RL Replica Regions

[Jeannedellalune Prudhomme]

New England Estates is very much like coastal New England, same vibes.

 

[Damian Zhaoying]

I own a replica of Malvinas war casualties Memorial. The real memorial is placed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. To build in SL a took a lot of pictures from the real one, create de textures from these pictures and made replica in SL.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ayuda Virtual/109/208/1501

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Damian Zhaoying

[Prokofy Neva]

5 hours ago, ChinRey said:

I'm Norwegian, remember, I've lived in Norway all my life and I've moved quite a bit, from east to west and from north to south. I think I have a reasonably good idea what Norway looks like and the Second Norway estate does not resemble it at all. There are some landmark builds, like Bryggen and the medieval wooden church, that are distinctively Norwegian but those aren't really typical for RL Norway either, they are landmarks and tourist atractions because they are unique.

If you want to see something resembling a piece of Norway in SL, go to Half Hitch. That sim wouldn't have looked too out of place along the western and northern coast 70 years ago and there are still some abandoned islands that look something like it.

Here are a few fairly random pictures of RL Norway. It's a country with a very varied landscape so I can only cover a fraction of it here of course but you should get the idea.

 

I think you simply have a different perspective on this and perhaps a higher demand than I do for RL verisimilitude. Also if I say the sky is "blue," I realize you will say "No, it's cerulean" so as not to appear to agree with me.

The Lindens made the "Hidden Lakes" sims of Keuka, Cayuga, Seneca, which are the names of RL lakes in Upstate New York, where I grew up. I went to scout camp on Cayuga Lake. We lived a few blocks from Keuka Lake where we would swim every day in the summer. Seneca was out by my dad's plant -- and as we later discovered -- a secret government depo with radioactive materials storage, home of the world's largest population of white deer. So I know these regions in RL very well.

As I noted above, these SL sims have no lakes, but just what we'd call a "crick" or what others might call a "creek" running through them.  It is identical to the crick which was out back behind our old house in Penn Yan, NY which has now all but disappeared due to construction of new houses. The SL sim Seneca has no water at all. But all of them have grey granite texture which looks like the rock of these RL areas (adding slate would even be more realistic). The SL grass texture looks like the meadows which are never that overgrown because the winters are severe. There's a sim in this area called "Moraine" -- which is the term for rocks left behind by glaciers moving, which are precisely what is found in the RL region. Drumlins are the elongated hills also left by glaciers, and these are also in the SL sims and in RL. Etc. So I accept them as a "RL replica". I doubt Jack Linden or whoever made these design decisions back in the day had ever been near Upstate New York, but maybe they looked at pictures.

I've been to Finland, Russia, Denmark but not Norway, still the "SL Norway" seems like a reasonable enough facsimile of Norway to me.

I don't see any sim in SL called Half Hitch or Halfhitch. It's not on the World map anyway.

[Love Zhaoying]

26 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I've been to Finland, Russia, Denmark but not Norway, still the "SL Norway" seems like a reasonable enough facsimile of Norway to me.

What's your baseline, "got fjords"?

[ChinRey]

  

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I think you simply have a different perspective on this and perhaps a higher demand than I do for RL verisimilitude.

I mean as in more "Norwegian" than any random SL sim. Bay City for example is just "Norwegian" as Second Norway is, the sims south and west of Omidyar even more so.

 

1 hour ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I don't see any sim in SL called Half Hitch or Halfhitch. It's not on the World map anyway.

Oh, that's right. That crude map search engine only recognises the beginning of the sim name. The full name is Blake Sea - Half Hitch

https://secondlife.com/destination/blake-sea---half-hitch

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by ChinRey

[Lindal Kidd]

Chin beat me to it! I found the Blake Sea region, but I had to use the spyglass Search for places to do it.

And while we are kvetching about Search, the spyglass Search (main SL search engine) is completely broken now. I mean the Websearch tab you find in Firestorm, and the ONLY Search you get in the LL viewer, is refusing to output ANY results.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Lindal Kidd

[ChinRey]

33 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

What's your baseline, "got fjords"?

Fjords tend to be located only along the coast for some reason.

It's hard to define everything but definitely lots of hills, valleys and mountains. We do actually have a lot of flat ground in Norway but almost all of it is vertical. Oh, and lots of lakes and rivers. Finland brags about being "the Land of a Thousand Lakes" but Norway has 450,000 of them.

Edited April 7, 2022 by ChinRey

[archangel969]

I agree with Prokofy Neva, 'Anything in a virtual world, of course, is not going to be "exactly like" the RL counterpart,' and that's the truth. Well, I don't think that's a terrible thing. SL is a world on it's own that has a hint of RL, because we residents all come originally from RL, aren't we? 😉 But RL isn't SL and probably never will be. When you would live in a house that's an excact replica of RL you would feel trapped like Alice in Wonderland in the house of the rabbit. But what you CAN do is transfer the feeling of RL by taking elements of RL tot SL. So that it feels like RL. I try to do that with Dutch estate. But Dutch estate is NOT The Netherlands, It's the feeling of a small polder landscape, a memory and experience I have from that landscape from my homeland and transer it to SL. And that's the best we can do.

In the picture left RL, right SL

 

 

 

[milla0097]

8 minutes ago, archangel969 said:

I agree with Prokofy Neva, 'Anything in a virtual world, of course, is not going to be "exactly like" the RL counterpart,' and that's the truth. Well, I don't think that's a terrible thing. SL is a world on it's own that has a hint of RL, because we residents all come originally from RL, aren't we? 😉 But RL isn't SL and probably never will be. When you would live in a house that's an excact replica of RL you would feel trapped like Alice in Wonderland in the house of the rabbit. But what you CAN do is transfer the feeling of RL by taking elements of RL tot SL. So that it feels like RL. I try to do that with Dutch estate. But Dutch estate is NOT The Netherlands, It's the feeling of a small polder landscape, a memory and experience I have from that landscape from my homeland and transer it to SL. And that's the best we can do.

In the picture left RL, right SL

 

 

 

Hi and Thank you very much for your reply!! Dutch estate can actually  be a good example for my research!! And it seems really beautiful! 

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

^ Because it's not an almost exact replica of Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral.  There was another sim that did have that, but I don't think it still exists in SL.

I don't recall saying it would be an exact duplicate. That's not what re-creation means. 

 

Just in case you were reading the word recreated in my post as recreation (having fun) instead of re-created. I know. English is confusing and hyphenated words don't make it any easier when you don't know a word can be hyphenated and the meaning changes.

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

Fjords tend to be located only along the coast for some reason.

It's hard to define everything but definitely lots of hills, valleys and mountains. We do actually have a lot of flat ground in Norway but almost all of it is vertical. Oh, and lots of lakes and rivers. Finland brags about being "the Land of a Thousand Lakes" but Norway has 450,000 of them.

I noticed lochs tend to be located along coastlines, too. 😉

[milla0097]

Hi everyone, 

thank you very much for your replies and sorry for joining the conversation just now 😃 Also a special thank you to @Madelaine McMasters for helping me and starting this conversation for me, you are an angel. Your suggestions will surely lead me to do some selection among the RL lands to research and I am definetly going to explore the a bit better. Do you also happen to know the owners of these lands? Like Mother Road (Route 66), Venice, Machu Picchiu, Paris, or any other RL replica? Or do you happen to know somebody who might be in contact with one of them? 

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

The owner of the New Orleans regions is the one who posted the thread I linked in my first reply to the thread.

But you didn't mention New Orleans so either you noticed, or you're not interested. 😊

[Rolig Loon]

The best way to find out who owns a region is to go there and look in the World >> Region/Estate tab in your viewer.  You will find, unfortunately than some intriguing regions (like Machu Picchu) no longer exist and others (like Venice) seem to be closed to outsiders -- possibly because they are run by a school for the exclusive use of their students.  Having just visited out of curiosity, I can tell you that Paris 2000 does exist and is one of four joined regions that are remarkably detailed.  Well worth visiting. The regions seem to be group owned but with a little sleuth work you can figure out who the owner of the group is and follow up that way.  The bottom line is that there is no substitute for going in world to see for yourself.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Rolig Loon

[Lindal Kidd]

If the build is on a parcel rather than a full region, right click bare ground and choose About Land. In the window that opens up, you'll see who owns the parcel. If it's group owned, pull up the group info window to see the group owner or founder.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

The best way to find out who owns a region is to go there and look in the World >> Region/Estate tab in your viewer.  You will find, unfortunately than some intriguing regions (like Machu Picchu) no longer exist and others (like Venice) seem to be closed to outsiders -- possibly because they are run by a school for the exclusive use of their students.  Having just visited out of curiosity, I can tell you that Paris 2000 does exist and is one of four joined regions that are remarkably detailed.  Well worth visiting. The regions seem to be group owned but with a little sleuth work you can figure out who the owner of the group is and follow up that way.  The bottom line is that there is no substitute for going in world to see for yourself.

Paris 2000 is the more modern recreation I was thinking of.

But Machu Picchu is gone? And Venice is closed off?

Then why are they still in the Destination Guide!?!?!?

Grrrrrrrr!!

[Rolig Loon]

5 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

But Machu Picchu is gone?

Yup.  According to Tyche Shepherd's grid survey:  

It's been gone quite a while.  Sic Transit Gloria Andes

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Rolig Loon said:

Yup.  According to Tyche Shepherd's grid survey:  

It's been gone quite a while.  Sic Transit Gloria Andes

 

I could have sworn I'd been to it more recently than that -- although certainly not within the last year or so. But I'll take Tyche's word for it.

All of which just makes the fact that, 5  years later, it is still in the Destination Guide all the more incomprehensible.

[Luna Bliss]

13 hours ago, archangel969 said:

I agree with Prokofy Neva, 'Anything in a virtual world, of course, is not going to be "exactly like" the RL counterpart,' and that's the truth. Well, I don't think that's a terrible thing. SL is a world on it's own that has a hint of RL, because we residents all come originally from RL, aren't we? 😉 But RL isn't SL and probably never will be. When you would live in a house that's an excact replica of RL you would feel trapped like Alice in Wonderland in the house of the rabbit. But what you CAN do is transfer the feeling of RL by taking elements of RL tot SL. So that it feels like RL. I try to do that with Dutch estate. But Dutch estate is NOT The Netherlands, It's the feeling of a small polder landscape, a memory and experience I have from that landscape from my homeland and transer it to SL. And that's the best we can do.

You are a real artist, archangel -- you have captured the feel of being in the Dutch countryside. That's not easy to do, capturing the essence of a space. And it doesn't matter how large or small the space is to capture its essence, or if we only choose to capture a small part of it.

However, in my opinion Second Norway has missed the mark. What they are passing off as fjords misses the mark so badly it's almost comical -- there is no 'feel' of being in Norway there -- it's just plots on the water with a more European looking house here and there. I'm not saying they are doing anything wrong by building what they want and doing the best they can, or choosing to only include minor elements/flavors of Norway, and I wouldn't want to disparage anyone's build when taking into account their personal goals, but if we are evaluating art here in a more objective manner, taking into account how faithfully a work represents reality in this case (and I think we are) I'm afraid we have to consider artistic standards and to what degree any build competently captures the feeling of being in a space. 

[Strawberry Linden]

@Scylla Rhiadra Machu Picchu is still in Second Life, located at this SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/USMP%203D/160/53/22 
This is the Destination Guide link for it: https://secondlife.com/destination/machu-picchu

All of the real life replicas listed in this category should be open to the public: https://secondlife.com/destinations/real

If they are not, please let us know by emailing editor@lindenlab.com and we can fix it. 

Thank you.

[archangel969]

1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

You are a real artist, archangel -- you have captured the feel of being in the Dutch countryside. That's not easy to do, capturing the essence of a space. And it doesn't matter how large or small the space is to capture its essence, or if we only choose to capture a small part of it.

However, in my opinion Second Norway has missed the mark. What they are passing off as fjords misses the mark so badly it's almost comical -- there is no 'feel' of being in Norway there -- it's just plots on the water with a more European looking house here and there. I'm not saying they are doing anything wrong by building what they want and doing the best they can, or choosing to only include minor elements/flavors of Norway, and I wouldn't want to disparage anyone's build when taking into account their personal goals, but if we are evaluating art here in a more objective manner, taking into account how faithfully a work represents reality in this case (and I think we are) I'm afraid we have to consider artistic standards and to what degree any build competently captures the feeling of being in a space. 

Oh well, now I am blushing, thanks! 🙂

I thinks it's easy and difficult at the same time. Easy because what you have to do in SL is take a few characteristics of the land you want to 'recreate' and highlight them in SL. It can be difficult because you have to hit that special feeling you get from that land in RL and take it to SL.

I am sorry to read that Second Norway missed the mark. I love Norway and I wanted tot visit Second Norway also. Those fjords in Norway, I haven't seen anything like them yet. And that is mainly because of the scale and the fact that they are so steep. You have to feel very small and insignificant as a human being when you sail through them with a boat. And of course, countless waterfalls! And those characteristic houses with the rusty brown colour. Loved also visiting Bergen and the house of Grieg. Also the Kirsten Flagstad Museum. Love to come back to Norway one day!

Well, The overall impression is that nature in Norway is grandiose and beautiful, but also overwhelming and sometimes even threatening. Different from the Dutch nature that can be more cozy. I am not Norwegian, so who am I to say all this? But I think that the overwhelming character of nature, especially in the fjords, should be an important theme in the creation of Second Norway.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 hour ago, Strawberry Linden said:

@Scylla Rhiadra Machu Picchu is still in Second Life, located at this SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/USMP%203D/160/53/22 
This is the Destination Guide link for it: https://secondlife.com/destination/machu-picchu

All of the real life replicas listed in this category should be open to the public: https://secondlife.com/destinations/real

If they are not, please let us know by emailing editor@lindenlab.com and we can fix it. 

Thank you.

Many thanks, Strawberry. I was pretty sure I'd been relatively recently! That'll teach me not to actually check it out for myself. And hopefully, it will be of use to Milla too!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

21 minutes ago, archangel969 said:

Well, The overall impression is that nature in Norway is grandiose and beautiful, but also overwhelming and sometimes even threatening. Different from the Dutch nature that can be more cozy. I am not Norwegian, so who am I to say all this? But I think that the overwhelming character of nature, especially in the fjords, should be an important theme in the creation of Second Norway.

I think that there are some dangers in assuming that a recreation of an RL place -- including, often, something of its culture -- needs to be too obviously "representative." The problem is that it would be very easy to reduce complicated locales to cliches. For instance, I am Canadian -- would recreating my home city, Toronto, necessitate cramming in a hockey rink, a poutine take-out, a smiling red-coated Mountie, and a moose or two?

I've no doubt that there are parts of Norway that look very much Second Norway. Isn't it maybe pandering a bit to stereotypes to cavil, as non-Norwegians, about how people from that country represent themselves?

[Madelaine McMasters]

14 hours ago, milla0097 said:

 😃 Also a special thank you to @Madelaine McMasters for helping me and starting this conversation for me, you are an angel.

What?

Nooooo! Take that back!!

I'm a little devil!!!

...sets you on fire.

15 hours ago, archangel969 said:

But what you CAN do is transfer the feeling of RL by taking elements of RL tot SL. So that it feels like RL. I try to do that with Dutch estate. But Dutch estate is NOT The Netherlands, It's the feeling of a small polder landscape, a memory and experience I have from that landscape from my homeland and transer it to SL. And that's the best we can do.

In the picture left RL, right SL

Lovely work, Archangel. My favorite spot in SL (The Far Away) recreates a special feeling I get in RL, without recreating any specific place.

[Luna Bliss]

6 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Lovely work, Archangel. My favorite spot in SL (The Far Away) recreates a special feeling I get in RL, without recreating any specific place.

But Maddy, that's exactly what my RL world looks like when I take a 3 minute drive from my house! Well, minus that scary little devil in the foreground.