MunichSL Friends Group will be closed

Group Notice From: Lislo Mensing

We will bring our two Munich anouncement groups together. MunichSL Friends Group will be closed soon.

PLEASE JOIN "Muenchen SL Freunde" now.

http://www.muenchen-sl.de/muenchensl-freunde.html

München ist Community Gateway

Seit 26.1.2009 ist München ein Community Gateway. Das heißt viele Second Life Neulinge landen zuerst in München am Isartor. Schaut daher doch öfter mal zum Isartor und begrüßt die SL Einsteiger.

From today Munich is a Community Gateway. Many newbies will start their SL experience here in Munich. Please come to the Isartor often to greet and assist the arrivals.

Hier die SLURL zum Isartor: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Munich%20City/233/104/41

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Community_Gateway#German

Städtetour auf Koreanisch - Lob der besonderen Art

Heute habe ich in MünchenSL Emily Brentley getroffen. Sie ist eine Koreanerin, die in München wohnt. Sie liebt diese Stadt und sie ist begeistert von unserer virtuellen Version. Mehr noch:

[13:09] Emily Brentley: i wanted to tell you..
[13:09] Emily Brentley: i already made three tours for Korean people.
[13:10] Lislo Mensing: here in munich?
[13:10] Emily Brentley: they were surprised at how well this city is made..
[13:10] Emily Brentley: right..
[13:10] Lislo Mensing: wow, i am deeply impressed
[13:10] Emily Brentley: mabe more than 15 persons.
[13:10] Emily Brentley: i in troduced by myself.
[13:11] Emily Brentley: they enjoyed this tour..
[13:11] Emily Brentley: because they never have been in germany.

Wenn ich höre, dass Menschen unsere virtuelle Stadt begeistert Ihren Freunden zeigen, dann ist das für mich das höchste Lob. Der Beweis, dass wir es geschaffen haben, das München-Gefühl.

Münchens Hinterhöfe

Hallo Freunde,

heute haben wir unseren Geheimen Garten fertiggestellt. In einem Hinterhof unweit vom Sendlinger Tor. Dort könnt ihr relaxen oder auch an einem kleinen Teich angeln.

Hi Folks,

Tonight we finished our secret garden in a courtyard not far from Sendlinger Tor. With place for relaxing and fishing on a small pond

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muenchen/103/77/41

Ralfi Beaumont

Winterzauber am Stachus am 22.11.

Hallo liebe Leute, hello folks

ob wir wollen oder nicht, Weihnachten rückt näher und damit hält auch der Winter Einzug in München SL.

Und weil das ein Grund zum Feiern ist, wird kommenden Samstag den 22. 11. 2008 unsere neue Eisbahn eingeweiht.

Der Münchner Eiszauber am Karlsplatz/Stachus.

Die Einweihungsparty steigt um 20Uhr mit Djane Tiger an den Turntables.

Bringt warme Klamotten mit (Tipp: Nullinger) Schlittschuhe gibt's kostenlos zum aussleihen und Glühwein *lecker* gibt's auch. Lislo "Petrus" Mensing hat Schnee angekündigt.

Wir würden uns freuen euch nächsten Samstag bei uns begrüßen zu dürfen.

Wann: 22.11.2008 20:00 MEZ (11 am SLT)
Wo: Karlsplatz/Stachus (SLURL)

Christmas is coming to Munich SL, too. We will celebrate with the grand opening of the "Eiszauber" at the Stachus. Djane Tiger will take care for hot tunes.

We have free iceskates and hot sprices wine. You just need some warm or even hot clothes (hint: Nullinger). Come and party with us.

When: 22.11.2008 20:00 MEZ (11 am SLT)
Where: Karlsplatz/Stachus (SLURL)

Ralfi Beaumont

Harald Nomad is not member of in-world professionals any more

The Second Life content creator, who's avatar goes by the name of Harald Nomad, worked for in-world professionals c/o FUTURELAB IT-Service GmbH in 2007. He participated in several projects. For months we repeatedly requested him to finally transfer ownership of buildings, objects and scripts he created for us (and has been paid for) which he did only partly and reluctantly conjuring all kinds of excuses. Adding to this he set undue conditions in May 2008, which we said we would meet notwithstanding *after* all objects were transferred. In early October 2008 instead of bringing it all to a good end the man behind Harald Nomad chose to delete all objects and buildings still in his technical ownership in an illegal act leaving ruins and destroyed customer projects behind. Of course he will have to face legal consequences. In addition he has been excluded from all groups and is not a member of in-world professionals developer network any more.

Stefan Weiß, October 2008

Oktoberfest 2008: Give us feedback

Dear builders and artists. The Oktoberfest 2008 is almost over. This is the last evening. Thank you for participating. It was a big fun and a huge success. Thank you again.

If you want to stay in Munich and rent a shop or alike please talk to Lislo Mensing.

Most important, please give us your feedback on the event. What went wrong and what did you like? We want to become better every time. Drop a notecard to Lislo Mensing or send an email to stw@futurelab.de

Thank you. See you at the Christkindlmarkt.

Oktoberfest 2008 in MünchenSL

Willkommen zur virtuellen Wiesn in MünchenSL vom 20.9.-5.10.2008

>> Pressemeldung zur Wiesneröffnung
>> Alle Meldungen mit "oktoberfest"

Termine/Dates

sa, 20.9. 20Uhr / 11pm slt
Einzug der Wiesnwirte/ parade of the octoberfest-hosts
Fassanstich/Ceremonial Tapping of a beerbarrel
Octoberfestmusic "Tiroler Blosn"

MrMulti Writer and DJane Electrix Parx
MrMulti Writer is a songwriter with thoughtful, reflective lyrics adding smooth melodies with flowing harmonie

su, 21.9. 11Uhr / 2am slt
Frühschoppen / morning pint mit der Tiroler Eck Showband

mo, 22.9. 20Uhr / 11pm slt
Seba Sideways live
Saxophone Sensation from Buenos Aires, a real treat for all Jazz Fans

tu, 23.9. 21Uhr / 12pm slt
The Cheerleaders live

DJane Electrix Parx @ Marienplatz

mi, 24.9. 22Uhr / 1pm slt
DJane Claire Engel @ Viktualienmarkt, Artist Area

DJane Electrix Parx @ Viktualienmarkt, Artist Area

th, 25.9. 21.30Uhr / 12.30pm slt
Pillowfish
Pillowfish combine folk traditions, political song, accomplished musicianship, and a distinctive delivery

fr, 26.9. 21.00Uhr / 12.00pm slt
Horacios Allen

Mash Rhode

Michi Renoir
Keyboard and show

DJane Electrix Parx

sa, 27.9. 21Uhr / 12pm slt
Jaypee Platthy
Hip Hop and RnB from England. Jaypee produces soulful music with different influences

DJane Electrix Parx

su, 28.9. 11Uhr / 2am slt
Frühschoppen mit der Tiroler Eck Show Band

su, 28.9. 21Uhr / 12pm slt
Euterpe Queller
She defines versatility with elements of rock, soul, and jazz. Fiery Soul Rock fused with Rhythm and Blues and groove oriented confessions. Distinctive, smoky vocals.

mo, 29.9. 22Uhr / 1pm slt
Swina Allen and the Moodies
Funk and Blues.

tu, 30.9. 21Uhr / 12pmslt
Peregrine Singh
romantic, spacey. A chilly sound to relax and a special experience

we, 1.10. 20Uhr /11am slt
Ernst Edman
Country Rock with a touch Blues at its best. He plays classics and own songs

th, 2.10. 21Uhr / 12pm slt
niles Compton
Great Country Rock. with Niles Compton.

fr, 3.10. 23Uhr / 2pm slt

Reis Alter
Woderful voice with trip hop and electric

ChangHighTrinitySisters Fireshow of Light, Life and Love
The Fire Dancers are in munich, and wanna give a really hot show with dancing and artistic elements.

sa, 4.10. 19:30Uhr / 10:30am slt
DJane Electrix Parx

MrMulti Writer

Bara Jonson
great singer and songwriter. winner of the virtual music award 2008

DJane Electrix Parx

so, 5.10. 19Uhr / 10pm slt
Grand Finale with five hours of live music and fireworks

1750 - 1800 mesz 8:50am - 9am slt Fahnenschwenker
1800 - 1900 mesz 9am - 10am slt DonFranko Dagostino
1900 - 2000 mesz 10am - 11am slt ZZ Top Showband
2000 - 2100 mesz 11am - 12pm slt Anek Fuchs
2100 - 2200 mesz 12pm - 01pm slt RockPianoman Pienaar
2200 - 2300 mesz 01pm - 02pm slt Niles Compton

Kunstausstellungen/Art-Exhibitions @Viktualienmarkt

Nadine Munro
THE SPIRIT OF ART AND MORE, Acryl-Gemälde, acrylic paintings

EdDereDde Laval
NUG - Nude Art Gallery

Nnoiz Papp
Interaktive Soundinstallation / interactive soundinstallation

10 Goosson
M&M Creations, Sculptures, sculptetd Prims

Lemuria Nabob
LEMURIA DESIGNS, different paintings, sculptures, Flowers, www.lemuriaworld.com

Jenne Dibou
Mechanical Toy Factory, sitzende Skulptur / sitting sculpture

Revochen Mayne
verschiedene Skulpturen / different Sculptures

Cienega Soon
Virtual Art www.cienegasoon.com

Yman Juran
ChangHigh Design, kunstvolle Texturen/artistic textures

Holly Loll
Holly Loll Design, 2D Avatare und Szenen / 2D Avatars and scenes

Treacle Darlandes
Kerzen und Skulpturen/Candles and Sculptures

Samiree amat
Samireal Art, verschiedene Gemälde / different Paintings

Asunshine Galthie
verschiedene Bilder / different Pictures

Mr Greggan
Mr Greggans Phun Stuph, amusements & Novelties, Caverite Repulsion Chamber

Michi Renoir
Musiker /musician

Music Hyun
Professional Photographer * p_OO_f * Gallery & Studio

Fahrgeschäfte/Amusements

Marienhof

Boxautos/Bumpercars
Click on the board at the entrance. In the HUD Menu chose a colour and click on Spawn

Bullriding
Einfach draufsitzen und los/Sit on the Bull only

Karusell/Carousel
auf ein Fahrzeug sitzen und auf Schild am Kassenhäuschen klicken / sit on a car and click on the sign at the ticket cabine

Schiffschaukel/ Swingboat
in die Schaukel setzen, dann das gelbe schild davor anklicken./Sit on the swingboat, and click the yellow sign in front of the swing


Marienplatz

Freefall Tower
Auf das Fahrzeug setzen (Ride Free), anschließen aufs Kassenhäuschen klicken/Sit on the vehicle (Ride Free), than click on the ticket cabine


Kanone/Canon
Linksklick auf die Kanone. Du kannst die Kanone drehen oder ihren Winkel verstellen in dem du die Pfeiltasten benutzt. Um zu Feuern drück die Bild(Pfeilnach unten) Taste am Keyboard / Left Click on the canon. You can rotate up and down, left and right. Use the arrow buttons at your keyboard and pageUp or E to fire

Wahrsagerin/Fortune-Teller
Besucht Madam Jacky in ihrem roten Zelt / Feel free to visit Madame Jacky in her red Tent.

Rindermarkt ? Tiroler Eck Stüberl

Riesenrad/Ferris Wheel
In die Gondel setzen und mit klick aufs Kassenhäuschen das Riesenrad aktivieren/Sit on the car and activate the Ferris Wheel with klick on the ticket cabine

Hau den Lukas/Strength tester
Auf das Gerät klicken und im Fenster ?Steuerung festlegen? Ja antworten. Dann so schnell wie möglich abwechselnd Pfeil nach rechts und Pfeil nach links Taste kräftig antippen. / Click on the machine and answer on the blue window ?Steuerung festlegen? with ?ja?. Then you have to click the left and right arrow button in turns so fast as possible.

Messerwerfer/Knife thrower
Eine Person hängt sich ans Rad (mount), die andere wirft mit den Messern aus dem vorhandenen Giver. Zum Werfen in den Mauslook gehen/One Person mounts the disc, the other takes the knifes from the giver. To throw use the mouse view

Karusell/Carousel
draufsetzen, anklicken und genießen/sit on it, click on it, and enjoy

Zeppelin
Rundflüge um die Münchner Innenstadt. Reinsetzen und losfliegen/ Roundtrip around Munich. Sit in and fly

Viktualienmarkt - Künstler kolonie/Viktualienmarkt - Artist colony

Modellautorennen/Model car race
Zuerst setzt du dich auf einen der beiden Sitze. Dann klicke ?Start Race?. 2 Modellautos werden gerezzt. Ein Klick auf eines der Autos öffnet ein HUD Fenster ?Steuerung festlegen? Klicke auf Ja. Jetzt kannst du mit den Pfeiltasten am Keyboard dein Auto steuern/First sit on one of the seats above the model-area. Then click ?start race?.and 2 cars will be rezzed. A click on one car will open a HUD Menu ?Steuerung festlegen?. Click on ?ja?. Now you can control this car
with your arrow buttons at the keyboard and win the race

Cavorite Repulsion Chamber
Klick den grünen Button ?up/down? , der Lift wird dich nach oben vor die Kammer befördern. Dort kannst du eintreten. Viel Spaß/ Click the green Button ?up/down?, the lift will drive you above in front of the chamber. Go inside and have fun

Ralfi Beaumont/20.09.2008
Lislo Mensing/22.09.2008, 24.09.2008, 25.09.2008, 3.10.2008

Eigenes Land besitzen: Oktoberfest-Aktion mit Apfelland

Große Oktoberfest-Aktion!!
(english version below)

In Zusammenarbeit der Oktoberfestleitung und dem Apfelland können wir Dir ein einmaliges Angebot machen! - Wenn Du schon mal ein eigenes Grundstück in Second Life haben wolltest, haben wir jetzt eine günstige Gelegenheit dazu: Freunde des Oktoberfestes können Grundstücke im Apfelland ohne Kaufpreis erwerben.

Bei dieser Aktion fällt also der normale Kaufpreis für ein Grundstück in Höhe von 19,90 EUR weg, nur die monatliche Tier von 4,90 EUR fällt an. Das Angebot gilt für alle 1.024 qm Grundstücke im Apfelland, die direkt vom Betreiber angeboten werden.

Das Einzige was Du tun musst:
- Mitglied der Gruppe "Muenchen SL Freunde" oder "Muenchen SL Friends" sein
- Dir ein Grundstück im Apfelland aussuchen *
- VOR dem Buchen des Grundstücks Kontakt mit den Avataren "Apfelland Waechter" oder "Sliv McLaglen" (alternativ per mail: sliv@apfelland-online.de) aufnehmen, damit diese den Kaufpreis streichen können

Also: feier gut, schön und lange auf dem Oktoberfest und schau danach im Apfelland nach Deinem neuen Grundstück! :)

* Eine Übersicht über die noch freien Grundstücke findest Du auf dem HauptSIM des Apfellandes: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apfelland/170/102/23
... einfach auf eine der gelben Grundstücke klicken, und Du bekommst einen LM zum entsprechenden Grundstück

----------------------------------------

Great Oktoberfest-Offer!

In cooperation between the makers of the Oktoberfest and Apfelland (SL-Community) we are proud to offer you a one-time deal! - If you always want to have your own parcel in Second Life, you have a low priced choice: friends of the Oktoberfest can "buy" parcels in Apfelland without a purchase prize.

So, you don't have to pay the normal purchas prize of 19,90 EUR, just the monthly fee is 4,90 EUR. This offer is for all parcels in Apfelland with a size of 1.024 sqm which are offered by the Apfelland carrier.

What you have "to do", if you want a parcel:
- you have to be a member of the "Muenchen SL Freund" or "Munic SL Friends" group
- find the parcel of your choice in Apfelland *
- BEFORE you "buy" the land, you must contact "Apfelland Waechter" or "Sliv McLaglen" (alternative via email: sliv@apfelland-online.de) so they can delete the normal purchase prize for your booking

So, have a lot of fun here on Oktoberfest, do a lot of party ... and after all take a look for your Apfelland parcel! :)

* An overview for all free parcels in Apfelland you will find on the SIM "Apfelland": http://slurl.com/secondlife/Apfelland/170/102/23
.. just click on one of the yellow pieces on the map, you'll find there, and you'll get a LM to your parcel of choice

Avastar: It's time for beer and dirndls!

BREAK out your beer steins, dirndls and lederhosen - Oktoberfest has hit the grid.

Virtual celebrations to mark the 175th running of the world famous Munich festival will take place until October 5 at the Marienhof at Munich City.

The first keg in the virtual beer tent was tapped on September 20, to begin two weeks of live concerts by some of Second Life's most outstanding artists. More than 10,000 visitors are expected to check out the virtual beer gardens during the festival.

Found at http://www.the-avastar.com/.../its-time-for-beer-and-dirndls/ by Zaphod Enoch

Post your events to the SL event calender

Dear Oktoberfest participants. If you schedule any activities, feel free to announce them at the SL event calendar (MunichSL Building Group members can announce events in ?Muenchen? and ?Munich City?). Go to http://secondlife.com/events/

Ask Lislo Mensing if you have any questions.

Do you want to join the (floats) parade?

The MunichSL Oktoberfest will start tomorrow evening (Saturday 20 CEST, 11 AM SLT) with a parade (just like the Oktoberfest in 1st Life Munich). If you want to join the parade, preferably with a carriage or float, please contact Blueskyoo Inshan in-world asap.

See "Grand entry of the Oktoberfest landlords and breweries".

Banning is okay but ...

... please let me (Lislo Mensing) always know whom you banned and why. I have to enter the name in the estate banning list as well.

If griefers are in Munich please do the following:

1. protect yourself, e.g. sit on a chair, cube or dance ball ;-)
2. send an abuse report to linden lab (see the help menu) - include a screenshot
3. try to kick, ban them ... whatever you like (in the end it doesn't matter)
4. send a message to me (Lislo Mensing, stw@futurelab.de, skype: weiss100)

Please know:
Banning is useless unless you file an abuse report to Linden Lab as well. See this video tutorial how to do it.

Links:
>> Linden Lab Video Tutorial zum Thema Abuse Reports
>> Sicherheitskonzept MünchenSL

MünchenSL zum Startpunkt machen - Make MunichSL your Home in Second Life

German Version

Die Mitglieder in der "Muenchen SL Freunde" Gruppe können MuenchenSL jetzt zu ihrem Startpunkt, zu Ihrem Home in Second Life machen. Das geht ganz einfach:

Auf dem SL Marienplatz gibt es zwei Kreise. Man stellt sich einfach in den linken Kreis (der ist für die deutsche Gruppe) und wählt im Menü "Welt" und dann "Hier als Zuhause" bzw. im Menü "World" auf "Set Home to Here" klicken.

Und scho sammas.

Und wenn ihr schon mal da seid, kommt doch auf das Little Oktoberfest hinterm Rathaus. Wir bauen gerade auf. Und, und, und ..

Englische Version

As a member of the "Munich SL Friends" you now can make MunichSL your starting point, your home in Second Life. This is how it is done:

On SL Marienplatz there are two white circles. Step into the right one (it is the one for the English group). Then select "Set Home to Here" from the "World" menu.

That's it.

Don't forget to visit the Little Oktoberfest in the rear of the Rathaus. We are building right now. Much more will happen soon. See you in MunichSL.

Links:
>> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Muenchen/248/134/41

Vorstellung: Malen Schumann

Hallo, mein Name ist Malen Schumann. Ich bin hier für Events und Kontakte zuständig. Hast du eine gute Idee für München: einen Shop, einen Club, eine Kneipe oder irgendwas anderes. Sprich mich an.

Was gefällt mir nun so an SL? Ich mag an SL die kreative Vielfalt und die Möglichkeit das eigene kreative Potential mal anders als in RL auszuleben und zu erleben. Weiterhin macht es mir großen Spaß interessante Leute zu treffen und deren Ideen zu hören, zu bewundern oder einfach nett zu reden und Spaß zu haben.

Ein gutes Beispiel dafür ist das München Projekt.

Euch wünsche ich viel Spaß in SL und in München.
Malen (man spricht es übrigens Maleeen :-) )

Hi, my Name is Malen Schumann. I am in charge of events and contacts.
If you have a good idea for Munich: a shop, a club, a pub or anything else.
Please contact me.

Why do I like SL? I like the creativity that people express here and the possibilities they have. Further on I love to talk to interessting people and to listen to there ideas (which I often admire), i like chatting and just having fun.

A good example for all this is the Munich Project.

I wish everyone a good time in SL and Munich.
Malen

The Munich Frauenkirche in Second Life

The Second Life version of the Munich Frauenkirche is finished (from the outside). You even can see the towers from Marienplatz, just like in RL. We are going at a fine pace to re-create the Munich feeling. Right now the interior is not done. Are the any volunteers? We big heartedly share workload and fame.

Of course there will a the Teufelstritt and other important features of this extraordinary church. One personal wish I will fulfill are shelves of prayer candles like the ones in Mocha Cathedral.

Builders might be interested in this here ...

Instead of using SL time functions, we set the clock to the server time of the www.inworldprofessionals.com webserver, so we get summertime right. We added a llRegionSay() to broadcast the local time in the format "CET:h:m" on channel 5, once per minute. This allows all scripts in the region to get the local Munich time without any calculations and all clocks will show the same time.

For the domes of the towers we used sculpted prims. Again we had to learn it the hard way that sculpted loose shape when looked at from a distances. That sometimes hurts the eye. We had to do a trick by placing two additional standard prims at the bottom of each dome.

Please give us some feedback on how we proceed. Again we are looking for creative minds that want to contribute to this extraordinary project.

How we proceed

Hi everybody,

cool i have time to write something for the blog. It seems i have a bad hair day today when it comes to do prim work... I just need a break! But in general i have to say its a REAL pleasure to see the project take shape.

I still think the map is a bit crowded but in a way thats also very cool! If you fly low or walk it starts to feel almost firstlife. Good that i liked Tangram so much ... Not as easy as it looks! But not too complicated either ... Anyway the offline prim building tool is working as fast and precise that i hoped. Now we are in need of working on the time it takes to do the textures without reducing quality too much...

I have researched some PlugIns that would help a bit: - http://www.altostorm.com/ for straightening photos and this looks cool too: http://www.luxology.com/whatismodo/imageSynth.aspx for creating special unique seamless textures...

Also: The textures is where the real work is done. It rarely takes longer to build the house than to texturing it. In most cases the texture is the real work (special thanks to Parbie!)! So far we have not cheated too much, meaning useing textures of one house again for another one. But the bigger the library gets the more opportunities arise where it will not be too obvious.

Also the use of the colourize texture feature in sl is very cool! So its a great idea to upload greyscale textures of materials like stone or wood or so on and colourize them in sl! (Parbie this was a very good idea that you are now utilizing this feature more often!) This reduces lag again!

Prim count: Not too bad so far! In some cases the roof needs a lot of prims! This is always the case when the houses floor plan is of an arbitrary shape... (few or no 90 deg angles...) But on average we will get it almost done within the prim limits set.

Kind regards Mental

Sculpties in Munich - Are you a sculptor? Want to contribute?

Sculpties (sculpted prims) are a new way of building in Second Life. They are a special kind of prim. As you know almost everything you see in Second Life (exept for e.g. land, most trees and avatars) is made from basic buildings elements (primitive objects aka. prims) like boxes, cylinders and spheres. To make e.g. a chair you have to put many prims together, squeeze them, bend them, paint them and voila: a chair.

Sculpties are different. Like a bubble gum they don't have a defined form before you assign it in a not-so-easy procedure that includes not-so-cheap 3D-software. That is the bad news. The good news is that you can give it shapes that have been hardly possible in Second Life before. That is in particular useful when you want to make statues or stucco. We will use sculpted prims wherever we can in Munich. Our tests have been very promising.

In addition we are looking for artists how want to contribute to the beauty of Munich SL. We have many famous fountains, statues (e.g. the Mariensäule on Marienplatz, see picture) and buildings in Munich. Thus we invite all you great builders and sculptors to share your talent and enthusiasm with us and recreate for Munich SL what makes public art in Munich RL so unique. In return we share our love and fame. Please IM Lislo Mensing or send me an E-Mail to weiss@inworldprofessionals.com to get more info. I will post more details here next week.

A warm welcome to our international guests

Welcome to "MunichSL", a recreation of the city of Munich in the 3D world of Second Life.

Up to now "our town" reaches from Karlsplatz (Stachus) to Isartor and from Sendlinger Tor to Marienhof. In total 220 buildings including five churches, Neues and Altes Rathaus, Viktualienmarkt, Hofbräuhaus and many other well known landmarks. Complete with galleries, shops and restaurants, clubs and bars. You can visit the town, walk the streets, sit in the cafes, and most important meet other people.

MunichSL is the environment for a lively online community of people who are from Munich or have some kind of emotional link to Munich. While the city is still under construction the community is thriving. Most recently we host the virtual Oktoberfest 2008.

Now follow this link to the German main page of this website. Or just read the English entries that are tagged "english".

This project is a private initiative of the Munich based in-world professionals.

Lag ist unser Feind: Prims vs. Texturen

Lislo Mensing: Lag ist unser Feind. Ob er sich nun in langen Ladezeiten oder niedrigen Frames per Second äußert. Bei einem so umfangreichen und dicht bebauten Projekt wie München SL ist er fast nicht zu vermeiden. Tests auf Momentum I haben nun ergeben, dass die wunderschönen und hochauflösenden Texturen, die wir bislang verwenden, leider zu viel Lag verursachen. Zudem sind sie zeitaufwendig zu produzieren.

Harald Nomad: Sounds like we need to investigate this a little further. With version 1.15 (and the downtime/fixes last Friday) performance has been better than in a long time. Besides the fact that over time things change so much in SL, where the cause of "lag" can have a large variety of causes, certain elements will always have an effect. One cause of "lag" in a region is the use of certain scripts. Does not apply to the Muenchen regions at this time. One more recently introduced cause of "lag" is the distribution of databases. This shows every time you're blocked on your path because a prim isn't shown. If retrieving and transmitting textures are an issue, it will show in a large percentage of grey (texture-less) prims. A problem that was introduced to SL between 6 and 12 months ago, is cache management of the client software. When your cache runs full, performance will go way down. Liaisons have been suggesting to clear your cache often, but that doesn't solve the problem, it just makes it go away for a while. I moved the SL cache folder to a newer, less used harddisk and have little problems since. (Okay, I also empty the cache folder manually often.) Defragmentation may result in a huge improvement of performance as well. I understand that SL version 1.14 or 1.15 introduced a problem with (some) laptops. My laptop is slower than my desktop, but other than that has less problems with SL than ever before (at least till next bug is introduced), so the problem must be specific to certain graphic cards or combination of elements. For a while now, SL downsizes textures at upload time. Older textures may or may not still be stored in higher resolution, but the maximum size of textures in Muenchen is 1024x1024. In combination with the low concentration of those textures within draw distance, this results in minimal impact on performance. Most tileable textures in SL are 512x512, meaning that using 3 or 4 of them instead would already have a larger impact. Compare a popular mall with many vendor boxes. Performance will go down with an increased number of avatars (number of clients linked to the region), and with an increased amount of server intensive scripts. On the other side, the items used in the region will be used (shown to client) more often and therefore become more 'popular' in terms of internal database distribution. A known 'lag' factor in Muenchen are the 256x256m prims. These are temporary and don't hurt too much at the moment. Whatever you experience as "lag" would be good to investigate. If it was as simple as textures or prims, it would have been more generic. Others not experiencing any form of lag is a good indication that problems could have other causes.

Lislo Mensing: Harald, you are right. I use the word "lag" pretty wide as a synonym for "bad performance". (Here four types of lag are discussed http://wastelands.wikidot.com/lag). And, yes, I use a notebook that (despite the fact that it was bought just 2 months ago) is at its limits when I am using it for Second Life. But maybe that's a good indicator for what to avoid. What I realized on Munich and on Momentum is that when i look in the direction of our lovely built and textured buildings the performance goes down from 40 fps to 3(!) fps. And no matter how long i wait it does not go away, before I turn around and look to the direction. I was able to reproduce the effect on Momentum I (without the giant prim on ground and sky). That makes walking the street of Munich a pain already in this early state. I assume that this "lag" is caused by the high number of high resolution textures we use. I am afraid that this will even get worse if we continue building and texturing in the way we do it today. I talked to Ham Rambler (DublinSL) and he said prims cause more lag than textures. Unless the textures are very big. I think he refers to the fact that when you walk through DublinSL these days many buildings in mid distance and far away take up to two minutes to res. They're not just gray or badly textured. They are just "not there". That is awkward as well - maybe more than blurred texture. Mental suggests that we change the way we build and texture our buildings a little bit. Not only to to get a more consistent look (Parbie's buildings are excellent but sometimes too realistic) but to reduce the number of unique high resolution textures. Mental, please explain what exactly is on your mind. Do it here so everyone can read and comment. Please keep in mind that we already agreed on many aspects. In particular on sizes and proportions. What we have to figure out now and fast is a way to reduce the "lag" by heavy graphics while not exceeding the current prim limits. In the meantime we should continue building. But that's another discussion thread.

Mental Raymaker: lag, lag, lag nag, nag, nag Here my five pence to the subject: As we all know there is not one kind of lag but several! Reducing the lag makes sense! We want a great user experience for Munich! But reducing the quality and making it boring, but fast makes no sense!

lag 1) loading time The smaller the textures and the more they are used in different places reduces the download time and time to rez! I hate waiting! Prims take almost no time to download! My guesstimate is 1k = several Prims! A texture in 1024 x 1024 as jp2 can have several 100k (at 80% about 300k this also depends on the actual picture a pure blue picture is probably just 1 k)! 512 x 512 should be a quarter in size but that is not really true as sl compresses 1024 x 1024 heavier then 512 x 512. I tested that myself! If there are about 200 buildings with lets say 3-4 unique detailed textures we get: 200 x 4 x 200k = 160000k = 160mb! Ok sl will only download the textures that are close to your avatar. But this is almost 1 mb per building! Even if you have a fast connection the server load is massive if 50 people are in Munich the server has to deliver 60 x lets say 15 buildings = 700mb! The key is priorities: Lets say you have a house with 16 windows a door and a shop window. The 16 windows can be a tiled texture reducing the size to 12.5 - 25 % without loosing anything! The door can be used on several (lets say 3-5 buildings!) again reducing the overall load by 66-80%)! One or several prims more will not increase the download time! The texture will already be in the cache! The house has some special features like the window or a sign! Cool make that a unique texture! So if you are looking at the street you will see nice houses with a little detail missing that you can examine when you get closer! I will look at every house together with Parbie and we will decide what makes this house special. Is it the structure we might use more prims. Is it a special sign or wall feature we will have a unique texture for that. But the windows and door might be the ones of a different building! Allways keeping in mind the experience of the user! We want details! We want diversity! We want hidden messages! We might sometime want readable signs! We dont need 200 x 16 = 3200 or more different windows so! We dont need loads of different wall textures! We need loads of different Shop Windows! And our stonemason has to produce nice details!

lag 2) local display issues If you have a 512mb graphicscard this is all no issue! Displaying 20000 prims with a total 200mb in textures is no problem at all! sl reduces the tessellation of prims the further you go away! But if you have a 128mb card half of that is taken by windows! And a jpeg of 1024 x 1024 is not compressed the same way any more and takes up much more space The card also has to process all the stuff! The more the smaller the framerate when you move! I would not call this lag it is perfomance... conclusion: Be clever! Reduce without loosing important artistic detail! Five prims more don't hurt especially if you are under the set prim limit for a building anyway! Either tile or use a lower resolution for generic stuff like windows. If there is a special Detail make a special Texture for the Detail. The house will display fast, the detail has the resolution it needs and we still save a lot of total pixesl! So signs and some stonemason work will need an extra prim and a extra texture... I have just talked about this with Parbie and have decided to build the ground floor one prim high. The rest of the house hight will be another prim. This way we can have medium 0.5 pxl per cm for the groud floor and sml 0.25 pxl per cm for the upper floors. If there is a detail in the upper floors like a special stonepicture or a gargoyle or so, that will get an extra prim in high resolution 1pxl per cm which is still a small texture as it is a small detail. The same goes for the ground floor if there is a special sign that needs to be high res for readability we use an extra prim for that and dont increase the resolution of the rest. We have talked about the buildings she had done and found out that we could save this way about 70% of texture size without loosing any artistic feeling or important details! Parbie is doing a house the way i discussed with her right now. Its No 311. Lets see how this will look!

Shrunk to perfection

How to place the 1,5 km by 2 km city centre on a 0,5 km by 0,25 km island in the virtual sees of Second Life? Well, you can't. But you can try and this is what we did:

We marked the buildings of the more important streets, reduced the whole model by 25% and turned everything by some 15° counterclockwise. Then came the painful part. We had to take out many buildings to make the rest fit. But more important was to preserve the "Munich feeling".

Our aim is to create a model of the city that gives people who know the city or even live here a warm feeling of being at home. To create a home for those who live in Munich or would love to.

And people who get to know Munich only from Second Life may come one day to Munich in
RL and say "hey this place looks just like in Second Life".

2nd region delivered: Muenchen

Now the estate consists of two regions: "Muenchen" and "Munich city". The first to the west, the latter to the east.

Huge and oh soo small

Now that the region is flat (thanks to Melina Loonie) it looks huge. Nevertheless we are struggling to get at least the most important buildings on this tiny piece of land. Right now there is no place for important buildings like the Hofbräuhaus!

I am right there in the middle. Can you see me?

Munich City has arrived

Yesterday evening the mail finally arrived. "Munich city", the region for the upcoming "München SL" project was created and is ready available. Quickly I teleported to my new island, walked and flew around. It will never look like this again: