Az... good as it gets

          Snakedance Moonwind's lovely avie said it best...2015 was on it way out. Some of the  Safari regulars met to talk about what they thought the year had brought. 

          It was a two stop Safari, the second half on the heart-breakingly lovely region created by Azi Az. Azi and her partner Danger Lytton, who hosts the region on a fabulous server connected to OSgrid which took in its stride the arrival of a dozen happy avies, despite the colossal amount of detail on the land.
       Arriving in the main square we immediately tp'd over to the ballroom where Danger was spinning some fantastic tunes. That made it easy to cam out ant about on the var region. It's pretty awesome, is open sim. A fair sized group of people, with my viewer set to Ultra and the maximum draw distance possible, and not a whiff of lag. Bliss.

Smokin' Safari

        It's that time of year when we are all subjected to a sort of mass hallucination that the whole world is knee deep in presents and snow, family and mistletoe. 
         That makes it refreshing, not to mention healthy, to take a minute to realize that not all cultures, lifestyles, or climates, are the same. 
         Safari began as usual on Teravus Plaza.

       

The Snowind Swansong

          It is their swansong, and so it is up to you and I to make the most of it.  After many years of providing fun and delight to their fellow residents, in the form of their seasonal treasure hunts, Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges have decided to take a break.  

   
          Ange and Nani's Hunts marked things like Easter and Christmas, which provided a convenient deadline to them, and a signal to us that there would be hours of fun to be had.

Var Out

Aime Socrates: i'm looking much more intelligent with those horns

Dabici Straulino: certainly more brilliant

The Xmas season is getting close and of course all the decorative instincts of opensim people are coming out in force.
Lucy Afarensis: Like your Xmas decoration Snowy
snowbody Cortes: oh ty Lucy .. a gift at Friday party , mattie mcbride
Lucy Afarensis: she makes nice things
James Atlloud: Do love the horns.
Lucy Afarensis: lost my glasses
Prodyck Theas: hello all
PatriciaAnne Daviau: ok going to try and get to first stop...without crashing

Safari goes Hunting

       In Open Sim, as in the real world, two things are guaranteed, nobody reads anything, and travel is dangerous. Well, of course, that's not true. It is just that sometimes, there is such an information overload, that reading doesn't cut it. 

Gif shamelessly stolen from Serene Jewell

       This week the Safari did some recycling, for we did nothing more than hop over to the OpenSim Community Conference grid, which is a small purpose built grid hosted on the servers of the University of California at Irvine. Our goal - to visit the four Expo sims on the Conference grid, and then to try the Hypergrid Treasure hunt which is described on the four red posters you can see in this gif.

 Addresses at the end of the post.As always.      

You know you want one.

       The conference was last Saturday. There were a lot of good presentations about subjects like 'Fun with 3D Headsets' and 'What you can do with NPCs' and 'Virtual Epidemiology' (honestly, that is an actual thing) and most importantly in terms of shaking your fist at the purveyors of all those recent hiccups in OSGrid that have made you waste time re-doing stuff like building, applying textures, setting permissions, writing notecards, taking Landmarks, or crashing ten or twenty times when trying to make a simple hg jump from one place to another... -  'Who has been poking about in OpenSim code recently'.
       If you missed the conference or would like to view it again, then click here to go to the Ustream page. 

Safari Goes Jogging

      GeR.Orsini @craft-world.org:8002: benvenuti in Craft grid e in Italia

If you have been thinking OSGrid is a bit off color these days, between Notecards and prims and Landmarks and Friends acting up, then you are not alone. 
Hypergridding has always been ...unstable is the polite word, but with the state of things generally with this latest horrible release, we were braced for a pretty bumpy ride this week. 
And we were not disappointed by the crashy stuff... but equally, not disappointed by the absolutely gorgeous regions we got to see. 
HG Addresses at the end of the post... but you knew I was going to say that.

Gondolas and gorgonzola??!  Italian heaven!

A Scifi, Scofi, TP try and try Safari

 Beacon opensimworld: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: 
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.    

        So, back to Metropolis for the Summer of Arts which has morphed into an Autumn and almost a Winter of Arts, which is fine by us - the more the merrier! If you have not been to Wanda Shigella's regions, you have time until the end of the year to enjoy the 40+ artists on show. 
       The addresses, as ever, at the end of the post.

Safari starts at a fest and ends up in Jail

It was highly inappropriate, to be on a cathedral sized art installation doing a girl gangnam style dance but that's how we roll.
      Two trips, and a shorter safari than usual, yet it felt like we encompassed the universe in this our 79th outing. First up, a visit to AvatarFest. This four day festival, part show and tell, part concert, was a huge success both socially and technically.

Thirza and James sitting on the Safari elephant

But first some elephant action. And Teravus Plaza chit chat. Last week, James was accused of 'never sitting on the elephant' so this week, he made sure he got on board. Can't have Safari's premiere sitter accused of not starting the Safari as he means to go on!
Thirza Ember: I'm so glad we get to celebrate your Fest tonight
Han Held: I am too! I'm glad y'all are coming and that Truelie is performing for us. I'm really proud of everyone and the way we all came together.
Thirza Ember: this time, I plan to actually go look at the exhibits on avatarfest, not just dance
Han Held: I think a lot of people are, and I hope that they come by before the end of the month
Sunbeam Magic: it's such a nice small town feeling , easy to walk paths and not too many exhibits to overwhelm you. and Tom had his DJ debut there, he is great bluesy jazzy guy lol
Tom Frost: now that the Metro stammtisch [grid meeting] is only once every month I will have much more opportunity to be with the safari !

     

Safari Goes to the Shows

George.Equus: Now stuff makes sense  :)

      The one thing that is always the same about our safaris is that they are never the same. Most weeks, two or three new friends join us and even when we go to places we have visited before, it always seems to result in a different experience.
Take yesterday's trip to Metropolis and Francogrid, for example. 
Billy Bradshaw: I have some chores in RL, will join the safari a little later
Alya VonZ: so glad it is wednesday, I could use a break:)
Thirza Ember: they are restarting the sim for destination 1 in a few minutes, so all should be ....dare I say perfect?? is that tempting fate?

Arriving on Futurelab

Alya VonZ: hehehe
Lucy Afarensis: probably
Thirza Ember: hey Lyr!! welcome!
Selby Evans: hi everyone
Lyr Lobo: Hiya Thinkerer *grins*
Thirza Ember: Lyr almost all the sit poses in the jeep are non embarrassing... also the elephant - apart from the tail seat of course
Truelie Telling: yeah, I'm sitting with my feet in elephant brains
Thirza Ember: how come James never sits on the elephant?
James Atlloud: I don't know about never. Usually getting myself sorted at this time.
Alya VonZ: hehe, haven't sat on it either yet:)  - have to be earlier on I suppose to do that, hehe
James Atlloud: lol - right after the elephant ... spoke?  the music started. lol
Selby Evans: I can sit on the elephant

        The conversation turned to operating systems and new laptops, and then poof it was time to go to Futurelab on Metropolis. HG Addresses at the end of the post. There was some climbing of ladders, and some jumping jack poses, then some sitting and having our cam control taken from us. Futurelab currently hosts the gigantic model of a sterile lab, which is part of a project for a real world company not named here by request of Art.

Non Stop Safari

       Nothing but movement, movement, this week - heck, even the musician was whirly  - Whirli Placebo, to be precise, but we will get to that later. All hypergrid addresses are of course at the end of the post, so you can go and see these places for yourself if you wish.
       We started out at the Clubhouse, as we always do, on Teravus Plaza OSGrid, with 3 destinations lined up starting with Kodinpump, a prize hunt build simultaneously available on OSGrid and Metropolis. 

So Wrong it's Right

        A giant smart phone in a soup of whatnots, the wistful implications of insanity, blocks and heads, and  a sort of glorious heavenly carrot cake - these are just some of the impressions to be garnered in the the playful, imaginative atmosphere at The Wrong Grid, a biennial digital art festival, which starts Sunday November 1, on Francogrid. 
       Organized by Frere Reinert and Ellectra Radikal, sometimes known as Step Flow, it's an opportunity to see art in OpenSim as never before.

Frere Reinert and Ellectra Radikal.

      This is a fresh and exciting art show featuring work by artists who, with one exception, FrancogGrid's own Cherry Manga, have not previously used OpenSim to display their art.  The art show is hosted on the sims of Claudius Utopy who also made the HUD for the event. Nice work Claudius! This post contains photos of just a handful of the installs, just a quick glimpse a the wonder that awaits you when you visit.

The Trick of Treats

      Kodinpump is the latest build by Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges. Available contemporaneously on two different grids, Metropolis and OSGrid, it is a Hunt, and celebrates the Autumn season with a Halloween theme.

      Kodinpump is a mesh build, richly embellished with capricious pumpkins that answer you back when you speak to them. Some will give you gifts, some insult you, and some will throw you off the sim. I absolutely love it.

        The regions will be open for a limited time, just a few weeks, so do not delay your visit or you could very well miss it. The HG Addresses are as always at the bottom of the post.

      The setting is Kodinpump, a care-worn, weatherbeaten port, complete with sailing ships and netshops, and a bridge to nowhere. Or is it?  In the center of this Lovecraftian town you will find a rowdy tavern, merchants and their goods, and large stone-faced houses fringing a broad square that looks out onto the endless Offsim Sea.

Zafari with a Zee

If there is one thing worse than being mauled to death by a zombie, it's when the zombie that mauls you is a clone of yourself. It's bad for you, but it's super fun for those who see it happen. 
This is not a B move, it's an A+ immersive experience available on OSGrid thanks to the creative gorgeousness of Total Sorbet and Michelle Theiss.

Left to right: me in awe of script genius Total Sorbet and builder Michelle Theiss

This game is open 24/7 on sim Outbreak, OSGrid. HG addresses as always at the bottom of the post.

Relax in the main square, and cam out to watch other players - a great layout

The game has a straightforward shoot 'em up format, but to make this work in OpenSim, when you've got about 25 avies all running on the same region, is a tour de force. 

Calendar Girls

Ever since we began going on our HG journeys last year, it's been in the back of my mind to make a real world HG Safari calendar.

Whatever there is of ephemeral about virtual worlds seems to be amplified in OpenSim. Grids and regions come and go, and so too does the companionship of some of our fellow travelers. 

Safari on the 'Fly

          This week we went Back to the Future - in so many ways! Spike Sol invited us to join the party on sim Pyramid, OSGrid, organized by Samira Santanko at the Blue Wave Club. The mesh Delorean was without doubt the star of the evening, as well as DeeJane Samira's choice of music - which began with the soundtrack of the film. You'll find the info for getting to our destinations at the end of this post.

Photo by Spike Sol 

I guess it was a fair bet that this was not going to be a simple Safari. After 75 weeks, none of us expect things to be super smooth, but that announcement on the OSGrid splash screen 'mandatory update'  was bound to make the blood run cold.           

Safari gets a Fair Shake

       Two destinations this week, and both of them are about connecting and sharing across grids. Two hosts, Satyr Gator and Ozwell Wayfarer, both of them keen builders who have done that extraordinary thing, they have looked up from their own work and beyond their own creativity, and decided to do something for the greater good.

Ozwell Wayfarer and Satyr Gator

          Our first stop was on OSGrid, Satyr Gator's sim opensimworld full HG Addresses at the end, as usual. 
        This is a lovely imaginative build where you can find the famous beacons available - the beacon you'll need to add your grid to the opensimworld.com website which allows people to find your region, club, shop or institution in the massive universe of ... well, open sim worlds, there's really no other way to put it. 

        Get your beacon, but explore the rest of the region too, there are NPCs and spaceships and a lovely psychedelic dance floor. But for our group, there was - let's say, a certain amount of lag.

Happy EVER After

 When the French invite you to dinner, you'd be crazy not to show up. When they say 'dinner theater', then even more so.  

            Grid EVER is the virtual home of the University of Strasbourg, and the performance was 'Au fil de l'eau' by Ann Rocard, performed by the Adret Theater Players - Jenny Bihouise aka Cheops Forlife and Lorenzo Soccavo are the guys behind the event. The audience was limited to just 15 avatars for technical reasons, and it was the perfect size for the group.

Safari gets Tangled and (almost) Terminated

This week we got some answers to questions like 'What's going on with this year's opensim convention?' 'How many times do you have to crash before you get to TanGle grid?' and finally, 'What's it like to have your own personal Terminator?'
Of course, there were other, perennial questions, such as 'Where's my hair?' 'Am I naked?' and 'Who is UMMA?' - all things that anyone who's been on Safari has heard - and said - many times before.

Joyce Bettencourt

Joyce Bettencourt, co-owner of AvaCon grid, and local residents Sun,Tzu and Frans Charming welcomed us to the main plaza decorated with Ruben Haan artwork. After the usual - lovely - flurry of meeting, greeting and friending, we got right down to business.
Jessie Campbell: so I beg the question...what IS Avacon?

Joyce.Bettencourt: hi all, so AvaCon is a 501c3 nonprofit org... we have organized a lot of virtual worlds, things like the Second Life Community Convention that took place in real life in Boston in 2011 and Oakland CA in 2012, and also this past year's Federal Consortium of virtual worlds conference
Selby.Evans: 501c3 is non-profit
George Equus: Tax exempt non profit right 501?
Joyce Bettencourt: which means any money donated would be tax exempt and able to be deducted if you are in the United States. It also means we can't make a profit, all funds raised go towards programs, and the resources and staff needed to support them.
Thirza Ember: this grid is made for conferences that's why it's so robust.
Jeff Kelley: How do you make it robust?
George Equus: lots of titanium probably
Thirza Ember: underpinned by a giant dev who never moves

Joyce Bettencourt: we have also helped organize with the OpenSimulator core developers the OpenSimulator Community Conferences. This grid functions a lot like our virtual office and event space, along with hosting others like the Virtual World Best Practices conference presence in OpenSimulator, and several unique projects from other AvaCon folks like Fleep Tuque's Primland build that is a colorful, game-like how to build in OpenSim walk through... influenced by the game Candy Land if you remember that, and also Nebadon Izumi has a region here that has a lot of his work in progress and interactive objects in his studio - that is the Oni Kenkon Creations region.

Safari Summer... of Arts

        Plans change, and sometimes that's a very good thing. This week the plan was to spend just a little time taking a look around the Summer of Arts region on Metropolis, and then move on to a music event. 
        Apart from the general insanity, and the opportunity to make new friends, the underlying purpose of the Safari is to practice grid jumping, that's why we usually have two three or even four different destinations each week. But due to a last minute cancellation, the 72nd consecutive Safari was all Metropolis all the time. And boy, what a fantastic time it was too!
        As usual, the Safari began on Teravus Plaza, OSGrid. Teravus is a residential sim, we occupy the south west corner of it, right next to the waterfall. You will find the Group Joiner poster by the elephant. Every week a new Notecard + LM folder is prepared and you can get your copy from the sign marked LANDMARKS by the main entrance to the Clubhouse. I usually only do it at the last minute when all the panic has subsided. If you belong to the HGSafari group in Metropolis or OSgrid, you should also receive the information via group notices. Events are posted in a community on G+ called Hypergrid Safari, and a  group in Facebook, so find us there, if you use suchthings. 

Bon Voyage Justin

        No trip this week, just a quick tp over to OSGrid's Event Plaza, for 3 hours of music and chitchat.

         Justin Clark-Casey, who has for several years been a key member of the OpenSimulator core developer team, recently announced he was stepping down from the project to focus on his new job.
He wrote about it here, if you'd like to know more.
Well, we couldn't let him go without a party!

A Pale Safari

Wonderful architecture this week on a rip roaring Safari. A number of new friends joined us on Teravus Plaza, OSGrid, where the Safari generally starts out. It's always hard to tell if they're just curious about our group, or actually want to gridjump with us.
 If you're new and shy and not sure if you're going to be able to make the jumps, please go ahead and IM Fuschia, Wizardoz, or me and we will make sure we get you to the first destination. It is extremely common to crash when you're new to hypergridding, so don't hesitate in asking someone to shadow you on your first few trips - that's what the event is really intended to do - help everyone get comfortable with hypergridding!
Also to mess about, obviously.

Anyhoo, there was some doubt whether our first destination could possible stand a lot of avies arriving all together. We never let that bother us, of course. Here is a diagram of what generally happens.
Sirin Peccable couldn't be there on the day on Atoll Lost, but Francogrid Femme fatale Praline B was on hand to welcome us and tell us a bit about his regions. (freebies! woot!)  As usual, the addresses for these destinations are at the end of the post.

Praline (right) welcomes us to Atoll Lost, Francogrid

Safari goes Looking

This week for our first destination, Mobius Grid wanted to do something special to mark the 16th anniversary of the launch of the Dreamcast console, an iconic piece of gaming equipment that changed the virtual lives of many a young(and-not-so-young)ster. We were looking for some gamer fun, and we found it.

A party ? You better believe the Safari wanted in on that! To try to blend in on Mobius, which is in layman's terms a 'Sonic the Hedgehog-themed world'  most of the safaristas donned appropriate furry attachments, some like Jessie Campbell and me for the first time. 

Safari Goes Looking - a little more

 John Snow: Ahhh, glad you made it. I'm told by my old colleagues at Westminster Medical School that you are one of their finest graduates, Stephen. I am in need of a skilled yet young-minded doctor to help me with an investigation of utmost importance. Do you feel up to it? (say "yes" in local chat).

Cholera, and OnLook might not sound like an appealing mix but for this week's Safari it was a wild ride through space and time!

Our second stop was a big change of theme, but also extremely well thought out. We went to REDGrid, which is the virtual world belonging to Ball State University. Dr Stephen Gasior uses the 3D environment to help students learn about investigating epidemics to figure out the cause.
Getting to REDgrid was no picnic, because the hypergrid was spitting back landmarks - but as you all know by now our Safari notecard includes the low-tech HG Address for each destination.

 At REDGrid on a sim named after pioneering medical detective Dr Snow.

Fuschia and me blend right in with the Victorian ambience

It's called 'Virtual Epidemiology Investigation' - a series of NPCs explain about the theories held in Victorian times about what caused cholera. The visit starts in the classroom with the received wisdom of the time, and with the help of a HUD, follows in the footsteps of Dr Snow by allowing the student to interview various sufferers and survivors of cholera, trying to understand the anatomy of the outbreak. It's interactive learning - you're meant to respond to questions and answers given by the  NPCs. Some are funny, some poignant, all very lifelike!

Death and the Diva

 We keep going back although I'm not sure any of us become any the wiser. 
Art Blue's latest theater production is called "True Death" and the Safari was invited to load test the sim. 

Load testing, that's something we do understand, and we're good at it! This was week 68 of the Safari, so you might say we're experts at this point.

Dancing with Doro

 Feriae Quinquennial and 1001 Nights are two wonderful regions by Dorothea Lundquist on OSGrid and really they're two of the regions we should be most proud of for their fabulous atmosphere and the quality of the textures and constructions. This was the first half of our trip, you'll find the photos of our second stop in the matching post called 'Mill-er Time' - a punny reference to Graham Mills, who puts up with a lot of ill-advised humor. He's a good guy.

Feriae in the mist

 First up, the is a Roman themed build, Feriae Quinquennial which is a reference to the 5 year festival for OSGrid, no mean feat with all the turmoil of testing, crashes, competition and so on. OSgrid is going strong now, better than before and we can only hope that things continue to improve, and grow. It will do, if we encourage and support the devs, so i guess we need to be nice!

Mill-er Time

Graham Mills has a lot to put up with. He's a man with a huge amount of knowledge to share with the community, and along we come and just stare and joke about the whole time.

Graham Mills

Graham Mills has been on Kitely for a couple of years now, previously his builds were located on New World Grid. He likes the stability of Kitely and the opportunity it gives him to turn into 3d models all manner of science - related builds that astound and delight for their intricacy, beauty and the lessons they teach.

Every time I see one of Graham's builds it's even bigger, better, Mill-er than the last, and always making science more approachable. The guy works hard to get the message across!

Ad Astra

 Dorrena's World is one of the oldest grids in Opensim and the oldest continually active German Grid with a stable and welcoming community and a wealth of lovely sims full of detail freebies, art, and historical information - not to mention clubs and dance halls. The grid takes its name from Dorena Verne, pictured here.

It happens, sometimes, that a sim decided that, no matter what you want to do, the Landing Point is   underwater. Probably everyone has had this experience, and no matter how many times you restart or re-jig the sim, that wretched Landing Point won't budge.

Series Stuff

 Just two stops this week on Safari, as it's high summer here in the Northern Hemisphere and lots of people are away from their desks and desktops.

Joe Builder welcomed the Safari back for some racing on his Mad Max sim.  Joe's grid Lost World is huge, and he has made dozens of different regions, in a variety of styles, many inspired by movies like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Star Trek and more. Other builds include a biker's hangout, a fantasy world of elves and fairies, underwater adventure places and more. Not all sims are online at the same time, but if you visit his Welcome sim you will find all the portals and can either sample what is up, or Im Joe and ask him to open a region for you to visit.

Safari Back on Path

After a little bit of a break, Safari returned with a roar this week. 

We went first to a destinations right here on OSGrid. If you're ever visited the iconic Maritime Club venue, which has regular Sunday night music events, you'll know our first host. 

Stiofain MacTomais invited us to discover more about Irish culture, and the changing face of Belfast from the photos of Frankie Quinn The build records some of the city's lost landmarks and reminds us of its rich heritage. 

Steamy Safari

 The summer of Safari this year has continued to bring fun and interesting destinations, and this week we had our passports ready !

First up,Vbinnia Radek invited us back to her region Steam to see if we could break it. We had tried to visit in the past but the lag monsters had rendered the grid almost totally invisible to most of us, and then eventually it crashed. 

This happens quite often when a huge number of us descend on a very complex grid. It's just too much for the server. 

This time Vbinnia wanted to load test it again to see if improvements had made a difference, and they had! We were all forewarned that this was a load test, and were ready to crash, maybe that's why opensim decided to cooperate for a change. It's ornery that way.

There are some lovely quiet corners, like this one, with a skilfully made statue

and of course all the exuberant airships and mills, make it feel like a trip through time (though hard to tell whether you're going backward or forward!

Vbinnia Radek is an opensim oldbie with a penchant for complicated constructions, industrial heritage, proudly grungy buildings and lots of vehicles and gadgets that she makes available not only on this sim but also on Lani Mall. Each invention has a gloriously Victorian feel to it, and they're usually complex and mesmerizing.

Any kind of shop, with dozens of textures and scripts all in a small space, can be laggy in a way one might not expect (big objects often 'weigh' far less than small, in our experience) but to visit here as a group, is so fun that it is definitely worth it.

Praia Brasil our next stop, it's a new grid located in Brazil, just in case the name hadn't given it away, with its golden beaches made for nudists (glad I managed to snap a shot when nobody was around)...

There are plenty of people on Virtual Brazil and they welcomed us with a great musical set. This is a community that knows how to party. They did their best to communicate, although Portuguese is naturally the dominant language and they're not used to having a lot of strangers drop by.  That made our visit even more interesting really, like RL travel, you go with the flow and try to sample the local culture... often good to bring a friend or relative with you, just in case you need backup...

Just kidding, they're friendly and harmless and very musical. Afterwards, time to explore the glorious waterways and architecture. The perfect place for a summer R&R

Finally a party on Phaandoria grid, on the epic Der Krater nightclub.

This grid is home to Arielle and Phaandor,  and features many other regions beyond this epic volcano build. Good music, good building skills, and good company.

The best way to bat the summer heat - keep moving!

HG Addresses

Vbinnia Radek's steampunk region                 hg.osgrid.org:80:Steam

A New Brasilian grid                                       mundo.virtualbrasil3d.com.br:8002

Phaandoria dancing region                             phaandoria.de:8002:der krater

White Paper, Wizard's, and OSGrid Art

 This week, three stops on Safari, with plenty of art to show for it!

CapCat Ragu met us on Craft Grid, where she has a region dedicated to art experiments and education, called IPVerso.

The sim exists because CapCat (In RL Catarina Carniero de Sousa) uses it to work with her students on digital art at a college in Viseu, Portugal, where she lives. 

IPVerso is a long term project, giving artists a chance to try out their wings (sometimes more literally than others) in virtual worlds, and exploring the possibilities that offers now - it's an ever expanding possibility for creators, and so it's exciting to know that mainstream schools recognize the usefulness of opensim as a means of promulgating this branch of the arts.

Capcat works in collaboration with a number of other artists, and their collective, Delicatessen, has been known in Second Life for years as a place of excellence.