Deep space office

I wrote a few days ago that I had completed a new combined office and studio and set it around 500 metres above my first land. I can't believe how quickly it went compared to when I was just feeling my way through building. At one point, I realized, OMG, I'm done! It felt as though there should have been more to do.

As you can see, I did modify the original design of two linked cylinders. That just wasn't going work or look good. I ended up creating two half cylinders linked by straight walls, with roof overhangs. I think it still looks a bit space-station-ish, certainly more so than the old design, but it does give me some flat walls to work with—not to mention a few more square metres of space!

The entrance faces south now instead of north, and directly above that entrance is a tiny apartment. That's not what you see when you go in, though. The downstairs entrance leads into my photo studio, which is totally nothing to look at, but that's how photo studios are. I change the backdrop to various things, but the rest of the room is quite nondescript.

A rubber-covered ramp (possibly a bit steep for a wheelchair) leads from the studio to the office in back, which faces north. I finally sprang for some matching furniture. It's quite low-prim but looks decent, and it has pose balls so I and my clients can sit with more ease than before. I do need to make those lamps look better, though, or else buy some. The office-studio itself is made of only 18 prims, which is actually one less than my old office alone. I still have something like 38 prims remaining after doors and furniture and artwork and such.

I modified a sliding door script to fit my needs for both the front door and the door to the apartment. I figured that a space station needs sliding doors, like in Star Trek. I'm currently trying to upload the Star Trek door-opening sound (or maybe the Deep Space 9 sound), but Second Life is very fussy about the sampling rate. Every door sound I've found so far was done at too high a rate! I'll keep working on that, though, because it would be cool to have Trek doors. Doors that don't make any sound when opened and closed aren't nearly as much fun.

As you can see above, at 500 metres above sea level, there isn't really anything to view from the apartment. Great for seeing the sun and moon rise and set and for seeing the stars, though. I have finally managed to get some "elbow room," as Daniel Boone said. He liked it best when neighbours were several miles away.

[Addendum: Woot! I got the door sound working, thanks to software from a company called PolderbitS, which I use to convert analogue material (such as music on old cassette tapes) to MP3 files. Turns out it saves .wav files as 44.1Kbit/sec files, which is exactly what SL was looking for. So now my doors sound like the ones in the original Star Trek. I love it!]