Kiku*Craft

Gallery: Florida Trip

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:57:49 +0000

Hello from the sunshine state! As advertised, plenty of sun here! A quick visit to my old haunts included a cruise from the St Petersburg Sailing Center, where many days were spent as a kid, tooling around Tampa Bay with a little racing dinghy like this. What a wonderful way to forget about your troubles, spending quality time with special friends and family! Happy Mother’s Day! Can you spot the squirrel eating grapefruit in the tree? Smart guy. This season’s fruit is very sweet!

Video: Space1999 on Kingdom of DeMolay

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:00:40 +0000

I couldn’t resist this – Eagle 1 and Moon Base Alpha from Space:1999, a late 70′s TV Show. Showing some of the vastness of the 1:200 scale Lunar Surface Model in the Kingdom of DeMolay;

Gallery: Moon Set resources

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:28:35 +0000

These are all the heightmap images I could find on the web, for data regarding locations on the moon that can be reproduced in the Kingdom of DeMolay:

Gallery: Kingdom of DeMolay Luna Megaregion

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:55:57 +0000

At long last, we have arrived on the Moon! NASA DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data was used to create accurate height maps. The data provided is 7 meters per pixel, so scale is a bit off (approx. 1m:50m), a bit like a table-top simulation of a large part (5km square) of the lunar surface. This is an expansion of an earlier single-sim project of the same surface elevation[video here]. 1/8th gravity means this turbo-charged golf cart gets big air! Tons of fun can be had trying to jump across the many craters and basins.
Represented here are the Anderson, Freudlich, and Buys-Ballot craters on the South Pole of our celestial companion.

A Challenge: There is one source of water found in this landscape. Find the water, and you have a source of Hydrogen and Oxygen to power the life-support systems for a Lunar Habitat!

Update: I found this curious video of a lunar landscape simulation with activities for NASA Education in SL (Oct. 2009).

Gallery: Wildstar Beaumont

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:46:11 +0000

A nice surprise greeted me when I browsed to http://www.scoop.it/t/second-life-good-stuff – I found this pic taken near Fastnet Rock:

Gallery: St. Charles in SL™

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:47:27 +0000

Ok. I keep seeing things I want to improve, and the last set of pictures provided lots of comparisons with the photos of the real place. Presented here is the result. Can you see any improvement?

Gallery: New Toulouse updates

admin — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 05:00:55 +0000

New Toulouse St. Charles Sim has been scheduled for an exhibit of the Kiku Klassics, and some new work, based on the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. A special nod to the local folks out there in Far Rockaway! The photo shows the original in 1914. This will form a gallery space and welcome area for the surrounding sim. Also during this time, a re-building of some lighthouses will take place - my SL work in 2006 – these classic builds will be given a retrofit using the newest techniques and tools available. Thank you to Steadman Kondor and the New Toulouse Estate for this wonderful invitation!

Video: Primsploding Mont Saint Michel

admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:54:46 +0000

Gallery: New Toulouse St. Charles in SL

admin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:47:04 +0000

Virtually, there has been a lifetime since the Casa Cautino, the governor’s mansion of Guyama, or the luxury of Longue Vue House was last rezzed in SL. These originally were located on a single sim of their own, now with parts and pieces scattered about the harbour of St. Charles in Second Life. The Casa was a test rez, now packaged into a rezzor and can be re-deployed on demand, and now work begins to create the Longue Vue sim in a single rezzor, all the while reducing the prim count using current technology available (Convex Hull prims).

Gallery: Open House Sundays in the Kingdom

admin — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:15:08 +0000

Hello and welcome to newbie Sunday, part of the ongoing effort to make it easy to get help for new users in the Kingdom of DeMolay grid. This virtual world is based on OpenSim which is an open source computer application for hosting Massive Multiuser Online communities. What I like about the Kingdom is the experiences are many and varied, with attention to detail given in the showcase mainland sims.