Beautiful Light and Shadows with Depth of Field...

It has been a while since I’ve spent significant time in Second Life or posted here.  It seems I have been distracted again.  I’ve been exploring  some OpenSims… out on the “Hypergrid”.  I particularly like the work going on over on the Craft Open Sim (http://craft-world.org:8002/).  Although the biggest distraction for a few months now has been my learning to use the programs within Adobe CS5.  While I admire and continue to use many open source tools, there is some value in using the industry standard for creative tools.  Perhaps it is the focus that spending money applies to my efforts… lol.  Or perhaps it is the amazing number of tutorials, resources and support available.  Either way… I know I am lucky to have it and I love learning to use the CS5 tools.  So far my favorite is Illustrator.  I have so much more to learn.   

However, today I was distracted by test driving Kirsten’s latest viewer in SL.  Kirsten reports this is likely the last version of the S20 viewer with S21 rolling out next.  As many know Kirsten’s S20 requires a decent machine to run it, certainly if running w/ shadows and in ultra.  I shot this clip in Chakran Forest (perhaps the most beautiful place in Second Life).  The Forest… with S20(45) on ultra settings and shadows cranked up… gave my video card (nVidia 470) a run for it’s money (as can be seen with the stuttering pans using FRAPS to capture the video).  But I think you can still get a sense of how depth of field looks running Kirsten’s viewer.  Truly beautiful. 

Beautiful Light, Shadow w/ depth of field from Robward Antwerp on Vimeo.
An test of the latest viewer by Kirsten Cinquetti
Shot in the beautiful Chakran Forest of Second life.

Brave New World – HyperGrid…

Recently I posted about the Sim-on-a-stick.  At the time I was able to get the server running on my laptop and access my own sim.  But I couldn’t manage to invite any friends.  Later that day I tried to do the same from my Win 7 desktop.  Sadly it didn’t work.  (Probably a 64-bit issue)  In the process I loaded the Apache server, MySQL and PHP5 on my desktop…  it still didn’t work.  Eventually I became distracted by my Dreamweaver project.  After posting about the Sim-on-a-stick and talking about it to a few folks I didn’t think much of it.  Obviously if I was thinking about it others were as well, others with far better technical skills than I.  Today I learned Oberon Onmura set it up successfully and at the invitation of my friend and fellow metaverse explorer Jo Ellsmere, I was able to log into an independent OpenSim running on Oberon Onmura’s “older & not so fast” desk top (running Vista and a single Gig of memory!)….

Some may wonder… what is the big deal?  OpenSim right?  Yes… sort of… more like OpenGrid… or as several have labeled it… Hypergrid.   A completely decentralized Grid – You want one Region of your own to control completely?  Go ahead install it. Run it & invite your friends.

Like so many advances, it raises more questions than it answers.  What of inventory?  As it stands today… you Create it … you move it around the Hypergrid.  Will it stay that way?   How will creative freedom and copyright be impacted?  What of “the Boys at the Lab” as sororNishi calls them?  If the Hypergrid is so completely decentralized, what value do they still bring to the table – scale – community - history?  What type of economy will develop… will there be common currency?   Or will I have to make my own hair?  Will the technologically savvy rule the roost?   And just what is that ‘roost’?   How will being connected to ONLY those you want to connect to change things?  Will the serendipity of community be destroyed?  Perhaps it is as Dusan wrote recently… perhaps the lab created (unintentionally) a critical mass of emotional bandwidth allowing us the experience of Place.  How will Placeness be impacted by a hyper-decentralized-grid, it remains to be seen?  Clearly we are entering new space that will likely create a new Place. At this point (particularly for the Artists I know) it is the ultimate Sandbox… in more ways than one.  

Stay Tuned… More to come…