At Atlas

Second stop on Safari this week - there are just two more tours left before we break for the summer, returning on September 7 - was on the francophone grid, Atlas. The Atlas crew is small but enthusiastic. Harthelie, Chip, and Jeff make up the team, and the grid aims at clean lines, low lag, and lots of tech innovation. 

The grid may be new but these guys are far from being opensim novices. Here is a post about Jeff Kelley from back when this blog was called Pings from the afterLife ,,, check it out,   'Hyper and Hamster' from February 2011

No newbies here, but lots of new ideas!

 Jeff Atlas: Our mission is to build a spot of technical knowledge around opensimulator. We have a variety of lectures and workshops on Linux, databases, networks, opensim administration, streaming, and our insanely fun scripting class every week. This is not place where you will see elaborate builds, although we plan to add some new scenes in the future. Atlas is currently four regions and the staff is composed of three : Harthelie, Chip and myself. We had, and will have more special events. Last was a fashion show. 134 NPCs were walking on the set, in sync with music. This is the kind of challenges we love, and the next will be yet more crazy.

The compass-point layout leads to the various zones of the Welcome Sim, including this informal meeting place, and as you can see the theme is classical, Roman.

Frank, Star with Harthelie and Chip dressed in rigorously Roman style.

Flashes of bright colors and a serene green lawn blend well with the cool clean white lines of the buildings. 

Jeff Kelley, canter.

Among the treasures on the region, a piece by Shenn Tao. He has a few regions on the grid where it's hoped he will be able to share some of his unique graceful and imaginative creations. 

Osiris Kane: very  beautiful  place

Thirza Ember: for those people, like me, who missed the fashions show you did back in February... is there a chance you will do a repeat performance?

Jeff Atlas: there will be another collection, as you know, fashion changes every year, so, you may expect a 2024 fashion show - we have now the engine set up

Jeff leads the way

Jeff Atlas: It is time now to visit Atlas himself. Please, check that your viewer follows region time, or force night mode if this is not the case. Also check that you enable Advanced lighting, since ce we make heavy use of projector lights.

The HG hub and dance hall, in the distance

 It's essential you have the environment set correctly (Midnight, with all the bells and whistles) otherwise you'll miss most of the fun. 

A quick walk across  the lawn, and we arrived at one of the region's twin pièces de résistance.

 It's Atlas re-imagined for the virtual world, where all things spring from that First Prim.

Jeff Atlas: Please, meet Atlas, the guardian of the grid.

Francisco Koolhoven: yes looks nice

Tosha Tyran: you mean, if he bends his knees a little more, we all fall of the world?

Mal Burns: def better than a plywood cube he's got there

Tosha Tyran: be strong, fellow, be strong!

Jeff Atlas: Finally, let's come outside for the gun salute. Then we will be ready to answer your questions or enjoy the night-club if you wish. Please beware, LOUD sounds coming. - it's better if you stay just around the outer circle

Alex Salamander: very nice

All these scripted lovelies led us to ask to be shown the Scripting School, on a nearby sim. Again, the emphasis is on fun and movement, even while learning! The 'ballistic teleport' Tosha said reminded her of Baron Munchausen and it certainly was NPIRL in a big way!

Jeff Atlas: some objects around are the scripts we have done recently, like these lovely colored balls, a camera follower... you can see various objects that are the result of our work -  the famous ballistic teleporter... here is a perfect object replicator, prim to prim

Star Ravenhurst: Do you have a class schedule and can anyone come?

Jeff Atlas: classes are every monday, sure anyone can come, unfortunately we use voice and we speak french, we can't use chat, that would be too slow, and none of us is a native english speaker

Star Ravenhurst: My little bit of French in school won't help me then

Tosha Tyran: I pledge for a class in german, it is the easiest to understand

Star Ravenhurst: They need to invent a voice translator. Like a Babblefish

Jeff Atlas: the difficulty with scripting is that you have to learn to program AND learn LSL, this is a lot for ppl with no background in computer languages

Tosha Tyran: oh, one question, Jeff, how is chatgpt doing with writing scripts=

Jeff Atlas: very bad

Tosha Tyran: I have tried it out for some simple scripts and it worked very well... as soon as it gets a little more complicated it has failed, but I thought it might be me.

Jeff Atlas: ChatGPT don't really understand what it say, it's just repeat pieces of text it have read

Tosha Tyran: ah, but it can do other things pretty darn well

Star Ravenhurst: Maybe it will learn over time and become better

Mal Burns: doesn't it depend on chatgpt finding some scripts to steal? if there is no script, etc

Jeff Atlas: problem with ChatGPT is that you have to be a specialist to check if what it says is correct or not, so, why would you use it if you already know ?

Mal Burns: exactly jeff

Thirza Ember: certainly, there is a big satisfaction in making your own script and seeing it work

Tosha Tyran: but it also does some pretty funny things, like writing a comical version of a goethe poem, and it does very good ...but the scripts... sigh, not so goodtranslations

LadyKa 007: So, with ou without ChapGPT, we need you, Jeff

Jeff Atlas: I'm there for you, Ladyka :)

Star Ravenhurst: Tosha is having too much fun! ... Stress relief!!

Jeff Atlas: as you see, we are focused on serious, boring things

Star Ravenhurst: Awww..it is fun!

Jeff Atlas: scripting is fun - gives some headaches, though

Thirza Ember: not possible in real life = the big fun of virtual!

Jeff Atlas: exactly

Star Ravenhurst: *-* YeSS! *-* it is. I can do some, but I want and need to learn more.

Tosha Tyran: it is a pain in the ass, sorry

Jeff Atlas: what gives the more pain is 3D geometry, this are quaternions and this in NOT fun at all

Star Ravenhurst: Any math is a pain! It hurts my artistic brain.

Star gets cannoned

Speaking of pain

Thirza Ember: ambulance for Mal!

Mal Burns: urk... teach me to touch stuff I don't know

Tosha Tyran: but Mal is cool... he doesn't even lose his hat

Star Ravenhurst: Watch out! Mal on the loose!

Jeff Atlas: scripting is a new class, we had (and will have) lectures on various topics, eg setting up a grid either at home or in the datacenter

Tosha Tyran: to be truthful: in the beginning I thought it might be a wee bit boring.,.. and now I just don't want to leave, there are so many astonishing things here - to me it seems all a mystery, and I just mysteries :D

Jeff Atlas: building becomes more and more technical with meshes and PBR

Tosha Tyran: what is PBR?

Jeff Atlas: Physically Based Rendering aka. 'Materials' but extended - for each object side, you can have a diffuse texture, a bump texture, a specular one, and soon a 'metallic' and 'reflection' map... this is the major revision going up at Linden's, which may bring real rendering to SL/opensim, on the par on what you can expect today in a video game

Tosha Tyran: real reflection? or a bitmap fake reflection

Star Ravenhurst: The Sims/EA have been able to do reflections for years

Jeff Atlas: reflection probes... it will be a massive overhaul for builders, as will 0.9.3 will be for administrators... viewers are evolving, regions will not be limited to power of 2 sizes

Thirza Ember: I'm still dealing with the concept of a Jeff in a toga and not in a space suit... you're bending my mind

Jeff Atlas: it's difficult for me, Thirza but our art director decided so...

Star Ravenhurst: I like Togas. Grins

Thirza Ember: well, if you've got legs, why not show them off, I guess

Tosha Tyran: Jeff, this has been most interesting and fascinating, thank you ever so much, and indeed - I am looking forward what the future will bring :)

Jeff Atlas: thank you for visiting Atlas

Thirza Ember: compliments to Chip and Harth and Jeff for all they have done so far!

Harthelie Atlas: merci thirza

Chip Atlas: merci bonne fin de soiree a toutes et tous

Star Ravenhurst: Thank you for having us - I love the cannon... I wonder if it will fit in my pocket?

HG Address: atlasgrid.fr:8002:Atlas

 hop://atlasgrid.fr:8002/Atlas/137/123/22