Landscapes Unlimited: Magnificent Vistas in virtual 3D worlds

For the first time we're organizing a photo contest. The contest takes place at our new showcase region Landscapes Showcase , that we've acquired to demonstrate out latest work to you. You can find more information about the contest in our contest Flickr group (please read Group Description carefully). Total prize money is L$ 120,000, of which L$ 80,000 are granted by a jury and L$ 40,000 by popularity, based on the number of faves on Flickr. The contest ends on May 31, 2021.  Please also follow Sominel Edelman on Flickr for previews of new landscape items. Good luck on the contest, we look forward to seeing your work!

On our new region Landscapes Showcase  you can now see our latest work. Right now, it is dedicated to the release of the Alpine Ridge Mega Surround, the first in a new series of landscapes. Isha (Sablina Resident) made an amazing hilltop village, called La Vallée, in the center of the alpine valley. The village is past its glory days, but the tiny train station is still functional and the few houses are occupied, even though the pathways are slowly overgrowing with wildflowers and bushes. Numerous pets and some wildlife roam around, some deer come down from the mountains to graze the green meadows. There are so many spots to simply sit and enjoy, to wind down form a busy day and talk to a good friend... You're welcome to spend as much time as you want there. You will probably find La Vallée in a Spring daytime EEP setting, but don't be surprised if someday soon the stars and planets will come out, and the snowy mountain tops will shine brightly in the silvery moonlight... Flic...

I've always wondered if I could somehow make my landscapes bigger, so they would offer a more immersive experience. Over the last year I've been experimenting with some really huge 2x2x2 km mega prims. The problem that I encountered, though, was that close to the sim the resolution of both the textures and the landscape shape was too low. To deal with that, I started to use the 2 km mega prims for the outer ring and the "ordinary" 1 km mega prims for the inner ring. After making them seamlessly fit together, this resulted in my new Mega Surrounds. Incorporating the 2 km mega prims has several advantages. Mountain tops can be further away, and because of that they can be much higher, even without unnaturally steep slopes. This also gives room for a an inner ring with gentle slopes, rising to the foot of the mountains in the distance. The trees can be a bit further away (they look better that way), and it also makes it possible to create more open space in the middle fo...