Just back from 14 days at sea... ahh. The flooded mailbox says "U gotta try that new Moth", so I did...
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| A moth with wing(s) |
Compared to the
first virtual Moth this one is a bit more detailed. That's because of the mesh technology not being available back then. Another difference is that this one has a wing. I am not entirely sure I'd prefer a wing in RL. Wings are more expensive and much more fragile than sails.
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| Moth-cruising |
However, in SL that really doesn't matter. There is no damage done no matter how you crash. Yet. Another difference is that this one runs on a modded
BWIND engine. This has implications for serious sailors as BWIND has difficulties implementing the full set of environmental quirks needed for a full sail simulator. Currents, waves, shadows and more...
See this...
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| It's working! |
However, kudos for taking on a task like this. Building a new boat with different characteristics such as a foiler isn't excactly easy. The new Moth seems to work allright, though the sailing feels a bit shaky. Oh, and it is way too easy to get it up and foiling. The windangle and windspeed doesn't seem to matter much. The balance is also too easy to handle, both in foiling and nonfoiling "mode". Still, this boat deserves more investigation and tests...
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| Size matters |
Xeriko commented that it looks too big. I can only agree, so here's a shot of a real Moth. The person carrying the moth is around 1.80m tall. No, it's not me. I am holding the camera. It is a very small boat that easily fits into a box that easily fits on the roof of even the smallest cars... The real Moth is a single seater. It seems the Dolphin Moth is meant for two people??
Once again, I'd like to stress that this is not about the new Moth being bad or wrong or anything. I haven't given it a thorough testride, but it appears to be great work. It's just a littlebit too big to feel like a real Moth.
PS:
OMG! Totally unrelated. Totally amazing :-D
Since I'm relatively new to SL sailing, I didn't know there was another (original) Moth, so thanks for the link to that post. BTW the old one looks more on par with the RL Moth size (at least the ones I've seen) than the new one, which looks too oversize. Hope this new moth is scaled down to RL proportions in a future update.
ReplyDeleteHi Xeriko! You are right. It looks too big, and that was my very first thought as I sat in or on it. Perhaps the builder has a very big Avatar. I dunno but I will find out :-D I've added another picture to the post to indicate size...
DeletePatience. The creator is working up a new set of scripts. (There are only two, which is pretty amazing considering sail scripts haven't changed in a good while, particularly Bwind.) Also, the scale is being, well, scaled down a bit. Right now, its too fast, I sailed on a LCC cruise last weekend and the next boat to arrive at the party place was 20 minutes behind me, its just too godam fast but the issue is being addressed. I'm confident the kinks will be worked out on this fun lil sailer. I had no idea that a Moth had already been made in SL.
ReplyDeleteThanx. I will be patient while I am eagerly waiting for the next version. I just sailed the latest version, and the size is now right; The speed is still too high, and the default mode is way too easy. Is fewer scripts always better? Not so sure about that, but simplicity is always good I suppose. BTW that other Moth was built by Mothgirl, probably back in 2009 or so. I don't remember. It still runs good.
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