MUVE Location - Woodbury Falls
Why Woodbury Falls?
I chose to explore Woodbury for my first location because it seemed different and interesting. Alot of the sims I had visited in the past where all very happy and bright or focused on building and other Second Life activities. Because I like horror movies, games and jump scares, Woodbury's strikingly unique theme is what ultimately drew me in.
What is Woodbury Falls?
Woodbury Falls is a "photogenic horror sim" that coaxes its residents into exploring its surprisingly large and detailed environments. Upon joining you are stood on a foggy moonlit street of what seems to be an abandon town, you are prompted to pick up a flashlight (a nice little detail) and then your ready to explore.
While exploring you'll stumble open many iconic horror movie set locations, the Abandon town, woods, cemetery, drive in theater, motel, overgrown carnival and asylum, all of which are extremely detailed and well crafted.
Sonic in explores the abandon streets of Woodbury Falls
Everything fits together nicely and your never thrown or taken out of the experience by janky transitions between areas.
Interestingly the sim has areas for rent so if you like what you see you can stay in the abandon town as long as you like.
Distant screams and cries for help are often heard in the distance, combine that with the spooky dark fog and lack of any light but the moon and your flashlight Woodbruy Falls definitely nails its -B grade horror movie theme.
The Woodbury Falls Community
Woodbury falls is run by the Woodbruy Falls group which has, at the time of writing has 420 members. It costs around 150 LS to join which goes towards the continued effort that is Woodbury and grants the residents permissions to rezz objects temporarily.
The group has two founders, robesz and diovia who are joined by 4 other core members who I assume are responsible for building and maintaining the area
It doesnt explicity tell you to join any groups but it does have an NPC that links you their Second Life page and clickable 3D buttons inside a nearby building take you to their flickr and facebook pages.
Description of Woodbury from a technical standpoint
From what I can tell almost all of the models are made from mesh, this allows the builders to be highly detailed when they craft their environments. Everything from houses to cars, to signs, to the grass next to the pathway and the dirt pathways themselves are made of mesh.
I'm Suprised how well Woodbury falls ran on my computer with the amount of detail and polygons used in its models.
I did find that sometimes models where overly detailed for what they were worth at times, when a texture with a bump map couldve achieved the same effect. But overall Woodburys well crafted models are a pleasant view.
It seems that alot of the models where modularized making for easy reuse and piecing together to create different shapes.
Particles are utilized to bring life to the environments in the form of flaming trash cans in a homeless den and the a jet stream of water exploding from a fire hydrant that had been knocked over.
Animations are applyed to many of the NPCs that litter the environment, kids can be seen playing hopscotch in the street and playing ring around the rosie at the entrance to the suburbs, aswell as cats who will either hiss at you or ignore you to clean themselves.
The toy train set and walking robot where nice touches
Scripts are used in a away that accentuates the atmosphere that Woodbury excels at delivering. Creepy dolls will turn there head in your direction, distant radios will place old Erie music and interacting with objects will have your character animate in different ways. I was able to play some on some of the circus games and change the texture on a dolls face.
Observations of the build
Overall Woodbury falls is a an amazing place to visit especially if you love the horror genre. It is obvious that alot of time and thought went into the layout and aesthetic of the whole sim. Subtle effects in all areas of lighting, scripting, modeling and animation work together to create a unique and experience, that feels realistic.
Woodbury understands its roots and trys to reinvoke the feelings you get when you watch a horror movie
if you want to visit Woodbury Falls then go ahead, if you can handle it!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pamlico%20Atoll/191/130/27
