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WindLight puts the ceiling too low: please vote

Yesterday Linden Lab revealed an alternate Second Life client that contains WindLight technology. WindLight is a sky generator that produces breathtaking photo-realistic virtual skies. It means the end of greenish sunrises and puke-brown horizons, at the very least.

There is, however, a pretty big trade-off. Our current sky is “untouchable” — that is, no matter how high you go, you can never reach it. With WindLight, the sky is less than a kilometer above the ground. It’s at about 750 meters actually, which means that you can very easily fly above the sky into nothingness.

This totally destroys the illusion of flight, ruins skydiving, and in your sky home, the sky is distorted as you view it edge-on.

Please vote in JIRA to correct this bug and either raise the sky surface thousands of meters higher or make it “untouchable” like the current sky. Here’s how:

  1. Go to jira.secondlife.com and log in. You have to log in first before viewing the issue page or you can’t vote, for some reason.
  2. View bug VWR-923 and click the “Vote for this” link on the left of that page.

If you enjoy flight and skydiving in Second Life, or if you own a sky home, please vote. The WindLight sky is very nice, but it must be implemented correctly.

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Stearman, redux

What’s special about a Stearman biplane? It’s one of the most used biplanes in history. They have been used as trainers, scouts, crop dusters, and stunt planes, among other uses. Between 1930 and 1945, Boeing built around ten thousand of the things, and there are still about a thousand air-worthy Stearmans today.

When I was still new to Second Life, one of my more popular planes was a biplane that looked vaguely like a Stearman. Eventually, I had to take it off the market. I had created it using a kind of hack that let me build a high-prim, physical model, and that hack apparently had the ability to crash a sim on occasion. Oops.

Now, about three and a half years later, I’m revisiting the Stearman with everything I’ve learned about making virtual vehicles. This high-prim, two-seat replica has taken many hours, but I’m close to the finish now.

Stearman replica in Second Life

Give me another week, and you too can take to the skies in this icon of flight history.

Stearman links:
Warbird Alley: Boeing / Stearman PT-17 “Kaydet”
Wikipedia: Boeing Stearman

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Hey look, my avatar is in a magazine

OK, it’s hardly GQ, but I’m not complaining. In a BC Business Magazine article that’s curiously titled “Get a Life”, Kevin Chong explores the Second Life business activities of two Vancouver residents — Nyla Cheeky and yours truly.


Get a Life at bcbusinessmagazine.com. (Registration required.)

Maybe I’m being too picky, but shouldn’t that photo of my avatar have the caption “Cubey Terra” instead of my real name?

Besides that minor point, it’s a fair assessment of the state of business in Second Life.

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Cubey’s downtime update

While the cybervirtuametaverse is down for repairs this morning, I thought I’d spend a little quality time in the blogosphere. It’s a little chilly in here. Did someone leave the window open again?

Since the release of the Terra Z, I have started on a couple of new projects, but I’ll get to those later. Let’s first take a look at what’s happening in skydiving.

Thanks to the scripting efforts of Effsey Nelson, I can now show a beta version of the Skydiving Top 10 page, where ten Second Life residents are revealed for the obsessive skydivers they are. I’m just astounded at the accuracy of people like Arex Koltai, who maintained an average distance of 0.6 meters in his last 100 jumps. Then look at Pilatus Masala, TheManKnownAsDaveP Crosley, and Shandon Uggla who each performed over 1000 jumps — and that’s just since March 10, when the database came online. Some performed as many jumps or more before that time. So we have some seriously dedicated and competitive skydivers. To them, I say this: For crying out loud, turn off the computer and get some fresh air or something.

While they’re out for a walk, let’s look at the evil schemes that I’m hatching in my top secret laboratory. I’m a little behind schedule, but I have started work on the new Stearman. It’s in the very early stages, so I expect it will be done in about 4 to 60 weeks.

Meanwhile, in a dank corner of the lab, I have constructed a new and improved vendor system, which should allow more people to earn a few extra L$. Like the last vendor system, people can sell skydiving gear or aircraft and earn L$ on each sale. The improvement is that the system can handle more vendors at once and is less likely to explode. Oh and it sells penguins too.

And finally, Abbotts Aerodrome has a new level with living/office spaces. It’s done in a pseudo-Japanese style with pine beams, shoji screens, and tatami. If anyone has any good suggestions for the large open space around the elevator, please drop me a line or leave a comment here.

It looks like the grid is back online! Pilatus, Dave, and Shandon, you can come back in now.