Are we building for nobody?

[Marstol Nitely]

I have the same problem Tully. Maybe bigger since one of my regions is 16. I wanted it so badly and was a little overwhelmed when it finally became available. I am NOT complaining and I'm not about to give up my big region. I enjoy thinking about what I might add when I have the time. In the meantime, I add things a little at a time. I recently added some of Kayaker Magic and Daniel Hoffman's creatures. They seemed like they were made for my world.

I opened it to the public a long time ago because I enjoy even the little bit that's been done and hoped others would too. I also feel like it's good for people to see different types and stages of builds in Kitely. It is an ever evolving grid, so why not have evolving worlds. If you start showing what you've done so far then people can enjoy your progress along with you.

[Amiryu Hosoi]

Best practice is to make big fields, forests and lakes, then connect them with a simple road system. When you have time you just pick a p[lot and start to really develop. Thats what I am doing right now. Be sure though to connect the different areas so it looks like a whole.

Ami

[Constance Peregrine]

Or, for another example and food for thought.

I once created this 9 region build for a customer [I don't do such things anymore].

He supplied the center build [which is a free OAR supplied by the Craft grid], and I did the terraforming of all the surrounding regions, blending it with the center OAR, added in some freebie content to flesh it out a bit, and gave him the OARs.

In turn, he passed his own final product to his customer [showing the possibilities in finding the right person[s] in a Contractor sort of way as is often done in reality]. Personally, if I had found all this years ago [when it also was not even around...lol] I might have done something similar.

In any case it shows what people can do when having many regions to play with, that does not actually take that much an effort, but fills them out in cool ways.

[Ruby O'Degee]

I build for one (1) potential visitor, explorer, reader.

Every once in awhile I compile a collage to illustrate the progress of my storybuilds. The builds are in various states of completion and continue to evolve as I build. I rarely think of a build as being finished. With the luxury of 100,000 prims, there goes my compulsion to add the detail I couldn't afford to add (efficiency or cost) anyplace else.

At Kitely you can storybuild an epic with a few tools and tad of imagination.

I write ages/worlds for one "reader." Not for myself, but for the one potential reader who may stop by to enjoy my lateral stories -- told through immersion illustration and exploration text. I rarely set the switch to fly, because I want more control over my environments. To remedy the issue of access, I look to the example of the best storytellers and painters. I need a pathway system into and through my stories (that also direct my readers and create another possibility for control over my large regions).

All of my storybuilds are connected through a hub and story. Since my storybuilds are character driven (like any story or art), each build is connected to the other in some way. The paths look a little different in each build. The same system is used over and over. I write in my paths deliberately, even though some of the paths are added after an initial start. Not every real life village is planned from the start. Most stories are revised. The best stories are revised a lot. The challenge is to find a way to add to a build, while making it look planned from the outset. I am still learning to be successful at that. Like I am learning to be successful at building cohesive worlds that leave an impression(s) on my one potential reader.

Apologies up front to that one reader: Truth is I plan from the outset to add gateways, pathways and detours to all of my builds, but I may not get to their construction until I lay down the 37,000th prim. Since I don't allow for fly (damages the mystery and control over the story). I know its a must to get in these pathways. I will in due time. Lately, I've been laying them first. It takes time to tweak in the flow. I am challenging myself to work in different ways with hills, dales and circular pathways. In rare instances I do allow flying for fairy worlds or space worlds. As a visitor I'd rather not be seeing what I don't need to access. I enjoy being led through a story (linear or lateral) by an author (author and me conversation). Having come from this storytelling tradition (Uru = no fly, but tons of detail), I won't be changing my mind about this controversy for a long while. The good news is at this point there are working pathways available at all 6 builds.

unclewiggly by ddickerson2, on Flickr
My planning that always includes revision adheres to the Uncle Wiggly Design School (young persons will need to look this one up . This school hasn't let me down yet. I daresay my one reader is still deciding whether it is working. At any rate, the following are some of the builds I am working on, and how pathways are used to encourage visitors who stop by.

PHOTOGRAPHY by ddickerson2, on Flickr

1. Oakes Valley - 9 no fly regions, Gateway, bronze brick road that connects every structure and region, soft surface horse trails and bicycle paths that intersect with the hard surface roads. A complimentary bicycle and tour awaits my potential reader. A horse and walking stick tour is being beta tested now.

2. Midtown Arts Museum - Gateway, 4 no fly regions, surrounded by a Far East railroad tracks (ancient artifact). My potential reader can ride a bicycle from region to region. There are "stops" along the way and convenient entry to the many exhibits that make up Midtown.

3. Consortium Park - Gateway, 1 no fly rainforest region (nefarious back story). A walking stick path leads my one potential reader in and through the secret passage build.

4. Brantley Park No. 3 - Gateway, 4 no fly regions (nefarious back story). A walking stick and coming soon packhorse trail up the mountain and down into a cavern. A challenge to terraform, because I wanted the path to be part of the natural terrain.

5. Picture Book - Gateway, 8 no fly regions, and the reader can earn the right to fly in the last fairy tale region. A walking stick path. Fairies live here, so the reader should learn to fly. Flying is a part of the story and the hero story metaphor.

6. Celestial Toymaker Theater - 1 region, no need to fly or use a path. Gateway? Certainly. There is an easy to follow brick walkway that leads the reader into the theater. This build is one of the first storybuilds I've done at Kitely, but the least finished. Gotta get back to it, but its interactively immersive and will take time I haven't had ---yet---.

Using several sizes of canvas is to build on, and writing several chapters that include a different number of pages is an interesting and challenging process, but one I prefer. I dabble here and there. No deadlines to meet. One step at a time it will come together. What's the rush? When I ran out prims and plot in other universes I can only sit there or change out the picture frames. My productivity certainly changed at Kitely and for the better.

The best thing about writing for one reader is that I am not counting on this reader to show up soon, but I build as though I am. There is no pressure to build for someone who doesn't appreciate or understand what I am doing. I wouldn't build if the task created more pressure on me. I build because it dissipates life's pressure all around me.

[Dot Matrix]

I've been on some of Ruby's preliminary bike tours -- they are great fun, especially if you go with friends. Ruby's builds are full of whimsy, colour and story. Even individual items might have a story attached.

[Carlos Loff]

This is the main challenge of all worlds creators - How to keep it alive and you just have to put yourself on the shoes of another regular visitor

What makes you come back to a certain world and spend more and more time there ???

A world is just a blank canvas, as beautifull and detailed as it can be - It will be the events and interactive features/gadgets that will make the difference

The real chalkenge of worlds creators is not building it is runing it

Cheers

[Serenity Sinclaire]

I've gone exploring periodically and the biggest problem I've had anywhere I go is unbearable lag even in Kitely.

I go to the Kitely center and cannot move. I go to any build that has anything on it of interest and cannot move. I went to that badass world with Gulliver's Travels and literally had to turn off my graphics to crap level just to move around, so it's either turn the graphics off and move, or turn the graphics on and cam scan, check it out, crash. On my own stuff it's fine until I start building it up, then I can't move. I've messed with settings until I have no options left and still...cannot move. I was invited to Oopsee's place recently and spent the entire time waiting on things to load, couldn't move and then crashed several times. I changed viewers, same problem.

If there is a real solution that doesn't involve "buy a 1300 computer" I'd sure love to hear it. What I see is that no matter how amazing these worlds become and how much we want to share, the end user is the one who has to experience it and if the only thing they do after the whole sign up procedure, viewer installation, and buying KC is being immobilized amid a gray world of lag, they're going to be done with it and chalk up virtual worlds as a pain in the ass.

I thought the cloud for Kitely solved the lag problem but to be honest I've experienced more lag in Kitely worlds than any time in SL.

All these ideas about events and whatnot are great but before someone can do that, we need a viable, useful way of making sure they can see something that isn't gray lag. Outside the builders and world owners, visitors aren't coming back if they can't do anything.

I have a feeling this very issue is going to become more prevalent as HG brings in new visitors...something's gotta give, here.

Ideas welcome...

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Karensa,

If lowering the graphics settings helps your lag then the problem is with your computer not being fast enough to render the higher settings at a reasonable speed. Are you able to use a different computer to access Kitely and see if that changes the performance you're experiencing? (you can go to the mall and try doing it from one of the computers on display, just make sure you choose one with a good graphics card).

[Serenity Sinclaire]

Yeah it's definitely my machine and I'm getting another one...but that's kind of the non optimal solution, which was my point.

Not everyone is able to do that and some people are going to have less than optimal gaming computers with the latest video cards and CPU power. The majority of end users are still running on low end, inexpensive brand computers in the 4-8gb i7 chip or whatever that they grabbed as a steal from Best Buy for $300 - they're not going to enjoy 4 seconds in a virtual world...because they won't see it

Is it genuinely going to boil down to a trade off of the only people who we can rely on to bother visiting our fabulous worlds and experiences going to just be VR enthusiasts and hard core SLers who can afford half a dozen thousand dollar sims and 1500 a month tier fee who bought the top of the line ASUS or MSI?

One of my project goals is introducing more people from the real world to virtual worlds, through a world build project in a transmedia game that spans multiple gaming genres and platforms...but I'm seriously anxious about building this transmedia world the way I envision it and open the game to the public at large, even Suzie Homemaker sharing LOLcats on facebook who wouldn't know what a prim was even if you dressed it up in a teddy (and probably not even then)...and the game comes to a screeching halt as they go through the trouble to join up, join Kitely, and then can't render anything on a substandard machine.

The question isn't intended to take this off topic, nor a complaint about Kitely, it's legitimately a sub topic for the same issue - who are we building for? Insiders or everyone welcome?

That all said, IS THERE any kind of middle ground solution so they can use their graphics even on a low end and not have to lose the quality of the environment? Is there no coding or scripting or dev that can be done?

All I see, making me want to cry, is "Damn, sorry you can't play my awesome game...maybe go grab a high end computer with a blazing hot graphics card and 1Tb HD first...only cost ya 1500 bucks, but ooooh it'll be worth it when you can see the stuff I spend X months building"

I can't see it.

And Ilan, I promise I wasn't ragging Kitely, you know. It's just been frustrating when I can log in, stay in my own world, and every time I venture out of my sandbox that I can no longer stand to look at, the extent of my travels and adventures is a sea of immbolized gray goo

On a lighter note, for anyone out there setting up roleplay worlds (as am I with a project), if you need a super intelligent NPC for your game to just stand there and dole out info, I'm yer girl!

[Serenity Sinclaire]

PS my current laptop will definitely run OS, it's not that bad...it just grinds to a halt when a big sim with lots of stuff on it has to render...it's a dead stop while everything loads. After caching a bit it settles down but man, that initial trip makes me want to throat punch a puppy