A Matter Of Scale
Or… “You’ve all got it wrong, god damn it”
There has been a debate regarding height and scale in SL (Second Life) for as long as I have been a resident – which is going on four and a half years now. On the scale side there are several issues. Some people simply cannot build and so create items (houses, accessories, furniture, etc.) that are simply not to scale with anything. The follow-cam method of viewing the world requires that buildings be upscaled so that when standing in a relatively small room your camera view is not outside the wall behind your avatar – this makes properly scaled furniture look truly bizarre and toy-sized when placed in such rooms. Worst of all, the matter of ego – avatars are grossly overscaled (as much as eight feet tall) simply to satisfy the desire to be tall and impressive (with the obvious side effect that others upscale their OWN avatar to ‘fit in’ to the seeming average and to seem appropriately sized, even if they’re not trying to be large and impressive).
Scale, however, is a decidedly tricky business, because – in a nutshell – everyone has it WRONG.
Take a close look at the image above – this shows my avatar scaled to my exact real life height, matched to the inworld prim measuring system (as in – create a prim, make it the correct height, and scale the avatar to match) – which is 6’3″ (1.905m). This was no mean feat, and took a great deal of tinkering with the shape editing system.
Now we get to the problems.
First of all, according to the shape editing system itself, I am ridiculously short – on the extreme low side of what is presented as average. Why do I say this? Because of the ‘height’ slider in the shape editing. According to that slider – my height is a 20 on a scale of a possible 100, where the preset average is 50. In real life I am still considered somewhat tall (although the average height in North America is catching up to me, and I’m not as tall-seeming as I was twenty years ago). But still – 20?? Let’s have a look at a comparison, shall we?
According to the height adjustment slider, the shortest I can be with all other settings intact is 1.87m (6’1.5″), while the average I would be is 2.05m (6’8″ ffs!!). Never mind the maximum. Obviously this is completely ridiculous and creates a completely false sense of scale in newcomers editing their avatars for the first time.
Be that as it may, it’s still not really the worst problem. Far worse is the complete inaccuracy of every available measuring system (save the aforementioned create a prim and go by straight visual comparison method).
Look again at the first image – note the three prims, their corresponding heights, and the key at the bottom.
There are two basic methods of determining your avatar’s height inworld – one is to use a scripted height finder of some sort (the red prim corresponds to this method), the second is to go by what the viewer itself ‘oh so helpfully’ tells you (the blue prim corresponds to this).
As you can plainly see – they’re both completely wrong.
According to the scripted height-finder, I am 5’10″ tall – a full 5″ (nearly half a foot, or 7%) too short.
But according to the viewer, I’m 6’6″ – 3″ (4%) too tall.
Hell, even by averaging the two it still comes out wrong – 6’2″ – but at least that’s closer.
In short, unless you have a specific height in mind and are willing to create a prim, scale it properly, and tinker with your avatar until it’s perfect – there’s really no way to accurately know your actual avatar’s height, or easily set it to something comfortable or realistic.
So to quote Lewis Black (and you’ll have to imagine the frenzied outrage here), I say to both Linden Lab and all third-party viewers teams – “FIX IT!!!”
Damn it.
Side note:
Here is a simple but graphic illustration of the further scale problems in SL.
The red prim in the picture below is a standard 10x10m square. For most house builders, this is a modest-sized (if not small) room. Yes, a single room – 10m square – slightly more than 30 feet to a side. Beneath it is a perfectly accurately scaled floorplan of what is considered a small but reasonably-sized two-bedroom apartment in real life. Note that I do not seem out of proportion to this – and yet due to the factors I mentioned above, actually building such a floorplan to correct scale would make the result seem incredibly tiny and cramped. The follow-cam would make even walking around this perfectly reasonably sized dwelling utterly impossible.
Gothmas by Gaslight Wrap Party
Thirty days of hunting madness comes to an end with teh official wrap-up party for the First Annual Gothmas by Gaslight Hunt.
It’s been a great month and we have enjoyed working with all the vendors who joined us for this hunt – the people were great and the prizes were wonderful – and now we have a wrap-up event to cap it all off in style. Damned Good Design and Dare Designs are sponsoring DJ Lokii Violet for two hours of gothic goodness, with a ‘Best in Winter Goth’ contest (1000L on each contest board, which goes up as more people join in), an all new random prize raffle, a beautiful limited edition dress from Dare Designs, hot Gothika dancers, and more.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dark%20Eternity/156/105/31
See you there. – DM
Dare Designs Re-Releases: Grimm’s Nightmare and Wicked Wench
So the last two in the extravaganza of re-releases that Dare has unleashed on us is Grimm’s Nightmare and Wicked Wench.
Following the theme of this week’s re-releases GN and Wicked Wench don’t disappoint.
Grimm’s Nightmare comes with a hooded cloak, but I prefer it without. I do like the liberal use of leather straps.
Wicked Wench is a cute little latex dolly dress. A very shiny dress with stockings and a bodice.
There isn’t much to remove before you get to GN’s undies, but they sure do look good.
~KM
Dare Designs Re-Releases: Hellbelle and Whiplash
Some sexy chap action going on with these two outfits. So we’ve got Whiplash and Hellbelle.
I’ve got 2 words for Hellbelle; biker pirate. This outfit is smokin’ and dangerous.
Whiplash is exactly what Whiplash would cause, but maybe just as much for the flesh on show as the fab details.
These outfits cover all the body parts to make them wearable in public, but I did feel like I needed a pair of cowboy or biker boots.
Whiplash has some undies going on under those chaps and vest too. Again with the great detail.
~KM
Dare Designs Re-Release: Beauty is Pain and Vampire Goddess
So continuing with the next in the line of Dare’s massive re-release list this week, let’s have a look at Beauty is Pain and Vampire Goddess.
Top is Beauty is Pain and the bottom one is Vampire Goddess. These 2 outfits are possibly the sexiest thing out this week in the re-releases. The detail on both is fantastic and really gives you something to look at. I really like the cape on Beauty is Pain, and usually I hate capes. It just fits in with the rest of the outfit perfectly. Also, it fits. Always a plus with me.
All this details lends itself to some lovely underwear too, as I’m sure you can imagine. Although you don’t have to take off much to get to them.
~KM
Dare Designs Re-release: Naughtyca and Naughtyca II
Dare has been very very busy. He’s got 8 re-releases this week! So, let’s get the ball rolling With Naughtyca & Naughtyca II.
So that first shot is Naughtyca and the second one is Naughtyca II. While you can see the similarities in the 2 designs, the differences are rather obvious. I think I prefer the second one because of the pronounced piping. Both outfits sport the opaque and transparent layers. So easy mixing and matching to show as much or as little as you like.
The transparent layers work especially good for the undies.
~KM
A Dark & Steamy Night: New Dare Designs Release
A Dark and Steamy Night. What a great name. And a great name needs a great dress, which this most definitely is. It’ll be no surprise to anyone that I have this dress in black also, but I do have a reason for wearing the green. By wearing the green you can see the detail and texture of this dress much easier. All those ruffles and folds and detail. Look closely, it’s lovely.
The dress comes in several colours and they’re all very reminiscent of steampunk kind of shades. The usual array of shade is available except for the purple. No, Dare saved the lovely dark purple as this month’s Limited Edition. If you want it in purple you’d best get down to the shop ASAP as there aren’t many left.
I love this dress.
As usual you have many layers to choose from so you can wear as much or as little as you like. Of course we must always show off the undies. This time they’re both sexy and mysterious. Definitely first date underwear.
It’s Not Rocket Science…
I am really tired of being nice, or being expected to be nice, to people who cannot read and follow the simplest of instructions.
Here’s what I mean…
Every week, we send out a news and new release notice via subscribomatic – this goes out to well over five thousand accounts inworld. Every week the format is the same – something like this below appears in every subscriber’s local chat:
‘Dare Designs Signature Members Group owned by Dare Munro gave you ‘Special News from the Loft 10.10.17′ ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Event%20Horizon/120/124/503 ).‘
Along with this comes a notecard, and the following message (or one very much like it):
‘News and new releases galore, darklings – see the notecard for all the details and landmarks – DM & AK‘
The first part is the required notification that informs the person what is sending them a thing, required by the SL ToS to avoid anonymous spamming. The message, and notecard, are the true content. The message clearly states ‘see the notecard for details and landmarks‘.
Inside the notecard, of course, are always included the details of the release, and landmarks to the relevant store locations, sales, etc..
And yet… AND YET… every single god damn week there is at least one (if not more) idiot(s) that do nothing but click the first url in the chat message, show up in our workroom at the location of the subsribomatic, get booted by our security system for being where they do not belong – and throw a freakin’ hissy fit, often quitting the group over this.
This is not rocket science, people.
Open the god damn notecard as you’re told, and find all the relevant help and goodies we’ve provided.
One. Simple. Instruction.
In small words.
I have received irate messages of every flavor you can imagine, because people refuse to read and follow even the most basic instruction. I was even told this was my fault for keeping the subsribomatic server in a private area. My fault. When I clearly tell people how to get to where they want to be.
At one time I tried keeping the server in the store… but it is heavily scripted and does offsite database calls. This? LAG.
It would crash just trying to access the subscriber database. It would lag the sim to a standstill just running through delivery (and back then it was delivering around two thousand notices, not over five thousand). It takes it over two hours to deliver NOW. I can’t afford to have the sim operating as though drenched in cold molasses for that whole time. So I moved it offsite to our workroom. And I started adding the line in the chat text to open the notecard for the proper landmarks.
People started fucking this up right away.
Week after week we’d have avatars popping into our workroom and wandering around like they figured we’d hidden the store in there somewhere (never mind that they’ve BEEN to the store, know what sim it’s on, and should be able to tell they’re in the wrong place). Often, one or both of Axi and I are half dressed while we’re working on outfits… and yet even when told they were in the wrong place, these people would not be respectful and leave. They would often get very rude about it.
So we put in the security system and started making sure every subscribo notice very clearly stated the proper landmarks were IN the notecard it was delivering.
And yet… they still come. They still get rude and bitchy over it.
It’s really NOT rocket science – follow the one simple instruction included with every notice and everyone will be happy. I promise.
Really.
-Dare
Dare Designs Re-Releases: Grrl Bones and Commandante
Every week Dare revisits old outfits; revamping and resizing them. Besides the obvious reminder of great outfits from the past, this especially benefits those of us who actually have figures.
The first on this week’s re-release list is Grrl Bones. Now I actually really hate the word ‘grrl’; it just rubs me the wrong way. I can’t think of a more appropriate name for this dress though. It’s a bit grr and a bit girly and it’s definitely sporting bones.
Everything about this dress says Rock n’ Roll. A teasing short latex skirt and waist cincher with a teasing sheer top. If you look closely at the skirt and waist cincher you’ll see that embossed skulls; I could’ve done without the little bows, but they’re what keeps this dress looking so girly.
Of course no Dare dress would be complete without some sexy underwear.
Did I mention the cute stockings? No? Well now I have. Cute stockings and they match the mesh top.
The second outfit this week is Commandante;. Where Grrl Bones is so girly, this outfit very much isn’t. Like the name suggests, this is very domineering in feeling. From the military styled hat to the latex skirt.
I do like this outfit much more. Gone are the bows from the skulls and now we have a long slitted skirt. The gartered stockings add a bit of dangerous sex appeal as they peek out from between the panels of the skirt.
Of course there are again the undies. Even on their own they still carry that sense of danger and sex. And who can resist a girl sporting skulls and crossbones on her boobs?
Yea, I think it’s safe to say I quite like this outfit.
~KM
Lift Off in T-minus 3, 2, 1…
*tap tap tap* Is this thing on?
I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here… no, wait… wrong opening…
*ahem*
A vampire, an elf, and a small orange cat walk into a bar…
*crowd noises*
…and the cat says “yeah, but you weren’t UNDER the Volkswagen at the time, either!”
Oh hi.
Here we are at the inaugural post of the new joint blog ‘News From The Loft’ – about and for Second Life, co-written by Axi Kurmin (who must be mad to have agreed to this idea with so many places to write for already – I’m going to insist she post links to them all when we have an ‘about us’ section) and Dare Munro (alternately known in First Life as Avril Korman and, well… Dare Munro).
Why a new blog?
Because it seemed to me (that’s Dare) that we needed a place to talk about the things we’ve encountered and learned in this virtual wackiness… er… world… called Second Life,
a place to review the products and services we deal with nearly every day,
a place to rant or rave about the latest malarkey issuing from Linden Lab (most likely more ranting than raving),
and somewhere to announce and talk about the work we do through our many joint inworld ventures (we’ve locked a poor girl – Kostika Mistwalker aka Donna - in the basement with a keyboard to handle that part, though we’ll let her out on alternate Tuesdays to jog around the yard for an hour, feel free to send her food and gifts, but no files or explosives, please). For some idea of those joint ventures – just take a look at the Stuff. Also, Things. page.
Yes, we’re very busy.
So here it is – we’re up on the water tower with towels tied around our necks, looking grim and fierce (no, really, we look like that a lot) and preparing to safeguard Gotham City from… crap… the metaphor kind of breaks down right about there… though we intend no mercy for all the jokers we encounter along the way. I can’t speak for the penguins.
Axi says she can’t be Robin because she can’t do a cartwheel and trips over lint…
…but damn she looks good in those shorts…
