Snoots in the City

Mal Burns: Hi Snoots

Alexina Proctor: hi da Snoots.

Prax Maryjasz: Hello da Snoots

Sun Tzu: Greeting Snoots and thanks for having us

Sun Tzu: Odd my text does not show up in local for some reason

Kelso Uxlay: Hooo laggy

Snoots Dwagon: There are LOTS of textures and thousands of prims.  So it may take a while to rez.  Please walk in little circles to help it. :D

Thundergod Thor: It's been a while since I've been here but it's an awesome build.

          Lag is blamed on lots of things, on bandwidth, on less than stellar graphics cards, on poorly compiled scripts, on the Viewer (always a favorite), on server configuration, on voodoo - the list is exhaustive and exhausting.  That makes it an interesting experiment to have two avatars inworld, both on the same computer and using the same viewer, both having loaded the region previous to the trip, but each experiencing the sim very differently. 

          Safari Regulars will not be at all surprised to learn that the Thirza who arrived before the rest of the group had zero lag either in chat or in textures (call it 'owner's eye' - the way the sim creator experiences their own build), but the Thirza who was one of the last arrivals suffered the classic symptoms: seeing clouds, falling through floors, rubber-banding, and stuck in chat lag limbo. Immensely frustrating.

          It's handy to see the Safari this way,  it's a reminder that our trips have something of the quality of the bumblebee - flying in the face of all probability. 

Snoots Dwagon: Let me know when ready to start Thirza. :D

Thirza Ember: if you're suffering lag, friends, bear in mind the poor old server is trying to hand out hundreds of textures to everyone, so give it a chance 

Snoots Dwagon: There's THOUSANDS. :D

Lucy Afarensis: I sat but I am not

Alan.Scot: orange clouds everywhere :(

Dabici Straulino: even chat is laggy

Lorin Tone: yes

Thundergod Thor: It is indeed.

Snoots Dwagon: A bit of a note on building technique, for you builders out there. First, I am moving around and have no lag.   So such will have a great deal to do with your computer. Replicant City was built using original, ZERO-LAG scripting

Alan Scot: I got  a superfast pc and exposed breasts

Lucy Afarensis: lol

Nara Nook: ummm

Dabici Straulino: I am sorry, it is middle PM for me and there is less lag in my real life garden.  Sorry

          Replicant City is a sort of gallery, collection, or toybox if you prefer, of scifi memorabilia and tributes. The main landing area is a skybox containing ships, robots, posters and other sci-fi paraphernalia from some of the best loved scifi films and TV shows of the past 50 years, including Tron, Firefly, Star Trek, Blade Runner, Dr Who, and Stargate. 

          Alongside the 3D items are a vast quantity of posters, photos, diagrams, and memes from the shows, laid out in galleries below the landing level.
Ard Rhys: it looks great

Snoots Dwagon: I built most of this myself, beginning in 2010, with some few exceptions. The entire City was mostly built from scratch, it usually takes HOURS to see the whole city, if not days. Over here are the signs to help you get around. There is a map. A book of the history. A self-guided TOUR system and an instant-teleport sign, but if you look at it closely, you can see the various themes here. Replicant City is a REGION IN A REGION. So we have Fantasy on the ground, and science fiction in the sky... two regions in one

Thundergod Thor: Star Trek is my favorite

Kelso and Snoots head off towards the Star Trek pavilion

Luna Lunaria: sorry my chat is really lagging it seems

Snoots Dwagon: The first thing I would like to show you is our unique Stargate ...Ard, may I ask your assistance here? As you know, most Stargates require complex entries to get to your destination. On this one, you only need press the Yellow button and you go to the spot you want, based on your recent chat. For example if you say STAR TREK like I just did, the Stargate now knows where you want to go.

Thirza Ember: worth it though, some great images

Snoots Dwagon: so as a group which would you prefer:  Star Trek, Doctor Who, or Firefly?

Ard Rhys: star trek

Snoots Dwagon: shouts: If you see this wall, there is a huge picture.   It shows the relative sizes of space ships in the sci fi universe

Thundergod Thor: Yes I see that

Snoots Dwagon: You will also notice these blue consoles along the wall. These are BLUEPRINT consoles.  They contain blueprints of TEN different Starships

Thundergod Thor: Very nice Snoots

Tina Bey inspects the blueprints

Snoots Dwagon: Okay, now I am going to take you to the Enterprise Starship.  This is a non-canon Starship built especiallyl for Replicant City... and is THREE REGIONS LONG. 

Snoots Dwagon: As you can see, this is a huge bridge.  It was built by Sailor Vasiliev and donated for this ship.

Thundergod Thor: this is amazing

Snoots Dwagon: I think this is my favorite starship bridge.  It was totally Sailor's original design... If you all will follow me, I would like to show you our unique ASTROMETRICS LAB... Kelso, would you please press the panel in front of you? This is an active Astrometrics Lab with three menues

Astrometrics Station: SOL

Thundergod Thor: very nice

Snoots Dwagon: It also has the ability to add or remove window panels

Thundergod Thor: that really is awesome, now we can see where we went.

Snoots Dwagon: shouts: We've only scratched the surface of Replicant City. This ship is large and can take a while to explore on its own

Snoots Dwagon: The Hall of Funny was started in 2010. It has been upgraded for 12 years but it grew and grew and now it surrounds the entire city The Hall of Funny contains several sections:  Sci Fi, Mundane Humor, The Hall of Elves, The Hall of Dragons, and the Hall of Cosplay This section here is just a small sample.  There are literally THOUSANDS of signs here.  A note for builders:  These halls were designed specifically so that texture viewing is limited from any one location. That's why the halls twist and turn, to obscure excessive texture loading.

          I think we just found the source of the lag... The memes are great though, forming a sort of archive of TV references going back decades. As might be predicted, the server had calmed down by this point in our journey, though sadly, quite a lot had found it too frustrating and had moved on with their day. Still, nothing prevents them (and you!) from visiting on another occasion, the sim is open 24/7. 

Snoots Dwagon: Welcome to the Firefly Eternity, a sister ship of the Serenity. This ship is 105m long, 1000 prims, all linked as one object.  And yes, it can fly.  It can hold 23 passengers, it is an original creation. This ship is fully interactive.  Please feel free to go crazy.

Wizardoz Chrome: WOW

Beth Ghostraven: that's amazing

Brian Too: press a few buttons :)

Flight deck, Firefly Eternity

Snoots Dwagon: I hope everyone has enjoyed the tour.  Wish I had another hour we could explore more. We've explored about 10% of Replicant City. There are actually NINE Starships floating around the City. Please feel free to come back anytime and take the self-guided tour.

Ard Rhys: Thanks for the tour, Snoots Definitely a place to revisit

Thundergod Thor: very nice Snoots

The engine on Firefly Eternity

Beth Ghostraven: Snoots, where did all of this come from? Did you collect it all? or build it?

Snoots Dwagon: I built most of it Beth Over 12 years Some items were donated by other builders, such as the Enterprise spaceship

Thundergod Thor: really good builds take time, lots of it.

Beth Ghostraven: omg that's AMAZING!!! yes, good builds take time, definitely

Snoots Dwagon: This was a project I always wanted to build on SL, but it was physically impossible.  This kind of thing can only be done on Opensim

HG Address: hg.osgrid.org:80:Elvensong  then use the teleport to go up to Replicant City