The Tale Of The Tails

I finally got done putting together vendors for my line of simple mermaid tails, and a mer AO.

The tails come in a variety of colors, but any of them can be tinted however the owner wants. Personally, I like the basic silver one the best: the problem with adding a shading color is that the color changes with lighting.

The AO is based on the ZHAO II, with three buttons added for Go to Surface, Hold Depth (which doesn't work while moving), and Dive to Bottom. The Surface button in particular is handy, saving me having to creep up on the surface without erupting out of the water.

I've been running across the "artifact" problem in Windlight, even at the store. It seems to get worse the longer you're signed on. I've reported it to LL, who assigned it the ID [rt.lindenlab.com #1028625]. Nobody else seems to be reporting this bug, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with my particular graphics card (ATI Radeon 9550 AGP). It's bad enough that I don't stay in Windlight for long; unfortunately, because I love the new water.

A Whole New World

So LL has released Winlight in a beta viewer after several months of Banging On Things. All I can say is: Wow. Just... Wow. Go download it now; especially if you're a mer. The water is amazing!


I ran into one bug that I've already reported: some graphics artifacts show up at Mertopia (Blake sim). I suspect it may have something to do with all of the sculpties they have there, but I don't have the problem at the new Mermaid's Dream location*, which has a couple of sculptie rocks, and which is backed by the neighbor's huge wall made up of sculpties. So maybe it's something else particular to Mertopia. Hopefully they'll figure it out without too much trouble.


* Notice how I managed to slip in a plug for the store...

Moving Up

I talked Minto into biting the tier bullet and buying some more land in Arianti; I supplied the Lindens for a 1024 plot, so he wasn't too hard to persuade. So I've moved Mermaid's Dream there, and am enjoying the luxury of the enlarged space and prims. I think I can make the shop look much more attractive and professional now.


Now I need to get ambitious and finish up the new products that I've been toying with for so long. I've come to prefer the tail(s) I designed, and pretty much wear one exclusively when I decide to put on fins.


Then there's the AO; based on the ZHAO II with a few value-added features. I would want the AO available to go along with the tails; for convenience, seeing how the tail outfits will be aimed mainly at new mers. And there is still a big market for mer dances and other animations, so that's another thing on my to-do list.

Mertopia

There is now an entire sim dedicated to merfolk and other aquatic types! Mertopia was created in Blake by sim owner EmeraldEver Cline with help from Secrets of Atlantis Queen Luna Misfit, and is officially open as of Nov. 3 after two years of planning and hard work.


The top portion of Queen Luna's Palace is on the left in the picture above.

This will be a roleplaying sim for Secrets of Atlantis. It should be fun!

Avaria Kro Panorama

No reason for this other than it's a fantastic build...


Be sure to click on the image for the full-size version.

Let's Face It

This seems to be the thing to do in SL blogs these days. Oh, well -- I don't mind being compared to Heather Locklear. Or even J. K. Rowling, for that matter.