The Terra Aerius was an original Second Life airship manufactured by Terra Aeronautics.
Background
At 55 meters long and 20 meters wide, the Terra Aerius was one of the first full-sized, physical airships manufactured in Second Life. Previously, construction of a physical vehicle as large as the Aerius was impossible. The airship owed its existence to three technical developments by Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life.
First was the introduction of the Havok 4 physics engine, which made it possible to enable physics on objects larger than ten meters without risking a sim crash. Secondly, at the same time that Linden Lab introduced Havok 4, they increased the permitted link distance beyond 30 meters, which opens the door for much larger link sets like the Aerius.
The third innovation was the advent of “sculpted prims”. Where previously an irregular shape had to be crafted by linking together several prims to approximate an overall shape, now builders could sculpt a shape in a 3D modelling tool and upload it into Second Life. This allowed for a vast decrease in the number of prims used in construction.
Features
- Heads-up display (HUD).
- Autopilot.
- Opening/closing side doors.
- Custom paint schemes and a wearable advertising panel.
Images
