Caves in SL With Rebecca

It has been a while since I have done anything in Second Life, and I was thinking of putting together a new exploration topic, when my activities expert Rebecca called me to see if I wanted to go spelunking.

“You know, cave exploring,” said Rebecca.

“Yes, I know what spelunking means,” I responded. “Are there any good caves in Second Life worth exploring?”

“A few,” she said, “not as many as you would think, considering how many regions contain underground tunnels.”

So we went. The first cave she took me to is Hollow Earth, a nice little magical cave with glowing mushrooms and crystals.  The easiest way to navigate this cave is by boat. You can get a free two seater boat at the dock, so two can explore together.  There are some narrow passages that are a little small for the boat though.

Other parts of the cave are navigable by land and bridges. There is not a lot of variety in the areas of this cave, but it was a fun first cave to explore.

“So what else do you have Rebecca?” I asked.

“How about something a little more realistic,” she said.

Where she took me wasn’t all that realistic, except in the sense that it is modeled after a real place. Caves of Lascaux is a famous cave in France filled with amazingly detailed prehistoric paintings.  The real cave is off limits to the public, but it has been thoroughly mapped in 3D and could very easily be turned into a 3D representation on the internet. In fact it has! (page is in French)

This SL place is a small build on a mainstream server. Would be nice if someone could do something like this using sculpties instead of prims.  Maybe when meshes are added to SL, someone will do it properly. Still this one makes a nice gallery of the actual paintings.

“I saved the best for last,” stated Rebecca, “This is a nice big multilevel cave with its own pseudo ecosystem.”

The place she took me to was Bliss Garden Park. Its a rather dark cave, especially with your sky set to midnight, which is the best way to see it. Luckily there is a torch available in everyone’s library, and we used it to follow the series of wooden bridges down into the cave below.

“This reminds me of many of the caves I have explored in other 3D games,” I said.

“Yes, it seems every 3D game contains caves, and they tend to be similar to this,” Said Rebecca.

We reach another bridge that crosses over a pool of water, similar to the first cave we explored.

“Hey, I want to try something, ” said Rebecca, “Could you take the torch?”

I of course take the torch from her and she proceeds to take off her clothes. “You are not going to get into that are you?”

“What the water? Looks safe to me.” she says.

I tried to explain that it looks rather murky, I could barely see below the surface.

She of course ignored me and jumped in anyways.  Lucky she didn’t hit her head on the bottom and get knocked out.  When she surfaced, she asked me to join her.

“Come on in, the water is nice. Natural hot spring and all. You’ll love it.”

“Umm, in case you forgot, I’m holding the torch,” I said. “If I get in,the torch goes out.  If I put the torch down, it either goes out or burns down this wooden bridge, and we won’t be able to get out of here.”

“Also, Rebecca, the water is filled with giant asps.”

“Ack! Get me out of here!”, she screamed.

And thus ends another fun filled Second Life adventure with Rebecca.  As usual our adventures either end in nudity or death

Theme Parks in SL

Why are amusement park rides in Second Life just not that interesting?

My friend Rebecca has a theory, “Second Life rides are not that interesting, because Second Life is itself just an amusement park ride.  In the game, you are in full control of what you see and where you go. In-game rides take that control away from you.”

And here I thought it was because simulating a roller coaster is not the same as riding a real one. The only appeal to building a roller coaster in Second Life is in the “can it be done?” factor. The answer is no it can’t, apparently. I have yet to see a working roller coaster in Second Life, that actually operates like one. But that’s beside the point.

Are there any exceptions to the rule? Can pretend rides in game be cool? I asked Rebecca.

Rebecca took me to Svarga, a place I have been before. We went for a ride on the hornet tour that flies around the island telling you about the stuff there is to see there.

“Now this is a cool ride,” she said.

“Well it helps that it flies around one of the most beautiful islands in SL,” I said.

“That’s exactly the reason, in fact that is the only reason it is a cool ride. You can’t feel the jerkiness or smoothness of a ride, nor can you get the rush of wind in your face as you ride. So the only reason a ride is cool is if the environment it is in is cool,” she explained.

Going on rides in SL is like a mini movie. Riding through interesting environments is fun, pretend riding for riding sake is lame.

To illustrate the point further we took a trip to Koreshan Amusement Park. This place has a creepy run down look to it, that is also campy and retro. Its an entertaining place to explore.

There is also something else kind of ironic about this “amusement park”… none of the rides work.

“Who cares if the rides work or not,” said Rebecca, “its more like a theme park with amusement park as a theme. Theme parks have themes, amusement parks have rides. If rides in SL are lame, then a theme park with no working rides is better than an amusement park.”

Somehow that actually made sense.

So I had to ask. “Are there any ‘theme parks’ with working rides that are worth checking out?”

Rebecca had this sinister look on her face. “Yeah, I can think of one.”

She took me to a place called “Mouse World” that looked oddly familiar, but I could not place it.

“I think I have been to this region before, but I can’t find a bookmark,” I told her.

“Yeah, this place has this affect on people,” she said.

We started out taking a ride on the Pachyderm Ride, which just went in circles, but we could go up and down with some buttons. Yeah it was lame, but the surroundings were “Magic”. like some kind of magic kingdom or something.

Some of the rides were broken, like the Jungle Cruiser. Others were closed for renovation, like the Hunted Mansion. But Thunder Mountain Railway was working, as was Void Mountain.

“I got it!” I proclaimed, “This place is exactly like Dis–”

“DONT SAY IT!” Rebecca Yelled.

Well, anyways we spent a fun evening at Dis… uh, Mouse World.

______

Previously blogged Theme Park Carnival of Doom

Winter Sports in SL

Time for another visit from activities expert Rebecca, who after reading my Winter Places post below decided to educate me some other winter activities. She asked me to meet her at Epic Conditions where she taught me how to surf. This time we went to the other side and found a ski chalet.

“Since I’m just starting out skiing in SL, Did you bring me here because the skiing is easier here?”, I asked.

“Actually the exact opposite is true, the skiing here is the hardest and most challenging in SL,” she replied. “The primary reason we are here is that they have the best skis in SL. Even better — they are free. So grab a set of skis and be sure to read the instructions, and meet me at the ski lift.”

As we rode up the amazingly steep ski lift with the very narrow ski path down below, I asked her about Second Life skiing in general, and why this mountain first?”

“The vast majority of the skiing in Second Life consists of nothing more than clicking on a ball and letting the ball take you down a guided path. Its too easy, and after a couple of runs it is boring,” she explained.

“The Epic Conditions Skis can actually be ridden and are a challenge (in part because they are on the buggy side). They use real physics and you can steer as you please.”

“As for why this mountain, some times the best way to learn is to try the hardest first. And there are actually two routes down the mountain, one is easy, and one is so hard I have yet to make it down successfully.”

“OK, sounds good,” I said, “I wouldn’t want to try the hardest first on a real mountain though.”

So we tried the hill a few times. Lots of hair pin turns even on the easy course, and the hard course has obstacles and near impossible jumps. The skis sometimes act a little wonky too. After Rebecca fell one too many times, we both decided to try another hill.

We went to a place I have been a few times, the oldest and probably still the largest ski run in Second Life. Built by the Lindens in 2004 to showcase their winter servers on the mainland, you can drop by the info booth on the Voss server and take the ski lift behind the Chateau, or just teleport to the top of the mountain two servers away on the Kanin server.

“This is one of those sit and ski places,” Rebecca explained, “There are others nice ones on Tahoa Mountain and Peach Tree Resort. But, at nearly 600 meters, this is the longest.”

“And here’s the kicker,” she continued, “the Epic Conditions Skis work here. You cant do tricks, but you can take out a set of skis and ride them to the bottom, steering and avoiding obstacles all the way down.”

She was right! We tried the sit on ball method, but the Epic Conditions method of skiing was much more fun.

Well that was a pleasant discovery. Lets celebrate with another SL winter sport: ice skating.

Like skiing, ice skating comes in two flavors too: Skate wherever you want, and let a pose ball lead you around the rink. The former requires a decent pair of skates, and the best inexpensive skates I have seen are the Skoopficiles Ice skates available at the Moopf store (and at dozens of other places) for a mere L$200.

If you are not interested in showing off and doing tricks, you can get free animation override skates at the Winter Wonderland Skating Rink, which also features the “let a pose ball lead you around the rink” type skating, which Rebecca and I also tried doing as seen above.

Over all, a fun cool time. Now for some much deserved cocoa by a fire place.

SL Boating in Nantucket

So I’m back with SL activities expert Rebecca, who last time taught me how to surf. We are meeting on the SL region of Nantucket located in the middle of a group of islands collectively known as New England. While many of the houses here are privately owned, they conform to certain architectural standards, specifically New World Colonial. The result is an area of islands that look like the north eastern coast of the United States.

“So what activity are you teaching me today?”, I asked.

“We are going sailing.”, she said, “Lets head out to the marina where I have my boat docked.”

“This is a Flying Tako”, she said, “This is one of the most advanced sailboats in SL, because it conforms closely to the physics of real sail boats.”

“Maybe, but compared to the other boats in this marina, it looks kind of crappy,” I said.

The Flying Tako is the boat of choice of the Second Life Sailing Federation. At L$250 they are relatively cheap allowing anyone to get into sailing. You can buy one here.

Rebecca explains the basics:

“When you get in the driving seat of the Tako, you can say “hud” and two attachments will appear on your screen. The upper right shows wind direction and sail position. The bottom left is clickable to control the ship.”

“You have two sails, the main sail and the spinnaker. The main sail works like a wing, the curved shape results in forward motion, and steering is controlled by the rudder (left and right arrow keys). when the wind is behind you, you can also raise the spinnaker for extra speed.”

“So far so good,” I said.

“So what happens when we want to sail into the wind?” I asked as we come to a stop.

“Bottom line is, you can’t,” she said.

“You have to turn left or right enough to allow your main sail to move you, then turn again the other direction, making a zig zag pattern. This is the part that takes a lot of patience and practice.”

I tried it her way for a while and did not get very far. I then suggested we do things my way.

“And what exactly is your way?” she inquired.

“A speed boat with an inboard motor,” I answered. “I got this from Seawolf Marine, one of the oldest boat stores in SL, and the first to introduce particle wakes.”

And off we went, exploring the New England isles. Not exactly kosher, but New England is part of a bank of 126 interconnected water navigable regions. Designed primarily for sailing, other watercraft are allowed.

The Nantucket and Mystic regions make up the heart of the New England area, its a pretty build with lots of houses and stores.  As we cruised through Mystic, Rebecca got up on the bow and took off her shirt.

The sun was going down, so I stopped at a pretty spot and joined her. I promised to practice my sailing some more and we would try again someday.

Underwater Exploring in SL

Not too long ago while writing about Steampunk Worlds, I mentioned a cool underwater build called Vernian Sea. I decided to look around for other underwater builds. I found a few that I will present in order from educational to fantasy.

Lets start with educational. A great place to learn about life underwater is the Abyss Museum of Ocean Science. This small but well thought out build gives a self guided tour into life way below the depths. The above pic was me riding in my mini submarine (available free at my store) through the life filled “shallows”. The depth tour includes links to web videos about ocean exploring.

Taking things to the next level, means ditching the sub, and going scuba diving. The Dive World Sim has above ground stores to get scuba gear, and below water places to try it out. I got cheap and did not buy a complete set (notice the missing mouth piece… oops!)

At least it looks cool as I swim around the sharks and whales I encounter down there. Dive City also has info on real scuba diving.

If you want to get more use out of the wet suit, the Cove at Cave Rua has an even more elaborate underwater build to explore. It also has a guided tour (Sit on a poseball and let it take you around the cove) worth taking. While swimming around, I saw some mermaids, which got me thinking in a more fantasy direction.

Doing a search for “mermaids” took me to a shop called Mermaid Salvage which gives away free mermaid costumes and free mermaid animation overrides.

This looks like something Rebecca would enjoy, so I invited her along. She picked up the free silverfish tale, I went with a more elaborate green tale. There are the also Disneyesque clamshells, but Rebecca talked me into a more traditional look.

So where do mermaids go to be mermaids? Turns out there are not a lot of places. One spot I found was the Merseum at Morgandy which has a lot of interactive displays with poseballs that look good with fins.

The underwater sections on Morgandy are filled with all sorts of delights to explore, many with the mermaid theme. Rebecca and I had fun exploring the ruins there.

SL Surfing with Rebecca Part 2

So last week Rebecca taught me how to surf at Epic Conditions Surf. This week she is showing me around a few other popular surf places. First stop is the PrimWorks server, where the inventer of SL Surfing Heather Goodliffe has her home base.

“Last week we saw the epic waves,” says Rebecca, “there are two other kinds of surfable waves, the foam waves and the pipeline, both of which are for sale here. While there are resellers out there, here you know you will also get the latest versions.”

“Well, since I dont own a ton of land, I’m not in the market for my own waves.” I said, “But, I could use a surfboard.”

“Good thing we are standing in front of a mall filled with various board designers, then.” said Rebecca.

“Ooh, shopping!”, I exclaimed.

So I found this cool hawaiian board, traditional wood with a flower print. I asked where Rebecca recommends surfing next.

“The epic waves on Majini Island, are the coolest place to surf,” she said. “There are actually 6 server islands dedicated to surfing here. This is where the SL surfing experts all hang and try their stuff.”

“Cool, nice to know, but this looks like the place we went last week,” I said, “Are there any original surfing builds?”

“Yes there are, but its not for beginners,” she said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Whoa, what is this?”

“This is the Boneyard,” she said, “waves and rocks to slalom through.”

“Looks like fun, lets go!”

I caught a “pipeline” wave and slalomed my way through the waves. It was not too difficult, and a nice change of pace from the epic waves.

“Yeah, that was fun,” said Rebecca, “it can get a bit laggy here though so the controls are a little tricky some times”.

“Shirts can also get a bit wet here too apparently,” I said.

And so we surfed around the rocks over and over, until I slammed right into Rebecca and we hit a big rock, and we both ended up dead. How ironic.

SL Surfing with Rebecca

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I am really into exploring 3D worlds. My friend Rebecca though is more into doing stuff. She agreed to show me around some of the cooler activities in Second Life.

First stop, surfing.

A couple of years ago, the first prim waves started appearing in Second Life. An enterprising SLer named Heather Goodliffe had the idea of creating prim waves that are surfable. It starts with waves that push any physical object that makes contact. Then creating a controllable board that moves with that physical push. The result is a surfing effect.

Surfing has grown into its own sub culture in Second Life. There are dozens of places to surf commercial and private, and numerous clubs, events, contests, etc. dedicated to the activity. Rebecca invited me over to the Weather sim, this is a group of sims sponsored by the Weather Channel with various activities, including one of the best places to learn to surf.

“If you just want to try it, there are free boards available in the surf shack,” she explains. “Go get one and meet me in the water.”

I did what she asked and noticed a problem. “Um, either I weigh too much, or this board does not float right.”

“Oh, sorry about that. That’s a bug that hit the SL surfing world last April when they implemented the Havoc 4 server code. The board will still work right, but it looks a little funny sunk in the water like that,” she says. “Let me loan you a non-bugged board.”

“Thanks, so how does this work?” I asked.

“Its just like real surfing, you paddle out to where the waves break. If you use your mini map, you can usually see four squares out in the ocean. This is where the waves usually start,” she explained, “There’s one starting now, lets see if we can catch it.”

And away we went. The steering and such is pretty straight forward. Left and right arrow keys turn, “c” wil cause you to crotch down. “e” you can stick your hand out and touch the wave. There are some boards with more complicated maneuvers, but those are the basics for the standard board.

Here’s some more surfing screenshots:

For our next surfing adventure, we will visit some of the other surfing sims, and checking out the whole surfing scene as a whole.

Until then, surfs up!