Virtual vehicles for the metaverse
Topics relating to virtual reality and various online virtual worlds.
Thanks to a heads-up from Aerodrome staffer Millie Thompson, I was able to locate and stomp on a bug that affected both the Raptor and Kestrel SkyBikes. If you use the blue options menus to set the lock, the lock fails to work. The chat command works correctly (e.g., “lock owner”).
If you already own the Raptor or Kestrel and would like the update to Raptor 1.2 or Kestrel 1.2, please contact Terra Quan in Second Life. Proof of purchase will be required, of course.
If you’ve visited Bay City — Second Life’s newest urban environment — recently, then you’ve probably seen me zipping back and forth along the main drag on one of my latest toys: the Terra Kestrel and Terra Raptor.
Basically, riding one of these is like strapping a jet engine to your crotch and blasting into the sky. Well maybe less painful than that, I guess.
If you’d like to try them, drop by the runway at Abbotts Aerodrome and look for the little green “demo” buttons next to the skybike displays.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dgSSE0mbVg]
If you haven’t yet, go explore the new Bay City area in Second Life. Just west of the city of Nova Albion, the mid-twentieth century styled Bay City is Linden Lab’s experiment in providing infrastructure that residents can build on. They’ve provided not just streets and canals, but factories, a cafe, a movie theatre, a bowling alley, and even a dilapidated “mental hospital”.
The roads, incidentally, are great for vehicles. They’re straight, level, and at ground level, which is ideal for hovering vehicles. Drop by the vehicle rezzing areas in Molesworth and New Port.
Someone approached me in Second Life the other day and was astounded that I’d been in SL since 2003. “Whoah, the oldest person I’d met until now was from 2005!” What keeps me in the metaverse year after year? In SL I can create anything I can imagine.
In the past week, for example, I’ve been prototyping the next-generation Terra hoverbike. This means playing ideas and themes, sculpting shapes in Wings3D, and realizing the creation in three dimensions in Second Life. From there, all I have to do is drop in one of my scripts and I have a fully functional vehicle.
This latest hoverbike is a prototype of a racing bike, destined for a racing sim. It’s a first draft, to be revised and improved upon, but I’m happy with the direction it’s taking.
