Fantasy Faire – Page 14

December 29, 2014December 29, 2014

2014 Reviewed Part 1 : January To June

In this post I will review 2014 from a largely virtual world perspective for the months January to June. This is part 1 of 2 as part 2 is still a work in progress but will hopefully appear tomorrow. I’ll combine both posts into another post for easier future reference once they are both completed. These posts will miss lots of big and interesting stories because the nature of the beast demands some brevity. These post may well look longer than they actually are at first glance because of images and pictures. The aim of posts such as these are to give a brief overview of the year, rather than an in depth review. An in depth review is too long for a blog post, it may make for an interesting book.

Anyway, on with the show, as they say.

January

January started with a look back to 2013 and the number of private region losses. The scores on the door from Tyche Shepherd displayed a slow down on the number of regions leaving the Second Life grid, something that would continue during 2014.

2012 Net Private Region Losess – 2865 (12.0%)
2013 Net Private Region Losses – 1719 (8.2%)

The virtual world of Kitely moved to a different pricing model which largely did away with the pay by the minute options as these had not been popular.

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror was taking a mid-season break but would return by the end of January. The show was recorded in Second Life.

Linden Lab were Raising The Roof : The HTTP Project. This project, which had started in 2012 was aimed at improving HTTP communications to improve the end user experience. Linden Lab would continue working on improvements during the year.

Second Life users were getting frustrated by tax and account information requests from Linden Lab. They would continue to be frustrated by these requests throughout the year despite Linden Lab improving their communications and information on these issues.

Second Life got a mention in the comedy show, 2 Broke Girls.

Then came the storm to warm up many a chilly January evening, Cloud Party announced that they would be closing their virtual doors on February 21st.

This was quickly followed by even more news to warm up January, Aston Villa fan and Linden Lab CEO, Rod Humble, was leaving Linden Lab. This created a Twitter storm.

Continue reading “2014 Reviewed Part 1 : January To June”

May 8, 2014May 8, 2014

Fantasy Faire 2014 – Music, Magic And Technical Difficulties

In a way that only a virtual world such as Second Life can manage, Fantasy Faire 2014 brought together two very diverse acts to entertain the crowds. Keeba Tammas and the Tiny Maniacs helping her were followed by Maximillion Kleene.

Being as this took place in Second Life and being as it was Fantasy Faire we had a mixture of the weird, the wonderful and the technical issues that people so readily brush aside.

In the first act the drummer came and went and then came back again without anyone really batting an eyelid.

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May 7, 2014May 7, 2014

Interesting Project To Load Scenes Faster

Now first things first, if you’re planning on heading to FFR Radio Ship FaireChylde at Fantasy Faire to enjoy DJ’s, live music and possibly dance with a fifty foot woman, be aware that the ship has moved to the Heavesnlough sim and can now be found here.

Moving on to other matters Second Life related, Linden Lab yesterday blogged about a new and interesting viewer development. Well actually it’s not that new as it has been around since November in project viewer form, but now it is part of the latest update to the viewer and apparently helps one to enjoy faster scene loading, as the blog explains :

This update reduces the load and time it takes to draw objects in regions, meaning scenes appear more quickly and smoothly as you move throughout Second Life.

There’s also an accompanying video, which I’ll embed after the cut. The video is a Torley production, which makes me like it straight away. Anyway back to the project, the basic concept here is that objects that are closer to you should render first, meaning the scene should appear to load faster, that’s the theory.

Continue reading “Interesting Project To Load Scenes Faster”

May 6, 2014

Fantasy Faire 2014 – DJ’s And Events

Fantasy Faire isn’t just about shopping, roleplay, hunts, prizes and auctions, no there’s more and this comes in the form of entertainment. The best way to keep up with the entertainment schedule is to read the Faire Happenings page, which gets updated regularly.

Now a point worth noting is that DJ and live music events usually take place onboard the FFR Radio Ship FaireChylde. This is a ship that is held in the air by a dragon. However yesterday the ship moved from The Palace Of Tears to a new location in Blackwater Glenn. This took many by surprise and I can assure you that a Dwarfin King falling surprisingly from the sky makes one hell of a surprising sound.

However the entertainment could still be found and Lisa Brune was entertaining the crew of the ship, as well as some stowaways.

I’m assuming the ship has been moved because the second part of the hunt is now open and that takes place in The Palace Of Tears sim.

Continue reading “Fantasy Faire 2014 – DJ’s And Events”

May 5, 2014

Fantasy Faire 2014 – Ballet Romance of the Faery Court

Prior to the start of this year’s Fantasy Faire there was mention of a ballet. I pondered whether we would see Orcs in a tutu, unfortunately that didn’t make the cut! However a ballet has been produced and can be seen on YouTube, I will embed this at the end of the post.

The ballet is set in the Faery Court sim and therefore, unsurprisingly, involves Fairies. In this case it’s a romantic tale between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. For those who are not familiar with these terms, The Seelie court are generally known to be prone to a bit of mischief but are generally well intentioned. The Unseelie court on the other hand are darker in mind and can be far more vicious in their dealings with humans and others.

However neither court are set in stone to be good or evil, or so the legend goes anyway. The production takes advantage of the virtual world setting of Second Life to make an extended stage out of the sim and is a good example of how a virtual world can be utilised for such a production.

Elico Ember is the designer behind the design and build of The Farey Court sim but many other Second Life names appear in the credits, from dancers to designers who provided outfits and accessories. What we see here is again something Draxtor Despres has been highlighting so well in his Drax Files World Makers series, collaboration in a virtual world with people from diverse backgrounds and locations working together to create a production.

Continue reading “Fantasy Faire 2014 – Ballet Romance of the Faery Court”