Simploring 2018 (87) Pendle Hill

18 Oct 2018 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , ,

For my simploring tour on Saturday, October 6th, I picked Pendle Hill from scoop.it SL Destinations. Pendle Hill is owned and created by Lauren Bentham, who also owns Arranmore. I visited Arranmore in 2016 (read here). Pendle Hill reminded me a lot of Arranmore and you can easily recognize that both were created by the same person. The atmosphere is foggy and dark and fits into the current Halloween season, yet Pendle Hill is like Arranmore a permanent sim and open all year round, not just for Halloween.

Impression of Pendle Hill (1)

Lauren Betham writes in the notecard that you get upon entering that “Pendle Hill is a fictional sim, but the name Pendle Hill is actually a real place east of Lancashire in the north of England, and is linked to the Pendle witch trials of 1612.“

Impression of Pendle Hill (2)

To fully enjoy exploring Pendle Hill you have to enable advanced lighting, enable ambient occlusion and have to enable shadows created by sun/moon and projectors. With these settings and with adding the flashlight you also get upon entering the sim, you might see objects, people, ghosts or horrifying objects in the spotlight of the flashlight that you would miss otherwise. And turn your sound on!

Impression of Pendle Hill (3)

Pendle Hill offers a lot of opportunities for taking pictures with a particular dark, foggy and scary atmosphere. Some details are obscured by the fog and the dark and only appear either in the spotlight of your flashlight or when a lightening illuminated the scenery. Many ghosts live at Pendle Hill, some of them only show their hands playing the piano or trying to grab you when you look into a mirror or walk up stairs.

Impression of Pendle Hill (4)

There’s a lot to discover at Pendle Hill and I’m sure that I still missed most of them. Thank you for creating and sharing Pendle Hill with the public, Lauren Bentham. I really enjoyed my visit a lot!

Landmark for Pendle Hill
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sweet%20Illusion/43/128/21

Arranmore

13 Sep 2016 Leave a comment

by diomitamaurer in Exploring sims in Second Life Tags: , , , , , ,

Friday, September 2nd, I went simploring. After visiting Cica’s Library I went to Arranmore, also listed in the Destination guide and described in Inara Pey’s blog “Arranmore in Second Life“.
“Explore the timeless coastal island of Arranmore, with its haunted manor house and photogenic scenery. Enjoy the creepy landscape shrouded in mist. Remember, it is not what you can see that is scary – it is what you can’t see.” (quoted from the Landmark’s description).
You will have been offered the free Arranmore flashlight upon arrival. This flashlight will work, and cast light just like a real flashlight, if advanced lighting is set in your graphics preferences. It is also recommended to turn shadows on. I did that but my graphic card couldn’t handle it really and all became way to slow for me, hence I turned shadows off again after a while. In my personal opinion, you won’t need the shadows, the sim is just great to see just with the advanced lighting, but you will need advanced lighting to really enjoy it.
The scenery is dark and foggy and you need the flashlight. Everything farer away is swallowed by the dark and the fog.  I turned right from the landing point and followed the old railroad tracks to an old lonely house with a scrap car in front of it. I could sense that living here was once very active but all is more or less deserted nowadays. Then I saw the manor dimly in the center end of the sim and walked over to it.20160902 Arranmore_02320160902 Arranmore_006
The manor is real MUST see here in Arranmore. It proves the possibilities of Second Life for creative people – WOW. Turn your sound on btw. it adds a lot to the scary atmosphere, a phone rings every once in a while but isn’t answered, the wind howls through every crack of the old building, and lightenings illuminate the inside of the house revealing persons and ghosts.
20160902 Arranmore_024

In one room I met the creator of Arranmore, Lauren Bentham. She’s a content creator of many things, including landscapes, Environments & Dark Fantasy Fairytale Stuff and created and owns several sims like the Baja sims (Baja Norte,Baja Cove,Baja Bay & Baja Sands) or Netherwood. Some of these names ring a bell, but checking my blog I didn’t find any entry – so more to explore for me!

September 2nd - Arranmore: Diomita meets Lauren Bentham (creator and owner of Arranmore). Look at the ghost between us!

September 2nd – Arranmore: Diomita meets Lauren Bentham (creator and owner of Arranmore). Look at the ghost between us!

September 2nd - Arranmore: Suddenly I noticed the ghost sitting in the chair. Watch the little details - the teapot begins to hoover and to poor tea into the cups, but none is there

September 2nd – Arranmore: Suddenly I noticed the ghost sitting in the chair. Watch the little details – the teapot begins to hoover and to poor tea into the cups, but none is there

I really enjoyed exploring the manor. What a great work! For me it was also an early teaser for the upcoming Halloween season. Thank you Lauren for providing Arranmore to the public.
Landmark for Arranmore:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aridia/63/131/23
Arranmore in the Destination guide:
http://secondlife.com/destination/arranmore
Inara Pey’s blog entry about Arranmore:
https://modemworld.me/2016/08/25/arranmore-in-second-life/