ensure that any prims that I was aligning where set to rounded postioning and that the two objects where of the same scale. I was originally planning on using a hemicone for the front of my ship but deterred away from them after having alot of problems connectiong it to a square prim.

Problem: Sit Animations not sitting right

After making a chair my avatar would sit on it backwards, An odd problem but not a major one.

Solution: Write a script

I ended up writing a sit script to position avatars on my char the right way round.

Problem: Time management

I wanted to add extra features such as :

Cannon effects – i wanted to have a sound that played when you  touched the cannon followed by particle smoke effect to simulate the cannon going off but couldn’t due to not having enough time.

Ship movement – I wanted to have a fully sailable ship but knew all too well that i didnt have the time to do this, so i didnt talk about it in my planning blog. But plan on doing this outside of this current paper during my spare time.

Being a full time student i have to split my time evenly between papers, if i was invest too much time into just one paper my other 3 would stuffer greatly.

Solution: Pick realistic goals

I had to pick what i was going to make / script into this build and what i wasn’t. Being such a broad build having so much features i could add and so many small details i could add i had to pick a few important features that where realistic for me to create.

Problem: Realistic looking flame

I was having problems getting a realistic looking flame for my torch. I tired making a cone shape and adding glow and lighting effects, but i still wasn’t satisfied.

Solution: Particle Labrotory

I remember visiting the particle laboratory with the class, so i paid them a visit and got the script i wanted

What I am happy with

The torch came out great i think. I like how it looks with the flame particle effect

What I am not so happy with

Some of the textures on the ship doesn’t line up quiet as well as it could

What I would do differently

I wouldn’t use so many square prims and try to use more rounded prims giving the ship a less blocky look ( Possible more Hemicones)

A lot of the original prim shapes I used from scratch I would not necessarily use again – if I were to start the build over. For example: the as hemicone;  Originally I had it as part of my base model and had to swap due to problems aligning. The whole problem was a learning curve which I got alot out of and I thoroughly enjoyed. I would also add more scripted elements to things like the cannon. I originally wanted to add a sound script when you touched the object which would play a cannon firing sound and display smoke particles – due to time constraints this was not implemented. Also I would have loved to have scripted a script that would make the boat move around like a vehicle – so that it would be fully functional, I hadn’t originally planned for this knowing that doing something like this is well out of my time frame.

The final product

Not the most realistic looking ship but all in all still very proud of what I’ve accomplished

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MUV Assignment 3 – Ship Development

Planning:

How I came up with my idea:

Since i started this paper on muv ive created the persona  of a ‘Pirate Ninja’ and slowly developed him so when opportunity to make my own build i had to build a pirate ship 😀

I have sketched my ship out with the prims I am planning to use for different parts of the ship, also included – the measurements.

Prims:

If you look at the diagram above you can see the prims that I have used(Click on the picture to enlarge).

The body( amidships):

The body of the ship is  going to be made up of 4 square prims flattered and placed together to make a rectangular box, this will serve as the decking and under decking. The pims are sized at 24m(X axis) for the top and bottom, 10m(Y axis) wide  and 5m(Z axis) , 23m(X axis) for the sides.

The Front (Bow):

The bow is made up of only one prim, which I will use different effects on. I plan to start off with a square prim(X 14m, Y 10m, Z 5m)  and using taper(X 1.0) which should then make it into a triangular shaped prim. Using the select face tool I should be able to select the top of the triangular prim (Z most face) and give that face a different texture to the other faces. Doing this will allow the top decking of my ship to be a different texture to the outer planking of the ship.

This gives the appearance of having used multiple prims.

The sail and mast:

The sail and mast are going to be made up of 5 prims, These prims are: 2 cylinder shaped poles used in a cross formation. The diameters are approximately: Z pole:  20ms long. Y pole: 24m long. This is what the sail will connect to.  The sail will be approximately: Z 15m and Y 24m. Using flexible pathing will hopefully take away the hardness of the prim and give it a fabric type look. Going from the two ends if the Y mast pole will be ropes which will be cylinder with flexible pathing and rope texture.

The Top cabin:

This is going to be made up of 4 prims,  The sides which will be Squashed square prims (X 6m, Z 3.5m) , the back wall (Z 3.5, Y 10m) and the top which is going to be a triangular prim (Z 1.3m, X 6m)

I plan on using a red plank textures for the walls of this cabin and a light wood texture for the roof.  This will serve as a seating area. Pirate like to eat and drink, right?

Building:

During building of this ship I came across a lot of different problems some of which were:

Flexible pathing

I had a few problems with the sail and the ropes that connected to the sail. The flexible pathing caused me a lot of issues by causing alot of things to not line up properly. I had to play around with the settings and sizing of the prims to get them to sit right. The persistance paid off, after all the fiddling about I’m happy with the results, They look awesome :D.

Lining up textures between prims

I found it difficult to line to the textures over different prims to give it a seamless look, I had to fiddle about with the horizontal scale and vertical scale of the textures along with repeats per meters, this helped but I couldn’t get it perfect :/.

Textures:

I used a number of textures on this boat.

I used google search to find my textures. Each one of the links below links to the original image. Copyright belongs to the owner of these images.

Top Deck

    I picked this texture because it had a lot of decay on the wood, and is what I would image a ship deck that had gotten a half decent use would look like.

Outta Ship

I picked this for the outta ship because its a darker texture than the previous one. I felt this would go nicely with the top deck texture and it also kept with the decaying old ship plank

Cabin

Sides

I picked this texture because I liked the colour , matched with the peeling paint which would occur if paint was exposed to Sea air

Roof

I picked this texture for the roof. It has chips and nicks taken out of it. giving it a cool worm look.

MUV Assignment 3 – Object creation and plans

I’ve sketched out my ship and a number of objects to go with it.

These objects are:

• Torch
• Cannon
• Anchor
• Barrel
• Table
• Chair
• Map
• Compass

Torch

The torch was by far the most complicated to script,  even though I didn’t write the script my self I got it from the partical laboratory  There was still a lot of editing to do to get the script on the flame to look right. For example, I needed to change all the colours, it was originally set to blues and whiles, I changed those to yellows and oranges. I had to change the length of the flame and the width, it involved a lot of scanning through the code, trying to understand it. Then making changes where I thought the changes needed to be done and then testing my assumptions to see if I was correct.

Here’s a sketch I made of the design showing all the prims I used and sizing.

The torch Has 4 prims:

• Cylinder

This is used for the handle of the torch and has a wooden texture with metal rivets

• Half circle

The flame is going to sit just above this prim and is to serve as the base of the flame

• A spare

This is going to be set to transparent and im going to use a scipt to make it look like a flame

• A rectangle

This is going to be cloned 3 more times and placed on the sides for decoration

The torch has one script:

I used a script which I got from the particle laboratory for the flame.

The script originally had a blue flame but with a bit of tweaking I got it to change orange and yellow

Here is the script:

//// "Jet Flame" PARTICLE TEMPLATE v1 - by Jopsy Pendragon - 4/8/2008
//// You are free to use this script as you please, so long as you include this line:
//** The original 'free' version of this script came from THE PARTICLE LABORATORY. **//

// SETUP:  Drop one optional particle texture and this script into a prim.
// Particles should start automatically. (Reset) the script if you insert a
// particle texture later on.  Add one or more CONTROLLER TEMPLATES to any
// prims in the linked object to control when particles turn ON and OFF.

// Customize the particle_parameter values below to create your unique 
// particle effect and click SAVE.  Values are explained along with their
// min/max and default values further down in this script.

string  CONTROLLER_ID = "A"; // See comments at end regarding CONTROLLERS.
integer AUTO_START = TRUE;   // Optionally FALSE only if using CONTROLLERS.

list particle_parameters=[]; // stores your custom particle effect, defined below.
list target_parameters=[]; // remembers targets found using TARGET TEMPLATE scripts.

default {
    state_entry() {
        particle_parameters = [  // start of particle settings
           // Texture Parameters:
           PSYS_SRC_TEXTURE, llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_TEXTURE, 0), 
           PSYS_PART_START_SCALE, <.5,0.5, FALSE>,  PSYS_PART_END_SCALE, <.0,2.0, FALSE>, 
           PSYS_PART_START_COLOR, <.2,.2,1>,       PSYS_PART_END_COLOR, <.5,1,1>, 
           PSYS_PART_START_ALPHA, (float)1.0,            PSYS_PART_END_ALPHA, (float)0.0,     
         
           // Production Parameters:
           PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT, (integer) 1, 
           PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE, (float) 0.01,  
           PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE, (float)0.4, 
           PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE,(float) 0.0,  
        
           // Placement Parameters:
           PSYS_SRC_PATTERN, (integer)8, // 1=DROP, 2=EXPLODE, 4=ANGLE, 8=ANGLE_CONE,
           
           // Placement Parameters (for any non-DROP pattern):
           PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN, (float).01,   PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX, (float)3.01, 
        // PSYS_SRC_BURST_RADIUS, 0.0,
        
           // Placement Parameters (only for ANGLE & CONE patterns):
           PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_BEGIN, (float) 0.01*PI,        PSYS_SRC_ANGLE_END,(float) 0.0*PI,  
           PSYS_SRC_OMEGA, <0,0,0>, 
        
           // After-Effect & Influence Parameters:
           PSYS_SRC_ACCEL, <0.0,0.0,0.0>,  
        // PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY,      llGetLinkKey(llGetLinkNumber() + 1),       
              
           PSYS_PART_FLAGS, (integer)( 0           // Texture Options:     
                                | PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK   
                                | PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK   
                                | PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK   
                                | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_VELOCITY_MASK
                                                  // After-effect & Influence Options:
                             // | PSYS_PART_WIND_MASK            
                             // | PSYS_PART_BOUNCE_MASK          
                             // | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK     
                             // | PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK     
                             // | PSYS_PART_TARGET_LINEAR_MASK     
                            ) 
            //end of particle settings                     
        ];
        
        if ( AUTO_START ) llParticleSystem( particle_parameters );
        
    }
    
    link_message( integer sibling, integer num, string mesg, key target_key ) {
        if ( mesg != CONTROLLER_ID ) { // this message isn't for me.  Bail out.
            return;
        } else if ( num == 0 ) { // Message says to turn particles OFF:
            llParticleSystem( [ ] );
        } else if ( num == 1 ) { // Message says to turn particles ON:
            llParticleSystem( particle_parameters + target_parameters );
        } else if ( num == 2 ) { // Turn on, and remember and use the key sent us as a target:
            target_parameters = [ PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY, target_key ];
            llParticleSystem( particle_parameters + target_parameters );
        } else { // bad instruction number
            // do nothing.
        }            
    }
        
}

And here is the end product:

Cannon

The cannon is built up of 26 prims in total.

Cannon itself:

A cylinder is hollowed out with a dark metal texture.

Attached to the bottom of the cylinder is a Spare,  which is also textured with a dark metal texture to match the cylinder. On the other end of the cylinder is a torus combined this makes the Cannon it self.

The Base

Under the Cannon is a square prim that is textured with a wood texture and is a part of the base. On the sides of the base prim there are flattened square prims textured with a wood texture to make the sides. On the sides of this are hollowed out cylinders prims flattened to make wheels.

I would like to have a script that makes a cannon fire noise followed by an explosion effect that comes out of the end of the cannon. At this point I’m unsure of how to script this but hopefully with a bit of research I’ll be able to.

As well as the above, I plan on adding a script to the cannon if I have the time, this script is going to add sound effects and a blast effect when you touch the cannon to mimic it being fired

Here is a picture of the end result

The Anchor

Is Made up of 7 prims

These prims are all textured with a dark metal texture and would be made up of mainly square prims transformed to be more rectangular in shape . I’m going to use the twist on these prims for effects purposes and are going to have triangle prims on the ends of the anchor for effect.

Attached to the anchor is a rope prim (Cylinder with a rope texture and flexible pathing)

Barrel

The barrel is made up of a cylinder with a barrel texture. The texture is adjusted using Horizontal scale , vertical scale and vertical offset to get the effect that it has.

Table

To make this table i used 4 cylinder prims with a square prim (the legs) and a square prim (flattened) on top.

Chair

The Chair has 4 cylinder prims for the legs and a flattened square prim ontop. Connected to this prim is another prim with a special texture, this texture is semi-transparent giving it a hole effect (Pretty neat!). I had one problem with this chair and sitting on it – avatars where sitting on the chair in completely the wrong direction a quick script fixed this:

 
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSitTarget(<0,0.2,0.40>,<0,0,1,1>);
llSetSitText("sit");
}
}

Map

The map was a simple object to make and was mainly used for decorative purposes. I started with a square prim which I flattened then added a map texture to.

I added a script to the map to give a post card on touch:

 
string notecard;
integer channel;

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
       notecard = llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_NOTECARD, 0);
    }

    touch_start(integer total_number)

    {
        llGiveInventory(llDetectedKey(0), notecard);
    }

    changed(integer change)
    {
        if(change & CHANGED_INVENTORY)
        { 
        notecard= llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_NOTECARD,0);
        }
    }           
}

Sculpt Objects

I used 3 Sculpt objects in this build. A Chalice , Bowl and a Wine bottle. The bowl is built into second life and can be found under library/Textures/Sculpt Textures/Plate. The other two I found online here , A great site for free mesh and sculpts. Here are the sculpt textures:

Bottle

Chalice

Compass

The compass is only one prim with different textures on different faces

The base is made up of a cylinder flattered down  with a compass texture on the flat faces, on the rounded face I used a metal texture with rivets on it, using positioning of the texture to center the rivets.

The original had a white background, I had to import the picture into Photoshop to give it the transparent background. Looking good now!

img src

Assignment 3 – Content Creation

I plan on Creating some content in second life for my third MUV assignment. I am thinking of building a pirate ship and am considering what detail I should go into in terms of how much time I have to complete this task. Here are some some features which are all possible:

• Working cannons
• Attached row boat
• Retractable sails
• Letting the user sail the boat
• Oil lanterns
• Retractable anchor
• Teleport to crows nest

Modeling the ship. I found a drawing on a pirate ship to base my own frame around.

I have been looking into using blender (A free open source 3d modeling software) Having to experience at using anything like this before it is a challenge to use. After watching a few tutorials on how to use blender, My skills at 3d modeling are improving. While making my build there are requirements I have to take note of;

Modeling;

• Min of 50 , max or 300 prims
• three different prim types
• Four different forms of prim manipulation
• Use of different textures and use of texture repeat , offset and rotation
• Use two different texture manipulation
• Appropriate use of multiple textures on a prim
• Use appropriate scale

Scripting;

• Scanner system that detects an avatar then interacts with the avatar
• Inventory item that is passed from a prim to a avatar
• Scripted communication via main chat
• Appropriate particle system
• A Dialog menu with a min of three options
• A link out to a web page
• Sitting of an avatar on a prim which either lets you sit or teleports you

After giving it some thought I drew out my ship along with objects to put on my ship.

I went with a cannon, A torch , ship wheel for now. A torch would be a great why to incorporate a particle system for either the flame or smoke coming off the flame.

A ladder with a crows nest would be a great way to teleport an avatar. Click on the ladder and using a sit script the avatar would be moved to the top of the ladder and sat in the crows nest.

I could use a item like a map or a bottle to link to a url page. Using an avatar click to open a url script.

Here is the Sketch of my shipCannon Designs

Torch Designs

Im Planning on Starting with the base of the ship then moving onto the sail. After that im going to build a torch. Thats all for now, keep you up to date 🙂

Intellectual Properties and Permissions

Copybot

Copy bot is a debug tool for second life. It can be used to export objects from second life which you can re-import later this can be used to transfer your own intellectual properties to another sim platform. You need the owner of the objects permissions to use copybot on it, this stops people from ripping off other peoples IP and stops piracy within second life.
Unfortunately the source code was released for copybot, this made it possible for people to modify copy bot and this allowed it to be used to copy people’s objects and avatars without their permission. People started selling URLs to the file for LL Dollars. This caused a mass uproar among the second life community, people who had legitimate businesses selling second life objects and avatars were having their work stolen from them. Linden Labs responded saying that; Using copy bot to rip of peoples intellectual properties was a violation of the Second Life Terms and Conditions and therefor anyone one using copybot for illegal actives would have their account banned.

Permissions

In second life there are three permissions on an object

Modify

This is the permissions that set whether or not you can modify the prim, be it the shape, scripts, colours, etc.

Copy

This is the permissions on whether or not you can create copies of an objects. These are just your copy and you cannot modify or transfer these copies unless the object has modify and transfers are also allowed

Transfer

This is the permissions to transfer objects between residents, for L$ or for free.

How would you use these permissions?

Most people who make a living off making and selling second life objects would have these 3 basic permissions denied by default. In some cases they would allow transfer of an object that you paid for but will have no copy. This means you can resell the object but can’t create multiple copies this object, this means once it’s sold the person who sold it doesn’t have it in their inventory anymore.
Free objects people create to share with the whole of the second life community would have the ability to copy, transfer and possible modify depending on the original creator.
Giving Creators the option of selecting the permission on their object gives them power over how people use their objects. This gives them the power to protect their IP buy removing all Transferring, Modifying and Copy rights of their finished object meaning whoever receives it can’t then pass it off as their own object

More Information About permissions within second life can be found here

Community Standards Within Second Life

Community Standards

There are six main standards that are in effect throughout Second Life. These are known as the ‘Big Six’

Second Life’s Official explanation of the big six can be found here

If you feel like someone is breaking these standards there is an report abuse tool located under the Help menu in the in-world tool bar.All reports are kept confidential.

Intolerance

Discrimination depending on a resident’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation is never allowed in Second Life.

Harassment

Trolling, greifing, communicating or behaving in a manner which offends other residents

Assault

If you are in a Sim where attacking other residents while in areas of second life which meant for non-combat – this is considered assault. Some areas – like Toxica are adult areas in which ‘combat’ (when wearing a HUD) is considered part of the story and is deemed acceptable. You need to be aware of your community standards before participating in any type of battle.

Disclosure

In all areas of SL it is not acceptable to disclose other resident’s person information such as gender, religion, age, marital status, race, sexual preference, alternate account names, and real-world, unless they wish (and have given permission!) for  this information to be shared.

Adult Regions, Groups, and Listings

Adult content is acceptable in SL. However all adult content should remain in the designated adult areas of second life. You can search for adult areas, groups and listings if you wish to participate in violent / sexual or other content of an adult nature.

Toxica is listed as an adult region – this means it is acceptable for me to engage in and wear adult themed items and activities, however upon leaving the area – clothing and or HUDS and personal behaviour needs to be modified.

Disturbing the Peace

Includes spamming Sims with unwanted sounds, prims and disrupting events. It can even be as simple as repetitively engaging in a conversation with a person/s after they have requested you stop. Anything that disturbs other users and is considered unwanted is considered ‘disturbing the peace’.

To Sum Things Up

These Six Standards where implemented to make second life a more safe enjoyable experience for all ages, races, cultures, sexualities and genres. Due these standards being in place, residents should feel more liberated to explore and experience all the different things second life has to experience without worry of harassment, or having their personal information leaked.
To make sure you’re not violating these rules you should check the rules and guidelines of the sim (if they have any) and check whether the sim supports combat or if it supports adult content if you wish to fight, display adult content / coarse language or talk about adult themes.
Harassment is not acceptable in any circumstances throughout second life; so no harassment anywhere should go without saying. If you feel like someone is breaking the six community standards you should use the abuse reporter tool located under the Help menu in the in-world tool bar.
All reports are kept confidential. If you think someone is breaking the rules of the sim there is normally a GM board when entering the Sim and you should contact them and report the behavior.

 

Second Life Role Play

Role Play

The first community I attempted to join was in Ascension city; a role play community for ghosts, demons, shape shifters etc. This area is a heavy roleplaying area and to participate I needed my own backstory. To join the community I needed to submit character request form, they allow people to submit their own custom race/class – so I did this.

I submitted the idea that my avatar was Rin a pirate ninja whose boat has crashed on these foreign lands while in search of treasure. I fleshed out my idea further and sent it.

Unfortunately they declined my offer – after I had spent many hours roleplaying there! They didn’t see my character as fit for their role play community, it was put forward that I was trolling – because my character was both a pirate and a ninja. I was definitely not trolling but outta respect for their community I agreed to move on. It shows how protective people are of their communities and how rules / protocols should be adhered to.

here are some screenshots of Ascension City

After giving some thought to it, I decided to find just a plain pirate community, this meant changing my avatar from a mixture of pirate and ninja to just a pirate. This was difficult – I looked through many malls and could not find what I was looking for so I searched on the second life market place and found one for 500L$ ($2) and a ship for free! Yuss! My own free ship =)

My next role play Sim was Toxica

Fortunately, I was able to go as my first intended role; as a pirate ninja! As I entered the area it was pointed out to me that there were HUDs I could purchase for their own combat system, only 75LL to buy (Not a bad price).

Their HUD lets you select your race and their predetermined attributes and then gives you an extra 5 stats to place on any attribute such as agility and strength. I also rolled for 2 spells. This wasn’t part of character creation though – I had to type /9powers into general chat window to do this. Being a ninja pirate I picked human for my race and put my extra stat points into agility then rolled for my spells. I got Fists of Fury and offensive melee attack spell and a generic heal spell. If you get lost during this process you can always type /9help for a help menu.

Upon further diving into this new world I saw a club which I stood outside of; scoping out the people of this Sim. I could see demons and head hunters and even an executioner. While standing outside this bar the executioner spotted me and blew my cover. He alerted everyone to my presence, in which I replied “I have been spotted” then I Disappeared into the shadows.

While watching from the cover of shadow I saw the executioner take out a resident of the Sim – creating a massive pool of blood. Ok so people don’t mess about in here; I guess I better watch my step if I want to live!

I thought it would be best if I left the club and head on down the road. After a few blocks I came across a fight happening in the street so I took a high vantage point and watched. One guy had a pike like weapon whereas the other had a plasma rifle. The fight was intense but the pike welding character won. After the battle I made my way to the pub for an ale and to meet the locals. The pub was empty apart from two young women, who both didn’t reply to my greetings. So I made my way up to the bar and ordered my ale. Sat there and drank away the night.

Upon re-entering Toxica I made my way to the tavern ‘Haven’ There was a massive battle between 4 people with groups of people watching. I pushed my way        and looked over to the couple in the corner and agave them a greeting. No reply, not the social type I guess. I stay there drinking my rum pondering where to Andover to next. I decided to explore the bike work shop spending most of my life at sea I have never seen such a creature, a mechanical horse. Upon entering I asked how much gold for one of these mechanical horses. To which I got a funny look then promptly was told that these motor bikes are not for sale. Disappointed I left and made my way back to the tavern there was another battle happening outside the tavern with more people watching, I went inside grabbed an ale and made my way back outside to watch the battle.

Community

Toxica has a dark and seedy feel to it, reminds me of an old London town from the jack the ripper books and movies; crossed with a new aged apocalyptic world. It has extreme attention to detail. Brick houses, skeletons on people hanging. Broken down cars, Old dead trees. Toxica is a Role play combat sim where people can role play as a number of different Races, from humans to necromancers to Minotaur’s. Most people hang out at the tavern known as Haven. There’s a bike work shop, a ship dock plus many more hot spots here.

Screenshots of Toxica

 

Toxica Standards

You are Free to roam the toxica sim, Role play without being attacked. You will only be attacked if you have the DCS HUD

Your Avatar must be at least 2 days old to enter.

Do not do these things >.<

Use oversized avatars

Use oversized attachments

Have hybrid races

Have disruptive avatars e.g. Giant bananas

No vehicles larger than the average motorbike

No free vehicles – Poorly made, scripted vehicles lag the server

No Pets

No rezzing oversized objects

Permissions within Toxica

In Toxica flying is disabled as well as pushing and voice. You can rez your own objects but they have an auto return of a few minutes.

All of the weapons purchasable within this sim are Non-transferable, Non-modifiable and Non-copy able, this is to protect the IP of the creators of these weapons and keeping them in business. If people could buy a weapon make multiple copies and resell them for a cheaper price. Which in effect makes the original creators work worth less and bring income to someone who had no part in making of the weapons and who doesn’t deserve any cut of profit from selling of the weapons.

Reporting Abuse

There are GMs all at all times to report abuse to. I got a warning from one for using my own smoke bombs and explosives which was not covered in their guide lines but I choose to not use them outta respect for the Sim and taking in the data load I might have been coursing on their server.

IP Protection

Any item bought with in this sim is for you to use only every weapon/item has a no transfer and no modify on them. This means you cannot give the item to anyone else and you cannot edit the prims or scripts on the item. What you see is what you get.

Second Life Platform

Ref:http://c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/secondlife.jpg

About the Platform

Second life is a virtual Sim platform designed and run by Linden Lab .

History

Second Life was developed by Philip Rosedale in 1999 which started off as a prototype known as “The Rig”  which then got developed into “Linden World” from then the second life we know was made.

About Second Life

Second life is a large collection of worlds which are 100% user created, the possibilities are endless with what the creator can do with their world. Themes like medieval , Apocalyptic futuristic , European , Space , Night Clubs and Video games; these are just some of the possibilities.

The platform has features that let users import their own mesh models made using programs such as blender and Maya. It also features their own scripting language LSL which can be used to add functionality to worlds.

Second Life has its own currency know as linden dollars which you can buy from linden labs and use to purchase in Sim items such as textures, avatars , scripts and models  from other users, this gives second life its own economy , giving the platform a whole new level of functionality and an edge on other platforms.

Second life has a massive amount of places to visit with many uses. Some worlds uses are;

Educational

Training people how to use second life editor menu.

Teaching people first aid training.

Here we have Queens university sim. It is used to improves visitors knowledge on the uni and allows virtual lectors to be held in their lector halls.

Social

Second Life has many, many virtual bars , clubs and pubs. These are used for all types of social gatherings. Some social gatherings are restricted to people who actively participate in the community, some are open to the public.

The Queens Arms is an English style bar which holds formal balls and fancy dress parties. A great way to socialize inside Second Life!

Entertainment

Role playing worlds. There are large communities built around role playing worlds. In fact some role playing communities have strict role playing rules you must adhere to participate in their region. This is generally only in areas where the roleplaying is taken very seriously.

Some regions even offer avatar action scripts so that the avatar can really get into character. This may be a script that allows a vampire to bite a neck or a wizard to cast a spell.

This screen shot is taken in Kenzo Tange which is a medieval role playing world featuring dragons and magic (my favourite kind!).

Business

Virtual stores.

Many people create their own stores in their build. This can allow a small but steady income. I think this is usually used to keep the area funded, ie, to pay for their land etc. But some people manage to make a full time income selling their builds / action scripts etc.

 

My Experience

I felt a bit overwhelmed with Second Life at first because of how massive the platform is and all the things I had to learn to use it properly. After all the teething problems I came to enjoy using it and all it has to offer. Some of the worlds are amazing for example look at my post on the world ‘Rust‘. I enjoyed visiting the locations I talked about earlier in this post. Most of the people are friendly and like to talk.

My Conclusion

Second Life is a great virtual Sim platform that I would highly recommend anyone who has never tried anything like this to give it a go. The platform has so much to offer in terms of diversity of content between worlds there’s something for everyone.

Kitely Sim Platform

Ref http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/s160x160/200673_204746789544237_2954075_a.jpg

About Kitely

Kitely is a Virtual Sim platform using Open Sim technology. You can visit a vast number of 100% user made worlds or create your own Kitely world suited to your liking.

What can you do in Kitely?

There is a vast number of Kitely worlds to visit with activities to partake in;

• Role Playing Worlds
• Live Concerts
• Live theater preformances
• Experience immersive art
• Visit information centers
• Buy and sell custom made avatars , models , scripts
• Virtual dating
• Build your own Kitely world for others to visit

Using Kitely

To start off you need to create a Kitely account which is free to make and lets you visit one region for free. You can use your Twitter or Facebook account making sign up a breeze, if you don’t like using your social media account for sign up you can use the old fashion e-mail password as well. After your user account is set up you need a viewer, I recommend Fire Storm . Once you have a browser enter you username , password and selected Kitely as your Sim (Note you need to press cntr + shift + G to bring up the option to select Sim in fire Storm) once all that is done your away laughing.

Prices

Ref: http://www.kitely.com/services

Here’s a table of the Kitely price plans which are very similar to that of a cellphone company.

Kitely Credits

Kitely offers their own currency which you can use in Sim to buy goods and services. The Prices for KC is fixed unlike Second Life’s LD which fluctuates depending on supply and demand of the currency. Because the KC value is set by Kitely there is no chance of your KC drastically dropping in value over night due to lack of demand, but On the flip side your KC wont appreciate in value if there is a massive demand for them.

Building in Kitely

Kitely is built on Open Sim technology which is based on the second life source code, this means building in Kitely is very similar to second life. There are a few differences when it comes to scripting in Kitely you can use the second life LSL (Linden Script Language) but what makes open sim and Kitely different is you can also use C# and even VB!

My Experience

At a glance kitely seems like Second Life but there are some differences – in particular distracting differences that detracted from the overall feel;

Textures seem to load faster than Second Life but prims load slower than second life. I’m not sure why this is occurring.

My avatar kept flashing and my hair would disappear and reappear randomly.

Flying was awkward and over all the movement didn’t seem to flow as well as Second Life. The overall feel was a lot more jittery – maybe laggy?. Only a formation at this stage tho.

Visually the worlds are appealing and creative. I like the fact that the Social Media login means my non tech friends can use it with ease if they wanted too try it. This also means it would be easier for me to show off any potential builds I did to friends unlike Second Life which would need my friends to create their own accounts etc.

Ease of use is good but unfortunately I had experiences with lag and texture issues. Otherwise a good platform.

My Consultation

Kitely is a nice sim with some good features but I cant justify paying for it vs something like second life which is free to use.

LEA13 – Rust Land Mark

LEA13 – Rust

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA13/107/100/22

About

LEA13 – Rust Is a surreal world full of rusted away objects , old trains, Gear windmills, metal flowers and much more.

Why I picked this land mark:

As soon as i entered LEA13 I was captured by how strange and surreal the place was it felt like i was walking through a piece of art work from Salvador Dali

In depth look at what makes up LEA13 – Rust

Lea13 – Rust is a strange place full of strange machines , objects ,machine animals , black and white T.Vs , pieces of clocks And iron balloons

Scripts

LEA13 – Rust isn’t a very script heavy world.  Some Of the scripts I found were;

Flowers

Flowers swaying in the wind.I think this script works by having a texture change script which alternates through three different textures giving a swaying effect.

Clock Hands

The world is scattered with clock hands that move as if connected to a clock.

I think this script works by using a proximity checker and when an avatar is within a certain proximity  the script makes the clock hand prim move back and forward. How it does this im not 100% sure I believe it doesn’t use transparency to give this effect seeing there is not transparency on the prim itself .

Metallic Animals

There are a number of metallic animals around this world which if you look closely will wink at you after a set amount of time.

I think this script works by having the open eye texture swap to a closed eye texture after a set amount of time.

Textures and Models

The whole world has a greyish overlay too all textures (even the sky) to give it the rusted surreal feel, The ground has a texture to make it look like some kind of  steam punk like metal flooring.

Wire Frame View

Transparency

Summary

I enjoyed being in this world, the setting and feel of it was very authentic surreal steam punk feeling . I added a back drop of music by the hungry ghosts which set the theme to this world. All in all this world is awesome and I highly recommend checking it out.