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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Surveying the Land

Being neither an architect nor a surveyor, this part is pretty challenging. There are nine major areas that I would like to develop on our island. BTW - I really, really dislike having to write "I" this and "I" that. But, my avatar is currently the only one on the island and "I" am by myself (like the Tom Hanks and the volleyball stuck on the deserted island movie) until we get some students in here to help out. Those nine areas (you may look at the mind map previously posted) are:

Teleport Hub
Orientation Area
Labyrinth
Sandbox
Student Center
Exhibition Area
Biology Area Kinesiology Area
Amphitheatre
Classroom

To help with my spacial awareness, I rezzed nine 30m x 30m floating platforms and placed them roughly above where each of those keys areas could be located:


I first started on a 45-seat amphitheatre. In order to save prims (each 256m x 256m sim such as Hatters Island is allotted a total of 15,000 primatives, the shapes that we use to build, well, everything) I have taken into consideration advice from Kim Anubis (on the Main Grid); terraform and landscape. So before trying to carve out 45 seats in the side of the mountain, I have laid out their approximate positions with thin plywood cylinders:



The trick is ensuring that the seats will be laid out not only so the avatars may have an unobstructed view, but also so that the camera view is not embedded in the seat behind. More on that next post...I need to get back to work...

Email Down

Firstly, I have recieved many well-wishes about this project (thank you!). I have also recieved many questions via email (as in-world IM communication is pretty restrictive among adults in the Teen Grid). Unfortunately, my email has been very spotty (all right, pretty much out) for the past week. Not sure what the problem is, but I pretty much get to read mail and then by the time I sit down to reply, email is down again. I'll reply as soon as it's back up...

Saturday, July 26, 2008

1st day on Hatters Island

Here are some picts and video of Hatters Island:

Here is a plan view (North is on the right):


Elevation viewed from the East:


Elevation from the North:


Elevation from the South:


Elevation from the West:



Video fly-by:


Island tour:

Island views:

These videos were taken with Smart Board Notebook software, not quite machinima quality, but they get the point across...

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I've been transformed!

I was just notified by Rowan Linden (Linden Labs) that my avatar, Learnus Constantine has been transformed (transferred) permanently to the Teen Grid. He will be restricted to Hatters Island, unable to teleport to the Teen Mainland or any other island. I feel like Lewis and Clark (or at least one of them)!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Ready for transformation...

I just sent an email to Linden Labs requesting that my alt av, Learnus Constantine, be moved (transformed) from the Main Grid to the Teen Grid. As soon as this is done, the next time I log into Second Life, my av will be on Hatters Island.



I have created a mind map (using http://www.bubbl.us/) of the key areas of Hatters Island: