International Spaceflight Museum Update: SL Sims Get Full Funding by Donor, Volunteers Promise Site Revamp

More good news for SL's International Spaceflight Museum, which was returned to the grid last meek after unpaid bills, community outcry, Linden intercession, etc. "The ISM has received a pledge of FULL ISLAND FUNDING for both Spaceport Alpha and Spaceport Bravo," longtime museum volunteer Katherine Prawl (Kat Lemieux in SL) tells me. The donor wishes to remain anonymous (for now at least), but "The funding doesn't have a termination date." So for now, it seems, the International Spaceflight Museum will again become a regular part of SL.

However, this doesn't mean the ISM will continue to look as it did in 2006-2007, when it was first created. Many have pointed out that the site, while a historical landmark in SL, is also showing its prim and script-heavy, pre-sculpty, pre-mesh age, But Kat tells me that it's starting to be revamped in the run-up to its official re-opening next month:

"Revamping will include removing extraneous prims and scripts, replacing those that are considered desirable with updated versions," she says. "Many objects predate sculpties and mesh, and we can save a lot of prims by replacing them. Older scripts might be less laggy if updated, too. We are adding some new exhibits, and over time we'll replace those for which we don't have written copyright licenses and full SL permissions." Sounds like a second life for the International Spaceflight Museum in both senses of the term.

Tweet

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

The theme of such a sim lends itself to mesh - letting them make some futuristic buildings.

But they're going to find mesh's "Land Impact" is determined by the size you -rez- an object at; so mesh is -NOT- ideal for large builds. In fact its not even good to use for the scale that is common among Second Life avatars.

A scale difference of 40% - going from say; a build meant for a 5'6" avatar to one meant for the usual 8' avatar - will also add 40% to the "Land Impact" cost, sometimes more.

- Or inversely, going the other way and taking a mesh building or vehicle made for typical avatars and scaling it down for a 5'6" avatar, will shave off 40% of its "Land Impact"...

- If ISM goes mesh, but goes for the large scale avatars, they'll run out of prims before they're done. Scale down, and they'll have room to spare for people to rez smaller-scale vehicles or whatever...

[Lani Global]

Hopefully, in the glee, the ISM won't forget the mantra:

Back up early.
Back up often.
External site.

Best Wishes,
Lani

[rikomatic]

this makes me so happyI Long live the International Spaceflight Museum!

[Moni Duettmann]

I still like looking at things made of prims in the original way. People back then developed amazing ideas to get things done despite the limitations the prim had. In a way prim building deserves being kept in museums as well. Replacing the original builts with modern meshes and sculpts may be good for the performance of the sim, but it's a bit like replacing the original pyramids with concrete replicas.

[Stone Semyorka]

This is very, very good news!!