On_Rez:: A revolution in sim design by Delaynie Barbosa
June 21, 2008
Liquid Void-Mystical Paradise edition was completely built and terraformed in less then five minutes
Liquid Heat Experience- Liquid Heat Designs built its reputation on quality builds. The company is comprised of Erin Burks, who handles the builds and Slade Christensen, who handles scripting.The couple adheres to strict standards with all of their products. No prim play, texture fighting, misaligned or excessive prims are allowed in any Liquid Heat build.
They recently built the Liquid Heat Coliseum for Jax Streeter, a well-known performer in Second Life, and they still get comments about how well their 2008 Liquid Heat Halloween Sim was built. Burks credits the 1/4 sim cave ride as key to the build's success.
On Tuesday, June 17th, Liquid Heat unveiled it's latest product -Liquid Void. Liquid Void utilizes the on_rez scripting command to build an entire sim within minutes.The first known product of it's type in SL, the Liquid Void rezzer box works like similiar to any faux rez script, without the 100 meter space constraints. It also comes with the terrain files. Sim owners no longer have to terraform by hand using the Liquid Void system. Burks demonstrated the Sim setup from a platform that hovers over the center of the Liquid Heat Experience Sim. The build was placed and the land terraformed in under five minutes.
Currently Liquid Heat offers two themed versions of the Liquid Void product. Mystical Paradise includes a lava waterfall and steep mountain terrain; the English Countryside edition includes parts necassary for a relaxing English retreat. The couple will soon commence more themed builds, including one appropriate for businesses. Burks will also consider custom builds. Both existing products are made up of less then 2000 prims.
The low prim count makes this product perfect for all sim owners; whether it be a full-prim sim or an open water sim; there will be plenty of prims left over to customize the builds. In fact, the product was designed for open water sims.
Open water Sims are commonly referred to by SL resident as "void Sims," which is how the product got its name, Liquid Void.
The Liquid Void project began just a little over a month ago. Christensen was working on a rezzer system to handle Liquid Heat's smaller builds when it occured to him he could go a step further.
"I like to think big," Christensen said. "My imagination said,'Hey, why not a whole sim?' and I knew it could do it."
They were not the first to use this system. Luna Bliss has been doing islands in this way for 6 Months
Posted By:
Aine | Tuesday, June 24, 2008 09:33 AM
I am a fan of Luna Bliss's work myself Aine and we did extensive research before launching this product. We did not find anything like this by Luna or anyone else. The Liquid Void's can be purchased from one of our vendors and set up right out of the box with no other interaction necessary. The raw terrain files are even available on our website for customers so they don't have to wait for an email. If Luna does have a product like this then kudos to her I am sure it is fabulous.
Posted By:
Erin Bursk | Thursday, June 26, 2008 03:20 AM
I think the issue here is how we are defining "revolution", that being the key word of this article. I have been creating and selling these boxed sims (QuickRez Automated Sims) to people for over 6 months, thanks to my scripting guru Dakota Callahan. I have advertised this in Search under 'sim design' for ages. These are highly detailed sims that take months to design yet rez in 5 minutes. We have over 30 sims so far...using from 600 to 7000 prims, and most are perfect for openspace sims. A revolution implies innovation and being the first. I fail to see how setting them for sale in a store and sending people to a website is innovative. What IS innovative is being first in creating a sim every bit as detailed as a finely designed custom sim and rezzing it quickly. However, the innovation question aside, previously I set them for sale in my sim design office but stopped. Copybot issues are too great, plus I discovered that my customers just won't spend that kind of money without asking a lot of questions and seeing demos of the sims, so there's no point of setting them for sale in my store, though I do advertise them in Bliss Garden Center. Instead I offer customer support and arrive with my sim box and sell it to my client where they rez it, making sure they understand everything. BTW, others before me have done this, but with structures and on a flat sim without incorporating a complex terrain and landscape.
Posted By:
Luna Bliss | Friday, June 27, 2008 10:59 AM
This article was not written to upset you or anyone else Luna, and I am sorry that it seems to have. When your employee Aine was at Liquid Heat a couple of weeks ago purchasing some other products, I happened to be working on one of the Liquid Void's at the time and was telling her about it, if she had mentioned at that time that you had a similar product I would have known. I did mention when I was interviewed for this article that there had been a similar product made through another company, but that company is no longer in existence and as you mentioned it had to be put on a flat terrain. Regardless, you aren't familiar with our product so it may be difficult for you to make comparisons, our products do differ in a few ways, one is that ours is fully automated, priced at $25,000L (approx. $87 USD) compared to yours that is $500USD to $1,000USD and we have consciously maintained a low prim count on the Liquid Voids to ensure they can be used on void sims as well as full size sims. Once Aine made me aware that you offered a similar product (via her posting here) I took a look and based on the pictures you have of your sims, it looks like as always they are beautiful. So, no need to be upset, the article was written for informational purposes and not an attempt to diminish your product, and seems it also provided you an opportunity for advertising, so it works out all the way around. :-) Best of luck with everything.
Actually when I visited your store for something I liked and net you I had no clue about these or would have said something :) I am not one to hold back on these things :) but thats ok :) yes looks like all works out. just wanted to clear that
Posted By:
Aine | Friday, June 27, 2008 11:46 PM
I wish you the best as well Erin, and hope your product continues to improve and that your business thrives, and thank you for being concerned I might be upset. My mission here is to receive the deserved credit for doing it first - innovation is very important to any artist as I'm sure you know. SLNN is a respected and well-read venue, and it's important to me that accurate facts are presented. The primary focus of this article describing a revolution in sim design is clearly about being the first to have an automated sim system utilizing the terrain that rezzes in 5 minutes. The revolution is not about whether one has set the automated sim for sale in a store, put a terrain file on a website, created it with less prims, or is selling the sim at a lower price that makes this distinction (though I have done all those things). When I spoke to the writer of this article she was sympathetic towards my issue and said she believes in giving credit where credit is due, and this is what I'm upset about... you are claiming that you were first and it's not true. Dakota Callahan and I worked long and hard to create this system, and we don't like you stealing our glory. Since you brought up advertising and price, and because others will be reading this, I need to say that our sims are more expensive because they are much higher quality, take longer to create due to greater detail, and utilize the terrain in far more complex ways. We use a more complex scripting system that integrates the design into the terrain to a much greater degree instead of laying it on top like your system does. Our prices vary from 200 to 1200 real dollars, and all but 2 out of the 30 can be used for openspace sims. You can see all the displays here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Callahans%20Isle/182/74/302/
Posted By:
Luna Bliss | Saturday, June 28, 2008 10:06 AM
I still can't understand your attitude Luna. I don't even know you and you seem to have some sort of personal vendetta going on. If you want to talk about being the first, then I would have to say that Slade was likely the first to create this product. The lsl scripting ability to be able to package up a whole sim was only released by Linden Labs last May and my partner Slade created our Liquid Rez and had it to market 3 weeks later, so he obviously had that available long before you did. Since you want to get childish and run down our products, I can do that as well, so here goes. My scripter is bigger than your scripter so nahhh....lol. I hope you can focus on more important things now rather than negatively ranting about a competitor.
This is so frustrating Erin....I can't seem to get my point across - which is that it's not right to claim to be the first when you were not. The ability to rez an entire sim has been possible for a long while. We have rezzed automated full sims for many clients starting in 2007. We've had them advertised for sale in Bliss Garden Center for months. The new ability given by LL in May was not needed to rez an entire sim at once. It appears you think we're lying? Please consult a reputable scripter. I've only wanted you to admit this but instead you've gone off on a million reasons why you think yours were first. I have no vendentta against you whatsoever - I'm upset because you are trying to steal something from me. Don't you get upset if people try to steal from you? The reason I brought up the inferiority of your sims is that you first brought up price - it's not good advertising for me here when you talk about your sims being so much cheaper - that makes the public who reads this think I'm overpriced. So I had to explain why my sims cost more. I am not negatively ranting about a competitor - in fact I don't consider you competition at all. I'm simply an artist who wants to be given credit when credit is due - innovation is important to me and we worked hard on our automated sims for many months.
Posted By:
Luna Bliss | Saturday, June 28, 2008 03:50 PM
Erin, neither Luna nor I have any sort of vendetta against you, your company, or your products. I knew when I designed the QuickRez system for Luna that it was only a matter of time before a similar product was developed. Originally it was based on the code I developed for a holodeck system that was used for a couple of custom sims but never released commercially, it evolved into a means for making snapshots of a sim in progress, and in December 2007 became the full featured product it is today. Of course it's still evolving and growing, I've been adding new features and improvements to it with almost every iteration.
What is an issue for both of us is the claim that "On Tuesday, June 17th, Liquid Heat unveiled... The first known product of it's type in SL". All we're trying to do is set the record straight. If you want to continue claiming "first rights", you'll need to prove you were creating complete sims last year, not just making temp on rez vendors like your Liquid Rez system.
And with all due respect to Slade, it's not the size of the scripter, it's the efficiency and elegance of their scripts. Size really doesn't matter.
I believe Erin was making a joke about how childish this all was Dakota. Although I certainly do not claim to know everythign there is to know about scripting, I am wondering how a person could record the position and rotation of build prims all the way across the sim without the use of llRegionSay() both in the rezzer and the listening build prim scripts.
And the term "revolutionary" was made in respect to thae fact that it comprised of 4 things. 1) The ability to rez a complete sim. 2) The includance of land textures 3) The includance of raw files, and most importantly 4) the ability for the customer to do it without the help of the vendor (which we certainly provide if necessary). This has gotten out of control and no we will not retract the revolutionary statement as it applies perfectly to what we are selling. This will be the last statement from anyone from Liquid Heat. We wish you all well in your endeavors.
Posted By:
Slade | Saturday, June 28, 2008 04:24 PM
;)
