Right, then. On to other matters!

On Meeting Mr. Tenk

Last night during my wander of New Babbage, I found myself at the Porthead Tavern in Port Babbage checking out some sculpted bottles.  As I looked, the Mayor walked in and introduced himself.  We spent some time chatting about the state of NB (how incredible I think it is), the difficulty the city has had bringing in active residents, industrialization versus gentrification, and that sort of thing.

It was wonderful to meet him, and I've been giving thought to our conversation.  I'm thrilled to be back inworld, and I'd like nothing more than to be able to support and work in the city, but honestly, at my best I was only a mediocre builder. As a relative newcomer, it is a bit intimidating to see just how tied together everything seems in the city, and the obvious skill of the builders who made it.  There is a City of New Babbage thread, however, that gives me hope that I could eventually do something to not only participate in the community there, but to contribute to the overall theme:

Build Quality and Babbage Standards

Now isn't the time though for a major undertaking though.  I need to turn some ideas over in my head before committing to anything.  But it is something I'm thinking about.


On Being a New Babbage Founder

I've made quite a bit of being an NB founder in my profiles and in this blog. To be clear, I don't think being a founder bestows any special privilege, or that it should.  It is something I'm proud of only because I feel a connection to the city, and that maybe I played some small role in getting something wonderful off the ground. I've indulged in some nostalgia and reminiscing, and certainly some romanticizing, but the truth is that it was a matter of timing more than anything.  I happened to find the sim just as Mayor Sprocket was getting it started, I loved the vision he had for its future, and I wanted to be part of it.

The fact that it has thrived since then is exciting, but I am, at this point, only part of its past.  Those who have run with the idea since the city's inception have my unlimited admiration!


On the Art and Science of Building

I mentioned above that at my best I only had moderate skill as a builder.  That was long ago.  Sculpted prims had only been just introduced before I left, and Mayor Sprocket had just placed the first sculpts in the city - some grain bags on the train platform.  Sculpting tools were all external, and I hadn't gotten the hang of using 3D modeling applications.

A couple of days ago I tried out an inworld tool demo that allows a builder to put together some specially scripted prims into their intended design, then link them to another script that connects everything to a back-end sculpt map generator.  The map file is dumped on your local machine, you import it and slap it on a new prim to complete the sculpt.  It was interesting.  I built the obligatory snowman to try it out and had good luck with it. It's an expensive tool but I might take the plunge. I'd like to try out some other tools first though.

Baked textures is another area where I'm not proficient.  It seems that one needs to master texture creation in order to create anything really compelling.  At the Porthead Tavern there was a one-prim chair with a texture that made the wood parts look like wood and the cushion part look like cushion.  I have no idea how that was accomplished.

Before I left in 2007 I was doing a lot of work with microprims, making Victorian eyeglasses and such.  I had started making some of my own animations.  My last structure was a build for Intolerable's Steam SkyCity plot.  It was inspired by the movie The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, with downward spires, slightly convex walls and dark shingles.  It had an exposed mechanical elevator that took you down to the airship platform beneath the city (which floats).

Last night I built a rudimentary ring to wear, just to reintroduce myself to building. It was a good reminder to me that I'm not yet ready to do anything ambitious.  I'm thinking that I might begin work on a simple house on my Caledon land to get back into practice.  I also need to look into some classes to come back up to speed.


On Technical Issues Which Prevent Optimal Viewing

One thing that became abundantly clear to me during the last week was that I needed a better video card.  Even on the lowest settings I had a hard time moving around, and rezzing was slow.  Last night I picked up a middle-of-the road card (that at least isn't considered "legacy") and installed it.  It's a bit better, but the SL client the next-to-lowest graphics setting as its "recommended" level for my hardware.  So I have a bit more visual interaction with the world, but it's still not great.

I might try looking into other SL viewers to see how that changes things, but I think it will come down to me needing to upgrade my hardware.