Second Life Tardis

[blue023]

Peace,
I decided to document my journey building my Tardis in Second Life. Instead of explaining second life, i recommend Googlin it. I decided to build my Tardis for many reasons but it really all came down to a single decision one day, and then here I am .

But I will tell the story of how i started, and post lot of pics, and some scripts that might be helpful for those that are interested.

My journey starts with my realization that after several yrs of going in and out of second life, that i had never went to the dr who exhibit.
I decided to go to a sim called Tardis , which featured a location called New London. I found another spot called the Dr who expo located in a SIM called Katrina, which i think no longer exists.



In each case, I found a lot o vendors selling Tardises ( or Tardi...i dunno, whatevers plural)..yet it was very hard for me to decide which one to get.
I noticed that each had something i liked and something that i thought kinda sucked...lol

So at first i thought i could do like most, buy a few pieces and integrate them all together. popular systems such as HOO or New london systems.
Granted each has a lot of detail, and i think are good products, i just wanted something different.....

so i decided to try and build my own.
I am in the IT world so i decided to run it like a project/agile..lol or best i cud with a flaky client such as myself.

in the next post I will start the official build side of this journey with the requirements and specs, in the hopes it will help someone else build their own tardis.

[blue023]

peace, hope all are well.

Here's an update or part of the history of the build. I added a pic as well. all of this development took about 2-3 months, and i was learning as i went along with the assistance of a good scripter named Rayne, who helped me troubleshoot, as well as clean up my code...kinda like a lil time lord yoda, without the help add 3 months

I started the build based on a few requirements , most of these are derived from the show, my time exploring Second Life, as well as from watching, and sampling other tardis(tardi or tardises) in SL. Some just popped up and i said , lets see how this works.

the current version of my tardis is:

Tardis Type 40 Mark IX v-164

It's literally the 164th version developed so far. This log will not go into every day but i will cover the major upgrades, enhancements, and  lessons learned.

So back to the basics....My main requirements included the following:

1- I wanted my Tardis to reflect the 1st Tardis i saw, which was in the episode (i forget the name now), in which he/tom baker returns to galifrey, and runs for president.....and the one before it, when he left sara jane to go home. back then PBS would run several of them together so that the entire show was weekly but lasted 1.5 to 2hrs sometimes.
*luckily i found a freebie skin in SL, and then in google images, so that was easy)


2-i wanted my doors to swing open (yes...i loved the big doors from inside the console room, and i liked them when matt smith crashed the tardis)

3- i wanted my Tardis to look different than the others i saw in SL

4-basic functions
-flight -using SL physics (i wanted the Tardis to move like it was flying in the show)
-Mat and Demat with the brakes on, or the classic take off and landing sounds (i found these sounds free on the web after 4 days of searching, but then lost the URL again )
-doors that swing open
-sign glowing, and top light flashing
-cloak or go invisible
-teleport me to anywhere in space or in this case the SL grid, and i arrive with the Tardis, and companion (yes, i said and companion,lol)
-

the following versions were created during this time.
v1-22 flight, mat w/sounds, demat w/sounds, doors that open (no lock),..kinda buggy

v23-25-cloak, and locked doors (i often had people just walk in like hey...is this your Tardis?..keeping in mind im the only one standing here..lol)

v26..best day so far at this time, add the core engine for travel and navigation
v27-42 was adjusting the engine , navigation, and fixing bugs, and i finally updated the exterior to the classic phone booth

-during this time i added a few enhancements such as :
-patio-nothing worse than walking outside in mouse view and falling (this made me think of skydiving)
--self destruct - buggy, more so busted than worked, but cool when it did
--defense based on HADS
--additional interior console views

i created additional versions with changes to the exterior textures, one version made it look like an asian rice paper booth, which was cool when i landed in those types of areas, but was hard to deploy this exterior from the current design so rarely used

At this time i kinda finalized all development, took a break, and simply travelled with her.....explored at least 20 sims that i could travel from and to in her, and while exploring i started thinking of how to upgrade her


next update i go into the enhancements and lessons learned, and some schematics

[blue023]

I have heard so many things about why the doors swing out.
Here are some reasons Why i prefer it.

-more room in the interior
-i like the view when the doors swing open from the outside
-when i demat, the tardis is now subject to the physics of SL, so it moves around alittle, the doors stop me from falling out
-i also added a sliding patio that slides out from the bottom so i can stand outside of the tardis and look around, really good for when ur 2500m in the air

cya in SL,

blue023

[psion]

Very cool, blue023!

Are you keeping the scale accurate to the prop, or are you scaling it up because of oversized avatars? Have the Linden Realms auto-teleport extensions been added into the main client yet? It seems to me that you could use that to automatically teleport you to another location when you walk through the doors, simulating the idea that your TARDIS is bigger on the inside. Finally, what about mesh? It looks like the roundels on your doors are just pictures. If you use mesh, you should be able to actually give your TARDIS proper detail you can't achieve with image maps alone.

[blue023]

Hey thanks Psion, and hope ur day is moving well.

And some quick answers to your questions:

scale: Initially, i went for scale but then i noticed a few things that I like.
1- i like to be able to see over the shoulder out of the doors, and looking in, so i like it taller than most
2- i actually added a little more depth so that when looking inward, u wud feel the size increase, as well as when u walk in. I noticed that some are as small as the RL phone booths in America from the 70's, whereas i like the fact that m companion can walk in with me and sit down
3- i am thinking of getting closer to scale than i am now, i will post a pic...but i as exploring and i landed in a SIM where the BADWOLF corp was making tardi, i landed next to one to compare sizes, and all i can say is my sexy girl is kinda large..lol

Auto-teleport extensions
i didnt know about these, i will investigate.
Currently i use a coordinate tp HUD with my tardis so when i go in i either set auto pilot or select where im going then tp. i will add the "workflow for my travel as it may help"
- I like the idea of the auto teleport as i have been thinking of ways to make my smaller console room rez 3500m above me or something,


mesh

ahh yes, i have been gone awhile and when i returned mesh was standard in SL. i am thinking about mesh but not sure how to implement it. i like the door idea.
currently from an sl technical standpoint my tardis is about 26-27prims,,,,,and i currently enabled my "chameleon circuit" to be able to adjust all facing panels to be able to adjust to about 9 different external skins, and about 8 internal ones, so that i have different tardis looks as well as different console views
although this wud be less code required to do the mesh changes the upgrade wud be significant....so its on the radar........i havent explored how to make a mesh model as of yet..hoping maybe sketch-up or something


thanks again for the comment, in SL i rarely meet anyone that wants or is interested in building one, so the comments are very welcomed and appreciated...there is nothing worst to me than developing in a vacuum, collaborative input always produces eclectic ideas, funny thoughts, and cool outcomes...

peace and enjoy your travels

blue023,

[blue023]

Hello galifreyan engineers, and timelords

I greet you from Second Life, located in subspace.

this is an update on my current tardis build. I am in the process of some major upgrades so i thought i would spend some time going over the current version, its capabilities, and bugs, as well as an update on traveling in my tardis around the vast and ever changing/growing Second Life world.
So the next couple of posts will provide an update on all things. I have been deployed for the last few months so I havent really had the time to spend on it as i would like, so i am just now adding some features i thought about almost a yr ago

Current Version:
v206

I started documenting around version 149 using slprofiles blogging feature because it enabled me to add updates while i was inworld without needing to stop tinkering to just update the journal.


So below is the CHANGELOG or Journal of upgrades and updates


v206 added spin finally (1/19/2013 8:15:11 PM at Plum)
added fire explosion to v206 added to RP issues menu 9# (1/19/2013 6:38:02 PM at Plum)
v206 added bounyancy so tha tif land in water or hovering and land in water, can with a click rise out of water and float, also can reverse so fall from sky as well as stabilize so its back as it was sorta, float is sorta as u need to do it several times becayuse it uses a lot of energy i think (1/4/2013 11:20:55 PM at Sandbox Island 3 (TG))
developed new corridors, pool room, storage room, and corridor junction for more rooms to build off of (1/4/2013 7:59:37 PM at Hyboria)
v204 added capabiltiy to go phys and non phys also added engine for a nonphys vehicle, (1/4/2013 7:59:12 PM at Hyboria)
v203 has all new changes (12/22/2012 12:11:09 AM at Plum)
added doors to console room dat slide and able to rez a new console (12/22/2012 12:09:51 AM at Plum)
v202 consoles added last blab (12/21/2012 10:39:34 PM at Plum)
so many changes hard to keep track, updated main console room every panel with a main function and display, tested creating new console room on the fly from the main console room, worked so far about to test, added side door, increased scanner distance (12/21/2012 10:37:26 PM at Plum)
test (12/21/2012 10:36:18 PM at Plum)
sooo many changes hard ot keep track (12/21/2012 10:36:15 PM at Plum)
exploring the 7th continent for new rez spots to land and explore (12/20/2012 5:37:42 PM at Nuclear)
upgradede to v199 (12/19/2012 7:16:39 AM at Plum)
199 updated new fav console, major upgrade coming for console and shell in v200 (12/9/2012 5:20:22 PM at Sandbox Island 4 (TG))
next upgrades shud fix interior doors in each exterior them, cosole upgrade should include SIM diagnostics, etc, and long range scanner (11/24/2012 9:21:07 PM at Little Blue Island)
v194-added console room, fixed a fe wbugs and decorated, added interiror of new console room to main exteriror shell (11/23/2012 9:02:31 PM at Plum)
v187 - 190 attempts to add new console room (11/16/2012 6:06:17 PM at Plum)
finally new console room started, and resolved the rezzing issue, now the fun part adding all the HUD functions to the console (11/13/2012 2:15:16 PM at Sandbox Archipelago)
v185-jacked up as well (11/10/2012 4:46:58 AM at Sandbox Island 4 (TG))
v184 updated console but jacked up (11/10/2012 4:13:06 AM at Sandbox Island 4 (TG))
v183 added sl-vending theme so its more avending machine with old sl ads for arcadia atc (11/2/2012 5:55:22 PM at Plum)
known defects and improvements i need to get to includes the following: 1-physical, so that when arrives if in solid objects it can fix it self;2-add shield confiirmation; 3-tweak native SL skins, and figure how to make sub menus (10/27/2012 3:51:43 PM at Sandbox Archipelago)
v182 fixed the sideleft (10/12/2012 10:57:37 AM at Plum)
v180 added new interiro doors,but old ones as default (10/6/2012 4:00:56 PM at Plum)
v179 updated greeting when engaged (9/28/2012 4:43:19 PM at Plum)
v177 added GL colors to reflect my green lantern aspects of life, hud contorlled of course (9/7/2012 5:54:50 AM at Plum)
updated old hobo airship form way back from v119 the last draft to v120 added tardis engine functions, and teleport rescue (8/25/2012 4:23:35 PM at Plum)
that note was for v176 (8/12/2012 3:45:52 AM at Plum)
noticed a consistent bug when its time to demat, and im using the external map instead of nav, the controls finish activity in the new area i arrive in , which means need to move commands from HUD back into main tardis engine functions instead of HUD console (8/12/2012 3:44:31 AM at Plum)
v176 has new interior consoles, and new exteriro, as well as new flight controls for small hops and moves, (8/11/2012 12:15:35 PM at Pathfinding Sandbox 6)
v176 sync HUD and tardis with classic Who new skin and season 15 console view (8/5/2012 12:49:55 AM at Plum)
v173-5 was fixes i think, with 175 syncing the hud and the tardis version, (8/5/2012 12:49:23 AM at Plum)
v173 fixed new look (8/4/2012 11:27:46 AM at Sandbox OA)
v172 adds new 2012 look (8/4/2012 11:11:50 AM at Sandbox OA)
v170 updated local flight controls so i can move at 10m intervals either direction (7/29/2012 6:44:08 AM at Plum)
v168 fixed console interior bug (7/28/2012 11:02:11 AM at Plum)
v167, added modenr console, v166 pretime joint, current bug, rescue tp not working (7/28/2012 10:53:37 AM at Plum)
v165 added pretime war version (7/28/2012 4:00:47 AM at Sandbox Archipelago)
finally updating the chameleon circuit with long overdue change (7/28/2012 3:30:05 AM at Sandbox Archipelago)
v163, adding secondary conole, testing.....not sure of v162, skipping for now, i believe i added some defense weapons (7/13/2012 7:22:18 PM at Olyesti)
v163 adds fireballs (6/6/2012 4:45:05 PM at Sandbox Island Extension)
v162 added exit feature in HUD for quick tp's (6/6/2012 4:44:54 PM at Sandbox Island Extension)
Weed Tardis Tardis Type WD40 Mark IX v-143 -upgrade list: update lighting controls for edibles-donut case, interior lighting, sign light and time signal-rotor light-adding tardis interiror door access, adding tardis lg shield, and smaller shield, updating engine and engine seat defense -adding sign changes to themes all of this is under section 11 in the main console menu (4/15/2012 7:56:45 AM at Sandbox Archipelago)
time to upgrade the tarids weedbooth exterior-this is a subproject -and i plan to do this with the SIDRAT exterior as well-so the following needs to happen to the Tardis Type WD40 Mark IX v-143 to upgrade it to the v161 as well as customize itsfuntions (4/15/2012 7:53:53 AM at Sandbox Archipelago)
upgraded to v161 and created HUDS for 161a, included console as an exterior, so can rez a single console without a shell and travel-see ConsoleHUD161a (4/15/2012 7:50:45 AM at Sandbox Archipelago)
v160 added personal shield to prevent entry (4/8/2012 1:18:19 AM at Sandbox Island)
syncd tardis 159 and hud159 freebie skin with smoke billowing....tardis in distresss (4/8/2012 12:10:44 AM at Columbia)
added stjohns medal to tardis doors for bianchi and new classic themes, renamed to bianchi2, and classic2 (4/8/2012 12:05:18 AM at Columbia)
added shield update to tardisv158 -shield auto deltes when im gone, also prevents any goofy from sitting on it (4/3/2012 6:48:02 PM at Sandbox Island)
tardis v157 updated shield with self destruct (4/3/2012 6:17:09 PM at Sandbox Island)

added self destruct to shield, so if i leave which i most likely will leave or move during battle, no need to leave things (4/3/2012 6:15:21 PM at Sandbox Island)
tardisv156 al tests passed upgrade 100% completed, feature set 100% completed, includes all updates from v148 to now 3/31 (4/1/2012 12:00:45 PM at Sandbox Archipelago)
tardis v156 stabilizing the build at 156 to do full testing with HUD, overall upgrade at 95%, components upgrade 95% (4/1/2012 10:40:31 AM at Plum)
tardis v155 saved -testing in progress,, total upgrades about 85%, feature upgrade 90% (4/1/2012 10:28:44 AM at Plum)
tardis 154 added demat circuit and floor, delineatedbetween effects, console baking, and just plain to do it, also core issues, and core stabiliztion messages (4/1/2012 10:16:05 AM at Plum)
tardis v151 got jacked up, so had to go back to v150 and then install components form 151 into it minus the mess up, cudnt rember the version so jumped a verison to 153. 153 is doors open test version (4/1/2012 10:07:14 AM at Plum)
YAYAYAYYAYAY! finally figured how to shut off tardis engine smoke (4/1/2012 9:01:38 AM at Plum)
upgraed to 150 added 4 interior consoles to the tardis, my regular baker the 4th , then added the 10th, the 11th and then agreen variant on the 10th for my gl days.... (3/31/2012 11:31:42 PM at Columbia)
upgrade status about 60%, current version Tardis Type 40 Mark IX v-149, updated shield, updated flight controls, adjuted chameleon circuit, adjusted demat circuit- (3/31/2012 10:08:12 PM at Columbia)
landed in Rain Falls 226,120,22...kind aboring mostly grass and weird lil animals (3/31/2012 10:30:57 AM at Rain Falls)



below is a changelog showing my progress over time. Here is a URL to view my Slprofile as well

[galacticprobe]

I think you forgot the URL.

Really cool cover for your Changelog. One thing I would suggest changing on it, though, is adding a "C" after the "TT" so it would read "TTC Type 40", as in the Classic series it was referred to as a "Type-40 Time Travel Capsule" (and I think in one story it was called a Type 40 TTC, but I can't remember which one).

Also, I notice you've used the Teselecta's ID of the TARDIS as a "Mark 3". Being somewhat of a purist I still lean towards the Hartnell story "The Time Meddler", where it was established in dialogue that the Doctor's TARDIS was a "Mark 1" and the Meddling Monk's was an advanced model, the Mark 4. (I guess someone on the Moff's writing/continuity/script editing staff didn't do their homework. )

Dino.

[slidin_sidewayz]

Did anybody actually read all that?

[galacticprobe]

Skimmed through it. Looked to me like one of those on-line game journals, where you can also make upgrades to your equipment (sort of like World of Warcraft, Everquest, etc., but having to do with the Doctor Who on-line game I've heard about).

Just guessing, though.

Dino.

[blue023]

quick update for the comments:

yup its more a log of the changes i have done to my tardis in SL

the cover of the mag is from somewhere online, and i didnt catch the mark or the TT good catch!

I decided to document my efforts since there are a lot of people in SL with a tardis but rarely are they built, its typically purchased from one of three vendors. I myself built it solely for myself and for fun.