Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Happy RezDay to E.!

Well, actually, yesterday was Eschatos' "RezDay" so donuts were brought into the Real World office ... but it was an insanely busy day, so there was no time to go donut shopping in-world. Alas, Eschatos going uncelebrated in-world (where he actually lives), how sad ...



However, to somewhat rectify the situation, Eschatos' co-worker over at the Simuality offices over on Simuality Island (LINK), Innerlite Voom, kindly rezzed a box of mini donuts on Eschatos' desk this morning!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Hello ...

So, Eschatos wakes up back in the office this morning and decides to take a look around Simuality Island (LINK) ... as I've noted, there are big changes going on, and stuff has been disappearing and moving and new stuff showing up frequently now. Look at what he found out by the Avatrait Gallery (LINK) ...



It's a waterfall ... who knew? Of course, being an inquisitive monkey, Eschatos noticed that there were steps leading into the waterfall, so had to go take a look at what's inside ...



There he is, enjoying his bottomless cup of coffee, while the mists swirl around him and get his suit wet. Not as wet, of course, as when he wandered behind the inner waterfall and sank down to his waist in the pool he found back there ... thank goodness that virtual suits don't need dry cleaning!

So much for this morning's adventures ... more later, I'm sure ...

Monday, March 17, 2008

And the walls ...

Well, lookie there ... the big "corncob"/"stack of pancakes" amphitheater (that was never used) is GONE! And, off in the distance, exciting new things (soon to be part of the greater Club Mannequin [LINK]) are rising from the briny deeps! Three of the eventual five new sims have appeared, with the other two (mentally fill in the outer corners) following soon.



Now, it's not really bragging for me to say so (since I, personally, have scant little to do with it), but the stuff that's going to be happening over on that eventual six-sim build is going to be totally awesome!

The disappearance of our corncob is the first phase on a "re-imagining" of what the Simuality island (LINK) is going to be. We're going to be expanding as well, but we're wanting to get "all spiffed up" to show folks when were're off at the Virtual Worlds Conference (LINK) in April.

Speaking of April ... we just have two weeks to crank out a HUGE amount of stuff for that! I don't want to bore you with the details of what I've been having to write, but there's a ton more to come. In fact, I just had word today that one of the BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS that I've been waiting to hear about just got "inked" today, so I'll be doing a huge national press release in the next day or so!

Anyway, I need to get back to putting words to screen (well, other words to screen, I decided to update here to give my poor brain a rest!)... more later.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Wowzers ...

The Simuality Big Boss spent all day yesterday down at the offices of one of our Really Huge Potential Clients, hoping to come back with signed proposals so that we could get rolling with their first (of several) builds in-world. What he came back with instead was news that we're going to be doing a massive, on-going, complicated, and ground-breaking joint venture with them for bringing virtual versions of all their real-world facilities into Second Life!



Here's Eschatos in his high-rise digs, getting ready to burn some midnight oil on these new projects ... as busy as we were getting ready for the Virtual Worlds Conference (LINK), we're going to be having to ratchet things up to a whole 'nuther level, as we need to have a "demo" version of the first build on this up and running by mid-May!

Needless to say, we're going to be needing to add on quite a lot more staff ... we need in-world builders, scripters, designers, etc., and will need real-world programmers, project managers, etc.! If you think you'd fit in as part of the Simuality team, come on over to Simuality island (LINK) for the in-world gigs (ask for Evermore Noel), or to the Simuality web site (LINK) for the positions up in Evanston, IL.

More blitherings on this as I get "releasable" details ...

Monday, March 10, 2008

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes ...

Whoa ... things are getting busy, busy, busy over on Simuality Island (LINK), as you can see from this snapshot from this afternoon, I'm no longer the one lonely worker in the Simuality in-world Office ... I am frequently joined by Evermore Noel and Guy Winkler (whose real-life counterparts, oddly enough, sit just about as far away from me as they do from Eschatos!).





We're also looking to do a major over-haul of the island before the Virtual Worlds Conference (LINK) in New York next month. So, within 3-4 weeks, this ...





... will be out-moded, with some things gone, some things added, and a whole bunch of stuff just "looking different" ... all in the interests of being ready for (what we hope to be) massive traffic coming from the exposure at the conference, and the addition of the new island devoted to all things SlippCat (LINK)!

Now, if you'll excuse me a Ron Popeil moment ... But wait, there's MORE! ... if that sounds like it's rattling my virtual reality, you should see what's coming to our south side! The Mannequin (LINK) build is going to be blasting out into a huge fashion/entertainment complex all the way around the club. It's going to be amazing ... more details here as they become prudent to unleash!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Lookie there ...

Eschatos doesn't get much chance to build or script stuff, but every now and again he finds a situation where he needs something now, and doesn't have time to wait around to describe the situation, line up a builder/scripter, and get it done by somebody else. This was the case yesterday, when we were finalizing copy for an ad for the VWC08 program, and I needed to have some SLURL to have the info for SlippCat pointing to in-world.



There is Eschatos standing in front of the new sign stuck in the middle of the amphitheater on Simuality Island (LINK). While it doesn't look like much, it's got the logo on four sides, has link coding on the upper part, and is merged with the lower part, and in pulling it together, I learned the LSL for changing text color (it's an odd 0-1 scale, so you have to divide the RGB values into 1 and then use the resulting decimal) and transparency (its "click me" label is not transparent here, it's just that the SL camera doesn't pick up floating text!). One of these days, I'm going to have a better grasp of LSL, but this will do for the moment!

Anyway, though I'd share ... oh, by the way, do drop by the SlippCat site to see the unfolding "teases" we're doing (ala the old Burma Shave road ads) leading up to the conference!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Speaking of pyramids ...

I first found the Visit Mexico build (as discussed yesterday) when searching for the Xibalba site (LINK) after it got bumped off of the old Info Island when they were making room for more universities.


"Xibalba" (pronounced something like "shih-bal-ba") is the name of the Mayan Underworld, and it's a project in-world for presenting Mayan culture. The main feature is a virtualization of the Temple of the Inscriptions from Palenque (which is also being re-created at the Mexico build), including a mini-museum inside the pyramid:



I figured that since I was "on the subject" I might as well pass along this place as well. Oh, and if you do go over there, don't miss the 200m-high tower with the Mayan murals on it ... I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but it's one of those odd things you find in S.L.!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Cool stuff ...

I know that it may be hard to imagine, but Eschatos here isn't ALL business ... sometimes he just goes wandering around Second Life just to see what's out there. One place that's cool is the "Visit Mexico" build, by the Mexican Tourist office (LINK). They started out with a (somewhat cramped) replication of Chichen Itza (LINK) featuring the Castillo, the Temple of the Warriors and part of the "Court of 1,000 Columns", and the Sacred Cenote (and an incongruous beach area with shops and a dance club) all on one sim.

Well, they've been expanding, so far adding two more sims (which don't appear to be "officially" open yet, as your av can't "walk" into the new parts), one of which has a splendid (and much more to scale) rendition of Tulum ...



Over the years, I've been quite a fan of "archaeological tourism", and have visited both Chichen Itza and Tulum multiple times, and it's so cool to be able to poke around the ruins in-world!

One of the best features of the new build there is that they've taken detailed photographs of the various sculpted panels on the actual ruins and have applied these as textures on the buildings ... resulting in a very realistic look:



They've also been experimenting a bit with "sculpties" in an area where they've replicated some of the giant Olmec heads and thrones with 3-D prims wrapped with photos of the actual sculptures. I have a feeling that the "Visit Mexico" build is going to be getting more awesome as they feel their way through making the whole thing "photo-realistic" ... I hope they end up having the budget to add on another dozen or so sims and recreate the Puuc Cities, Coba, and the whole Teotihuacan area (which in itself would probably take a dozen sims!). This is like watching a whole new type of "living museum" come to life at my mouse-tip!

More later ...