Virtual vehicles for the metaverse
Topics relating to virtual reality and various online virtual worlds.
While weeding my Second Life inventory, I found Terra Windrider — the hot air balloon I made in 2006. It’s totally obsolete now, of course, being made entirely out of prims rather than sculpts or mesh. And I stumbled on a little easter egg I’d totally forgotten about.
If you say “drop”, Windrider drops a penguin over the side. Splat. I honestly have no idea why I thought it was a reasonable feature to include. It’s so completely random.
For fans of Second Life and virtual worlds in general, today there’s both good news and bad. Good news: Oculus Rift, the VR headset compatible with Second Life, after years of anticipation, is available for pre-order by consumers. Bad news: It’s really effing expensive.
In the lead-up to the pre-order today, Oculus kept the introductory price of their consumer-model VR kit a closely-guarded secret. Speculation was rampant. Would it be an affordable $299 investment, or would it be priced out of casual reach? It turns out it’s the latter. And then some.
At $599 USD, the Rift will cost Canadians around $850 CAD before taxes and shipping. They’ve priced it up with high-end tablets and phones, or mid-level computers. In short, only the wealthy get to have one.
As an avid fan of virtual worlds myself, I was hoping to be among the first to upgrade to a fully immersive consumer-grade VR setup. I can’t justify the expense even though I produce content for Second Life and would probably use it almost daily. $850 CAD is too much.
So my dream of immersing myself in Second Life — seeing Bay City or 1920s Berlin, gawking at the buildings, airships, and landscapes — all that will have to wait until the price comes down by at least half. VR isn’t a reality yet.
Over the last weeks, I’ve received a lot of requests for demo flights. Well, as of today, they’re back.
Visit Terra Aeronautics in the northwest corner of Abbotts, Second Life, to test fly several of my aircraft.
Twelve years ago today, I created an account named “Cubey Terra” in a little-known online world called Second Life. Since then, Second Life enjoyed a population boom, and I had the opportunity to design hundreds of vehicles, gadgets, and assorted in-world items.
For my twelfth rezday, I’ve assembled a sampling of some of my aircraft designs from 2003 to 2015. Drop by my place in Abbotts to take a look!
Went for a little joyride in my Terra Twin prototype today. I’m enjoying the smooth motion that I’ve created for the moving parts. In the early days of Second Life, landing gear would suddenly appear in position when lowered them; the gear door swing open and Twin lowers its gear slowly until they lock into position.
It’s the little details that make a plane really fun to fly.