Sector 52 - The City of Daemonum / The Underground

CityOfDaemonumLogo

Promised a few people that I'd finally post about this, but yes, I've moved (again, for the 5th time) to a cool new location finally of my own and for various reasons, this is a special sim and I'll tell you why.

Before I do though, I wanted to clarify some of the things/names here, being Sector 52 is the second installment with in the Cyver Universe, although I'm not relating this as such, but it does take place before Sector 13, The City of Abaddon was built.

Sector 52 is basically going along the idea of a central hub, powering surrounding sectors as the main energy source to most of the world, or what's left of it. Going from there, the story tells of the government known as the Covenant of State and then proceeds into a whole mess of crap that I cant be arsed going into lol.

Okay, the reason for moving is for one reason, that I really wanted to expand and with Merricks Landing 2, I could never of done what I intended to do here, which is, build a community. Depending on how this goes, I really would love lub, luv to maintain a small, cool designed mini grid, but again, I'll have to see how it all unfolds.

Anyways, heres the special parts:

This is an OpenSpace Sim.
Yup, thats right. OpenSpaces, if you've been out of the loop are a new region type, unfortunately only open to people who already maintain a regular type sim. Although, you can easily buy your own through various companies in SL that are resident run. The sims themselves are four to a server and only allow 3750 prims per OpenSpace, which, at first glance, is a little daunting. But the cheapnessnessness of these sims will bring in people wanting to create their own small little patch, they can call their own and still brag about how big they are... The sim I mean.

This I really saw as an opportunity to try and create something that looked far from 3750 prims and make a sim like any other... but with a bit of D&D flair :) .

Reflecting on your Path.
I've tried a newish thing. I love the reflections in the water, and reflections is something I've done for a long time in SL, with various things, from my wife's apartment to the Funda Company's half sim ski lodge. So with the reflective feature, I decided to take advantage of it and make all the roads/alleys appear as if they were flooded or heavy rained upon. I do intend to add rain particles, but it depends on how it all runs together.

Less is More.
Tons of the great new Huge Prims that I've acquired from a keen programmer type, hes actually made a great tool namely Salt, that is a huge prim server filled with 15,000 variations that you can request through the Salt HUD. Fantastic little device, holds more than enough sizes to suit any need, be it for tubes, cylinders, cubs and sculpties, you're sure to find what you need for prim conservation.

This helped a lot with the sim design, I really could not of created this without the aid of these prims and as you'll see when you walk around Daemonum, you can see street lights, columns, structures, arches, gargoyles all made from sculpt prims for even more details without the cost of primmy builds.

The art of Texturing.
I'm a bit fan of reusing textures and what I like to call OMNI texturing, as its not quite texture zoning in SL, as to a pain in the arse if you can be bothered lol. But, I like to create 'Strip Textures' too, which help out considerably with the recycling of the same texture, but making it look completely different.

Strip Texturing is what it sounds like, you create a 1024x1024 (If need be) and create different seamless strips from end to end. You can fit a variety of strips on the one texture, depending on how thin/thick they are, some of my main ones hold several. Then, all you do form here is apply them in various ways. They work well on sculpties, also tubes/torus shapes and long column styled cubes and cylinders. Best way is to play!

The Sky is Falling!
Woot, I can finally make use of Windlight and custom water ideas, which am loving with Hi-Def. Completely irrelevant, but I'm happy as punch.

Flux-Capacitating.
Be sure to check out Flux whilst you're wandering, Acid Zenith has come a long way in such a short time on the sculptie scene. He's been creating some amazing designs with the use of specular material shading in Maya. Considering about a month and a half ago he was asking me to create shapes, I'm now asking him lol. He seriously has come with leaps and bounds and for that I commend him, he really does deserve recognition for what he has done.

Expanding your Expansion.
Hopefully, when everything has been finished and sorted, I'll be expanding the sim into a further 4 sims, creating residential and also commercial areas for people to rent and vend through unique buildings, rather that the normal malls you see spotted around SL, I want this to feel more of a metropolis, with a great community for people to come and live, play and have activities in a lush environment, without the eyesores of pink buildings with rotating advertisements.

Anyways, check out Sector 52 - The City of Daemonum @ The Underground Sim, and to wet your appetite, heres some more piccies.