Introduction
This page is created to collect all those maps created for aviation in Second Life and give recognition to its creators and to the owners of the airports for to build and maintain them.
We ask for the help of all those who like aviation for discover to the creator of maps that we have not yet identified; Likewise, you can upload your own or old maps, which you still have in your inventories.
In some pages of Second Life I have been able to see very nice maps, created by the Lindens, on the origins of the first continents that were made, having these also fit in this wiki. Of course, we can add charts of navigation or for the airports, and maps we was used how reference for know better this virtual world.
Those who wish to collaborate are requested to indicate the following:
- the name of the map if it has it (or to which region or airport it refers)
- the name of the creator of the map
- the date of creation of the map (if the approximate one is not known)
- the name of the avatar that brings it
Thanks for help me.
Ananda Ghost, mapper.
Maps of Zack84 Burton (Fox of Doom)
I believe that Zack was the first cartographer for the SL aviation, indicating in its panels, full of luminous points, the contours of the main continents and the relative position of the airport and its name; when you clicked on a luminous point, it opened its web page where he gave indications about the airport, the best approximation, its altitude and more complementary information so that we, the poor pilots, could make a flight without meeting with the ban lines, and crash in the attempt. At the last page of maps info, i see this information written by the own Zack...His history was this...
"2007 to Early 2009
The first generations of SL Airport Maps were created in mid-2007. They featured the design seen here. Until mid-2008 the maps were not widely circulated and updates occurred almost entirely at random as new airports were discovered. Originally, pilots would click a marker and a notecard filled with details about the airport selected would be delivered. Attached to the notecard would be a landmark allowing the pilot to teleport there directly, or use the mini-map as GPS to navigate to the airport in-flight. Early maps had individual scripts in each marker and required a great deal of sim resources to function. The original maps were also quite large. This made them unpopular with smaller airports as they would not fit easily into small terminals.
Early 2009 to Late 2009
By Early 2009 a change was needed to the map's information panel. The map was now being distributed to more than 50 pilots and airport owners and copies of the map were being included in aircraft builds of the time. The overall size of the map was also reduced as it was becoming difficult to find airports with terminals large enough to accommodate it. Also included in this map revision was the ability to click the small red button at the top of the information panel on the right. Clicking this button would provide you with a notecard containing questions frequently asked about the map. This replaced the notecard that had previously been included in each update box and allowed pilots who did not own a copy of the map to read this information in-world for the first time.
Late 2009 to Mid 2010
In late 2009 a change came again. The grid in the lower right was replaced by the launch of a new website... Clicking the large red button allowed you to reach a menu full of various options including the ability to add airports to the map, update the map, read Frequently asked Questions and see news about future map updates. Most of this information was being distributed in the form of documents published online. Markers still provided information when clicked in the form of notecards, however for the first time these markers were now using a single linked script reducing the overall lag produced by the machine to zero at idle. This change allowed more pilots and airport owners than ever to rez the map and keep it rezzed. By the time this map was retired the number of update subscribers increased to 200 grid-wide.
Mid 2010 to Early 2011
This era brought about a substantial change to the map. Nicknamed the "bumpy map" by pilots; captured map textures, which had not been updated since 2007 were replaced with new ones. Also, they were combined with SL topographical information to produce an accurate view of mountains, valleys and seas. The information button was removed and the map stopped using Notecards for the first time. Now when clicking on the map, it directed you to this website in world containing all the various details about each airport and a SLurl or link to the airport within Second Life. Monthly subscribers to the map now reached nearly 400. Around this time, regular twice-monthly updates became the standard on the 1st and 15th.
Early to Late 2011
With the arrival of 2011 came more changes to the map. The quality of the textures were improved and this allowed the size to be reduced yet again. For the first time the map could now easily fit into most airport hangars and terminals. The information panel in the lower right was changed and simplified. Also in 2011 came the change to the various online pages designed for each airport. Now the SLurl for each runway's takeoff and landing site would be marked to make it easier for pilots to map. Updates in 2011 were reduced to Once per month, rather than twice per month and the number of subscribers increased dramatically to 730.
Late 2011 to Now
The current version of the SL Airport Map was introduced in late 2011. The map was changed to resemble more of a 1920's era chart, with sepia toned photographic appearance and an Art-Deco information panel. The individual markers were changed from colour-coded to represent each continent, to simple clear bulbs and the name of each continent was included on the map its self.
By early 2012 flying in SL had declined dramatically from its golden era in 2011. It continues to remain a most popular activity in-world with almost 50 airports registered with the map service (down from 75 in 2011). As of February 2012 the number of update subscribers had reached 1,000 for the first time and continues to grow. Updates to the map are now on more of an as-needed basis and often a new revision will not be distributed for many months. This is largely due to the ability of airports to be updated online without the need for a revised map.
I hope you enjoyed this History of the SL Airport Map! Many thanks to my friends and fellow pilots who have assisted me throughout the mapping process."
Maps of Lobofeo Kobaleinen
When I entered to Second Life in early 2009, my interests during the first year were varied (medieval knight, space pilot, explorer of new lands), until I looked at the sky and thought I saw clouds; weird, fly up, to 200 meters high, and I could see how a huge fog surrounded me ... CLOUDS! Once I had tried all the archaic artifacts to fly that people had built, I discovered New Horizons airport, and there I met to Lobofeo: a kind and smiling wolf, within the species of furries, and with the same language of me (Spanish); we talked long and hard about his project of creating air route maps, being for me a teacher, since he told me that he was a civilian pilot in commercial airlines at Real Life; when at the beginning of 2012 he had to leave Second Life to devote himself to his work in real life, I decided to follow his path and begin to build maps, creating new routes and expanding the small territory that he covered with his air routes; when I discovered what could be done with scripts, it was a whole world of possibilities ... But that is another story, which I will tell on my own maps.
Maps of Dark Larkspur
He say at your page of marketplace: "thanks to the SL AIRPORT MAP people for making their Map System and Board ; without which ; I never would have attempted putting together my collection of map plates for public use....... Text based information was 'copied & pasted' from the SL Airport Map websites, to provide the SL Aviator with a 'seamless' map system (Ver. 2012.01.17).."
If you like see all your work, this is the link to marketplace.
Maps of Ananda Ghost
Hey! That's me! As I said, when Lobofeo stopped making maps, I started doing them; my vision was greater (also the time I had, since I had been fired from work) and thought of making a map with the airports of the great continent "SBNCG" (Satori, Blake Sea, Nautilus, Corsica y Gaeta V); was a work of months, but at last I could do something similar to what Zack was doing and, at the same time, follow with Lobofeo's work: I was use the ICAO codes (and invent new ones for those that haven´t codes) and use the llDetectedTouchUV function to activate a single part of the texture, avoiding to put dozens of small prims, and just put two (the frame, so that it was nice, and the scripting information panel).
After that, maps with safe routes arrived, making routes that periodically checked me, being in this time where I gained with sweat the wings of the pilot, since they were months of constant flight trying the routes, designing textures, taking photos and compiling airport Information and of its owner.
It was a time of study and research: in LSL (Linden Scripting Language), in image editing, I also updated my knowledge in mathematics, aeronautics, 3D modeling, digital video recording and some other things.
Since 2012 I have created several maps and I have seen the birth and death of so many airports that I almost do not remember the amount (recently, in mid-2017, I discovered that Baitoushan, one of SL's oldest airports,closed and was a great pain for me), but I feel happy with what I do, even though I know it is as ephemeral and fragile as a wet paper in an abundant river.
Not to be too tiring, I put only a few more data: from 2012 and until mid-2013 I was doing air maps; from mid-2013 until 2014 I wanted to disappear, and I gave life to a new avatar, named Digitalis Purpurea (one of the most poisonous plants that exist) and I dedicate myself to make a map of maritime navigation, covering all the great SBNCG continent for six months; I go out from Second Life for several months, until December 2014, returning to resume the air map project, but in January 2015 I found this blessed wiki and to Freezing Sorbet, its creator, and a few months later I found Kelly Shergood and to her online map, with transponder included, which made me abandon my old projects, and now dedicate myself integrally to the projects of these two hero (at least for me) of the aviation in SL.
I leave here some links and photos of some of my activities.
- Olds maps: this page is closed for long time, but you can visit and download maps if like.
- Airway, Route & Waypoint: it was my first project here, but i cancel it (very hard and ungrateful)
- Some photos and maps at Flickr
Map of Kelly Shergood
Talking about Kelly in reference to aviation in SL, is like talking about Nikola Tesla or Albert Einstein; possibly for a computer genius or a 3D graphics designer Linden Lab just be a girl with good skills, but I would never have thought to apply the maps of Google Earth with the map of Second Life, as all the two-way communication frame of the transponder that takes the avatar to external servers and to the map page; well, from here there will be many possibilities, and surely for someone who knows how the flight simulation programs, especially the best known, Flight Simulator, could connect a multimedia system where you can listen to the pilots and the air controller both inside and outside the world; there are many possibilities, but I do not know the economic cost of such a company, so time to time. But, for me, the year 2015 was the year in which all change in SL Aviation.
I leave here the link to the radar website, to the transponder info at the wiki and the marketplace page where the transponder can be purchased.
Maps of James David Rae
I was talking with James in 2016, and said he was going to create maps for the company InterBlake Sea Islands, and make all the new codes for airports, based on the IATA code used for the airlines ... Nice job and nice maps.
Maps at New Kadath Lighthouse Art Gallery
If you like see a big collection of maps, at New Kadath Lighthouse Art Gallery there is a big exposition, and we recommended you visiting it for know the SL history.
