The Drow Diary

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 8

2012-02-23T23:41:00.000+01:00

After all the building at home in the recent weeks it really was time for some biking again. So I grabbed my sub Emma and my friend Luvia and went on discovering the (sometimes pretty) seedy Zindra continent.
I even managed to dig out a bike with enough seats for all 3 of us. A freebie from a (of course) BDSM-hunt.

Needless to say I love planes. And this one is - if not the most beautiful - surely a unique one.

Derelict but nicely composed.

Pretty dangerous looking bunch, hm?

Back on the road - with quite the easy-rider feeling...

...till the next simborder came. It might look odd, but believe me: you get used to it.

Nevertheless we tried to reduce the lag (or at least share it more evenly) by using 2 bikes.

Chatting with a not-so-big-bad-wolf.

Who always wanted to leave a lasting impression should try riding through a garden with a motorcycle.

Enjoying the view.

After yet another encounter with my old friend lag we switched to 3 bikes. Besides a more smooth sim-crossing the prestige of commanding a biker pack shouldn't be underestimated.

I know I look damn cool ;-)

Somewhere along the road trough Oved Valley you can find "OLD LAR'S SEXY FUN HOUSE", A place for old geezer to pick up young girls (that's pretty close to the official description, so don't blame me for my choice of words). Well, I imagined the place more seedy. It actually has more style than most "fun houses" I found on my tour so far.

My dear Emma proudly kneeling at my feet: Yes, I admit - we surely aren't the typical guests to visit Old Lar's.

Its a natural gift we Drows have to look threatening yet very sexy.

Not too far away of the happy little fun house I discovered that taking the road south wasn't perhaps the best choice. Once again a Linden Road ends pretty sudden.

Dead end. I don't expect too much creativity but they could have at least put a sign there...

We didn't came too far this time - from Julianna to Laffoon - but it was a funny and quite interesting journey. The dotted line shows the path where Linden Labs "forgot" finishing the road.

Steampunk Furniture & More!

2012-02-18T23:45:00.000+01:00

New products just left my secret Drow Design Labs! I always felt I could have some more steampunk room decoration in my product line - well this has changed. The first item is something im especially proud of. A Steampunk Orrery!

I must say I'm pretty enthralled of the amount of miniaturization I have achieved: The Orrery has exactly the size of my popular Steampunk Globe II but contains the 6 inner planets of our solar system with their distinictive appearance. Saturn even has its rings!
The planets are also animated so they rotate around the sun on their metal bases. The sun itself got a unique particle-corona which makes it looking pretty real.

A suiting addition to the Orrery is this lovely Steampunk Fireplace. Thanks to the use of plenty of sculpts I was able to create a classy looking piece of room decoration without wasting prims. I like especially theanimated fire which harmonizes so well with the shiny metal columns.

Because of their popularity I did also overhaul my line miniatures and added some new models too like the Sopwith Camel and the Steampunk Airscrew Helicopter:

I'm also proud to present you the first image of a prototype im currently working on. It will be something special - so much I can say. And it looks already pretty stunning, doesnt it?

You can find all my current and upcoming releases at my store at the Second Life Marketplace!

Da Vinci Meets Steampunk

2012-02-09T01:53:00.004+01:00

Some may remember my project to recreate Leonardo Da Vinci's famous Airscrew-Helicopter. Now after a longer break I can proudly announce it finished - and it looks (and flies) better than I ever imagined!

Ready for takeoff: mad Drow scientist Dr. Some and her assistant Emma.

I spent lots of time on the many details. Like this lovely animated power transition.

En route through Forgotten City

The rim of the base platform is counter-rotating to compensate the propeller's gyroscopic effects and to stabilize the flight - a nice idea by Emma.

As all my creations I feature here this wonderful piece of steampunky creativity can be purchased in my Marketplace-Store.

Blue skies!

Kinky Comic Timing

2012-01-29T03:01:00.001+01:00

Our new sub Veronica is full of surprises! Not only that shes a cute pony-girl, shes also known in the analogue world as Veronica Vinyl, a quite renowned fetish/bdsm artist!

Her works includes a wide spectrum of kink. From Forced Fem Videos, the animated mini series Aria for the Dead to Burning Wig, the first animated series about Drag Queens - to name just a few.

Her latest project though concentrates on her SL experiences with a certain Mistress - but lets have a look by yourself:

Perfect casting, Miss Victorias making Veronica an offer she can't refuse.

Just awesome, isnt it? A splendid idea of combining fetish comic with the sheer endless possibilities of SL graphics. Veronica just finished the first episode. Which can be obtained here. Enjoy :-)

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 7

2012-01-11T02:34:00.000+01:00

Time for some continued exploring after my banishment-intermezzo. Since I reached the end of the southwestern bypass last time, this time my way lead me towards the northwest. This time with some company (but again no opportunity to rezz a bike).

Me, Emma (left) and Veronica, the newest member of our family (and currently pony-girl).

Inspecting a 1967 Shaguar at a nicely rundown hospital.

Not far from the hospital is the Bates Motel. You can see "Master Bates" (sic!) at the left side of the picture.

Later we discovered Wendi's Sanctuary. A pretty large place with many themed rooms.

Obviously one of the medieval-themed rooms.

I don't know about the floor, but the sofa is very relaxing.

The Classroom offers some innovative furnitures.

Veronica had to leave shortly after, but my friend Moon was a good sub-stitute ;-)

All in all Wendi's is quite a nice place with many possibilities to do things with and to people. Many devices look a bit out of date though.

Just a few meters away - at the sim Breven - lies another castle. One of the most spectacular builds I have discovered so far at Zindra:

Doesn't she look sweet kneeling in her Princess Leia outfit?

Yes, she does ;-)

The castle(s) in their full glory. Looking gorgeous from outside but - as usual - the interior can't keep up the promise.

Today's leg: As usual the dotted line shows the "offroad" part of my journey. Exploring Zindra is really a lot of fun - and if there were some rezz-zones it would be almost perfect.

Back from Banishment!

2012-01-03T23:10:00.001+01:00

Yay! I made it! I successfully finished my week as Bane. It was a challenge, yes. Hard at times, but also pretty exciting and fun. The hardest part is being unable to express yourself properly - or lets say to express yourself at all since all what people see of you is a faceless stark latex figure.

It was a strange but refreshing experience. It shows you SL from a totally different perspective. I am also very thankful to Miss Vic who took very special care of me during these 7 days and made it a lot easier for me to stand the isolation. Thank you so much, Miss!

From right to left: Miss Vic, S-4265 and Trianne playing Greedy Greedy.

At a Diner.

Listening to a concert at Le Ciantelle's

And yes: of course I would do it again!

S-4265

2011-12-29T02:23:00.001+01:00

Time for something different. Lately I became more and more fascinated by the concept of banishment.
Banishment means being sealed in a futuristic full body isolation Bane-Suit with no IMs, no ability to speak and several other restrictions. The idea is loosely based on the novel Eudeamon where this kind of banishment is used to punish criminals.

So one day - after I had a 5 hrs test-run of the demo - I gathered my courage, bought a Bane Helmet and asked my Mistress to lock me in for one week with the option of increasing the time.

A proud Bane kneels for her Mistress.

As exciting it feels to dare a full week in almost total isolation (I am able to walk and teleport around freely and can read chat), it is at the same time frightening. There is no way to bail out before the time is over and my possibilities of actively answering to people are limited to gestures like nodding, shaking my head, shrugging etc.

My life as Bane S-4265 began as the helmet closed around me on Monday 3 PM SL-time. And so far I'm getting along pretty well with my banishment. I know it can be hard though, but I'm confident to stand this challenge. It's just one week...

S-4265

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 6

2011-12-24T03:17:00.000+01:00

I hope you had a nice Christmas. As you might imagine Drows don't celebrate Christian holidays (Its just inappropriate for a fairy creature for obvious reasons). Nevertheless I have a liking for sweets, good food and nice things to unwrap.

Anyway. After some Christmas-related laziness its time to go on with my (still not bike-)tour.

Whore Street isn't that different from Slut Alley - not really surprising.

I had a pretty interesting conversation with one of the regulars there. According to her its not always and exclusively about sex at these places. Sometimes the visitors just search for somebody to talk with; seeking companionship rather than just copulating pixels. Another aspect - I think - which reflects 1st Life in SL.
But don't get a false idea. Of course these places are very explicit and adult-rated for a reason.

Not far away from the Whore Street lies a peculiar little club with a rather... explosive theme - The H-Bomb Lounge:

Hmm... Lovely concept... Drop da Bomb!

Indoors the nuclear-theme is nicely consequently continued.

I love clubs with a certain edge to their theme. But since I am at Zindra, most places have a totally different (but already familiar) determination:

Yet another variation of a well known theme...

Clear concept: urban decay look, lots of poseballs and rlv traps and lots of people waiting to get hooked up.

Oh and next to the sluts are residing the bimbo's:

The Bimbo Cheerleaders Adult LockerRoom is about... well you can guess.

That creepy... I mean neat looking guy is my old friend Jarem who I found standing around at Slut Street just before. I'm sure he just went there to admire the sports car...

There is also a Infohub in the neighborhood. But since its looking just like the standard Infohub you find everywhere I decided to skip it. Especially since another building in sight tried hard to get our attention:

Hmm... Big Bang Sex Park. Pretty subtle advertisement again. But the walls look suspiciously gorean...

Its not gorean - its just seedy.

Places like this give me a hard time: its just too messy to take a really good picture...

Obviously that place offers a lot - just not organization. Anyway... reaching the end of the road seemed a good way to finish this blogentry too ;-)

This is the end... at least of the southwestern bypass.

Today's leg did lead me from Cloudville to the eastern end of the Southern Bypass.

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 5

2011-12-20T01:41:00.001+01:00

SL-BDSM-Experts may have recognized the region in my last post. Cloudville is of course home of the House Nishi:

Ok, "house" is an understatement.

The place is more like a city by itself: Several levels with theme-rooms, stores, a garden with maze, a gazebo, a prison, a cafe (not for prisoners)...

Think BIG: The idea for the castle seems to be making the largest possible structure with as less prims as possible.

Choices, choices... perhaps I will have a manicure instead...

They also have a hunt these days (till the end of the year). Nothing with bow and arrow though - a hunt for freebies. You can find more information here.
Personally though I think you get the best freebies already without hunting since there are lots of gifts for group members available at the dungeon.

Pretty good looking and the price is unbeatable.

One of the themed rooms. "Mechanica" is obviously something for the kinky engineers in SL.

I like it more relaxing though. Like in the "Jungle Room".

This theme is called "Darkness". Of course.

Well, House Nishi has a lot to offer & the interior looks pretty nice too. Also to mention on the plus side is that there is usually quite some traffic going on. I'm counting 90 people on the sim as writing this.

Just as I went back on the road again. I spotted a suspicious "Gorean Slave School" sign on my map. Of course I immediately did investigate that place:

Soft pillows and warm colours - yet I still felt a bit uncomfortable.

Perhaps you already know that Gor and me won't ever be friends. In Twilight Forest you usually have nothing but issues with Gor-player. Its a world full of stupid machism and disdain towards women. I had more than once a rather unpleasant encounter with Goreans.

Typical issues are:

Excuses like "I wasn't ready" when they got ambushed while wearing a meter in combat mode (be more observant, dude!)
RPing the use of hidden weapons while tied up or even unbinding.
Total denying of RP (happens usually when shooting a "brave" male Gorean". Some people just can't lose. Especially not to a female).
A general disdain towards the use of RLV - Keep it real! Why pretending to be locked in a cage when - thanks RLV - you actually can be?

All in all Gor is a too uniform, uncreative and predictable world based on a almost fascist ideology with restraining rules which don't leave much space for individualism.

Though the people I've met at the Slave School were really pretty nice. No surprise, they were slave students - who buys (or captures) a disobedient slave?

They are just living in a totally different world and surely want just the kind of dominants they find in Gor...

Obviously Christmas-fashion somehow found its way to Gor too.

After leaving that place. I stumbled over another - pretty odd - sign right next to it. "Bavaria Sex". I could definitely think of a more descriptive name for a store selling RLV traps.

Surprising but efficient way of hiring a secretary: Force sit and strip if you step too close.

I don't know if humans can really imagine how teasing a prohibition sign is for a Drow...

No map with my progress today since I didn't really came far. I'm basically still standing in front of House Nishi where I ended my last post. Next place to discover is "Whore Street" - I guess the name gives a vague idea already what its about:

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 4

2011-12-16T23:35:00.001+01:00

So far it seems my journey turns out to be a "bike tour without bike". Well, I don't mind it too much since peaceful walking on a nice and tidy road is less stressful than riding cross country and crashing against banlines all the time instead. So I am just happy with what I have since the sights I discovered so far are really making it worth to explore. Lets see what I found this time...

Yet another dark ruined asylum @ Beauvauis.

No much surprises inside: It meets the standard for creepyness and insanity.

And its pretty cozy too!

My next stop did lead me a little north, away from the road where I spotted some activity on the map. Well, I found indeed "activities".

A typical example of subtlety in advertisement ;-) But it worked: I took a Landmark.

Pretty explicit place...

But I admit: for a place simply offering sex-rp its quite sophisticated.

From the (slut) alley back to the open road. Btw: its called "Southwestern Bypass" but has no cardiological significance.

Baaah! So much road and so less rezz zones.

Todays leg did lead me straight from Beauvais to the sim Aulen, just south of Cloudwille (this name might ring a bell for some. If not, check my next blogentry).

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 3

2011-12-16T03:26:00.001+01:00

From the kinky art gallery in my last post it wasn't far to another place, which did rise the bar for kinkiness quite a bit:

Xegul: Now thats somehow peculiar looking. Lets see what's there...

After a few meters I found a hole in the rock walls to slip trough (what I find quite fitting for being a drow). I didn't had real expectations to the place so I was pretty surprised to find its much larger than the first impression did betray...

Some kind of rlv-enabled nude beach...

...and it has traps, as I found out stepping into a beachside cave. Rlv-traps of course. The screen turned black and suddenly I found myself...

... stripped in some kind of underground dungeon.

On looking for my way out I explored a strange subterrean forest with giant mushrooms, ruins and, well...

...some kind of alien seed vessel. Don't get too close it might try to fertilize you.

The forest. Don't try to find me there. Drows are just too adapted to sneak unseen through underground habitats.

Eventually I made my way out mostly unscathed. After slipping through another dark cave entrance I found myself at the place's shopping mall:

In general you can say the place covers quite the range. From some artistic shibari-bondage...

Ikea should take this as example: A cute and helpful step by step tutorial.

...to classical BDSM equipment like stocks, cages and bondage racks, to more odd stuff like shemales in all kinds of variations:

At least its not a Drow.

Oh and again: Watch out where you step into...

Of course they strip you, these critters.

What sould I say - its surely not a place for everyone. The preferences of the owner are obviously pretty special, but the place has some pretty good ideas like the rlv forest and the many force-tp possibilities are quite fun (see picture above). Seen from the building point of view I have to add that the quality is somewhat below state-of-the-art though. The Forest with its sculpted plants, the open fields and the rocks look pretty good but other parts look rather crudely made. Less would have been more in this case. I prefer a few more sophisticated buildings instead of a huge rlv-complex with too less details to loom really convincing.

Of course I have to explore this cute flying rock...

I want that too! The self-moving broom of course.

Just a few meters further I found a hunting place. This of course made me curious. Well first... then a bit disillusioned:

That makes me angry: Women = prey, men = hunters.

Where is the challenge? Where is the risk for the hunter if they cant lose? Where is the thrill of the unexpected? Its just picking your slave of the day to play with her. Not much better than gor and certainly not my cup of tea...

I found a new friend! A cute... uhm... spermish looking... devil at Beauvais.

Too bad our friendship didn't lasted too long. It got auto-returned after a few minutes.

Today's journey was again not the longest but a very interesting one. Its just what I hoped as I started exploring Zindra: Lots of kinki interactivity.

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 2

2011-12-14T04:58:00.001+01:00

Time for part two of my journey through Zindra and this time I could even use my bike! I did continue my ride eastwards Melissa's Cageroom and got quite the distance behind me this time. As expected the island (or continent) has quite some things to see... and try. You don't have to wait long till you run into them. But let's have a look:

Zindran Coastal Parkway @ Wyelde: Where does this mysterious gate will lead to?

Wow - it can hardly be more spectacular! Empty Spaces @ Wyelde. (Yes this caption contains irony. Did you find it?)

Love is in the air! Or at least on the road: Zindran Coastal Parkway @ Orburs.

Parking my bike at The Keyhole Club @ Orburs. The many poseballs indicate its a... "busy workplace".

Santa's coming!

Of course I wasn't sitting there alone long.

*Grrrrrrs on rule #6 and murmurs something about racism*

After this dissatisfying experience the club was done for me and I headed to my bike again.

Fort Grand: A weapons store - it's look doesn't gives me much trust in their quality though. Or are they working too well?

Fort Grant: Heavy Metal Dreams. No, actually its called: "Fuckmachine Laboratories"...

Well... "fuckmachines" isn't the whole truth. The creator seems to have an affinity for milking too. Perhaps he has a sidejob as dairy farmer...

This place is called: "its a museum,with art and nice things made in sl by people"

Obviously it's at Zindra.

Ah well... now its really getting seedy...

Cute birdy!

Today's route did lead me from MCR to this kinky art museum at Fort Grant. Pretty interesting route which makes appetite for more!

Oh and in case you don't really know what Zindra is, its the adult-rated landmass of SL, whilst the other continents are rated general or mature at best. Of course there are countless of adult-rated sims spread all over the gird but the nice density of kinkiness here really invites you to do some exploring.

The Zindra Continent in its full glory. You might recoginize the spot in the southwestern corner where I started my tour. And no, the southeast hasn't crashed - the sims there are simply missing still...

How Sculpts Learn To Fly

2011-12-08T19:05:00.001+01:00

I'm really proud and happy writing this post now. Thanks to my submissive Emma, who recently learned sculpting, I am able to add a new level of realism to my planes. Of course I could bore you now with in-depth details about primlimitations and 3D-modeling in general but why wasting words when pictures can show you the obvious improvements on my planes so much better. Lets start with the Fokker Triplane:

Before: a rather primitve landing gear and a pretty basic looking engine cowl.

After: a nicely sculpted landing gear, struts and engine cowl add an amazing amount of realism to le petit rouge. The Red Baron would love it!

The Albatros D.Va also saw some major improvements. I am especially happy about the free prims I could use for modeling the engine:

Nice and shiny: the Albatros now finally has some realistic pistons and exhaust valves...

...as well as sculpted v-struts and landing gear with less prims but a more realistic look!

Of course the Sopwith Camel got a slight cosmetic update too:

Next to be updated will be the S.E.5a, the Safari Plane, the Vintage Biplane and the Stunt-Plane. As usual all planes are available at my Store on the SL Marketplace. Owner of an older version can receive a free update of course.

The Great And Seedy Zindra Bike Tour - Part 1

2011-11-29T21:24:00.001+01:00

Time for something new. After my extensive bike tours across Heterocera, Sansara, Satori and Nautilus I decided that my next journey should lead me through the not-so-innocent parts of SL. Or to be precise: The adult continent Zindra.

As usually I start my journeys at nicely remote spots like dead ends. There always lies some symbolism in them: No turning back, a long, open road before you... who knows where your path will lead you and what you will encounter there?

Also I'm glad that my Mistress did accompany me on the first stage of my journey. Sadly I couldn't find a rezz-zone for biking. But we were able to improvise a relaxing way of travelling for her. Miss Vic seems to have liked the idea of getting some pull-around-service, even if I'm a Drow and not a pony as Miss is used to ;-)

The Mistress and her Drow. Start of my tour at the southwestern corner of Zindra.

A... snail-house? Besides that I noticed with delight a certain degree of steampunkiness ;-)

Lots of.. art... inside of the snail-house.

Just around the corner: The legendary Melissa's Cage Room. One of Miss Vic's favorite spots in SL. As the name indicates, MCR offers lots of cages, cells and confinement.

If there were ever doubts about how a cageroom might look like: its full of cages!

Todays journey: not too far but with good photo opportunities already.

My Second Life Bike Tour the 3rd - Part 35

2011-11-04T20:01:00.003+01:00

Back to biking! After a lengthly break - my last biking-entry was in July - I began to feel this call again... the call of the endless road. Well, actually steering a pony-cart on my old biking routes did wake so many nice memories in me that I just had to come back. Another reason for me was the discovery of a nice steampunk bike by Darkfold Designs - I just had to get this one:

Annelie - A dramatic shot for introducing my new bike.

Its really a beauty. Scriptwise not as sophisticated as my choppers (no Hud, no shifiting, not even lights to switch on) but way ahead in terms of looks. Speaking of looks: As great this setting does look like, a few meters further I noticed I was driving into the wrong direction. *cough* Too bad... the light(e)ning looked so great from this side.

After I finally found the right direction my continued journey on the Circuit la Corse led me through quite some interesting locations. Buildingwise it's certainly not the most boring part of SL:

Second Life's contrasts: urban chaos meets organized tidiness.

Aqua3 - Second Life is so full of common buildings, isn't it?

Fishers Rest - Well, its part of the "Circuit la Corse": Of course I drive there!

Fishers Rest - A certain steampunkish influence is hard to miss.

Venistrate - Martians again???

Toothsum - With bandshirt and badge I feel somehow like a Highway Star!!!

Timescape - You couldn't be more wrong if you think terraforming in SL is done with a simple mouse-click.

I even found the mysterious Chasm City - which purpose remains a secret to me but its spectacular architectural style really knows how to entrance:

Chasm Deep - Terminator playing a harp?

Chasm Deep - vrooooom!

Chasm City in its full dark glory - or is it my sky-setting?

Chasm Deep - some flying electric harps in that tank there - dont ask me why...

Not far from Chasm City lies a nice store. I don't really remember what they sell but the building itself looks pretty cool already ;-)

Majipoor - police control - time to get out my bow...

Today's route brought me quite a bit back towards the west. The Circuit la Corse is a very pleasant route I really can recommend.

Air Assault!

2011-10-27T03:50:00.002+02:00

What happens if you have a rather uneventful evening at a hunting-sim but a bunch of wonderfully maliciously and creative people around? You simply make something up! In the best case this "something" leads into a nicely amount of chaos and desolation as it happened these days in shady realms of Twilight Forest.

Fully armed and dangerous: Our proud Zeppelin!

The forest saw its first air assault!

Isn't it a lovely view? Fully armed with 6 hot-shot-hunters (and several victims hanging from leashes below us) this wonderful little Zeppelin did rule the skies over Twilight Forest. Of course it was a piece of perfect team work: Our Mistress - Miss Vic - in command was designating the targets, me - as her "admiral" did the tactical navigation and Emma did steer the ship skilfully and with great calamity.

Emma Sunshine: A lovely sub and dedicated airship pilot. (Snapshot taken by Martine Lightfellow - Thanks for sharing!)

Yes, I admit the use of vehicles (and especially huge flying ones) is violating every combat-rule you can think of. But no-one got hurt (at least not too much) and a healthy amount of insane fun prevents you from taking things too seriously. And before you ask: Of course we don't play Gor - and we are proud of that!

Anyway: The outcome of our adventure was pretty pleasing and surely wont be the last mission our Zeppelin will do. We stirred a way too quiet sim nicely up and as our prey began to launch their own air-fleet (consisting of a bondage blimp and a flying carpet) even a nice aerial battle broke out. Let's see where it will show up next time... perhaps above your head?

Thanks Emma for getting this piece of real Mad Drow Science! ;-)

From Prison to Art-Gallery ...And More

2011-10-18T22:25:00.001+02:00

Seems my coverage about the RR-Prison left an impression. Lady Karenjane Walworth, prison-warden and owner of the Walworth Estate has opened an exhibition featuring my prison-pictures - wow!!!

As you might see I had no idea when I took that picture that will make it being an advertisement for an exhibition!

The Gallery is located at the promenade and is easily to reach using the Teleporter Platform at the Entrance.

Not part of the prison exhibition but also very nice. Some sensual paintings from Lady Walworth's private collection.

While being there Lady Walworth also showed me her latest addition to her place. A Feminization station. And yes: it does exactly what its name implies. Time to put my Mad-Scientist-Labcoat on and have a look! ;-)

Lady Walworth put lots of efforts in to provide her patients with some nice free clothes for their "new Second Life" ;-)

A well worked out step-by step procedure. Of course the stains on my coat are not from here...

Recommended by Dr. Some: a cute and capable colleague.

So if you know somebody who is interested in changing his gender or you want to experience it by yourself feel free to contact Lady Walworth and have a look at her clinic!

The Looking Glass by Marcus Inkpen

2011-10-05T19:26:00.000+02:00

One of the artists in SL who touch me most with their beautiful strange visions is Marcus Inkpen (aka Matthew Root in the analogue world). Perhaps you are familiar with his "No Sound" installation at Utopia04, a wonderful picturesque city-tower I have discovered in summer 2010. Too bad it is gone now but his current project The Looking Glass is at least as enchanting.

One of the first impressions the visitor gets: the view from the main street up to the museum.

The Theater: a classy background for a classy Drow.

Big plus: Shops which actually look like shops!

Besides houses and landscaping- accessoir you can also find sone very good looking outfits there.

Outside of the picturesque town many wonders are waiting for the curious visitor. Best you just stroll around a bit and let the atmosphere charm you.
I took the path to the museum first before going cross country:

Outside the museum: Even a broken clock shows you the correct time twice a day!

From surreal to sexy - selected Paintings.

The bridge leading away from the museum is a reminiscence to Mark's "No Sound" project. It suits in well to the overall composition, doesn't it?

I'm sure I haven't discovered all sights which are waiting at The Looking Glass. Its a place where you really can spend hours there without getting bored. Check it out!

Dr. Some's Guide to SL-Aviation

2011-09-17T18:10:00.004+02:00

The Red Baroness in full flight. This beautiful little machine got already confused with an air-ambulance...

One of my favorite hobbies in Second Life - besides hunting humans, biking, building and clubbing - is flying airplanes (especially my red Fokker Triplane)!

Its something I really enjoy since I put my first plane together (a freebie-kit by Cubey Terra). I actually learned how to build this way. Flying in SL is fun and a great way of adventuring - especially when you are flying your own machines - believe me.^^

For this article I have put together some information which should help beginners getting - literally - started with aviation. Of course SL has its own peculiarities but once you dealt with them its a very pleasant experience.

Getting started

Of course the temptation is big to dress you up for your ventures in the SL-skies. Countless attachments with fancy effects and lots of prims, HUDs for every kind of purpose, etc. but alas, all the bling-bling we do like so much is also responsible for loads of lag when piloting an airplane.
Best you stay simple: No multi-prim belts, boots, cuffs or skirts (and of course no HUDs or scripted restraints). Runways are no catwalks and when you are enjoying the great view to the world beneath you, no-one cares what you are wearing anyway ;-)

The next thing is getting a nice airplane. Again I lean towards simplicity and prefer to just fly for fun without having to worry about retracting the landing gear, watching the fuel gauge or asking for takeoff permission via radio (asking isn't exactly drow-style anyway).
There are some very nice machines available at the Marketplace. Some for free even. Of course I do recommend picking one of my planes - they are easy to fly, have low-lag scripts and you can choose from a nice range of historical accurate machines like the Fokker Dr.1 Triplane and the Sopwith Camel or purely fictional machines like my steampunk airplanes or even some spaceships.

Ag reat view from the cockpit and a stunning design - my Steampunk Airplane Mk2.

Two classic designs: The venerable Prague-Airport and my Sopwith Camel fighter plane from World War I.

Not the Batwing - but way more cool: The Starchild, a drow-spaceship!

Where to Do Your First Steps - Finding Locations for Flying

After you got a suiting airplane you need a place to take off and do your first flights. The Blake Sea area is excellent for these purpose. There are plenty of airports and airfields located there you can use as starting point and for more extended journeys later on. I have put together a selection which easy access to the open sea:

SLPG Prague Airport

Hollywood Airport

Foliage Airport

Honah Lee Airfield

The Blake Sea (middle) is surrounded by the continent of Satori in the south, the Nautilus islands in the west and various archipelagos in the north and east (source: Secondlife Search and Rescue)

There are of course more places to discover than airports. As this map by the Second Life Department of Public Works shows:

Not just plain open water: The Blake Sea is actually full of sights to discover.

In general its best to stay over open water. Mainland continents are usually pretty laggy and full of banlines, which both make the flight there very unpleasant and usually... short

Banlines (not visible on the screenshot though) have the tendency to appear when you least expect it. Here I was just flying a few meters into mainland to seek a good landing location...

Getting the Right Flight Setup

So, you have rezzed your plane now, and moved to the runway, its just seconds until you take off. What comes next?

One thing is for sure. This is the last chance to make yourself familar with the controls of the airplane. Usually the WASD- and the arrow keys are used for changing direction.
Throttle controls are the PG up/PG down keys - at least thats the method my planes apply. Others may have more complex features but I prefer not getting distracted from the joy of flying but managing pressing buttons.

Its also a good idea to go into your preferences menu now and turn down the LOD (level of detail) sliders. Especially the object and Avatar LOD have great effect on the performance. Also the water reflections. But of course different computers need have different adjustments.. You can get the advanced graphics-settings by enabling the Advanced-menu hitting Ctrl-Alt-D.

The graphics-settings I use for flying. Not written in stone but it should give you an idea. Lowering the render quality also gives some extra performance.

A good way to find out about the performance of your Computer is displaying its fps (= frames per second) by using the statistics-bar. Firestorm user can enable it by hitting Ctrl-Shift-1. Don't let yourself get confused by the many features there. You only need to watch the fps there. An amount of 20 fps or more is recommended for a smooth SL-experience. If this number drops significantly you experience the infamous "slideshow-effect" which can make any steering attempt useless.

I have minimized the statistics window to only show the fps. A very handy tool to keep an eye on your performance.

Setting the draw distance is also an important factor. If its too low, you might get surprised by objects popping up in front of you too late to evade them. If the draw distance is too high you may get problems (lag/low fps) when too many textures from objects far away are loading.

To make it easier to keep the overview on where you are flying at, you should use the Mini Map. You also can choose to either control your airplane by using 3rd Person view (seeing your Avatar from behind) or Mouselook. Since moving your mouse doesn't affects the controls of your airplane but the direction you are looking at, using Mouselook can be confusing at first.

Me and my faithful Camel racing down the runway - its definitely too late now to read the manual!

A Little Flight School

The Start itself is pretty simple. You place your airplane at the runway, point it into the right direction and accelerate. It is recommended to put the nose down a bit for getting the plane in a horizontal position for a smooth and easy takeoff.

I found out that good speed for taking off (and flying my planes in general) is at 60 % throttle. The plane ascends very nicely then and you are still slow enough to enjoy sightseeing. For more daring acrobatic maneuvers or for gaining altitude quickly a higher setting is recommended. But always keep in mind that at full speed a 256x256 meter large sim can get very quickly very small. Its in general a good idea to be dynamic at the throttle control as soon you got used to flying and add or reduce throttle if the situation demands it.

As soon you became airborne get used to the controls and try a few turns. Don't let yourself get frustrated if the plane doesn't reacts as you want it to. This will get better very soon.
You actually don't need to do much for performing a turn. Just pointing it in the right direction with a few key-strokes. Give the airplane time to react. You don't have to out-turn a flying ace on your maiden flight.

Sim Crossing

Sooner or later you will get tired by just circling above your airfield and wanting to see more of SL. This means you have to leave the sim you have taken off and fly into another one. This is in fact as simple as it sounds - if you keep a few things in mind:

Good idea vs. bad idea: Flying straight into a sim border (green) makes a much smoother sim-crossing experience than crossing it at its croners (red), which can use to bad crashes and the loss of passengers.

First this is - as the picture above shows - is avoiding corners. At corners like this there are 4 sims adjacent to each other which means you can end up anywhere but not where you want to fly. In the worst case you lose your plane in massive lag and find yourself sitting on the bottom of the sea...
In the best case you cross sim borders as the green arrow shows you: in right angle and as close to the middle as possible.

The second thing is keeping in mind that the higher the speed the higher the load on the sim is. High sim load of course means lag - the arch enemy of every SL-Aviator. So best don't cross sim-borders at top speed. The recommended 60 % will work fine.

Navigation

As you might have noticed on the maps above, Blake Sea is a pretty huge area. So its handy to at least have a vague idea where you are and which direction to choose. A simple but effective way of navigating is using the mainmap and marking the place where you want to fly to with a mouse-click.

Many airports as the - SLPG Prague - also offer detailed maps providing you with precise flight paths and a large amount of supporting information. I find these maps actually pretty confusing though. Especially since I don't really find the time nor the opportunity to look them up in flight. Here are two examples of these maps. I guess its good to know where to find them but you can survive without them too ;-)

Landing

After some time flying it is likely that you want to go down to the ground again. The good news first: going down is a very easy task with an airplane. Doing a safe landing however is a bit more tricky but doable too.
In the ideal case you have picked a nice flat piece of land for that already. The landing stripe of an airport for example is a good choice. If there is no landing stripe available you may have to improvise:

Only odd on the first glance: Public roads have actually less traffic than the average airfield in SL

For performing such a skillful landing you best reduce your speed below the recommended 60 % throttle. At about 30 % you will notice the plane begins to sink pretty quickly. So try to stay somewhere between these values. Also keep in mind that turns performend with low speed also make you loose altitude.

You don't have to perform your landing at the first try. To the contrary: A few fly-by's help you getting used to the terrain. In the ideal case you put your plane into the right direction early and fly perfectly straight towards the landing area without doing too many corrective actions. Then you reduce speed until you smoothly decent on the runway. Don't forget to pull the nose a bit up at the touch-down and reduce your throttle to 0 %.

I hope you find my "little" (yes, I know: it became pretty epic) aviation article useful. It is a very appealing and quite different way of exploring SL than just teleporting around - and surely worth to try :-)

Blue Skies!

Looking for Free and Simple Accomodation with great RP? Why Not Trying the RR Prison?

2011-09-06T01:26:00.004+02:00

Spending some time in prison indeed has its advantages: A quiet and contemplative, yet almost zen-like environment, a clear daily routine and skilled people who take care for you - what more could a stressed metaverse-resident want more?

Finally I found the time to write about my favorite Prison in Second Life. The RR Prison understands itself as a place which takes great care for serious prison role-play in an absorbing setting. I did spend some time in there earlier this year and I rember the experience as quite unique and exciting.

You may suspect now prison role-play as something pretty frustrating and boring. Well, there are of course times when you sit alone in your cell - thats part of it. But the staff does a lot to keep it interesting - its simply the mutual interests of both sides.

You will encounter quite a variety of people and interests there. Prisoners who are in there just to feel confinement, subs who were sent to jail for misbehavior, seasoned prison role-players doing smuggling and planning jailbreaks and of course people who are simply curious.

For me it was a mixture of the need for confinement and sheer curiosity which brought me there. Well, at least thats what I claim. I got accused in various cases of air piracy - a judicial error of course mixed with a serious lack of humor...

But enough of this matter. I'm officially rehabilitated and have learned from my mistakes now (like not getting caught for example^^). Lets have a look into the world of prison role-play. Perhaps you will like it and who knows - maybe there is just a slight persuasion needed to keep you there ;-)

The entrance to the prison-area. There is lots of useful information about the role-play and the rules available here.

Quite a nice welcome! The courtyward is nicely decorated with a statue of justice, a nice picturesque garden - and some well hidden rlv-traps.

Having a chat with Karenjane Walworth - one of the head guards there.

Karenjane has put lots of efforts into providing a good RP-environment. Shes also currently working on a big case about the RR judge and prosecutor going missing. The related chat has already summed up to 50 pages.

But its the daily small RP-episodes which keep such place alive. So you have at best a good idea about the background of your character and committed crimes.

The Courtroom - please notice the seat for the accused. Its quite intimidating to look up at the judge from it...

The view from here is much more pleasant though - not only because of Johnny Depp.^^

We're getting closer to the "fun" now.

Just outside the prison-yard is a small but tasteful club. Even with dance-poles for prisoners to do a good deed for society.

Nice detail: The screen between dancers and guests is only see-through from outside.

The observation deck allows a perfect zoo-like view at the prisoners.

The only way to communicate with the world outside: the visitors room.

The intake procedure itself is as following: You fill out an application form with some details about your character, sexual preference (yes, a thing called sex might happen there), your limits and likes (for example no sexual RP but heavy restrictions, or vice versa). You will also get some detailled information about the rules and restrictions which will be enforced at you. For example TP and IM block.

A few days after you have submitted your application you will get a warrant of arrest which gives you one week time to show up there and begin your sentence.

How many prospective inmates may have sat on this couch already? Better they did, since its the last comfy seat they would have got for a long time...

jenny Dubrovna of the medical staff talking to a visitor.

The interogation room - again nicely separated from observers with a one-sided screen.

After getting arrested you will be brought in the prisoner area, which is restricted from public access and get your prisoner clothes. The prison will charge you 150 L for getting them. You can save money though if you prefer to stay naked. You will also have to own some RR-restraints for participating. I was lucky since I already owned police handcuffs, legirons and a ballgag. The restraints are of course making use of RLV and are completely usable outside of the prison too. There is a vendor outside to get yourself equipped.

If you get leashed to this pole your time in freedom is definitely over: the inmates get registered into the prison-system here.

After registration prisoners get to see the shower. Considering the low hygiene standards its doubtful that there is another other purpose than humiliation though.

To prevent the prisoners from smuggling in drugs, or weapons and sometimes to satisfy the sexual needs of the guards there thoroughly medical examinations the prisoners are sent to the cells.

After these procedures the prisoners will be led to their cell. By walking through the long corridors of the prison they may take a glance or two on certain things:

A play-room for guards entertainment (like punishing prisoners for example).

The place you will spend most time in is the cell-block:

A composition in steel, concrete and confinement - the cell-block.

My old cell #7 - it would be a bit far to call it lucky number.

To prevent the prisoners from getting too lazy and reforming them into productive beings the prison has also set up some working opportunities besides the pole dancing (even if most prisoners show great talent for that):

One of the latest additions - the prison own vineyard. Of course the Wine is served at the prison's club.

Not as attractive: Working in the stone pit.

Any good prison has a laundry too.

You see RR Prison is quite eventful and not only a lockup facility. You will spent considerable time locked in though. But you will have also possibilities to make up some role-play.

To finish our tour I've uploaded some snapshots from my time as (of course totally innocent) inmate:

A musing moment in jail. if I look a bit arrogantly: this might be intended ;-)

The guards always try to do some diversion from daily cell-routine.

I know, I know... I just look too good to be free...

If you are interested to participate feel welcome to have a look at the RR Prison at Priasmin. They are currently searching prison guards (and of course inmates). Karenjane Walworth and the rest of the prison-staff will be glad to tell you more and help you getting started there - no matter which side of the bars you like more ;-)

Across Sansara on Foot Photo Exhibition

2011-08-26T23:09:00.005+02:00

One of the reasons to start my blog back in March (!) - my god, time flies! - was a chat I had with a guy called Ikarus Fallen at Inspire Space Park. He told me he is exploring the Second Life mainland by foot and showed me his blog about his adventures.

Something definitely clicked in me on that day. I was doing a bike tour and exploration in general long before, made tons of photos already but never had the idea to blog about it or publish them in any other way.

Well, that day changed that and in the meanwhile Ikarus (or his alter ego Jago Costantine) has reached the mark of 500 visited sims! Ok, with biking I was much faster than he though and literally raced trough some areas.^^

Anyway, I am very happy this little meeting back then took place. In SL things can change quickly. Its inspirational, anarchic and full of surprises if you give it the chance.

Ikarus... errr Jago's place. the gallery is on the ground level. Upstairs he has a store.

No, its not a wanted-poster. This picture is showing a brave explorer!

Having one or five glasses of Cognac while enjoying the snapshots from his looooong journey.

Thanks for the inspiration, Ikarus!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Barnstable/240/109/25

Some Drow Fashion III

2011-08-23T18:22:00.000+02:00

Lets start the 3rd part of my Drow fashion series with something daring. Isnt it amazing how well gray suits to... gray? ;-)

Another freebie by Mesmerize. I appreciate the material-saving approach

Another piece of my reddish-collection. Something formal...

...but sexy nevertheless.

This one I use for space-exploration.

Another spectacular back side view, isn't it?

Yet sooo prude from the front

A casual but cool street-outfit. For what reason ever its called Dark Watcher.

My mad Drow aviatrix-outfit. Steampunky coat and boots and classical mad scientist welding glasses.

Thats a bit victorian, isn't it? Well, its from the same store as the aviatrix outfit (BlakOpal)

Let's play metal! Leather, straps and spikes make pretty clear this is not an outfit for relaxed lounge music.

Dressed in black and straight from hell: A pretty cool outfit if you want to look sexy without showing too much skin. Also perfect for dominating poor little submissives.

Some Drow Fashion II

2011-08-22T13:05:00.003+02:00

Welcome to part 2 of my Drow fashion series with more bits and pieces of modern dark-elvish-attire. Oh, and I noticed with delight that my blog passed the 5000 clicks these days! yay!!!!

Something different: An orange cyberpunk-outfit. Also very good for parties. A freebie from House Nishi btw.

Also orange but not quite made for going out. Rather for staying inside longer: A classical orange prisoner suit. Btw: the backprint reads "To be kept in restraints".

Modest and simple and just made for stainless steel handcuffs. Only the high heels are a fashionable concession though.

The sexy side of jail: ok, this one is definitely for going out!

Again the orange side of life

Also great for clubbing. If its on Mars, Saturn or just some freaked out terrestrial club.

This robe I found at my explorations of the ancient Nautilus. Good if you want to look important and serious.

This one is called Lab Subject - for reasons beyong my comprehension - but the back side looks good...

...and of course the front side!

If there's a lab subject there has to be a mad scientist too. Obviously I am fiddling at some tomato sauce recipes...
oh and has anyone said Dr. Steel?

One of my daring hunting-outfits. It gives me the nice look of a primeval Drow-warrior queen.

Safari-style! Since Second Life is a lot about exploring this attire just seems to be right.

One of the less-daring hunting outfits. Looking that professional gives a significant intimidation bonus.

Some Drow Fashion I

2011-08-21T17:41:00.004+02:00

If you have followed my blog a little you may have noticed I like to put on lots of different outfits. From daring and weird to classy and sexy - basically suitable for every situation you may encounter in SL. So I had the idea to come up with an overview of my favorite outfits. All shots are taken at the flying landing stripe at my airship, isn't it a beauty?

Tarantino lost a big opportunity not featuring a Drow as main character in Kill Bill.

Bow and arrow are at least as sexy as a katana, don't you think? Btw: the suit is a freebie by Mesmerize Dungeon.

Teasing: some stylish black dress for going out. Kept together just by a few shiny hearts.

Another clubbing outfit. Definitely less formal and more rockish oriented.

A little slave-style but its not what you're wearing, its how you wear it. Fill your outfits with pride!

And yes: I have an affinity for red...

...quite a big one even. Gray just looks great to red.

Also from behind!

Aircraft Cemetery

2011-08-07T04:15:00.004+02:00

We all know the more or less (rather less) credible stories about the Bermuda Triangle and the vast amounts of ships and aircraft which disappeared there. Well, it seems SL doesn't wants to stand behind RL in this regard.

While doing a little hunting (yeah, that takes quite a bit of my SL-time these days) I received an IM by Ronin McGinnis of the SL Coast Guard that one of my planes - my faithful Albatros to be precise - was found stuck midair at Villeneuve. Since I'm a kind and tidy Drow I of course TPed there to remove my little plane from its calamity.

As I showed up there I was quite surprised to find a whole bunch of airplanes stuck like mine. A little chat with Ronin revealed he has IMed so far about 24 people (!) which planes were stuck here - OMG!

The SL-Verions of air pollution: countless aircrafts sticking in the skies

Perhaps the pilot just fell out of his seat?

Of course with some ideas you can get great photo opportunities here...

Actually it looks pretty funny to see all kinds of air-vehicles from all ages gathered in the sky like frozen in time. The downside of such a airplane cemetery however is a constant consume of prims and computing power of the sims because of the many flight scripts still running. This way the region became a deadly trap for every plane which dares to enter as Ronin explained to me.

Thats however not the whole story: While checking out where I got actually TPed to I found out that I already blogged about this place before during my Bike Tour. Back then I classified the whole island as highly polluted with banlines and as almost impossible to explore at all...

One of the rather unpleasant parts of my travels so far: the Islands east of Nautilus (with the sim Villeneuve marked with red) are excellent in catching airplanes in full flight.

No wonder so many planes got trapped there. Im really surprised I did not give up exploring it at all...

Bad, bad idea for flying: Best to avoid that whole island and keeping nicely out at the open sea.

Its for sure an unpleasant situation. Not only for aviators like me who like to enter a sim without worrying about crashes. The Landowners don't do themselves a favor with putting up banlines too because of the increased sim-load each plane creates as I have mentioned above.

So how should a solution of this problem look like? Its pretty easy actually. Don't put up banlines!
They are pretty pointless. And especially at mainland sims they simply ruin any joy exploring a place. There is nothing against security orbs though as long they give you a fair amount of time to leave that area. 30 Seconds are absolutely fine. Its way enough to walk, drive or fly through without doing any harm to anyone.
And if the people really want privacy why not renting some space at a private, isolated sim? Thats way more sane and fair towards other residents instead of just putting up a banline.
Tear down the walls and let the skies be free!