Basic land (sim) rental question

[Cerebrogasm]

Hello,

I'm new at real estate purchases, rentals, or leasing of basic undeveloped or themed, homestead or mainland, land in SL. I'm interested in renting/leasing a 256m x 265m full sim with open, vertical area for skyboxes. I need about 4,000 - 5,000 prims (at least) and sailing. However, sailing is not a requirement, but I was given a lot of boats, yachts, etc. by a developer for free.

Some residents recommended I should have access to the "Blake Sea" or rent in a vast private community region with sailing privileges like those in the Fruit Islands, Eden Estates, etc., if possible. 

I also would like to know more about a "themed sim" where I do not have to terraform the land - I have limited time to devote to SL this month.

Can you further advise me where to look - and how much per month in US dollars the rent would be (approximately)?

Thank You!

James (cerebrogasm resident)

[Rolig Loon]

Start by reading the basics in the Knowledge Base:

That will address many of your questions, plus many that you haven't thought to ask yet.  It's probably a good idea to look at the other side too:

No matter which way you look at it, owning or renting land requires some fundamental understanding of how the SL economy works and, more specifically, how land works.  I truly suggest taking a free class from Lindal Kidd at Caldon Oxbridge University (in world) next Saturday before you make any decisions. Land is an expensive commitment, and there are quite a few ways to be disappointed if you don't go into it with your eyes open, especially if you are thinking of a whole region. (I would actually recommend renting a much smaller parcel at first, so you have some practice before getting into the big time.)

A couple of specific responses:

Buying land that borders any of the major sailing regions is going to be very expensive, and you'll find that there's not much available at any given time.  You are not very likely at all to find a region for sale along the Blake Sea, and you shouldn't expect to find rental parcels easy to come by either.  If you are interested in it purely because you want to sail, you may do better to rent elsewhere and just rez your sailboat at a public boat launching spot.  You might also want to consider renting or buying in the Horizons regions.  All parcels there have access to public waterways and thus to the Horizons sea.  You'll need to have an Adult maturity rating, but that's not much of a hurdle for most people.

AFAIK, you cannot rent a "themed" region. That option is available for people who buy a new private region directly from Linden Lab.  Most people use the much cheaper route and buy from another resident.  If you are not comfortable with terraforming, you can find someone else to do it for you at a price, but I think you'll find that it's a fun and rewarding skill to develop. If you have limited time, I really do recommend renting a smaller parcel someplace where you will have permission to terraform.  The practice will be good for you.

 

[Cerebrogasm]

Thank you very much Rolig!

I actually have very little time to invest in SL work this month (I'm in video production in RL - documentary). However, I will attempt to take the class you recommended. 

Since I wrote that post earlier today above, a couple of SL landowners - friends - have directed me to 2 purchases I eventually made today: one is a homestead sim where I can practically do anything - except sail beyond the sim should I want to take a few friends out for an at-sea meeting (I have a writer's group where I help, as best I can, writers of any level of experience, get published). For that purpose, I have been told I need "Blake Sea" access. I rented a slip and connected apartment, beautifully designed European themed, on the Blake Sea - where I can basically roam around on any of the unused boats I have (a developer one day just gave me a massive inventory of boats through cruise ships - he must have been drunk!)...

These same people are helping me terraform the homestead sim - I supply them with what they need - and provide open access for them to create something similar to what the realtor showed me in their offices.

I apparently have all owner privileges - which I will do next. I will concentrate on constructing my photo studio (I have developed a technique, based on my RL job, of creating photo-realistic "digital dolls" - what we would call "av's" in SL. This involves external software used in movie production - which I teach professionally in RL for various software houses). I have the help of several people I have met inworld as well.

What I am still trying to wrap my head around is the idea of "surrounds," that apparently are ok to use beyond my sim, which are technically texture maps, I've been told, that do not use the land I rented nor eat up prims. 

Thank you again for taking the time to write back - I will do my best to follow up on your recommendations - James 

[Parhelion Palou]

18 minutes ago, Cerebrogasm said:

What I am still trying to wrap my head around is the idea of "surrounds," that apparently are ok to use beyond my sim, which are technically texture maps, I've been told, that do not use the land I rented nor eat up prims.

A sim surround does eat up some land impact ... the center is on the region though it extends beyond the region. Textures go on sim surrounds, but they're not textures themselves.

[Rolig Loon]

29 minutes ago, Parhelion Palou said:

A sim surround does eat up some land impact ... the center is on the region though it extends beyond the region. Textures go on sim surrounds, but they're not textures themselves.

And of course you cannot let the surround extend over someone else's region.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi Cerebrogasm and welcome to SL!

Since you repeatedly say you don't have a lot of time for SL, I'm wondering why you think you need to spend the rather significant amount of money to lease an entire region.  Even a Homestead will cost you around $150 USD per month.  On the other hand, many region owners are happy to have you create machinima (that is, make videos using Second Life) on their regions, as long as you give them a credit in the finished work.  

Why not rent, lease, or buy a small parcel of land in one of the regions with access to the Blake Sea?  You can use that to work on your avatars, build sets, etc.  Then work out an agreement with an estate owner or someone with a scenic region to film your production on their land.

As for sim surrounds, or "off sim" landscaping...I'll try to explain.

First of all, your region should be surrounded by void...that is, there are no other named regions adjacent to yours.  Now, void is simply a non-place, an optical illusion of endless ocean.  There is no server running software to simulate reality at that location.  Therefore, you yourself can't "go there", because there IS no there, there.  But sometimes you can cheat a little.

Objects in Second Life consist of at least one, and usually more, "geometric primitives"...basic shapes like a cube, sphere, etc.  Multiple prims can be linked together to form one object.  In such a linkset, one prim is known as the "root prim", and that is important for several reasons.  In this case, it's important because Second Life uses the location of an object's root prim to decide where that object is.

With me so far?  OK.  Now, imagine an object that looks like a long stick, with a basketball on one end, and a big piece of poster board on the other end. 

 O----------------------------|

Make the basketball the root prim.  Place the object so the basketball is on your sim, and the poster sticks out into the void.  Now that poster (or mountain, or reef, or anything) is located out in the void...but Second Life allows it, because the object's root prim is located on your sim.  The basketball and the stick can be made invisible and phantom, so nobody notices them.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Lindal Kidd

[Cerebrogasm]

Thanks, Lindal!

I'll consider all you have suggested. One clarification - my time limitation on SL, is at this moment - I'm on on new production in RL (I work in the movie biz - we do something like what I am experimenting with in the pre-viz phase, which typically comes after storyboarding, and has completed for about 1/3rd of the "film" for now - we have used a product called "MovieStorm" from a software house in England in the past but SL offers more detail and character clarity). 

Blake Sea - I have rented a small apartment with a boat slip on the Blake Sea. I am now also experimenting with that as well: great tip.

I'm very familiar with CGI - I'm a certified teacher for several software packages - (Maya, C4D, etc.) - but you probably know they are designed for photorealistic post-production (unless we are on an animated production or a series of shot inserts) - and take up far too much time to "program" for pre-viz work (we have other software we typically use for that phase), primarily due to the shot complexity and rendering times.

Thank you again for your advice! 

James

 

[Lindal Kidd]

More power to you!  Ten years ago when I first discovered SL, I proposed an article to the editor of a magazine I did free-lance work for, on using SL as a 3D storyboard for video production.  He turned me down, saying that writing about a video game was not what the magazine was about.

It's nice to see someone besides me sees the potential for this!