Chinatown!!!!!!!!!!

Just checked out chinatown....totally amazing! mind blowing. the way they get reflections is ingenious...and even their next sim abraxas sim next door to china, is totally awesome. a snowy cathedralish hell for killing ..and um.. just hanging out. great textures, and weapons there too!!!!!!!!a free seburo that works only in abraxas, but hey, it kills i think, havent tested though...so everyone, check everything out!!!!!!!both sims are part of the same concept. both are unreal tourney maps, and fun to loook at too!

Yeah, I visited it yesterday (only Chinatown) and I couldn't believe how they'd done the reflections. Only having seen it in pictures, I'd presumed it was textures of some sort so when I actually realised the way they had done it it all seemed so obvious lol Takes a serious amount of prims to do that and I'm sure we'll see a lot of other people copy this ingenious method now (if they've got the prims!) Mind you having said that I think they're only using 8000 or so prims in total.

Visually the place looks great but there are a few things that stuck out to me:

1. It's small. Chinatown doesn't even cover half a sim from what I could see.
2. Why the need for a nude gallery? Couldn't work that one out myself. It just seemed a little out of place. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination but it just seems stuck in, like it's an obligatory thing to put in a mature sim.
3. You can fly? Huh! I expected it to be no fly for PvP. Maybe this will change.
4. As it's so small I couldn't work out why they'd made such a large part of what's there a skate park. Apart from that it's really only one or two main streets and some smaller back streets.
5. There's a club - is that staying?

I thought Chinatown was for PvP but there's so many other things crammed into a small space, the PvP almost seems like an add-on, and not the main point. I dunno maybe there's too many non-PvP things in it. People are going to get kind of annoyed when they're trying to dance, or skateboard at the skate park, or view the gallery, or shop in the shop and people keep shooting at them. Why have such attractions in what is supposed to be a PvP environment?

But visually, yeah, it's something special. Definitely. Without doubt. Little touches like the rain that comes and goes, fizzling signs, light beams on the cars - it's very atmospheric. I'll be back to check out Abraxas soon - I didn't have much time when I went there and things were rezzing really slowly so I had to log.

Slade, thanks for posting this. Glad you like it so much... well, the shooting will start in a day... it won't be long... hehe. And by the way, please show me more of your creations soon. I've liked what I've seen so far -- your TP chamber, your robot design, your biomech av... hehehe... "snowy cathedralish hell", that's a great line. I think you've got a real eye for techy aesthetics and it shows.

Moopf, thanks for your comments, your perspective is appreciated. Abraxas is the philosophical antithesis of Chinatown in design. Give it an explore and see what you think + feel. The club is not for a long-term engagement. This initial 3-day celebration is done on "friendly ground", but following this, PvP will be the emphasis and you'll know who's playing "in the game" via status lifepack. More details to roll out soon as the guns get armed. For the initial period, though, we wanted to emphasize enjoyment of the environment.

Yes, I'll be trying to get to Abraxas later today hopefully.

The status lifepack - are you expecting people to actually bother if somebody's playing or not? I doubt they will, and even if it's not a normal damage enabled environment (which I presume it won't be) it gets kind of annoying if people shoot you when you're there for something different. That's what I'm saying, really, with it so compressed (I mean it is very small) people wanting to skateboard or shop etc. will get shot anyway - it's that mix of environment of PvP with other attractions that will be interesting to see working. They'll wheel round a corner, see somebody and shoot them, for the most part, without checking if the status lifepack shows that they're playing or not.

So it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. With two sims, I'm suprised one wasn't made totally for PvP and the other for the other attractions. At least then you have some seperation.

But, as I said before, it doesn't half look nice

Was running around in Abraxas playing Capture The Flag and Death Match, very fun, some bugs but thats to be expected, still is in beta. Fine tuned and polished it'll be very awsome.

The scenery is very nicely done in both sims. The reflection technique I've seen before, I think the first time I saw it was in the old Ouranos board room, but I'm sure its been done even before then. Regardless its been put to use well here.

Shooting those who aren't playing the game, I'd think would be expected, its a bit like Jessie or any other place where you have combat, generaly you don't stop and look for any health indicator before shooting. Kind of like if you went into a real UT server and expected to just chat while having your character still in the game, I doubt you'd be able to without being killed.

Very nice work so far.

Better be no fly or they'll be hell to pay. I'm assuming it will be though, due to some lazy roof texturing here and there that was most likely never meant to be seen.

The reflection thing is a trick thats years old from the realm of Quake 2. Just for the record. I really found nothing "new" in terms of technique in China Town in general -- just stuff not seen in SL(often?).

Now that said I was still impressed. Tricks do not make a build or a FPS or anything else. You can use all the tricks in all the books and stuff build crap. It's how the elements were put together. Few people reinvent the wheel -- they just make better ones which is what was done.

Now for my gripes. Everyones going to sing up and down about whats great and it's all deserved, but heres some serious notes. This is taken outside the context of SL and is more in the realm level design in general.

First theres too many lights in some views of different colors. I find this ruins the dark feeling and ruins the flow of colors. There are quite a few situations where scenes simply look too busy with lights to merit the dark setting.

Also, this might of been me but the skybox wasn't synced. I found that kind of distracting.

Another thing is texture faces that were improperly textured in some areas that were likely not expected to be looked at. Now if we're working on UT2004 thats all good and fine -- but in SL cameras can and WILL be used to look around all over the place

Also.. Framerate. I was in with 15 people late and night and was getting 1 FPS. I don't know how this will actually hold up when the shooting starts(might have even less people or might load in better or whatever), but it is a concern.

I found a few spots that just seemed lazily put together in the back streets. There was obviously a lot of focus toward the center of the map.

And lastly the 2d powerups are kinda tacky. You can have 3d rotating objects and should.


Still, very good work you should all be very proud of. I hand my biggest credit to whoever your texture artist is -- though that may be unfair of me as it took many of you tp place his works... Still, the textures are what caught my eyes the most.

I actually kinda like abraxas better with these respects. China Town strikes me more as a movie set while Arabax stands out more as a gaming level. it also looks less like SL. China Towns detailed design sadly helps show some of SLs Rendering issues. It does lack the same sort of artistic soul though. Good job.

Also, will people be able to make UL enabled weapons?

Thanks for the comments and ideas, guys.

It's good to get additional perspectives, and especially in the timeline, see what can happen in the future.

I'd like to address a few points:


-I will make it clear that as of Valentine's Day -- Feb. 14th of course -- PvP will be in full effect in UL. I will do what I can to caution people going there that they can expect to be fragged, but in the meantime, enjoy the sights. In any instance, push guns are not allowed.

-Oz, Chage brought the Ouranos thing up to me too: and it's simply effective (prim count aside)

-Bedazzle's artistic director is Jimmy "Texturemaster" (as I call him, anyway) Thomson

-the UL weapons system, as it currently exists, doesn't allow for outside arms without further collaboration. Francis adapted her popular Seburo and Saedaku lines to work with the system, and there are several other ways to slay too. CrystalShard Foo did a wonderfully efficient job with the codebase, so I wouldn't rule out any future possibilities.


Lastly, stating this myself as a thankful Resident of Second Life: I hope sets a new standard not only for creative excellence in SL, but encourages others who have enjoyed this Bedazzle project to come up with their own masterworks and share them with the community. If you feel inspired and think you can make something wonderful and take things to that proverbially cliched but nevertheless true "next level", well, I know I'd personally like to see it. Such a positive feedback loop only bodes well for us all, so that we may improve together.

Thanks for the comments and ideas, guys.

It's good to get additional perspectives, and especially in the timeline, see what can happen in the future.

I'd like to address a few points:


-I will make it clear that as of Valentine's Day -- Feb. 14th of course -- PvP will be in full effect in UL. I will do what I can to caution people going there that they can expect to be fragged, but in the meantime, enjoy the sights. In any instance, push guns are not allowed.

-Oz, Chage brought the Ouranos thing up to me too: and it's simply effective (prim count aside)

-Bedazzle's artistic director is Jimmy "Texturemaster" (as I call him, anyway) Thomson

-the UL weapons system, as it currently exists, doesn't allow for outside arms without further collaboration. Francis adapted her popular Seburo and Saedaku lines to work with the system, and there are several other ways to slay too. CrystalShard Foo did a wonderfully efficient job with the codebase, so I wouldn't rule out any future possibilities.


Lastly, stating this myself as a thankful Resident of Second Life: I hope sets a new standard not only for creative excellence in SL, but encourages others who have enjoyed the Bedazzle UL project to come up with their own masterworks and share them with the community. If you feel inspired and think you can make something wonderful and take things to that proverbially cliched but nevertheless true "next level", well, I know I'd personally like to see it. Such a positive feedback loop only bodes well for us all, so that we may improve together.

Bedazzled outshine the rest of us, yet again, damn you!

That's very humble of you, but I think what you guys have done with Darklife is superb. I wouldn't say Bedazzle have outshone you, or some others for that matter. Sure their building and texturing is fantastic, but it's the quality of the whole that's the most important, and Darklife is fantastic as a whole.

I liked the atmosphere in Chinatown... It is not very detailed primwise, but the texturing gives it the illusion of detail. The reflection effect is well done even if a bit overused.,

Abraxis looks like fun and is a good combat map...

I feel sorry for the builders for having to do all these things with the poor tools that we have to use.

Several things I have noticed though about Chinatown...

There is an open doorway that cannot be entered... exactly like another open doorway that CAN be entered (the bong room).

The skate park's existence does not make alot of sense.

I think it is a bit too small of an area... I mean it is about 1/4 - 1/3 of a sim. Not much space to get lost in, so I hope that there is more eventually.

The only weapons we can use are the seburo, the sedaku, and the knife? Please add support for more weapons.

......

I only wish that what is being done by Bedazzle was the standard for building across secondlife. To see the endless ugly malls, boring houses, and crappy clubs makes one appreciate the work of Bedazzle.

Aww thanks Moopf

And coincidently, I have built the first games database for Second Life! Game SLave, a list of all the games you can go and try.

It's a wiki so go and add to it and edit what needs updating.

I just wish I could clone the Bedazzled team and have them working for me like so many slave content monkeys. "Texture, damn you, TEXTURE FASTER!!"

hehehe.

PC

I paid a brief visit to Chinatown yesterday, and I have to concur that the build is generally beautiful and quite inspiring. That said, I expect to spend little or no time there as I just can't see this being any fun in SL. It seems to me that this is just a lagfest waiting to happen, and I do not believe that SL has any great value as an FPS game hosting platform. There were perhaps 15 AVs in the sim when I popped over and even walking about the place was quite jerky. I shudder to think of the performance when the sim is fully loaded down. Of course, lag tolerance is very much a personal thing, and mine is very low.

In the end though, that's all just my opinion and I hope I'm proven wrong. I love FPS games and would love to have one to play in SL, but I'm not holding my breath. I think I'm going to find that if I want to play Unreal Tournament, I'm going to have to use Unreal itself. The SL platform just doesn't have the speed I require. Hell, Xbox Live with Halo 2 barely does

In any event, congrats to the Bedazzle team on another awesome build and best of luck with the endeavor.

Positive feedback l00ps... w00t!

Thanks for the kind words.

The BTG-3600 and DE-7710 are also weaponry in the arsenal of UL. Very cool designs. You'll be seeing them shortly -- like, tomorrow, literally! For more inquiries about the coding system of UL, feel free to IM CrystalShard Foo, our Head Programmer. Well, when she isn't so busy. LOL... so in a little while's time.

Lag is a major PITA. Someday, I hope we'll be laughing in glee and going "LAG??? What was THAT???" and "SIM CROSSINGS? That's sooo old skool!" but for now, we struggle uphill in the quest for better tomorrows. Of course, we'll always have problems, and challenging them is an important step in solving them.

Pirate, in addition to us inspiring each other, I'm really hoping spreading the word about UL, DarkLife, and all the great stuff within SL will attract more people to become Residents. That'll mean more cool experiences for everyone, these generations of creators. An example: some newbie might log in for the first time tomorrow, be blown away, and set out to assemble a team to wow the gridverse. Heck, that's ALREADY happened. And I count on it to happen again and again.

When the senses open up and the hands get busy, the imagination is unleashed!

Yes looks great! Will be interesting to see how things are once the shooting starts!

FPS should be OK with <10AVs (I would think) and a fast client machine. This is certainly a good test.

Relative to pirate (and the many other great game developers in SL) - I totally agree that chinatown is but one of many amazing interactive builds, and in particular darklife is also an incredible work. We'll keep moving fast on shooting videos and having the website pay equal homage to all there is to find gaming-wise in SL.

I would LOVE to see some of Dark Life on the website, pictures or videos... I am shocked it hasn't been on there yet =/

Chinatown is an f'ing awesome build.

If I thought I could actually handle FPS combat on SL i'd sign up.

To be fair, we've not properly launched yet . And folks, keep an eye out for SimCast, looking very good too! And don't forget the love for the othe games! See the wiki for more (plug plug, link in my sig)

Dark Life is on the site right now, thanks to some sunday office time from Bub Linden.

We'll work on getting other stuff rotated in.

Wooohoo!

w00t. I wanna play all these fantastic games.

more MoRe MORE!!!

Great DarkLife pic on the front page -- the brainy monster cracks me up. I'd like to sit on that thing and chant from the Elder Scrolls of Teskurion Delta.

"Ia Ia Cthulhu ftagn!"

Yes, I will be adding more games to the database tonight. Defo go try the ones listed, some gems in there!

I founded one of the bugs in the system today. AND got the lady to fix it *touchdown* GO ME!

Another Great Build By this Group that Gave Us GRAVITY!!!!!!

Chinatown is totally stunning.

I dont know if anyone noticed this: some of the reflections on the water (or ground) are dynamic. I was standing around waiting for a friend an noticed a sign that would blink on and off. And then I noticed that the "reflection" of the sign in the water changed with the sign. I was totally blown away at the realism.....