Gadgets

Gadget Reviews

Tubbing it

blue Gadgets, Reviews

A few years ago, Aeon and I decided that rather than redecorate our park extensively every season, we’d find something that we both liked and leave it there on a pretty permanent basis.  I’d made an orangerie even longer ago, and that was probably one of our favorite things, so we decided to try looking for a green house.

After looking at some very expensive ones by certain well-known top-of-the-line brands, I came across a great green house by Grey Moon Designs which we both loved on sight, and it’s been there ever since, filled with a myriad of plants and things.  Aeon, being fond of water features, promptly plonked a fountain down in the middle of it 🙂

Unfortunately, not a fountain I’ve ever been really fond of, as it was a bit of a horror of a sculpt, and looked its age.  But, I didn’t have anything better.  Until now.

If you rush, you can pick up this wood fired spa bath from Apple Fall for only L$50 on the marketplace!  It has lots of PG animations, including 22 female, 19 male, 30 cuddles, and sequences.  And the nicest thing about it is it matches in with the modern wood look of the greenhouse!  Yay!

Hot tub: Oregon Wood-fired Spa, Oak – PG (marketplace link) by Apple Fall

Seraphim

blue Gadgets, LotD, Reviews

Recently at Eden, we had a best in wings event.  I really love my Atomic Angel Wings, but I thought it was time for something new, so I splurged 🙂

These wings from Aii are really three pairs of wings in one!  And you can wear each set (or even one wing from a pair) so you can actually have all six on at once if you really want to show off.  The three photos show each pair, middle, lower, and top.

There are also three styles of textures to choose from, “Standard”, “Phoenix”, and “Hawk”, and again I’m showing you those on each of the three photos.  If that’s not enough, you can individually set each wing to a range of colors.  The normal style has fifteen choices, the phoenix ten, and the hawk style has eleven.  The wings are also materials enabled so they have a nice level of gloss to the feathers, and the phoenix style adds just a touch of glow.

But wait!  There’s more 🙂  You can accessorize each wing individually with ribbons, spikes, or armor.  I’m showing you all three options in the top photo.

Of course, these are Bento, and they come with three idle animations, a sit, walk, turn, and falling animation, and of course a flying animation, which is rather spectacular.  The flight mode also includes a really nice synchronized flapping sound.

And because these are Bento, you can’t resize them, so the creator supplies them in six sizes.  Don’t forget to try the free demo!

These are certainly not cheap at L$1350, but if you’re looking for a set of really fabulous wings and your budget is not a problem, these would be hard to pass up.

On the run

Aeon Fashion, Gadgets, LotD, Reviews

The Sisters of Eden recently had a cyberpunk-themed party (DJd by our very own Jaz) and I had a lot of fun putting together an outfit that I really wanted to share with you.  This really was a fun outfit, as I assembled it from a variety of bits and pieces!

  • :::SOLE::: — Shinkan glasses (unrigged mesh) (Marketplace link)
  • :::SOLE::: — Luna Headset (unrigged mesh) (Marketplace link)
  • Profectus — Time Brace
  • Xtra Ordinary — Dragonsuit Top applier and collar from Sith Lady costume  (Maitreya/Physique/Hourglass/Freya/Isis/Venus fitmesh, Omega/Maitreya appliers)
  • Xtra Ordinary — Coat from Underworld Deathdealer full costume  (Maitreya/Physique/Hourglass/Freya/Isis/Venus fitmesh, Omega/Maitreya appliers)
  • Xtra Ordinary — Combat belt from Black Widow full costume  (Maitreya/Physique/Hourglass/Freya/Isis/Venus fitmesh, Omega/Maitreya appliers)
  • [The Forge] — Cypher pants (Oil) (Gacha) (Marketplace Link)
  • Silvan Moon Designs  —  Bento Gloves, exclusive for Fallen Gods Decennial
  • GRAVES — G322 Combat Boots (unrigged mesh)
  • BAXE — Miss China – Gala 2018

I didn’t want to go all Tron-glowy, but cyberpunk does require some supporting gadgets!  I found just the right things at :::Sole:::.  I’m wearing two separate pieces here,  the Luna headset and the Shinkan glasses.  Both have huds for texture and glow, and both are unrigged mesh – so they’re resizable!

The boots were a tricky find — I wanted something that buckled and looked meant for action — not silly oversexed high-heel boots.  But I also needed something that could accommodate the mesh leggings without having surface conflicts (‘peek-through’). Graves’ Combat Boots are just right — with male and female versions so it’s not just a genderless muck boot.

I’m always reminded how much fun it is to assemble an outfit from bits and pieces.  I totally love playing with a role-playing costume like this!

Mahalo, my friends!  A hui hou kākou!

Fantasy Faire 2018 — Spyralle’s Ageless Clock

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One last treasure for the 2018 Fantasy Faire before it ends this weekend: the Ageless Clock from Spyralle.

As Kerryth writes:

This intriguing machine keeps time according to a system no longer known. An intricate gear mechanism turns, and at intervals a hidden bell sounds and an image takes form on the front of the object and then fades away. After a cycle of four bells and four different images, the cycle starts over again. Meanwhile, a light pulses. Is it a signal? Is it a message? No one knows.

The Ageless Clock is defaults to a large size and 7LI, but it’s resizable.  It shrinks down to a 4LI tabletop version seen below, perfectly at home on a mantlepiece or lost amidst the clutter of your laboratory.

Fantasy Faire is slipping into its final few days: the faire closes on Sunday, April 29.  If you haven’t been, you really owe it to yourself to visit — I don’t know how the creators build such a marvelous set of sims for only ten days.  And what should be foremost, it’s a wonderful opportunity to support Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society.

Please stop on by Spyralle at the Fantasy Faire, and support the cause!

For details on my outfit, Chronos, from Fallen Gods, please see the original blog post here.

Mahalo!  A hui hou!

 

Bento Wings

blue Gadgets, LotD

There are already a few Bento rigged wings on the market, but I’m pretty sure these ones from Atomic are the best at the moment!  The ad says they’re designed for male avis, but even though I’m short (1.85 metres/6 foot and a smidge) they work just fine for me.  Please try the demo!

The wings come with an animation overrider that animates the wings.  There are nine stands, three sits, a walk, and as you can imagine, flying anims, including hover, fly, fly down, and so on.  Most of the animations are quite impressive!  For convenience, the creator has also included the animations in a separate box.

The wings are always in motion, so wearing them to a dance party will certainly attract attention to your avi!

In addition to the AO, there’s also a texture change HUD for the wings, allowing you to select from eleven different colored textures so you can match your look.  The one I’m wearing here are the whitest.  Don’t expect pure white angel wings with these.  There is a dark texture (nearly black/gray) but this the lightest one, and the different colors in the texture HUD just change the top of the wings.  The primary wing feathers stay this dark for each texture.

My only minor problem with these is there is no way to stop the wings in a motionless folded state.  If they had this, they’d be perfect!

Bento is very exciting, and opens up another whole bunch of creative channels for designers.  I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Nacra 17

blue Gadgets

When I first started in SL, I quickly became aware of sailing.  I was a keen dinghy sailor when I was growing up, and I’ve also done some yachting since then.  I looked at what was available in SL and took a number of boats for demo runs (including a hydrofoil which scared the pants off me!)

In the end I settled for a Nacra 17 catamaran, which in my option is the best cat in SL.

nacra_002

I’m not going to do a major review here.  You can read a review elsewhere.  I’d just like to point out a couple of things.  The boat is a model of the Olympic Class cat that made its début at Rio earlier this year.  The boat is fabulously well detailed and as you can see, you can set the textures for everything to customize the look.

nacra_001

I just settled for our logo spread across the main and gennaker.

Also, you can sail it with one or two people, and you can clearly see the two trapeze in the above photo.

It’s a super fun boat to sail, and while you can be up and running on it in very quick time, it takes some mastering, particularly with two people.

nacra_004

My only problem with it is you can’t assign it to be sailed by a group or even switch between the skipper and crew positions.  I know that the creator has issued updated versions recently.  Surely it would be simple to do a swap function or a group permission function?  (Actually, having looked at the BWind script that the Nacra uses, albeit a modified version for cats, I know it’s possible and already coded in there).

nacra_005