Friday 18 May 2007

Up the Amazon - Part II

I've been meaning to return to the Amazon Developer Islands for a while, having said there were a number of things I'd missed out on my first posting. However, having been back I think I actually managed to capture the key features first time round. That said, it is a site that repays repeat visits - so here is a brief outline of some of the stuff I missed or forgot first time around.

One feature that many people will not have spotted is the bridge that crosses over to the hovering meeting areas. Why won't they have spotted it? Well... because it isn't there. Or rather, it isn't there until you start walking across the river. Then, as if by magic (or, more likely, cunning scripting) the bridge creates itself as you walk across. I'm not sure how long it stays around once you've crossed, but it's a neat trick. Choose the right place though, otherwise you will end up with wet feet.

Elsewhere, you can pull a lever to raise a set of stepping stones (the script problems have now been resolved!) to cross the narrower river stretches.

I didn't mention it first time around, but there are a number of meeting and presentation areas on the island, sized to suit your requirements. There is also a private zone which (I believe) is underwater, though through clever use of light and texturing it looks like you are in a bone-dry viewing chamber.

There is also what looks like a large sandbox, set in an old Aztec/Mayan/Incan/dunnowhat fortress. At least, that's my best guess given (a) I can't access it and (b) it's full of non-Amazonian crud.

No pictures this time around - sorry.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The self-creating bridge might sometimes suffer from "differential" lag :-) a weird expression meaning that the sim lag would delay differently the bridge rezzor and the walking avatar so that the poor avatar ends into the sea (beware of sharks !).

Let's say it's feature and not a bug : totally safe trips are pretty annoying I think :)

The bridge parts are temp rezzed so that they'd stay around about a minute.

The sandbox is not set with proper privs yet. I believe it will shortly come.

Thanks for your review :-)

Josh the Wolf