Beached

I'm currently traveling, and all I have is my laptop. It's not a gaming machine by any stretch of the imagination. It's about 18 months old, with an Intel 945 display processor. When I purchased it, I had not intended to use it for SL. I later found, however, that SL would indeed run on it, even with a feeble display system. Cool.

But as you can see above, the rendering is orders of magnitude inferior to my desktop, which produced the vast majority of the lovely pictures seen in my flickr. Although I'm running a Windlight-enabled viewer (either KirstenLee Cinquetti's S16 or the CoolViewer hosted by Boy Lane), the graphics just don't compare to what I can see on my desktop, which sports an nVidia 8800 GT video card.

One positive thing that I have noticed, however, is that it is much easier for me to see under the water. I can see the contour of the land much, much better, and the objects there too, especially particle-based images. I had no idea how many shipwrecks I had passed in the week that I started sailing, until I went for a sail while using my laptop. And check out all the jellyfish!



I really have to commend the moles and LDPW for the work they've done with the seas. They are fascinating, extremely interesting places and you can literally spend days looking around and weeks to explore it all. If they can get newbies involved in such projects, they will have a real winner in terms of retention. They need to make it clear that they can pick up a decent cheap or free sailboat and get on the water. Maybe some cheap scuba gear too (I have to get some now!).

The SL world is an increasingly marvelous place and I'm happy to be a part of it. I am thinking about putting together a casual sailing group, akin to the Mowry Bay Cruising Club, for my tenants. Maybe I'll make it broader than just my tenants, but for now, it would include my tenants. I'm checking into whether or not there is any interest. If it's strong enough, I may even hire someone to organize an event or two per week. I think that would add value to their stay, and help create a greater sense of community.

Right now, people don't really interact much. They have their homes, and sometimes they make friends with their neighbors. If we can use something like sailing to start generating ties that bind, I think that we would be bound for something really great and it would truly enrich our SL experiences.