Saturday, September 28, 2013

Reworking the Temple to the Volcano Goddess

View From the Redesigned Temple to the Volcano Goddess Pele

It's great to again be working on a computer that has the horsepower to handle Second Life. I've been working on my laptop, which renders SL just fine but which won't let me cam or build, so I've had little to blog about. Now I'm at Sweetie's house, on her desktop and can more or less operate.

A long time ago I set myself the task of reworking the erupt mode of Whimsy's resident volcano, Pele. After all, when one hosts Second Life's best volcano one must be eternally vigilant lest some mesh volcano come along and steal one's thunder.

Pele has four states: Extinct, Dormant, Active, and Erupting. I made scripts to coordinate the lava flows and the rocks in the caldera; now they, too, reflect the volcano's mood.


Pele is Extinct. The Lava is Cold and Solid, and There's No Smoke, Fire, or Sound
Pele is Dormant. The Lava is Semi-Solid, and There's no Smoke, Fire, or Sound
Standing in the Caldera of the Extinct Volcano Pele
Looking Down at Pele in Active Mode
The Lava is Molten When Pele is Active, and There's Smoke, Fire, and Sound

Ever since we moved to Whimsy I've been unhappy with the temple. It's positioned too high above the caldera to see the action, and yet short of lowering the mountain or moving the temple across the caldera there's not much that can be done about it. Sweetie gave me some suggestions for redesigning the temple for a better view, and even made a model. Yesterday I used that model to redesign the temple-- and the view is much better.

This Addition to the Temple Makes For a Much Nicer View of the Lava Pool