Safari Finale 2025

 And so here it was at last, the Season Finale of HG Safari - in fact, the finale for the whole year, and where better to end our long journey than at a futuristic build most definitely not possible in real life even with all the cool light effects that galleries and concerts now can give people, none of it really compares with Nyx Breen's combination of 3D objects and environments, lights, particles, animesh and EEP. If you're not sure what EEP stands for, there is a nice big fat link for you. 

Nyx Breen wearing a special shiny outfit designed to enhance the Finale experience

It's been, what, two years, maybe a little more than that, since this new way of manipulating the environment in your sim was launched, and for many residents and builders, it's probably seemed a bit too complicated, so they have perhaps grabbed some freebie EEPs to liven up their sim, and left it at that.

Not so Nyx Breen, who in his RL career is a photographer of great talent and so is preternaturally in tune with the importance of ambience in terms of light and density. He has turned EEPs into such an art form, on sims that the folks over in the other place can only dream of - vast cathedrals of color are here in Opensim for us to enjoy, to wonder at and of course, to dance in.

Finale on Atraxia

Our final destination for this season was a chill trip to the trippiest, most unusual VAR regions in opensim, owned by 3D artist, photographer, and curator Nyx Breen, whose talent is well known but never everyday.  Nyx Breen was on Inworld Review  a few weeks ago, check out the interview in which he discusses both immersive digital art, and a bit about his rl work. and the HG  Address for this enormous build is at the end of the post, as tradition demands. 

Nyx Breen

Nyx's work with EEPs (the Environmental Enhancement Project) has become something of a legend, he has hacked the usual expectations of sea and sky by adding all kinds of unusual and striking images, thus exploding the concept into a full blown art show that occupies all your senses rather than being a passive if pretty background. Every now and again, he changes the settings, creating yet another mood on the region.

Dorothea Lundquist: Hi Nyx :-)

Nyx Breen: hi there, everybody welcome

Forest Azure: heya nyx

Petlove Petshop: Thank you !! oh wow !

Coming Up Roses

It's December and what better time to start thinking about ...Carnival Season... wait, what?  The Xmas tree still hasn't been decorated! But you know, it's never too soon to begin thinking about your creativity for the coming year. What better way to kick it off, and to kick away the winter blues, than by entering a nice float in the Carnival Parade.

Sim Koeln

Why on Pangea grid? 

Well, it's one of opensim's premier arts grids, with spectacular regions by Tutz Zabelin, Lampithaler Artist, Nyx Breen, Bink Draconia and more. 

The grid owner Marlon Wayne is based in Cologne, where Carnival gets started way earlier than it does in most countries.  Consider this -  Mardi Gras, which is the big Carnival date for most people will be February 13 next year, but for the people of Cologne - in German,  Köln - the carnival season begins on November 11 at 11 minutes past eleven. Pangea has a region called Koeln, which is how you spell Köln when you can't use an umlaut. It's a cityscape that the Pangeans use for all kinds of community art events and a visit at any time will reward you with one  collection or another.

Nyx by the Numbers

 You have to admire a man who's bold enough to wear short shorts and if his shorts are short, that's the only thing he's short of. Space, time, energy and talent - Nyx Breen has got a lot of all of it.

This is Zahlensymbolik, on one of the Immersive VAR regions of Pangea grid, one of 6 grids where Nyx has a presence in opensim. Zahlensymbolik is a German word that suggests a lot of ideas - numerology, the symbolism of numbers or aspects of mathematics, the magic in counting. Deep stuff! However, never fear, this is not a superstitious sim, more a place where numbers are made to dance and delight.

Nyx Breen: The name sounded fun after I had used google translate English to German, more of play on the sound of it than the meaning. I'm a numbers person, yes - but more on the math side than the numerology side.

Nyx Breen

 Zahlensymbolik (let's just call it 'Z')  started as a sim months ago, and then the effects took on a life of their own, with fewer prim and more effects. There are 8 sections here, each different. 

Nyx's Numbers

 From ancient runes to modern architecture, through fortune telling and religious bliss, the mysteries of the natural and supernatural, number symbolism is a potent and pervasive thread running through so many forms of creativity and mystical thought. 

On Pangea, Nyx Breen's latest creation Zahlensymbolik - German for 'number symbolism' - places you directly on a stone hand, the palm uppermost, in a sort of nest of light. 

Nyx's Art for Space

Every grid in Opensim has its niche, its look, its personality, and with few exceptions they're all growing or evolving one way or another. It is a treat to explore each one! 

Creating a brand new region as a public venue can take a lot of time and talent, and maybe you've thought once or twice - "Argh... I wish I could just get a really top notch builder to come in and make a really unusual venue sim."

Jazzland, on Pangea

Here is an option that might appeal! 

Nyx Breen

Nyx Breen has been making  Virtual Art creations for nearly 18 years. 

He started in SL where he was the top monthly winner in the SL-UWA Build and Art contest.  

Here in opensim, he's been busy building both on Alternate Metaverse Grid, and at the Pangea Art and Culture Festival. A hypergridder at heart, Nyx has over the past few years also participated in the OSCC (Opensim Community Conference), OSgrid's  Anniversary, the Hypergrid International Expo, and more. 

The Safari has been to visit many of his builds, so if you're a long time reader of this blog his name will be familiar to you, and our experience has always been very positive with little lag and some amazing immersive experiences. 

Nyx, Tricks, and Jazz Pics

Nyx Breen

Nyx Breen: welcome all. Make sure MIDNIGHT MAX DRAW AND PARTICLES for next part of the Tour

James Atlloud: Ooo, max draw.  I'll get a cool towel for the GeForce!

Thirza Ember: ok, let's try to break Pangea Grid with max draw distances...

Nyx Breen: no way! lol, this is a 4x4 immersive - we are set for this!

Landing point on the Jazzland build

Once again, Nyx Breen pulled out all the stops to create a purpose built immersive experience on Pangea Grid for this weeks Safari, dedicated to the celebration of Jazz, and once again, his build didn't disappoint. It is another huge creation - celebrating both the music and the freedom that builders have in opensim to make something with a huge prim count and acres of space, where the public can be truly wowed. It's a place of movement, so when you arrive, be ready to move! If your draw distance isn't high, you may miss some of the best bits, including the jazz club with dance ball and musical instruments, not to mention all the faces from the past. HG Address and so on at the end of the post, as per tradition.

Egg sistence on AMV

AMV grid is celebrating the spring season with a whole raft of Easter games and hunts, and among them is the latest offering by Nyx, realworld photographer, digital artist, curator and all round good guy. It's a fabulous, faberge-style eggstravaganza laid out on four different levels.  You should set your environment to Midnight to see it as intended, some of these pictures have more blue in them just to make them a bit easier on the eye in a blog.  When you arrive, there's a poster, you can get the explanatory notecard, which has LMs to where toe goodies are, you know, just to give you a chance...

Thirza Ember: how do you play? click on all eggs?

Nyx Breen: the 5 eggs are hidden. Use your virtual skills to discover which ones will give you a prize. There is one on different levels, all within 75 meters of where the LM takes you, and there are 10 textures in each one... so over 1000 eggs find the five ! lol evil evil laugh

Key of C

If you're not familiar with the concept of Cornflakes Week, a totally Opensim event started in 2015 and unconnected with any national, religious, or otherwise real-world-based festival, and not limited to any one grid, or particular style of celebrating, then you can read about its Corny origins here and  here, and about the man who inspired the whole thing here and  here. 

Waiting at the Clubhouse before Go Time

Our first destination for our festivities was a new build, purpose made, by Nyx Breen, over on Pangea grid, HG Address as ever, at the end of the post. 

Nyx called the build 'Key of C' which works on enough levels that you can spend the next half hour enjoying the poetics of the name. A vivacious paradox of complex simplicity, the size and detail and laglessness of Nyx's work is always a treat, and met the 'standard' - if there is one - of a Corny venue. None better. 

Whirli Placebo agreed to sing for us which was so good on so many levels. If you don't know his music, or know it and want a wider window on his originals and covers, check out his Youtube Channel  and look for him at music venues in SL and Opensim and more.  You can even download yesterday's show here, if you like! Catch him in SL every Wednesday at 10 am SLT at Cafe Musique Whirli's mercurial masculinity always takes the long view of life with subtle sensitivity and chronicles its fragility and foolishness through a blend of his original songs and originally rendered covers. It was a perfect fit for this build

Dead Fall

 Three days in Autumn throw up some contrasting ways to think about the spirit world. Halloween kicks things off - it is the most widely publicized and also perhaps the most disagreeable of the three events, having been reduced by its secular, money-making possibilities to a world-wide rigmarole of ghoulish gore, with a lot of sugar and spite thrown into the mix. In Catholic countries, the morning after has a very different feel.  November 1 is the day when the cemeteries are bright with potted plants and bouquets, as people remember their loved ones en masse. The atmosphere in the graveyards of Europe where this holiday persists is generally serene, neither somber nor spectacular, just a time of quiet recollection and resignation, with flowers - and like Mother's Day, it's the time when florists finally get back into the black. 

But then comes November 2, the Day of the Dead. Not to be confused with either of the other two events, The Day of the Dead has its origins in Aztec traditions, particularly the figure of Chicunamictlan, the Aztec queen of the underworld. Its trappings are unique, and beautifully portrayed by Nyx Breen in Opensim.

Breen's Dreams

Nyx Breen: Hello everyone, and welcome to Aedifex in the AMV grid; Aedifex is an ancient greek name for Creator. 

Nyx Breen

 Nyx Breen:  Today we will explore both sides of Aedifex, the land side of highly detailed nature and builds. Then we will explore the skies of Aedifex and the 3D Artscapes that fill the heavens above us. Aedifex is a 4x4 70,000 prim land surrounded by water, allowing one to explore by boat, vehicle, horse, and walking. At the main welcome area of Aedifex for the land, you will find an NC giver with LMs for all the significant points of Aedifex. 

Art and Soul at the OSF

OpensimFest has as its motto 'The chemistry of community' and that's why the regions take their names from the periodic table. Some are words we're all familiar with like Oxygen and Carbon, while others have names that sound a bit made up, come on, admit it, by scientists who just want to mystify their craft. 

The heart of Chlorine. Greyer than I expected, tbh

Here are two OpensimFest regions you might like to explore,  one with an everyday name, the other sounding more exotic. What do they have in common? Big art, and interesting projects. Both regions are full of good things to look at, I've chosen my favorite three from each, so go and explore, perhaps you'll find something I have overlooked.

Aedifex Rex: the art of Nyx Breen

If you ever spent any time in the temples of art in Second Life, you will have come across the work of Nyx Breen. Based in Massachusetts, he has a long career as a real-world fine art photographer, and in virtual, a list of winning entries as long as your arm, in particular at the  UWA, the virtual campus of the University of Western Australia. 

After more than a decade of nurturing and rewarding digital art and artists, the UWA powered down in Second Life back in 2020. I thought the place was gone forever, but the great JayJay 'Zifanwe' Jegathesan tells me that the original UWA sim persists there, along with Nyx's Moreton Bay Fig. I asked JayJay about his friend and collaborator.