Terra Aeronautics - Virtual vehicles for the metaverse - Second Life

Second Life on CBC's science show, Quirks and Quarks

2010-03-20T10:35:00.002-07:00

Today's episode of CBC radio's science show, Quirks and Quarks, looks into how Second Life can be beneficial to health professionals and support groups. Click here for the MP3 podcast.

You were right

2010-03-19T18:35:00.004-07:00

Dear bald chef at Steveston Pizza,

You were right. The salmon pizza ("Mist") was freakin' amazing. Thanks for the recommendation.

Everyone else: if you're anywhere near Steveston Pizza, stop dithering and pick up the phone to order something awesome.

Cubey

(Edit: Let me interrupt this pizza-eating session to point out: this is REAL frickin' crab on my pizza. Real crab and real smoked salmon. Nice.)

Riverworld (2010)

2010-03-19T01:11:00.002-07:00

I'm not sure why I watched Riverworld all the way through, but I did. Tamoh Penikett gave another solid performance, though I have to say his character is pretty much the same as in BSG and Dollhouse. Mark Deklin was entertaining as Samuel Clemens, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a former classmate -- Alex Zahara -- playing the German airship captain (and a nice performance too).

Overall, the dialogue was painfully shallow and the story thin. I don't know if it was the editing or the crap script, but in some places it was almost incomprehensible. Scenes jump from one place to another without any establishing shot and events seem to happen without any reason. The sense of place was completely lacking any coherence. Scenes just kind of... happened... in non-specific places with no established relation to other places.

The blue aliens were even more simplistic and weak than the big-headed aliens in Star Trek's pilot, The Cage. At least those caricatures had a back story.

To sum up: it's a nonsensical, incoherent adaptation of classic sci-fi, and some fine acting was drowned by crap dialogue, clumsy editing, an obvious lack of character development, and a story that barely makes even rudimentary sense. I would like to see the producer and director tied to each other with heavy chain and dropped into the lake where they filmed it in retribution for the three hours that I will never get back.

Was the book any better?

And the winners are...

2010-02-28T15:20:00.003-08:00

Canada, 3-2! Wooooooo!

Oh, and we also handed out the trophies at Abbotts Aerodrome for our big Orbiter Design Competition. All of the entries were great, and the judges were faced with some tough decisions. But in the end, we came down to these winning contestants:

First place: DLM SSTO220 Argos Orbiter by Darsh Lucero
Second place: ffOSS Fast Orbiter by Farrah Foss
Third place (tied): Lynx Mk.I by Sunman Loring

and Gryphon by Tank Kwaszes

Many thanks to all who entered as well as our judges. The winners will be on display through Monday, March 1st at Abbotts Aerodrome.

(Snapshots to follow soon!)

Introducing our orbiter design contestants

2010-02-27T15:20:00.005-08:00

Abbotts Aerodrome is now home to several concepts for Earth-orbit vehicles.

Drop by today and tomorrow to see the entries from these contestants:

Darsh Lucero
Differ Darwin
Farrah Foss
Flux Aldrin
Phoneix Dreamscape
Rocket Sellers
Sunman Loring
Tank Kwaszes
THOR Baran

Click here to visit Abbotts Aerodrome now.

One of these trophies could be yours

2010-02-25T14:44:00.002-08:00

The three trophies for the 2010 design contest at Abbotts Aerodrome are now on display next to the runway.

Display pads for contestants are available starting tomorrow. Deadline for entries is noon, Saturday, SL time (Pacific).

Abbotts Aerodrome 6th Anniversary Design Contest

2010-01-16T12:32:00.006-08:00

Six years ago, two aircraft enthusiasts by the names of Cubey Terra and Apotheus Silverman set the foundations for a futuristic airport known as Abbotts Aerodrome. Over subsequent years, the aerodrome grew and so did the group of volunteers, builders, designers and sellers. The goal: to have fun in the sky and promote flight and aerosports in SL.

Now it's 2010, and we're six years old. To celebrate, we're hosting a design contest -- the third design contest in Abbotts history. The first contest challenged aircraft makers to build an original design aircraft from the Terra plane kit. The second contest asked designers to create a lunar lander. This, the third contest, is in a similar vein...

CAN YOU DESIGN AN ORBITER VEHICLE?

Objective: Design and build an earth orbit vehicle as well as its launch and re-entry method.

This means designing potentially two vehicles: a launch vehicle as well as the orbiter itself. Alternatively, maybe your orbiter is capable of achieving orbit on its own without assistance. Or perhaps it's launched into orbit by a ground launch device, like a cannon or track, for example.

PRIZES

All entries will be judged by a panel of hand-picked SL aeronautics and aerospace enthusiasts.

FIRST PRIZE: L$6000 and six months of free display/sales space at Abbotts Aerodrome.
SECOND PRIZE: L$3000 and five Terra brand products of the winner's choice.
THIRD PRIZE: L$1000 and a JSA Airfield Kit by Jim Perhaps.

Winners will be announced in a presentation at 12:00 noon (SL time) on Sunday.

CRITERIA

Your orbiter vehicle or vehicles do not necessarily have to be scripted. Unscripted entries are welcome.
Your design must effectively represent:
How the vehicle is launched and achieves earth orbit.
How the vehicle survives atmospheric re-entry.
How the vehicle lands or splashes down.
Set up a display model of your orbiter vehicle (and launch method or launch vehicle) for the weekend of February 27/28 in Abbotts.
Each vehicle (orbiter and optional launch vehicle) must be NO MORE THAN 31 PRIMS. Sculpted prims are allowed.
Scale models are permitted where there isn't room to display your full-size design.
Provide a notecard describing how your orbiter works, how it reaches orbit, as well as how it might re-enter and land. We're not necessarily looking for realism: science-fiction solutions to achieving orbit are perfectly acceptible (anti-grav units, anyone?), though if you propose technology that doesn't exist, you will need to go into more detail in describing how, for example, your orbiter generates an anti-gravity field. Please use a notecard dispenser.
Each entry must be created by the person who built it. So no buying an orbiter on Xstreet, for example, and submitting that.
Team entries are allowed, but must be entered under one person's name. If the entry wins, any prizes go to that individual.
ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON OR TEAM.

HOW TO ENTER

Starting on Friday, February 26, bring your display model to Abbotts Aerodrome. We will provide display pads for each submission. Simply pay the pad a nominal L$5 non-refundable entry fee to claim it. (The entry fee is to discourage non-serious entries.)

Deadline: 12:00 noon (SL time) on Saturday, Feb. 27. Empty pads will be deleted even if claimed.

Remember: We have limited space and prim allocation in Abbotts, so be sure to arrive early to claim your pad and set up your display.

MAY THE BEST AEROSPACE DESIGNERS WIN!

My ears are burning...

2009-12-10T07:43:00.004-08:00

My ears are burning. No wait! That's my face! AAAAAaaaaaa!!

As some readers know, I've been in contact with SL only minimally in the last couple of weeks, during which time a couple of people reported a little bit of a problem with my new Starburst colour-changing goggles. That problem, apparently, is that wearing them causes smoke to billow from your avatar's face. As strange as that issue might be, what's even stranger to me is that only two people mentioned it.

It turns out that I prepared two colour-changing scripts: one for the helmet and goggles, and the other for the smoke cannister. Guess which one I put into the goggles by mistake.

The faulty goggles aren't for sale for now. I plan to locate owners of the Starburst goggles and replace them with ones that don't catch fire. Until that happens, you can try removing the smoke script from the goggles. They won't change colour after that, but they'll be a lot safer. Sorry for the inconvenience and the singed noses.

Terra Starburst parachute updated to version 1.1

2009-11-24T13:43:00.003-08:00

Today I'm releasing an update to the Terra Starburst. Version 1.1 has a few improvements that you might like:

Vastly improved use of script resources to reduce effect on region lag. It should be easier to use in slow sims. Sim border crossings will be much better too.
Better steering: it's much easier to control, especially in mouselook.
Fix to flaring: vertical speed no longer reaches zero.
Removed the pilot 'chute.

Anyone buying Starburst today will receive version 1.1. Owners of version 1.0 can upgrade for free by using their parachute's Update menu.

It's here! Terra Starburst sport parachute launches

2009-11-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

Abbotts was crushed under the weight of the crowds of people, but the wait was worth it. The Starburst parachute is now for sale at...

Starburst demo vid

2009-11-19T11:01:00.002-08:00

Here's my demo vid of the Starburst sport parachute. For those who can't see the embedded video, here's the link to the video on YouTube.

Seeking parachute beta testers

2009-11-10T12:38:00.001-08:00

As the Terra Starburst parachute enters the beta testing stage, I'd like to put the call out for experienced SL skydivers and BASE jumpers to put the Starburst through its paces.

All you have to do is use the rig in every scenario you can think of -- especially the strange ones -- and send me your observations in a notecard. In return, you get a free Terra Starburst 1.0 on release day (November 21).

If you're interested, contact me (Cubey Terra) in-world.

(UPDATE: I now have my five volunteers. Thanks, everyone who responded!)

Unexplained shadow... a ghost caught on camera?

2009-10-31T14:51:00.001-07:00

After hearing sounds coming from an empty room upstairs for a couple of nights running, I decided to set up my night-vision cam in hopes of catching it. Maybe an animal was getting in through the fireplace, I thought. Instead I captured something inexplicable. Keep your eye on the shadows just behind the arm chair. I don't have any explanation for this.

Freefall in style

2009-10-30T11:44:00.002-07:00

Find your calendar and mark this date: Saturday, November 21. That's the day you'll get the most stylish skydiving gear SL has ever seen.

I've teamed up with designer, Dean Quihoxil, to bring you not only the new Terra Starburst sport parachute, but also a line of designer freefall fashion and skydiving accessories. (Can you tell I'm totally stoked about this?) Terra Starburst has improved flight characteristics, expanded customization (painter HUD and easier paint menu), improved target accuracy, additional stunts, and (as they say in infomercials) much, much more.

At the same time that I'm working on the new parachute scripts and HUDs, Dean is sculpting scripted helmets, goggles, and even a wingsuit. To get an idea of what wingsuits are good for, check out this video of real-life wingsuits (these guys are seriously insane).

Much work is ahead for both of us, so keep an eye on this space. We hope to see you at the release party on November 21!

Turbo boost! Stingray gets an upgrade

2009-10-20T06:50:00.002-07:00

Today I released an upgrade to the popular Terra Stingray amphibious jet. Version 1.1 now includes Turbo Boost. Kick in the afterburners for that extra blast of speed. But be careful... that speed comes at a cost: using afterburners eats up four times as much fuel as in regular flight.

Terra Stingray is available at the runway at Abbotts Aerodrome, on Xstreet SL, and at from any Terra Aeronautics aircraft vendor. Owners of Terra Stingray 1.0 can upgrade for free by clicking the Upgrade button in the Stingray menu.

Not entirely relevant experience

2009-10-13T13:28:00.003-07:00

Sometimes strange memories surface randomly of my days studying theatre at the University of BC. Such as climbing onto the roof during a cast party and not noticing that I'd planted my foot firmly in the centre of a ham and pineapple pizza because I was startled by the party-goers relieving themselves over the edge of the roof. I learned that when a party reaches the point of three-storey public urination, nobody minds a boot-print on their food. Or weirder: getting fitted with a skirt and pumps to play a guy named Daisy. It's not what you think -- I was paid for it. Oh, that makes it sound worse, doesn't it?

Anyway, that was the education that launched my career in software.

What's happening on Level 3?

2009-09-30T12:54:00.007-07:00

Visitors to Abbotts Aerodrome will notice some dramatic changes to the tower's Level 3. Since the tower's construction, that level has been for offices (in other words, completely useless). Starting today, we are tearing out walls, installing crash barriers, and constructing a shiny new indoor air-race course.

What?? Air races... indoors?? That's right! Tiny airplanes, each carrying a pilot, will tear around the mini track to beat the clock. Picture indoor mini go-karts that fly. By scaling down the size and speed of the planes, the indoor space feels to the pilots like a full-size race course.

Of course, visitors to the 2008 Relay for Life event will probably remember our tiny racetrack at the Relay's Flying Aces team build, where we had a little racing oval with tiny biplanes. That worked with great success, and was roughly half the size of Level 3.

Soon I hope to hold weekly races. If those prove popular, we can maybe look at holding a trophy series.

But that's all blue-sky right now. In the meantime, drop by Abbotts and check out our progress on the Level 3 track.

I want a frackin' steampunk airship NOW

2009-08-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

So this morning, somebody asked me an interesting question. They said, "Cubey," and then I waited while their hands did that Second Life air-typing animation, and several seconds later they continued, "where the heck is this steampunk airship you keep talking about?" And then they walked right up to me and said, point-blank, "I want a frackin' steampunk airship NOW!" Then, pulling out the largest hand-cannon I'd ever seen, they blasted me across the sim, shouting "PWNED! LOL!!!1" (Alright, none of this actually happened. I just thought a little narrative would liven up an otherwise dull blog entry.)

Functionally, the airship -- or the Merlin* as it will be known -- is almost complete. All of the features are now installed, so now we pause and review what we have and break out the spit and polish. Hopefully more polish than spit. Spit-encrusted vehicles are upopular for some reason.

Also, designer Reitsuki is currently refining the model, smoothing the sculpted prims, and adding new features like flags and (this part is pretty awesome) an exterior rack of torpedoes. Yes, you will be able to launch actual torpedoes and send enemy ships to Micky Dolenz' locker. I mean Davy Jones. His locker.

So keep your eye on this page for news (did you know I have an RSS feed?). I expect we'll launch Merlin possibly on the second weekend in September, or thereabouts.

*Nope, it's not named after the wizard. It's named after the bird.

Scriptless aircraft, free!

2009-08-29T14:34:00.004-07:00

Do you own an airport in Second Life? A helipad? A waterfront in need of a float plane?

As of today, I'm giving away free, scriptless display versions of my line of Terra aircraft. These display models are exactly like my actual aircraft... except that they don't fly, of course. For that, you still have to buy the real thing.

Included as an extra with my TerraVend package, they were initially intended for aircraft sellers to spruce up their sales displays as they used the vendors to earn a little extra L$. (If you set up a TerraVend vendor next to the display model, you earn a portion of each vehicle sale.)

Inside the TerraVend box, you get to choose either:

permanent models, each averaging about 30 prims, or
"auto-rezzers" that rez temporary aircraft models.

Since temp rezzers can adversely affect your sim performance, I suggest that you try one or the other depending on which is better for wherever you're putting them.

Permissions on the models are "No-Modify/Copy/No-Transfer". So you can make as many copies as you like, but you can't modify them, resell them, or give them away.

So grab a copy from XstreetSL.com, unpack it, and choose one of my shiny planes, helicopters, or floaty type aircraft. And if you like, set up a TerraVend and earn a few L$.

Get the latest TerraVend package at these locations:
Xstreet SL

Abbotts Aerodrome's Flight Shop

Steaming towards the sunrise

2009-08-13T12:34:00.002-07:00

The Merlin airship is getting close to completion. It has room for four crew (including the pilot), has swiveling cannon, and a torpedo launcher. Ironclad steamship owners, tremble in fear when you see this overhead!

A little too helpful maybe?

2009-08-06T10:05:00.003-07:00

In a note totally unrelated to Second Life for a change, I'd just like to relate how awesomely irritating the "Search" box is in Windows Vista's file explorer. It just won't wait until you finish typing your search text before running off and looking. Really, just because I type one letter, it doesn't mean that I want it to show me everything with that letter.

If Vista search were a person, and I wanted to look for my "resume" file, the conversation might go a bit like this:

(Cubey clicks the Search box.)

Vista: Oh boy, oh boy, we get to do a search! What are you looking for?

(Cubey types the letter R.)

Vista: OK! All things starting with R! You got it! I'll be right back in five to ten seconds!

Cubey: No no! I'm not done yet.

Vista: Wow, there are over 5,000 things that start with R! That's way too much. Why did you want me to do that?

Cubey: I didn't! Here's the rest of the word...

(Cubey types the letter E.)

Vista: OK! All things starting with RE! That's a tough one, but I simply love searching! Here I go!

Cubey: No, wait! Stop that!

Vista: (several seconds later) Well that took a long time! And there are still too many.

Cubey: Well if you'd just wait for me to finish typing!

(Cubey thinks a moment, then quickly types "re-install Windows XP".)

Vista: No items match your search.

Why do I build virtual planes?

2009-08-03T07:56:00.002-07:00

"Cubey," my imaginary sidekick asks me, "why do you build planes in SL?" If I had a dime for all the times someone has asked me why I build virtual planes, why then I still wouldn't have any money, but it's a fair question. I guess I'm a computer plane addict. That's right. And it's all the fault of those programmers from the eighties and nineties who had the same addiction, but had to make do with primitive graphics and limitations of early PCs.

Alright then. In order, here are the flight games that contributed to my virtual aircraft addiction, with links to screenshots. I did play others besides these, but these were landmark titles in my mind.

Jet (1985, subLOGIC) (screenshots). Loaded from a single 320kB 5.25" floppy diskette onto my dad's Hyperion 8088 computer, this game was all dots and lines drawn in glowing amber on a tiny screen. The only purpose of this "game" was to fly around a stark, mostly empty landscape until you ran out of fuel, and yet I must have spent hundreds of hours doing rolls and loops in that lousy simulated F-16.
Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (1987, Electronic Arts) (screenshots). By this time, I had access to a 286 with EGA graphics, however the grey monochrome monitor made it nearly impossible to differentiate the sky from the ground.

The word "advanced" is relative, I suppose, but this one offered several planes to fly, including several experimental planes, and each had its own flight characteristics. There was even a mode where Yeager would guide you through different aerobatic stunts, and offer insults when you failed.
Battlehawks 1942 (1988, Lucasfilm Games) (screenshots). Finally, a combat flight sim! And in glorious 265 colours! The purpose of this one was to fly different types of combat missions against badly pixelated, blobby sprites that were supposed to represent enemy planes and ships. Lucasfilm distributed this one on a single 5.25" floppy or a 3.5" floppy for the technologically advanced.
Red Baron (1990, Dynamix/Sierra) (screenshots). I think I can say that this was my all-time favourite combat flight sim. Even though the graphics weren't much better than Battlehawks, it had an particularly engaging career mode, where your pilot would fly in historical squadrons from aerodromes on a map of northern Europe, and many historical notes and photos to set the mood. You could almost forget that you were shooting at blobs no bigger than a few pixels across.
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (1990, Lucasfilm Games) (screenshots). Visually stunning, historically interesting, challenging... and nifty rocket planes! Even though the graphics blew Red Baron out of the water, it was somehow less engaging.

So that's my "best of" list of flight sims that really hooked me. Notice that I don't include any of the Microsoft titles. Even though I own Combat Flight Simulator 2 and Flight Simulator X, I found them only mildly entertaining. And head-to-head play loses its appeal when you're up against thirteen-year-olds with lightning reflexes and foul language. I suppose the only way to really enjoy virtual dogfights is to make my own combat flight sim using the SL platform.

If you've made it to the end of this long list, and you're not snoring, then chances are you'll like my Airco DH.2 and Nieuport 17, which include the Terra Combat System. Ha! This whole post was a setup to make you buy more of my planes!

Long airship is loooooong

2009-08-02T12:11:00.003-07:00

Work is progressing on my next collaborative effort with designer Reitsuki Kojima, who handed off his model of a "steampunk" airship. In Second Life, large airships were traditionally no more than thirty meters long -- a limitation that was intentionally built into the build tools. Some time ago, I built the Aerius blimp, which measured at an enormous 55 meters.

(In this image, the ruler above the vehicle shows 5 meters intervals.)

Reitsuki's airship model is 80 meters long! You may now gasp.

Fruit Islanders fill the sky with hot air balloons

2009-08-02T11:50:00.004-07:00

Yesterday the residents of the Fruit Islands estate in Second Life celebrated the re-opening of their sim, "Mango", by launching an enormous balloon rally. Flying mostly the (truly awesome) Cirrus balloons, pilots led their airborne flotilla around dozens of fruit-named tropical islands.

But even private estates have problems with private security, apparently. At one point, a few balloonists found themselves trapped between two flanking ban lines and unable to escape, even though they were all Fruit Islanders themselves, which led to shouts of "ban lines suck!"

Besides that small glitch, the flight went well -- I was happy to see so many of my balloons in the air!

Fly my amphibious jet... but stop for fuel

2009-07-25T17:30:00.004-07:00

The big roll-out of the Terra Stingray went mostly without a hitch -- there was only a database glitch in the SL shopping website, Xstreet SL, which meant that it wasn't available to Xstreet shoppers for a few hours. That's resolved now, so you can pick up your very own Terra Stingray in Abbotts or at Xstreet SL. And of course, if you want to try before you buy, the free Stingray demo is available at the sales display in Abbotts.

In other news, as you know I like to put a fuel gauge on my aircraft and provide fuel cans for refueling. I know how annoying it is to have to stock up on fuel cans, so now I'm offering the Terra Fuel Pump. Add one to your airport and you'll never have to handle another fuel can. Like the fuel cans, the fuel pump is free.