Terra Aeronautics - Virtual vehicles for the metaverse

Taking the new paint for a spin

2009-07-02T11:58:00.004-07:00

Unlike real life paint, virtual paint doesn't get all over your clothes and stain your hands for days. And I very much appreciate that because for the past couple of days I have been slathering the paint onto the soon-to-be completed Stingray amphibious jet. It's funny how a new paint job can make a plane feel faster.

Incidentally, a great place to test marine vehicles, like ampibious planes, boat, and submarines, is Gulliver Airport in Zatzai. Not only does it have a runway and boat launch, but it's also part of the of Second Life's sailing sims -- a truly ginormous body of water that's dotted with attractive islands.

Amphibious jet update: Ooooh! Shiny!

2009-06-08T12:53:00.002-07:00

Still refining the design, but I think I like the overhead air scoop. Not visible in this image are the twin jet exhausts.

Making a mesh of things

2009-06-03T12:13:00.002-07:00

With most of the script features in place, though not polished, I now turn my attention to the plane's appearance. I'll need to sculpt this amphibious plane one piece at a time, import the mesh into Second Life, try it out, refine the sculpt, etc., until I'm happy with the shape. I have to admit, my first attempts came out like frankenplane, but I think I'm getting a feel for how this one should look.

In this picture, you can see the pod-shaped boat hull with a pit in the top for the pilot. This is just one of at least seven sculpts going into the model.

Once the model is complete, I'll texture it and polish up the scripts in preparation for beta testing.

Early preview: a quick demo of the Stingray's abilities

2009-05-30T13:46:00.003-07:00

Even though the design of the Stingray amphibious plane is still in its early stages, I am already working on things like automating transitions between air, ground, and water. My goal is to make the transition so effortless that it will seem like the plane anticipates which mode you want.

In this short video, I demonstrate several of these transitions: runway takeoff, boat ramp launch, submerging, diving, water takeoff, and runway landing. Because the Stingray model isn't finished, I'm using a plywood stand-in for development and testing.

Destination: deep water

2009-05-17T08:58:00.002-07:00

Today I returned to work after a little fishing trip in the Manitoba wilderness. Well, actually it was drive-in camping in a provincial campground, but we were roughing it more or less. We didn't shower at all.

One helmet-haired pilot trying out an early prototype.

Anyway, now that I'm back, I'm settling into the next cool vehicle from the top secret labs of Terra-Kojima. Our next toy will be the one vehicle that everyone with waterfront property will need and want: a two-seater jet plane that lands on water and converts into a submarine.

Features I'm planning:

Three flight modes: novice, intermediate, and pro.
Water landings.
Push-button conversion to submarine.
Multiple paint schemes.
Sandwich dispenser

That last feature may or may not make it into the final release.

Balloon launch day!

2009-05-01T08:35:00.004-07:00

As my assistant, Blanc Noir, and I stepped into the cold dawn air, still bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, we were met with the chilling touch of fog. We buttoned our Aerodrome jackets tight and set about warming up the burner to inflate the hot air balloon's envelope. My arms still ached from the night before when I had spent hours fashioning huge beams and planks into what would become the stage for today's event. By the time the balloon was inflated, I saw that the eastern sky glowed brightly, promising yet another sunny day on the grid. Turning back to my work, I discovered that Blanc had fallen asleep in the basket, leaning awkwardly against the side. It was sleep well-earned, I mused, and let her rest where she was.*

At noon today, the staff at Abbotts Aerodrome and I would like you to join us for an afternoon of ballooning fun. We'll have several flyable balloons lined up along the Abbotts runway for you to try out. Let's fill the sky with balloons!

(* Alright, so none of this actually happened. In fact, "Blanc Noir" isn't a person at all, but a spare SL account with a library avatar. The balloon, however, is presently on a stage next to the runway at Abbotts Aerodrome in Second Life. See you at noon!)

Crushing bugs and slapping on some paint

2009-04-26T08:06:00.003-07:00

Only a few more work days left now, filled with testing, texturing, and... uh... there really should be another "T" word there to sound good. Tensioning? No. Teflon? Nope. Tepidity? No!

Well anyway, hope to see you at 12:00 noon (SL time) at Abbotts Aerodrome for some balloon fun. We're considering a mass flight from Abbotts to Gray airfield and back, too.

Warming up the burner

2009-04-23T15:42:00.005-07:00

As Reitsuki and I get closer to completing our new hot air balloon, there are random moments when I peer past my script window and catch a beautiful image like this night snapshot, and I'm convinced that this is going to be the absolute best hot air balloon SL has ever seen.

The snapshot shows Rei's attention to detail with the burner's hoses and tubes, the padding on the basket's bars, and the seams in the balloon's fabric. You can't see it in this image, but he even placed fuel tanks inside the basket.

For my part, I'm working out the final details of the balloon's control and painter HUDs. In a departure from my usual glowy, blue-and-black HUDs, the balloon's controller is instead inspired by Star Trek: colourful, lit buttons, and not a label to be seen. Hopefully the interface is so intuitive, no ugly labels are necessary -- it will just make sense in context.

As for a release date, we're aiming for May first, provided the testing stage goes smoothly.

An early test flight

2009-04-16T22:05:00.007-07:00

Work progresses on the new balloon. In this snapshot, you can see some of the exquisite prim sculpting by Reitsuki Kojima as Arrekusu and I take the unfinished balloon for an early test flight. Believe it or not, those sixteen cables attaching the basket to the balloon are actually only four prims!

Cubey is full of hot air

2009-04-13T16:31:00.003-07:00

Well it's another productive day at my ultra-secret development lab in Second Life (it's the one in the corner marked "lab"). While Reitsuki has made solid progress sculpting bits of the new balloon gondola and rigging, I improved my balloon HUD controller and added a couple of new features.

If you have my Wind Rider balloon, you'll be pleased to know that I'm addressing some common customer requests, including:

The HUD is now more compact.
The access lock now has three settings: owner-only, group-only, or "anyone". If you run a business or attraction, you can leave a hot-air balloon for visitors to play with.
And (saving the best for last) AUTOPILOT! Yes, now you can get your balloon to fly a preset course. It's great for tours, advertising, or just to add interest to your sim.

Those features will all appear in the next Wind Rider version (sometime soon... don't know exactly when) as well as in the yet-to-be-named sculpted balloon that Reitsuki and I are currently working on.

When a script sleeps and never wakes

2009-04-12T15:34:00.004-07:00

At the best of times, SL is a tricky environment to work in. Upgrades and changes to the simulator code can sometimes mean that old, reliable scripts stop working. I just confirmed that the hard way when one of my customers let me know that the automated, looping tours in my Aerius blimp stopped working. Instead of restarting a tour, the blimp would go dead until the owner manually restarted the tour.

That's kind of weird, especially, since several people tested that feature thoroughly. As tested, the blimp ended one tour, slept for half a minute, then started again. But now, the "sleep" period starts and never ends.

The problem is now fixed in version 1.1.1. To my customers who bought the Terra Aerius blimp and want to use looping tours: just drop me a line in SL and I'll send you the update (version 1.1.1). If you don't need looping tours, the update isn't necessary.

The blue skies call

2009-04-09T16:51:00.005-07:00

I know this image looks unremarkable, but the beginnings of any creative endeavour always start this way. With a little trial and error -- fitting pieces with other pieces to see of they fit in an interesting way. What you don't see, however, is Reitsuki Kojima carefully modelling and crafting each individual component so that it's just right. So that it fits his concept of the perfect hot air balloon.

The last time Rei and I collaborated on a vehicle, we produced the Terra-Kojima Starling: a two-seat ultralight that's not only fun to fly, but ideal for exploring new parts of Second Life. You can pick up a friend and go sight-seeing in an aircraft that flies like a plane, but is extremely forgiving. It's perfect for the novice pilot.

This time Rei and I have teamed up to produce a vehicle that has been popular since the very beginning of SL -- the hot air balloon. Besides my own balloons, which I first made in late 2003, balloons have been a fixture in SL since the days of beta in 2002. "Oldbies" will remember the hot air balloon at the Welcome Area in Ahern, back when you could count the total number of sims on one hand. Then there was Hank Ramos' balloon that became a tie-dyed icon in early SL skies. Garth Fairchang (of Fairlight Flight) also produced a good balloon back then.

For my part, and inspired by these precedents, I made my own attempt at a balloon as a newbie in 2003, and continued to innovate on my early designs until the Wind Rider, which I first released in 2006.

Now, three years later, I'm taking the next step by putting everything I've learned about vehicles and balloons into the next generation balloon in a collaborative effort with Reitsuki Kojima. Rei designs the balloon's appearance, and I script its behaviour. Already I can see great improvements over the Wind Rider. This new balloon will have a more efficient script and HUD control, as well as offer owners more flexibility to allow friends to fly. If you own this one, you can let other group members fly it, or set it to allow anyone to take control. Other new features will soon follow, but I don't think I want to be too specific at this point.

Over the coming weeks, I'll keep posting updates on the balloon's progress, as well as any other new vehicles in the works.

More planes added to Abbotts Aerodrome

2008-12-08T11:40:00.006-08:00

Today I spent some time setting up displays for five additional aircraft in Abbotts Aerodrome. Now you can try out or buy some classic designs that haven't been available for a couple of years now.

Tigershark 2 is the immediate predecessor to the popular submersible combat plane. It's sleeker and more futuristic than version 3, which was designed to reflect a WW2 theme.

Tigershark 1 was the original diving combat plane.

Cormorant is a twin-engine, single seat submersible plane that was the contemporary of the Tigershark 2.

Also included in the lineup are the Futura 5 (a pod-shaped, retro-styled hovering pod), and the Terra Taxi (a hovercar with a working meter).

Drop by the aerodrome and take a look!

NaNoWriMo novel, day 21 - FINISHED!

2008-11-26T14:37:00.003-08:00

There was blood. There was sweat. There were tears. There was even a little bit of pee. Yes, those were all things that my protagonists experienced on my plot-holed road to the story's conclusion. I, on the other hand, experienced mostly just sweat from the anxiety of wondering if I would make it in time. And here I am, done with days to spare.

But before I perform my happy dance, I should point out that in NaNoWriMo, a "winner" is just someone who pasted fifty thousand individual words into a verification box on their website. So you'll never really know whether I cheated or not. Think about that, huh?

Anyway, that was a bit of an adventure, and I have a lesson to take away from the experience. And that is: Don't do it again anytime soon.

Phew. And now, I return you to your regularly scheduled Second Life.

NaNoWriMo novel, day 14

2008-11-19T12:30:00.003-08:00

It turns out that writing a novel -- even a really bad one -- is hard work. Here on the fourteenth day of this ordeal, with only 11 days to go, I'm solidly into the second half. At 28,404 words, tomorrow I should reach the three-fifths mark. I tell you, it's slow going, now that the plot and characters have gelled. Now things aren't so wide-open and care-free.

Even though NaNoWriMo has stolen my focus this month, for those of you interested in dropping by tomorrow's scheduled Aerodrome Q&A, I absolutely will not miss this one (knock on wood). I added it to my Windows calendar with a reminder. So I hope to see you tomorrow at 10:00am SL time on the top floor of Abbotts Aerodrome. Bring interesting questions.

Coffee will be provided.

NaNoWriMo novel, day 8

2008-11-13T11:34:00.003-08:00

So here at the one-week mark of this folly, words seem to be flowing more easily as the story begins to clarify in my mind. I can't believe I'm actually past the one-third milestone -- edging inexorably towards 20k, in fact.

Although I'm grateful for the focus that I've achieved this week, it does come with a price. Even after sending out group notices in SL reminding people of today's Q&A event in Abbotts, I then became so engrossed with the story that I missed the event by an hour and a half. Doh!

So I apologize to anyone who showed up, expecting to chat about planes etc. I'll do my very best to make sure I'm at the next event on time.

And here's an interesting random item: a letter from a charity dropped through the mail slot today. The envelope contained a nickel behind a little window, along with these words in large print: "A nickel could save a child's life!"

Really? Then why are you mailing it to me? If you just mass mailed thousands of nickels to random people, how many children are you now unable to save? It's mind-boggling.

But anyway, now I rest my typing fingers and go outside to frolic in the leaves.

Killing time with "Time Machines"

2008-11-11T11:06:00.003-08:00

As I edge my NaNoWriMo word count a little higher every day, I find myself wishing for a time machine, so that I could just pop forward three weeks, nab a copy of my finished work, come back and paste it all into my word processor. Unfortunately, that would of course create a paradox that causes all of space-time to collapse in on itself with a gigantic whooshing sound, followed by a cartoony "pop!" sound. Or at least that's how I imagine it would sound.

If you'd prefer not to imagine time travel for yourself, I highly recommend a book that I'm exactly halfway through. It's "Time Machines Repaired While U Wait" by the adept Australian sci-fi author, K A Bedford. This is his fourth and best novel, and I know, because I've read them all.

It's filled with lovely time-machiney goodness, including future doubles, branching time lines, a grisly murder mystery, and coffee. Coffee is featured quite prominently in this book, but for no reason that I can determine so far, except that the author is really keen about his coffee.

So ends my book review. Now, back to reading.

NaNoWriMo novel, day 5

2008-11-10T10:18:00.002-08:00

I typed the final sentence of the latest chapter, heaved a great sigh of relief, then pulled up the word count. It was exactly 10,000. Weird, huh?

So now that I've reached five digits, I have exactly one-fifth of my target word count of fifty thousand. Just repeat what I've done four more times, but with different words, and I'm done!

No problem. *shudder*

NaNoWriMo novel, day 3

2008-11-08T14:23:00.002-08:00

At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if this was really a smart thing to do. Having signed up for NaNoWriMo six days late, I now have only 22 more days to complete a 50,000 word novel. Well, novella, technically, but as they say on the Nano website, "novel" sounds much more impressive. As you can see by the word count meter on the right, I'm only at about 6,000 words, and my calculator tells me that I need just about 2,000 words per day if I want to reach my goal. It's not impossible, certainly, but... can I do that and still have some semblance of a plot?

So far I've reached my daily quota, but barely, and the I'm hatching the story right off the top of my head, so I absolutely guarantee that this one's going to be a stinker. But then, at the end of all this, I can boast that I have written a novel. A really painfully, vomit-inducing novel that's at the same time guaranteed to be the best novel that you have ever read by a guy named "Cubey".

Break time. I'll see if I can squeeze out another 2,000 poopie words tomorrow.

Virtual aircraft maker turns novelist

2008-11-06T07:50:00.003-08:00

In a stunningly stupid move, today I impulsively signed up for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for syllable-haters). Their website sums it up best: "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." It's an insane writing marathon that sneers at quality in favour of sheer, overwhelming word quantity. The word count is all that matters.

It's a daunting challenge, made even more so by the fact that I'm several days late off the starting line, and I have no clue what story I could write. I've tried writing a novel before, and made it to 20,000 words before realizing just how much trouble I was in, and by 30,000 words, I would rather have chewed my own fingers off than type another word.

So it's time to pour another steaming mug of rocket fuel coffee, because here I go again!

Tesselated cheese

2008-10-22T18:14:00.002-07:00

I have to report that on visiting my local Subway, the Sandwich Artist was willing to tesselate my cheese, rather than overlap. Not only that, but he seemed to appreciate knowing what "tesselation" means. As would I! I can't help but feel that I've truly accomplished something significant today.

Link: An Open Letter to Subway

Looking for something to do?

2008-10-07T10:09:00.004-07:00

As you can probably tell from the new "EVENTS!" link on the left and the poll on the right, we at Abbotts Aerodrome are keen to get some group activities happening. For the freefall fans, I'll start by hosting a weekly skydiving contest on Saturday mornings. You can also look forward to seeing high-speed, timed build-offs, where contestants work to create the best plane/helicopter/jetpack/whatever in 30 minutes.

I got my start in SL hosting events, but back then the Lindens actually gave out L$ to hosts, believe it or not. They'd send you L$500 to organize and host the event, and another L$500 to give out as prize money. These days, I don't need that kind of incentive to want to bring people to Abbotts. I'd like to get together groups of like-minded aircraft and skydiving afficionados for a bit of cometitive fun.

If you have an idea for an event or if you'd like to host an event yoruself, please feel free to IM your idea to me (Cubey Terra) or Arrekusu Muromachi. Be sure to keep your eye on our new Abbotts Aerodrome Events Calendar to find out what's going on in Abbotts!

Can you spot the differences?

2008-09-28T17:50:00.005-07:00

Again, today I step away from Second Life to look at food.

I'm not a picky eater. I'll dig into Kraft Dinner as eagerly as a proper macaroni dish, and not complain that it tastes like petrochemicals. After all, Kraft Dinner has no pretentions of being more than it actually is: crappy dried pasta with fake cheese powder. But sometimes there's a huge difference between what's advertised and what's actually in the package.

Take this example of Lilydale "Latitudes" pre-cooked chicken breast. I assume it's aimed at busy professionals who enjoy a grilled chicken breast in a "chef prepared sauce", but don't have time to grill or saucify anything. Me, I'm just lazy, so I picked up a package of the "fajita" style chicken breast. The photo of a juicy, tender chicken breast with red and yellow peppers was irresistable to a lazy twit like me.

Well, I got my just desserts, and before the main course even. Inside the package was not a whole breast of chicken, but catfood-style chicken shreds in a homogenous goo. Was this package supposed to be in the petfood section? It looks horrible!

Obviously, this is an extreme case of false advertising. The package clearly says "whole chicken breast", but it actually contains pulped and shredded... something. I guess it might have been chicken at some point, but then again, it might just be yak vomit.

Note to self: next time, just buy the chicken and grill it yourself. That or buy the same thing for a fraction of the price from Miss Mew.

Avocado ripening myth

2008-09-23T10:49:00.007-07:00

Today I set aside my Second Life endeavours to explore a myth that's very important to me. Or at least to my stomach.

Picture this: Craving a little guacamole for your chips, you buy a couple of avocados at the supermarket. When you bring them home, your heart sinks when you realize they're hard as rocks! Totally unripe.

But don't give up hope. Assorted experts on the intertubes claim that you can speed the ripening process by placing the avocado in a paper bag. Some say you should put a banana or apple in the bag with it, but others say that's not necessary.

So today I put on my Mythbuster hat and attack this one pseudo-scientifically. I have two very unripe avocados, and placed one in a paper bag (as the experts suggest), but left the other exposed on the counter. Let's see which one ripens faster. If they ripen at the same speed, "myth busted", as Adam and Jamie say. According to the experts, it can possibly take only a day, so I'll post the stupendously thrilling results later.

And yes. This is the kind of thing I do when I'm bored.

UPDATE! - Sept. 25

No changes to report. Avocados still unripe. More news on this amazing experiment later.

SHOCKING CONCLUSION! - Sept. 26

Today I removed the avocado from the bag and discovered that it was ripe enough to eat. And so is the other one. Hmm.

So what can I conclude from this fiasco? Putting an avocado in a paper bag doesn't make it ripen any faster than it's unbagged counterpart. Also: This was a colossal waste of time.

And now: guacamole.

Five years in the metaverse

2008-09-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well this is it. As of this week, I have been in Second Life for five years. FIVE YEARS. My first account -- Tillman Terra -- was created in the first week of September, 2003. I abandoned that a few days later because I was spending several hours a day exploring SL, and I didn't want to be an SL addict. On September 6, 2003, I came back to SL and created Cubey Terra, and I never left.

Five years later, I've built countless gadgets and vehicles, founded two airports, and created a virtual franchise with hundreds of locations across the grid. I spent a short time as a Linden liaison and cleaned up way too many replicators and giant penises. I tried to boost interest in SL aviation, and in doing so I gained many new friends, and many new competitors. I took fire from some of the most irrational, vitriolic trolls SL has ever produced, and then learned that trolls really don't matter (don't feed trolls). I've been mentioned and interviewed in various magazines and newspapers, but managed to escape the scandal rags. I've transitioned from a hobby income from my SL creations to a full-time business. I've also found the limits of SL in the fragility of the platform.

It's been a strange five years, and it's taken my real life in a direction I could never have expected. I just want to thank every Second Lifer for the most remarkable five years of my life.

Thank you.