Second Life – Page 86

February 20, 2015

A Taste Of Sci-Fi In Second Life – Graves Appear To Be Taking Over The Virtual Universe

In my preparation for Sci-Fi Alliance’s Second Life Science Fiction Convention 2015, which is now open, I decided to get in the mood by visiting some Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk locations. I’ve mentioned this before, but there aren’t as many as I’d like to see. The Destination Guide has a couple of categories, Cyber and Sci-Fi under roleplaying. There aren’t a lot of sims and quite a few appear in both categories.

However one thing I have learnt is that Graves appear to be taking over the universe, but more on that later. The first place I visited was Remnants of Earth, which is a roleplaying location. You arrive in a rather impressive space station of sorts. There you can find plenty of information about the storylines, the factions, join the group, buy content etc.

Outside you find yourself in a pretty damn impressive futuristic world. I really have trouble taking snapshots of locations that are best served dark and as with all three of the locations I visited, you will get a much better impression if you visit yourself.

SLURL To Remnants Of Earth : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tron/129/78/3066/

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February 19, 2015

The 2015 Second Life Sci-Fi Convention Opens Tomorrow

Set your phasers to stun. Be prepared to go where no man has boldly gone before, well with the exception or the organisers, the builders, The Lindens and maybe some others. However besides them, the big news is that the 2015 Science Fiction Convention in Second Life opens tomorrow.

The event is part of the Relay For Life fundraising in Second Life effort on behalf of The American Cancer Society and as with many events there will be vendors, events and much more.

The event will be running February 20th Thru March 1st and features six sims :

Pern Sound
Source:
Pern – Planet, with dragons. And, Anne McCaffrey

Magrathea
Source:
Douglas Adams Magrathea will build planets specifically tailored for you. Want a planet made out of solid gold? What about one where everything’s made of jello? The pebbles on the beaches are all precious jewels?

Risa
Source:
The pleasure planet mentioned or featured in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In particular it was featured in the episode ʺCaptain’s Holidayʺ.

Fhloston Paradise
Source:
Fhloston Paradise was the name of the resort hotel/ship where Corbin Dallas/Leeloo went in 5th Element and got to see the Diva sing

New Vegas
Source:
Babylon 5, The Mars city New Vegas is very heavily implied to be such a place, right down to the name

Sihnon
Source:
In the TV series Firefly Sihnon is where Inara was taught the skills to become a Companion.

A good place to keep up to date with events is on the Sci-Fi Alliance website.

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February 19, 2015

A Visit To Whispering Windz In Second Life

A while ago Guardian Witness ran an assignment to share your favourite virtual cities :

We want to hear about your best-loved virtual places – from a beautiful view in GTA V to that 20-million-strong SimCity megalopolis you’ve been building (or possibly destroying). What would be the best video game cities to live in? The worst? Perhaps you’ve designed one you think would be better than your own city? Share your screengrabs and we’ll feature the best on Guardian Cities.

Well virtual worlds were always likely to feature here and Second Life certainly gets a good mention. There are OSGrid places there too. However one that caught my eye this evening was Whisperdale Village.

Cranston Yardstorm described Whisperdale village as :

My wife, Shaylin, and I decided to create a medieval Tudor city on our sim. Sitting on top of our cave venue, you can enjoy a brew in the tavern or try your hand at spinning wool in the tailors shop, We hope you enjoy visiting Whispering Windz and our medieval city.

Unfortunately my visit coincided with a strange green gaseous storm, which infiltrated my snapshots! However, the place is quite beautiful.

Whereas Whisperdale Village caught my eye, the extended area is known as Whispering Windz and features some gorgeous scenery, statues, caves, rivers, lakes and waterfalls.

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February 18, 2015

Linden Lab’s Callum Prentice Makes The News Over His Flight Stream Code

An Image Should Be Here — Flights In The Sky

Who is Callum Prentice I hear you ask, well it’s what I heard myself asking when I saw an article in, of all places, The Daily Mail : Watch the world’s ‘swarming’ flight paths in action: Beautiful multicoloured visualisation reveals air traffic across the globe.

So the answer as to who Callum Prentice is comes in the article :

The British-born developer currently works for 3D Virtual World Second Life in California and has released the code for his Flight Stream design, as well as his other interactive projects, on his website.

Then we land at the website, we finally find out who Callum Prentice is! Hurrah!

British bloke, in San Francisco via London, Singapore, Barcelona, and Hong Kong ● Second Life developer during the day since 2004 ● Enthusiastic WebGL hacker in the evenings ● Founder of Industrial Might and Logic Combat Robots ● Eager traveller ● Crossfit and indoor rowing aficionado ● Insanely happy husband and father.

As Callum has been at Linden Lab since 2004 he’s an oldbie, he’s been there for a long time, seen a lot of changes and I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know what Callum Linden does. However it appears he was involved at some point in bringing HTML on a prim to Second Life. Callum has a strong interest in WebGL.

However back to his flight stream, as that’s what’s making the news :

The site was created as an ‘experiment to map many of the airline flights between world airports,’ explained Mr Prentice.

Tools on the site let visitors control the opacity of the individual flight tracks, change the size of the airports as well as adjust the speed of the animation.

The animation has been designed for desktop browsers, but Mr Prentice has also created a video for people on mobiles to be able to view the animation.

Mr Prentice told MailOnline the visualisation was just a hobby, and admitted that there is so much data around major airports, ‘it just blurs into a mess’, but the visualisation was fun to do and ‘looks pretty.’

However besides looking pretty, flight stream is fascinating as it shows just how many flights are in the sky.

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February 17, 2015

Valdosta State University TIES Conference Will Explore Teaching & Learning In Second Life

Valdosta State University presents TIES Conference Feb. 18-20. Ok first things first, you may be wondering what a TIES conferences is. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not about ties. However it is about education and e-learning and these are noble causes which I very much support. There’s also some discussion on storytelling in virtual worlds too, hurrah!

Valdosta State University’s Center for eLearning will present the Conference on Instructional Technologies, Innovations, and Educational Strategies — commonly referred to as the TIES Conference — Feb. 18-20 in the Student Union.

This is a three day conference and the linked post above contains further information :

The TIES Conference is open to all VSU faculty, staff, and students, as well as members of the general public, who want to learn more about what educational leaders are doing to support student success both within and beyond the college classroom. Registration costs $69; includes all materials, breakfast and lunch on the second and third day of the conference, a social, and more; and will be accepted up through 1 p.m. the first day of the conference.

However for those of us who are fans of virtual worlds and storytelling, there’s even more details further in the post.

Day 2 is where things seem to get a bit more appealing for virtual world fans, with Second Life 101: Creating an Avatar, Exploring, and Teaching in Second Life.

Dr. Michelle Ocasio, Valdosta State University
Dr. Fleming Bell, Valdosta State University
Dr. Karen Acosta, Valdosta State University
Dr. Beatriz Potter, Valdosta State University

For the beginning user, this Second Life workshop aims to demonstrate some of the practical and educational uses of virtual worlds in distance learning and face-to-face interaction. Four speakers will explain engaging spontaneous and fun conversations in foreign language clubs, academic advising for distance students, coordinating student presentations for online courses, and oral assessments for online foreign language courses. A hands-on workshop to create an avatar and explore some interesting locations (including Valdosta State University Island) is included.

Day 3 also has potential with Digital Storytelling in Virtual Worlds: Designing Lessons Promoting Student Engagement.

Dr. Steve Downey, Valdosta State University

This workshop presents and demonstrates the new Instruction for Massively Multiplayer Online Learning Environments, i-MMOLE 2.0, framework for designing lessons utilizing digital storytelling practices to promote student engagement and learning in virtual world environments. Participants will get hands-on time using the virtual world of Second Life as well as guidance for designing lessons using the i-MMOLE 2.0 framework.

Digital storytelling in a virtual world can of course go beyond Second Life.

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