The ARCH

Just in case you haven’t updated your feed – here’s a post from the Network – originally posted HERE.

6 sims for $150/month?  No prim size limits?  Saving and restoring entire sims to and from my own hard drive?    OpenSim is where it’s at, and improving at a pretty impressive rate.   With IBM, Intel, Microsoft and evenLinden Lab itself making contributions toward strengthening OpenSim, it certainly seems to have a chance at achieving ‘prime time’ if  it hasn’t already.  The clients I’m working with, who are making sizable investments in OpenSim projects, seem pretty confident.

Being able to work on a sim-sized scale is always a liberating experience, but it can get expensive in SL – especially if all you really need is a place to sketch and brainstorm in a virtual environment where you can invite friends and colleagues to visit and collaborate.  If you’re willing to deal with the inevitable glitches of experimental software, just need some space to build on, and want to network within the growing ecosystem of organizations building on it, OpenSim is definitely ready for design prime time, as far as I can tell.

This video shows some simple sketching in OpenSim, including a glimpse of prim size limits in the first few seconds. Nothing special, but a fun little build:

I needed some land to build on, so I pinged Kyle over at ReactionGrid, with whom I had recently collaborated on another project, and inquired about setting up some space.

The next day, I had access to my own 6-sim setup.  This was a vast amount of virtual territory, and I immediately rolled up my virtual sleeves and started building.  I had the sims jammed full of little experiments and follies within the first few days!  It didn’t matter that I had run out of space, because I simply did a ‘Save As’ on each sim so I could rez them some other time, and saved it all to my hard drive.  I then deleted everything and started over again.  Imagine that… saving and restoring full sim  .oar (OpenSim archive) files, sort of like opening and closing CAD files, only inside of a multi-user, online, virtual environment.   The top machinima on this post includes several time-lapse clips of those features.  Below is a screenshot of day two on the new grid:

Did I mention there are no limits on prim size?  You’d be surprised how much that changes your approach to design – when larger builds are no longer a patchwork quilt of 10 meter prims, or math-builder work-arounds that take hours to assemble.  Getting from ideation to fly-through is significantly quicker this way.

I can also load a sim design onto a friend’s grid, or work offline inside my own computer for a while.  When I’m done, I can rez the sim within the larger public Architecture Islands commons to share the idea with others and collaborate on the design.  Its all very elastic and flexible, and builds can really be treated more like a kind of digital liquid, and less like a static and rigid physical artifact that can’t be easily modified.

I’ve even been able to prototype several design ideas on my OpenSim grid, then port the idea back into Second Life when I’ve got it just right (assuming I haven’t violated the 10 meter prim size limit).  For this,  I use Meerkatviewer, Second Inventory, or Prim Composer, all of which allow me to port the content I’ve created between worlds.  If you personally built something in Second Life, its only a few clicks away from porting to OpenSim if you wish, and vice versa.  In Meerkat, you just right click on the object and click ‘Export.’  Then File -> Import to rez it on another grid.  You can even set up your user accounts in both Second Life and Opensim, then easily switch accounts with a single click without even re-opening your viewer.  I look forward to greater interoperability between the grids, but once you have your accounts set up, it only takes about 10 seconds longer to teleport from Second Life to OpenSim than it does to teleport from one sim to another in Second Life. Here’s the Meerkat import/export feature in action:

I certainly don’t intend to suggest any dissatisfaction with Second Life, as I still enjoy working there very much, and find the vast majority of my own design consulting work on the SL grid.  Also, I should mention that the remaining Architecture Island sim in Second Life is still doing well, with renters continuing to build some amazing and innovative works – well worth a visit. Luckily, the Architecture sim I most recently sold was transferred to a client with whom I’m currently working to build one of the more exciting projects I’ve ever been involved with in Second Life.

Besides, OpenSim might look like Second Life, but I’m told that’s where the similarities end.  Besides being less stable, the technical architecture of OpenSim is very different, making it somewhat irrelevant to compare them, or suggest that one is better than the other.  It sort of feels to me like Second Life is the New York City or New England of the new world, with the greater population, the community, the commerce, and the culture.  OpenSim is more like California in the 1800’s (only you can teleport back to New York any time you wish . You might be living out of stage coaches, but limitless land stretches out before you and at some point, someone might even find some gold.

If not gold, then how about 16-sim megaregions without any border crossings?  Adam Frisby blogged about this experimental feature recently, and shared this early demo:

There isn’t much of a universal economy (yet), insofar as you can’t really expect to sell prefab builds for $5 or $10 the way you can in Second Life and expect to earn a living. But you can probably cover your hosting fees, at the very least, given that there is a growing demand for well designed sims for business, personal and education uses within the OpenSim ecosystem, and it isn’t unreasonable to ask $800 + for a single prefab sim design, or quite a bit more for a custom design/build commission. I’m listing the prefab sim below at $1,100 on ReactionGrid’s new Outpost, and I’ve already sold one before the post went live.

If you don’t want to sell architectural prefabs, I know firsthand that there is growing demand for all kinds of content – from furnishings to custom avatars, landscape elements, entourage and more.  Some see the lack of content as a drawback of working in OpenSim – but I see it as an opportunity.  I’m supplying fully modifiable models, with full-permissions, in a wide open and unregulated marketplace, but it’s so much more like working on the rest of the web -selling templates and/or custom web designs for release into the wild, not just within a single grid.  If someone really feels compelled to buy this design, rip me off and call it their own – so be it.  I’ll make more!

I wonder what some of you, the best and brightest minds of the architecture and design worlds, would do with several full sims at your disposal?  Who knows where the metaverse will lead us, but for the time being, I’m going to enjoy the best of both worlds.

You can visit the Architecture Islands grid by following the instructions posted HERE.

I’m also going to extend an invitation for you to join me.  ReactionGrid has offered a pretty competitive package to help build the Architecture Islands grid for architects and designers alike.

For $150/month and a $220 one-time setup fee, you get 6 sims at your disposal on the Architecture Islands grid – either contiguously connected or via hypergrid link.  What this means is, you can have your own isolated, secure and private world or you can connect directly to a more public design community spaces on the Architecture Islands grid.   The choice is yours, and you can have a little of each if  and when you want it.   This package also includes full remote desktop access and control over your own server, with save/restore access of .oar files, and training on how to use the system.  They recommend using 2 of the 6 sims in this package for light use – and the other 4 for light to medium use (low scripting) with a recommended 6-12k prims per sim.

If you would rather start smaller, we also offer single mid/light use sims at $50/month with a $50 one-time setup fee for a sim, but you can’t yet save and restore .oar files with this smaller plan.

You also get 1 free month of hosting if you refer anyone who adds a 6-sim package and sticks around for at least 3 months.

More about these packages can be found on the ‘Get Some Land‘ page, and to get started with either option, send an email to  land@archvirtual.com, or find me on skype at keystone1111.

Even if you have an OpenSim hosted elsewhere, or on your own machine, please consider a hypergrid link to Architecture Islands, or loading an .oar there every so often for the design community to tour.  My vision has always been to bring architects and designers working in any virtual environments together, so we can learn from one another, be inspired by each other, share ideas, and instigate new innovation.  Architecture Islands in Second Life spawned Wikitecture, and several other unique innovations and design theories – what new innovation can be invented within the context of OpenSim?

So lets stir things up a bit and see what we can build together.  Just imagine the cumulative effect of our collective imaginations on sim sized scale.  Maybe we circle the wagons and push several of our sims together for a showcase and open house once a month, then tear it all down and start over again.  Maybe we initiate a cross-disciplinary charrette with the folks at the Fashion Research Institute, or some other design-related groups and explore some of the ways they’re using OpenSim?  I jumped the gun a bit on realxtend’s early releases, but maybe their next few releases will be more stable, and we’ll be able to add rex sims with mesh imports as well?  Maybe the eventual advent of meshes in Second Life will turn this all upside down.  Who knows?  Nobody knows.  But I think we can make the best of all worlds, and leverage each platform for what its best used for.

I could be wrong, but I think the metaverse is way too young to be trying to hold onto a single mantra or suggestion that we know all there is to know about design in virtual environments.  It seems like we’re spending a lot of time trying to protect some of our first-round ideas and builds as if we’ve reached some kind of polished conclusion and we have it all figured out.  It’s just too early for that, imho, and we need to keep it fresh, and keep trying to distill what works, and what doesn’t work – not holding onto an outdated sim that hasn’t gotten any traffic in 6 months, just because its impossible to ‘Save As’.  Let it go, and start something new no matter what platform you’re working on.  ”Design with a wastebasket nearby,” like a professor in architecture school used to say.  We still have so much to learn, and the quickest way we can make meaningful strides toward that end is to build, build build, then tear it all down and build from the best of it.

Let me know if you need a sim, or 2, or 6, and I’ll see you on the grids!

This blog has moved to http://www.archvirtual.com .

Please visit the new site and update your feeds to stay tuned to news, tutorials, reviews and community resources related to architecture and design in virtual worlds.

Also, don’t forget to sign up at The ARCH Network site, where you can network with other members, and learn more about this exciting new digital frontier.

See you there!

Cross posted from the ARCH Network – originally posted from Dijodi Dubratt: About time for another field trip, don’t you think? Join the crew on Saturday, July 11 at 7am SLT, as we do what architects, designers and builders always love to do  - visit a good space and figure out what makes it work. This time we’re heading for the mall! Best of Italian SL is a beautiful build, one that really creates a destination for those looking for all the best Italian fashion. Then there’s Beauty Avatar, with a new build on a new SIM. Meet at Kip and Graceann Skytowers place: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Huron/242/179/33/

cross-posted from the ARCH Network:

Have a project you want to promote?  An idea, or screenshots to share?  A new machinima you made?  Why not use the social network behind The ARCH Network to promote and share?  Its easy, and its free.   Click HERE to get started!

Here’s just a quick copy/paste of some of the most recent discussions.

Anyone want to enter a competition?
I wanted to enter this competition, proposing a purely virtual school of architecture, but I doubt I’ll have time to pull it off. I think…

The Autodesk Assistance Program
I just received new information from Autodesk about recent changes in this program. If any of you have the opportunity to take advantage …

Design It Shelter Competition Sponsored by the Guggenheim
The Guggenheim Museum recently announced, the Design It Competition in collaboration with Google. See the official blog here. If any of …

How do you describe virtual worlds?
One thing I am sure many of us have struggled with over the years is finding the best method of explaining what virtual worlds are to our…

How do we break out of the ‘virtual worlds’ communities, and start reaching out to the rest of the world?
How do we reach a wider audience to promote the use of virtual worlds in architectural practice and education? Obviously virtual worlds …

Best Commercial Designs for Virtual Commerce
Pam Broviak suggested that we look for collaborators to help compile a book that helps designers and builders of virtual spaces. Specific…

Internships in the Virtual Environment
I heard a word today that got me thinking. “Internship” So, while we are able to talk with mentors in Second Life who are well versed in …

We are starting our fifth week of work here in Cairo. Construction proceeds in SL. We are rapidly running out of prims. The design is starting to be dictated by what looks best with the fewest prims – not an ideal situation. We anticipate a major presentation to our client About el-Enein tomorrow.

I’ve been considering using only a walk-through of the SL model and not showing any drawings at all, though it may be necessary to have a plan for orientation. His staff has had a walk-through and seems very impressed and is talking about buying two sims in order to build the entire project.

So far we have only built the interior public spaces of the shopping center for about half of the project. Thus the build viewed from the exterior looks completely chaotic. One has to walk through the interior spaces to understand it and unfortunately many of our visitors cam through the entire site and do not experience the sequence of designed spaces. The final build-out on two sims would include the exterior and the hotel and office building. Of course, we will have to come to terms on fee to construct this, not so easy.

We also are interested in exploring with Keystone Bouchard the possibility of open sims and Vray. There seem to be many advantages to this, but we will have to rebuild it in 3d max. We are going to do a test run with him in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Judith and I were guests of Zeinab’s (co-captain of the Egyptian SL building team) family at their beach house on the Red Sea, where there was no internet connection. It was good to get away from the frenzy of Cairo and to take a break from the computer. Even though, we found ourselves missing it just for 24 hours. We watched the Lebanese version of “American Idol” instead.

This trip gave us the opportunity to visit our client’s manufacturing facility, Cleopatra Ceramica. We spent some time there looking at tiles they produce that could be used on the exterior of the building. Including the tiles is a primary concept of our design. The problem with this is that even though some of these tiles are as large as 30 cm By 40 cm, they are not made for large-scale application. We are talking with the client about designing a series of tiles specifically for exterior architectural application. Should be lots of fun.

We were astounded at the size of his factory and the capability of ceramic technology to convincingly replicate almost any material. They produce many interesting things we do not see in the United States. My favorite is the new sports-themed bathroom fixtures, in particular the toilet shaped like a soccer ball.

As you will see in the attached photographs, we finally succumbed to the temptation of including a bit of the pharaonic style. It seems like every new building in Cairo (see photo of pharaonic toll booth) is in this style. And of course none of them do justice to the originals. We decided early on not to insult the great builders with our own interpretation but it was just too much to resist, so we have our own little hypostyle hall à la Temple at Karnak. I guess it would be a bit like an Egyptian architect coming to Virginia and designing Williamsburg style houses. Oh well, it was fun doing it.

At this point, we can clearly say that building in Second Life ® has been invaluable as a design tool. We will know better after tomorrow how useful it is for the client. Our work here concludes in about another week, which is okay as it’s getting hot and we’ve been having sandstorms. Those sandstorms make me realize that one cannot have any sloped surfaces on the building that are visible, because it collects this sand, which is mixed with air pollution and leaves a dirty grime on any upward-facing surface.

We are concerned about the fabric structures. We got excited about the possibility of adding decorative patterns, which is a tradition here in tent structures, even today. Just as we were about to present this to the client, someone pointed out to us that these are for funerals. Oops! Another cultural misstep.

We had dinner last night with Alexander Johnson, a former newcaster with ABC and now a consultant. He is here working with our mutual client setting up a television network. Both he and our client have expressed an interest in exploring the possibilities of interface between TV programming and the virtual world.

Everyone is excited here that Obama has announced he is coming to Egypt.

I asked Zeinab to write something about her experience with SL. This is what she had to say;

It was the very first time for me to hear about Second Life, when I was told by Architect David Denton – whom I was assigned to assist on a really big project – that I had to learn SL, understand it and actually build this whole project on there. Of course I felt really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get the hang of it, until I began reading a certain “How to” book about SL and tried out everything while reading. And to my surprise, SL wasn’t at all what I expected, it was actually very easy to build things and modify them, and in almost three hours I was building away. Amazing! That’s what I kept thinking while I was building this project, how you could do almost any object, and how you could actually walk through your project instead of just trying to imagine how a certain part on the plan looks like. Of course I have worked with other 3D design programs, but it was never this easy or this quick to build and adjust a model. I just loved it, and felt really excited whenever we had a new part built with all its details. Such a big project was virtually built in such a short time, and is looking that promising, just can’t wait to walk through it again, but in real life next time.

Cross posted from The ARCH Network.

[youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQXIrrTfuF8]

Here is a brief video showing some of the amazing work currently under development at the University of Auckland’s Putahi sim (SLurl) in Second Life, led by Professor Judy Cockeram.

The University continues to leverage their virtual ‘Living Sketchbooks’ (covered previously HERE), but this time there are over 115 first year students exploring the virtual space, and it continues to evolve each day. After visiting the site several times since construction started, I can confidently say that it does, in fact, feel as though the place is alive.

Instead of pinning up sketches on a wall, students are exploring design concepts in an immersive virtual environment, where they work amidst the growing virtual community that has grown to hundreds of thousands of users strong, along with a rapidly growing number of architecture schools that are actively exploring virtual worlds in education.

I asked Judy to describe the current project.

“They are currently in their first semester doing an Architecture media course, ARCHDRC102 which includes paper based drawing/collage etc for the first 6 weeks then in the second six weeks we are considering technology –the aim is to get them working in a creative way – they come with strong drawing and modeling skills that enable them to design in an unimpeded way and we are using Second Life to put the focus on design rather than the interface of a ‘big’ cad package,” Judy explains.

The work currently seen on the sim is only development work, and the actual assignment is yet to come.

“They each have three architecture journals they are researching and have to build a shrine to research – so they will have literal links to websites etc but also have a built form that is an abstraction of the information they have found – 100 prims being the limit and how they place the work ( a touch of urban design) being this weeks concern- the hand in date for that will be 23 24 25 of June.”

This is building on the work that 8 other students in the University’s “ARCHDES300 Design” course, which happens during the first semester of the third year of the Bachelor Degree.

“One more design after this for them and they will have a BAS bachelor of Architectural studies and then they go on to do a Masters(prof). After the work of the first six weeks with NPC (Non Profit Commons) they are now developing their own brief and investigation –they are expected to be able to research and develop a project of a high academic and architecture value.”

Judy allows them to bring their own interests to the project,

“I usually end up with very different work – the commonality being the medium and architectural attitudes based in ideas of professionalism and culture connected to values we share toward people, places, ideas and …. the stuff of architecture.  It is a very long list, but in allowing students to shoot off in their own direction it becomes clear to them and us what the success and failures are and we acknowledge it all – as long as it is presented in an architectural manner.”

Stay tuned for more information and an invite to their final presentations!

Cross posted from the ARCH Network.