Opportunities for Growth

Posted on: April 23, 2006

I've had an obsession with growing bushes, trees, that sort of thing in SL recently. I saw some early experiments which used an inelegant texture scale trick, and some nice arboreals which sadly ate too many prims, but the (re)search had to go on—I found out Robbie and Dave Dingo made cannabis plants in Second Life which really grow. Immediately, I had to check it out!

Great timing: Robbie was inworld @ Sound Side in Quat, and despite some lag problems on his end, he very nicely gave me a demo of accelerated growth:

As you can see, what we have here are actually two pots: one has cannabis, and another has a sunflower—that's a future project being worked on. You can see how big the cannabis plant gets in shot #3, and the sunflower hasn't been scripted (programmed) to grow its flower at the top, but throughout it all, we were musing about growing giant beanstalks and getting higher and higher. Who knows what treasures are at the top?

I asked Robbie about how this could be applied to a wider variety of foliage, perhaps even pine trees like the ones I'm accustomed to from the great Canadian outdoors. I know he has such a diverse collection of musical instruments he made, but like me, he explained he gets bored easily—so this looks like it may just be a fun side project. But, maybe it'll stimulate further growth. :)


My understanding is, from the instructions, these Dingo Weeds take about a month to grow to full size. In the meantime, they like lots of light and water, and apparently, giving the plant a name will make it grow faster! I've named mine Chelsie, Ginger, Au'qui La-metroliconian, and La Salle de Bain. Also, I've set up a little cozy tent in Seascale for 3 of the 4.

 


Also notable: a fractal tree outside made by Seifert Surface and modded by Lethe Naumova. I've had it for awhile, but this is really the perfect place to put it. It doesn't "grow" per se, but imagine if it could! Looking up at the moon while sitting on it is so pwetty. Later that night, Tesla and Ethan Linden came to visit on me.

I just checked my plants and I can see little buds peeking out already. So let's se how this goes… er… grows!

If you, or someone you know, makes realistic growable plants which simulate the natural process, please don't hesitate to give me a buzz. Would love to nurture them!

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