Free SLB Shop and Hop Car

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 As of the writing of this article, there's still several days left in the SL22B "Shop and Hop" shopping event. Each of the stores has freebies, or a gift certificate. For the Olympus Motors store at Zinnia (227/102/23), they have something just about all of us in real life could use: a free car.

 

The car boasts 64 colors of paint jobs, a realistic looking engine, realistic sounds, an alarm, and more. 

To get it, click on the vendor and select "buy." You then get the giver. You select "add" on that, click the giver HUD, and you get the car in your inventory.

The interior is well detailed. 

Remember to turn off any AO of yours when you take the wheel.

I took it out for a short spin. It seemed to handle sim borders okay. But it could have a little trouble rounding corners. So be careful on bridges over water. 

Once again, the free car is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zinnia/227/102/23 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

The Palomma Plaza

 

 By Gemma Cleanslate

This is a reminder for those who are helping new residents of Second Life or are shopping for themselves on a budget. In January 2023 the sad news of Palomma Casanova’s passing hit the community with shock. The Free Dove store had been a staple in SL since almost the beginning. It was believed that the store would disappear. But fortunately Shelby Monitor, a close friend in Second Life and real-life was granted permission to continue it.

And it is thriving. For those not familiar with the Palomma Plaza , the present name for the store , many fashion designers donate outfits, shoes, avatar accessories, jewelry, and so much more free to group members and newbies and anyone who stops by.

The fashions are up to date and fit many mesh bodies. I always see something I would like to wear and grab it when I visit. There is a donation jar for those who can afford it and it supports the store.

Upstairs many of the creators have shops where one can visit and pay for their wares. Their presence also supports the free shopping. It is a great boon to everyone involved. Thanks to Shelby for keeping it all going .

Outside the store on the other side there is a lovely memorial to Palomma Casanova stop and see it.

Look for teleports that take you to lovely locations , Dove’s Dream Park on the region, the marina, the forest, and other locations of interest . We will remember Palomma and her kindness that was never ending. Stop by and bring those who need help with their Second Life décor. Shelby also owns Shelbyfield , avatars and fashions. Thanks Shelby!!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gallii/179/26/32

One other thing by the way now that summer is here . Yosemite has camp sites for your weekend getaway that cost only 1L a night. What a bargain! Take the kids or friends to have a great camping experience with horseback riding, hiking trails, swimming, and other activities on this beautiful region .

Check out the visitor center for freebies too. There is a great teleport hud with all the places to see at the rental center where you can find the rent locator for the tents. I saw that there is anew Chapel near the visitors center where one can have a wedding or other ceremony or quiet meditation. You can contact Jadin Emerald. There are also teleport pads all around the main areas of activity to use.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Yosemite/127/54/84

Gemma Cleanslate

Wee Wonders Tiny Freebie Store

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

If you have a tiny avatar, there's a place to shop that will interest you: Wee Wonders at Didean.

At the Relay Weekend, my friend Kamida came across a set of the three dinkie bot singers that were up on sale at the RFL Home and Garden a couple years ago. She wondered if whoever made them made more items. So that led to to my looking. Veloce Bertone was the maker, and he had a place in Didean called "Wee Wonders." So I took a look for myself to see how the place is.

Dropping by, there were many dozens of items inside. Veloce had arranged them in several catagories: Furniture, Edibles (including an ice cream cart and coffee machines), Outdoors (outdoor activities), Buildings, Winter (activities), Toys, Pool and Patio, Avatar (such as swimmer animation), Vehicles (including a dinkie-sized roomba), Performance, and Activism. Clicking on the signs, one could get a description, or the item.

There were a few demonstration items. One was a sack race. Another was a container of tools from hoe to rake to pickaxe. The third was a "Punch-A-Putin." Just "sit" on the item, and your tiny's punches will gradually give the Putin head in place of a punching bag a black eye. 

A few of the items such as the "Punch-A-Putin" have an option for larger avatars or can also be used by them. Also, the second floor has a few items made for avatars of normal human height, such as the Faery boat. But the number is much smaller, at least for now.

The surrounding sim is well done and designed. Outside on the canal next to the shop, one can take a Faery boat, either full size or dinkie size for a tour around the area. At normal speed, be prepared for it to take a while, about thirty minutes. The tour will take you through rivers and ocean shores, through forests, and past homes and stone towers. Along the way, you get a few free gifts.

By all means, stop by Wee Wonders and get a few items.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Didean/80/177/25

Bixyl Shuftan
 

New Arcadia Asylum Freebie Store Opens in Sunweaver Estates

By Bixyl Shuftan

Longtime readers know about Arcadia Asylum. These freebie stores, or libraries as they're officially called, have extensive collections of goods that can be picked up for free. A few days ago, a new one opened. This one was quite litterally down the street of the Newser office, in the HV Community sim. Like the others, Prof. Grey (BrianL61 Landar) is the builder and owner.

"Opened the doors yesterday (February 29)," Prof. Grey told me, "Full line library, including YadNi's Junkyard and Freebie Folly." The Sunweaver library's items are on three separate floors. The middle or ground floor has the works of Aley aka Arcadia. The lower or basement floor has the Freebie Folly items. The top floor, also accessible by the railroad line, is where the items that were part of YadNi's Junkyard are. The Junkyard had been one of Second Life's most popular freebie centers until it's closure in July 2015. Freebie Folly was a freebie store in Skidz, but it, "suddenly went vacant. The land still bears the Freebie Folly name, but it's a empty shop now." After attempts to contact the owner, Arcadia started displaying her free items.

Talking to Prof. Grey, that the Newser was nearby was an interesting detail for the place's location, but that wasn't all. "The land and road /water access was to die for." The railroad system got his attention as well, "I'm loving it. Can't run my SLRR stuff, but hey, a train's a train." Shortly after the store opening, the Sunweaver passenger train service was adjusted to stop at the Arcadia location.

The number of items packed in the place is truly massive. "This locations tops out at 9487 free items," Prof. Grey told me, "The only other location to match this is Anilis." Most of the items are not shown individually, but are in vendors that can be browsed with left/right arrows on the bottom. One can find avatars, vehicles, homes, furniture, plants, ships, boats, clothing, and much, much more. While some of the items are simple compared to what's available today, others are of decent quality. But in either case, one can't argue with the price.

By all means, give the Sunweaver Arcadia Asylum Library a look. Even if you have plenty of stuff, you just might find something interesting, or something you may want to tell a friend about. And if you haven't been to the Sunweaver area before, feel free to look around. This of course includes the Newser office, which is a little to the west down the road.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/HV%20community/211/93/26

Bixyl Shuftan

Avatar Review: The Anthroxtacy Shark

By Bixyl Shuftan

Longtime fans of furred avatars in Second Life will probably remember Anthroxtacy, often called "AX" for short. This maker of avatars produced a line that was quite popular, as well as having a popular club next to their main store at their sim Elliquiy. But in October 2013, they shut down, their maker Tinintri Mistral getting out of the avatar business and eventually leaving the virtual world. Despite being gone from Second Life for over a year, the avatar line remains well known.

For those still interested in getting one of the Anthroxtacy avatars, some are still available on sale on SL Marketplace. But that is not all. As Grease wrote in his review of the AX Fox, many of the avatars are still available in a spot at the Northstar Polaris sim (40, 188, 3001). There are a number of avatar vendors in the room, but to my surprise when I looked under the vendor of the Feral Phoenix (the orange one to the left in this picture of Grease's), there was a surprise. There were two boxes of Anthroxtacy avatars, available for free!

The one on the right contained some older AX avatars, but the one on the left contained several, in "fatpacks" with several of the same kind of avatar in different colors. Some already have reviews about them done on "Second Life Avatar Review Files," such as the Anthroxtacy Mouse. Of those that haven't, one that stands out is the Anthroxtacy Shark. For those whom want to be a part of Second Life's aquatic community, or frequently visit friends there, and wearing a mermaid avatar doesn't seen quite right for you, the Anthroxtacy Shark just might be.

Unlike the other AX avatars, their shark av can either go about on land like the others, or swim about in and under the water.  The "mershark" swims about like a mermaid through use of an AO that keeps the legs together and a tail attachment that makes the legs look like a tail. It's not quite as flexible as some mermaid tails, and it may look a little odd if doing certain mermaid dances.

To go to "landwalker," one detatches the AO and mertail, and attaches the smaller tail, or the "butt" as it's less than elegantly called. It can then go about like any other avatar.

The HUD that comes with the avatar is simple to use. One can turn the AO on or off, the talking animation on or off. One can also keep the mouth open by varying degrees, stick out the tongue or not, make the eyes partially or completely shut, and change the eye color. To minimize, just press the blue triangle on it's edge, and only the triangle will remain on the viewer's edge. Press it again to bring the HUD back.

Of the avatar's finer features, the shark's skin has a marbled tone to it rather than a solid pattern. The throat sports some gill slits, static ones as these are strictly textures. The shape of the head certainly looks sharklike, with the contour of it's nose. Besides on the back and tail, there are also fins on the legs and arms.

The avatar comes in both genders male and female. Some guys might be more inclined to go shark rather than go mermaid's tail when wanting to fit in with a crowd of aquatics. But for some reason, most shark's I've seen out on the Grid are females. Perhaps some ladies are using the avatar to discourage lechers.

All in all, I was fairly pleased with the Anthroxtacy Shark. While having some small flaws such as not being able to use some mermaid dances, it's still a good choice even if one still had to pay the old price. That now one can get it for free, that just makes it all the more better. The downside, is that there's no guarantee of updates. So as Second Life continues to develop, the avatar *might* develop problems should the old scripts fail to work. But for now, the AX Shark is an avatar one can sink their teeth into. Nothing fishy about it ... well, not the bad kind of fishy.

Bixyl Shuftan

Nu’Ville Will Haunt Your Soul

By DrFran Babcock 

 During the month of September I was immersed in the Arcade Gacha Event, because I was trying to complete sets of items that I liked. My favorite items of all are the OhMai Spice Jars and the Teacup Piglets, both of which were created by Anya Ohmai. I also adored the Hamster avatars that were all the rage in the last September’s Arcade Gacha. These pint-sized marvels were created by Suetabulous Yootz, the owner of Beetlebones, who, it turns out, is the real-life sister of Anya Ohmai. Together, they have teamed up with a scripter named Biblar Heliosense to create the Nu’Ville Horror sim. My guess is that they had planned to role this out for October and Halloween, but if you still feel the need for a scare, and some amazing gifts, head over to Nu’Ville. 

 Full Disclosure on Pricing 

 I have no connection to these creators; I only wish I did, the things they create are things I want. Nu’Ville is not a free sim. For a 24 hour pass you will have to pay 100L, and for 800L you get an unlimited pass, and group member gifts throughout the month that the sim is open.  

 This is not the first time that this kind of pricing has been used. MadPea has had several events for which an entry fee was charged. I am not adverse to this if I believe there is value in the event. I never hesitate to pay the shocking entry fees to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, because I want to see the art. The work of these sisters is art, and worth the charges paid. Plus, I got a bunch of items made by Anya and Suetabulous that I would have paid for anyway. 

 I paid for my membership in the group, because I wanted to remain unbiased in my views towards the event, and let my dear readers decidre for themselves. 

 What’s On The Sim of Nu’Ville? 

 Once you have paid either for a pass or an unlimited membership, you can find your way to a bus stop where you embark on a ride through scary, dark and foreboding Nu’Ville. The bus drivers offer commentary along the way, as their skeletal hands clutch the wheel to navigate through the horrors. If you press your Escape key your camera will point in the manner intended by the creators, and you will see the gates of Nu’ville open to welcome you. The cemetery on the right has a tombstone that reads: R U Next.  

 The bus ride takes you through the village of Nu’Ville and over a bridge upon which a car accident seems to have occurred in the fog. You wish that the driver would stop and pick up the girl in the middle of the road asking for help, but he’s just a bony civil servant, making his way along the road, and refusing to stop for passengers that don’t know enough to wait at a bus stop. Perhaps you can imagine what happens to the girl? 

 When you arrive at your destination, the bus drive and bus poof in a cloud of brown smoke, and you are left at the entrance to a huge apartment building. It is there that the hunt begins. 

 Nu’ville Hunt 

 I don’t want to give away too much, so I will tell you that Anya and Suetabulous have filled this apartment building with gifts and prizes that are as much fun to have as they are to find. It took me a few times to gather all the prizes that are shown on a HUD given out for the hunt. Some of the better hunters finished quickly. I still haven’t found the rumored 13th floor as of this writing, but I continue to try. There are 50 prizes in all, plus extras along the way. In addition, residents who join the Nu'Ville Group will receive gifts throughout the duration of the event. 

 My favorite hunt gift is the bat avatar, that is the opposite of the cute, harmless little hamsters that were all the rage a year ago. 

OMG, It's Them!!!! 

I am honored and amazed to tell you that I was able ato catch up with both Anya and Sue, and they agreed to speak with me about their work. I will present a combination of their answers below.  

My aim in conducting these interviews was to learn about Nu'ville and to get a peek into the minds of these two creative genuises. 

SL Newser: What was the inspiration for Nu'Ville ? 

Anya & Sue: We have always dreamt of making a theme park/amusement park sorta sim, but that particular idea had been held and shelved for years now. We decided to do a miniature version for Halloween to see if we can even finish something smaller scale compared to our initial idea. The inspiration was mostly Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride and it really spun off into something entirely different. It was meant to be an animated gallery of our work, but  most importantly, we wanted to build a theme park where Secondlife Families and Friends can spend time together and have fun! 
 

SL Newser: What would you like Second Life residents to take away from their experience there? (Besides the great hunt gifts )? 

Anya & Sue: We really want SL Residents to take away the experience and the ride more so than the apartment/hunt itself. The main focal point of it is to show a combination of passions - Sue loves meshing and modeling, I for one love texturing and Biblar (Heliosense) is a huge scripter extraordinaire. So with three of our passions, we hope to bring you an idea of the potential SL has in having something that just takes your imagination into another place. We wanted people to see the possibility of what mesh can offer when you combine scripts, sounds, lighting and animation together.  

 
(ED Note: I have come back to the sim and taken the ride about five times now, so I guess the plan worked) 
 
SL Newser: What projects do you have for the future ? 

Anya & Sue: Of course, one of the projects would still be creating that theme park/amusement park idea—it'll be a sim called NuWiggles. We also are working on The Clove, which is a more realistic, beautiful sort of Tuscan village. The Clove hopefully brings back the malls and rentals we use to have in Second Life™.   For the Clove we are using an architect we commissioned from www.deviantart.com because we wanted to see what it would be like to collaborate with artists from different communities. We are also trying to create more places and items that would be fun and interactive for Second Life™ users. 
 
SL Newser: Personally, I am always interested in the workflow people have. What tools do you use to make the enchanting objects you create?  

Anya & Sue:  We always joke around because Sue says the entire place is a walking Zbrush (from Pixologic) advertisement. That's really the main software we both use, but we do also dabble with Hexagon, Blender and Maya—oh, and how can we forget Photoshop?! Those are the main tools we've used for modeling and texturing. Most of our rigging is done using Avastar for  Blender (http://blog.machinimatrix.org/).  
 

To speed up the process for some of our avatars, we actually used Makehuman that creates amazing base models. We bring those into Zbrush and touch them up. This time round Sue dabbled with Audacity for mixing sound effects that you'll hear throughout the ride.  
 

And finally, Dropbox is our savior! We are real life sisters but we currently live in different parts of the world. So having Dropbox to exchange files is the best way to go. The work flow for us is always: 1) Sue gets the base meshes done,  and then 2) Anya finishes it with a texture. That has been the way we worked for several collaborations now! 

Is It Worth It? 

I am a satisfied customer. I have shown my avatars and transfusion bottles to many people, and they went immediately to Nu'Ville. I was impressed with how well the ride worked. The number of avatars is limited on the sim, the build mesh has been optimized to keep down lag, and the experience is so multi-sensory that you can almost smell the Vampire Chocolate Kisses. 
 
Duration of Opening: Nov 2nd, 2013 (8AM SLT) - February 2nd, 2014 (12AM SLT) 

 Entry Fee: 100L for a Day Pass (12hrs) to Nuville Horrors 

Group: Or join the "NU'VILLE" Membership Group for 800L for a permanent access throughout the time we open. 

*Additional group gifts will be given throughout the time we open via the Membership Group as well. 

 Landmark:maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Clove/244/ 

DrFran Babcock