Sybella

Vlad Helsing: on est en voice je ne sais pas si tu nous entend

So, you know how I'm always on at you about 'we have to do the Safari in Local Chat and not in Voice', bla bla bla, because Voice tends to exclude a lot of folks whose English is pretty good but who, in the evening on a weeknight, aren't up to following a full conversation at top speed; not to mention those of us who, for one reason or another, can't join in with anything audio during the tour, and you all secretly (or not so secretly) think that's a terrible idea...  

Max the Guide, on Sybella

That's why it's always fun to meet with the frenchies, who absolutely don't care that the majority of Safari visitors can't follow a thing being said in Voice. It's good for your souls, to see things from the other point of view, and it gives me a delicious opportunity to say I told you so. But that's not the main reason we hopped over to Ignis Fatuus Grid this week. 

Pure Lunacy at Magicland

Lunacy? No, it was a great idea. Stone and  Hope Lunasea invited the Safari over to Neverworld grid for a visit this week to Magicland. The theme of the visit to this region is theme parks, as in Disney and co - all the fun of the fair. We met outside the cinema.

Stone Lunasea: Welcome everyone to Hopestone's Magicland!

James.Atlloud: great music

Hope Lunasea: Hey there, everyone. Welcome.

Dings Digital: Hello :)

Generally there are two Thirzas on every tour, one arrives before the crowd, and the other is the last to arrive, so it's always interesting to see the two different perceptions of a sim on the same screen. This region responded manfully to the onslaught of 15 plus strangers from all over the HG. In terms of avatars, Safari people on the whole try to go for something not too complex or full of daft scripts and HUDs, (using a legacy body instead of a basic mesh one can instantly lower your complexity by over 100k, for example) and we generally also try to keep our My Suitcase folder pretty empty, knowing that the sim has to comb through all our belongings when we arrive, including broken assets we maybe have from freebie shopping in OSGrid, and that all takes resources away from the main thing, which is showing us the sim.

Star Ravenhurst: Hugs... I see a lot of body parts floating around,  and I have no hair!!

Dings Digital: who's leg is this?

Taarna Welles: Not mine :)

James Atlloud: Am I all white again?

Thirza Ember: no james you're in a dinner suit

Kelso Uxlay: Nice suit James

James Atlloud: ty Kelso - my favorite so far

Stone Lunasea: There is a big gold dance ball up in the air behind me if anyone wants to dance :)

Taarna Welles: Need to dance with this music

Thirza Ember: lol gradually all will arrive... it's like going by train, some of your stuff is in the end wagon, but it will all get to the station eventually

Govega Sachertorte: lol give it a minute

Yara Eild: Hello everyone :-)

Alex .Salamander: Hello everyone :-)

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Alex and Yara!

Hope Lunasea: Lots of people. lol...

Tosha Tyran: you are all... alll... transparent

Govega Sachertorte: yea but slowly coming in

Tosha Tyran: now I am all dressed, dear Forest... to me...

Forest Azure: lol, that is what you think, Tosha :)

Star Ravenhurst: Nope Tosha, still undies - Gotta love traveling the Hypergrid!

Stone Lunasea: Alright, everyone rezzed in?... I thought I'd start with a bit of the park's history

Stone and Hope Lunacy

Stone Lunasea: Established in 2014 as That Place Amusement Park on SecondLife and in 2016 in Opensim, we quickly rose to fame as a Top 10 Hot Spot on SL and were eventually blogged by the Lindens and made a Featured Destination. We still operate a park on SL in the Linula region, next door to The Unknown Theme Park on the mainland. We've changed grids over the years, but have been on Neverworld for over 3 years now and are pretty sure this is our permanent home. It's a great place to live!

James Atlloud: So good to hear positive stories about grids.

Dings Digital: yes, great

Stone Lunasea: Magicland, our most recent expansion, was launched just last year at Christmas time. This region features our Electrical Light Parade, Movie Theater, and Shopping District. There's also a few rides here: the Magic Carpet Ride, Alien Abduction, and Santa's Sleigh Ride, a left over from Christmas, as well as our Hot Air Balloon Merry-Go-Round. Finally, behind the theater you'll find Mickey's Fishing Hole, where you can fish for prizes. We have Free Movies every Monday here at Magicland Theater, the schedule can be found at the main landing point or on the wall inside the theater.

The Cinema schedule. In the foreground, Uta Warbaum

Hope Lunasea: Oh yes and I think Neverworld is our perfect fit. :)

Stone Lunasea: yeah we try to do both, they both have their pros & cons

Thirza Ember: why both? what does each offer that's different in your experience

Stone Lunasea: Honestly....not much at this point. We're actually talking about shutting the SL park down....eventually Used to be the traffic but our traffic here nearly matches SL these days so it's more nostalgia keeping the SL park open

Lynnestra Parker: What is the name of the park in SL?

Stone Lunasea: Hopestone

Thirza Ember: do parks make money in sl? if you don't mind me asking

Stone Lunasea: haha no

Forest Azure: you wat to open one, Thirza?

Thirza Ember: I already have a freak show, Forest

Stone Lunasea: Back when there were a lot of parks on SL we did, at least half the tiers. But these days I might see $5 in tips on a good month.

Lynnestra Parker: I love amusement parks in virtual. I don't get sick on the rides. hehehe

Hope Lunasea: We have plenty here to ride, Lynnestra. :)

Stone Lunasea: same here, for me I started building rides after a car accident left me walking with a cane. I can't ride real ones anymore so I build them in VR

Stone Lunasea: First up, we'd like to present our Electrical Light Parade.   If everyone could kindly clear the Main Street & move onto the sidewalks that'd be great :)  It takes a couple minutes for the parades to reach this part of Main Street, but it syncs with the music best if we watch here in front of the theater.

Grid: Ladies & Gentlemen! Boys & Girls! MagicLand proudly presents our spectacular pageant of Night time Magic & Imagination! Please set your viewers to SHARED ENVIRONMENT, enable radio and prepare to be dazzled by the Mainstreet Electrical Light Parade!

Hope Lunasea: /me holds in excitement. :)

James Atlloud: OH wow.

Lynnestra Parker: How cool!!!

Dings Digital: woooooooot

Forest Azure: you are typing my back, James :)

James Atlloud: does it tickle?

Forest Azure: yes! /me will have sweet sweet revenge

Hope Lunasea: lol

Tosha Tyran: Joshua! You are safe now

Joshua 7: rofl

James Atlloud: So a fence for Safari... hmmm

 Stone Lunasea: The parade took over 6 years to develop, all of the floats and NPCs were built by Hope, then I scripted everything to move, and play nice. Getting the floats to not rear end each other was harder than you'd think!

Hope Lunasea: It's to be sure you don't get ran over by Goofy. We know how he can get. And yes. The floats were made by me.

James Atlloud: I see Mickey and Minnie!

Govega Sachertorte: great team Stone is a great scripter and mover and Hope is a great builder of things

Stone Lunasea: we make a good team :)

Stone Lunasea: Should be seeing the parade coming down Main Street now and make sure Parcel media is on. The Electrical Light Parade has always held a special place in my heart. Growing up in California, I was at Disneyland frequently as a kid but the parade was always at Midnight; by that time, my tiny butt was sound asleep in my stroller! I got to see it a couple of times but it became an almost obession - and the Magicland Electrical Light Parade was born! Now everyone, no matter where they are, can enjoy a touch of that ol' Disney magic!

Govega Sachertorte: love the mushies

Dings Digital: lol great jazz music

Nexus Storm: Nice !!!

Tosha Tyran: wow, it looks lovely, can I hitch a ride?

Stone Lunasea: no, but I like that idea

Hope Lunasea: Interesting fact: I've never seen the Electrical Light Parade in real life so all this was watching like at least five different videos on YouTube.

Not all the NPCs showed up for the parade, but we got the general idea.

Lynnestra Parker: Pete's dragon!!!

Stone Lunasea: We have the parade every Monday in between the weekly movies at intermission, so there's always a chance to see it again in it's full glory :)

Akila Mobian: That was really cool! :D

Uta Warbaum:  BRAVOOOO!!!

Stone Lunasea: it was a lot of fun to build

Stone Lunasea: We have a double feature every Monday starting at 2pm grid time

Govega Sachertorte: it's on our website schedule 

Lynnestra Parker: The music is terrific too!

Gemmalynn Sabine: very impressive

Stone Lunasea: Next up we'd like to bring y'all over to the Amusement Park where the tour will continue. I'll summon The Doctor here shortly who will transport us as a group. Once The Doctor tells you to, touch the T.A.R.D.I.S. to be included in the group teleport.

The Doctor: Give me just a few seconds to tidy up and we'll be on our way!

Lynnesta Prarker: Hello Doctor. Got any gummy babies?

Dings Digital: do you have a bus?

eva Nowicka: oh, i want that TARDIS

The Doctor: Course set for Amusement Park.  Waiting 60 seconds for additional riders.  Touch me now to join this teleport.

The TARDIS teleport wouldn't play with us, possibly we overwhelmed it, but there was an easy fix...

Stone Lunasea: We have a hover taxi waiting for us at the amusement park but I'm not sure if it can handle this many rides so we may be walking, we'll try it :)

Thirza Ember: it went without us... but unlike Xenon's bus, at least we're not crashing into a river

Star Ravenhurst: Her bus was crazy with a mind of its own. 

Govega Sachertorte: omg lol who hasn't done that a million times we have so many roads here... we found out the secret to sim crossings.  it doesn't require anything special either but it works. Anyone want to know I will share at our next Never Riders today at 2 pm

Hope Lunasea: If all else fails, you can open up your big Map and type in "Amusement Park" and just TP that way.

Taarna.Welles: ok

Stone Lunasea: Sorry for the glitches! Welcome to The Rabbit Hole, this is the original entrance to the Second Life park and was installed in Opensim due to popular demand. To begin, simply walk in and allow yourself to fall down the rabbit hole.

Stone Lunasea: Touch the potion on the counter if you get stuck. :)

Whirli Placebo takes a sip

White Rabbit: shouts:  Welcome to Wonderland! Start your adventure by going down the Rabbit Hole. If you get stuck, EAT something or DRINK something; and remember, the way forward is sometimes the way back.

Stone Lunasea: Ok, I think everyone's down here?  Welcome to the Amusement Park! Out on the river here, you'll see part of the Alice in Wonderland ride, a truly memorable experience! This region features more than 25 different rides and attractions, we don't have time to see them all today but we'll see a good amount of them - and you are always welcome to come back later!

Brad: whispers: Hold on to your prims, off we go!!

Brad the bus driver had a secret up his sleeve... it was a flying bus! Up we soared into the sky, too quick for my camera, but very impressive in person.

Star Ravenhurst: Are we moving and I don't realize it?

Whirli.Placebo: the show must go on

Dings Digital: yayyyy

James Atlloud: whaa? expectations challenged!!

Akila Mobian: That caught me off guard lol

Stone Lunasea: Our first stop is our Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, based off of the original ride at Disneyland, it boasts an exciting adventure where you will encounter pirates, have to evade the Royal Navy and survive the deadly Kraken! If that's too much action for you, we also have the Wild Rapids ride, a great way to cool off on those hot summer days!

Govega Sachertorte: a flying coach

Thirza Ember: and in a good way, this week

Whirli Placebo: ooohing and ahhing

Stone Lunasea: Our Video Rides have taken years to develop. Using specially encoded Point-of-View (POV) videos, we take you into a full immersion experience and transport you into the real world rides! Featuring rides such as Roger Rabbit's ToonTown, Harry Potter & The Escape from Gringott's, and The Simpsons, we have some of the most popular rides on the planet! If you're feeling nostalgic, you can take a trip with Captain EO which was discontinued from Disneyland in the early 1990s and even take a trip to Endor on Star Tours, your ticket to the stars!

James Atlloud: That was so cool!

Inside the Simpsons ride

Stone Lunasea: A special note about Star Tours, the video sequence we use is actually not from the real life ride itself! An absolutely brilliant YouTuber went through the old videos of the original ride, recreated every last detail in mesh, then filmed it in 3D. I've been doing this 20 years & I just thought someone had finally managed to upscale that grainy old 1980s footage to HD, but nope. It's truly a sight to see and an awesome application of 3D VR tech!

Whirli Placebo: amazing, Stone

Stone Lunasea

Stone Lunasea: There's more to see but in true Wonderland style, WE'RE LATE! Go figure. We'll go a head and wrap things up here, if everyone wants to jump off the Taxi :) If anyone has any questions or feedback, we're all ears. Hope you guys enjoyed the tour and let me know if you need a landmark to come back later!

Gemmalynn Sabine: thank you so much! That was amazing!

Thirza Ember: I love the bus, it  has restored my faith in mass transport... thanks so much everyone from neverworld and of course Stone and Hope most of all

Stone Lunasea: yeah Brad did pretty good considering I stretched his Taxi from a 4 seater to 20 LOL

Star Ravenhurst: We have been known to sit in each others laps!

Dabici Straulino: thanks, nice colourful tour

Tosha Tyran: for the place, for showing us, for the imaginative rides and all the fun

Dings Digital: yes, thank you so much, it is wonderful

Francisco Koolhoven: this was great, thank you!

Stone Lunasea: Thank you all so much for coming! This has been fun!

Govega Sachertorte: thank you for coming

Forest Azure: thanks a lot! that was real fun :)

HG Address: 

hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002:Magicland
hg.neverworldgrid.com:8002:Amusement Park

Paela Incognito

Incognito? A little less these days. Anyone who's been around Opensim for any length of time will be familiar with the name Paela Argus, and if you've ever dropped in at LBSA Plaza on your way somewhere, or looking for some help, or company, you maybe have seen the attractive lady avie hanging out there. 

Recent events on OSGrid have given Paela even more visibility, so it seemed like a good time to get to know the person behind the screen a little better. Starting with the basics of good manners. 

Thirza Ember:  I know that nowadays you go by Paela Osgrid inworld, rather than Paela Argus. Do you prefer if people refer to you as ‘he’ or ‘she’? 

Paela Argus: I honestly don’t mind. People can use either “he” or “she” when speaking about me — it doesn’t bother me at all. In the virtual world, I present myself as a woman. It’s my way of breaking the realism of real life, keeping a clear boundary between virtual life and real life. This separation is very important for me — especially for the balance of my real-world marriage. Because first and foremost, I’m a husband and a father to a big family. And I take that role seriously.

Thirza Ember: You’ve been on OSGrid for a long time, Paela, what is the secret of your longevity? 

Safari Does Bad Driving

Oh yes, very  Bad - but in a very good sense! This was our second stop of Week 11 of HG Safari 2025, and like our first destination, this build is brand new.

Yara Eild, SoA BAD, and Alex Salamander

SoA BAD and Siwas have a new attraction on their grid, CCI - the Nuerburgring. Really, that should be 'Nürburgring' with an umlaut. But, as we all know, Opensim doesn't do umlauts, so there's an extra e in there. And speaking of 'extra', this build is extra in every way - extra large, extraordinarily detailed, and extra fun. The idea of having a Safari here came from two Safari regulars - Yara Eild and Alex Salamander.

Actually, that should be 'Nuerburgring with Nordschleife'  (the HG address is of course at the end of the post) and that is because this race track has a long and complex history. Nordschleife - the 'North Loop' - extends the circuit from just over 5 km to a whopping 21km. 

Safari Ferðast um Ísland

Back for season 2, and HG Safari was invited to come and do a 'ferðast', or tour, of Jimmy's recent build, Iceland, on Wolf Territories Grid. A nice big crowd showed up to inaugurate the season, which will last just seven weeks this time, ending at the end of May, so if you're thinking you might want to attend, don't delay. 

This lovely sim, our first stop this week, was built in a matter of a few days by Jimmy, and it absolutely captures the spirit of the island. HG Address - yep you guessed it, at the end of the post.

Jimmy Olsen, builder of Iceland

On hand to take the lead for the tour, the lovely Tessa and Xenon Darrow, a brilliant and funny lady, both were ready to help us find our way around this interesting sim. 

We arrived outside the Hallgrimskirkja, the Lutheran cathedral of Reykjavik, dating from the 1980's. 

WB Osgrid

 Welcome back, OSGrid! About a dozen people were on LBSA a few minutes ago when these pics and gifs were made. 

LBSA back up! with Admins Sarah Kline and Paela Argus. 

People dancing, chatting, laughing, working... and a lot of them trying to rebuild their avie. Ellen Tiratzo was there, talking about the best way to stop being a cloud. Carmen Ever, very smart, was totally prepared for this day. 

Carmen Ever: I had a folder with my outfit all ready, and so when I got here, I transferred it from Neverworld , and it loaded immediately

Una, IARs, and OARs

In the troubled period since OSGrid went into long term maintenance, Unadecal Masala has found himself in a unique position. He not only rents regions to people in OSGrid, he also rents full independent grids. Most of these grids are small and private in nature, but some are public and they operate their own land rental schemes. Una doesn't have a grid of his own, his motives are simple.

Unadecal Masala: As a mark of respect for their efforts in attracting members and building their own communities, I decided at the beginning that I would never compete with them by setting up a grid where I rent land. I do have a private grid, but this is for testing purposes only.

We met up on HIE region, in the Hypergrid Expo park, on which is still open, if you haven't yet gone around and picked up the LMs, information cards, and freebies. I wondered what Una's reaction was to the whole OSgrid situation, and what had been the effect on his business and his clients. First reaction?

Unadecal Masala: Absolute dismay. Borderline desperation. Not only because of the grid going into long term maintenance, but because of the total asset wipe. Almost twenty years of OpenSim history lost in the blink of an eye.

Easter Hunt at Mana

Literally speaking, 'Ignis Fatuus' means foolish fire, but there is nothing foolish about the fabulous builds on this outstandingly beautiful French grid. And once again, this spring, grid owners Max Well and Nadir Rae are making imaginations soar with their farfetched fantasies. An Easter Hunt, beginning on 20 April, is just part of the fun! 

Full HG Address at the end of the post, of course.

Here we are on Mana, on of a bunch of new regions springing up on Ignis - this is the region where the Hunt will be held. When you arrive in this intensely blue place, you're immediately reminded of the importance of music in the lives of these two creators, in particular, Nadir's love of piano which extends to her DJ work over in SL, something she's been doing for over a decade. Look at those waterside notes.

Prince's Maze

Prince Amor:  quite a bit changed since last, with OSGrid closing up etc.. we are setting just over 100 regions, of which 20 are public, the rest are residential.

We met on Maze Grid, Prince's principality since OSgrid went offline for long term maintenance back on 4 March of this year. It's far from being a small place. Alongside the many residential sims, now home to many of those who rented from prince of Amor back on OSGrid, there are twenty that are public spaces, with freebie areas or art and fan builds on them, all worth a visit.

The Welcome region has an open air down to earth feel to it, with places to play and dance and hang out, but also teleports to other points of interest and a large Building Supplies area, where you can quickly pick up anything you're missing. I wondered how Prince has been weathering the recent events.

Prince Amor:   I feel let down, that is pretty well it.  I have 150 users, so I have 100 renters that were all  OSGrid... most made it here though.

Thankfully between social media and word of mouth, it is a lot more difficult these days for a person to remain out of the loop when something big like this happens. Rather like an earthquake, there had been tremors for some little time on OSgrid, giving us all warning. Prince wasn't in Opensim when the last great outage of OSGrid happened, from August 2014 to around February 2015, but he wasn't unprepared for the events of this Spring.

Prince Amor:  This was, for me, the first Big One. Lots of minor ones I weathered along the way.  I would have my renters  make accounts on my Dreamgrid  so when OSGrid went down they could have access to their lands etc.. in December when OSGrid went down then I learned how to do the stand alone so I evolved just in time for the big one

Thirza Ember: so did you get your oars and your renters stuff out in time before the whole thing went down?
Prince Amor:   oars - yes, but .iars were a horrible failure for most part, the ip protections totally broke them making them useless. But the OSGrid admin made the right choice of course. Once that big 6 tb breaks, or whatever size...

Thirza Ember: Really, relying on one grid, no matter who is running it, is kind of risky. People who say it could never happen to them because they take more precautions, sure, but ... hubris alert.

Prince Amor:  that is right and we have seen it again and again with smaller grids,  no matter what they are running. I really didn't lose thing. I know some  totally missed it  but my people did pretty good. That is why I would push my people to have an account with the Dreamgrid and here even but when it happened of course I pushed them as hard as I could. We still have things pop invisible or whatever as they wipe that drive, textures in the stores etc...

Prince of Amor

Thirza Ember: you are now transitioning from landlord of sims on a big grid, to grid owner. That is actually a different role... you have gone from being maintenance guy, to the mayor of the place have you noticed that change yet, how are you coping with the role, and do you like it?

Sunday HIE25

 The final day of HIE was another spectacular mix of cultures and languages, with presentations touching on a variety of themes from alien visitations, to gallery governance, to the clash of cultures, to the technology of the future. All this, and a fabulous international set by jazz and blues singer Forest Azure. 

Attendance was strong once again, with 40 plus in the audience to hear first of all Luciana Mattei speak about her wonderful primary school project, unAcademy, located both in the real world, of course, and on Craft-World grid, where she has a sim of the same name.

Saturday HIE25

The HIE region filled up nicely for our conference on Saturday, with a peak of 52 avatars on the sim during MorlitaM and Cherry Manga's flawless performance of "Dual Wave", an outstanding audio visual experience none of us are likely to forget. But lots more happened also!
For the full schedule, don't forget to bookmark the HIE website

The event kicked off with a five language, five person panel, welcoming everyone; Emil Jannings  in English , Richi Rizzoli in German, Minord Loup in French, Lorenza Colicigno in Italian and AnaMari Maggi in Spanish.

There were six events, apart from the Welcome panel, three in German and three in French. 

Loru Destiny of ArtDestiny grid spoke first, on her own philosophy of Opensim, the importance of tolerance, of creativity and exploration, and of course of friendship and community.

Littlefield Dozen

 Wow Littlefield grid just turned 12 today, and as always Water and co have put on another splendid display of their grid's goodies on the Anniversary sim, HG Address at the end of the post.

Walter Balazic

As ever, along with a place for the dancing festivities, on the Anniversary sim there are lots of displays that show off the wide variety of regions on Littlefield.

Hype for HIE

 Today is the Opening party for the Hypergrid International Expo, a two day conference - Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 April, held on HGSafari grid, on a dedicated sim called HIE. 

Tonight's musical guests are Zoree Jupiter, Khiron Ametza, and Wolem Wobbit, giving us three hours of beautiful music to enjoy.

It's an opportunity also to get another look at the Expo Park and see if you missed any of the great Freebies and information that can be picked up on the 130 different publicity booths dotted around the sim.

The full schedule of the event can be found on the HIE website, in simple terms, the event begins at 9am SLT which is 6pm in Europe, there's a German session and a French session on Saturday, which starts at 12 noon SLt or 9pm in Europe. On Sunday, the same routine, with an italian session at 9am SLT (6pm in Europe) and a Spanish session at 12:00 SLT (9pm in Europe).

As you may have read, there are Subtitles provided inworld, so you can follow along what is being said by the speakers even if you don't speak all the languages.

A great mix of art spectaculars, interesting talks, and fine music - in company with many friends old and new. The event concludes with a fabulous set by songstress Forest Azure. 

Hope to see you there !

HG Address grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Elements of Azure

 In virtual worlds, the weather tends always to be nice. Bright sun, azure sky, or something dramatic to create the setting for a particular build. But sometimes it's good just to stop and think about the weather itself. What is it, how does it affect our moods, our sense of self and our interactions with others? A change in windlight can dramatically alter the context of an art build, ask any artist who has seen their installation wrongly lit, they generally get pretty steamed up about it. Weather is mood, and mood is fundamental to any creative endeavor.

Forest Azure at her build on the Opensim World's Fair

At the Opensim World's Fair build, on Wolf Territories Grid, (exact Hop at the end of the post) Forest Azure explores the theme of 'The Elements' as experiences inworld. She has evoked a potent portrait of the emotions that the weather can fill us with - mysterious, passionate, pensive, and more. 

It's a series of beautiful black and white photos, beautifully presented in a structure by Rez Rezzal that embraces and proposes the images without encroaching on their atmosphere. Forest is a fan of his style, and with good reason!

Forest Azure: he is all about the feel of something, an the story.

'Winter Wreath' is a glimpse into the liminal world of windows... what side are we on?

A lot of work goes into creating these scenes and tableaux, since, of course, Opensim has no natural weather of its own! So to get the right balance and vibe is down to the artist herself. The delicate brutalist walls of this build perfectly set off the monochrome images, topped off with a thundercloud in miniature, hanging above it at just the right height. 

Forest Azure's The Elements is one of the many art gems on display at the World's Fair, be sure to check it out, in this final week of the show. You won't regret it!.

HG Address/hop

hop://grid.wolfterritories.org:8002/OpenSim%20Worlds%20Fair/1168/1215/22

Bloom, and the Cat's Meow

Bloom Peters has made a major breakthrough with her ongoing project to make it possible to use MIDI  (the Musical Instrument Digital Interface that lets you connect electronic instruments to computers) to musically animate objects inworld. If you have ever read this blog or been on Safari, you'll have been blown away by Bloom's region Crescent Melody, with its fabulously crazy orchestra - here's us all enjoying a concert for Cornflakes Week 2024.

Looking at this gif, are you thinking what I'm thinking? How cool would it be to have the possibility of making your own musically inspired animated scenes - even a whole region - of objects all playing along to a tune. Well, that opportunity is just around the corner...

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I had to ask about the cats.

Thirza Ember: you'll keep the same look, the same animal orchestra?

Bloom Peters: nope it's getting a much more professional design so that on release date people can use it right away to create music or use it to control regions and things. There is a major breakthrough with the machine. I created a program in python. It's called "Midi to Opensim"

Lampi's Heart

Perhaps you're been depressed recently by that rather mean spirited ad on Opensimworld. Somewhat damned by self praise, it has probably turned off more people than it has attracted, as a possible home grid. To take the taste out of your mouth, why not go and see something completely different, and yet, in a way, an allegory that both real and virtual communities can benefit from, while enjoying some exceptional art. HG Address at the end of the post, of course.

The celtic ethereal beauty of Lampithaler Artist's Cloudshead Worldheart is breathtaking. Islands float and even fly away, uprooted from the great sim sea, seemingly freed of all the laws of physics, they form a little archipelago, untethered and fancy free. It's on Pangea Grid, a fabulous collective of truly creative people, run by the wonderful Marlon Wayne and ably maintained by the paws of Kitty Sarrasine,  who keeps the place in tip top shape, technically.

On arrival, you'll se a topiary lady with a book. It contains the German text outlining the story, but go to Lampi's website and you can read a sample of the plot in English. 

Party On

It's the weekend - Saturday night, and the place to be os Event Plaza. But wait - OSGrid is offline for long term maintenance! 

How can this be? 

The familiar triple tent and steel structure, a semicircle of dancing fun. It all looks very familiar, with just a little bit less lag than you generally would expect to find, even when arriving long after the party has started.

Destiny at the Movies

 It's finally here, Loru Destiny's fabulous Opensim Film festival. Months in the making, this unique event pitted the wits and witticism of all of Opensim's filmmakers, representing people from many different grids, languages, and parts of the world, all sharing their visions of the virtual world with us.

The sim has that 'somewhere way out West' look to it, with ruddy bluffs and a bit of a canyon, the ideal space in which to have a vast Drive In with all your favorite muscle cars and rusty trucks.

Getting International on AMV

Once again AMV grid is having their special International Diversity concert - indeed, maybe it's still going on! The idea, just like in 2024, is to have a bunch of singers from all over the planet to come in and do a 30 minute set, each one with a personalized backdrop reflecting their cultural roots, creating a feeling of vitality and world-trotting wonder from the comfort of our own desks, or, if we're honest, from a nice comfy chair.

Hypergridding has been a lagfest for the past few weeks, so I was expecting low framerates and a bit of a struggle but with over 30 people on the sim, once all the mesh boobs and brains shrunk back to their respective places, the whole sim was popping! 

Mr Mikie was singing when I arrived, followed by Cataplexia, who stepped in when Joao Frazao had an electrical outage. 

A Bayou Bye Bye

The final part of the final Safari of the season took us over to the brightly colored N'awlins build on Wyldwood Bayou Grid. It's a great combination of historical recreations, party venue, freebie mall (definitely worth exploring the sim for some unusual, useful, and beautiful finds) , and landscape with both swamp and street plan, a complete delight - HG address at the end of the post, of course! 

On hand to greet us, two Wyldwood stalwarts, Fitheach Eun and Kith Whitehawk. They held over the their traditional Carnival celebrations for us, so that the Safari could go out in style with a Louisiana spring in our step.

Kith Whitehawk: Now that's Mardi Gras brother!!!!

Luna Lunaria: These guys love playing rock blues :-)

Safari Boosts its Brains

Our first stop of the week was on Virtual Learning Village, usually this grid is mostly closed to Hypergrid tourists because it is a place of learning and meditation, for improving your brain health. What better place to end a hectic 10 weeks of HG travel. The sim has a European feel, like an elegant suburb in a historic city.

Lisenna welcomes the HG Safari group - arriving a little bit at a time, and in grey.

Lissena Wisdomseeker: Welcome to Virtual Learning Village!  VLV was created in 2018, but I have been active in Opensim since the first OSCC. I volunteer at the conference every year.  I had a region on Avacon first, then Max and I talked about developing our own grid. Our vision was to have a place outside of Second Life where we could offer our programs for organizations and groups who would benefit from a more private, controlled environment where they can design their own regions. Max's team has given this grid a very special ambiance and I am very proud of what we have built. Many thanks to Max and Buildwerk.

Lissena Wisdomseeker: whispers: Sunny has a place here, and Fran has helped us too

Maximillian Merlin: We are now in the Hypergrid region of Virtual Learning Village. The Virtual Learning Village is a non profit virtual 3D platform. The grid was developed by Lynne Berrett (Lissena Wisdomseeker) and Maximillian Merlin with his volunteer Buildwerk  team. Our umbrella nonprofit organization is the Ageless Mind Project. Our purpose is to provide lifelong learning of many kinds, all based on best practices for promoting brain health and total well-being.  The VLV grid offers limited access to and from the hypergrid, to protect our students. We have devoted much time and thought to making this virtual world more user-friendly and sheltered than SL can be. 

Dismayland, Undismayed!

Dismayland is one of the most unusual regions in Opensim, for its 'ban' on attachments, for its insulting NPCs and many scripted rides, and for the risk to life and limb! For the HG Safari visit this week, which was also Cornflakes Week, Spax Orion, the grid owner and the magician behind all these rides, lifted the no Mesh no Attachment rule, and allowed HG Safari to come and visit. 

Spax Orion

Spax had also prepared a special flying saucer ship toshow off the rides from the air, with the idea that people will get a good glimpse at the park and return to the rides on other occasions. It's one of those places where you can spend hours enjoying the variety or imaginative machines, but also the funny NPCs chatting and arguing with each other. Here's the lovely Siwas, resplendent in her many Biker attachments, enjoying the Nuclear Haste ride, as the rest of us rode around in the sky.

This week Opensim has been acting weird (well it has been doing so for several weeks, as many have noted) and lots of people are getting kicked or banned messages from places for no discernable reason. Poor James Atlloud managed to get refused entry on avatars from 3 different grids! And similar problems were found by many others. These are almost all not intentional messages by the grid owners.

There is, I'm afraid, nothing that I or the grid owners can do about that except to invite you to try again at another time, and say we're sorry we didn't have your company... and invite you not to make a drama out of a technical glitch, if at all possible.