As those of you who follow fashion – and, indeed, the Peace on Earth treasure hunt – will doubtless know, today is the day of the Miss Virtual World contest, to be held in the Patch Thibaud Auditorium under the aegis of Frolic Mills (see end of this article for time details).
And I shall be there, admittedly not primarily as a fan of beauty pageants – although I must confess to a certain interest in the “40 never-seen-before couture gowns” that will be on display. My bank balance will be spared too many depredations by the knowledge that a lot of Second Life couture makes me look like an itinerant bag lady with a strong penchant for spirituous liquors.
No, my real interest here is the stunning build that has been created, and the clever way that it is constructed.
Many readers will be familiar with the Galaxy, the three sim long cruise ship that I’ve written about several times. This new build actually goes further, as it is a four sim build – and it’s all done to create the most impressive live venue in Second Life.
Many of you may remember the central auditorium at the SL5B Birthday celebrations, which was built at the intersection of four sims to maximise the potential for audience attendance. I think the builder was Prad Prithivi – and it was a very clever piece of work.
But this new build takes that idea and runs with it, creating a fantastically complex and detailed build that is quite breathtaking.
Now, I’m sorry but as one needs to convey the breadth of the place, the photos to accompany this are going to be a little oddly shaped. Bear with me, please – and do go and see the full size pics on Flickr.
Think of the theatre as being set diagonally over four sims. So it is not four squares placed together, but four diamonds. This gives the distinct advantage that each area can operate separately and yet be united – the lag in one area will have no impact in another.
In the case of the Patch Thibaud Auditorium, three of the sims will act as auditoria, while the fourth area will be the stage. This means that any lag in an individual auditorium (which seems almost inevitable, with the seats being filled with fashionistas in the prim-rich finery) will not affect the stage area. This is, one hopes devoutly, a huge advance on the old laggy fashion shows where one frequently has the greatest difficulty seeing anything because the lag dictates that the gowns fail to rezz.
Presumably, the stage area will be locked down so that no-one can enter unauthorised. I believe too that the central section of the auditorium will be locked down to judges and invited guests; this will also help to run the risk ovf overloading two key sims – where the contestants will be, and where the judges will be. And there certainly could be a large audience – an invitation has gone out with every copy of the phenomenally popular Peace on Earth hunt, which I talked about a few days ago.
Another interesting part of this design is that there is actually a false wall between the audience and the stage area. I first became aware of this when I was on the stage area and looking out. I must admit I was a little puzzled as looked out over the auditorium and noticed that the focus wasn’t as sharp as I would normally expect. It was only as I started to move and flew out that I realised that there was in fact a phantom wall between stage and auditorium that was transparent on one side, and showed a texture of the auditorium on the other – i.e. the view from the stage. I assume that it’s there to prevent stage invasions – but I’m less clear why only one side is transparent. Is it because the presence of an audience and the judges might prove distracting to the contestants?
The stage set is spectacular in the best traditions of showbizz razzadazzle and razzmatazz and lots of other words with double ‘zz’s. I must admit, I couldn’t resist slipping into a suitable frou-frou frock from Ivalde and parading down the stairs – I haven’t seen such a good staircase for flouncing down since Baron Grayson and Sue Stonebender pulled down the glorious Opera Populaire. A very different build of course, but another amazing staircase!
So, I intend to be at the Patch Thibaud Auditorium later today, and I would urge you to come too – to see the build and to see how well it responds to a large crowd of avatars!
And I believe there’s a contest going on as well!
Miss Virtual World at the Patch Thibaud Auditorium:
WHEN: SATURDAY DEC 6TH 2008
TIME: 10:30 AM SLT
UPDATE: I believe changes may have been made to the stage set, which no longer resembles the one I posted in images here.
Prim Perfect 
I suspect the wall is to create texture occlusion for the models: If they can’t see the audience, their SL clients won’t need to be downloading and drawing all those avatars in their varied textures.
I have to be honest, I think the build is garish. It’s hard and the textures poorly done.
It reminds me of early websites with black backgrounds and blue accents.
Overall, a very cold build and not one I feel is successful in terms of architecture or style.
Actually, I think that’s a little hard on it – I found it a long way from early websites!
I thought the textures worked quite well, and the feel of it to me was that it was impressive in a modernistic style. I wouldn’t put it as my favourite theatre in Second Life, but as a building I thought it was very successful in accomplishing what it set out to do and with some verve.
That being said, I didn’t have a chance to visit the re-designed stage. It was tighter than the one I saw – and certainly better adapted for last night’s show (those fire dancers were spectacular!) but I did miss the crystalline Busby Berkeley staircase!
I’d be interested in hearing the thoughts of other people who’ve visited the theatre,
Gelinita you must be one hell of a builder to make a comment like that, would love to see your work!
As for me, I found it very beautiful Art Deco style and totally successful use of prim work and textures.
The staircases are to die for and the inside is totally warm and fabulous!
Let me know where I can see your work Gelinita