No, I haven't bought new land and moved this blog's virtual headquarters (not yet, anyway); I did, though, recently spend a couple of days completely overhauling the existing headquarters [Yongdong 185/179/21], using what I now know about building to construct a much more prim-efficient edifice. And I'm pretty happy with the results, too; not only does the new building have roughly 150 percent more floor space than the old one, but also while using 30 less prims than the original construction as well, freeing up those prims now for such amenities as a danceball, more furniture and more landscaping. (Curious how I did it? Well, mostly by getting smarter about slicing and hollowing three-dimensional cubes, versus using a separate prim for each wall like I had been doing it before.) For those who are curious, by the way, the new HQ now covers roughly two-thirds of my 512-square-meter plot of land; that's a minimal plot in relative terms there, and one that I'm always arguing one can do some cool things with, if only one is smart about the design process.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the opportunity of the new building to create my second-ever "machinima," or a video that's shot entirely within a videogame environment; it's a real-time tour of the new headquarters, to be specific, one I've added real-time audio to as well, to hopefully make you feel like you really are there with me in that virtual environment (or at least that a film crew really is with me). By concentrating the entire video on this small space, I thankfully avoid the main problem I faced with my first machinima, which was an attempt to showcase the public transit system at the Caledon steampunk community; namely, my low-end computer wasn't able to render things as quickly as the train was moving, leaving me with footage mostly of endless gray buildings and trees. I figured something like a building tour would be more up my alley this time, as far as the tech limitations on the gear I currently own; and indeed, the video comes out much more smoothly and fully rendered in this one, albeit my amateur editing skills still leave something to be desired.

Anyway, those reading this on a machine with Flash Player (desktop, laptop or mobile) should be seeing a version of the video above right now, which you can simply click on to watch and listen to; or you can click through to the YouTube page, or download the standalone MP4 and save on your hard drive or iPod. (Caution: 48 megs!) Do be sure to leave your comments about the video at the end of this entry, if you want; and especially let me know if you have an idea for a future video like this, but maybe set somewhere else. Hope you enjoy!