there.com #14

As we draw to a close on the 'second self' part of the Ident module, it means there.com's time is numbered.

I visisted Malihini today, a place I've been before, but as of my recent vaunts, I headed off in a different direction and found a lot of interesting items.

First up, I went through several areas where it seemed they were themed to a certain region in our real world. There was an egyptian sort area with pillars, and patterns akin to that area. You might say instead of Egyptian, it had an Indian feel, what with the temple like building seen in the background of this screencap? I think it was the patterns used within the texture maps that made it - the arrows, the mosaic like tiled walkways. The colour scheme in the least seems quite meditteranian, definitely not England!

Following this, there was the chinese/oriental section.

And then there was a section that physically isn't reflective of our real world at all. I twigged onto what it was meant to be when I saw the grouping of tall poplar trees. This setting has been layed out to mimic 'Myst' the video game. There's the rocket and clock tower in the image below, and then further up the hill in the environment was the library and stone circle feature.

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At the time of playing such games I thought that creating such environments in the specialised artform of games design, and I myself wouldn't be able to do it. But sitting on the otherside of things now, with a little bit of knowledge in 3D design, I think I could have a stab at making a 'Myst' environment! Infact, that is what I've done for my avatar environment, instead choosing 'Super Paper Mario'!

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The person making it here, in there (reading that sounds odd) isn't a complete mad man, I myself think it's a nice touch, and recognised the nod, so hopefully my efforts will be acknowledged in the same way.

There were also a few key buildings that I picked out along the way. One of these was the wild wild west bar building type thing. For me, this building would fit perfectly well in a cowboy type sandy road street (it helps that it pretty much was set out in such an environment anyway!) The square framed ground floor windows, the balconies, the pointed roof fronts - all what led me to perceive it this way.

The next building was something I've kind of been half expecting to find around every corner: a windmill! It wasn't moving (is there actually wind in there? Saying that, why worry when they could just autokey a rotation of the propellers in 3d max - ha, that lingo confirms me as a right computer geek!) but it's the first I've come across so kudos to the creator. And somebody had made a basketball court a bit further along, with net. I can imagine a few people hanging out here, fake playing a game of bball.

Next to the lighthouse were some tall xmas trees. Again, a first, so it gets a mention. (All you keen readers will sense the irony there cos I comment on certain things many a time on this here virtual world journal!)

Bizarre though, was that the green xmas trees were sat next to a couple of red ones? I can't think why they'd choose that colour, but then again why not? That's what I like about these VR worlds - you can blur reality by emphasising it, extending it, or altering it in someway. It doesn't have to be real!

I also came across a desert type, Arabian tent, complete with drug smoking sheesh kabob thing (and I know I have just completely gotten the spelling wrong!) What drew my attention, for being funny, was the camel stuck outside next to the tent! My instinct was to try and get on for a motionless ride, but alas, no joy with this camel! At least he didn't spit.

And talking of camels, which is an animal... you'll no doubt guess where I'm going! Indeed, animals! I won't bore you with the details, but I found chimps, elephants spraying water from their trunks, swans, hippos, unicorns (hello, reality blurring with creative imaginations again) and a parrot!

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- This in particular, is my favourite picture of all time from my there.com visits! It happened by chance, as I flipped to body view to take the picture, my avatar jumped to his camp hands on hips stance and the image was captured! It's the sort of picture you would have on holiday with the colourful yapping parrot, plus the lush green bushes in the background, my shorts and sandles combo - it all makes for the typical holiday snapshot!

Lastly, a few posts back I mentioned how the places I visisted all seemed to have been Americanized in some way or another. This Union Jack flag near the centre of the town helps balance the bias up somewhat for us Brits!

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avatar creation

Well I've been busy beavering away in 3Ds Max these last few days.

One of my fears has been that I've chosen something too easy, too simplistic. Other's are crafting full on figurines for their avatar. I initially thought about doing this, after hearing that Roma wanted something more on the Identity side. Sort of similar to the narrative module - Jools wanted a story telling, something of meaning, not just flashy tricks.

In premise glasses are a simple design - in reality though, I was struggling to get anything that resembled anything half decent.

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I don't want John Lennon glasses (circle lense and a line for the handles.) Alternatively, there is the complete flip side with people crafting beautiful glossy sunglasses on the internet and actually offering them up for sale!

I want something quite curvy, modern. Not a simple click a button and get the shape jobby. So, after reading Design For New Media, and thinking of the top down design approach, I broke the problem up into more manageable chunks.

And it is working!

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As can be seen, they are not finished yet, but I'm on my way.

I intend to use white for the rim and then shiny metallic on the arms. The lenses obviously will be reflective, mirrored, so I'll need to look into the glass effect for 3D Max.

I've cut up my title screens too to go onto the inside lenses, they are short (as are mostly all title screens!), but still interesting enough to warrant looking at them for more than a quick second. I can't decide whether to put a fuzzy sort of snow effect that you used to get on analogue tellys, and horizontal scanning bars in the background and fade the AVI in? Will have to have a play.

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Oh and before I go, I hear you ask about environment? Well I am really happy with it. It is bright, colourful, I'm pleased at how I've managed to duplicate the graphics from the original. And I didn't just copy and paste. I made all of them myself (apart from the Goompa, he's all Nintendo!)

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there.com #13

Well this is my 13th post, and contrary to the norm, it wasn't unlucky for me!

First off, I think I should say that for the majority of my trips into cyber space, I have ran around, found things that fly, seen weird things and pretty much steered clear of people... and I still haven't changed my ways! lol

Don't get me wrong I have tried to start up a conversation by saying 'hello' but most people either don't reply, or just run off! I mean, what am I doing so wrong!!
So for this post, here is my mention of people: there was a large collection of them all chatting away and enjoying each other's company. But not me! In there, I much prefer a solitary life, in truth, I'm a loner!



And following this point, I think it fits well with these other people who are all alone, reason being, they are dead! It sounds funny to say, but somebody has made some ghosts that are transparent and just hover/float. They really have no use nor ornament, but still, it fits with the graveyard right next to them!! The skeleton returns, this time again in a comical way, as this time he is digging a grave, a fresh one by the looks of it too! -I wonder, come the end of this module, will I too be rewarded with a virtual grave? ANSWER: No, cos that'll cost therebucks which I don't have!!

I walked onwards following the same strip of beach, and came across this structure which I really liked. The flower look is quite nice, and the way a spiral staircase leads you up the stem to the flower seating area is a nice touch. One of the bonuses to such a set up is that whilst "talking" to your friends, you have an aerial view, and it feels less cramp, due to the camera being able to swing around more freely. In all, it's unusual, it's qwerky, but in a good way!

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Next up, my journey seemed to turn into a zoo trip. Usually I come across one animal model, making it something of a speciality at the time. Today though, I found butterflies, a byson, fish and a panda, with baby cub! No joke!

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Here what was new was that the fish were animated and swam. They were coi carp so colourwise, really caught the eye, along with the water effect. However, with me being a fish hater and accidentally falling in the pond, it just made me just want to get away! There's no reason to say why they couldn't have teeth and start mauling my poor avatar! lol. Meanwhile, the butterflies peacefully flapped their wings and generally were a nice visual. They were quite calming to look at. This being the first instance of me seeing animals being animated, I liked it - it provides potential for future discoveries.

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I seem to have commented on these a few times before, but again, the flashing dancefloor had been somewhat upgraded, as not only did it flash all the colours under the sun, it also had visuals to go with it. They were shadow effects of people dancing, but moved, or danced along the progression of the colour cycle. Another nice touch - I like this area!

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In real life, you are warned not to go near lit fireworks, but that rule goes straight out of the window in there. I managed, bizarrely, to get MEGA close to a firework blowing itself to smitherines. It was another pretty visual, the sort of thing you can achieve using a particle effect in Blender.

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Duda Beach seems to be a democratic place to. One of the many bulletin, say hi, or welcome billboards offered the opportunity to voice ideas for improvements. Ideas pitched by fellow DUDArians included allowing paintballing, removing the big signs, along with too many theredocs.

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Now I've not done this before in my journals, normally I comment on all the well designed, unique, maybe interesting items I find round and about. But this time, I was struck to comment on bad design. I don't know what it was meant to be, what it was meant to do, but it didn't look good. Colours usually draw the eye - for the right reason, but this time no. It was blocky, had clashing colours and generally looked like a product of the punititive pixel days of 1996!

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To end my journey today, and to close my journal now, after the sun set, I looked up and gazed at the deep night sky, full of hundreds of brightly lit stars. This is one of my favourite views I've managed to experience. I like it in our real world, I like it in the virtual world. So all that needs to be said is... goodnight.

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there.com #12

Today I'm going to tell you of my last little trip, but then also round up all the extra little bits that I haven't yet fit into my main diary entries.

Andddd, at the time of writing this, I'm informed that there.com is closed for an hour. It seems, like everything else in the world, there's always one time or another where the 24/7 rule isn't quite so!



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First off I landed (luckily) back in rental land. As I expected my last little gems had been retrieved from my collection, so I was left with two empty vehicle slots to loan! I pondered a little while conveniently having seating in the form of mushrooms, in homage to like little Miss Muffett sitting on her tuffett. Alas, no curds and whey.




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I found a bike with fancy decoration, but then I turned around and found something much
bigger, and much better!



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A massive 5 seater vehicle in the form of a dragon! It was huge! You can see that I, as driver, sat on its thin neck. Then the rest of it's body had two front and then two back seats for a family affair to all ride together.
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One cool effect I liked was that most of the vehicles I've driven give off some sort of flame or energy thingy from the back, a bit like the blast on Batman's Batmobile. The dragon was unique in that it cleverly used it's flames to come from it's mouth, in a real dragon styley (if you can say real dragon style cos dragons don't exist!)
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One other thing I noticed was that, unaware, you gain great altitude with the dragon. And it moves at quite a good rate so I was able to cover quite a bit of land. A testament to it's abilities to fly high, the geography below me after a certain time fogged up, as the computer couldn't keep up with showing the terrain below, simply due to there being so much to show!


On switching views I was able to see where I was in the world. At one point I even came across a huge volcanic crater. At this point, I had expectations of hot molten lava, brewing and bubbling away.
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But no, that was a bit too much to expect. Instead, someone had stuck a race course! Typical.




A few minutes later I found an isolated building to set myself down. It was a beach type hut thing, but compared with the others I've seen, it was nicely designed.

The first thing that attracted me, and that always seems to attract, was the pool!
It was very well designed. The mapping effect of the water and the way it imitates sunlight hitting it, in particular sealed my vote of approval. The added touch of a sun brolly and then hoop to sit in, even the angle at which it let you slouch - very nicely done. I think you can vote for favourite buildings in there, maybe I'll follow that opportunity up!
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(As a side, I've been in quite a few other pools in there over the weeks. This one below seemingly decided it was the perfect time to have a thunder storm as I sat in. What's funny is that you all sit there fully clothed - no one bats an eyelid!)
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Back on track, inside the beach hut, they had the novel idea of offering what looked like pints of Guinness. Looking close up they didn't use that brand, but the imagery used was enough to paint a picture of the ale on offer! Made me smile anyway. Furthermore, they had quite a few musical instruments, much like the UN club I found. They always look good for a quick pic opportunity!
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Lastly for my current excursion, I went to the popular place, DUDA Village. Now instantly as of saying this, I can see the 'sad' flags raising up, but at 1am GMT, I was barraged with error messages telling me I wasn't permitted entry here, and that there were too many people. Too many to even show on screen it appears.






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So now to my previous endeavours. I came across a really nice, what looked like stately home. I didn't give it chance to load the textures, (time is precious in the virtual world!) but soon enough it looked like the owners came trotting outside (to see me?!) So I plucked up and started a conversation. And what did they do? Nothing! They turned their backs and ignored me! Seems virtual manners for go those two.



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Online gaming is a big thing console wise. Maybe not so much in there. On another random ramble, I discovered a card play house. You can sit down, chat and then play spades, blackjack or all other card games in general. Only problem is, you need others to play with. And I was clearly a billy no mates that day, because nobody pulled up a chair and joined me at the table!



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And so to finish, the model of the day went to somebody who'd built a skeleton! I found him near the pirate ship, so maybe this was the sea farers spot, what with the treasure chest opposite. The scattered bone shards around the floor too. He looked a bit evil, what with his hands clawing out for something. All that's needed there now, is a parrot!



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