Request for Artistic Help

Beathan · Post by **Beathan** » Fri May 04, 2007 8:59 am

I have a sim design conception I would like to present, but I am woefully incompetent at designing a visual or graphic presentation of the theme. I hope that someone in our talent-rich society will volunteer to put together a proposal (quick) for the exhibition.

The primary design obstacle facing a linkage of our sims is the huge elevation shift between NF and CN. Based on this, I asked myself what RL cities have been built precariously into the sides of a mountain? Of the cities I could think of, I think Machu Pichu is the most interesting.

It is a city built, in large part, on terraces flowing down the side of a mountain. the principal city is high up -- in the clouds -- like NF, but the open land (farms and such) that fed the city are far lower. I think that a sim based on Machu Pichu could span the gap between NF and CN without breaking theme or making accomodations in theme to fit the geography.

However, I know that I lack the ability to design such a sim. Is anyone interested in taking a stab at it with/for me?

Thanks

Beathan

Beathan · Post by **Beathan** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:02 am

Another thought I had -- just to throw it out there -- although I'm not sure whether we could build it in SL -- is to drop the elevation at whatever angle works to link NF with CN -- and then burrow into the mountain. We could create a mine city like fantasy dwarf cities or a mine community. I don't know how well -- or even if -- subterranean communities work in SL -- but it could be fun to try.

Beathan

Jon Seattle · Post by **Jon Seattle** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:23 am

Hi Beathan,

Please come to the Guild meeting on Sunday at 10 AM SL Time if you can, or contact DNate, Moon, or myself. We would be very glad to help.

Pelanor Eldrich · Post by **Pelanor Eldrich** » Fri May 04, 2007 9:54 am

You could do the Dwarven city with, naturally, the extensive Dwarven workshops aka sandboxes. It's all kinda hidden. Very LotR in NFS/CN.

For continuity you have NFS->Passage into Dwarven City->CN.
If the entrance to the Dwarven City is discreet enough we don't really have much of a cultural disconnect. It can be thought of as an archeological site as well.

I dunno. I'm being silly. -Pel

Sleazy_Writer · Post by **Sleazy_Writer** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:47 am

DWARVEN CITY (or anything underground)

It's a fascinating idea to connect the current sims with beautiful mountain slope while at the same time you could do everything you wanted, underground.

But .. Since avatars simply cannot go below the sim's ground/surface, this would mean that:

- we would have a giant pit/abyss where the dwarven city would go
- we would need to emulate the mountain slope with prims [color=red:347hqiiq]<-- sounds like a real challenge[/color:347hqiiq]

Afaik, a sim consists of 4096 mini-squares of 16 sqm .. if you look at the normal surface, each 16 sqm square has many polygons (triangles shaping the surface)
I think 4 prims per 16 sqm would be no luxury .. 4 x 4096 = 16384 = more prims than the 15,000 available.
Jon, Moon, Gwyn > Is there any *realistic* way to get away with an emulated, good looking mountain slope without wasting this much prims?

Beathan · Post by **Beathan** » Fri May 04, 2007 2:50 pm

TOP --

You have the seen the engineering problem of the dwarven city exactly. That is why I don't know if it is feasible.

However, I will note that the ground in both CN and NF is made of landscaping prims -- and that both essentially have great pits under them. I'm not sure that landscaping with slanted prims will be much different than landscaping with flat prims. However, I defer to the experts (that is -- Sudane) -- on this one.

That said, I do think that the project may be more prim intensive than other landscaping projects because the inside as well as the outside of the landscape will have to be created. I'm not sure how this would work -- or how many prims it would consume.

The benefit is, of course, that we would get a sim with double duty. It would serve as an entire sim of open/garden/mountainside space as well as a fully occupied sim. Of course, banlines would have to be entirely prohibited.

Beathan

Jon Seattle · Post by **Jon Seattle** » Sun May 06, 2007 7:39 am

Moon has built a sim (a kind of ice cave / underwater lake) that may be similar in some ways to this. (Note that under her direction, Moon's company Beta Technology has built tens of sims at this point.) Landscape prims can indeed be used.

I have been interested for some time in using prims to build natural shapes, rocks and cliffs and that sort of thing. There are techniques that can be used both for prismatic shapes (rock slabs and crystal) and for cut rounded shapes like river rock. My waterfall on Sea Turtle island:

[img:3pg2dzjh]http://eiseley.at.northwestern.edu/~jon ... erfall.jpg[/img:3pg2dzjh][/img]

Rose Springvale · Post by **Rose Springvale** » Tue May 08, 2007 10:30 am

beautiful waterfall Jon... may i ask what its descent is?

also... if any of you can tell me... when i read the rules on terraforming in the knowledge base, it says that "islands" can be + or - 100 m. ... The descent between NFS and CN is .. i think...betweeen 113 and 170 m. I'm trying to draw up my proposal, and am not sure if that 100 m limit applies. If yes... how do we do this??

Dnate Mars · Post by **Dnate Mars** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:37 am

The +/-100 is from the default baked terrain, if I recall correctly. So if we have a flat sim at 100m, the range then becomes 200 to 0.

Rose Springvale · Post by **Rose Springvale** » Tue May 08, 2007 11:41 am

Thanks Dnate. I think that means i don't have to worry about it, but i'll leave that to experts to determine.

Nikki · Post by **Nikki** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:13 am

For those who are interested in the idea of building something under the ground like a dwarven city, it might be of interest that there is an underground-railway line in Knightsbridge that I think looks good.

If you go here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Knightsbrid ... 57/167.128
then look for one of the Underground stations. You can even ride the train.

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