While I’ve been having fun making and remaking landscapes from Star Wars at Furillen, La Digue du Braek continues to attract a huge number of visitors, and its Flickr group has grown to over 550 pictures from 138 members. The standards are high. Here are the recent highlights … and a happy 2017 to all …
“Oh, I told you it was dangerous here!“― C-3PO
After the recreations of Hoth and Tatooine, the holiday Star Wars event at Furillen continues with the landscape people kept asking me about: the Forest Moon of Endor.
This one took a few days, but is my favourite of the three. I’ve always loved forests, having recreated one on a sim I used to have in the sailing region of New England … so I relished building Endor, tree by tree. For reference, I rewatched scenes from The Return of the Jedi and took a close look at the video game, Star Wars Battlefront. In keeping with the latter, I have opted for an autumnal look – the colour palette is more varied and easier on the viewer/eye. I really like the ambience at the sim – and do turn on sounds, because having listened carefully during the Endor scenes from the movie, there is bird life aplenty on this moon.
Endor @ Furillen has some unique pieces: I started building the huge platform as an experiment just before Christmas. I’m not an accomplished builder, but it came together surprisingly well. Having intended to leave it deco-only, I then decided to make it walkable, so do make your way to the top of the platform, walk those gantries and bridges, and take a look inside the AT-AT parked alongside. The doorways were the trickiest bit for me to build, and I’m grateful to KT Syakumi for stepping in yesterday to help out with these. The doors do open – press them twice to make sure.
Then there is the giant satellite dish, which (along with the platform) is an iconic feature of so many images of Endor, such as this one …
Last but not least, there is the Ewok village, which in the video game looks like this …
This wasn’t easy to recreate, but I did my best and even added a rope slide, because … well, why not?
The sim will re-open later today, once I’ve added some final touches. Incidentally, Tatooine is still up in the sky, at least for the time being – just use the TP point next to the main landing point to see it.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the Princess herself …
… of the Star Wars dice.
First I recreated Hoth …
… then it was Tatooine …
… so next it surely has to be …
Endor!
Coming soon to Furillen.
There have been some terrific pictures taken of the sim during the Star Wars event. Thanks to everyone for visiting and capturing the two scenes – Hoth on the ground, Tatooine in the sky – so beautifully. Here are the latest highlights …
What a desolate place this is―C-3PO
Tatooine is one of those places – in fact or fiction – that I see or read about and immediately want to recreate in Second Life. It was the same with Hoth, with Furillen itself, and with those stacks from Ready Player One that are situated at Furillen’s sister sim, La Digue du Braek.
Tatooine is an iconic location. I watched the original 1977 Star Wars movie again yesterday for a more detailed look. It really is an inspiring place – dry, arid and scorchingly hot, a little bit grunge and retro and yet unmistakably not ‘of our world’. The two suns that you see in this famous shot …
… are a crucial part of this, and now you’ll find them at the Second Life version of Tatooine. This is how Tatooine is described on Wookiepiedia:
Tatooine was a planet located in the Outer Rim, a region of the galaxy far removed from its core. It had three moons, Ghomrassen, Guermessa and Chenini. Due to Tatooine orbiting its two suns, Tatoo I and Tatoo II, the planet was oppressed by a scorching climate. The whole planet was covered in harsh deserts, and only a small part of its northern hemisphere could sustain intelligent life. The landscape was covered with sand dunes, mountains, and canyons which made traversing the planet very difficult. Due to the absence of surface water , those who lived on Tatooine had to draw moisture through the dry air.
To be completely honest, I am not a huge fan of the Star Wars movies themselves – but this isn’t the point. You really do not need to be a Star Wars nerd in order to appreciate the stark beauty of Tatooine, and the terrifying scale of those AT-ATs at Hoth. That, in a nutshell, is why I staged this event.
And I have absolutely no idea what I’ll do next …
The Flickr group for pictures of La Digue du Braek has swelled to over 400 images from 112 photographers, reflecting visitor numbers that still average around 300 every day. Here are some recent highlights …
The Star Wars event at Furillen has gone up a level – literally. Adding to the reconstruction of Hoth on the ground, there is now a representation of Tatooine in the sky. All you need to do in order to reach it is TP via the trapdoor at the landing point of the sim, just beneath this sign …
I’ll keep the event going through the upcoming vacation period.
As Furillen-Hoth plays host to a series of troopers, droids and the occasional Princess Leia, La Digue Du Braek has been attracting well over 300 visitors every day. One of the things that always marked out Furillen was that visitors stayed for a while, returned and found favourite spots to sit and hang; and this pattern is being repeated – much as we had hoped – at the sister sim. The warehouse is especially popular, and just like the hotel at Furillen, it’s worth visiting regularly because there will often be new things – unusual things – put out. Check out the sweet Christmas scene with Santa and the snowman on the first floor landing, for example. Stille Nacht …
The Digue flickr stream is growing fast, with well over 300 images from almost 100 different photographers a testimony to the sim’s all-round appeal. Here are some highlights …
It seems that there are a lot Star Wars geeks on the grid – no surprise there. There have been plenty of visitors to Furillen-Hoth so far, many in costume, with one or two rezzing their own vehicles and flying around. I’ve seen quite a few people who haven’t been to the sim before, and it’s good to have some fresh faces around.
I thought it might be good to hold a gathering of the geeks. So welcome to the “younglings, younglings’ gather ’round” Furillen-Hoth Christmas party …
Star Wars costume is essential, of course. But given that there are so many great mesh Star Wars avatars and costumes around on marketplace, and that they are so inexpensive, this is as easy as it gets. We’ll stream some party music – good bits from the movies, of course (who can resist Cantina?) – but with a bit of inventiveness we can add some space-themed music from more familiar Furillen names, like Bowie and Radiohead.
The best pictures so far range from very funny spoofs to beautiful landscapes. Do keep them coming …
