nand Nerd’s news

Well folks, it’s that time of year again when I dust off the grim reaper avatars and bring the skeletons out of the wardrobes. This year, as with previous years, I’ve helped The Art Door in putting together a Halloween Maze. As you might have expected this years is bigger and better than last years. A few notable reappearances will be made from props that worked well but there are many many new items and this year we’re themed as a Haunted House with a story and a big prize collection to be won. In addition to the big prize there are the goody bags dotted across the maze to be found (I think this year we’ll have 30 goody bags to find!!!).

I’ve been scouring SL for props to buy and also for inspiration for some to build. Of course Second Life has not let me down and there are too many Halloween Shops, Haunted Houses and Ghost Trains to list them all here.

Will let you all know when The Art Door Halloween Maze is up and running. Acting times will also be posted. Hope to see you all there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5JHMpLIqO4

It’s not been long since I closed up shop at Flexi Fun and the primary tier provider for Eudoria has had to pull out. I really enjoyed working with Xaun and Chloe on this big build and it will be a shame to see it go. There’s still time for someone within the group to stump up the tier but I’m not holding much hope for it.

Passing flying taco

Flexi fun by windlight

Flexi Fun and scull

Flexi Fun entrance

Originally uploaded by nandnerd

My land in Lasiocampa becomes infected with flexihedra

A Bucky Ball is built to be the first home to flexi fun

Flexi fun with a change of colour and a steampunk elevator

Flexi fun alongside an example of my spheremaker

Interior of nand Nerd’s Flexi Fun

Originally uploaded by nandnerd

Shortly I shall be closing down nand Nerd’s Flexi Fun and selling off the land on which it has stood for what feels like forever. It is sad to pull it down but perhaps I’ll get the chance to reopen it when things have settled down in my life. Drop by before the end of January and you might catch a glimpse of the place before it vanishes.
nand

Halloween Maze 2008

Originally uploaded by nandnerd

Four posts before this one mentioned The Art Door’s 2007 Halloween Maze. This year I was somewhat better prepared, with a few sessions in SL scripting effects for the maze. The maze gave me a proper drive to get in-world which I haven’t had, with the exception of starting on the underwater gallery, in many months if not the past year. I guess it’s the drain of working coupled with some forces in my RL which has kept me from being productive in SL.

Enough grumbling and more moaning or screaming. The maze, situated in Rendervisions Isle (landing point approx 180,194,24), was opened on Saturday 25th and will run until the evening of the 31st, all hallows eve. Live/dead/undead actors will be dotted through the maze between 4PM and 7PM SLT/PDT. This is the best time to visit the maze though off-hours can be just as much fun if you attend with the right company. Through-out the maze are 20 goody bags, each containing items donated by community members. Find all 20 bags or try and escape the maze with your life, either way have fun!

I’ll add photos to my Flickr set here when I can.

Well, I’ve been absent from SL for a while and upon my return I’ve decided to build another gallery. The new Underwater Photo Gallery will host photos my RL self has taken while scuba diving in the west coast of Scotland.

The structure of my gallery is based on a rhombic dodecahedron but chopped and tiled, it makes a nice interesting structure but the rotations and positioning are fiddly especially with Second Life’s accuracy.

As usual, this is a work in progress, once the building is deemed finished I’ll most likely hold a gallery opening but please feel free to drop by for a sneak preview.

Parsec

Originally uploaded by nandnerd

Dizzy Banjo dropped me an IM and landmark for the opening of Parsec, an audio-visual immersive interactive um, thing. A series of gestures which allow you to control an instrument using Voice. The aim is to collaborate with 6 other “musicians” to produce the right sequence and solve Parsec. Not only is this a technical advance (using voice to control objects in SL) but it is a beautiful implementation with a stunning setting for the game (if you could call it that).

Visit my flickr page to view some shots of the place. SLHamlet (Hamlet Au?) has uploaded a video to YouTube which does a good job of putting this system across but really you should go and check it out for yourself.

http://eshiotawara.wordpress.com/
http://www.calebbooker.com/blog/2008/01/18/parsec/

No updates since October? tut tut. Well I took a little holiday mid November and now I’m getting back into the swing of things. I’ve hooked up with Xaun Keiko and we’re planning some major work for Eudoria Prime, the cyberpunk themed build which we worked together on (together with Chloe Alva). Firstly though I have received some fantastic feedback on the web-based particle system tool which I hope to implement as best I can before moving back to Eudoria and my other active projects.

What to expect with the particle system upgrade?

• Fleshing out some of the features which were started but not completed such as tool tips. Hovering over the label for each of the variables should display a brief explanation of what the value does or how it influences the particles.
• File saving and loading in .txt format. This is a relatively big addition and one which I had intended to do for some time and now is my chance.
• Particle parameter examples. A series of examples which populate the options with values to give a range of particle effects. This is completed and will be rolled out with the other major changes once it has been properly tested.
• Script templates. Similar to the above but not yet started. Choose your desired activation (touch, collision, timer etc) and the particle effect you have created will combine to give you a full script ready to be dropped into a script in Second Life.
• All going well we should also see a revamp of the website style to tidy things up and make the interface easier to use and understand.

As always, comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and a Merry Christmas to you all.