Roofs. ceilings, stairs and steps=suck

It doesn't rain, we can fly so why do we have to scurry through little doorways and up stairs to get to places, and the spiral staircase things are the stupidest thing in SL.

It's either the residual memories of RL coming through or some kind of mental 'stuck in the box' conformism OR people who want that 5 minutes for dwell, either way it annoys me, please add a skylight or flying-people entrance to your buildings people!!!!!

I would select: All of the Above.

yeah, pretty much.

SL is about aesthetics, for the most part. We don't have to buy fancy clothes, skin, hair or accessories, we don't have to "live" in fancy "houses," we don't really need land unless we want to build something or own a mall, store, casino, club, etc. But, people seem to go with what's familiar, even in virtual reality. So people seem to make mostly square or square-ish houses or structures that mimic RL builds, replete with roofs, staircases, and, in some cases, bathrooms and kitchens.

Personally, I think a somewhat open floorplan with lots of decks, multiple entrances, a number of open walls and minimal ceilings is optimum for SL builds. One of the most frustrating experiences I have in SL is flying to a location where I've never before visited and trying to find the one tiny doorway into the build. Sometimes I just give up.

I do think staircases look kind of neat-o and can be decorative, though they can also be big prim-eaters.

People have psychological urgency as it relates to exponential change. A good example is a new Resident coming in, and learning on the OI and slowly having their mind blown, and then the first thing that happens to them in the WA is that a giant spaceship drops on their head and sends them flying far away into some bizarre nutek art sculpture. @_@ That's gotta be some cosmic shock there.

As for me, I don't like stairs generally in SL from a practical perspective because while walking can be smooth, running most definitely isn't -- you'll end up with a lot of collision particles and it is QUITE unpleasant to bumpbumpbump. Also, camera angles cutting into things is kind of a wreck. Smooth veneered ramps are alright though.

As Beryl pointed out, there is some comfort in familiarity -- if you were trapped in a strange alien world with slimy tentacle things sloping over you and a blue sun overhead -- TWO OF THEM -- in the heavens, wouldn't you at least want a security blanket and your favorite teddy bear with you?

I thought about this for a bit after I read the post. I agree with the stairways, I generally don't use them. I have a couple for walking from one low level to another. But mostly I use teleporters. As for the doors in the sky, at first I thought, he has a point. So I thought about the houses on my land and then I realized I really don't want people dropping in on me. Coming through the door kind of gives people control of how you access their homes. I fyou are talking about business then I would agree.

If you really get down to it, we don't need anything in SL. But we buy and build anyway.

not just doorways but doors, actual non-phantom, sometimes physical doors that swing back and forth ha ha ha

there is something to be said for measuring out a sense of enclosed space to meet the psychological needs of a user while accomodating the abilities and camera angles of their av. it's a skill that takes a while to master. i believe most people just eventually get tired of having to stop and click the frellin door every time they want to go through it, bumping their head on a useless roof and bumping into corners trying to manipulate themselves in mousemode. but everybody seems to figure it out sooner or later.

just give them a little time.

I understand why people want to have stairs, it's the same reason why people play with doll houses haha!! I have no problem with that!

Just a question though, how many video games have you played where things are like RL? Mario and Ms. Pacman, for example, require you to see the world in a whole different perspective and they've been around for most of our lives so why would we 'go with what's familiar' in Sl??

somehow the arguement that SL might confuse people if it didn't have steps and doors is not making it for me, but it is a valid point worth debating.

Inside builds I would agree, stairs suck. I would do a ramp if a simple way to just fly up is not available. Teleporters are cool, but I dont always like them as the only means of transport.

But walking around is fun and I like to have ways to enjoy walking. Flying is the norm, so walking is a rarity in many cases. I love walking around my land. My forest has one dramatic elevation change and I found that stairs enhanced the path I built through the woods.

Where's your forest, Loki?
I'd like to check it out.



Olympia~

Designing structures with SL in mind is always such a hard thing. Everyone plays and maneuvers in SL completely differently. Some fly, some walk. Some have vehicles, some have jetpacks. Some can't move their cameras very well, others are knowledgeable in view-fu. Some want large, expansive rooms, others want cozy little areas.

Plus you've got a ton of different styles that people try to shoe-horn into SL, with mixed results.

If you're gonna do stairs, do it tastefully... make it an important part of the structure, not a floor-to-floor afterthought. At the same time, allow for fliers to come in through the roof or up your floors with ease.

And, when you do stairs, make an invisible ramp over it to make your avatar seamlessly go up... adds a better touch than *bompbompbompbomp* sound effects as you traipse up the flight. (Thanks Launa for that tip )

Most folks don't use vehicles, so you don't necessarily have to provide for their needs.

You sort of need roofs, though, in some way shape or form, in order to "complete" the structure. Otherwise you just have 4 walls and a floor, which tends to look quite ugly.

Skylights are key, though. Lots of folks don't request them in building jobs, however. My own home in Grignano has a medium-sized hole in the roof that allows for flight in and out of the house, from both floors. But then, I also splurged on stairs and doorways. Gotta love design.

Anyways, just my two cents.

LF

Stairs bad.

Ramps good.

Ceilings good on private homes, I think. Completes the sense of owning the space (although an open-on-approach roof is a cool idea, IMHO...probably better scripted as open-on-click, yes?)

Reconfigurable living areas, better.

Little hidden entrances on shops bad. I'm trying to spend money here, can I skip the IQ test, please?

Working doors on some private houses good, for those who want them. It's a way for folks who may never script to have a touch of consumer-level upgrade in their houses. Personally, I like doors that put on a show when I open them...irises and panels and hatches scattering twelve different directions to get out of my way. (I've restrained myself, though...my front door is a double-panel slider. I don't have the spare prims, and I don't want to get strung up by the neighbors )

Elevators: theory good, current physics engine bad.

My current house is a 1-story, and may become a split-level. When I'm at home, I walk, mostly. I'm finishing up my own house TP system which should offer me arbitrary point-to-point on my property.

-- jj

I've got a better idea.

Whatever the hell you want to do = good.

Being told something isn't needed and essentialy told to just 'don't do it' = suck.

I endorse this feature and/or product, so long as we get to bring back witch-dunking and poetic justice.

Seriously though. A lot of the conformist stuff you see is because people prefer to build what's readily familiar to them, be that a tree, a staircase, or a giant blue stapler. Minds that deviate from many of these preconceived norms are typically in the minority, and by extension, so are their builds.

I should go into the construction business in SL.... Everything I build will be low prim, cheap and fly-in friendly. I'll build the skyscraper of your dreams! 50 floors using only 50 prims! Call now and I'll have your 50prim/50 floor dreamscraper built in less than 10 minutes for the low low cost of L$1000. Need a floorplan larger than 10mx10m? No problem! You can have a 20mx20m floorplan for the same low cost, and only 150prims more!

I personally dont mind elevators when they are used well (have a lot of space, or generally look in theme well); teleporters are the ideal, as long as they are well placed and visible enough, and are not used for trivial distances. (shame we cant do walk-through teleporters however.)

-Adam

A year and a half ago I was floored - so to speak - by the avatar friendliness of Viola Bach's Milano Fashions build in Tan. It has no roof, no walls, yet defines the space well, gives coherence to the site and allows avatars to approach in pretty much any mode they prefer. I had coined a term "swoopy" to describe such builds and have aspired to that ideal since.

Notably swoopy builds of recent vintage were Eddie Escher's Mall at Avalon, Gigas SuperMall in Garrison, and HoseQueen's new headquarters in iForgetWhere. They certainly do afford approach from many directions and methods. Notably un-swoopy builds are telehubs with roofs (*bonk*) and despite the stunning design and execution of the new welcome area, the glass roofs are a big impediment to movement. To use the welcome area as an example - particularly because the least adept players will first encounter this - the glass ceilings are gorgeous, but need not be solid as no one needs to be on top of them for any conceivable use. Waterhead telehub also suffers from this design flaw.

Yes, people do tend to prefer builds that echo RL, but playing hunt-for-entrance is bad for homes, terrible for shops and disasterous for common areas. RL engineering needs don't apply in SL and are inimical to the free movement of vPeople. Finally, if you must use stairs, please make them rise little enough or llSetCollisionSound("", ...) to them so that they don't become noise factories.

'Tis is Penrith, look for the cool - and mildly frustrating - maze

Daz, it's ART! Who are you to question someone's creativity?

Zero gravity virtual architecture is an infant discipline, and the early efforts are by-and-large not encouraging.

But if all one cares about is utilitarianism, an open platform serves as well as anything... and is less intrusive than, say, a clumsy attempt at replicating a nuclear power plant.

he he!!!! I know I know!! I just hate them!! build all you want and I will run away!!

just a recap: anyone should be free to build anything however they wish to, but I personally do not like stairs and roofs in SL.

I am not advocating the abolishment of these things or dissing anyone.

and now a word from the Descendents

Suburban Home

I want to be stereotyped
I want to be classified
I want to be a clone
I want a suburban home
Suburban home
Suburban home
Suburban home
I want to be a statistic
I want to be masochistic
I want to be a clone
I want a suburban home
Suburban home
Suburban home
Suburban home
I don't want no hippie pad
I want a house just
Like mom and dad

Well I feel that an "SL vernacular" is just forming. People are building houses based on the familiar and not based on the use. Eventualy things change-how many houses IRL have "Drawing rooms" for after dinner conversations?

In Sl prim limits are an over-arching design factor. Newbies on a 512 need to be minimalists in order to be apble to put any furniture in their homes. Lnd Barons with thier own Island sim for a house can have a 20,000 prim reproduction of Versailles, or an exact duplicate of a real world dream house.

Many of us live somewhere in between.

Stairs, in general are a colossal waste of prims. However in a house with 2000 prims, a thirty prim staircase is meaningless, and your guests will be impressed by how much tier you can afford to pay every month.

I think roofs add more deifintion to a structure than walls do, so in the choice bewteen one or the other, I go with the roof. This is a aesthetic and not a practical decision. In general if a structure has only two walls or one wall, flight acess is not a problem.

Thus the choices about roof and walls center on two factors: Definition and privacy. Walls a rooffs define a space and that is good..a bunch of furniture sitting with out a roof at best looks like a patio.

Walls and roofs also keep the neighbors prying eyes out so you don't get TOSsed for having wild av monkey sex on your new washer and dryer.

We are taking steps towards an SL design aesthetic, but right now we are dealing with the fact that people want to replicate RL in SL. More power to them. I design for the bold.

If practicality and ease of use is the goal, why have buildings at all? They are not needed.

Most SL builds, I think, are built with architectural design and aesthetic realism in mind. At least when I build something, that is what I like. Something that looks as close as possible to the real thing.

Is just like the rest of SL. Why have cars, fancy clothes, airplanes, etc. Why do slot machines need to be so fancy?

I believe the level of realism is one of the things that sets SL apart from most other games.

The best part is that the laws of supply, demand and marketing also apply in SL. If club and mall owners observe that a club or mall with no roof, wall, or stairs is making customers flock to it because its convenience, guess what they will be doing?

T