Create a Character Challenge

Create a Blogger Challenge

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Sweetie: Messing with the Fabric of the Metaverse

Written 9 February, 2013

Second Life blogger Pancake (thanks for the heads up, Iris Ophelia!) has issued a challenge to other bloggers-- and non-bloggers as well: create an intriguing character in Second Life. Check it out.

It occurred to me I have already created just such a fictional character-- the notorious, the infamous, the one and only Sweetie!

That's Sweetie, above, sitting, as is her custom with her face away from the camera. We can admire her couture, but her face? That's private. Notice how I'm looking on adoringly from the background.

Sweetie came about because someone I'm close to both in Second Life and in the real world asked me not to use her avatar's name. Mine was not to question why, mine was but to blog or die. Since I wasn't allowed to use her real virtual name, I call her Sweetie in this blog.

Although she's an avatar de plume, Sweetie soon took on a life of her own. She's rather like her doppelganger, only more so. Much more so. She manages to project an air of innocence and menace at the same time. I've no idea how. Perhaps it's her katana. She works in her fortress of solitude, poking at the boundaries of Second Life by doing things like seeing how deep she can bury her cache of exploding lipsticks inside nested inventory folders. Things start to get wonky, she tells me, at level 72. She says she's just keeping the world safe. Her most unstable cosmetics, she tells me, require at least ten levels of subfolders to be safe. Here's my post about her subfolder experiments.


Sweetie's obsession with her inventory eventually led to an intervention. I and three of her friends sat her down to talk. Things went horribly wrong-- so wrong it took three blogposts to describe her competency hearing.

In the early days all was bliss and innocence. We attached every flight enhancer we could find and flew upwards for hours.

Eventually we reached 15,000,000 meters.

As we passed one million meters our avatars began to distort. Our attachments jiggled and our limbs bent in ways for which they weren't designed. As we flew higher, our eyes bulged.

Eventually we looked like this:

Perhaps the lack of oxygen (we didn't think to equip ourselves with air tanks) changed Sweetie in some way-- but I don't think so. What made her radical was the Bush era formation of the Teleportation Security Administration. Before long there was the infamous incident at the Teleport Hub, which led to the 15-blogpart Trial of Sweetie.

And then there was our life of crime as the fashionista bandits. And our raid on the Bay City cop shop.

Oh, the fictional adventures we've had!

What's most endearing about Sweetie-- to me, at least-- is her ability to instantly go on extended nonsensical rants-- like this and like this-- and especially like this one, which transpired while I was recovering from a bad computer crash.

Sweetie even has a published interview. I appears in Whimsical Times, our sim's newsletter, but, hey, it's published. Read it here.

And so, I give you-- my Sweetie!

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The Result

The Result

8 February, 2013

Unless one uses Copybot or a pirate viewer, it's not possible to replicate a no-mod build in Second Life. The sizes of the prims are unknown, the spatial relationships between prims in the linkset are unknown, the textures can't be copied, and if the textures were imported at a low density, it may not even be possible to guess what they look like.

So of course I accepted the challenge.

I was to make a full-size build of a scale model which consisted of four buildings, walkways and waterways on the ground, and elevated walkways. Think 700 prims, every one nonmodifiable.

After I started building the client made it clear he wanted the model duplicated EXACTLY. And EXACTLY meant fuzzy 32 x 32 placeholder textures, claustrophobic walkways, misaligned prims, prim flicker-- EXACTLY.

And so that's what I built. It frequently made me wince, but I forced myself to do it. I have to say, though, when I just couldn't stand it, I made a few changes.

I mean, the original build was a model, constructed to give a potential client an idea of what a full-scale version might look like. So of course it was sloppy. Why shouldn't it be? It was meant to give an idea of what it could become, not to be a small and identical version of the finished, larger build!

The model was sloopy (and I'm not blaming the builders, they did a great job and understandably didn't add spit and polish. And since the model was sloppy, the full-scale duplicate was sloppy. The final product was a blown up 96x96-meter version of a tiny model with only an hint of texturing.

Here's my approximation of the texture used by the model maker for the buildings. The original has to be 32 x 32 pixels.

At the top of the blog are are overhead photos of the model (left) and my build (right).

Some changes I made:

* The water in the full-scale version is more blue, as the gray water in the model disappeared against the walkway. I made the four fountains at center more realistic, as well. I made the movement of the water in the walkways circular rather than linear, as in the model the water was rushing from north to south for no apparent reason.

* I made one large park area instead of two smaller ones. Those tiny squares in the scale model are picnic tables.

* On the center prim, Sweetie made a design that reflected the relative size and position of the buildings-- at left. At right, she decides to use the prims as personal adornment.

* I didn't recreate the poseballs that noted the landing zone and the relative sizes of the buildings.

* I didn't duplicate the elevator shaft in the smallest building because I had the client's okay to omit it.

There were a few other changes, all small-- in the upper walkways I removed prims that captured the camera and would trap tall (and everyone in SL is tall) avatars.

I was able to reach Scar eventually. She was kind enough to give me permission to duplicate her build. I made close approximations of the textures used on the walkways, and rooftops, but when Scar gave me the name of the woman who had supplied the textures for her build, I stopped my attempts to duplicate them. She was willing to sell them, and they were her creations, so it wouldn't have been right to continue. As a placeholder, I used a simple grid of windowpanes.

Below the fold are more comparisons of the model and the full-scale product.


The scale models are on the left, full size duplication is on the right. The perspectives differ a bit because I was shifting my camera back and forth from the model to the full-size build. Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them.

First, a three-quarter view:

Here's a view of the largest building.The really large building in the background at extreme left in the photo of the scale model is a portion of the the same building that jumped into the shot.

Placeholder fountains from the scale model are at left, finished fountains at right.

Here are the elevated walkways. The angle of the right-hand shot doesn't make it clear, but the textures are the same, and at the same density. See the second photo following:

You'll note I hollowed that camera-trapping semicircular prim in the middle of the walkway.

Here's a three-quarter view:

Note that I've added the correct window texture to the largest building and replaced the model's loose texture with granite. The windows on the other buildings have a placeholder texture.

Here's another view.

Note the placeholder window texture at right and the presence of the elevator shaft in the model. Here's a view taken inside the largest building with proper window textures and a granite finish:

I would have liked to have shown close details, but I no longer have access to the model, as my contract is completed and the sim with the model is closed for development.

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The Challenge

The Challenge

Written 30 January, 2012

The challenge: recreate a 1000-prim building complex from a tiny no-mod model. The scale of the model is unknown, but seems to be somewhere between 1:8 and 1:10. Because of the no-modify status, the textures used are unknown and dimensions of the prims are not known.

The model dates to April, 2008. The creator is probably no longer active in Second Life; she's not responding to notecards or IMs from the model's owner, her blog hasn't been updated since 2008, and her store is gone.The owner, who has just bought a sim, needs the full size version recreated, and sooner rather than later.

Scar Ayres did the work on the model and I would prefer she dig the model out of inventory, reset permission to allow modification, and make some money by re-selling it to the owner. It was my suggestion he try to contact her.

Since she's not responding, and since the owner paid for the model, I don't see an ethical problem with making a full-size copy. Still, I would rather she check in. If anyone reading this knows how to contact Scar Ayres, please IM me in world.

More pictures below the fold.

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Sweetie and Chey Have a RL Adventure

Sweetie and Chey Have a RL Adventure

Written 13 January, 2013

Yesterday Sweetie and I left her fortress of solitude (yes, yes, I know it's not much of a fortress of solitude if she let's her girlfriend hanging around, but I do the cooking, so she puts up with me) 30 miles outside New York and caught the train into the city. Our coach was a double-decker, my first, and I thought it was cool.

An hour later we changed trains at Secaucus (the only reason I can think of to ever go to that part of New Jersey) and in fifteen minutes we were at Penn Station.


Think people sleeping in the terminal, bad musicians playing pop standards, badly, people in all manner of dress, and one hundred different storefronts all selling cardboard pretzels.

We found our way to the subway and rode the 3 train to Harlem, where we were invited to a brunch for those associated with a book in which I will have a chapter. We grazed and chatted with a lot of mostly young folks for a couple of hours, and then took our leave.

There were a lot of soul food restaurants on the way back to the subway, but Sweetie, who had had a flu shot the day before, was feeling queasy, so I reluctantly faced away from the collard greens and ham hocks and descended to catch the 3 train again.

We disembarked at Times Square and caught the H train to 6th Avenue so we could check out the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store. It was all we expected. A doorman outfitted in a nutcracker soldier uniform bowed and opened the door for us.

Inside there was a profusion of stuffed animals, small, large, and huge, and then a Willy Wonka candy wonderland. Upstairs there were electric trains, magicians, hovering helicopters, and what has to be the world's best Lego display. There was a full-sized Batman a bounty hunter from Star Wars, and an F.A.O. Schwarz toy soldier.

There were any number of doll displays, dollhouses the size of small apartments, board games, fossils, mineral specimens as big as footballs, hula hoops, Erector sets, action figures, toy cars, yo-yos, and books of every description.

There were a lot of children present, and some had face-paint of the finest order. Others seemed to be in a daze from too much stimuli. I know I almost was.

Sweetie bought a deck of playing cards with Tim Burton cartoon characters on them, and I bought a three-pack of cardboard airplanes that return to your hand no matter how they're thrown (see the plain here).

On our way out I had to steel my reserve to walk past a display of giant Hershey bars.

Next door was the world's largest and only 24-hour Apple store. It was easy to spot: it was a giant transparent cube!

The store was way past crowded. At all times t least two hundred people were on the stairway into the entrance.The stair spiraled downward about fifty feet and had no visible means of support.

Since our knees were worn out from the many steps we had negotiated (New York is not the world's most accessible city, believe me!), we looked for an escalator. There was no escllator. Inside the stairwell there was a ultramodern elevator which consisted of a plastic tube and a disc to stand on, but it was out of service.

Sweetie pointed out a young man with an Apple log on his shirt and I told him we didn't feel up to negotiating the stairs. He directed us to another employee who led us into the adjacent General Motors building, through vacant halls, and down an escalator to the back door of the Apple Store.

Heading for the subway we passed a line of carriages at the south end of Central Park. Before I knew it Sweetie had engaged a hackney and we were riding through the park huddled under a blanket to ward off the cold.

It was the perfect time for a ride. We snuggled against one another and marveled at the fog that covered the top parts of the buildings.

There was nothing left to do but to go back to the Fortress of Solitude. Except--

"Are you hungry yet?" I asked, looking about for some place to eat. 5th Avenue was eerily empty of food pushcarts and storefront eateries. I needn't have worried.

"Still queasy," Sweetie said.

The last time I was in the city I had staked out an interesting looking deli on Times Square. We duly arrived at the Times Square subway stop, but decided to push on rather than having to buy another subway ticket.

Back at Penn we had a snack. I looked at all the cardboard pretzels and chose McDonalds. I was that hungry.

One McDouble later we rode the train to Secaucus, where we had to wait an hour and a half for a train home. Then, when we disembarked, the machine that would validate our parking ticket wouldn't accept my quarters because someone had plugged up the slot. Parking cost $2, but we had only one one dollar bill. I was ready to snap off the wooden bar so we could leave, but Sweetie prevailed upon me to first ride the elevator up to the mezzanine to see if there was another machine.

Fortunately there was, and fortunately the first machine hadn't timed out, robbing me of our only dollar. We were able to exit, and fifteen minutes later we were back at the Fortress of Solitude, exhausted.

And that was our big RL adventure.

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Sunday Night Fireworks Over Whimsy

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I Still Use My Mystitool

Written 11 January, 2013

I Still Use My Mystitool

Back in 2006 I bought Sweetie a Mystitool for Christmas-- and since I was intrigued, I bought another for myself.

Sweetie wears her Mysti sporadically these days, but I always keep mine on.

Nowadays some of the Mystitool's functionality is redundant, but I still find it useful in a number of ways.

Here are some things you can do now without gadgets:


Fly to any height. In the old days avatars could fly no higher than 150 meters or so without wearing an assistive device like a flight feather. It was a limitation that was silly even then, and became more so when build height was increased from 768 meters to 4096. Nowadays you can achieve a stable hover as high as 4096 meters with no device.

I still keep the Mysti's flight assist on. I can hover at any altitude and can set my flight speed to be faster than the unassisted speed. The Plaid setting is way fast!

Know Who's Around. The Radar in Phoenix and Firestorm will tell you who is on the sim and how far away they are from you. You can set the radar to tell you who is coming in or going out of chat and shout distance and who has entered or left the sim, and you can click on an avatar in the Radar tab and, if they're within draw distance, take your camera right to that person.

The Mysti shows avatars within 96 meters at lower right in hovertext and announces whenever an avatar comes within chat distance. I keep this functionality turned on because I find it keeps me oriented. I always know who's around without opening a window. Besides, no one can sneak up on me.

You can scan the sim and determine the number of avatars present and their locations.This was once done with probes and took about 30 seconds but now the Mystitool uses the Radar functionality and provides instant results.

You can also scan for avatars' UUIDs.

Teleport to Camera. Phoenix and Firestorm will allow you to teleport to the location of your camera. This is handy when I'm shopping and spot something one hundred meters and two or three rooms away. I don't have to wander about looking for the item.

I still sometimes use the Mystitool's Tp2Cam command.

Easily Find Favorites. Phoenix, Firestorm, and the Linden viewer all allow you to display a favorites bar at the top of the screen. I keep it turned off to save display space and search inventory. I've never used the Mystitool's favorites function.

The Mystitool does a hundred other handy things:

Rez objects from its inventory. You can put any copyable object in the root prim and rez it upon command (provided build is turned on on the land.

Rez either of two pose stands.

Rez a handy table that creates a new chair whenever someone sits down. The table can be customized and set to almost any size.

Rez a handy building platform. The owner can put up fences to keep avatars from falling off or completely enclose the platorm.

Rez a vehicle to take the owner and friends to the sky, where a platform is created.

Rez a skydiving platform. This will take you and your friends as high as 4000 meters, where it will disappear, throwing you into free fall.

Rez Linden plants.

Rez a chair that will follow you or another avatar about. This is handy when you or a friend has a weak computer that makes it difficult for them to move about.

Rez a camera positioner that will allow you to keep your camera focus fixed.

Track collisions.

Allow you to stand on another avatar's head. This is handy when you lose your friend while exploring. Functionality to 96 meters.

Create a particle beam that will lead you to your friends. Range is 96 meters.

Give you the coordinates of any avatar within 96 meters.

Allow you to mimic an avatar or object. You can, for instance, make your flying monkeys say "Flying Monkeys: We fight with poop!!"

Send a popup window to another avatar (96 meters limit).

Store your teleport destinations and allow you to easily recall them.

Show your favorite landmarks.

Listen on any channel(s).

Listen to object chat.

Scan for bugs and listeners.

Identify owners of chatty objects.

Set your Radio and Media URLS.

Catch URLS in chat and, if you wish, open a window on your browser.

Remind you to take a break.

Create cute poofy particles when flying. Colors are customizable.

Make a gentle facelight.

Ban, unban, eject, unsit, or teleport home avatars from your land. If the avatar isn't within 96 meters you can ban or unban by key.

Determine how many prims a plot of land can hold or how much land is needed for a specified number of prims.

Display random quotes.

Give a warning when sim stats or time dilation fall below user-specified levels.

Make your avatar resistant to bumps and mild pushes with Movelock.

Create a physical vehicle that makes you immune to pushes of any strength and allows you to walk through solid objects.

Stop unwanted animations.

Make facial expressions.

Create a relay that will tell you who is on your land while you're away.

Offensive functions allow you to kill avatars on damage-enabled land (this simply transports them to their home), trap them, drag them, or toss them about for sixty seconds. Before Havok 4.0 there was an orbit function that allowed you to instantly sent avatars millions of meters into the air, high enough to knock off their attachments and distort them. Needless to say, these functions must be used with permission of the avatars killed, trapped, dragged, or tossed so as not to violate the Terms of Service.

Pop open the Owner's Manual notecard. Considering all the Mystitool's functionality, you'll need it. I still do, after all these years.

The Mystitool allows you to set limits on most of its functions and all can be turned on or off. Unwanted functions can be removed from the HUD (and reinstalled later, if you wish).

The Mysti can be put to sleep when you're in a crowded area, but the newest version is way more efficient than it once was.

So, you see, the above is why I still keep my Mystitool on.

You can buy the Mystitool for $423L on the Second Life Marketplace or for $396 at Mystikal Cookie's store on the Blumfield sim. There's also a free version (functionality is limited).

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Outfits Not Searchable?

Last night I discovered I couldn't search for broken links in the My Outfits folder.

I include my HUDs in every outfit, and since I have a new version of the Mystitool the links are now all broken.

I was unable to search using the terms BROKEN LINK and Mystitool.

How unfortunate! Now I must go through every outfit and delete the broken links.

Maybe the folder is searchable with Firestorm and the official Linden viewer. I sure hope so.

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