JULY and AUGUST RECAP. abstractions, colors, and light.

05 september 2026, saturday

I slowed down a lot from the end of June till August, as I have been preoccupied with medical treatments throughout the past two months. This has severely impacted the amount of time and energy I can dedicate to being in virtual reality, which depressed me and continues to depress me admittedly. What has made my months brighter has been the few moments I could spend with friends here and there.

The release of Nucleus II excited me because myself and my friends have thoroughly enjoyed being in and hanging out around the first world, Nucleus, and seeing that there would be a release intrigued us. The premise of the original Nucleus world was that players could traverse through the giant brutalist building with floaties in a series of waterslides and tubes, taking players to abstract, if anything, slightly strange and liminal sights. In preparation for the release of the sequel, my friends and I visited the first world eagerly. I have had plenty of fun memories in this world, especially as it was one that I was introduced to on a random weekend with friends years prior. There were times in the past that we would sit by the giant pool in the main area, or scream in joy throughout the fast-moving waterways. Nucleus does immersive movement quite well, making players in the world feel like they're really rushing at high speeds and exploring a vast, seemingly never-ending building and landscape.

Nucleus II is very much the same as its predecessor, if not more somehow. Players start in the same lobby as they did in Nucleus, but instead of approaching the stairs to proceed through the world, the wall behind the settings panel explodes open once you get close to it. The wall opens up to the outside world, a neighborhood next to the brutalist waterpark. We are seemingly urged to go home.

Immediately the difference in theme strikes me, as the first Nucleus world beckoned us to familiarize ourselves with the strange and the unique right from the get go. In Nucleus II, the intro brings us to this mundane looking suburban neighborhood, the only house different from it down the road from the waterpark has its car beeping loudly and the entrance leading to rows of empty shelves. I found myself immediately interested in how the intro felt like a commentary on how everyday life and living is perceived. Maybe there's a part of us that will always crave to explore and see something different, something peculiar, or something out of this world.

A core part of Nucleus II is the hub, which separates parts of the world through different colored waterways. The first time I went with friends, we randomly picked whichever watereways to go through and immediately regretted it as we missed some things at the end. In our second run through, we opted to go from left to right so no one would get left behind and everyone would know the order of what area we explored if anyone joined late. The four waterways in the hub were colored red, yellow, blue, and green. Each waterway, like in the previous Nucleus world, required a floatie for players to get through the inital portion.

This second world felt more like a winding maze compared to the first, as there were so many options even within the singular waterways for us to explore. We were supposed to find out way home, but instead we found ourselves back into the waterpark facility as if we didn't leave in the intro. The large expansive spaces of the waterpark would randomly cut to tight corridors or small tunnels, creating this contrast in space that I really enjoyed. There actually even was a literal maze in the world that told us to find the princes.... wich we struggled to do so LOL. There we also found the world's thinnest corridor to the bathroom, with no ventilation in sight in case of... emergencies.

My favorite waterways in Nucleus II have got to be the green and yellow ones.

The green waterways sent us through a long tube that led to back outside, the environment shifting from expansive brutalism to forests and river greenery. It reminded me a lot of the Pacific Northwest, a region that I very much miss. We got to see the facility through the low haze of the fog.

In contrast, the yellow waterways had us circling indoors. The picture above shows my favorite room from the waterway, if not from the entirety of Nucleus II itself. The waterway here comes to a stop, allowing you to take in the full length of this room. I love the painted clouds on the wall, the sky looking beautiful yet artificial. The poles that grid across the weirdly shaped room extend all the way up to the ceiling, connecting the floor and ceiling until they both becomes walls at a bend. Light shines from the end of the room, making the player wonder if it would possible to walk up towards it. At least for me, I wanted to know if it would be possible to reach another end of the room if I could climb with the help of the poles.

Here, Nucleus II as a world is not afraid to bring about both familiar and unfamiliar sights. I think worlds like these challenge the mind on possibilities and impossibilities, letting us experience through the medium of virtual reality that of which we may not easily experience in real life. The unnatural bends and turns of the watereways, rooms, and corridors, the heights of which we soared on our floaties, the massiveness of the buildings - this world begs the player to surrender themselves to the immersive experience.

There is an ending to this world that I shall not spoil, and I do ask that you experience this world for yourself! Look up Nucleus or Nucleus II, both worlds by the talented Myro_P.

///

Another thing I got to experience in July was being present for the event and venue LOCKER ROOM, curated and hosted by the team at OFFLINE.

Attendees spawn into a literal locker room with the DJ decks set somewhat in the middle. I found myself crowding behind the DJ, eager to witness the canvas that is the venue as OFFLINE tends to gather really talented VJs for their events.

In this venue I am much more aware of my size than others as I don't necessarily want to tower over other people too much, and I also don't want to block anyone's way. It can be a challenge! I like being tall but I hate being a nuisance, if that makes any sense. I settled for an avatar of medium height and let myself enjoy the show of lights reflecting against the lockers and the walls, finding myself transfixed with how the lights in the room interacted with the parts that were not as lit up. I love the relationship of color, light, and shadow that venues like LOCKER ROOM pose for VJs, as by perfecting the ratio of which how much each value interacts with the others, the VJ can allow for some interesting visuals on the screen and on the dancefloor to set the vibe with the environment just as the DJ sets the vibe with the music and sounds they curate.

During the month of August, I got to experience this as well at VENT, a venue by my dear friend Chilly. I love how this place embraces darkness and saturated colors, making attendees focus more on the music rather than their immediate surroundings. It makes for some interesting photos, as light and color appear in tandem with the rise and fall of the music, its movement and appearances controlled by the LD of the instance.

My opinion is that techno has always been meant for dark rooms and saturated lighting, with full blown light being sparse and the cloudiness of the fog interrupting our perceptions of depth in venues. I was in the instance, losing myself to the music played and letting my body contort in tandem with the thrum of the bass and the clang of the higher ends. I love how VENT invites people to experience it by making those who want to hear the music at full come to the dancefloor. When entering the venue, you have to traverse downstairs, past some vending machines, and through a lobby to get to the main dancefloor. You can hear echoes of the music bounch off the walls as you approach.

I love the way the room looks when it gets full in here. People crowd around each other and the DJ decks, dancing and swaying just like they would in real life.