Best Places To Learn AR and VR Development Online in 2020
There are quite a handful of platforms that allow you to develop virtual reality and augmented reality apps and content, but it is not easy to find an offline virtual reality school or academy with which to train for those interested in developing AR and VR apps. Udemy may beRead More →
HG Hoppers goes Medieval today
Epidemics on your mind? Then today’s virtual hypergrid field trip could be for you. The Hypergrid Hoppers will meet on Tuesday, February 25 at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, starting at the HG Hoppers region of Craft World for a “Medieval meets Extinction Global” field trip. The hypergrid address is craft-world.org:8002:HGRead More →
OpenSim stats decline reversed this month
OpenSim stats reversed a multi-month land area decline this month, with slight upticks in regions and registered users. Active monthly users were down by 1,523, but the loss was due to a stats issue on the Virtualife grid. Last month, the grid posted 2,888 active users, but Hypergrid Business readersRead More →
Dorena’s World turns ten
The German-language Dorena’s World grid turned ten years old this month. Dorena’s World is one of the oldest grids in OpenSim. Founder Dorena Verne first came to OpenSim because “curiosity killed the cat,” she told Hypergrid Business. While Verne was still in Second Life, she started the grid as aRead More →
Tangle Grid SciFi Expo starts next week
Exhibitors can already start setting up for February’s Sci-Fi Expo on Tangle Grid, grid owner Leslie Kling told Hypergrid Business. The month-long exposition, accessible to hypergrid visitors, officially opens on Wednesday, February 5 and runs through March 5. The hypergrid address is tanglegrid.net:8002. (Learn how to hypergrid here.) Writer Torn MacAlesterRead More →
Falling OpenSim numbers mark start of 2020
Stats were down this month in OpenSim, with the public grids reporting both fewer regions and fewer active users. It’s not an auspicious start to the year, especially since OpenSim stats declined in 2019 overall as well. This was the third consecutive month in which the total land area fell.Read More →
DreamNation resolves to bring new users to OpenSim in 2020
DreamNation draws a great deal of its membership from Second Life members who have never experienced OpenSim worlds. DreamNation has been recommended to them by our own membership base as a great place to enjoy an entirely different environment from that of the restrictive and, at times, censorious Second LifeRead More →
Hypergrid Hoppers go on a mystery trip tomorrow
The first Hypergrid Hoppers trip of 2020 is planned for this Tuesday, January 7, at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, starting at the HG Hoppers region of Craft World. The hypergrid address is craft-world.org:8002:HG Hoppers. “What place we will visit shall be a surprise,” organizer Ervare Farroretre told Hypergrid Business. “WeRead More →
VR startup helps users find content
Press release: VIRTUAL REALITY START-UP IMMERSIONN OPENS FOR BUSINESS New Discovery Engine for Immersive VR Content Launches with ‘Immersive Journalism’ Partnerships with Dagens Nyheter and Euronews 6 January 2019, London: Immersionn, a content discovery engine for virtual reality, today announced that it had officially launched its platform for subscribers and VRRead More →
The year in grid stats
Over the past year, the public OpenSim grids lost both land area and active users. Since last December, grids lost the equivalent of 8,276 standard-sized regions, going from 81,326 regions to 73,050. And the total number of actives fell by 2,019, from 37,745 to 35,726. However, some individual grids didRead More →
OpenSim: A year in review
This past year has been full of questions for the OpenSim community. Who are we? Where are we going? Is the platform even worth it? The OpenSimulator software dates back to January 2007, according to the official history of the project. The open source virtual world software was meant toRead More →
Ring in the New Year on the hypergrid
There will be New Year’s Eve party all over OpenSim tomorrow night, Dec. 31 — and during the day, as well. Mark your calendars — all times below are U.S. Pacific time. Caribou on Kitely at noon Get a head start on your New Year’s Eve celebration with DJ SaraRead More →
Great Canadian Grid launches fundraiser to save grid
[Update: Since the article was first posted, the total raised has increased to $1,120.] The Great Canadian Grid is holding a fundraiser to raise money to pay for technical help to restore the grid, and to pay for servers. As of this writing, the grid has raised $385 towards theRead More →
Personal feud takes down Great Canadian Grid
A personal dispute between the owners of Great Canadian Grid and DigiWorldz has resulted in an outage on the Great Canadian Grid. DigiWorldz, which is not only a grid but also an OpenSim services provider, had been providing some critical grid services to Great Canadian Grid and cut off thoseRead More →
New OpenSim comic celebrates the holidays
The metaverse is filled with humor it’s everywhere; it is what leads us back time and again, those hilarious memories with friends. With this in mind, I asked Maria what her position was on having a comic strip here at Hypergrid Business featuring the comedy of OpenSim humorist Reyn Softly.Read More →
AviWorlds renews free region offer
AviWorlds, the grid that oscillates between proclaiming itself the highest-priced grid and the lowest-priced grid is back on the lowest-priced side again, with a free region offer for all residents. Addition regions are available for as low as $5 a month for a standard-sized, 15,000-prim region, and up to $25Read More →
New Dayturn release supports Bakes on Mesh
The OpenSim-specific Dayturn viewer was updated this weekend with Bakes on Mesh support. According to Dayturn developer and Xmir grid founder Geir Nøklebye, this viewer is a big improvement over previous versions. “It is a significant change for anyone using a mesh avatar because it lets you use old systemRead More →
Fire and Ice Grid
US $6 for a 20,000-prim region on the hypergrid-enabled Fire and Ice grid, with hypergrid and Gloebits. Each region can be a variable-sized region at no extra fee.Read More →
December users up on conference, holiday events
Land area went down slightly but active users were up this month, thanks to the OpenSim Community Conference and holiday events. The total number of standard region equivalents on OpenSim’s public grids dropped by just over 1,000, from 74,063 to 73,050. The number of active users went up by 137Read More →
OpenSimFest calls for exhibitors, performers, merchants and volunteers
This year’s OpenSimFest will be held in March and exhibitors, performers, merchants, and volunteers are encouraged to participate. OpenSimFest is a yearly OpenSimulator community event that brings together different parts of the community in one place. “This is our second year of running OpenSimFest and with last year’s success, weRead More →
Readers optimistic about OpenSim’s future
Hypergrid Business readers were more optimistic about the fate of OpenSim this year, more satisfied with its technical progress and ecosystem, and the number of readers who planned to spend more time in OpenSim next year increased as well. However, this year’s respondents were slightly less likely to think thatRead More →
OpenSim conference starts today
The seventh annual OpenSimulator Community Conference starts today, at 7 a.m. Pacific on the OSCC grid. Hypergrid address: cc.opensimulator.org:8002. Conference schedule #OSCC19 features over 60 speakers sharing innovative content, dynamic short presentations, and panels that all take place Saturday, December 14th and Sunday, December 15th within our OSCC Keynote regions.Read More →
High Fidelity is basically shutting down
High Fidelity is shutting down its apps, marketplace and virtual currency, shutting down its open source project, and laying off about half its staff, founder Philip Rosedale announced in a post rather misleadingly titled “Updates, and a New Beginning.” Rosedale is best known as the founder of Second Life. HighRead More →
Tour Spaceflight Museum on Friday
This Friday, the public is invited to tour the International Spaceflight Museum in Kitely. one of the several community social events organized to coincide with this year’s OpenSim Community Conference. ISM Exhibit Building Chair Mike Lorrey will personally lead and narrate a tour of the ISMuseum region in Kitely, withRead More →
How I brought one of my first jewelry creations to the OSCC
The 2019 OpenSimulator Community Conference is this weekend, Dec. 14 and 15, and I enquired as to whether or not they would accept my jewelry as an art exhibit. Frans Charming said yes — if it did not exceed 20,000 vertices. Looking at all I had created, I found inRead More →
OpenSim conference is this weekend
Join us this weekend for the 7th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2019 celebrating the community and development of OpenSimulator opensource software. OSCC19 features over 60 speakers leading presentations, workshops, panel sessions, music, and social events across the diversity of the OpenSimulator user base. View the #OSCC19 Schedule here. Attending the conference event isRead More →
Where to find jewelry design inspiration
Creating jewelry for me has become quite the obsession, so much so that I feel it is now time to teach others just how amazing creating jewelry can be. Where does my inspiration come from? I get inspiration for my design ideas from shapes of nature, including flowers, stars andRead More →
How the Nuna Gallery came to be
Big things grow from small things. Sometimes a couple of small things collide and merge and grow into a really big thing. I recall first stepping into virtual reality some years ago, into Second Life, and thinking “What the…?†From that very first exposure, looking through the eyes of anRead More →
Discovery’s Winter Market Opens Saturday
Discovery Grid will hold the grand opening of its 2019 Virtual Seattle Winter Market 2019 on Saturday, December 7, 2019. The market will be open until January 7, 2020. The hypergrid address is discoverygrid.net:8002:Seattle. The market’s region coordinates are 503/448/46. This makes the second pop-up market for the grid, butRead More →
Great Cyber Monday deals on VR at Amazon
Cyber Monday is here, and that means great deals on some of our favorite VR gadgets at Amazon.Read More →
HyperGrid Zone features artists, Christmas destinations
The December issue of HyperGrid Zone magazine is out, and packed with profiles of OpenSim artists and creators, as well as Christmas events and destinations. The cover story is about the Nuna Gallery, which is located on 3rd Rock Grid and is having its grand opening on Dec. 15. To visitRead More →
AviWorlds celebrates a whole year without going out of business
AviWorlds is celebrating a whole year of not closing down. “To celebrate one year online AviWorlds is now offering $5 per month private regions with 25,000 prims,” grid owner Alexsandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business. The grid is currently hypergrid-enabled, allowing residents to teleport in and out to other grids, andRead More →
Black Friday deals in OpenSim
I’m barely able to type this right now. I have a massive turkey hangover. But that’s not stopping me from scouring the web for Black Friday deals. This is probably a bad idea, because my sales resistance is so low, but I just can’t help myself. But it’s not justRead More →
Kitely loosens rules for Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales
Normally, Kitely Market merchants can only put their products on sale 60 days after the end of the previous sale. The goal is to not have products on the site that are “on sale” all the time. This creates a problem for merchants who previously held a Halloween sale —Read More →
Tangle revamps free land, store regions
Tangle Grid has long offered free land plots to both local residents and hypergrid visitors, as well as free stores for merchants Now, the grid has expanded the offer. Instead of two free land regions, there are now six, joined together. “It gives it that community feeling,” grid owner LeslieRead More →
OpenSim grids gain users, decorate for the holidays
It may look at first glance that OpenSim numbers went down this month. The total number of region equivalents fell by 8,955 to 72,911, and the number of active users fell by 1,166 to 35,589. But in fact, grids actually gained both land and users. The discrepancy is due toRead More →
Tangle Grid’s Winter Expo starts Sunday
Tangle Grid‘s sixth annual Winter Expo starts Sunday, Dec. 1, and will run through Jan. 13, 2020. The expo is fully accessible to hypergrid visitors at tanglegrid.net:8002:expo isle. (Learn how to hypergrid here.) Visitors will be able to get freebie items, and also purchase content using the Gloebit currency. (Learn how to use GloebitsRead More →
IMA releases simplified SceneGate viewer for OpenSim
The Infinite Metaverse Alliance released the beta version of its simplified SceneGate viewer for OpenSim this weekend. The official launch of the viewer, which is available for Windows only, was Monday, November 25. Linux and Mac versions are coming soon, according to the organization. The SceneGate viewer is a forkRead More →
Russian cows find happiness in virtual reality
Some lucky cows are apparently finding virtual reality to be quite moo-ving. A farm in Russia gave its cows custom made virtual reality headsets in an attempt to reduce their anxiety and improve the quality and quantity of their milk production. The experiments took place northwest of Moscow at theRead More →
DreamGrid offers OpenSim-wide search function
Missing the ability to search for content across multiple OpenSim grids? Outworldz‘ Fred Beckhusen has an answer for you. The Diva Distro, from hypergrid inventor Crista Lopes, used to have a grid-wide search, but it’s been offline for several years., he said. “I have reverse engineered it and extended itRead More →
Nani releases new, possibly last, version of OpenSim
In addition to the official distribution of the OpenSimulator software, there are several variations of the open-source virtual world platform, including the mini-grid Diva Distro version, the easy-to-install-at-home DreamGrid version, the HalcyonGrid distribution from the now-defunct InWorldz grid, the AuroraSim distribution which hasn’t been updated since 2014, the still activelyRead More →
Virtual field trips at Penn State as educational as the real thing
Students at Penn State are taking a virtual field trip to a nearby rock outcropping, and early research suggests they’re getting as much out of the experience as the traditional in-person trip they’ve taken in the past. Alex Klippel, the university’s professor of geography, helped create the virtual field tripRead More →
HyperGrid Zone Magazine is out
The November issue of HyperGrid Zone Magazine includes a feature about how to get banned from DigiWorldz, as well as features about artists, performers, and designers from around the hypergrid. HyperGrid Zone Magazine is supported by DigiWorldz grid owner and founder Terry Ford, and is published monthly. “We’re workingRead More →
Profs bring Hamlet into AR
When you think of university level English education, an AR game might not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, with the current availability of powerful cellphones and inexpensive standalone VR headsets, augmented and virtual reality could be regularly used in college humanities courses sooner rather than later.Read More →
17 Halloween parties on the hypergrid!
Halloween is tomorrow, and OpenSim grids are turning up the spookiness — and the music. Get your costume on and check out these creepy spots tonight and tomorrow night! I’ve sorted the events below by time, in case you want to hit them all. OSgrid’s Halloween party Date and time:Read More →
Craft World rocks in this year’s OpenSim grid survey
Nearly 400 valid responses came in for the Tenth Annual OpenSim Grid Survey, and Craft World received the highest overall scores, followed by Encore Escape, Utopia Skye, and 3rd Rock Grid, in that order. Craft World, which will turn ten years old on January 27, is not only one of theRead More →
VR startup to help train US Air Force
The United States Air Force had a problem. They needed to train hundreds of airmen, but there weren’t enough real aircraft to go around. Virtual reality offered the next best thing. Vinci VR, a two year old virtual reality startup founded by a 22 year old college undergrad, was recently awardedRead More →
New OpenSim release has new script engine, animated mesh
The new release of the OpenSim server software is out, OpenSimulator 0.9.1.0, also known as “Snail.” It supports animated mesh, the new YEngine script engine, and fixes a few bugs, according to core developer Ubit Umarov. It is also the first release to have a name, not just a number.Read More →
The hypergrid turns 11
The hypergrid turned 11 years old today. If you’ve ever wanted to teleport from one virtual world to another and be able to make friends and go shopping on other worlds, that’s the hypergrid. You can even join groups and send messages to friends on other grids. And if youRead More →
Great Canadian Grid will cease new land rentals next year
The Great Canadian Grid, will be capping its land sales at the end of the year, the grid announced this week. As of January 1, existing customers will be able to rent additional regions, but regions will no longer be rented to new customers. The Great Canadian Grid is aRead More →