What I Want

I read reports of people trying out Occulus or logging in to High Fidelity, Linden Lab working hard on Next Gen, other improvements popping up here and there as dedicated virtual worlders work on pet projects and share the results.

I hope somebody is working on my pet desire…

Weather.

That’s all. It would be a game-changer.

Not just a way to make it rain or snow over here in this corner…but a way to make it rain or snow everywhere in the sim except inside buildings or underneath objects. My umbrella should work in this rain.

My daydream, what I want:

I want to post the seven-day forecast in the Dankoville Information Center. I want it to look just like on TV. A sun icon for Monday, clouds icon on Tuesday, rain icon for Wednesday, etc. And I want to have that weather cycle programmed into my regions.

Regulars can enjoy the changes, writers or RPers or photographers who need a certain look can plan accordingly, and when nobody else is around, I can change it to whatever I want, on a whim.

“Real” weather would have a bigger impact on quality of life inworld than anything else you can name.

For me, anyway. You may not give a damn.

If I could sit in my office or home or pub on a rainy night and just chill or look out the window or chat with a friend or write my little stories…in that rainy night atmosphere…oh man that would be so cool.

This is one of the many reasons I love Winterfell in Second Life, my home of the past five years. In Winterfell, a dark fantasy realm, we have “The Mist” a magical phenomenon of some sort. It feels like we have weather in Winterfell – fog or mist or even drizzle at times.

I’ve read about weather in virtual worlds before and whether it could be done or not…but not for sometime. I have no idea if anyone is working on that these days. But I hope someone is, so today’s virtual worlds or tomorrow’s will have weather.

I’ll need audio of rain too. A selection of storms. Right now I would choose a light spring rain.

Whatever else they come up with this year, is fine with me. But virtual weather would change what it feels like to be inworld. It changes our mindset, our sense of place. It would be huge.