Retraction , Immersion , and Teaching

A new IMLer joins us in our space right after getting off orientation island and here I am giving them a tutorial on how to build. This included how to create an object, how to edit it, how to link them, and how to texture them.















Here the cubes have just been textured with a fur carpet. Should go well with the purple pumps.















Having a visitor to the Island provided some valuable feedback. IT'S TOO SPREAD OUT!! Especially for someone new to the controls of SL and the camera angles. To navigate an entire region is a little tricky at first. I have not started with a simple cube in the center and will build outward. This makes the layout modular and easily expandable, plus someone new to the island can get a quick look just by spinning around. Here is the start of this idea with the Holodeck, screening area, and sandbox all easily reachable from the center.















I figured out how to finally add streaming video to our island. Here is an entire corner of the region, sky and all, that is covered in video players.















I remember being very inspired by Jennifer Steinkamp's large video installations such as this one here.

Holodeck Scensters....

IML Island now has a holodeck and I purchased the classic Star Trek Shell $L500 to make it all the more obvious. However, people need to be able to make original environments for it and the following is my first attempt.

Step 1: Genesis - start out on the holodeck with only a shell.














Step 2: Touch the Rezzer and select - Build - Inner Shell.
This is a generic environment with set dimensions that can be modified.














Step 3: Edit Textures.
Here I used one of my previous uploaded textures and added it to the walls. All of the wall prims are linked so all of them were changed at once.














Step 4: Decorate Scene
Add objects and animations to your scene. Right now I am just placing a few Library items, but much more complicated environments can be created.














Step 5: Drag and Drop 'AVRS Positioner' script -
Onto every object in the scene. A message will show up saying 'position saved'. This tells the Rezzer where to put each object upon loading. I was not able to add a script to the tree and will need to find a solution.









Step 6: Take Objects into Inventory
Once you have applied the AVRS script. Make sure to keep your objects organized as many will have the same name. I created a new folder called 'Hamlet' and dragged each item into it once it was taken back into my Inventory.






Step 7: Build a Crate
Touch the Rezzer and select Build - New Crate. The box below will appear.














Step 8: Load Crate
Right click the Crate and select Edit. Select the Content Tab. Drag the objects for you scene into the Contents Folder. It will take a moment, but one by one they will appears.













Step 9: Take Crate - Give to Rezzer
Take the loaded crate into your inventory. Now drag it onto the Rezzer. The Rezzer will light up and Reset. Your new scene is almost ready.













Step 10: New Scene added
Touch the Rezzer and Select Scenes - and poof! your new scene (Hamlet) should be added to the list available environments. Tying in the chat window 'list programs' will display it in the available programs as well.















Step 11: Load New Scene
New scene is displayed. Only problem is that tree, but a simple move can fix that for now.

Concentual Hallucinations... VR Holodecks

Students have created documentaries within SL using Machinima for IML classes. However, most used areas created by other residents and many times not under the students' absolute control. After discussing ideas of how to change the SL IML environment to make it more user friendly for these productions it boiled down to wishing we could just push a button and poof! it's done... well ok maybe it take a few buttons, but a solution was found.

Holodecks or Rezzers as often referred to in SL come in a variety of forms. I checked out 3 different Rezzers:

Faux Rez - This has a very nice design. Easy to use visual layout and it shows the objects pulling together as it forms. Feels like I'm watching a scene from Neal Stephenson's 'Diamond Age' as all of the Nanobots construct a city atom by atom.



Hyperstring - For this rez device you touch it and it pulls up a menu that you than select from different items. You have the ability to upgrade and add your own items and if you want upgrade again and be able to sell your own created scenes through their network. What I really like about this was the ability to rez many objects in one space. The Fauz Rez cleared the space between objects.



Horizon - This one is basically the Holodeck. You have a central control panel that when touched pulls down a menu like the Hyperstring rezzer or you can use the chat to Voice commands through the keyboard. I have yet to use the talk options though, but very excited about the idea. It has 3 main modes. Shells which are more permanent outside structures to give it a mood (holodeck, evil scientist lab, cave, etc) and than it has Scenes that are changed more frequently. Panoramas are also an option and are created from extremely high resolution images. You may add any of your own scenes, shells, or panorama's with the creation of crates that stores them within Horizon and allows you to call them when needed. This was purchased for the IML island at a very generous price of less than $L 3000 (about $12 USD).

The Creator giving me a demo (too long to upload to youtube).














A building shell with the origin 'showing'.














A hotel scene rezzed in.














A hotel scene from the outside. Shell still showing.














The hotel was phased out and a classroom rezzed in.














Panorama














This will allow residents to create, retrieve, and save environments for meetings, classrooms, galleries, productions, etc. at any time and without having to traveling to different parts of the region. bzzzrp

Moving Floor

Here I am adding a practice script (88 of them bought for $L20) to our foundation. I am still trying to learn how to get the textures to switch. This script looks a little simpler and there should be able to get them to move in different directions with a few tweaks. Still learning how to get Machinima to work smoothly as trying to use different compressors causes errors.


Playing with more practice scripts. One is the moving script from the above video, another for rotating the texture, and another for animating it on all sides of the object.

Relexive Influences

Media Saturation... Raining down from above....


















Public Broadcasts that are almost inescapable..need to figure out streaming audio and video content. V/A Broadcasts are not only possible through individual objects such as blimps with screens, but for entire regions. Here is a 'real life' object modeled after a Sci-fi Cinema creation.

The Foundation pt. 2

Attempting to avoid the trappings that most virtual environments in SL exhibit (i.e. palm trees) I started adding custom textures. These were inspired by several of the readings common in IML classes along with the William Gibson Documentary that was shown in SL yesterday. Using photoshop and making the scans of book covers 512 x 512 pixels, saving them as targa files (24 bit) I was able to add these customs prim textures to simple flattened objects.

I liked this..but maybe a little too much idol worship.














More diverse readings...















Temporary Structures set in place. This design process is experimental
and therefore the environment is going to change daily as new feedback is given. These are domes with just your basic chairs inside therefore creating our first traditional meeting area in SL...it's a start.















Current landscape.














Now with office domes.















CLASSROOMS! These are stacked structures that have meeting (chat), screening (video), and gallery (images) areas. (temporary design)

The Foundation

The first thing I did when I had access to the island was flatten it and I removed all of the water. I am still toying with the idea of having no 'real life' representation on the island. However I wanted to take advantage of the aesthetic and technical differences that water can bring to the environment. High levels of water cause light levels to be lower and therefore less resources needed to render. Have half your environment always dark has it's advantages such as letting you see how objects will look in low light without forcing the sun to change. What I learned is that all of SL has water set to 20 meters so raising/lowering it caused a visual gap in the water edge. I raised walls made of stone on all of the edges of the island and than raised the water. We now have a giant lake inside of a virtual ocean.