Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

In the spirit of new beginnings, today I did a small renovation at Encantada.
Things were getting crowded in the spring/summer area and well, I've started work on some "Fantasy" items. I didn't have a good spot for them so I've made a new area for "Enchanted" items.
I've moved just a few things over there already and will have a new release in the next couple of days.
I'll be keeping Halloween in the fall area and Easter in the spring area for now.

Hope you have a great start to 2022 :)

'Stella Polaris' opened in 2020 in Kroatan, but as you can see, she is now beautifying Offworld.
The bubbles above the rocks contain images and landmarks to other beautiful regions in Offworld.
* * *
'Stella Polaris' wurde 2020 in Kroatan eröffnet, aber wie ihr sehen könnt, verschönert sie jetzt Offworld.
Die Seifenblasen über den Felsen enthalten Bilder und Landmarken zu anderen schönen Regionen in Offworld.

When I was building my home sims, I discovered I needed rocks and well, I couldn't find what I wanted. Hence, I made rocks and a sky island, I also made some for the beach with flat tops for sunbathing. You never know where you will want to sunbathe.

Well, I made the male goldfinch and afterwards I felt like I really should have done the female as well. So, I did. My apologies to anyone that took the box yesterday, I added the females to the same box. I just felt like he looked lonely.

Well, I released a novelty item today. Every once in a while (well, maybe more often than that) I get obsessed with something goofy. I always thought stick men were cute, don't know why, I just do. So, I made animesh and avatar stick people. There are regular ruth size and also tiny versions. I put them on the second floor of the shop building right in front of the elevator. They are dancing in the landing zone purely for my entertainment :).

The Art Factory is about art and artists. At The Art Factory, we display art; we appreciate art; we learn about art; and, we promote art. We have over a dozen galleries dedicated to in-world artists, where they show their innovative creations. As such, we are continuing our feature - Meet the Artist. This week, we interviewed Antonia Ling, owner of Antonia Ling Gallery, Inspired By Gallery, Metropolis Poster Shop, and a 2001 themed gallery.

Antonia, tell us about yourself and your art.
“It's not easy to talk about myself. What have I to say about my person? Not much... really. I like photography and I like to photograph. I love to photograph old churches when I'm in Denmark. Or ships in the harbor... often details. Not the big ones, I prefer little old boats of the local fishermen. I like to photograph old cars and colorful flowers. I love art from the 1920s to today, I love a lot of the german BAUHAUS and their Master like Kandinsky, Alberts or Lazlo Moholy-Nagy.”

What are you doing currently?
“I try to photograph a bit. At the moment I deal with cyanotype. It fascinates me...”

What is your inspiration for art in world?
“I do what I do because I like to do it. When one in a million likes it... I'm happy.”

Thank you so much for your interview, Ms. Ling. We love your ongoing contributions to The Factory.

It's really not that hard to be ranked #4 on OpenSim when you plant 8 avatars in your region and just keep them there. I really think that is being very deceitful and skewing the OpenSim numbers to raise yourself in the rank. Regions that have been found to have avatars that are just put there 24/7 should have the region deleted and it should not be allowed. Not only is this grid owner stealing people's regions but now they are lying about who is actually occupying their region to raise themselves in the ranks. Awful!

Come for the freebies. Stay for the sites! Take your time exploring this beautiful sim, filled with picturesque views, large forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and beaches. Don't forget to visit Santa along the way.

JAPANESE MAPLE TREES PACK with animated leaves ** FREE and FULL PERM ** Available at BOX 02 at FOREST AREA (ground). Many options of trees sizes and seasonal textures (spring, summer, 8 kinds of autumn and 2 for winter). Also included leaf particles rezer for this time of year. Enjoy :)

SIX KINDS of sculpted wild grasses and weeds for ur place! ALL FREE and FULLPERM at GARDEN AREA BOX 01 with seasonal textures (and this time I put the standart size and also the reduced 128x128 pixels one that helps reduce graphic lag when many are rezed).

I had the pleasure of attending one of Gertie's sets. What I loved the most about her was her upbeat and exuberant personality. I wanted to create something to remember her by. This charm bracelet has a music note with her name. Free-Full Perms
hop://continuum.Outworldz.net:8002/Monentes%20Jewelry/114/...

A statement:

This is a world for avatars. If you put your avatar face in the profile, instead of the standard default picture, you get much more reactions and attention for your posts here in the forum. A standard profile picture does not specifically encourage you to open an account and take a closer look. If a profile is not maintained, the contributions and grid are usually the same. It takes effort, patience and perseverance to get people on his grid. Action = reaction. This is never quick! ;-)

Governor Heron

***

Eine Feststellung:

Das hier ist eine Welt für Avatare. Wenn Du Dein Avatar Gesicht ins Profil gibst, an Stelle des Standardes Vorgabe Bildes, bekommst Du wesentlich mehr Reaktionen und Aufmerksamkeit für Deine Posts hier im Forum. Ein Standard Profil Bild animiert nicht speziell einen Account zu öffnen und näher anzusehen. Wenn ein Profil nicht gepflegt wird, sind meistens auch die Beiträge und Grid so. Um Leute auf sein Grid zu bringen, braucht es Anstrengung, Geduld und Ausdauer. Aktion = Reaktion. Das geht nie auf die schnelle! ;-)

Governor Heron

**** OPENSIM ONLINE WEATHER SYSTEM V8 UPDATED RELEASE *****
AVAILABLE FOR FREE AND FULLPERM AT WEATHER SECTOR

************** WHAT’S NEW IN V8 COMPARED TO V7? ************
When a city is selected, the controller now displays a message if the city name is misspelled in English.

EEP ADD-ON: The EEP sky now changes automatically according to the current weather condition. Manual changes are no longer required. (check READ ME notecard for further info)


IF YOU HAVE ALREADY REZZED THE OPENSIM ONLINE WEATHER SYSTEM IN YOUR REGION, YOU ONLY NEED TO REPLACE THE WEATHER CONTROLLER AND REZ THE EEP ADD-ON FOR VERSION V8.

All other scripts remain the same and will continue to work correctly (as long as they are not older than V6).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
READ ME MANUAL (Also included on vendor):
Opensim Online Weather System V8 🌦
Bring your OpenSim region to life with real-time, dynamic weather!

✨ Features
🌍 Live weather updates for any city worldwide
🌡 Temperature shown in both °C and °F
🕒 Local time (AM/PM and 24 hours)
⛅ Realistic conditions: rain, snow, drizzle, thunderstorm; EEP SKY changes automatically on your region!
🎨 Automatic weather textures and matching sounds
🕒 Customizable update interval
💡 Low-lag and optimized for OpenSim
🛠 Easy setup via a dialog menu

Transform your region instantly — rez the system, enter your city and API key, and enjoy dynamic weather all year round!

📦 WHAT’S INCLUDED ON VENDOR V8:

- SCRIPTS USED V8 (BOX);
- SOUNDS USED V8 (BOX);
- TEXTURES USED V8 (BOX);
-LOGO USED V8 (BOX);
- WEATHER SCULPT SET V8 (BOX);
- OpenSIM Online EEP ADDON (SLAVE) V8 01 prim;
- OpenSIM Online Weather Display Board V8 (SLAVE) 11 prims;
- OpenSIM Online Weather Controller V8 (MASTER) 01 prim;
- OpenSIM ONLINE THUNDERBOX V8 (SLAVE)(INVISIBLE by default);
- OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE MAIN);
- OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE SLAVE);
- OpenSIM Online Northern Lights V8 (SLAVE);
- OpenSIM Online Cloud V8 (SLAVE);
- OPENSIM WEATHER CODES UPDT 10JAN26 (NOTECARD);
- OPENSIM Thunder Caller (MASTER) HUD V8 (add me)";
- READ ME PLEASE!! (ENGLISH) v.10JAN26 (NOTECARD).


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⚙️ HOW TO USE
1 – Get your API Key
API = Application Programming Interface. It lets the weather script fetch live data from a forescast website.
Steps:
Go to: https://openweathermap.org
Sign up or log in (website will prompt you to paid subscription but choose the free one!!)
Open your profile → API keys
Create a key → copy it

2 – Rez the Weather Sculpts (You will find them inside the box "WEATHER SCULPT SET V8 (BOX)".

Rez the weather sculpts across your region - around buildings etc -
I recommend going on infra-red mode (Firestorm) by clicking CONTROL+ALT+T.
Select all sculpts →LINK THEM ALL and insert on the root prim (just select them all) and insert the script called "OpenSIM ONLINE SCULPT V8 (SLAVE)". (*)

(*) THIS SCRIPT AND ALL OTHERS USED ON THIS SYSTEM can be found at the box called "SCRIPTS USED V8 (BOX)".

3- Insert some of the textures included on the "TEXTURES FOR SCULPTS V8 (BOX)" that can be found inside the box "SCRIPTS USED V8 (BOX)"
Textures on the root prim of the linked sculpts MUST be "clear,r1,r2,r3,r4,sr1,sr2,sr3,s1,s2,s3 and s4 to script work perfectly. By default, all pieces of sculpts have already the needed textures so to not worry :)

4 –SET UP THE SYSTEM:
Rez the controller "OpenSIM Online Weather Controller V8 (MASTER) 02 prims" and click it. A dialog menu (blue menu) will prompt:
-> Choose the name of the city (English only - other languages or misspelled, script won`t fetch information). If a city name like Springfield (USA) is selected and there are 5 on that country, script will select a random one - on these cases, type "Springfield,IL,US" (Illinois, United States) so script will fetch information from the correct place. Another option is also select by lat/lon mode (latitude/longitude).
-> Click again, and insert the API KEY generated by the website.
-> Click once more, now insert the interval. and that s it.
It will send information to all soundboxes, sculpts, thunderboxes rezzed if in within same region!
Rez the display board next to the controller "OpenSIM Online Weather Display Board V8 (SLAVE) 11 prims"
-> Click the controller and click the "Update Now" button.
This action updates the info on the display board.

***** Please be patient. All changes on the dialog box, script may take up to 15 seconds to fetch the information!*****************************

5 – Optional: Add Sound & Thunder & Cloud & Nothern Lights:
Plays drizzle, rain, and blizzard sounds when told by the controller..
If no bad weather: plays birds (day) or crickets (night).

In version V8, there are now two types of SoundBoxes:

OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE MAIN);
OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE SLAVE).

How to set up:

-Rez as many “OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE SLAVE)” objects as needed in your region (optional);
- Link them all together;
- Rez only one “OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE MAIN)”;
- Link all the previously linked SoundBoxes to this one.

Important: For this to work, “OpenSIM ONLINE SOUNDBOX V8 (SLAVE MAIN)” must be the root prim (the last object selected when linking). It is the box that contains the script.

And voilà — you now use one script for all SoundBoxes, and the sound will be emitted from each of them in near-perfect synchronization.

(ps) I recommend rezing them close to buildings or common public areas. DO NOT rez the sounboxes too close to each other. Believe me ,Spam sound will be unpleasant for the visitors and it won`t sound natural to your ears!

SOUNDBOXES NOW HAVE THE NIGHT SOUND (THE CRICKETS) SUPPRESSION!
* The script checks the object’s latitude and the current month!
* Tropics (≤ latitude 30°) → night sounds always play.
* Polar regions (≥ latitude 60°) → night sounds are always blocked.
* Mid-latitudes (latitude 30°–60°) → gradual suppression:

* In winter months (depending on latitude), night sounds are blocked.
* In summer months, "night" sounds play normally.
* The script stops "night" sound if suppression applies; "day","rain", "drizzle" and "snow" sounds always play normally.

-> Opensim ONLINE THUNDERBOX V8 (SLAVE):
Plays a thunder sound and flashes lightning when told by the controller.
When rezzed, by default it is invisible, please go to infra-red mode (control alt+t) to see and resize it to your needs.
PS. To test it, please add as a hud (or just add it) the "OPENSIM
Thunder Caller (MASTER) HUD" and click it. Once you see the size and position are ok, this script is no longer necessary.
Be patient. Thunder sound and the lighting will show on a random interval of time from 10 seconds to 05 minutes.

-> OpenSIM ONLINE CLOUD V8 (SLAVE):
4x4 sized sculpt cloud to rez in your region - It will show when the weather conditions told by the controller when it asks to. Otherwise it will remain invisible.
No setup needed

-> OpenSIM ONLINE Aurora Borealis V8 (SLAVE).
4x4 sized mesh to rez in your region - it will show only at nights (sun position OpenSIM ONLINE EEP ADDON (SLAVE) V8
This add-on automatically changes the region EEP sky according to the weather conditions received from the OpenSim Online Weather Controller.

1. Rez the object named:
"OpenSIM Online EEP ADDON (SLAVE) V8 01 prim"
2. Place it anywhere in the region.
3. Ensure the following EEP settings are present inside the prim inventory:
TCLEAR
PCLEAR
PCLOUDY
CLOUDY
FOGGY

4. The script will listen for weather data sent by the Weather Controller and automatically apply the corresponding EEP sky.

PERMISSIONS REQUIRED
The object must be rezzed by the Region Owner or by a user with Estate Manager rights.
Otherwise the script will not have permission to change the region environment.

IMPORTANT NOTES
• This add-on changes only the region EEP sky preset according to the weather condition.
• It does NOT modify the region time offset.
• It does NOT change the day length or sun cycle.
• These parameters remain controlled by the region’s existing environment settings.

OPERATION
Once rezzed and running, the add-on works automatically.
No configuration or user interaction is required.


📌 Notes

-Keep your API key private — free plan allows ~1,000 calls/day (enough if you set 15-minute intervals).
-Make sure city name is spelled correctly in English.
After changing settings or resetting the script, it may take up to 15 seconds for the menu to reload and fetch the new information to display.
BE PATIENT!

Don’t worry — your settings are saved inside the prim in case of script replacement, script or SIM reset!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQ

1 – What does “Master” and “Slave” mean?

Master script = The boss.
Goes online to fetch live weather.
Sends the result (via channel messages) to all connected objects.
Slave script = The worker.
Never goes online (saves lag). Just listens for the Master’s messages and updates textures, sounds, or lights.

📡 Example:
Master says: “Weather code 502 = heavy rain”.
All Slaves hear it → they switch to rain textures and respective sound.

👉 In short:
Master = speaks.
Slave = listens.
Channel = the walkie-talkie frequency they use.
􀀀
2 – Does the script works on a certain distance or on the whole region?
- It works SIM-wide, no matter if your SIM is 1x1 or 12x12 or sculpts are rezed 1,000 meters high. it will work!

3- Can I rez more than 1 cluster of sculpts on my region?
Yes! Here an example on what I do on my 8x8 SIM called NORGE: 8x8 VAR with 4 cities, so I put the "OpenSIM ONLINE SCULPT V8 (SLAVE)" on each of the clusters!. no matter how many cluster you have on your region. If playing the same city, they ALL call just a single API from website!
SO LOW LAG FOR YOUR REGION!

4- I rezzed the SOUNDBOXES but I only hear the birds or just hear the crickets?
- Make sure the sky (EEP) is timezoned. If you play day on your sim (static sky), script reads the sun position on the sky. If sun is =>8 degrees above the horizon ,script will be told its DAY!

5- I rezzed the "OpenSIM Online Cloud V8 (SLAVE)" and I don`t see anything!
- If you have rezzed the controller before, if it fetches info from website and it says it not cloudy", the "OpenSIM Online Cloud V8 (SLAVE)" will remain invisible (100% transparent). - One still can see it on infra red mode (CONTROL+ALT+T)

6- Why all these boxes with the scripts, sounds, textures? Do I need them?
- It just in case one deletes something by accident so one can always recover it. Also, I do it for preventing assets lost -specially if one is from other grid!

7- I rezzed my controller, set all scupts and soundbox. I select city but nothing work. What could it be?
- Make sure city is well written in English. Also, it happens that on 1st time one rezzes the controller, it can act like this. so just reset script!
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🎉 Final Notes

This script was originally created years ago for my region by my friend Satyr Aeon (aka Malaka) and now it has been fully enhanced by ChatGPT and DeepSeek AI to make it easier for the average user.
Special thx Cyberglo for feedback about message given when city misspelled or not found.
Enjoy and share it — always FREE & FULL PERM!
— Jimmy Olsen

*** NEW RELEASE*****
SPECIAL EEP SKY SET - VULCAN

Bring the awe-inspiring beauty to your OpenSim region!

This ready-to-use EEP sky pack includes **one stunning version**:
* **SPECIAL EEP SKY - VULCAN (ST):** A static, always-visible sky.

**Easy to apply** to your parcel or entire region in just a few clicks. Perfect for creating a magical or simply breathtaking atmosphere.

--- AVAILABLE FOR FREE AND FULL PERM AT EEP STORE (BOX 08 or use Teleport "EEP" as destination)