The Walls Go Up at Usher

Location: Virtual House of Usher 2.0

Building without Sketchup has its advantages. The first House of Usher in Second Life had an elegant and rather Baroque floorplan, thanks to the sorts of magic possible with Sketchup. At the same time, it came out over-primmed and fussy to complete when it appeared, roofless.

Making the roof look decent must have taken eight hours in-world. Now, with a basically square floorplan, I'm already putting up walls that I've textured. Roderick's Library looks like a room now. Thanks to freebies at the grid's welcome area, it even has working oil lamps.

I think all told, the entire House will have under 200 prims as compared to 6000 in the Second Life build. It's more than starting with megaprims...building the second time let me economize in ways that did not occur to our original team, such as using ramps instead of a spiral staircase (and ramps are more realistic in a medieval structure).

Having one builder also eliminates the permissions-and-backup problems. Others can later add touches to the house and furnishings, but it really pays off to have one person do the bones of the place, and Usher is full of bones, literally and metaphorically.



Now if only I have time to make Roderick some hair!

Perhaps I'll modify some of the freebie male hair in Jokaydia Grid. Roderick's hair from Reaction Grid's main grid has just vanished out of inventory after being unable to load. Then I did try to (stupidly) resize some worn hair; it ended up half the size of the house!

These are the first glitches I've had, but for the House of Usher, everything is backed up at least once or, in some cases, twice. The rest is only hair.

Risking the Red Pill: What Questions to Ask Educators in Second Life

Location: Jokaydia Grid, Looking Backward

Shortly after Linden Lab announced the price-hike for educational sims, I polled my readers and also educators who do not normally follow this blog.

The results of what was admittedly an imperfectly worded survey appear here. I was gratified to get even 35 replies but I hope that a better designed survey will get more.

Now I'm wondering how to structure a new survey to give after January 1, the first month when those contracts for server-space (let's get over the illusion of calling it "owning land") end in SL. Educational sim-renters will then face the choice of renewing at higher rates, cutting back their holdings, moving to a mainland parcel, or not renewing at all. My Matrix reference is hardly a forced one: if we get representative answers to well designed questions, we may, like Neo, see a reality far different from the often-comforting one of our daily lives and work in virtual worlds.

As an Open-Source sort of person, whose creations in OpenSim will be given to those who are interested, I think designing a survey using the wisdom of crowds might be wise.

Here are responses I'm considering. Statistical mavens, have at it. I want to avoid bias (and I am biased about, if no longer enraged by, Linden Lab's decision) as much as possible. NOTE: this is not the survey. You'll get to reply to that later. I just want feedback on my questions at this point.

When your contract with Linden Lab comes up for renewal (or if it already has for the next year or years), your institution will:

• Acquire more land for classes and programs in SL
  
• Acquire more land for classes and programs in SL and set up programs on another grid
• Continue classes and programs at current level in SL
• Continue classes and programs at current level in SL and set up programs on another grid
  
• Reduce land holdings (explain in comments) and continue classes & programs in SL
• Reduce land holding (explain in comments) and set up programs on another grid
• Cease renting land from Linden Lab & continue courses / programs in SL
• Cease renting land from Linden Lab & move to another grid
• Cease institutional work in any virtual world
• Have not decided.

Readers, share critiques and revisions in comments. I'll then prepare the final survey to administer in 2011.

Butcher, no. Baker, no. Candlestick Maker in Jokaydia Grid!

Location: Letting there be light

When we finish our move to Jokaydia Grid, I'll miss Morris Mertel's furniture and outstanding candles that have graced the Usher Manse since early in the building process. I'm going to see if he'll sell me restricted-rights versions of his fireplace and furnishings, but meanwhile I thought that I might try to make a candle myself.

This tutorial is for those new to OpenSim (or SL) building.

1) Making the candle itself was was easy. I rezzed a tube, set its x and y sizes small, and I tapered the top. But the wick, a .01 meter tube, looked HUGE. As builders know, however, there are tricks to making "microprims."

2) A quick Google search revealed this post by Kevin Jennings, with a short and easily comprehended guide to making little-bitty details. Using the trick for a making a tiny square, I rezzed a cylinder, made it a sphere using Kevin's tricks, reset the sizes, then played with the stretch tool. It takes some patience but soon I had a pointed wick to go into the candle.


3) I added more taper and reduced the candlestick to .02 meters x & y.

4) But what about the FLAME? There's a free candle-flame script that works in both SL or OpenSim. I don't mind paying for scripts but this one was a free godsend. I made it the root prim and linked the candle and wick to it.



5) Touch the candle and...three-prim instant ambiance! Thanks, Path, for the skull. Touch it and the spirit of Roderick's and Madeline's mom will appear with a grim warning. Note that it and the candle are free to copy and take. I'm going to make a few holders for these candles and do some in different sizes and colors.

Have fun and don't let the ghosts get you!

Talking to Colleagues and Administrators About Virtual Worlds

Location: Lunch Table with Physics Department

kudos to Kali for the image of Lovecraftian Iggy

Rule One: Never show colleagues that you dress like a monster for Halloween, even if it's in a virtual world. Rule One B: Spell "virtual" correctly in your post's title (fixed 11/2/10!).

I often get the variation of the same question from my colleagues in Physics, as well as from a few mathematicians, with whom I have lunch. "So, what is happening with your avatar?"

The line is usually delivered with a crooked smile, as if a humanist can at least be funny with his research topic, if not serious.

My science and math colleagues do realize that lots of good simulation can be done in 3D, including inside virtual worlds. They would be an "easy sell" but what about Deans, Department Chairs, and I.T. administrators? That will be the topic this week at the Virtual Worlds Roundtable's meeting on the Montclair State University virtual campus. We begin Thursday at 2:30 pm SL Time and will chat for an hour. Teleport link:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Montclair%20State%20CHSSSouth/129/158/22
I have a few other "ground rules" I employ. I'm going to toss them onto the roundtable Thursday, but here they are:

• Avoid triumphalist discourse. Present VWs as a promising new technology, not the greatest innovation since fire. Explain that virtual worlds are not games, but that they use a game engine to let educators build simulations.
• Note that there are some activities, such as exploring a simulation and interacting with it, that cannot be done without an avatar. Show them, for instance, pictures of the Virtual Theorists Project at Montclair State.
  
• Point to the Canadian Border Crossing Project and in-world work by health professionals as examples of good in-world pedagogy, and note the Journal of Virtual World Research as a peer-reviewed publication.
• If appropriate, point to your grid as not containing adult content. If on a grid where hanky-panky exists, get the students to sign a waiver and present this to dubious colleagues.
  
• For face-to-face courses, do not emphasize in-world office hours when talking about a virtual world. I let my students know that they can IM me or visit during SL office hours, but that I'll also be at my physical office.

Selling my evaluators on The Virtual House of Usher was not simple but it worked. I had to convince them that the students would indeed read Poe's text and then write about it. The topic, as I patiently explained, would enable students to write at two levels: as art and architecture critics of the build itself, and as literary-studies students exploring what happens when a tale by a famous writer enters another medium. First, I asked the students to consider the compromises (and opportunities) for actors and creators, as well as the ability to make a tale that is deterministic in its original form into something where participants could alter the outcome.

My audience liked that, and so will yours. Come by Thursday to share stories of what worked for you, or come by to hear others' stories.