Star Struck Safari

Thirza Ember: Hypergridding is about weird shit. 

Our main purpose is to experience the weird shit together.

Fuschia Nightfire: weird shit is good

Wizard Gynoid: i love drinking my recycled urine. ;-)

Miso Susanowa: THE SPICE MUST FLOW

Ten of us, there were, this week on the Safari. We 'assembled' for about half an hour, at Ilha Magica on OSGrid, just to try to make sure we didn't miss anyone. Of course, I bet we did, but as you probably know, if you IM us in Facebook, we will wait for you, or send you our hg address, and help you figure out how to use the address to hypergrid, if you're a novice. The key thing is to say beforehand you are thinking of coming.

Romenna on PM Grid

Mercalia Beck, who has a Travel Centre at Wright Plaza, and Kosmos Unlimited and Alex Zed were among the newcomers to the group, though not to hg in general. When there are such different time zones represented, from Australia to America to Europe, it's impossible to find a time that suits everyone, but we appreciate so many people fitting in with the current arrangements. First off, we all try to friend each other so that if hypergridding hoodoo fails us we have the option of attempting a personal TP. 

Opensim is full of people, it's just that most of them are busy. However, there are socials and meetups happening, like the one Lani Global organizes. We also heard Arcadia Asylum was on the grid, *starstruck!!* but it didn't seem right to bug her while she was building. So we left her alone. Or most of us did. Wizzy attempted to TP to her location but the sheer quantity of sims in the sandbox where Arcadia was working seems to have ejected Wiz right back to Ilha Magica. 

Recently chatting with Bob Wellman of PMGrid, he explained why LMs seem to work on and off in open sim. If you are on your home sim and make a landmark and pass it to someone from another grid to use for gridhopping, it often doesn't work. That's because the information the LM collects to get someone from point A to B on their own grid is quite different from the info that you need to jump from one grid to another. So don't give someone from another grid one of your home-grown Landmarks. Does that make any sense at all? No-one in the group seemed to follow my explanation last night, so probably not.

           First stop was to Metropolis Grid to visit ChapTer Kronfeld's sim, galleRyART_nord, but he was a no-show. So after photographing Maria the Robot, we checked out the many TP doors on the sim, choosing the one that leads to the huge Pompeii build. There's something about a door that is so much more appealing than using the map to tp. It probably takes longer to wait in line and run through it, but definitely more fun.

           Avia Bonne exhorted us not to lose anyone along the way, and we did our best not to - partly because it was good advice, partly because her avie looked like Lara Croft and we were a leetle bit afraid! 
          Pompeii is a long term, major project in Metropolis, and Pixel Prim is at its heart, what a brilliant builder and what a massive undertaking it's going to be! It was fun to run about and look at, all together, and very inspiring to anyone who wants to use virtual worlds to bring real places in far flung parts of the planet within visiting range of all of us. 

          We didn't do the place justice, and all vowed to return and make it a destination another week. There is no volcano at Pompeii -yet- so maybe there will be by the time we return. The reason for not staying? We had an appointment with Lani Global! One or two of our number had to leave at this point, notably Serene Jewell who runs a similar group out of Kitely on Thursdays at 12 noon SLT.

Quick shout-out to my fellow Safarinas, who have been in on this adventure from the start: Wizard Gynoid, Wizardoz Chrome, and Fuschia Nightfire

          The store on Lani is a treasure trove for anyone interested in sci fi of all genres, machines, outfits, aliens, and other non-human avatars. The Dune-related trivia was flowing thick and fast when the lovely Lani Global arrived, with a warm "Greetings, Gridlings".  Most of us were a bit starstruck! But for over an hour, we were able to ask questions and get some insights about her virtual life and philosophy. For example, I'd always wanted to know if she started out in SL, before moving on to open sim.

Lani Global: I started out in other types of computer simulators, and in engineering/commercial CAD design. When SL came along, I used it also. OpenSim is the next great platform for simulators, so it is a logical step. I prefer OpenSim, but I still maintain a presence in SL.

          The conversation moved on to the various grids that have come and gone and been shut down; Lani's verdict was - that's normal. Being from Silicon Valley, it's something that she sees all the time. And like a good neighbor, she was gracious in her comments about the Lindens, and Philip Rosedale's proposed ventures. She did, however, make the interesting point that they may have missed an opportunity in not extending the L$ to open sim. It might have changed its whole complexion. We got her to share her general thoughts about the future, and her own reasons for being in vws.

Lani Global: Overall, I think the Freedom of the open source software is the wave of the future for simulators. HyperGrid is a major advantage.  I call our present platform "The TPV Metaverse" (Third Party Viewer) and it is the combination of worlds that are SL/OpenSim. The development of opensim by volunteer coders has picked up speed trememdously in the past year. It is amazing how much is being done, how things are progressing way beyond what SL has been able to do, in some respects. The advent of the huge size regions (mega regions or var regions) is a turning point in OpenSim development and as an immersive creativity canvas. Currently the limit for a var size region in opensim is about 8 kilometers on a side. My primary motivation in being a part of virtual worlds is creativity. I've evolved from simply 3d art creativity, to creating an environment to promote the creativity of others as well.

          So, does she see SL and open sim as mutually exclusive? Certainly not.

Lani Global: I've suggested that SL users should get a vacation home in OpenSim. They should start to build their inventory in OpenSim, and then it can be like a Second Lifeboat.

          She also told us about an invention made a few years back, a parody on Google StreetView, which she says, may one day be the way we navigate the 3D web, and much more that you had to be there to hear - fascinating stuff. Then to cap it all, we got the chance to meet Pete Camino, the creator behind all those brilliant Immaculate Contraption vehicles. 

I know. 5 star evening or what?

HG Addresses of this week's destinations:

hg.osgrid.org:80:Ilha Magica

hypergrid.org:8002:galleRyART_nord

hypergrid.org:8002:Pompeii

hg.osgrid.org:80:Lani