Among the many moments in the 2020 Presidential that left us wondering, "Is this real life?", the topper must surely be the day when the Trump campaign announced a press conference at the Four Seasons... which turned out to be Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a yard improvement company literally located next to a crematorium and a dildo store.
And now, as was inevitable, there's a picture-perfect recreation of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in VRChat -- go here for all your post-election virtual world comedy needs.
Created by "Coopertom" and uploaded earlier today, it's already been visited hundreds of times, he tells me. (And to judge by the video he posted, it pretty much looks like a full-tilt furry convention.) And while I first assumed it was just a 3D diorama using photos of the real life location, Tom tells me he mainly he created it from scratch:
Ha ha ha OMG! The grand debut of Four Seasons Total Landscaping was AMAZING! Thank you to everyone who showed up! pic.twitter.com/2c5KQKQwgC
— coopertom (@thecoopertom) November 9, 2020
"A few things like the hose reel, and fire extinguisher are premade 3d models and a couple of free textures," he allows, "but everything else is made from scratch. I looked at as many pics I could find to get an idea of how big the place is. Then I just started with a blank cube in Unity to visualize the rough size of the building and just built off of that, adding more detail."
The lighting was the thing that made me think it was taken from news photos (see above), because it's a near-exact match. But Unity deserves the credit for that:
"That's just default Unity directional light. I made sure the shadows were at the same angles as in the real pictures. There isn't much overhead since it's a small VRChat world with a single light source, so I just left the lighting realtime. Normally I do spend a lot of time with lighting but I was focused on getting this world out as quickly as possible while everyone is still talking about the event."
This is not even Tom's first VRChat recreation of an Internet meme (UPDATE: Sorry, Blue Lick Road in VRChat was actually made by another furry creator, Ompuco he recreated the infamous Blue Lick Road house last month, for example) and it's striking how quickly he was able to take something from current events and convert it into an immersive space. "I'm interested to see what pictures and video people will take in there," he tells me.
No word as of press time if the crematorium and the dildo store is also there, but hopefully they're added in an update that'll truly make VRChat great again. Because one day your presidential press conferences regularly strike grief and terror across the globe -- and then, suddenly, they're just the inspiration for impromptu furry conventions.
Update, 3:20PM: RE the dildo store: "Not yet," Tom tells me. "I have to figure out a way to tastefully get the sex shop in there since VRChat doesn't allow adult content." (This is where you come in, Second Life.)
Hat tip: Patchouli, because of course:
@slhamlet @epredator @NodokaHanamura @lucagrabacr This is where we are now. furry conventions at the Four Seasons. No, not the hotel. https://t.co/yTkXRYPTBH
— Patchouli Woollahra nee Alia Fairbrooke (@PatchouliW) November 9, 2020
Coppertom is my hero! XD
Posted by: Joey1058 | Monday, November 09, 2020 at 03:34 PM