Case Study: Terraforming the Costa Rica Estate

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Case Study: The Costa Rica Estate

The Costa Rica Estate is owned and operated by Giancarlo Takacs, a Second Life persona for the 'Real World' travel company Crest Custom Travel. At the time of writing, the estate comprised of eight regions offering a fine balance between residential, recreational and commercial areas, each exquisitely appointed and designed to enlighten the would-be traveller to charms of the 'Real World' Costa Rica.

Alajuela, Laguna Del Arenal

Alajuela was one of the Costa Rica Estate's first regions to be established and already had a number of residents by the time Señor Takacs approached TerraBella. Central to the region was a volcano representing Arenal, one of Costa Rica's youngest and arguably most active volcanoes. While undoubtedly a striking feature of the Alajuela sim, it wasn't making best use of the land and prim allocation for that region. Rather than lose such a distinctive landmark Señor Takacs wanted to move the volcano so that it spanned part of Alajuela and the newly acquired Laguna Del Arenal sim - a low prim region that would also provide space for a discreet commercial district. Additionally, Señor Takacs also expressed a need to increase the height of the volcano to provide an even more imposing backdrop to the Costa Rica estate.

This project presented very few problems from a terrain design perspective, the most notable being the presence of existing builds on the land being terraformed. To mitigate any risks to those buildings, the new terrain was terraformed and tested extensively on TerraBella's own development sim and then transferred to the two Costa Rica sims once we were certain the terrain met Señor Takacs' exacting standards. This process had the additional benefit of preserving the region's natural beauty throughout the development stages.

Isla De Chira, Golfo De Nicoya

These two sims were new additions to the Costa Rica Estate and were to represent their namesakes on the Western coast of Costa Rica.

Terraforming for these two regions was fairly straight forward and presented a fantastic opportunity for TerraBella to provide smooth beaches and underwater topography. In contrast to Alajuela these sims were lightly populated so the only real challenge was to ensure the terrain on each side of the sim blended seamlessly with that of the surrounding sims. This was accomplished by obtaining the RAW terrain files for the neighbouring sims and calculating the correct height values and multipliers to obtain a smooth transition.

Again, to minimise any visual impact while the new terrain was being developed, the two regions we created on TerraBella's development sim and then the resulting RAW files imported into their final locations.

Heredia

We don't mind admitting we really enjoyed working on the terrain for Heredia. One of the 'Real World' Costa Rica's defining features is that a large percentage of the area is mountainous and rugged terrain is an area TerraBella excels at.

One of the criticisms levelled at Second Life is the prevalence of flat, featureless terrains. This is due in part to the need of estate owners to maximise available land to meet the expenses associated with running a sim. We at TerraBella recognise this so were keen to demonstrate that you can have engaging, visually appealing terrain and still make best use of the available land.

The sim is divided into 16 equal 4096 square metre plots, with each plot bordered on at least on side by water. Thanks to it's rugged terrain, most plots are also separated from their neighbours by an attractive mountain range. That is not to say that residents are forced to live in isolation, far from it. The extensive river network allows easy transit between plots but should one resident's build aesthetic not meet that of another, the scope for conflict is greatly diminished.

During the testing phase of this project we encountered another positive aspect to this style of terrain. Because much of the region is obscured from view, there is a certain sense of exploration and discovery when navigating through the many waterways and mountain passes. Each plot is revealed in a steady procession giving the perception that the sim is much larger than it actually is.

Feedback from Señor Takacs and visitors to the sim indicates that this approach works well and we look forward to enriching Second Life with similar terrains in the future.