IML Second Life Island Design

Restructuring

2009-04-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've typed some notes in this blog... but that does not mean I have been absent from Second Life... But even in a constantly changing digital Universe you sometimes have to pause minute before doing anything drastic.. Building an educational Second Life Island is uncharted territory.. One of the major difficulties of building the IML SL Space is looking from the perspective of someone completely new to Second Life and probably new to 3D environments in general. I scripted the prims for the floor of the IML using a color coordinate script that changes the prims color based on it's location on the Island.. This created a gradient on the floor that people used as a reference for flying around the Island... that's IF THEY COULD FLY... I've also learned that most residents even if they are quite capable of flying PREFER TO WALK... sooo.. I added ramps to all of the different areas... This was fine if they could SEE the ramps from a distance. I've had students prefer to login to Second Life with their laptops instead of a desktop and use wifi... this greatly reduces the users graphics rendering capabilities. So I had to take into account someone who is new to navigating a 3D space and has limited draw distance... so what I did is actually delete some of the gradient grid and make prim paths to the specific areas on the Island.
Other Changes... I removed the ceiling. I find the idea of walls in Virtual spaces odd. Why is this wall here?.. Is it blocking me from an area that I shouldn't be in? To have a ceiling when regions don't have an actual height limit seems unecessary. It also allows the user to see other projects from almost anywhere on the Island.
I changed the texture of the ground/DIRT (dirt, trees, water, etc..in SL are also baffling to me)..so now all of the base height is textured and says 'IML'... it's even viewable from SPACE (or the map that is)... working with .raw files in photoshop I was able to change the floor level to be even (much more accurate than working with the land terraform tools).
I blocked out the OCEAN... I constructed walls around the edges of the Island using the same color coordinate script of the floor up to a height of 256... this gives the full color gradient.. Walls on the edge of the island do not bother me because you can't actually fly off the Island... the large expanse of the Ocean is a LIE!!! You cannot go swimming out there... no virtual fish..NOTHING. So to replace this view with one that shows you that there are boundaries and can be used as a navigational tool I feel is worth the extra prims.

The Creator Speaks

2008-12-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale speaks about Second Life. The talk covers quite a lot of issues from Virtual Environments as Utopia to the inevitability of digital technologies. A great argument for Second Life instead of Video Game Environments such as World of Warcraft is the sheer amount of USER created Content. Second Life has 20,000 servers full of data compared to WoW that comes on a couple of discs. bzzzzzzrp

EVENTS

2008-11-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have had the IML hosting several events and here are some experiences gained.

PECHA KUCHA RECAP

For 2 days a huge tent was visible from my office window setup on the lawn in front of the IML building. From this spot the Pecha Kucha presentations were being streamed into the IML Second Life Island, delayed about 20 seconds, it creates a bizarre experience. Here I am facing the opposite direction of the presentation looking at a screen displaying a presentation space with a screen streaming in the presentation going on right behind me. brain melt....

FAIR USE

This was a different experience. People were streaming into SL, but I logged in for another purpose and that was to relay questions from the SL space to the RL space. Also we learned about quality levels in the streaming of video into the space. At one point we boosted the resolution level and it looked fantastic, but anyone without a wired connection had their viewers almost crash on them. Perhaps in the future we can have people that RSVP for the event submit what type of connections they will be using so that we can provide the best experience for everyone.

Both events in Second Life were attend very poorly....and that's putting it nicely.
Factors that contributed to this were the fact that most of the attendee's that would have done this in SL were able to attend it physically. The other was the times that both these events were held. Pecha Kucha was done in the evening and on a weekend. This meant that it was almost midnight on the East Coast and early morning in other parts of the World. Also the Fair Use event was held during the week at 8:30 AM times when most people are just waking up or in the middle of their day, especially students. However, video and stills taken during the event can be added to the Island afterwards for those that missed it.

Surveillance

2008-10-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

During out day our presence is recorded several times a day. Our phones have GPS, security cameras, our IP! Second Life is far from anonymous, especially if you have a premium account. When I visit regions and other avatars are present I can signal a wand I've scripted to grab the names of all those around me. This I used mostly for meetings with too many people to look up while trying to keep up with the multiple chat conversations going on. I applied this same type of device to our IML Islands to monitor the traffic going on and if something goes wrong (harassment, builds destroyed, etc) I have something to reference. When the students of the CTIN 482 class were told that their presence was recorded a few skeptical glances were shot in my direction. How does this affect assessment for projects when you have a record of how many times someone logged in World? Professors are probably very skilled at spotting the papers started hours before they were due. Can time spent on a project be separated from the final product? This is when documentation of the process comes into play. Sometimes final products don't work for a variety of reasons (technical limitations, technology failures, results aren't what you expected, etc), but that doesn't negate the knowledge gained. bzzzzzzzrp

CTIN 482 -Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments

2008-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right... but that won't be discussed in this blog post. HOWEVER, students in the Cinematic Arts Interactive Media 482 Class (CTIN 482) will be doing this over the course of the semester on IML 2, the new Second Life Island, that was just recently added. Steve Anderson has been handed the teaching torch and I'm helping with the technical side.

The first two classes were dedicated to explaining the task the students will face over the semester and to have them create avatars, join the CTIN 482 group...now....

Week 3.. The Students have now entered the IML 2 Island...and immediately something happened that you just can't predict... a giant mass of land sprung up in front of me... a cube rezzed next to me... spheres in the distance... the land rippled as multiple students began playing with the terraforming tools. I build on the IML Island alone and unless you are in public sandbox most of SL's architecture is already in place when you visit. So seeing 16 avatars all working on a space is something rare. Suddenly a scream cut through the room, in the physical space not the IML 2 Island, as someones newly created monolith was obliterated by another terraformer cutting across the virtual landscape. It was a lesson quickly learned and everyone realized the potential hazards and benefits of a collaborative space. Everyone eventually settled into separate areas to build, terrafom, or explored off IML 2 Island for research.

Avatar Rendering Costs- 3D Optimization

2008-08-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges of creating the IML Island has not only been designing a space that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, but keeping the range of hardware resources people have in mind. Not everyone has high bandwidth and powerful graphics cards that can make the common lag problems a little less frequent. On many educators lists a large topic is how to bring Second Life Education to K-12 Programs, many of them not as well funded and sometimes relying on donated equipment. This makes accessing some of Second Life's areas IMPOSSIBLE as heavy amounts of scripts, animations, particles, flexiobjects, etc. choke already strained resources. Students at the IML are taught how to optimize their project assets to make 2D projects smoother, but 3D projects are new to almost everyone and the same principals need to be applied. This optimization needs to not only be applied to objects and environments, but to YOURSELF... something not applicable in 2D spaces. Avatars have costs unfortunately and sometimes your special outfits, bling, and gadgets can cause others around you to get bogged down. Torey Linden and Linden Labs has posted some blogs and videos explaining AVATAR RENDERING COSTS. Check it out and lets do our part in making this transition from 2D to 3D spaces a smooth and pleasant one. bzzzzzrp!!!

Avatar sets from the Library Linden Labs Provides

all of these Avatars are <1000. ARC(avatar rendering cost) >1000 is considered expensive.....so what does mine cost.... EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!

Mine fluctuated between 4900 - 5900!! Prim hair is a common expense as most people find the built in hair options less than satisfying. Flexi clothes (Gosurori fashion doesn't come cheap in SL or RL apparently) and my grappling hook add a lot of expenses too. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't ever deck out your avatar. I spend a lot of my time in SL alone building, scripting, and exploring so without other avatars around the expensive costs of mine doesn't hinder performance.

Immersive Sound and Vision Sculpture Art

2008-08-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

Most of our offline and online audio experiences are the same. Whether it be listening to music while at an event, working with it playing in the background, music videos and films, etc, the sound is always whats being created by the media source and projected at you. However, on

Ramonia - Garden of Immersive Sound & Vision Sculpture Art you experience something different where space, sound, and image are intertwined by the gorgeous installations created by Adam Ramonia. The Island reminds me of the first time I played Myst and started to explore the sparse alien landscape at once beautiful but spooky. The sculptures move around you and the sound changes as you pass through them... your speed, location, and camera all warp the sounds around you. Now if we could only connect this to 5.1 and 10.1 systems.....

Here are my first experiences playing in it. I uploaded to YouTube and Veoh. Veoh being full quality, but YouTube is more accessible to people with mobile devices. bzzzzzzrp

Greening the Virtual World

2008-06-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

When I first arrived in Second Life I was immediately thrown off by the physical world elements in the Metaverse such as gravity, wind, land, water, and TREES! When designing the IML Island one of the first ideas was to avoid such physical world elements and to explore the possibilities of a Virtual World. One Island though has
created a very interesting space with all of these physical elements.

Converseon's Second Chance Trees Reforestation Project

This space lets you buy a Virtual Tree (you even have a selection to choose from) that represents one real life tree in the RainForest for only 300$L (about $1.50). Not only that but they have a space on the Island where you can plant them too. However, this is not actually representative of where the tree will be planted. For Urban and Virtual settings that have few plants this is a great way of being able to participate in helping the Environment.

Shopping in Second Life for Real Trees

My Tree

Prim Roots Planted

This overhead shot shows the success that this Sim has had

THE CONCH

2008-06-23T19:10:00.001-07:00

I had my first meeting with the 'Real Life Educators in SL' group and it was a great experience. The meeting filled up quickly and there was no real agenda. Various threads in conversation opened up and one topic that caught most of the avatars attention was 'what is appropriate dress?' for both RLstudents and for their avatars. Most agreed that naked is inappropriate, but everything else is creative and up for discussion.

During this meeting I revealed the project titled THE CONCH. One of the things I find hinders most people from using SL, aside from the name, is the interface. Even most people I know who navigate Web 2.0 tools with ease are still confused once you add depth and flying into their World. My original idea was sparked by recent obsession with the Harry Potter books and how I had been programming a wand to react to voice commands. I wondered if some things that educators do (blog, teleporting, email, etc) could benefit from a device that also works on voice commands. The object could be anything you want it's just the code attached to it that matters. A prototype is being developed that hopefully will have several functions and will be available on IML Island. This is an object that will be like any other open source project out there and will be FREE and a system in place for version updates and distribution.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Data Visualization

2008-06-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

bzzzzrp... Readers of Gibson and Stephenson took the idea of seeing Data in 3D environments and ran with it in Second Life. I am fascinated with being able to see information from different perspectives. Best to let the examples show.

Even something as simple as changing my usual normal view of the SL experience to wireframe helps me find lost prims or invisible objects.

From IML Second Li...

3D visualization of the Stock Market...

From IML Second Li...

The Mind Map lets you navigate Subjects in Layers and shows how they are connected.

From IML Second Li...

This doesn't pull information from a Database, but is very handing in looking at how an entire building is organized. Each of the areas can be clicked to pull up more information about each floor.

From IML Second Li...

Molecule Rezzer. They gave me a free Caffeine model. bzzzzzzrp

From IML Second Li...

ChatBots. Data with a human face. This was also on the Data Visualization Island. It is connected to a database that controls and avatars responses. Second Life has been called "avatarcentric"... does this change that statement now that it cannot be assumed any longer that avatars are controlled by a person?

From IML Second Li...

Airplane Traffic in real time.

From IML Second Li...

Weather in RT.

From IML Second Li...

RESULTS!!! on x,y,z axis.....

From IML Second Li...

The above examples can be seen HERE.

One of the projects that has recently been started by the IML is an open source educators tools. The visualization below shows how another piece of open source software has been contributed to over time. It's quite stunning.

code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.

Showtime!

2008-05-14T15:09:00.001-07:00

Object-Name: Blogger Tool
Region: IML (292864, 296448)
Local-Position: (118, 115, 53)

ShowTime!!

This was an exciting semester for the IML. The Honors Program had it's first round of students graduate and the buzz around the building has never been higher and the IML Second Life Island has also seen a lot of activity as well. Two Honors Students, Matt Lee and Cameron Parkins, created their projects in Second Life. Matt Lee has made a recreation of the Tempest and Cameron Parkins discusses Digital Utopianism and Cultural Imperialism in Second Life. Please come check them out on IML Island:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/IML/128/128/52

The Tempest

Digital Utopianism and Cultural Imperialism in Second Life

sending links from Second Life Blogger tool

2008-05-14T14:43:00.001-07:00

Object-Name: Blogger Tool
Region: IML (292864, 296448)
Local-Position: (118, 115, 53)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/EdTech/109/135/24

kawaiietlyplease Yohkoh

This is Test for sending a blog post within Second Life.

2008-05-14T14:32:00.001-07:00

Object-Name: Blogger Tool
Region: IML (292864, 296448)
Local-Position: (119, 115, 51)

This only allows for 60 seconds of type time. But I found this tool on the EdTech Island for Free. It allows me to type from within Second Life straight to Blogger. Fantastic.

kawaiietlyplease Yohkoh

This is Test for sending a blog post within Second Life.

2008-05-14T14:31:00.001-07:00

Object-Name: Blogger Tool
Region: IML (292864, 296448)
Local-Position: (119, 115, 51)

test test test!!!

Virtual Shop Class - This is not a Chair

2008-01-25T14:46:00.000-08:00

The IML 104 class is exploring Virtual Worlds this Semester and the past two weeks we've been exploring Second Life. The last class was dedicated to introducing the Honors students to building in Second Life which is unique compared to most Virtual Worlds where the environment is rigidly controlled by the Organizations that run them. Second Life has many places to Learn to build the most popular being the Ivory Tower of Primitive, which leads you through the many steps of learning to build, but these areas can be overwhelming to the new Avatar so I decided to make an extremely condensed crash course introduction to 3D modeling in SL. And as it turns out making a chair puts all of the basic skills into one neat little usable object. The Class learned how to create an object, copy, modify, Link, Texture, and add the Sit Script to it. At the end of the class we all Sat near each other and repositioned them to 500 meters above (something you can't do usually) and looked at the region below. Students were than asked to Share this 3D object with each other and to modify them over the weekend. In 90 minutes students with very little experience in SL and most having never created a 3D object before were able to create make not only a useful virtual item, but one that was personalized as well.

Color by Numbers

2007-12-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

There are many different ways to navigate spaces in SL from walking to flying to teleporting and with all of these large spaces sometimes it can get overwhelming and disorientating. Some people like to use maps, but I personally do not want to have an extra window open as I find the SL interface cramped as it is, so I (described in an earlier post) put all of the text/ures on the IML region facing one direction. Unfortunately this led to issues when trying to fly quickly across the campus as most can't read and fly very well. What I wanted was the SPACE itself to communicate to the user WHERE they were located. All of the regions in SL have coordinates Zero to 255 for coordinates X, Y, Z.. just like the color code Zero to 255 for R,G,B...SO... I jumped into the Linden Scripting Language to write my first piece of code and so far it seems to have worked very well. It takes the objects coordinates and translates it into RGB code and now you can say oh I must be near the gallery space because it's yellow...... bzzzrp

Envisioning Information

2007-11-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

New Projects on IML Island:

The Tufte Tunnel - Tufte's book 'Envisioning Information' has been wonderful to absorb in it's paper and ink format, but is now put into virtual book form thanks to Thinc Book 2.0. Textures or Snapshots can be loaded into this blank book and creates easily flippable pages. However, we now have a large 3d space in which to navigate and Professor Steve Anderson has requested a tunnel that can be flown through to be made.

the fly through
audio scripting explaining the Tufte Tunnel Concepts will be added later.

Customization

2007-10-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

Linden Labs provides the framework and users create and modify the content. This includes the aesthetic of the IML region, the spider legs I replaced my regular avatar legs with, to the screens streaming in media. I am standing with Nicolas Decatur (avatar) who is the designer of the screens we are going to using in the Panopticon for Steve Anderson's class. I need 16 of these screens and buying, modifying, and setting up each of these is quite tedious. I Love designing in Second Life, but sometimes you just can't get past repetitive tasks...Unless.... you meet the creator of said objects and request a solution. Here Nicolas charged me flat cost of 4500 Linden dollars (usually 300 but I need at least 16) to provide the same object, but instead made the object copyable. This will save me a lot of work in the long run. bzzzrp

Restructuring

2007-10-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

IML in SL has been under massive construction mostly out of changes required from knowledge gained by the process of customizing the region for specific purposes. The two major activities on the Island have been the use of the 3D representations of the class syllabus' for the 101 and 505 class and the Gone Gitmo Project.

Above are the Gone Gitmo Project and the 101 syllabus towering out from the region area below. The black cube you are seeing is the entire region enclosed by video screens facing inward. The land was completely flattened for this purpose and all screens pushed to the edges.
The Gone Gitmo Project is our first main project to be showcased here on IML in SL and is a recreation of Guantanamo Bay along with an area for streaming video and discussion.
Peggy Weil is the leader of this project and information can be found here.
Tech Soup also wrote an article.
Machinima Reporter Bernhard Drax posts a video on YouTube.

BuhBuhKuh Fairchild who was one the main programmer for the Gone Gitmo project was extremely helpful in teaching me how to set up correct permissions for our Island to make this project possible.

Day of Event

Panopticon
Steve Anderson in the process of breaking up there lecture and publishing it across several formats including youtube ended class with Streaming simultaneously projecting video into Second Life and controlling an avatar. The panopticon currently has 16 boxes one for each week of class that has embedded class content in it. This is a constant work in progress as class content is added constantly. New video screens are being added to facilitate multiple video streams.

Prim Water
In our...ok..MY attempt to remove all of the physical trappings of real life in SL has resulted in the water level being lowered. The water level at 50 was nice, but it made half the sim unusable as it was too dark to do anything. I (pictured below) purchased prim water which lets us separate the levels, but still allows us to travel down below easily.

Lower Level
This area is currently being used to store works in progress by Honors students. This space is a quarter of the Island.

Presentation Area
A quarter of the main floor of the IML Island is for presentations and events. Currently in this area is Anne Friedberg's 'The Virtual Window' with the book also being a link to outside information.

Scouting - Public Displays

2007-08-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

There are now several hundred educational organizations using Second Life ranging from small non profits to large Universities with an expanding knowledge base. The tools they use to range from straight forward chat and Voice with other citizens to static notecards and displays to completely scripted areas for interaction. The following is some images from other educational areas within SL and how we are incorporating them into the IML region and pedagogy.

Here is a traditional presentation area with video screen and seats at the Berkman Campus.

Here is a large area of the same style at the NMC Campus. Chats are often common in such situations, but is still many receiving information from one and usually not vice versa.

Here are the Group Conference Facility developed by the Terra Incognita Group and Decka Mah. It has a facilitator in the Center controlling the surrounding 'pods' which break off and have separate discussions. When called back the facilitator can rearrange the groups and give feedback through note cards that are dropped in boxes. The IML has purchased one of these and is setting it up in the open classroom area of the campus.

Static Information

Here is a gallery display/example at the NMC of how to build in steps only using visual cues. The Ivory Tower of Prims which is an amazing place to learn how to build has similar displays, but has note card stations everywhere to provide additional reference.

Berkman has a public Sandbox with Giant Billboards showing how to construct different types of prims. This a great reference for those trying to make complex objects.

Scripted, Interactive, and Abstract

NMC Audio Installation with the Source and Content changing depending on your location.

The Port is highly influential on the future design of the IML Campus. Keeping far away from the recreational trends that abound in SL, the port displays information through a somehwhat abstract, but complex set of interactions.

Free Modulation

2007-08-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

SL gets a lot of press about the economic aspects and how everyone is out to make their millions. That is not the case and as shown at Freebie Planet by Gamesband you can get almost anything for $L0. Here I am scouting for furniture for our soon to be discussion area.

Sometimes it's not organized neatly and a lot of the boxes have completely unrelated items, but that's fun too because you just might need that gigantic panda avatar sometime in the near future.

Here I am taking a look at the hundred+ pieces of free furniture. The ones that were kept had two qualities... 1) modular: chatting is still a main form of information exchange in SL and avatars like to see each other so seating needs to have the ability to rearrange easily 2) script orbs for sitting - most residents will be new and this just makes it easier.

IML's new discussion area... I'm thinking of switching to the pink though....hmmm..

Navigation

2007-08-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

When you get lost in RL you usually the Sun or Stars is the first place I look for orientation... however in SL this doesn't help and landmarks don't either usually because everything has the ability to change in an instant. The Map is great, but for people new to SL sometimes that is something that isn't looked at right away. SO.. I decided to make all of the textures (currently book covers of our class readings) face North. This will give our virtual residents a reference point in our virtual campus.

Notecards

2007-08-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

In SL you will be learning absorbing a lot of information and you will need a way to have it on record for later retrieval. Notecards are at times going to be your best friend. In SL notecards can store plain text, but also can hold other information such as landmarks and textures. This greatly reduces the amount of items you have to send to residents. I am currently creating a notecard that contains a URL to our program and landmarks around the IML campus so that in case a teleporter is not near you may have quick access to these locations.

Here is a video by SL Guru Torley on how to create a notecard. I highly suggest you subscribe to their channel because Torley lives in SL and is a valuable resource.

Walking Billboard

2007-08-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

As I was giving a tutorial to an IML staff member on how to build it became clear that not everyone is familiar with navigating a 3d space, let alone a 3rd person view of an avatar trying to manipulate a 3d object. A puppet controlling a puppet scenario and the Master being unable to see anything. SO.. How can this situation be simplified? Instead of making the avatar try and move an object externally I started to experiment with making the Avatar the Object. Second Life is a 3D space and therefore information should be shared and used in a three dimensional manner.

Here is a list of all the places on your avatar where you can attach an object.

I live in Los Angeles and you run into a lot of people who are walking promotion, but you usually have to engage in some type of interaction outside of just seeing them to get any information. I wanted to make my avatar resemble the media blimps.

Here is a sandwich board (attached to chest and spine) showing todays readings.

attaching the first of many video screens

Here I am with every body part attached to a video screen. The objects overlap, but the objects can be resized and repositioned to reduce clutter.

The Distance

2007-08-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

I like the video screens blocking out artificially created nature and the intense amount of stimuli that it creates, BUT...as a permanent campus environment it might not always be necessary or healthy. When I had a demo of the holodeck the creator said that the giant spaceship was brought into the sim as a scene...so possibly the video immersion could also be brought in as a scene and recalled again if needed. Here was the test using a rock and torch.

Both objects are in the far corner of the Sim and their positions were saved and rezzed back in successfully. Only problem is that I could not control the holodeck from this distance, but it's good to know that I can put the entire region into a holodeck scene. The current layout is basically a sketch and with the holodeck I will be able to have many layouts available to be displayed at a moments notice.

Multiple Video Streams

2007-08-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

After I tested out video streams and spread it out over the entire region and blocking out the artificial sunlight I started working on multiple video streams. This is proving to be a challenge that might require some scripting. The media player is free your library and it works quite well. However, the video comes from a URL under the media preferences and only one URL is allowed per parcel. I tried dividing up a corner into a separate parcel and assigning it a different URL... this worked...BUT EVERY SCREEN in the sim changed to the new URL and than back when I walked out of the corner parcel. Inspection shows that the media player looks for a standard channel number which is dependent upon where your Avatar is located and not where the media player is..hmmm....errr...

Green Line shows the parcel division. On one side the glitch video I created.

On the other side of the line both video screens change to a clip by 'The Vanishing'.

Going to the campus area above...the whole area was covered in 'The Vanishing'.

Retraction , Immersion , and Teaching

2007-07-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-07-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-19T19:32:00.001-07:00

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

2007-07-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-17T19:40:00.003-07:00

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

2007-07-17T18:49:00.001-07:00

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.