Second Life 1/11/07

Today was our last day of working on Future Melbourne. I did a fair bit of scripting work, I put in two elevators, worked on the hover tram and put in a dance pad. I also have a more complex dance pad that I can put inside a vendor. I made signs for both elevators explaining how to use them, here's a picture of me standing in front of one of the elevators:

Second Life 25/10/07

Today we were finishing up our work on Future Melbourne. I was helping out with the scripting as usual, as well as attempting to build an elevator for Johnny. I managed to find an interesting script for scrolling textures, so I put it to use on one of the signs that I spotted, Lard Queen.

This is a shot of it in action:

Second Life 18/11/07

Plenty of work to do in Second Life today. I was trying to make a billboard that changes pictures (textures) over time, but I didn't quite manage it. Instead I ended up making Hover Bots that follow you around, and a vendor that gives them out to visitors. I also made an orbiter that spins around in a wide circle.

This is a picture of my Hover Bot vendor, which I'm standing in front of.

Second Life 11/10/07

Today we were continuing work on future Melbourne, I set up a teleporter to Vegan Heaven and an Out of Order sign for the lift since it doesn't work (and it's somewhat humorous).

This is a picture of the sign, and you can see my teleporter (the grey box) next to it.

Future Melbourne

We were starting work on Future Melbourne today, making objects that will be used, and working out exactly what we were going to be contributing. I meant to take some pictures, but I forgot. Hopefully I can take them and upload them soon.

The future is not user friendly

My story for the Future Melbourne Project. It ties in with Dale's story somewhat, it's set earlier in the time line he created:

Being a Killex employee was tough. The year was 2051, and Damien sighed to himself as he headed off to work via the recently installed Hover train. Killex...what a name, it sounded so intimidating and well, evil sounding.. Yet it was fitting, a company as ruthless and unsympathetic as them deserved a name like that. These days however you had to take work whenever the opportunity arose, or else your survival would not be easy. The economy was in ruins after the turmoil, so many resources had been used in the battle against Sydney, and then in the subsequent and very violent Yarra war earlier in the year. Damien had been happy just to get a job after that, the air had been seriously polluted from the weapons that had been used, but if you wanted money, you had no choice but to go outside. Damien was glad of the gas mask he had securely fastened to his face right now, buying it the previous year had proven to be a wise move, others were not so lucky, he often saw their pale faces go by while he was at work.

This was only his second week on the job, and he already felt drained. Trying to stay on top of the heavy workload he was given by his harsh superiors had been giving him a real workout, especially with the embargo recently introduced on rocket trams, what a nightmare that had been. Damien’s job was primarily to regulate the punctuality of all transport. Yes, he was the one in charge of making sure the trains were running on time. And as pathetic as that sounded, it was no easy job. Killex kept one mean schedule, now that they’d gotten their new Hover train system going, they wanted trains leaving every 30 seconds from every station. Needless to say, Damien was overworked, keeping track of the sheer volume of trains was very stressful, and he was only allowed one break per day. At least the pay was good, the reason why Damien was here in the first place. If he kept on saving up, he might just be able to afford one of those proto-pods he’d often heard about, that would certainly make life easier.

Anyway. Damien shook his head to clear his mind a little as he hopped off the train at the station he worked at, Flinders Street. Going past the barriers that lead to the staff area, pushing past the probes, Damien went through to his workstation. Sitting down, he switched it on with a casual flick of the power switch, causing the terminal to hum to life. Looking down the list of trains scheduled for the coming hour, everything seemed normal, until he checked the next two scheduled trains. Something very unusual was going on here. Normally at this time of day, 9 ‘o’clock, the 9:00:30 should have been coming in from the Broadmeadows line, with the 9:01 coming in from the opposite direction 30 seconds after it had left, along the same tracks. But for some reason, both trains were listed as arriving at Flinders Street at the same time, 9:00:30! This couldn’t be happening. He’d thought all of this was over after the Yarra wars, hadn’t that been what everyone was told! Damien could already hear them approaching, the low hum of the anti gravity field that kept the trains mobile getting louder by the second. He needed to stop this, now! Lightning quick, as he had been trained, he slammed his hand down on the emergency brake button on the side of his console. He breathed a sign of relief, expecting that both of the anti gravity drives on the trains would have instantly shut down as they were programmed to. That was when both trains thundered into Flinder’s Street station at top speed simultaneously from both ends of the platform.

Damien screamed. There was a flash of light, and he knew no more.

The End

Hover rocket tram

We were thinking of having rocket trams, so I quickly mixed the the idea with my hover tram. Basic, I know.

Hover tram

This is a basic concept picture for a hover tram in future Melbourne.

Future Melbourne boundary sign

Here is a sign that I made as a possible boundary marker for future Melbourne:

Future Melbourne Ideas

Here's some ideas that me and Johnny came up with as we walked around the city:

We could make a modified Flinders Street Station sign

Rather than No Smoking signs, we could have No Mutation signs.

The tram station next to the station can be the place or rocket trams/tram drags.

Could modify the church near Federation square.

The Federation Wharf that is next to the Princes Bridge looks fairly technological, could be a teleporter.

There's a History of Princes walk sign next to the bridge, could make a new version.

We could have mutant pirates on the river, either them or the robotic squid.

We could have Shuttle wars on the river, fire cannonballs at each other (maybe laser blasts).

Could have a warning sign down by he river: "Here there be pirates".

Casino wars/rvialry: Crown took all the business, small casino wants to get back.

Killex trains leaving regularly, could have spikes on them and other stuff.

Southgate: Might warriors - pitted against those across the bridge. Bridge could be no-man's land.

The Big L logo on the large building in Southgate - could be a sign for the L Team, hero group. Could be a Linden building where the casino keeps all the money. Maybe be able to break in.
Could have tribes of the Southgate clan named after shops in the food court.

Possible tribes:
Shoji
Boost (modify name)
Trios
Oras

The mosaic statue in Southgate could be an alien.

Harass bots shaped like bins - surprise.

Could have hoverboards available for transport.

We could mark a boundary with a fallen tower.

Dangerfield store could be literal - maybe have weapons or traps inside.

People could talk entirely in text speak, or signs could be in text speak.

Edit: Just added ideas from our class discussion:

News feeds - 7 news, random announcements

Federation square - big crater, Death Ute track

Underwater Casino

Second Life 23/08/07

Today we were doing a couple of things, first we made ourselves a custom T-shirt for our character to wear using a template that we were given. We could put whatever images we wanted onto them. The bottom two pictures are shots of mine from the front and back.

The next thing we did was to modify a popgun, however we wanted to. I replaced the bullets with ones that I made, you can see my bullet in the top picture.

Second Life 16/08/07

We're experimenting with scripts today, starting with a rotating scrip which makes things spin. I started by building a box which span rapidly with my face on it, it was an interesting effect and made it look a bit like there were three of my faces at once. After that I decided to build a sun high in the air above what everyone else was doing. I've got a couple of pictures of it above. It's rotating, but you can't tell from the pictures.

Second Life 9/8/07

We uploaded some custom textures today, pictures of ourselves! Above is a picture of my uploaded texture on a box, looks pretty good.

Bleach

Name: Seiretei (I think that's how it's spelt, it's also known as Soul Society) from the anime Bleach.

Likes: Looks as though it has a lot of potential, there are plenty of interesting people around, quite nice overall. There isn't a whole lot to do just yet, but there is an area outside that you can fly over the walls to get to that is a big show off of a designer's talent, it all looks really nice. In the first picture I spotted a familiar character, and the second one shows some of the people who were around.

Dislikes: It's still under construction, which means it's a bit patchy, and not all that large. I couldn't see anywhere to get costumes or actions from either.

Come back: Probably, it should get very interesting over time as it gets built, it should be a nice sight once it's completed. Becoming a member gives you a cool title. :)

Bucket

A bucket that I made in Second Life, it's not totally finished yet though.

Name: Hidden Leaf Village (Konoha).

Likes: It's an excellent representation of the Leaf Village in Naruto, and there are characters from the anime around if you look. You can buy Ninja costumes, animations, anything you want and pretty much everything has been modelled from the fighting arena to Tsunade's office. The buildings of the Village have been mapped out, you can visit Naruto's favourite ramen shop, you can go to the Ninja academy where people practise Ninja moves, there's heaps to do. I have some pictures of it above, the last one is of the Ninja Council room, the second is of Tsunade's office, and the first is of Konoha Forest.

Dislikes: You can't fly, which can make travelling a little slow. Also, all the costumes and actions cost money. There's a lot to see, but there isn't all that much to do unfortunately, so it's mostly a sight seeing/novelty place.

Come back: Probably, there's a lot to see, and the creators have done a very good job of modelling the village from what is shown in the anime.

Victoria University

Name: Victoria University

Like: There's some interesting structures around the island, plenty of space to move as well, you need to fly to see some things. You're free to create things as well.

Dislike: Nobody else around, there's a fair bit of empty space, a bit boring.

Come back: If there were some other people around and maybe a few more things to look at I would come back.

Second Life

We're taking a look around Second Life today, we have to review some different areas, I'll put mine up shortly.

26/07/07

We did more with Second Life today, creating objects, exploring an area, testing out items and having fun. The first picture above shows a a shape that I modified, and the second one is of a "worm" that I made.

19/07/07

We went into Second Life today, either creating new characters, or using our existing ones. We were seeing some sites, customising our characters, basically just learning about Second Life. Earlier we were talking about the impat virtual worlds are having on the world, as well as digital distribution.

Adam