Tag: TonkTastic

Nine to five

No, that’s not my working hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It’s more like this: While Second Life (SL) celebrated its ninth anniversary a few days ago –without participation of its matrix company, thank you very much– I’m turning fifth this week. It’s just a coincidence, really. When I signed up, I didn’t know anything about SL or what to expect of it. It was an act of “curiosity”, to see what that virtual environment was like, and nothing more. I think I just logged in and wandered around that first time, trying to crush a few rats as some cruel Linden asked newborns to do and figuring out how to change some basic clothes. The appearance thingy was a little bit tricky: every time  I moved a slider, I either turned into a fancy amoeba or any other protozoa, but nothing “human”, I swear.  I left Orientation Island after some additional attempts at understanding those legendary tutorials with relative success.

I don’t know how long it took me to log back in –though I’m sure it wasn’t the next day… nor the next week–, but I was fortunate enough to find some other digital folks around and a now extinct Linden-supported mentor/volunteer to chat with for a while. It is, in a sense, to that particular stranger, that was bored enough to answer all my noobish inquiries, that was soon so overwhelmed with my questioning that push me out of that other sim (I don’t remember if I was still in Orientation Island or any other newbie’s sim, but certainly it wasn’t Mainland yet) never to return again, to whom  I owe my second chance at SL. So thank you, dear stranger.

The original idea behind this post was to vent all my pending frustrations with SL and the hands-out Lindens, but checking my writings from last year I realize they are still the same complains. So refer to that post to review what was and still  is on my mind regarding those topics. Instead, I’ll jump straight to the only significant improvement I’ve seen in SL since 2007: the dawn of mesh models for content creation…

5 years 2

[Xeriko wanders away from typing. A day goes by… and another one… and yet another… then comes back]

Well, after meditating about the subject, I think there isn’t much to say about it yet. In my humble opinion, Linden Lab only half-implemented mesh to appease creators that are well aware of current 3D modeling technology outside SL, and to quasi-mislead people to believe the SL platform is on par with recent developments in the industry. Of course, that’s my usual pessimistic point of view at work, and my equally hopeless impression about Linden prowess.Yet, I have to admit this: even though mesh is still on its infancy in SL, the emerging advantages are more than welcome. For instance, the fashion industry in SL has started to skilfully employ this technology to improve their offerings on the tailoring market. Now mesh clothes adjust to the avatar’s body and responds to its movements. In the past, sculpties were used to bring about that 3D appeal to virtual couture, but the resulting attachments were rigid, static, so instead of going with the flow, your limbs jut out through them constantly. Now mesh clothing bends at the knees and elbows, and swings with your frame.

At first I was reluctant to buy mesh products because, as of today, sizes are fixed and there is no way to edit a mesh cloth to fit your needs. For example, to wear a jacket decently first you have to hope the creator has added to the box one copy that approximates your avatar’s dimensions, and then put on some alpha masks to hide the body parts that protrude from the fabric. In some extreme cases people even have to alter their shapes to better fit the outfit. I’m all against that because,  if we take that limitation for real, we will be forced to become a homogeneous crowd where everyone looks the same, and we would be restricted to the aesthetics of a select few. The alternative would be to adopt the ad perpetuum noobish look some personalities still display today, nine years later, either as a status of feeble seniority or simply royal fatuousness. Gone would be diversity and individual identity, two essential elements for a prosperous society, if you ask me.

5 years 3

So now we have mesh, and our clothes are groovy. With some I even feel like a clown. It’s also a little bit hard to go through a collection of interesting garments to select one or two that “resembles” my self. Most of the time I end up moving along, straggling, lagging behind… because LL didn’t make the job right to begin with. The promise of a mesh that perfectly adjusts to our avatar’s bodies regardless of changes in shape values is still in the digital drawing board, and once again in the hands of third-party developers willing to make the work some LL employee doesn’t know how to do or doesn’t want to finish. Yet, there has been some progress. Notwithstanding the shortcomings, the benefits of moving a joint  (a body joint, you pervs) and having that 3D sleeve following it is… well, it’s kind of very realistic.

I still hope (and wish) for better times ahead… because there are still so many souls holding on to SL, pushing its limits and keeping the spirit of a higher virtual environment alive. Other worlds have come and gone. SL is still here…

Fashion credits after the break. Read more

Behold

I was listening to Apoptygma Berzerk’s “Kathy’s Song”, when suddenly I thought it was a good idea to take some pics. I ended up changing outfits again, following the one posted the other day. So let’s call it a series then.

Hair: Aitui – Ease unkept. Vest: Aoharu – Down Vest.
Shirt:
Arai – High Neck Knit. Gloves: Sey – from Buttoned Hoodie.
Pants:
Zenith – Checker Shaco. Shoes: TonkTastic – Long Combat Boots.
Piercings #1: iPoke – Onoz. Piercings #2: kOwP – Denial.
Eyewear:
FNKY! – FreeBase.

Wasted Sunset

It’s been quite some time since my last visit to the Wastelands. Though the Big Waste hasn’t changed significantly in the last 16-18 months (just grown up some extra sims), I have lost quite a few inches of body mass, which used to fill a bigger body frame I don’t carry anymore. Hence, my Wasteland outfit of yore doesn’t fit me all that well these days. Yet, the items are still good enough as to deserve some blog exposure.

Details:

Outfit: TonkTastic – Extinction Outfit (black)
Mask: TonkTastic – The Respirator
Helmet: Grim Bros. – Drunken Porcupine
Weapon: BlindSpot – Ge Lance (not for combat)

Pictures taken at The Wastelands [slurl]. In the background The Trade Post [slurl].