Press this link to visit Valladolid Virtual .
Press this link to see the presentation video .
Presentation
The City Council of Valladolid, on the occasion of the centenary of the Town Hall, is hosting its new location inside the metaverse Second Life (c): Valladolid Virtual .
Urban landscape has been simplified to fit better inside SL, but the spatial feeling is absolutely plausible: the huge and empty space of the square, typical arcade where people go for a walk, different balconies and windows... the air in the square, strolling, reminds us Valladolid.
The square is thought to be, as the real one, a meeting point, strolling, chatting place, full of activities and representation symbols.
One of the aims that we chased in this Virtual Valladolid was that it was inmediately recognized both for its inhabitants, who can perceive its singularities (the colour of the floor, the fences in a balcony, the face of a clock...) as for the one that has been visiting Valladolid just for once (the colour of the façades around the square, its window repetitions and variations, the columns, the arcade...)
For the one that doesn't have been in the city and is looking for information, the different buildings shaping the square will be very helpful: they host different themes and contents, showing scheduled events for the year, museums, monuments and Valladolid activities.
The City Hall and its centenary trigger this project. Iside them, main rooms appear very detailed to be SL but nothing compares the fussed over real ornaments.
In Valladolid main office you can contact Valladolid Dreamscape, the project enterprising, leave him a message in his mailbox or meet him.
For a quick guide about the city, interesting web links, touristic videos and a global vision, the building you have to visit is “Edificio Resumen”, which is our showcase
The other buildings in the square are organized thematically: SEMINCI (International week of cinema in Valladolid), city museums, info about theather and other artistic activities...
Urban environment
In the 256x256 meters available, we have reproduced the Plaza Mayor (main square) and the beggining of the street called: Acera de San Francisco, Calle de Santiago, Calle de la Pasión, Calle de Jesús, Calle de Calixto Fernández de la Torre, Calle de la Lencería, Calle de Viana and Calle de Ferrari.
In terms of construction, we have used a midle level detail, because of the objects limit stablished per simulator. Also, we have tried to reduce the number of sculpted prims used so that the loading time for the whole complex is not too long. It has to be considered that, for a better understanding of the landscape, draw distance, in user preferences, should be, at least, 200 meters.
The Town Hall
In the Town Hall, the piano nobile (main level) and the access level have been built. Exteriors have been modelled in a kind of abstract way, simple and plain 3d textured solids.
Some of the larger and importan rooms are more detailed than the others: the entrance, the plenary room, the receptions room and the Mayor office. Overall, the ornaments in these rooms are very rich and we have choosen mixing textures and 3d modelling for the ceilings, paintings, arches... Mobiliary has been made specifically for each room, inspired in the real one.
Main Office
This is a simple space, clear and open, that has been thought to receive visitants and to allow administrative and marketing activities. It has an office desk, control panel of scripted items in the sim and photographer zone. In this place is where the posters that have been shown in the City have been made.
Valladolid in short
This building will be hosting all the activities and videos scheduled for Valladolid. This is the place to find quick and useful information.
Rest of buildings
Buildings around the square have been thought to have more to do with the second life experience than with the RL direct replica. Their interiors are clear and open, with a single level from ground to ceiling, separated using furniture or special partitions that allow movement and interacting in a more fluid way than in a floors, stairs and windows RL-style building.
The complex of Acera de Recoletos, that inside is a unique and huge space, hosts info about Valladolid museums: Patio Herreriano, Museo de la Ciencia... here you can see videos about the city in mural display walls, chat while sitting in the couches with other visiters and pick up the gifts made specially for Valladolid Virtual.
SEMINCI, international cinema week in Valladolid, has its meeting place in a building: posters expo and meeting place for cinema addicts!
It's odd that inside the building in the corner of Calle Santiago and Calle de la Pasión is where there are hosted the street activities for all the year: theater in the street, sand sculptures...
Near the City Hall, there is a photographic expo that shows us all the charm of the city.
The Valladolid Holly Week is one of the most importants in the country and, as so, it has been represented here in SL as photo exposition.
For info about the Teatro Calderón and the Auditorio Miguel Delibes, the place to visit is the building in the corner of Calle Manzana and the square.
Design process
Main obstacles when reproducing reality in Second Life are its own buildind and scripting limits: maximum number of prims per simulator (15.000 in a 256x256 meters space) and primitives or sculpties building. In this project we have had to simplify geometries and use texture visual tricks.
We started from real urban plans to sit buildings in the island using Autocad, a program used by architecture and engineering. We draw offline and later we imported it into Second Life using our tool Henshin.
