Re: [-empyre-] architecture, place and 'urbanised' space

["Kath O'Donnell" <aliak77@gmail.com>]

hi Linda, a few thoughts  - mostly technical answers & I may be wrong,
but this is what I've noticed when in-world - I could be doing things
wrong though as I still walk into walls a fair bit ;) others can
correct/comment if I've misunderstood or not come across parts.

On 8/7/07, linda carroli <lcarroli@pacific.net.au> wrote:

[snip]
> first life eg elite developments on waterfronts, the same patterns of

sometimes the 'waterfronts' are just unallocated areas in the virtual
grid, which is effectively infinite (server hardware dependant). once
they're allocated as land then people can build etc on them. but prior
to this it looks like water, so many new people think they're buying
waterfront property only to find out a couple months later there's new
developments there, perhaps blocking their views. as I understand it,
if u want a waterfront property, you'd have to add a water texture to
your land/area.

I've seen lots of nice landscaped gardens though - perhaps a test bed
prior to planting one in RL at home?


> roadways and grids reappear, perhaps even the emergence of cbds (or

I haven't noticed roads, but I guess they are there. walking paths are
popular on grounds. actually I've seen pictures of cars on websites so
I guess there must be roads - though why they're not flying cars ala
jetsons I don't know! that would be more fun.

> concentrations of business/residential activity) and there is an
> apparent conflict of property use in some instances.
>
from what I've noticed, people buy land, run out of objects/prims
(pimitives) so buy more land so they can build more with the prims.
this is the hard way to build. if u use textures u can make it look
like you've used lots of prims but actually use a minimal amount of
prims - so more efficient building so to speak. but for the first type
of builders, or for really complex builds, conflicts can occur when
people do/don't want to sell eg price wars & people building around
your land. the business places seem to be in similar areas and are
different heights. maybe it's related to how residents used to earn
Linden$ if people visited your land. there was talk of this being
removed, I'm not sure if it has, but someone here would know.

I think it's similar to the shopping malls scenario in some places -
for businesses at least. people moved away from the neighbourhood
stores that lined the streets, and went to the malls  where you could
find everything in one place. when you're buying your land, if you
were a business, I think it'd be good business sense to build near
other businesses so people can see yours if they're walking / flying
around nearby. even though teleporting is popular, people still wander
round on foot or fly up to get a birds eye view.



> why do 'structures' or 'constructions' in SL have steps when everyone
> can fly? do the steps provide choice or are they are a design element
> or something else? perhaps some of john rajchman's ideas are useful
> to revisit - folding, lightness, ground, abstraction and future cities.
>

many people build up in the sky rather than on the land so u fly up to
their houses. I've been in houses with steps, and others with no
steps, but a portal/transporter instead to move you between places /
levels in the building. one place had a series of escalators like in
the shopping stores eg myer city store. this was hard for me to
navigate - almost had to run up them, they weren't automatic. though
perhaps there are some that are. also, sometimes it depends on who's
building the structures. whether they're using pre-built textures to
make it look like stairs (& also to use less prims) or if they're
physically building stairs out of prims/blocks.

afaik you can't fly through the ceilings (but maybe I'm doing this
wrong). I'm not sure about ceilings, but with walls, a person can set
the texture for both inside & out and set properties to allow people
to be able to fly through or not. there's some gravity properties that
u can set also.

I imagine the stairs are used as an indicator to tell the visitor that
they can go up/down stairs and so it's familar to RL - a known /
familiar interface if you will.  cos when you're new and u turn up in
a blank space with walls there's sometimes no indication of what u
should do and what's there eg a transporter. so unless u do laps of
the place and check all the walls etc for clues, like in some
adventure games, it's easy to just decide there's nothing there to see
and move on.  so I guess having some familiar items is handy in some
cases - it depends on your intent and what you want the space to be
used for I guess. eg if it was just your private place or for your
friends, u might be more willing/imaginative to make the interfaces
more experimental, but if u were a store or a place where you want
lots of repeat visitors (& there's heaps of these!), you'd probably
make it simple for people to understand the idea. that's my guess
anyway.




> Suburbia/Walls
>

I guess walls are used for the illusion of privacy and to store your
objects. (there's other methods too like giving access only to group
members). similar to RL.


>
> Motion/Space

> transport/commuting/roads while slowing down others ie
> pedestrianisation. I've never seen a vehicle in any Second Life
> documentation so I presume they don't exist.
>
I haven't seen one inworld but I've seen photos on websites of cars.
perhaps they were 'artists impressions' but they looked like
screenshots.

> I am thinking that when it comes to an idea of the city or an
> urbanised environment, virtual as it is, Second Life is producing an
> awareness and experience of the Teleport City.
>
yes, teleporting is one of the main modes of transport. (at least for
me). other worlds have used this also. (worlds away definitely had it)



>
> The story takes place in a dream state and, while ostensibly a
> romance, is also regarded as a treatise on architecture with several
> descriptions of various kinds of structures including a temple, a
> pyramid, a triumphal arch, a hippodrome, a propylaeum, a palaestra,
> two colossi, a gigantic building in the form of an elephant with an
> obelisk on its back, a bathhouse, a palace, a two circular-plan
> temples, some ruins, and an amphitheater ...
>
> The buildings are described in excruciating detail and scholars have
> tried to reconstruct some of them but they have proven to be
> impossible. Perhaps these impossible architectures can now be
> constructed in Second Life.
>
definitely. they probably are already somewhere & u could teleport
between them. if not u could import the texture/image and voila :)
(well, not quite, but wouldn't take too much work)

kath





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