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Friday 26 June 2009

Zen Meditation

Looking around Shimmer Island these days I think the old place is beginning to look a whole lot more comfortable and realistic. I then began to think about maybe including some new features that were not necessarily associated with virtual learning, maybe along the lines of simulations for my visitors. I know that dance areas are popular in Second life, but its not just about the popularity, I wanted something that while being at best of use and at least amusing, I remembered that the oldest of our girls had recently qualified as Yoga teacher, brilliant for that, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to show that the avatar in the family was maybe not as disconnected from life as maybe suspected. The result was a couple of very cheep L$5 Zen yoga cushions from Ei Yue with poses and copy, so I only had to actually buy one even better. Next I purchased the Zen Flow water feature from Myla Carter, just to make for some ambience, and, not bad. If you feel like a teleport over to Shimmer Island for some meditation with poses to the sound of waves and seagulls then please feel free. Of course if you would like to try yoga for real, then drop Amanda an email from her weloveyoga web page.

Bye for now Skipper

Sunday 21 June 2009

New palms

I was watching the screen from xstreetsl scroll through its random products the other day when I saw an add for scupted palms from Tobias Novi. These palms are 2 prims for eight and they can cover 15, 20, 25 and 32 mtrs. If you would like to include an animated shadow, then this is one extra prim, at just under L$500 they seemed a good deal so I teleported over for a closer look. I was immediately impressed by the graphical qaulity of the trees and the shadowing, so went for a couple of models to replace the foliage that I had been assembly over the last year or so for my sim at Shimmer Island. The effect was transforming.
After purchasing some very convincing wave effects recently from Real Waves, seven free roaming seagulls and now the palms, I am beginning to realise that modelling in Second Life is becoming incerasingly realistic and convincing from those early days a few years ago when I first joined.
Please feel free to teleport over at any time for a browse.

Skipper Abel

Tuesday 16 June 2009

The game nearly begin

My level 3 students following a Games Development module are currently exploring SL as a platform for developing Games. The storyline requires they collaboratively design and build a castle, and each group has just about completed this. Today they have been busy installing some transparent Sentinel (these are the guardians of knowledge) rezzers, in the grounds. If you would like to teleport over anytime and review the progress or wander around then feel free, though beware as you may be pursued by some rather familiar looking Sentinels.


My level 3 students following a Games Development module are currently exploring SL as a platform for developing Games. The storyline requires they collaboratively design and build a castle, and each group has just about completed this. Today they have been busy installing some transparent Sentinel (these are the guardians of knowledge) rezzers, in the grounds. If you would like to teleport over anytime and review the progress or wander around then feel free, though beware as you may be pursued by some rather familiar looking Sentinels.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Maritime%20Greenwich/106/24/21

Regards Skipper Abel

Monday 8 June 2009

Free Plants


Having a stroll along the beach at Shimmer Island the other evening, and I came across a new box of free plants had been washed up onto the shore. Feel free to teleport over anytime and take a copy.
regards Skipper

Saturday 6 June 2009

Making Waves


After completing the work on my Fun with Physics skybox the other day,I started to look around my sim at Shimmer Island and realised that it had been a long time since I last carried out any work on the environment itself. And so I decided to include some waves. There are a lot of wave resources avaliable in SL, some really lost cost or even free options, though these are often little more than moving textured water or water textures on the surface of a rotating cyclinder, OK it looks a bit like a wave but I really wanted something a little more ambitious. As usual with these things, my first reaction is to have a teleport around to find what I am looking for, and then see if I can make something similar, as good, or even better myself. After not too long I soon discovered that you can get some really nice wave effects for very low cost and went for 16x25 Realistic Waves by Antreas Alter, at just under $L200 and copyable, it just was not worth the effect of sourcing textures and scripting. Teleport over any time and take a look.
Bye for now Skipper

Monday 1 June 2009

Fun with Physics

As part of the Developing Computer Games module for my level 3 students, and following the success of their Second Life Wind Turbine project, I decided once again to make use of the virtual world in the development of a quiz style shoot-em up scenario. While students had carried out some work with Linden Script during the first project, I felt they would appreciate a refresher and a little more depth in their knowledge, and so a few weeks ago I started to produce a series of short tutorials, which are free to access at the main hall on Shimmer Island. It was as I was producing the last in the current series, which looks at some basic physics functions, I realised in order demonstrate how objects behave when they become physical with regard to factors such as material type and applied forces, including the wind, it would be of some value to include a few actual simulations. The outcome is the ‘Fun with Physics’ skybox. I have included the slurl below, so please free to drop over any time and have some fun with physics. The project is I suspect going to be very much a work in progress, and hopefully will include some input from the group.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Star%20Beach%20Island/193/222/23