Mainland? Zindra? Continents? How can I tell?

My viewer shows the name of the sim that I'm in, but how can I find out what continent I'm in (if I'm in a continent). I realize SL is really post-geography, given that we get around by teleportation, but I'm curious. Thank you.

The names of the continents don't appear on the inworld map, but there are a number of maps created by residents with all the continents named. A good set of maps is available from the Greenlaners Explorers Information Centre. There's another good set by Carl Metropolitan which I think are still available at NCI.

Anyway, the only way I know to see which continent you are on is to open the inworld map and zoom out until you can see the shape of the landmass, then compare it to one of the resident continent maps.

Thanks. It seems like there is no point to continents, then.

Perhaps not in the same way as there is IRL, but there are some out there who love being able to travel the continental masses.

Very true. SL would be a different--and much less rich--experience if it consisted only of a set of unconnected islands.










*cough*Blue Mars*cough*

Linden Lab Mainland Continents - 15th July 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/3733558246/in/set-72157612023608587/

Sansara & Heterocera Atoll - 15th July 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/3732758225/in/set-72157612023608587/

Maps created by Carl Metropolitan.

Check out my massive MG collection of maps here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/sets/72157612023608587/

easy enough.
go to "about land" and look on the "estate" tab.

if the estate owner is "governor linden" you are on mainland.
if the estate owner is governor linden, and the area is rated "adult" you are on the mainland continent generally known as zindra.

Largest SL continent ~10km across
Largest Blue Mars City ~8km across

And we techies have worked out ways to make BM cities seem contiguous.. You just will have "sim crossings" several km apart, instead of every 256m

So your point was?

If these 'ways' are something that an average user wouldn't have the know-how to access, then, effectively, such users can't move easily between cities (as SL users can move easily between sims on Mainland). (I don't know that this is the case; I'm just going by what I'm reading.)

It does seem likely that the experience of moving easily through a large variety of spaces created by a large variety of (unrelated) people is not an experience we should expect of BM any time soon (and that was my point).

Persistent issues with sim crossing, especially on vehicles, make touring something of a nuisance. Last time I took my motorbike out for a spin, I got so tired of somersaulting underground or riding off into the wide blue yonder with a 1957 Triumph on my head that I all but gave up on travel. A nostalgic walk around Calleta and neighbouring sims like Oculea is the best I can manage these days if I want to get out and about.

Continents would undoubtedly be a Hell of a lot more fun and make more sense in general if we could negotiate them comfortably. Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.

Yeah, but when it works, it's fun even now. A few lazy Sundays ago, I and a prominent botanist met by chance at the Tuliptree station, we caught a passing train, and rode it to Clearwing and most of the way back without any fatalities. It was a great pleasure seeing so much of the Atoll in one leisurely trip: it's really quite an impressive piece of geography now that one can see it without all the ad towers.

I'm sure it can be but it could be so much better.

Mind you, a botanical outing wouldn't be quite my idea of a good time. It sounds far too civilised and responsible. A roll in the hay is the closest I can get to an appreciation of nature, being a very 'low' sort. No class at all.

For some of us foot soldiers in the battles with adfarms, seeing the results of that war is still better than sex.

If you ever feel nostalgic for those days, Qie, here's a piccie for ya:



I don't miss views like that!

Indeed. LL chalked up one in the Win column for their ad-farm-elimination efforts.

Nah, pretty simple actually. There is an "entity" (a scripted item) called an "AreaTrigger", which activates an arbitrary script when you enter the defined area. So place one at the edge of the city, which activates a teleport to the next city. Then place some fake terrain and scenery past the edge of the city you are in, to give the impression of the next city.
(their software allows placing objects past the edge of the terrain map, even to negative X and Y locations).

You will have a momentary disruption while the next city loads, but then we have that at bad sim crossings today in SL, and the boundaries in Blue Mars are typically much further apart.

As far as a variety of places created by a variety of unrelated people, I am renting out "blocks" (think land parcels in SL) to anyone who wants them for just about any purpose. A city developer in Blue Mars is in the same relation as Governor Linden or an Estate owner is in SL to parcel owners. I *could*, if I was stupid, make a lot of unnecessary rules for tenants, but I plan on having the minimum of that. The main one will be "dont load something that breaks the city". Some people might like a walled garden with a lot of rules and restrictions, but I think there are others who want to do their own thing, and being that kind of person myself, thats my choice to try to build a city to cater to that interest.

You can get your own city for $100 setup, and $30 a month at the moment. What I offer to people is an entry cost that is lower, and I have taken care of the technical side of setup. When you get a city in Blue Mars, you start from scratch, defining the map size, terraforming the land shape and painting the ground textures. I happen to enjoy doing that, but not everyone does.

The removal of adfarms was by far and away the best aesthetic improvement in SL since I first rezzed. Jeez they were depressing things.

I agree. We could be so much but those effing things reminded me of real estate salesmen who go to church and used car dealers who dont.