A SEARCH FOR FLYING SLURLS

OK, I'm tired of just ranting about this to random Residents and Lindens at SXSW, so I might as well throw it out now:

"If I could fly in real life, I would not:  walk on streets or sidewalks, climb up stairs, ride in elevators, walk through doors, or travel in aircraft unless it was somehow more special than the way I already fly.  So why is 99% of the architecture in SL designed as if we still had to deal with gravity, and doesn't incorporate the magic that we're able to fly?"

So I'm searching for places in the world where there's no reason for you to touch the ground.  Post suggestions here or on my forum thread, and I'll start winging my way to them soon as I'm back from Austin.

Comments

[Gregor J. Rothfuss]

someone recently pointed out to me that there is a guy making a living as a virtual UPS driver in second life. which makes me wonder why people cling to metaphors from the physical world and don't dare to think up new ways more? certainly fodder for many a study..

[Kami Harbinger]

As I noted in my blog:
http://kamiharbinger.com/index.php?entry=/secondlife/20060220_1219_AmericanDream.txt

There's nothing wrong with building "real" architecture that you want but can't have. It's pleasing to the human eye (and to the trans-human eye, too). It's what your brain has spent a lifetime learning to recognize. If you stay someplace completely alien, you will forever suffer vertigo and feel out of place.

I note that your own building is quite Earthlike, and you had to use a poseball to simulate a type of physical motion that doesn't exist in SL, fighting against the reality of the world.

On top of that, flight is much too fast for accurate maneuvering in tight spaces, so walking on flat surfaces with ramps or stairs between levels is a very practical way of laying out a building if you don't have unlimited land to waste. If one could fly in FL, but would run into walls or people a lot, it'd be foolish not to walk most of the time.

[Elde Eponym]

Indeed. Flying is great for exploring but it is useless for moving about a building. (Unless the building is very carefully designed for flying, Pixeldolls new building is the sole example of that which I know of.)

If someone came up with the *opposite* of Cubey's Speed HUD - it would revolutionize moving about the Grid.

[Brace]

I was laughing when I read this, because its been a constant "struggle" with my literal minded genius Partners when we do collaborative builds.

I'm happy to have a swing hanging from nothing, but I have to manouver a tree next to it and make sure the tops of the ropes look as close to possible like they are hanging from a branch.

Stairs or columns (supports) for a build I'd just as soon have hover all cool-like in a few meters above the ground.

I do remember back in 2004 reading on the forums a few folks complaining about "buildings that hover without decently being on the ground, or not having any visible supports." ;)

There is a sense of comfort in the familiar, and with my perfectionist Partners, a build "has to make sense", but I'm still in the camp where creating at least flying access especially in retail or entertainment establishments "makes sense" to me.

As Grey Mars and I are reduced to having only 512m each, we've done nothing remarkable, but our "rooms" are underwater off the (eastern?) coast of Lakeville sim.

I look forward to seeing some interesting builds, and remember to look down, underwater as well as up in the air. I remember there used to be a whole club that was ocean themed, and completely submerged. cool :D

[Lauk]

Even as someone whose own builds tend to be very grounded I completely agree with you. But I think a lot of the problem is the very way in which SL is designed. As a 2 dimensional landmass. Especially in private islands ... If only we could get rid of the ground, specify our own textures for the skybox and change the physics constants. As it is LL encourages everone to build on the ground by making the place so very much like an RL landmass. You can build in the air of course, and you can put a textured box around the build to give the illusion of seperation from the grid, but the ground is always there pulling you away from the immersion of a truly fantasy build....