Boldly Going with Prince of Amor

 This week's trip took us to visit the Prince of Amor on his megaregion on OSGrid, Maze Space. 

It was quite a daring exercise, because this was our first Safari visit to Prince's regions (he has a lot!) on OSGrid, and this particular region is a challenge for any visitor, due to the dimensions and the darkness of space. On top of all that, Hurricane Helene was knocking on Florida's doors, and so Prince warned us before we got going that anything might happen RL-wise, and if he disappeared that'd be why. Luckily our timing went well, nothing got unnecessarily damp, and we had an out-of-this-world tour of the sim.

The start point for Maze Space (full HG Address at the end of the post, as always) is at over 8000m just about the position of Pluto . It's really essential that you come up here to begin, because at ground level you'll be in the sun, not a lot to see and a little to close to the heat for comfort. 

Prince Amor, today dressed as a Borg, welcomes the tourists

Instead, at the Space Station, you will find a collection of freebies, some info about the ideal Graphics settings for this build (spoiler alert, set everything to the max possible for your computer) and the main means of transport, the flying saucer. 

Vive la Evolution

 Mech Lab on OSGrid, by Symphony Vive, has a cool teal vibe to it, and thrilling motto: 'are you ready for the cyborg evolution? '  If you weren't when you arrived on Mech Lab VAR region, on OSGrid, you will be very soon!

In the parlance of manga and anime, the term 'mech' or 'mecha' refers to, well, machines! Robots and large, pilotable vehicles, with their beauty lying in their complexity. 

An inspiration for Symphony is the 2011 movie Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, and some rocking boxing robots. But mostly, it's just based on personal childhood dreams of futuristic builds.

Snoots in the City

Mal Burns: Hi Snoots

Alexina Proctor: hi da Snoots.

Prax Maryjasz: Hello da Snoots

Sun Tzu: Greeting Snoots and thanks for having us

Sun Tzu: Odd my text does not show up in local for some reason

Kelso Uxlay: Hooo laggy

Snoots Dwagon: There are LOTS of textures and thousands of prims.  So it may take a while to rez.  Please walk in little circles to help it. :D

Thundergod Thor: It's been a while since I've been here but it's an awesome build.

          Lag is blamed on lots of things, on bandwidth, on less than stellar graphics cards, on poorly compiled scripts, on the Viewer (always a favorite), on server configuration, on voodoo - the list is exhaustive and exhausting.  That makes it an interesting experiment to have two avatars inworld, both on the same computer and using the same viewer, both having loaded the region previous to the trip, but each experiencing the sim very differently. 

          Safari Regulars will not be at all surprised to learn that the Thirza who arrived before the rest of the group had zero lag either in chat or in textures (call it 'owner's eye' - the way the sim creator experiences their own build), but the Thirza who was one of the last arrivals suffered the classic symptoms: seeing clouds, falling through floors, rubber-banding, and stuck in chat lag limbo. Immensely frustrating.

          It's handy to see the Safari this way,  it's a reminder that our trips have something of the quality of the bumblebee - flying in the face of all probability. 

Snoots Dwagon: Let me know when ready to start Thirza. :D

Thirza Ember: if you're suffering lag, friends, bear in mind the poor old server is trying to hand out hundreds of textures to everyone, so give it a chance 

Snoots Dwagon: There's THOUSANDS. :D

Lucy Afarensis: I sat but I am not

Alan.Scot: orange clouds everywhere :(

Dabici Straulino: even chat is laggy

Lorin Tone: yes

Thundergod Thor: It is indeed.

Snoots Dwagon: A bit of a note on building technique, for you builders out there. First, I am moving around and have no lag.   So such will have a great deal to do with your computer. Replicant City was built using original, ZERO-LAG scripting

Alan Scot: I got  a superfast pc and exposed breasts