LM Gallery: A Gallery in the Sky

By Wesley Regenbogen

Although there are many art galleries in Second Life, I think this one might be a special one. Like most galleries, there are many paintings on the walls, organized very well. But what makes this gallery special is that there are moving paintings. They were created by Treacle Darlandes. He makes these moving 3D paintings, which are awesome to look at. You have the feeling the paining comes towards you.

The place was created by Lattita Capalini, the deceased best Second Life friend of Meredith Staheli, who originally created the LM Gallery. It was always Lattita Capalini’s dream to create a place where people could admire artworks and to enjoy creative inspirations. It originally opened in 2007, but it closed down in 2010. Lattita Capalini passed away in real life in late 2012, but Meredith Staheli kept the idea alive by recreating the art gallery again but this time high up in the sky. So, not only do they have 3D art paintings, but also they are high in the Second Life sky. This is an interesting concept, if you ask me.

The new art gallery was built and decorated by Meredith Staheli herself, creating the gallery high up in the sky. The art gallery evolved from the new ideas and contributions of the deceased Lattita Capalini. When she created the original gallery, Lattita Capalini invited various SL artists like Treacle Darlandes, Teal Freenote, and Feathers Boa. They use the Arts & Artist Network group notifications. Since 2013, Treacle Darlandes has helped Meredith Staheli with the group notices. “I am not very good in public relationship and promotions,” Meredith Staheli explained to me with a laugh. Readers can find more information at these channels: Galleries of SL Kiosk and Treacle Darlandes.

As far as the music that is played in the art gallery goes, Meredith told me the stream plays, “Jazz, the 80's, contemporary singer-songwriter, easy listening. We are still exploring different alternatives and ideas (smile). As a continuous respect to Lattita's vision, we would like to keep drawing new ideas and SL residents to art exhibition.”

Unfortunately there are no future events planned at this point, due to the real-life work Meredith is working on. But she welcomes new singers and new artists to perform or exhibit in the gallery. So, new talent gets a chance in SL as well.

Personally, I think is art gallery has a bright future ahead and it’s a nice art gallery.Although, I haven’t visited many art galleries in Second Life, I think this one deserves a mention.

Let us hope that Lattita Capalini’s dream keeps on living in the future and that her vision may inspire everyone to make her dream true.

To visit the LM Gallery, go to the following location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Triglav/205/26/2510

Wesley Regenbogen

Club Vraiment

By Wesley Regenbogen

Club VRAIMENT, literally translated "The Real Club,  first opened on February 25th ,2014 until October 1^st, 2014. But the club reopened on February 17^th, 2015. The owner and creator is Colonel Komarov. He also decorated the club.

The owner told me that the basic idea was to create a “real club,” which means a club with a dance floor, lights and things you find in an normal club in real life. He didn’t want to create another beach club or something similar with a shopping mall and stuff like that. Although, the club is rather small, it’s a cool club with the lights and stuff. It is totally dark with flashing lights and a small DJ booth. The normal features of a club. 

The Live DJs are also very cool. They mostly play electronic music ( EDM ), but they also play rock or retro, not top 40 mainstream pop or tropical zouk reggae. DJ Robina Ewing, one of my SL friends, plays there sometimes. She told me about this club.

They have a group in-world and also a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/vraiment.club/ ). They notify avatars through notifications from within the group. Since they are new, they don’t have a website yet, but I think that will follow soon.

Although it’s a small club, they need some attention too. Small clubs need love too, right? That’s what I thought as well. Personally, I think is small club is very nice, because of it’s minimalistic space and also it’s nice interior, which is also basic like in a normal club. This makes this club special and cool at the same time.

So, why not go to a “normal” club for once and go to VRAIMENT CLUB! Yet another club to add to my club list ( nah, I don’t have a list, just kidding ).

You can visit VRAIMENT CLUB at this location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/New%20York%20NYC/176/15/3002

Wesley Regenbogen

JasX Games Part 4: Designing BARE

By Locke Esgal

Last time, we talked about Fright and J-fish, but that's not even his biggest game. Many of you have heard of BARE, the fighting card game that's played in quite a few clubs and sims across the grid. I asked Jasdac about his inspiration for the game. He answered, “Fright was also my first complete free to play game. Then a friend sent me to an early alpha of a game, Kemo Coliseum. At the time, I wanted to make a class based fighting game. I started working on it with the working name Domcom. This was summer 2013.”

Kemo Coliseum is a versus game similar to Bejeweled where two people fight in an attempt to strip the armor and lower the health of the enemy with gem combos and special abilities. “My friend sent me the first public alpha and I was pretty hooked, except I'm not a huge fan of Bejeweled. I knew I wanted something where you'd strip your opponent's armor piece by piece.”

At this point, all that was needed was the fine tuning of the idea. A inkling, a thought...anything that might kick start the game we know and love today.

“So I distinctly remember taking a walk around the neighborhood, this was after midnight. When I came back 15 min later. I had the first BARE combat system planned out.  And one day of scripting later, I had the first working version of BARE. Now keep in mind BARE at that time didn't have any abilities, no combat styles other than the default, and no website.I needed someone to test on, and realized I had an old bot that I used for mesh upload back when firestorm didn't have mesh upload features. Which meant I needed to run firestorm for building and regular viewer for uploading.”

This testing period proved fruitful, as now BARE is likely the most played game Jas has made! “BARE grew pretty exponentially and by the time I released it (roughly 3 months after inception) it had almost overtaken TiS. At this moment, BARE has 8.5k users. And the idea of having cosmetic sex-related things for sale (like animation packs) while releasing the game itself for free, seems to be the most profitable thing.”

For more about BARE, check out their page at http://jasx.org/lsl/BARE/ .

Next time, we'll have the last part where we learn a bit about Jas working with another game designer, Toonie, and learn more about Dungeons and Pandas!

Locke Esgal

Editor's Note: You might want to know your opponent some before getting into a BARE match. From what I was told, and saw in group chat, while a squeaky-clean PG-rated match takes no effort, some frisky players take advantage of the options. But there's no shortage of courteous players whom would rather not embarrass new fighters learning the game.

Avatar Review, the DSD Leopard

By Jamie

DSD, the very mention of the name will bring quality avatars, and great service, to a furry's mind. However an av that I recently have gotten, makes me rethink DSD. The avatar in question is the DSD_LeopardLE. The problems with this avatar, will be explained below.

At first glance the avatar looks awesome, but the hud looks a bit different. Usually the DSD hud will show a full body view of the av, and it will be barely half an inch tall. However this hud is roughly one inch wide, and one inch tall. meaning it takes up twice as much room as the other huds.

Upon opening the hud, the layout of it is a bit questionable, and strange to regular DSD users. The usual hud will simply open downward, and take up about 3 inches wide, and 4 to 5 inches tall. However this hud takes about 3 inches down, and 4 inches wide, meaning rather than taking up the periferal, it takes up the entire upper left hand corner, of the screen. However when clicking on each section, it completely covers the remaining space in the upper left hand corner.

However the biggest problem is the color bars and squares. Color bars, and color squares are supposed to have visible colors in them, to change the colors of different parts. However, these bars and squares are completely white, yet still work as if they have color in them, meaning your working blindly.

However, other than that, it's a good avatar, That is not saying it's a great avatar. It's still a flounder. It looks great, and amazing. But it can't really do much.

Jamie (Theonlyjohnny)

Artfest 4 Revisited

By Gemma Cleanslate

Only two more weeks to get over to Artfest 4 and I am hoping you get over there to view the region.  ArtFest is a “CHARITY art competition to raise funds for disaster relief.  100% of the $L raised with ArtFest is converted to real-life money, and donated to the Red Cross / Crescent (Via their Everyday Heroes program).  The Red Cross was chosen, as it is an organization that helps around the globe without discrimination (http://www.redcross.org.au/principles.aspx).” according to Huntress. 

I wrote about it while the artists were working in January  http://slnewserevents.blogspot.com/2015/01/artfest-4.html.  so I did not get to see all of them.

 I recommend flying or taking the bunny ride to view the ones that perch high on the peaks of the mountains. There are some to view both high and on the ground. My friend Neeks Karu has a lovely piece there as usual. Nintin has a display of her art in a small temple like build with fluttering curtains.  

Some new artists are exhibiting for the first time and have been invited to exhibit in galleries.  Now that her work as coordinator is done I found Huntress curled up on the lawn resting .  Her hope is that many more people will come and vote to donate to the cause before the closing.

Don’t miss the carnival which is till open! 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eclectic%20Diversity/136/176/22

Gemma Cleanslate

The Waterfalls Club

By Wesley Regenbogen

The Waterfalls Club was opened about a month ago by cяıƨтıαпσ (djcristianoo) and his Second Life girlfriend Fiuona (spiritofluv). Both of them also decorated the club.

What makes this club unique is the waterfalls that you can find at the four ends of the club. Like many clubs, the interior is nicely decorated and modern. The DJ booth is located a bit in the back of the club, aside the two large logos with the waterfalls pillars below them. The falls are quite cool and nicely made. This makes this club unique of it’s kind. Behind the club there are waterfalls as well. To truly view the waterfalls,  you must actually fly around the club and see it for yourself. It’s amazing how they made it!

 Facing the DJ booth, there’s a bar in the club at your right. It’s a wave form thing and it’s cool. There are two rotating platforms made for dancers to dance on, located in the air. Let’s hope those dancers don’t have fear of heights!

The Waterfalls Club is a friendly club with a good atmosphere. They have awesome music and the best DJs. They play all kinds of trance music and also electro house in the club. What’s more, this club is only the beginning of a bigger project that they will launch soon.They will build shops and a business network and everything around it. This is an ongoing project that just started a month ago. Let’s hope this big project will succeed ! I wish them the best of luck with it !

Since this club is relatively new in Second Life, their ways of getting the word out are limited, such as events groups. They do have a group called “Waterfalls Club V.I.P.” When there is a party there and you're in the group, you will get notified. Because this is a new club, there are no major events planned yet.

Personally, this is the most unique club I encountered so far. Another club to add to my club list ( I don’t have a list, though ). The nice scenery in the background and the waterfall pillars are quite unique. Let us hope that this club expands it’s boundaries and will have bright future ahead of them. For being a new club, they have done a nice job creating it all.

You can find this club at the following location :

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Waterfall%20Club/75/112/37 

Wesley Regenbogen