yay! finally, after 4 years in virtual worlds, i get my own home! it’s like that saying about a cobbler’s kids having no shoes. while i have built several home-like places, none were just my home. the iliveisl estate inSL had several social places that were open to the public that were meant to be homes and lounges, but none were built just for me. that was fine, i stayed busy enough and never had time to hang out in any of them regularly anyway

i’m not sure what i am going to do with my home. i know i need to build furniture! all i have is office chairs and that is hardly homelike. i also need to make a stove and fridge plus a bedroom and bathroom. i’ll make everything with normal prims, no sculpties

sculpties intimidate me, i don’t know why. i can build in blender and do boolean intersections, subdivide meshes, path a camera, set motion blur, and all that baloney but i have never even tried to make a sculptie

i think it’s also a snobby thing in my head. i kind of feel like i should be able to make what i need to do with what i have in-world

i also think it’s important to show that many things can be built with normal prims – both because they are pretty easy to work with and highly accessible. as i focus more on education, i think of new students (and teachers) that come in-world and that building with normal prims is a great start =)

if you had to teach someone new about Second Life or OpenSim, you’d stay busy enough without tossing sculpties into the mix. i have seen students get the hang of it and be building in 15 minutes, i like that aspect of normal prims very much. nothing is there to stop them from learning blender but i figure it is better to let them get going with building and worry about this stuff later on

maybe one day i’ll do sculpties and knowing me, i’ll get all ocd over them! =p

in a volcanic caldera (actually it's too small so it's really a crater) =)

the entry is curved to prevent Qi (C'hi) from running out too quickly

it’s funny, but up until today, i never felt like i had my own home in virtual worlds. in Second Life i had bunkers but they were always set as public places too

and for the 10 months in Reaction Grid, i also did not feel like any parcel was mine

but today i took a part of a sim next to Dream Walker and planted my flag. well, i built a photobox that i did not delete after being done. when i need a pic for the blog, i rezz out some white prims and make them full bright, then delete them when am finished, but no more! =) i

it’s a different feeling having a place that i can call my own. the entire estate in OpenSim has been subQuark’s and while i have carte blanche, none of it felt like it was mine. now i have my little part of a sim and am gonna leave prims out and make a big mess =)

a photobox is really easy to make and works very well. make the colour full brite and add some lights and voila! can be made in any colour you need and if you want a soft edge, apart from doing anti-alias in preferences, you can turn on a bit of glow on the lightbox walls

super simple, super effective

big prim holds me at proper height, little ones are lights

monkey bars!!! =) (and lots of starch on my skirt!)

fully free to use in any way you see fit =) click for originals in flickr

i have gotten a few comments, emails, and tweets wishing us well from people thinking we are no longer in-world

what’s the matter with you? can’t you read my mind?

lol – i guess i have not actually written a post saying what we are doing, just a few mentions within other posts (with all the tangents i go off on, it’s no wonder that some peeps wondered what was up)

well, Ener Hax is no longer in Second Life – Linden Lab cancelled my account over $5 (which i put in 4 tickets about). i guess my $50,000 USD revenue stream over a few years did not warrant anyone actually reading my tickets – the last of which was asking them to unlock my account so that i could pay the stupid $5!

anyway . . . *sigh* . . . subQuark got into OpenSim last November with Reaction Grid and i started poking around on his estate in January, then started building in earnest mid-february

i maxed out our resources in Reaction Grid and was trying to be careful in telling the world (or at least the people reading this blog) that we moved. i respect the people at Reaction Grid and did not want to make it sound like we moved because of them (i am a big sap worried about other people’s feelings – probably more than i should)

but i looked at the stats and in the last quarter there have been 198 clicks from this blog to Reaction Grid’s website. in my day job, a click leading to us is worth $4.16! with Google AdWords, depending on the time of day, some words cost quite a bit (the words “real estate” can get $21 per click or more! every time someone clicks those ads in google search results, that cost the advertiser real money!) and i know of six sims sold because i took the time to blab to people in-world and to be fair, those people may not have mentioned talking to me. so i don’t need to be all delicate! =) *an empowered Ener is a mighty wiener*

so where the hell are you Ener?!?! good God, get to the point!

well me (and maybe Carmen Sandiego, but i have no idea about Waldo) moved to another OpenSim host. i maxed out our resources with Reaction Grid and building has been a tough go because of that. so we started looking at what we need to continue this project (Enclave Harbour)

of course, we looked at what Reaction Grid had first and liked a package that has 4 cores, 8 gig RAM, 500 gig disk, 10 Mbs transfer. but the cost for that in their outpost store is $1075 per month! yikes and ouch!

long story short – subQuark and James Stallings II started talking and James (SimHost) set us up with those specs for less than we had been paying! even i know that is a good deal! plus i have groups now! =)

Enclave Harbour and Ener Hax are still in-world with a private grid setup by SimHost =)

also with us are Dream Walker, Nickola Martynov, Micheil Merlin, and subQuark (who does not count cuz he is still a Ruth and never logs in). i have Sunny’s store in place  (it links out to her online store) and we have Krissy’s house in Enerville (she is a budding furniture maker and long time friend)

right now we are on the bleeding edge with a dev version of OpenSim 0.7.1 and still getting server stuff setup and will be hypergrid enabled to the rest of the OSGrid soon. a private grid is becoming the trend for education grids like ours and for business use too. one reason is that you can make one account on OSGrid rather than accounts on private grids. OSGrid is kind of like the internet of virtual worlds

so apart from my tangent on CPC, Google AdWords, Carmen Sandiego, and Waldo, i hope this clears it up for anyone losing sleep over it (if you lose sleep over Ener Hax, either see a doctor or drink more martinis) =)

moving from Second Life to OpenSim was a HUGE pain. i mean a drag and a half! i was so lost and fully expected the exact same experience. even though i knew it was buggy, i still had the same yardstick (which then smacked me upside the head for a while)

plus without much more than my larger builds, like the Enaxia art gallery and the 50 photographs on exhibit, and my terrain files – i felt like i was starting all over again

BUT . . . once you make that move, subsequent moves are easy. you can fully export your sim including all media settings and upload them safely (OAR files). and you can do the same with your inventory =)

we just tested that fully tonight with one of our scripters, Micheil. we saved his IAR file and then placed it online. then we were able to load it into another grid from that URL! that was pretty cool and all his stuff came in without any problems at all

what a difference from Second Life!

so any educators looking for an alternative to Second Life should look at OpenSim – once your content is in there, you have full control of it. you could even save all of your students’ inventory files and give it to them so that if they decide to pursue OpenSim later, they can with what they learned and made while with you

that is pretty cool all in, and of, itself  =)

Micheil as Ruth and then as his old self, in just a few minutes =)

how it’s done: Inventory Archives from OpenSim.org – if Ener can do it, anyone can! =p

i like to share information. of course it is from my perspective (i can’t actually see anything from anyone else’s perspective, neither can anyone else)

sharing accurate information so that you can make a decision is also important to me. sure, i rant and ramble about some silly things, but when i present information that might be used to make a decision, i do my best to remove myself from it and just put it out there

it’s important that people make up their own mind (imo). the word “pushy” and Ener simply don’t go together =)

however, i do get very enthusiastic! when i find something that works very well for me, i figure it might work for others and will barf out as much info as i can about it. you can always choose what applies to you and discard the rest, that’s the way i see it anyway

that’s an awesome thing about the web – so much information. some people say it is too much but i see it the other way – i would rather have way too much information than to be left with just a few tidbits by a few people (the so called experts)

information, and the preponderance of it, is a very good thing if you are truly researching anything

some sources of information are looked at as “more” professional than others. that’s why when i saw a post yesterday on the Discovery Educator Network about OpenSim i had to raise my hand

this article stated that OpenSim does not support web-on-a-prim. i posted a comment right away because some people will take that article and make decisions based on it. these can be very expensive decisions (setup fees, first month’s fees, etc)

OpenSim 0.7.1 does support web-on-a-prim with the Second Life 2.0 viewer

thanks to Justin Clark-Casey =)

however, the 0.7.1 version won’t be out for a week or so, but some of us “might” have it and it works fine  =) (Ener <– more connected than that pink-haired exterior might reveal)

so don’t cross OpenSim off your list just over media-on-a-prim – it’ll be here sooner than you know  ;)

dang, that's a lot of blogging! and soooo interesting =p

guess it’s pretty official. i can’t login in to sl.com, i reset my password and it still won’t let me login. i also submitted tickets

even if i wanted to pay the $5 for the 512 sm of land  from having a linden home, i can’t hit my account page! (even though i went from premium to basic before my premium expired)

amazing – after dropping something like $12k in setup fess, $3k a month for two years, and Lord knows how much i spent on in-world stuff for the estate and me

probably an easy $50k went to LL

but treat me like the plague and totally remove me? lol, even a cancelled account still shows up in subQuark’s friends list!

even though i have not used SL since the end of feb/start of march i still think Second Life is good for some people - dorky me eh?

when i left SL, it was under stressful conditions (awwww, poor ener) and it’s really funky to go from a dozen sims to a crappy Linden home =(

plus i had a new and exciting project where all i “had” to do was just build. i love building and did not miss all the issues associated with running an estate (it is so nice not to worry about paying for sims, i could get use to this life of luxury) *crud – knocked over my caviar, dang it* =p

at that same time as i departed from SL, Viewer 2.0 came out and people went bonkers! but then, anytime Linden Lab does anything, people tend to go off on them (and often, for good reason!)

so i thought “forget that, i don’t wanna get aggravated by some dumb viewer” and went on my merry way with Hippo and Imprudence. now that OpenSim supports web-on-a-prim i figured i should just suck it up and give it a shot (what a pioneer eh? pffft!)  =D

while Viewer 2.0 is really dark (it looks very much like Adobe CS5 products imo), i have to say i like it! i’m not crazy about some things being buried a click deeper and maybe it’s because i have been using CS5 flash, illustrator, dreamweaver, and fireworks for a few months now, but i did not find it so bad. i actually like that sliding in and out menu action on the right (of course, i wish you could undock the palettes like you can in CS5 products). there is not much benefit to having dual monitors for Second Life or OpenSim until palettes can get undocked *waves at Justin – hint, hint* =p

and web-on-a-prim?

i can see possibilities – but for now it’s another emo way to see yourself with a webcam! =D

i guess it could be fun to do chat roulette with it using your avatar! (if you do, for sure video it and post it!!!) =D

if i come up with anything clever, i’ll be sure to video it, but until then, it’s back to Imprudence for me (my fave viewer and solid as a rock in the last few releases)

do you do any neat things with web-on-a-prim? or know of any neat uses?

if so, drop a quick note about it – thanks! =)

facelights are all over the place in Second Life and are also in widespread use in OpenSim. one reason they exists is because virtual world lighting is pretty harsh. it makes harsh contrasts in the shading of your face and people don’t like seeing themselves that way. i don’t know if this is still true but i think you can only see 8 lights at any one time with two of those being the sun and the moon (which are always out)

this means you only see six lights that people have control over. so street lights, room lamps, and facelights make up these kind of lights. therefore (hereto with forth  =p), any facelight setup with more than six lights is kind of dumb since you can’t see more than six (edit: thanks Zauber on the number of lights update)

and besides, ever see someone that from even far away, lights up the place like a nuclear plant gone bad!

i can see why people like facelights and well made ones are useful in photography (just like in real life – lighting makes a huge difference). if you have your own sim then wear all the facelights you want but here is where the issue comes in . . .

lighting and shadows make a big hit on the viewer side as far as performance goes. rendering shadows has always been CPU intensive and that is true outside of virtual worlds too

if you do 3D animation or even static 3D builds, then you know the rendering cost involved with lighting. in Blender, a standard practice is to use a sky dome to create realistic ambient lighting. skydomes can have 60 lights in them! i once did a 30 second Blender sequence that took a week to render out on 4 computers (called a render farm) but when i turned off some of the lights, it only took one computer 10 hours! it’s a fine balance for sure. for the movie Cars, some single frames took 8 hours to render! yikes eh?

so if you have facelights on you are imparting a cost to other viewers out there plus taking away some of the other lighting. say you are in a parking lot at midnight and there are street lights. ideally you would see the four closest to you. but if Johnny Narcissy comest strolling up with his EnerMax 3000 on, you might only see his lights, thus killing the “midnight parking lot lighting, where’s my pimp” effect someone worked hard to make

on  your own sim, wear facelights till the cows come home, but when you are visiting other sims, consider the experience others are looking for. while your face is incredible stunning, it may not be what people really wanted to focus on (right eh? why wouldn’t anyone just want to look at me all night?)  =D

in Second Life, you can’t do much about facelights except to ask people to turn them off. your likely response (even if it is your sim) is probably “go eff yourself” o_O  at which point, you eject them from your parcel!

in OpenSim though, Melanie T (CEO of 3D Hosting) has added code that could disable facelights!

facelight code has been approached by many OpenSim developers but i like her rationale. she does not like facelights messing up role playing sims and i fully agree that the sim owner should have the freedom to do pretty much anything they see fit. if you don’t like it, don’t go to that sim! and get your own sim  =)

Ener's RPG - waiting for John =p

last week we broke 10,000 pics for our flickr account. we’ll never catch up to Torley though!

obviously, i like flickr! but so far it’s mainly been just pics of builds and not all that useful to me except for use in the blog (and for my OCD about SEO)

but finally, i have something that will be of occasional use! with all the grids popping up, it’s easy to create accounts and be a born again Ruth

typically, i pull up myself on another grid and jot down the zillion numbers for all the sliders that make me who i am

those days are over!

why not screen shot all the sliders and just post them on flickr? so i did =)

make sure to grab your colours too =)