Tag: Second Life

Mopire City as Twilight Zone

Mopire City is my absolute favourite SL build. I have been coming here for years, and have blogged it many times (use the ‘search thingy’ on my blog to look up Mopire City) and had many adventures here. I have walked, driven, and even flown (in a UFO) this amazing place… you can’t actually fly here, but if you rez an aerial vehicle, you can. I have even seen a giant here. The level of detail and the quality and consistency of every component here is amazing, and the place is huge. It is actually several sims, I think… Mopire City/Rieri-Town in Tokyo/Tokyo-Windhill/Mitsumi-Town…

… I have always had an ‘in the twilight zone’ feeling here… no-one lives (that I have ever been able to ascertain) here, I have never seen a real shop here, and I almost always have the place to myself. None of those things make much sense in SL; how on earth do they finance a build like this if it generates no revenue? There is one revenue generating aspect to it, but I’ll mention that later. Over the years I have formulated a theory that this place is a huge, private playground dedicated to war games. There is an underground network here that is huge, and the first time I ever came here, when it was all new, I think, if you went into that network, the ‘life’ icon appeared in your HUD, that doesn’t happen, now, but it was a clue. There is fake advertising everywhere, but the only real, SL advertising, is for weapons. There is a shooting range in the subway. These were all clues for my theory…

… in all the time I’ve been coming here, I keep finding parts/things I’ve never seen, before. Yesterday, from the landing point, I went a way I’ve never been, before, literally just around the corner, and noticed these banners that totally confirmed my suspicions. I kept walking that way…

… and, once again, found an entire chunk of the city I have never seen…

… a little park…

… this lovely little area, all totally new to me…

… so, in a way, I wasn’t that surprised when I stumbled upon this place… a real shop selling shooty stuff. It was still very weird/jarring… this wasn’t the Mopire City I knew, I could almost hear ‘X-Files’ music playing, somewhere in the background. It vindicated my theory, but it was very weird that it took me so long to find this place, almost like it had been hiding, and had now, for some reason, shown itself…

… I mentioned a possible source of revenue before… R2 Fashion has always floated above Mopire City, and I’ve always thought it might be the financial wing of the operation. When I first started coming here, there was a physical elevator in R2, that would take you down to the city, but they took it out, and for years there was just a hole in the floor you could jump down, then I think even that got covered, for a while…

… I zapped up there to see what was there, now. The hole was there, but glassed over, but there was one of those teleports, that look like an elevator door, so I took it back down. I took a few steps from where I’d landed, turned around, and saw…

… this. I’m pretty sure this was not here when I used to take the elevator, or even when I used to jump down the hole. Surely I would have noticed, in this beautiful, empty city…

… a hanger filled with aerial war machines. Now I really felt like I was in the twilight zone, it was enough to make my spine tingle… I half expected to hear the rattle of small-arms fire, or the scream of a warplane going over the city… perhaps to see a column of oily smoke roiling into the sky. It was so weird that my theories had all been made real, so suddenly, in a single visit. I don’t know what to expect, here, any more.

*edit* I looked up ‘Second Life Special Operations Command’… it is a group with 8 members. And, if I had gone into that mall where I noticed the banners, there is another weapons shop, and more of those banners… none of those things used to be in there, so, perhaps, this is a new manifestation?

Tralala’s Diner: Risking Madness

I decided to risk my sanity and try, once again, to get some interesting pictures at Tralala’s Diner. I came perilously close to madness during this experiment. This sim would have to take the prize for the most heart-wrendingly appalling lag and attendant technical problems of anywhere I’ve ever been in SL… which is really sad, because it is also one of the most amazing destinations on the grid…

… as I’ve said, before, I suspect that everything interesting ever created in SL, can be found somewhere in Tralala; every ramshackle building, broken bicycle, weird cat, dead vehicle, every single neon sign, burning tyre, animated piece of strangeness. Those last few make for a ridiculous amount of constantly running scripts, which create horrendous reductions in frame rate, causing mind-numbing lag. It took me about eight hours over two days to get these pictures…

… they are the pictures I could take, not the ones I wanted to take. I had to avoid any areas that had neon, and try to avoid areas with lots of animated objects. Sometimes, I would arrive, and stand in the same place for 45 minutes, and half the scene would not have rezzed properly, and I’d just close Firestorm and come back later, hoping for a better result. Other times, after 45 minutes, most things would have rezzed, and I’d go to take a step forward, and suddenly be running on the spot, like a lunatic, unable to stop running, stuck between two buildings…

… I eventually settled on exploring the most empty places, with the least things happening. I wound up seeing parts of the sim I’ve never seen, before…

… which wasn’t really my intention, as these places aren’t as spectacular as the more crowded, neon extravaganza in the centre of the place, but, that way lay madness…

… out here on the fringes there were places that were still not properly constructed, the grass all a meter in the air, random objects seemingly just dumped for future placement… it kind of added to the feel of the place. There is just so much stuff here, it is mind-boggling. It would be wonderful to have the kind of top-end network connection, and super-computer that could make it possible to actually enjoy this sim, rather than it always being a genuine struggle with my sanity trying to even move, here…

… but, out here, on the fringes, it wasn’t too bad, though it was still a near constant struggle…

… I eventually made it to the shore…

… and stood, looking out over the brooding ocean, wondering if this is the last time I will put myself through this amount of effort for a few pictures.

The Galleries

Continuing my journey through my saved landmarks, I visited ‘The Galleries‘, today…

… back when I collected SL art, The Galleries was always one of my must-visit destinations…

… the place is huge, and it has always had the broadest collection of styles of any gallery I ever visited in SL…

… all of it for sale…

… the collection is so big, you can literally get lost in here…

… there are useful teleport devices scattered through the space, which help to get you around when you get confused…

… it’s so long since I was here, last, that I’m not even sure if the spaces are the same… I suspect they have been changed, somehow, because they feel differently set out, but the huge collection is as excellent as it ever was…

… I’d go as far as to say there is something for everyone, here. There is almost as much work I don’t like, because I have quite particular tastes, as there is work I really like…

… so many styles…

… you can spend a lot of time, here. In fact, I’d say it’s a two or three visit place, really…

… if you want to spend time looking, and you will…

… you are bound to find something you like.

Last Sunset

I visited Last Sunset, today. It’s a tiny little island ‘intended for photographers’. It looks promising when you land…

… there’s some static big cats…

… a few cute simians running around doing forward rolls and stuff…

… a bridge that only has a few angles that don’t include buildings…

… and a few places where you can make it look like you are in the wilderness, as long as you keep the buildings out of shot. If you wander too far in search of something else (you can’t fly, so you can’t even hover up to get an idea of your surroundings) you get threatened with eviction in 5 seconds, which I found simply too irritating in a place that is supposed to be a photography sim. Anyway, it closes in a couple of weeks, so if you want to see those cute chimps, that’s how long you’ve got.

Culture Shock

The first thing I saw, when I resumed my wandering along the Park Way route, was The Little Black Dress arcade. This little arcade filled my heart with joy… I love places like this, where the love and attention by the owner is obvious in every little detail. Back when I was only a year or so old, I barely used or knew how to use ‘Marketplace’, didn’t read any SL blogs, never went to sales ‘events’… I got all my clothes by stumbling upon places like this. I actually stumbled on some pretty awesome retailers, like ‘L&B’, and ‘House of RFyre’, totally by accident, but usually it was just totally unknown, random retailers. I used to really enjoy looking through shops and arcades like this, and they used to be everywhere. These days I’m very particular about what I wear, and only buy the brands I like, usually at ‘events’, or from their mainstores, I simply don’t go to random places like this, any more. I was delighted to buy, in ‘The Little Black Dress’, the pants I’m wearing… L$49 for a pair of pants with a 6 texture HUD! So that was a lovely start to the day’s rambling…

… all along the Park Way, I saw these boorish, ugly signs on the roadside in front of lovely homes. The land baron who owns them clearly had good taste in buildings, all his/her properties were the same creators’ buildings, all in this rustic, stuccoed, European/Mediterranean style, but they all had these truely offensive signs in front of them. I simply cannot fathom the point of such tasteless display, or why anyone would rent somewhere that had something so tacky out front… but, each to their own, I guess…

… just as the Park Way becomes the Atoll Coast Road, I came across this enormous edifice…

… it was another arcade/mall, this time vastly bigger, but really pretty, in front of a huge building called ‘The Free Dove’. I’d never heard of this place. A quick look inside showed a barn-like interior chock full of the type of clothing I have zero interest in, so I went out and looked around the lovely outside area, filled with shops and stalls…

… I found this sign outside the main building to be somewhat-over-the-top…

… and the product at this stall to be really adorable, but slightly disconcerting… how do you fit a kitten into such a thin container? Is it a dehydrated kitten, just add water? What, even, is it? Is it an animesh pet, or decor? So many questions, totally unanswered by the super-cute packaging…

… I’d been wandering around the really pretty mall, filled with retailers I’d never heard of, with really cool names, when I got a notecard explaining ‘The Free Dove’… everything inside that huge shopping barn was free! ‘The Free Dove’ is a famous, 16 year old, historic SL destination that I’ve never heard of! The over-the-top nudity sign was now in context, as there would be a lot of newby traffic, here. I felt like an alien in a strange land, one I’d forgotten even existed in SL, the one of poor, freshly-minted avi’s, the one of random shopping malls, the one of everything being new, and fascinating. I’m so pleased I’ve started my random ramblings, again.

Route 1 Heterocera

In a wave of nostalgia, I decided to resume the bipedal wanderings of the Mainland continents that I used to do, back in the day. I decided to start in Heterocera, on Route 1. I started at the beginning of the road, the surrounds of which are your typical, ugly SL mishmash of buildings and signage. It wasn’t until Plano that things started to become more visually appealing, with these lovely Hobbit houses beside the road. I’ve always loved these cobbled Linden roads, more than any other style of road they have. I love the old, tired, worn feel they have, I love that they have plants growing on them. I don’t know if that plant placement is just some algorithm, or if some Linden minion meticulously placed every one…

… but, by the time Route 1 had become Park Way, in Bombyx, the feeling of old and tired had become downright dilapidated and overgrown, which I totally loved…

… there was even a ford across the road, which I’ve never seen before on an SL road…

… I really liked this part of the route, there are some really lovely, thoughtfully placed and landscaped homes, all close to the cosy old road, giving a really open and friendly feel you don’t often find in SL…

… it was a lovely change…

… this one in particular, in Samia, warmed my heart with it’s simple, friendly invitation, and it’s half open gate. You seldom see signs openly inviting the traveller to come into private gardens. I continued on Park Way till I reached Sundana, then TP’d home because I was too tired to continue my wandering. I shall resume tomorrow.

Port of Sparquerry

Well, this isn’t what I was going to post, today. I had another SL nostalgia post all lined up, but when I was doing some last-minute research for it, I discovered The Port of Sparquerry, where I’ve never been, and which was FAR more interesting. The instant I arrived at the landing point, just outside this room, I thought ‘This looks like ACC ALPHA‘…

… from the landing point, you can cross ‘The Bridge of Quests’, featuring the photography of Ziki Questi…

… the scale, here, is gigantic…

… there is an enormous amount to see, here. At first, I was flying around at random…

… and flew to Qeddoq, next door, to get this shot, not actually realising it was a different place, because it all looks like one, continuous build…

… but I decided I needed to go back to Sparquerry and have a more thorough explore. All the time, I kept thinking that whoever built this must have had something to do with ACC ALPHA…

… I kept intending to go one way, then being distracted, and going another way, only to arrive back where I’d been…

… it was all monumental in scale, and quite beautiful and strange, an atmosphere helped by the dirging vocals and music…

… then I discovered this little tour vehicle, running on rails, so I took the tour…

… it headed out toward Qeddoq. You can stop and start it where ever you want to, as long as you don’t get out of it…

… as it was trundling through Qeddoq, I remembered the rail system in ACC ALPHA, which I had only walked on, not used a vehicle on…

… so I wasn’t that surprised when the little vehicle actually rolled into ACC ALPHA! What an amazing set of builds these are.

Back In The Day

I was looking out my window, to where the Circuit La Corse runs past my home, and I saw one of those ubiquitous SL tour pods go past. It got me thinking about the traffic that used to be on the Circuit La Corse, back in the day when I looked as I do in the image above… 8 years ago. When I first bought land in Jormundgandr, and built my first little gallery, there was far more random traffic, of all kinds. I went through my enormous pictorial library (I’ve been taking pictures ever since my first day in SL) and found some images I had of some of that traffic…

… like the tanks. You would hear them coming, the roar of their big diesel engines, always in a cloud of exhaust, they’d roar past my front door on their mysterious missions…

… there were these school buses, which you could take tours from depot to depot in…

… there were steam engines…

… there were these much bigger buses, which you could also ride in…

… and there were these ice cream trucks, with their familiar, tinny music. These vehicles were everywhere you went, you had to be careful not to get run over. You may have noticed the vehicles in the last two images are a bit wonky on the road, that’s because there’s a sim crossing, just before my gallery. The vehicles would go wonky, going through it, but usually come right again, and continue on, but you would often see one’s that had obviously come to grief going through a sim crossing, they would be on their side beside the road, or just stuck somewhere…

… the best one I saw was this bus, literally stuck up a tree. They would remain in these predicaments, engines running, exhaust billowing, sometimes forever, it seemed…

… no idea what was happening here, but I’m glad I photographed it. All these images are from before I learned to take decent photos in SL, they are actually all screenshots, hence the crap quality, but I think it is the digital version of sepia on an RL photo (:

On the Roof

I discovered Le jardín sur le toit, today, I saw it in the SL ‘Destination Guide’. I’ve never been here before, but the way it was written up made it sound like this winter version had a previous, non-winter iteration…

… I have to say, it is the tiniest ‘Destination’ I can recall ever visiting… what you see here is literally all there is to it…

… it’s a winter rooftop, with a frozen swimming pool with two resident penguins…

… and that’s pretty much it! It was almost a zen exercise getting six images that didn’t all have the same background…

… but, I also have to say, I spent a long time here, trying to find those six interesting shots, and no-one else showed up…

… and it was actually kind of restful and relaxing. I love that someone has gone to the effort to create this little scene, and put it in the ‘Destination Guide’, so others can enjoy it’s tranquility.