Our second stop this week was on Alternate Metaverse grid where we were guests of Cataplexia Numbers who invited us to come see a maze build called Labyrinth, inspired by the 1986 movie of the same name.
Stories-high hedges flank long passageways full of strange and improbable plants that are eerily beautiful and just a little unsettling. The final goal is to reach the palace in the sky, where Cliff Hanger, the grid's top man, was spinning some tunes.
If you're curious about how the format of a Safari visit works, then please take a minute or two to carefully look at this page on our blog where it explains the concept, the limitations and the tactics that make for a successful journey - if it looks like something you'd like to do, get in touch with Thirza on OSGrid or HG Safari grid.
Cat and half a dozen AMV residents were on hand to meet us on the big sign at the beginning of the adventure.
Cataplexia Numbers: Hello everyone. Nice to have you join us. The labyrinth began in 2023. I made my own textures and many creations in it. I just began sculpting 3d meshes. Expect big changes in AMV. Magic will be a roleplay for Witches, wizards, goblins, Magicians, etc... Fun fantasy stuff!
Our second stop on Safari this week was to meet up with Frans Charming and Lyr Lobo of Avacon grid. Frans is the grid's tech guy, and Lyr is a consultant and Koshari Mahana: Hi Lyr, thank you for having us.
Thirza Ember: I think that we are all here
Spax Orion: Nice to see another operator running YETI mono
Lyr Lobo: Welcome, everyone. This is AvaCon grid. AvaCon is a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging community in virtual worlds. Frans here is our amazing mastermind behind the Web and scripted content on the grid. Itis a joy to share with the HG Safari
Frans Charming: We use this grid, sometimes for new users, in education or professional settings, so having some plain default avatars, is useful for that.
Spax Orion: I love building with prims
Francisco Koolhoven: Hi Lyr!
Lyr Lobo: I do too *grins*
Thirza Ember: how old is this grid? and how many residents?
Frans Charming: Close to those 14 years, i would say. We dont really have residents. The grid is mostly used as an introduction area, for non profits. Or used as a teaching platform.
Lyr Lobo and, with his steaming brew, Frans Charming
Lyr Lobo: Today is the kickoff of our OpenSimulator Community conference call for proposals. AvaCon sponsors and hosts the OSCC. This is our 14th year. You can submit a proposal for a talk here. Then we will go on to Primland, the documentation for that is here
This year, OSFest is in October, for the two weeks from Monday, October 12 through Monday, October 26 and the theme of the event this year is fantasy and science fiction.
Principal organizer Shelenn Ayres gave an informative interview about the motivation and the philosophy of the event when she was a guest on Inworld Review, you can watch that show here.
Shelenn Ayres on Inworld Review
It's not just Shelenn of course; and she would be the first one to thank the volunteers and helpers, new and old, who have come forward to help with the organizing and publicity.
The fairground is organized on a grid system with parks, a lake, and various sized parcels stretching as far as the eye can see, and with lots of places to party and relax
Chelly Stewart's Rocking Sands music Venue
I really like this building, a music venue, and was swept away inside the aquarium experience.
Arriving on Second Sanctuary grid is a bit like arriving at a beautiful Carribbean resort. A pirate ship, gorgeous beaches, and a relaxed atmosphere are the hallmarks of this small but beautifully landscaped grid. On hand to greet us when we arrived on the region called Vanaheim were Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi, you may remember them from a recent blog post called... what else, Second Sanctuary. Pete and Naomi had invited us to go cat hunting - for some very sophisticate cats! as a way to explore this island where anyone looking for a beachy pied-a-terre in the metaverse. HG Address as always at the end of the post.
Naomi Volturi: Hello all, nice to have you here
Pete Taylor: It might be a good idea to reduce the draw distance. Otherwise, you’ll have a lot to load.
Alex Salamander: Hallo und guten Abend :-)
Koshari Mahana: I see everyone naked lol
Thirza Ember: our clothes travel second class, it's economy rates
Angelic Kisses: hahaha
Jojo Apple: lol
Koshari Mahana: Hi Naomi, Hi Pete
Bink Draconia: hello
Naomi Volturi: hello Bink long time no see
Pete Taylor: welcome all
Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi, owners of Second Sanctuary
Forest Azure: ah James, sitting again? you have been sitting on a horse all the time!
James Atlloud: I know, but I have a walk AO that just won't stop, so I think this is better.
Pete Taylor: thirza, are all guests here?
Thirza Ember: Yes, I think we are all here... maybe not all our textures, but in spirit we are all here... we may smell of horse, sorry about that
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
Our second destination was on the Ozone grid, address of course at the end of the post. This is our last tour until the Fall, so we went somewhere with stunning effects.
We were making a return to Dismayland the theme park with a twist, or rather many twists, jokes, puns, insults, a place that is gleesome and gruesome at the same time. After navigating the skybox where the security guards are pretty alarming, we arrived at ground level in the entrance tent where Spax, the grid owner, was awaiting us. Spax Orion: Last time HG Safari graced these grounds, every single one of you got a taste of Dismayland swamp water. ::: THEN ::: Atrius Station: The game arena didn't survive the evening. The IMAGE party got hijacked and the presentation was delivered entirely by pigeons. You took the game home in pieces. Dirty Helga called it a masterpiece.
James.Atlloud: nice
Spax Orion: What started as an iniquitous fun fair is now a virtual novel — the NPCs, the sideshows, the rides, the rubbish on the ground — every piece is a word in a story designed to mock the very reality you just escaped.
Spax Orion our host and guide
Spax Orion: I thought we would have a SCAVENGER HUNT in the middle of a minefield this evening. There are several fountains in this park. ONE is the fountain of youth. Almost every fountain is a liar! Watch your health! Find the REAL one, tell the GAME BOARD its exact object Name — then describe WHY. What did it do? What did it say? Where exactly is it? What's nearby?
Forest Azure: ah, one last time this season on Thirza's head
Our last Safari for a while, and we went to visit some old friends who have recently moves to a new - and yet old? - home Confused? Well, that's par for the course on Safari. We were on OSGrid, to see their region dedicated to Nicola Tesla, Wardenclyffe, the HG Address at the end of the post as always.
Yara Eilde: Hello everyone
Alex Salamander: Hello :-)
Max Well: hello
camryn darkstone: Hello Yara and Alex, Max, welcome!
Camryn Darkstone
camryn darkstone: Welcome to Wardenclyffe! This is a reproduction of the laboratory of the famous inventor Nicola Tesla. Tesla's story is fascinating. Walter and I wanted to build a place that would let people learn about him. You may not have heard of Nicola Tesla. But his inventions affect your life every day. For one thing, he invented AC current, which is why you are able to have electricity in your home. Tesla's arch-rival, Thomas Edison, invented DC current, but it was too impractical for widespread use. The conflict between Tesla's AC current and Edison's DC current is known as "The Current War". There was a recent movie about it, by the same name.
It was the last but one Safari of the season, next week is our finale, until September when the Fall season begins. If you're interested in having us come visit your region or your grid in the Fall, don't hesitate to send me a message on Opensimworld or whichever social you can find me on.
As usual we met on the HG Safari grid where that big yellow prim contains the LMs and a very short notecard with info about the trip. But in just the twinkle of an eye it was time to head for destination one, on Pangea, the art-friendly grid owned by Marlon Wayne and Tutz Zabelin, who were there to welcome us. Marlon Wayne: Hello everyone
Tutz Zabelin[sv→en]: Hi all
James.Atlloud: Nyx, this is amazing. Is there a pbx reflection in the sky? It's CRAZY!
Nyx Breen: EEP effects... have a few, and for sea also
Thirza Ember: I guess I messed up the LM somehow but we are all here now, apologies for any delay
Nyx Breen: welcome Havoc, hello and welcome everyone, please have your shared environment on and max your graphics
Arriving on Immersive 3 is intense!
Nyx Breen: up we go
Angelic Kisses: oh wow
Nyx Breen: Since my first foray into Second Life in 2005, I have been captivated by the world of Virtual Arts. My journey has been a testament to my unwavering passion as I've delved into all the opportunities available to artists.
The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair,
and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief,
it grows perhaps the greater,
JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Book 2 Chapter 6
We visited ArtDestiny grid this week as our first stop, (HG Address as usual at the end of this post) in part to congratulate this group of friends for the 5th anniversary of their grid, but also to witness some of the remarkable creations to be found here. If you've read tis blog before you will be familiar with Stormy Scorpio and her regions on the grid that have an ingenious duality.
Stormy Scorpio on Lothlorien
High in the sky - no, in outer space, perhaps would be a better way to put it - you'll find a dozen Star Trek spaceships, explorable and fully loaded. At ground level, and working kind of like the holodeck environments from Star Trek TNG, you have a gently glamorous landscape, full of elven architecture.
LMs for our trips are in this simple, giant prim at the HG Safari clubhouse 'waiting room'
But of course, before that, we all met up at the clubhouse on HG safari grid. Some folks arrive plenty early so they can get the LMs and have a chat before we depart for our first stop, but there's also a rush of folks in the four or five minutes before go time. If you arrive a little late, or maybe can make just the second hour, don't worry, you can still grab the landmarks and join us, the more the merrier!
Thirza Ember: hello Isabelle, you have the LMs ok?
Isabelle Sun[de>en]: I only have this one from OSW
Thirza Ember: in this prim, the Lms for today...
Isabelle Sun[de>en]: bought :-)
Thirza Ember: sometimes, there is a last minute change, for that reason I do not publish the full destinations in social media, it would be too complicated to go around and modify the publicity everywhere, so to try to avoid confusion, the only place where you can get the guaranteed correct destinations is in this box
Our second stop on this week's trip was on Arkham Grid. We lost a few at the first stop, so it was quite a small group - but very enthusiastic about visiting another art region by Felix Mafia. Felix, his partner Sharon, and Grid were on hand to welcome us. HG Address as always, at the end of the post.
Not too many of us and for once, we didn't break anything - although it remains to be seen if James poisoned the fish.
Most people think of Arkham as a place to grab freebies, and while there is that side to the grid, there are also dozens of installations by Felix that merit a visit. This one, Banham, is a s Cyberpunk Futuristic Egypt.
Grid, Felix and Sharon were there to meet us
Felix is Italian, and while his English is good, our visit at 10pm at night, Rome time, is a little late in the day to be fielding questions in your second language. Luckily Grid Admin, a native |English speaker as well as grid guru, was on hand to help us with lots of info that contextualizes the build, and really brings it to life. He told us that the title of this very cinematic build could be Banham Region “Your heart may be much older.” A vision of the future where past and destiny collide - that's at the back of this extraordinary place.
Dings Digital: that is the kind of optimism we need
Karsten Runningbear: most people crash only one time :)
Karsten Runningbear: hello everyone welcome to our little airfield... we made some extra things... first please change visibility to 1024m if possible. Its a 6x6 var sim. We made airplanes usable for everyone, 2 fighter planes, which can use a race timer, or fly just for fun, a rescue helicopter, 3 waterplanes, and a Zeppelin, scenic flight with explanations.
James Atlloud: PLANE!!
This was our second stop of the week and what a treat!
Our first stop this week was on Geo Portal's Outofthisworld grid. It's dedicated to his unique vision of the future and while Geo is not personally a mesh maker he has surrounded himself with some great talents, and on this grid you'll find the work of Luna Lunaria, Tina Bey and Symphony Vive, whose work was particularly being showcased during this visit.
We were provided with comfortable chairs, somewhere for us to sit as Symphony and Geo explained the ideas behind the region and of the grid in general.
Centauri arrival area
Geo Portal: welcome to the last city of frontier Centauri creation of Symphony Vive we meet and she collaborate with this futuristic creation
Geo Portal
Symphony Vive: ty Geo, your ideas and vision is inspirational
Thirza Ember: you make a good team!
Geo Portal[es→en]: she create many creation at her mesh lab and I see ask her she can make city and she said ok and this is the beginning great futurist city to visit and explore Rios is to another helper and Zafiro, plus Tina Bey. Also my friend Luna she is not was us anymore, only in spirit
MARICRUZ WORLD[es→en]: you have the imagination for movies
Thirza Ember: how long have you been working on this, Symphony?
Symphony Vive
Symphony Vive: We Geo and I have been developing this grid for several months.... bit by bit as Geo creates more areas to create the vision.
Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.
There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.
Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae were at the arrival point to welcome us all.
Felix Mafia: thanks for being here
Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore
Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.
Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way
Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha
Felix Mafia: welcome eva
eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you
Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!
Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work.
Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.
We hit Cornflakes Week with all the bright colors and primmy nonsense of a decade-long tradition this Wednesday, as the HG Safari crew teleported to the newly revived Cornflakes Tribute region, now back online, this time on HG Safari grid.
For more about the sim in general, don't miss this post that takes a deeper dive into some of the details of the historic region.
Whirli Placebo
We were honored to have Whirli Placebo as our musical guest, he has been there for us so many times over the years, what we found extra special is the music he shared with us... more of that later.
Cornflakes Week, the last seven days of February, has come around again and once again it's time to celebrate a uniquely Opensim tradition.
This year on Wednesday 25 February, at 12 noon Grid time, HG Safari will be celebrating Cornflakes Week on the Cornflakes Tribute region, which also has a shop area with extras inspired by or based on Cornflakes creations - the tp is by the arrival point.
Cornflakes
Not linked to any real world national or religious festival, it's a time when people can just be silly in their own, unhinged, untethered, utterly Opensim style.
Some of Cornflakes' stuff might be characterized as solo creations, a single statue, but far more of it is made to form a tableau, each one poignant, with a story to tell if you have time to look for it. Here's just one of the many.
The Jubilee building on Craft is up and running and celebrating sixteen years of Opensim. It's an impressive achievement not only in technology but also in terms of community.
The big party is on Tuesday, 27 January and the fun begins at 12 noon SLT, that's 9pm in most of Europe, on sim Jubilee, HG Address at the end of the post as always.
Craft owner Licu Rau is proud of his Sardinian stubbornness and credits that for some of the grid's success, but he's the first to say that it wouldn't be anything more than a private plaything without the residents.
That's why each year on sim Jubilee there is more than just a birthday party, there's also a fabulous display in the Expo Center, featuring work by people who have been here from the early days, and those who have called the grid home only for a couple of years.
Je suis posey, avec mon poney, je kiffe ma journey
OK... Feelings of calm - a pleasurable journey - at the Apocalypse? And surely those aren't ponies. Yikes! You know how it is with horseplay, it's all fun and games, until someone gets hurt. Or the world ends.
Terra... and Terra!
Well no, of course they aren't ponies, they are the famous 4 Horses - in this case, Domination, War, Famine/Disease, and Death - the brainchild of Terra Merhyem in her latest build, 'The 4 Horseriders of the Apocalypse' which is part of the ongoing and very lively Pangea Festival of Art and Culture.
Opportunity City and Gotham City... or Metropolis, the choice is yours, the tour this week took us to two of OpenSim's most respected grids, TanGle ad Craft, HG Addresses at the end of the post Aime Socrates: coool party Leslie !!! It's all in the eye of the beholder. We arrived on TanGle grid somewhat late and in disarray thanks to ... well that is a long boring story you did not come to this blog to read about.
The lovely Leslie Kling had invited us over to Tangle's Expo Isle, which for today let's call Opportunity City, because you could use it as a way to get yourself and your creations known all across the hyperverse, This was not the Safari's first visit, we've been here to see the lingerie show, the Steam Fair and the Winter expos over the past two years, so it was nice to be back, enjoying the icy dance floor hidden away in one corner of the vast Expo region.
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