Virtual Reality crosses into Real Life

Second Life is a project that we are involved with so that our whitewater rafting industry is not forgotten in the virtual world. Our rafting avatar has been learning Linden script, building and security measures for the lands that we own. We haven't published our location yet, though it seems every avatar knows where we are. We have already set up several landmark givers and links to the river land already.

Raftwet Jewell took apart most of the old waterfalls and streams recently. The task of a second life builder is to create the best project with the least amount of prims. This way, the property owner has a reserve of prims for future projects or for current vendors on the land. Prim count is extremely important in any build.

With water scripts, the lag can be enormous. So decreasing each scripted prim is essential to the sim. I asked our avatar how she was doing in the goal. She told me that the last two nights, she was able to recover approximately 150 prims. I'm not sure exactly how she did it, but when I saw the results, I was blown away.

The water looks so real and the waterfalls are awesome. We will be publishing the location of the builder's land. It is a place where our company avatars practice building and scripting. They have essentially taken over the project completely. Those of us in the real world are having difficulty understanding exactly how they do this. All I know is that the place looks incredible and visitors have increased 10-fold.

We'll keep you posted as the land gets done. Now if we can only get the avatars to stop going to all these parties... they might get done quicker. Meanwhile, visit us in real world on the web for all your California rafting trips!

Website Updates

The new home page for W.E.T. River Trips was loaded recently using a 3-column template. It was hard to look at the new pages without missing the old one. So we put a link to the old page for people who might need the comfort of the old one.

The new format is divided into seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter. Yes, even winter. We find that many of our loyal client base loves to take a stab at winter boating. It's not for everyone definitely. It's cold and usually raining. But the river is deserted and spectacularly beautiful after a storm. Wildlife is usually roaming before the real cold sets in, so beavers and hawks and turtles roam the river corridor.

The seasons are unique in that each season specific rivers will run. Early spring, you have the incredible northern rivers running from spring melt and rainstorms. This is prime whitewater rafting season. Then in summer, dammed rivers kick in with controlled releases and great whitewater for the majority of the public. And fall, with most crowds tucked away, a time for wilderness rafting trips on multiple day excursions. Winter? Just for the whitewater paddling enthusiast... the junky of the paddling sport.

Drop us off a note if you have suggestions for the site. Trying to make this dinosaur of the oldest white water rafting site on the net has been quite a nightmare. We figured if we make changes and modifications to each of the old pages, we may be done by August 2008. Ha!