Tag Archives: Second Life

MadPea’s Lost Mine Hunt ~ Part 2

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Lost Mine Part 2 Start cropped Where was I…. Oh yes! I’d just teleported from the dark and rainy urban grunge (landing point here) to a gorgeous, forest area, with tiny little Dwarfins running around (most of them were bots; as I discovered when I accidentally stepped on one, and apologized to it. Imagine my embarrassment when a Dwarfin avi nearby wanted to know if I was talking to him. When I told him I’d apologized to the other gentleman for stepping on him, he chuckled and told me it was a bot. I was quite embarrassed).

Lost Mine Part 2 drawfins cropped.jpgAs soon as you step out into the beautiful forested sim, I discover that my map has now changed, as you can see in these pictures, to include a thing that looks like a funny shaped cribbage board. I am next to a mine entrance, and I cannot open the door. Local chat tells me that I must collect these items and come back when I’ve found them all, in order to gain entrance to the mine.

As I step out onto the sim, my faithful assistant starts telling me that there are no dirt piles nearby. I am to look for dirt piles and sift through them for these crystal-like items. As I wander the sim, my assistant tells me when I’m nearby a dirt pile, and I collect these items exactly like the map pieces, while wandering around this beautifully detailed Dwarfin sim. And, just like the map pieces, other people nearby can collect the dirt piles right from underneath you! (Quite frankly, the dirt piles looked more like cow pies, but I digress!)

Lost Mine part 2 dwarfin sword croppedThis was a lot of fun, as the dirt piles were hidden but not so hidden that you grew frustrated trying to find them, although I do have to admit that there were a couple of places that my assistant told me “OOOOH! You’re soooo close! It should be right nearby you (less than 5m)” but there were no dirt piles in sight. None. Absolutely none. I looked over and over. One was by the bridge; another by the koi pond. There was a third place, in the dining room, that was quite challenging to find. But the one by the bridge and the one by the pond did not exist.

No matter, because I found others and continued to find dirt piles until I’d filled in the cribbage board-like thing on my map. I didn’t have to worry about picking up other dirt piles I’d found before. I had to log out a couple of times during this part, and when I came back, I could find the same dirt piles, collect them and add the item to my pegboard. It was really amazing to see the detail in this Dwarfin land.

When I’d filled in my pegboard, I found my way back to the mine entrance, and since I’d completed part 2, I clicked on the door and it invited me in….

Stay tuned; Part 3 of MadPea’s Lost Mine Hunt is coming up — and this was the most convoluted part of all!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers
ZI Social Media Manager

MadPea’s Lost Mine Hunt ~ Part 1

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MadPea Productions croppedI am not normally a huge fan of hunts, because they are simply a gratuitous attempt to get people to come into stores. It’s a great advertising gimmick, but I find the hunts frustrating as people crowd into a sim, pushing and shoving to try to get the prize. It reminds me of the basement sales at Macy’s and crazy women grabbing the same sweater and fighting over it. Not that I’ve ever done that. *Ahem*

However, one of the organizations in SL that takes hunts to the next level and is consistently and unfailingly over the top is MadPea Productions. I first stumbled across MadPea Productions a few years ago when I was between relationships and bored in SL and trying to find something to do. These diabolical and intricately woven, highly detailed games are way more than just a simple hunt. The point of these hunts is to showcase products by the game’s sponsors; of course. But the game is what the players come for. The rewards at the end are just icing on the cake.

MadPea Productions spends months on their productions. And productions is certainly what they are. They carefully craft a back story, and create the convoluted and fascinating journey through whatever trails led by the clues you collect along the way. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, it takes a twist and you are not quite through! I always feel a sense of exhilaration when I finish, along with a sense of disappointment that it’s over, because it is so exciting and intellectually challenging.

Lost Mine 2 entrance croppedThe Lost Mine Hunt is no exception, and it did not disappoint. At first, however, I was a bit concerned that it was not going to live up to previously held high expectations. Then, as I got deeper into the game, I realized that it was much more than the deceptively simple beginning.

Lost Mine 3 croppedThe game is divided into three parts. When you first land at the landing point, you are required to invest $150L in the HUD. The hours of entertainment you will derive from this investment is well worth the $150L, believe me. This time, you also can opt in to purchase the collecting pouch (more for show than anything) and new to this game, was an “assistant”, which, they readily admit, allows you a “huge advantage” in the game. This “assistant” (a cute round ball with arms and legs and big eyes — mine was pink) susses out where the clues are and tells you in local chat (that only you can see, so you don’t spoil it for others on the hunt who don’t want to do it with a cheat) when you’re getting close.

Lost Mine 7 helper cropped

Here I am with my faithful assistant by my side:
Lost mine 8 hud before cropped

The instructions you are given is that you are to find pieces of the map to the mine, which have been torn up, crumpled, and scattered throughout the town. Normally, I wouldn’t use a “cheat” such as the assistant in the hunt, but I was low on time as I had a blog deadline to keep, so I attached my assistant and off we went. At first, with the assistant telling me “No objects close by within 20 meters” every few seconds, I wandered the sim, waiting for my assistant to sound the alarm, which she did and I could zero in on the object with her instructions until she finally said “OOOH! You’re sooo close! It should be right next to you! (less than 5m).” At which point I would look around nearby until I found the crumpled paper. When I clicked on the pieces, my avi would bend down, swoop up the piece of paper and stuff it in her pouch. And a piece of the map would fill in on my HUD.

Lost Mine 6 rainy street croppedSounds simple, right? Especially with the assistant telling you where to zero in on. But no, not with MadPea. First of all, the sim is dark and rainy (don’t cheat and change your windlight settings!). Secondly, other people are out hunting nearby, and if they swoop in and pick up the piece of paper you just found before you do, then you’re out of luck! It disappears. My recommendation is try to go when fewer people are there, and if there are other hunters nearby, find a different area and hunt by yourself. I found myself frustrated over and over again as others picked up papers I’d just zeroed in on. (But don’t worry; come back in a few minutes and it will have reappeared).

When I picked up all the map pieces, my map transformed into a solid map, and I thought to myself, “Ahh then I must be done. The map will take me to the treasure, where I’ll pick up my prizes from the sponsors. Hmm kind of short and disappointing, but still fun,” I thought to myself.

But alas! I was hardly done. In fact, I’d just finished just part one, and little did I know that Part 2 and Part 3 were coming! When the map was finished, it said in local chat to click on the map and it would teleport me. I clicked on it, expecting to come to the end, and instead I stepped out into this beautiful forest setting, where Dwarfins live.

Stay tuned — Part 2 of 3 of MadPea’s Lost Mine Hunt!

I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

Phoenix Firestorm Question and Answer Session

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One thing that SLers often disagree about, is which viewer to use — the SL official viewer, Firestorm, Singularity — the list goes on. Each person has their favorite, and each person’s system handles one viewer better than another.

For me personally, I was madly in love with Singularity. It did everything I wanted it to, it was user friendly, it had the best features of Firestorm and SL viewer meshed into one… I was a happy girl. However, for some reason the last time I upgraded the viewer, I’ve been having rendering problems, and sadly I’ve had to start trying out other viewers. I saw that Firestorm finally had a 64-bit viewer, so I downloaded it, albeit a bit apprehensively, since both the SL viewer and Firestorm used to make me crash like crazy.  I was hoping the 64-bit version, coupled with the graphics card upgrade I made recently, would prevent the crashies like I used to have.

I’ve been using Firestorm for about a week now, and I really like it. I still miss some of the simpler features of Singularity, but the rendering problem was just too much for me to deal with. It was impossible to view SL properly.

One of the nicest things about Firestorm, is that it is the leading third party viewer, and it has amazing in-world support, including free classes that Firestorm staffers teach in-world. Recently, they taped a two-hour session where they discussed some of the issues that Firestorm users have brought up, starting with a discussion about the problems many users have been having with Norton Anti-virus and other anti-virus software. It sometimes interfering with the ability to use Firestorm properly, because the software identifies the Firestorm coding as a trojan horse and often quarantines it before it can be stopped, and the user cannot get it out.

After doing a “flame and shame” post on Twitter, they got an immediate tweet back from Norton apologizing for the problem, and within the hour, a representative from Norton had created an SL account and logged his avatar in world, found the Firestorm sim and came over to help facilitate the problem! This was someone who had never been in SL before in his life, and they felt the problem was serious enough to create an avatar to come help. Firestorm staffers were very impressed.

The video is quite long, but you can listen to it in the background while you do other things but it addresses many of the common issues, besides the anti-virus problem. It is very interesting to get an insider’s view of the viewer creation and update process, and the burnout many support people experience after a new release is issued and the vitriol that comes at them from users who have problems with the updates. It also has many good tips on how to deal with viewer problems, especially ones that seem to crop up overnight and for which they get blamed.

Have a listen; even if you’re not a Firestorm user, it has some very good insights into the workings of the viewers and their interactions with SL.

As always I remain respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media Manager

 

Bryn Oh’s Singularity of Kumiko

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“When there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire”  ~ from Bryn Oh’s profile

Bryn Oh is a well-known and critically-acclaimed artist in both SL and RL. Bryn’s latest creation in SL is an incredible display called the Singularity of Kumiko. Bryn brings her art to life in SL with this interactive exhibit, where you literally immerse yourself in her art. Appropriately, she named her group “Immersiva,” an Italian word that translates to “Immersive.”

Canadian-born, Bryn’s blog describes herself this way: “Bryn Oh is a virtual artist created by a Toronto oil painter.” A biography from the Virtual Art Initiative website says that Bryn “makes her living…as a painter whose work is sold by a major galley to collectors around the world. Having received her art education in Toronto and Florence, Italy, her paintings have been exhibited in many galleries in North America and Europe. A meticulous and highly skillful landscape painter, she uses high quality oils and acrylics that she makes herself from raw materials, working the paint with a wide variety of layering and sculptural brush techniques, on large canvasses that engulf the viewer in an almost immersive experience of the human impact on the natural world. In fact it is her interest in immersion that led her to experiment with the art of virtual worlds, and over the past year she has established herself as one of the finest builders and installation artists in Second Life.”

Immersiva 1_001

In order to have the best experience, Bryn has limited access to her exhibit to 15 avatars at a time, and yet receives over 600 visitors a day! This allows you to wander the exhibit and experience it fully without worrying about lag, crashing the sim due to overload or crowding. It is a dark, stark exhibit and is best experienced with few other avatars around. Her art is not everyone’s cuppa, but it is truly brilliant, eerie and disturbing all at the same time.

Immersiva 2_001When you first land, you are presented with instructions to change your windlight settings for an optimal viewing experience. Then, you proceed to the tables where you learn how to navigate the exhibit and pick up your free headlamp. Don’t miss this step, because you will need it! It is dark in the exhibit, and while some ambient light emanates from some of the art, most of the sim is nearly pitch black. Lastly, you read about the exhibit, the 14 letters you are to pick up, and finally, how to enter the sim.

Immersiva 5_001You approach the red door, and in local, you give the magic word. As the door opens, you walk into a tunnel and it spills you out onto the scene of an accident and the story begins to unfold. As you move from place to place, looking for the bottles with letters inside them, you are immersed in the environment. It is tempting to cheat and change your light settings, but don’t do so! It is worth it to experience the exhibit the way the artist intended.

Immersiva 6_001As you progress, you may not encounter the letters in order. But as you begin to collect information, you start to realize that it is a conversation between two people, Kumiko and Iktomi, and that one is stuck in some sort of limbo, while the other encourages the  other “cross over.” The mangled bicycle and car wreck in the beginning of the story begin to take on more significance. But look out for Mr. Zipper, a child’s toy transformed into something menacing. Listen for the squeaky wheel, because if you fail to notice him, he will kill you and you will have to return and start over. It doesn’t do any good to take weapons inside there, either, because Mr. Zipper is impervious to weapons. Believe me, I tried! You simply have to dodge and weave, and run like crazy so he doesn’t kill you.

Immersiva 10_002The entire experience is something out of a nightmare, but fascinating at the same time. The sounds, such as creaking, thumping, flapping of wings, sing-songy children’s music, and buzzing of some sort of insects as you walk around will raise goosebumps on your skin. It is fun, scary, creepy and altogether shivery, but well worth the tour. Take the time to visit Singularity of Kumiko,  you won’t be disappointed!

I am as always respectfully yours,

~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

Second Life’s Oculus Rift Integration is Ready for Beta Testers!

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Hot off the presses from the Tools and Technology blog on the SL website. check it out! 🙂

by Community Manager Linden Lab on ‎03-12-2014 11:16 AM

 

The Oculus Rift offers exciting possibilities for Second Life – the stereoscopic virtual reality headset brings a new level of immersion to our 3D world, making Second Life a more compelling experience than ever before.

Though a consumer version of the headset isn’t available yet, we’ve been working with the development kit to integrate the Oculus Rift with the Second Life Viewer. We now have a Viewer ready for beta testers, and if you have an Oculus Rift headset, we’d love to get your feedback.

If you have the Oculus Rift development hardware and would like to help us with feedback on the Viewer integration, please write to sl_oculus_beta@lindenlab.com to apply for the limited beta.