New Kraken Wars Chapter published!

Friday is Kraken Wars Day! Read the 2nd part of Jack Tracker's  epic steampunk story at the official Drow Science Blog.

Professor Wickentower's Transmissions through the Aether - Part 4

Dear readers and everyone else who visits this blog,

it is a very special pleasure for me to publish a new episode of the Professor's Transmissions through the Aether. Today it is a quite mysterious one, but don't be afraid: you are in good hands here. So get yourself a warm drink, take a seat next to the fire and listen to the Professor's words through your receiving device:

As the winter nights draw in, I am reminded of a tale I once heard, while sheltering from a most tempestuous storm....
During the worst storm to strike the far off lands of Mirrormere, a most isolated region, which is a vast lake surrounded by jagged peaks and pitted with shadow filled valleys, a Dirigible bound for Never drift, found itself caught up in the 'Krakens breath' a term used by the Aethernauts of Old New Gate, meaning a storm strong enough to tear the envelope of an Airship and twist her structure to breaking point. And indeed the Airship was dashed on the rocky spires and all but three souls, were lost on board.
These three, a young couple and their year old daughter, found themselves lost and alone in the bitter encroaching cold, stumbling through the heavy pines rising up from the snow blanketed land and only compounding their dilemma by attempting to follow the frozen river, which ended abruptly at the edge of a precipice. Now cut off from any safe route, the slope to steep to return, all seemed lost...Until a figure emerged from the snowy night and beckoned to them, a lean almost thin figure, swathed in furs and glistening with hoarfrost, his long hair white as the snow which settled on it, and a beard bristling with frost. Without an alternative, the couple followed him, their precious cargo clutched tightly, for arduous hours they allowed themselves to be led by this would be rescuer, who never spoke, not a word, or sound from his lips emerged in that time. Finaly he paused at a mountain track which ran below the snow line, and placing his sack on the floor indicated the route they should follow to the village, which sprawled out below them, welcoming window lights in the gloom and the clattering of carts, more welcome sights and sounds than any, after such a chilly ordeal.
And then, without a word, the old man picked up his sack and climbed back up the mountain, beyond the tree line, up into the snow line and vanished into the clouds shrouding the peak...And was never heard nor seen from again.
The family now safe in the town below recounted the tail of this unspeaking guide and were met with some curious gazes from those gathered in the tavern. You see, in the most far flung and isolated corners of the world, superstition is abroad in all walks of life. The more level headed said it was just a kindly old Hermit, who lived up there high up in the ragged peaks who performed a charitable act. But some whispered of the Revenant of an old mountain guide, who perished above the snow line searching for a lost group of mountaineers, finally fulfilling his last promise to return the lost ones to safety...And some? well, some whispered that this was old Jack Frost himself, who for some reason, took pity on the man, woman and child, and in that moment, decided he would performed one kindly deed, and lead the family to safety...But as I say, there are places in the chilly furrows of the world where superstition is rife, or as some may say, older more intimate knowledge of the half seen world, we sometimes stumble across , as the shadows lengthen and the chill winds blow, in the dead of winter....
What do you think?...

Exert From
 'My further travels across the 35th Dimension and other places'
Prof.Z.Wickentower.

Want to see the Prometheus in SL? Here are some places:

Good news! The new Prometheus-Class is now on exhibit in its full life-sized glory at Never Drift and Dark Wishes.

For the future there are several extensions for the ship planned - stay tuned!

The Prometheus II Is here!

I know some of you have been waiting for this release quite a while - too long actually. But real-life had quite a word in that matter and while I'd have loved to see it released at a much earlier date, that was just not possible.

But the long waiting is now over and I can honestly say that the Prometheus-Class II is by far the best ship I ever built. While it shares the same basic layout the old Prometheus-Class has (including 3 decks, elevator and a segmented bridge section), the new ship makes much more use of its space and looks also much more streamlined - and yes: a little bit more aggressive too^^

I also gave it two optional engine variants. Steam engines and dieselpunk-inspired radial engines in the style of the 1930s - and I think they both look very good in it!

Oh and the best thing of all: there is a flyable version too!

Here some specifications:

Dimensions:

• Length with landing strip retracted: 44.60 m
• Length with landing strip extended: 68 m
• Width: 30.10 m
• Height: 16.50 m

Enough blablah - lets have some pictures. They say more than a thousand words anyway:

The Prometheus-Class II is now available on the Marketplace! I decided to put it on a promotional price for the first week - so better get it as long its cheap!^^

The Aeronaut Express - August 2015 Edition

Never Drift, the city of the floating isles, is not only the home of the Cog and Kraken Pub and a pretty mad Professor, it is also the home of the Aeronaut Express, a monthly magazine for steampunks, airship-pilots and dashing explorers.

Jack Tracker 99, from Sprokit & Kogg Publishers is the editor and writer of the Aeronaut Express - and he does a fantastic job. Each magazine contains a colourful mixture: News, coverage of past and upcoming Aeronautical events (ever heard the name Lawnchair Larry? if not, you missed something!), for example the famous Airship Regattas, infos about aviation/steampunk sims, recent air-kraken activity and much more. SL and RL builders will also apprechiate the freebie textures and the occasional DIY guide.

Subscribing to the Aeronaut Express is free. You can find the subscribers at various places on the grid. For example at the Cog and Kraken Pub in Never Drift.

Lets Go Psychedelic! II

Its weird, its unsettling, its silly fun - and I couldn't resist to make more! I think the visual impact of Google's "machine-dream-pictures" hits you the hardest on the most common motives. The contrast between normal and - well - not normal makes it simply jump into your face ;-)

While this is a pretty weird effect of the company tinkering with neuronal networks, its of course only a side-product of their AI-research. But it kind of shows you where the direction is going at and how powerful that stuff already is. Just as humans can recognize a few dots and lines organized in a certain way as a "face" (like at the end of the paragraph above), they are teaching their machines to do the same: recognize and interpret patterns.
If nothing else, it tells us at least a bit about how the human mind works. How it recognizes things like faces faces and what exactly happens when this pattern-interpreting runs a bit out of control (like when dreaming or hallucinating).

This time I added also some brief description under the original files. So you get some background information to the photo, but without distracting you from the impression the modified (or "weirdified") picture.

Ok, enough rambling and theorizing lets get you some creeps!

This landscape shot was taken at SL12B. Its actually a 32x32 parcel!

One of the buildings at the Elven Village at Dark Wishes.

A ruin at Dark Wishes.

Prof. Wickentower's clank-workers in his old airship workshop

A - already - pretty crazy art-installation at SL12B.

My Dream Generator, already the name is simply suiting.

The DJ Stage at SL12B

Tessie, the mascot of Tesla Island, home of Unzipped.

No, I was not hunting that dinosaur. Its just sleeping!

New Babbage at sunset.

Lets Go Psychedelic!

Since Google was giving its neural networks LSD a few weeks ago, I was desperately waiting for a way to make my own pictures of that kind (without having to deal with some hardcore coding that is). Today I stumbled over this lovely little link and well - best see for yourself.
My selection contains pictures taken roughly in the last 8 months or so. Beneath every weirdo-version is the regular one for comparison (and to settle your shaken minds again!). I hope you enjoy them.

A Rezzing-Platform for the Gyrocogster!

Some of you may remember the Airplane-rezzer we had at New Shoregate. While it was actually a pretty good idea (some friend were nagging me about having such a thing for quite a while, hello Prof, btw!), I wasn't quite happy with it. Once you took a plane from it, no further one would appear and the rezzer had the bad habit of stopping to work after sim-restarts.

The Gyrocogster-Rezzing Platform at the Never Drift Fort.

To make a long story short: it really became time to make a proper rezzing system by ourselves, which rezzes a new vehicle, as soon it leaves the platform (and is in general a bit more robust and resource-friendly). As usually, I did the mesh-model (with a sporty land impact of 2) and Emma used her scripting magic to do... scripting magic!

And at the Dark Wishes Manor

A big thank you to Professor Wickentower and Talia Davidov for putting the rezzers at their sims. Please feel free to jump into the Gyrocogsters there and have a tour!

If you like to have your own Gyrocogster-Rezzer, there are available now at the Marketplace and at the Drow Science Stores inworld, for example at Never Drift, or at Tesla Isle.

Professor Wickentower's Transmissions through the Aether - Part 3

On an ancient chart, there is a tiny speck marked 'The corner of No and Where' at 360 degrees North of Improbable, 335 degrees West of Impossible...It is named Never Drift...And when it wrenched its self from the land, the waters poured into fill the earthen void...Only the Statue of the Sea king, which stood on the headland remained behind, some would say, he held his place in his realm despite the upheaval...Fishes came through the breach in the land that was, feeding among the Kelp, which has made this place a strong hold now, and the wreck of the once valiant Ironclad which patrolled the waters around the village, dashed to a watery grave, it's stalwart crew lost to the engulfing waters. But some Divers, searching the sea bed for the lost towers, do say they have seen 'other things' in the waters, amongst the kelp...Some even whisper that the Contraptionist, the mad inventor and watcher of the levitating lands, dwelling on one of the periphery islands, has met Mermaids and Mermen, down in the deeps!...Conversed with them, and made them welcome...Perhaps he may have...He is a curious creature and no mistake!...So should you come to Never Drift, the lands at the edge of improbability, perhaps you catch a glint in the waters? Just a fish?, perhaps, but perhaps that glimmer is the tail of a Mermaid, come to pay respects to the image of the lost 'king of the waters' or lay a wreath on the hull of the lost Nautilus, and the champion of the waters and of peace?... But maybe it is just a fish and Mermaids are like dreams...Just a passing memory...But in that case why do so many people will believe in them then?....What do you think?

Exert from "My travels in the 35th Dimension and other places" 

By Prof.Z.Wickentower.

Click for a journey to Never Drift

Last Day of SL12B Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the last day of SL12B! If you haven’t visited it yet: hurry! ;-)

The Dream Generator. Not a world-domination machine - really!

It's starting up...

This little picture gallery shows my Dream Generator in action.