Giddy about MIDI

 You already know this, but MIDI files, although often used for music, aren't like your average audio file. Instead of saving a continuous set of notes or sounds, like say an MP3 file, MIDI  (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) makes a tiny file out of every single noise. That means, each one can be tweaked to change the tone or the tempo, but it also means that you can assign each note on a keyboard to an inworld object, which would then move, make a sound, or do something else.

If like me your brain is now semi fried at this concept, yet intrigued by the possibilities, why not check out the work of Bloom Peters over on Winxtropia grid. She has been bringing MIDI to virtual worlds, so that you can either animate a fantastic 'orchestra' to move and play sounds forming a melody, has been the dream of Bloom Peters of Winxtropia for many years. 

If you've ever visited the region Crescent Melody, you may already be familiar with the core idea behind her MIDI project. Cats and instruments and clapping hands all move to the command of the MIDI tune being played. Here's an example if the Safari crew dancing on the sim some time back... these cats are a classic example of how Bloom ties each MIDI 'note' or file to a specific object on the build.

So this idea is far from new to Bloom, but her real aim is to make it available to other people. As she says, a musician could develop it to make any object move or flash or change color, creating a really bold and immersive experience for the audience, or a very cool video to go with their music.

Therefore the next step was demonstrate the interface and explain how it works - there's a blog post with some info about that here and the Safari visited Crescent Melody Studio to see the 'inner workings' of how to match up notes to 'instruments', here's a pic of that, as you can see it's a very complex piece of kit. Yes, it's quite complicated, but Bloom has done a great job in setting up lots of visual stuff to help you understand how to use the program.

revamped Crescent Melody Studio

Over the summer, the project has been 'blooming' in a bunch of different directions. For one thing, Bloom been redeveloping the instruments that she uses, as shown in this pic. 

Bloom Peters: The Safari visit on September 2 will be the final use of the old Crescent Melody Region because a new one is being made on the side, but this time enabling microphone is required for crescent melody since I am no longer using in world sounds.

On top of rethinking the instruments, Bloom also wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to use the tools, so she has created her own version of the Viewer, with added tools. These include a build-in mp3 player...

 ...real metal effects and fancy glowing  lighting effects, called Volumetric Lighting...

...and some remarkable enhanced weather...

Bloom Peters: The viewer also has storms built in still being worked on, here is a video of it. The thunderstorm affects the lighting in the region too, and all the rain and stuff is completely viewer sighted optimized. And works in every sim and second life also the water has been made 3D.

Thirza Ember: What does that mean?

Bloom Peters: The raindrops respect structures and therefore do not rain through roof. It does not rain inside of houses too. The rain particles bounce off the houses and the meshes. 

Bloom Peters: There is physical water now which makes things sitting on top of it float up and down, hey don't shift out of position. You can now go for a natural swim and float on water and swim inside. The Avatar floats on the waves and follows their curvature like the objects. The viewer automatically forces swimming animations which overtakes any other animation when you're in water.

Yeah, that's a lot to take on board! To return to the MIDI part of all this gorgeousness, this video shows  one of her performances, and you can see the window for the MIDI tool.  

Bloom plans to release the new viewer on September 2 at the Safari event, so of course you should join us! Or at least read the blog post about our visit the day after. The package that those who want to try this experience will consist of two things,  the Crescent Melody region, predisposed for bringing the MIDI tracks inworld, and Bloom's Viewer, which has not only the MIDI tools, and the modified Viewer with all the above-mentioned extra tools built into it. 

Bloom Peters:  Just to make it easier for people to understand, here's an image of the interface of crescent melody as it shows people can connect midi input devices and output devices too as well as game pads and VST, like this...

Bloom often posts about the development of her build on the HG Safari Discord server, so if you want to join that and check it out, her handle on Discord is AfroSniperGirl. That invite to the Discord server expires after about a month, but get in touch inworld if it's explored by the time you're reading this.

Important point - You don't need to have the modified viewer to be able to attend a performance of MIDI music, because that just comes through Voice, but it's what the person setting up the MIDI tune and corresponding moving parts will need to use to efficiently set up their installation. So what exactly are we talking about with the modified viewer?

Bloom Peters: It's just a normal PVR Firestorm with the custom stuff added it even has weather. And all of it is built into the viewer so anyone will be able to play anything they want and it will come with the OAR studio, The viewer will come with an oar with all 140 MIDI instruments. 

Thirza Ember: There's always some resistance by people to download a viewer that's not from the firestorm page (they always give dire warnings) so what can I say to non techy  folks who worry about that?

Bloom Peters: You might not want to use it as your main daily driver of course, it could have some odd bugs here and there. But for making movies and videos and midi trigger events or someone who wants to be in world musician could use it and find it handy for a performances. It would be released as something they would either choose to use or not there is nothing I can say that would convince people that it would be safe. Especially since it's not signed. 

Bloom Peters: However in crescent Melody tab it does have my contact information that's kind of like my you can trust me blueprint I certainly wouldn't tattletale on myself!! 

Bloom has even ported the same technology to Second Life. 

Here is SL Thirza, who earlier this week made a rare trip to the old place (specifically a parcel on sim Astral) where Bloom, aka Cute Potion, has a mini version of her Frutti build from Winxtropia. Here, rather than the big Crescent Melody orchestra we all know so well, Bloom has constructed a wearable mix of instruments, hands clapping, and so forth, like a one man band.  From the back view you can see the piano keys lighting up as she played the melody, and from the front, some very intense rythyms.

She showed off this instrument inworld to a party of friends, and I must say that for me, although textures were a bit slow in arriving, the music and the corresponding lights and movements were immediately flowing in sync - a lively performance!

Oh, and one last thing...

Cute Potion (apollosmile): i modified UBODE to support Hinges

Thirza Ember: oh nice! hinges on doors you mean?

Cute Potion (apollosmile): ya, exactly, and on roller coasters... supports multi dimension coasters now, which was impossible before,: it can now support this roller coaster which I am making haha 

Cute Potion (apollosmile): hehehe

Creativity makes you happy! Join us on Wednesday if you can

HG Addresses:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Astral/225/212/23

Safari Reentry

 After a long sultry summer, at least in this part of the world, with lots of distractions and complications when it comes to being inworld, the Safari mechanism is creaking back into gear in time for our first trip on September 2. It will begin at the usual time, 12 noon SLT, which is 3pm on the East Coast and 9pm in Paris. If you use Opensimworld,  Discord or FB or Mewe you can get regular reminders of events, and there's usually a reminder on the day in the HG Safari group on OSGrid..

Among the many things that have distracted me during the long break is a YouTube channel that you might enjoy - BobbyFingers . In a way, his channel is a bit like Opensim, although it's not virtual... with lots of passion going into very specific builds, lots of unexpected global connections, an open-ended, slow pace to the building process, and some amazing, thoughtful, and humorous creations.

Speaking of humor, the new season of HG Safari will bring us to twenty different destinations over the ten week arc, with visits to regions with poetry, art, and new inworld tech, as well as racing and riding, mazes and beaches; mermaids and goddesses, installations and vortexes. Or should that be vortices.

Adventures at the Arcade

This week's first stop on Safari was Winxtropia where Bloom Peters continues to perfect her inworld arcade game, Primmy's Adventure. The giant retro Gameboy machines awaited our group, each one set up with places for two players. This was the first time so many people had come to the region to play, so it was not guaranteed that we'd all be able to play without drowning in lag... Safari is always an adventure! Even experienced Safari hosts have a little bit of butterflies in their stomachs when waiting for the crowd to arrive, and it's in those moments when you suddenly have a thought.... 

Bloom Peters: I am a criminal for not building the sim in the game style with the blocks!  HAHAHA... 

Thirza Ember: hehehe !!! the perfectionist...

Bloom Peters: yup!

Bloom Peters: welcome!

Forest Azure: hello bloom

Cherry Manga: aloha Bloom!

Nara Nook: Hey Bloom :)

Boujee GamerGirl: welcome everyone

Forest Azure: friend of yours, cherry?

Thirza Ember: lol cherry  has to pay for 2 tickets

Bloom Peters: haha nice avatar Cherry

Cherry Manga: Always dreamed about being a plumber going through pipes

Cherry showed up with a friend, dressed for the occasion

Bloom Peters: while you are here make sure to set max bandwidth, on your viewer - slide it all the way right... might not be required but it will help

Super Bloom

Ten giant gameboys, sitting in a row... 

it's a blast from the past for anyone who remembers these iconic plastic boxes offering endless fun. It's located on Arcade Plaza, on winxtropia grid, you'll find the HG Address at the end of the post. The region is online 24/7 unless it's briefly off for maintenance reasons.

The vintage console is to die for, and will bring back memories of schoolyards and long car trips, but it's also modded for our hyperverse... look round the back and you can see the game cartridge: this is Primmy's Adventure, brought to you by 'GameGirl', of course... 

Bloom Peters: Primmy is a cube prim scripted by me but, in the game's backstory,  I am long gone. Primmy's task in the game is to destroy the bad code blocks - the 'enemies'. Basically, she has to defend Opensim from bad coders. Every level is a grid that she visits.  She has to correct all the errors in the region. When she dies, the whole sim crashes with syntax errors all over the screen.

Bloom's MIDI Magic

 Maia Antarra: the one hud to rule them all

Our final stop today was on Winxtropia, to see Bloom Peter's MIDI tool. There was an extended post about it a few weeks ago but of course reading about a place isn't anything like actually visiting, and projects like this one are always getting developed, expanded, and moved ahead in ways that the written word can't always keep up with.

Bloom is undoubtedly an Opensim treasure. The first visit by the Safari to one of her sims was - can you believe it? - in July of 2014, on OSGrid - we visited her famous roller coaster build, back then we knew her as the avatar Cuteulala Artis. 

It all begins with the keyboard.

But today's visit was all about the keyboard, all about the software, the music, the dancing. the cats, and making something even more outrageously fun... We arrived on Crescent Melody Studio (HG Addresses at the end of this post) which is a minimalist space, giving all possible energy to the explanation and demonstration of Bloom's MIDI tool

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"

Tutti i Frutti

The new Safari season began on January 1, with a fabulous visit to Bloom Peter's Frutti Music Bar, now the main arrival point on Winxtropia grid. The Winxtropia gang were there to meet us, of course! Gorgeous Boujee, Farstar, Arielle, Ghost, YumYum, made a point of being there to be part of the event - much appreciated! The sim, even with nobody on it, feels like the most bustling bar resort in all of Opensim, as you'll soon see... HG Address is as always at the end of the post.

The first thing you notice at the landing point is the busy road with cars and vans rushing by, and pedestrians and joggers too, ad the Safari crowd arrived, and gradually rezzed, their clothes and colors gradually showing up.

Thirza Ember: watch out for the traffic that road is dangerous!

Farstar Enoch: yerrr careful if u crossing the road

Boujee GamerGirl: this is awesome

Forest Azure: lol, of course james needs to try it - daredevil

James Atlloud: Yes!

Dings Digital : oh nice, urban area next to a beach

Tosha Tyran: like barcelona :)

Bloom Peters: Tosha i love your avatar! ... lol the waitresses are going to go nuts lmao

Farstar Enoch: yes, they are busy cleaning etc, i was talking to them earlier, they are excited !

 Thirza Ember: they make a lot of trash here...

Bloom's latest avatar, so cute

 lifted pixel: BLOOM i'm in love with your new avatar...  GASP!!!!

Bloom Peters: I would like to welcome everyone here to the Frutti Music Bar!  ty thirza for making this happen. The Bar was created in honor of my favorite tv cartoon series The Winx Club. But it has some Innovations  as well. As you already can see there is alot of ai stuff happening

We Thinx Winx

Winxtropia is one of the most fun and cutting grids out there, with a strong bias toward original opensim content, cartoon looks, lots of low poly and low lag and high performance happening here. A short while back, the new sim 'Frutti Music Bar' was featured on this blog - it's all your food groups wrapped into one!

But... even super tech savvy grids can have their  hiccups - one happened just over a week ago. A new update caused havoc to Crescent Melody, the music region you probably remember for its dancing cats.

This situation brought Bloom Peters, owner of Winxtropia, to a decision - she decided to start again. Well, not entirely of course...

Bloom Peters: I kept many backups and lost nothing. All sims are restored and inventory so Winx should work the same as it did.

Thirza Ember: OK, so what's new? Re-friending everyone, I know, possibly LMs will be broken... what else?

Weekend at Winx 2

 Bloom Peters: I created a special viewer for serious creators, its a custom Firestorm that allows you to upload insanity mesh haha

Thirza Ember: is there a link to it? or maybe there will be in the future?

Bloom Peters: not yet but i can show u the city, it demonstrates that.

"swishing tp sound... to a region called Whiterun"

Whiterun

Bloom Peters: We can and should have better limits in place. What your about to see was uploaded all in one go in less than 4 mins on my viewer - full textures. With the custom viewer you have no limits to what you can upload. Super super complex mesh, like this town, and it doesnt lag us. I believe Opensim should not have the same limits as Second Life.

Thirza Ember: I have almost 80 frame rate and the build rezzed in about 2 seconds - all of it. Admittedly, there are only the two of us here, but still...

Bloom and ...Bloom

Winxtropia is one of opensim's most innovative and original looking grids. Lots of low lag mesh here, simple but cute-as-anything buildings,  cartoon people with big personalities and all focus put where it does the most good, not on huge photorealistic textures, but on added features that lift the grid into a league of its own. As always, the HG address of this delightful place is at the end of the post.

Bloom Peters 

Of course lots of people are working independently and in parallel on all kinds of innovations in opensim, the difficulty is often in finding out what's going on and that is where social media often comes in handy, although we all kind of hate it! Bloom Peters (you may know her by her previous name Cuteulala Artist) published a vid on MeWe  that got me curious to learn more, and here's the story...

 Bloom Peters: So I created an animesh AI, currently limited but its connected to external AI software... the ai is able to know people and even speak their names... it creates wav files on the fly, and plays them local... it can also see were you are and walk around you, or attempt to, and even change its walking paths to avoid things. The "Bloom" walking here is the experiment.

Thirza Ember: oh  wow! in  pink ?

Bloom Peters: yes... she follows no tracks and she knows almost everyone, if you go near her she might even say your name

Animesh Bloom

Cornflakes in Bloom

The second half of an uproarious, imaginative, and musical Cornflakes Week party was on Winxtropia! A big shout out to everyone who makes the effort (and it's not always easy, as we're all busy people) to honor the event with their great costumes, and by showing up and being part of the fun! But most of all, of course, to our hosts who do so much work behind the scenes, it's crazy. Here we are arriving on Crescent Melody, Winxtropia, among the incredible instruments that play such a vital part to the event.

Jupiter Rowland: Finally I get to see this sim on a decently powered machine.

Bloom Peters:  hehe i love all the cool new avatars to see

Lavia Lavine: ...she said I reminded her of a bag of Wonder Bread

Bloom Peters: Angelic with a cool avatar too, very unique

Lavia Lavine: So I guess I'll just loaf around.

Farstar Enoch: hehe

Star Ravenhurst: Angel always looks amazing