KKaras

I have compiled my 19 Questions...for anyone who wants to take a shot at it, preferably for the 2011 version. Just a couple things I want to have clarified really. I've read so much I'm jellobrained, so this isn't about "google is your friend" cause no it isn't, it's my tormentor and I have half a dozen tabs going even now. As explained before/elsewhere, there're so many scattered resources I have no clue what's most current. I can hardly find anything for 2011, it's all 2008, 2010ish and I know there have been updates since so it makes me wonder if this os thing is dead gone or if anybody's bothering to keep updated, or what.

.... Now I need to pull out of the overload mode so I can know where to start. Plus, it'll come in handy as a quick reference for people on my side of the fence. I know this is doable. I need updated, relevant info. Just pretend is the first annual OpenSim Quiz - test yourself, see if you know it after all I even did some multiple choice to make it more fun sharing your hard earned, highly prized wisdom.

I promise not to delve into the copybot/consumer rights thing in this one. This is purely OS related


1. OpenSim is the software to run your own sims, you can A. download the software, install and run it yourself or B. get somebody else to host it - correct or no?

2. What is the OS difference between: A. a sim, B. region, C. megagrid D. megaregion E. grid and what would be the correct hierarchy?

(Note: I've always used region, estate and sim as interchangeable but from reading on OS it probably isn't, so hence why I am asking)

3. What is the OS difference between A. standalone, B. private, C. hypergated? or whatever the actual term is for grid networks?

4. Is it possible for people to teleport between their own "world" to other peoples' "worlds" and if so, is it just restricted to those hosted by the same service, or does it matter?

5. Are hypergates and hypergrids the same thing? In either case, what specifically are they referring to?

6. The sim on a stick version, say plugged into a laptop or desktop computer one, are the worlds installed available to others to visit or is it completely restricted to the one person?

7. Are the worlds only hosted by service providers able to allow public access?

8. Please correct/clarify: you can run one single instance of the opensim and related materials on a usb, computer, etc. and make it either a single region, or a grid of multiple regions, and it can be set up to be just for you to use, or can be open to the public.

9. More than one instance of opensim can be run on the above options? If so, how to keep it from conflicting, and would the settings or whatever be the same?


10. If it is possible to visit other grids no matter where they are hosted, as long as they are open to the public, is it a case that whatever personal account you set up to run your own goes out the window, and you have to make multiple accounts to visit other places? And this includes none of your stuff being usable (see SL/OS export inventory problem)? In some of the info I got the impression that while we can visit more places, we still can't do it with one viewer with all our inventory and avi intact, but have to get different stuff each place we visit, and if so, that seriously is just retarded

11. What kind of size/features are the opensim regions? Are they actual full SL style regions with at least the 15k prims or more? Or are they watered down, scaled down and more like those openspace or homestead things where you can't do anything but watch the water flow?

12. The 4 region mega thing - are these actual full size SL style regions or is that the watered down region?

13. What prim allowances are available?

14. Do SL scripts even work? I read that the import/export of scripted stuff from SL to OS doesn't actually "take" so if I made anything scripted and moved it to my own os world, it wouldn't work? Or did I misunderstand?


15. I am interested in making a lot of open content, and perhaps even full region/sim/estate/grid??? packages with terrain available - if I set up a multiple region install and set one aside for making that, would I be able to save that into one of those .oar files for JUST that little region as a sandbox and it wouldn't effect any other region I might have installed?

15A. is it difficult to make prepackaged region/terrain conglomerations to make available to people setting up their own stuff? Would the objects/builds/scripts/trees/etc. especially scripted things be included or is it just terrain? Not sure how that works, some clarification would be helpful. I visited some site that had free oar stuff and if what was being offered in the pics was what the region would look like, I'd just as soon make my own. No offense but some of them were ghastly.

I considered if it's no more difficult than just building a region with this or that theme, and saving a file, and sharing it elsewhere, I could enjoy doing that to help contribute to os. My main concern is that if someone got it, it'd even be set up the same as I built it or if it'd all be broken or nontextured, or the scripts don't work, etc.
15B. just off the cuff, how easy/difficult is it to change terrain textures, and does it still use the same format as in SL with 4 textures?


16. Is there a repository of free content, namely scripts that do more than just open doors and make particles, available for os? The cool scripts that make interactivity interesting - if so please share.


17. What is the best way to make content available for people inworld and out of it? Should there be two options - in world and out, or should it be best done via some webpage so they can download it directly and use it themselves? If a website download, what sort of file type would it be if it's a skin, shape, hair, clothes, object like a plant, a gun, a car, boat, pet, etc? Would it be different for each or does it all save in one format?
17A. If I build a scripted car that works on my own world, give it to whoever and they take it to some other grid/region/sim/estate unconnected to mine, would it work?

18. What, specifically, is the case about giving stuff away, or buying, whichever and someone taking it to some other grid, and that person being able to access some database? Answered here - this is what I was confused about, so this helped clear it up.

19. What viewer should I use and how compatible is it to anywhere else?

20. If I set it up okay and things don't implode into insanity, what would be the next step to making it accessible to others out there?
20A. anyone who visits my world I self host - are they required to have an account? If so, do they end up Ruthed? Will I need to supply a welcome kit or something to help them not look hideous? I would like to be able to direct them to other sources to get fixed up. Is an acct required? Would they need to use the same viewer I use?
20B. Is it feasible yet to use that unity web based option for people to visit my os world? I have seen what appears to be others doing it, but I'm not positive that's what it is they're doing and not something else. If so, how much interactivity would a visitor have if accessing my world off a webpage (embedded??) - could they still interact with scripted stuff, fly, build? Or is it just one dimensional moving around in a 3d space? If the webbased option is available, where would I go to learn how to implement that?





My goal here is to begin by offering up a year old HP desktop running win7 64bit, to run a network of about 6 full SL style regions, with potential for more, and offhand because I've not used it in ages (love my laptop) I've completely forgotten the processor speed and such but I think it's 4gb and 2-300 range gb hd, and I want to go with dual core and intel graphics, but can't remember - I know it runs Second Life without any issues at all and it is a pretty fast machine. I'm not looking to host virtual worlds for other people, but I would like my worlds/regions/grids/sims/estate/whatever to be accessible by others at any given time. The computer would stay on save but rebooting and power failure. If it shut down or rebooted, will I be forced to redo everything? Or will my builds stay persistent? All 6+ regions would be loaded up into really cool places to explore and enjoy.

I would like to designate some area/region to build equipped region packages to make available, if all it entails is making it, saving the .oar and uploading it to wherever else. I do understand - or to my understanding, that each time I added one to that region it will overwrite whatever's there, but each saved instance can be used again whenever.

Will any of this warp my OS or do I need to have something else, and should I scrap all the other stuff on there and free it up completely for this purpose? I have my stuff backed up, so it'd just bee the OS and this. Would that be enough or can I leave my stuff on and not worry about it?

Oh, and does whether or not it is wifi enabled matter? If so, how?

Current temporary set up is high speed cable via comcast.

This is not to bust out full speed ahead, it is to get acquainted with it, get started, and evolve as it needs to. Given my objective/goals, which installation and or setup instructions would be best suitable for that goal that would include all that is required so that I too can come back and boast I set this up on that desktop in 20 minutes and it works fine and not 20 questions pat 2 because all the install info is outdated or whatever

Thanks!

Suzi Ah

Oh ! Like last time? the 'couple of questions thread' where it was ALL you did.

No thanks.

Daffy

1-yes, correct, you can run it at a home PC or host the simulator at a hosting company.
2- A-Sim and Region are the same, 256 x 256 meters squares of land with borders,
exactly the same as on Secondlife.
C-Megagrid, hmm, that would be a grid with lot's of regions, mainland, islands,
with a size Second life has?

D-Megaregions are 2 or more regions (up to hundreds if you want) each of
them is 256 x 256, and there are no borders you bump into.
So infact you have one very large region.
E-Grid, ehm, that's the whole world you see in the big map, each region has a x,
y coordinate , and when there is a free location then you can drop your region
there.
3-The simulator software can be run in standalone mode on your PC, without any
internet connection, just take out your Lan cable, start the simulator , and start
your viewer and login to your private region. Or regions when you run more then
1 region .So, A and B are the same.Hypergridmode is the same simulator software,
configured a little different, it allows teleporting from the standalone to existing
grids out there.
Gridmode is again the same opensimulator software , configured to be run in
gridmode, so after starting that package your region(s) become part of a " Grid".
4- You can visit other's standalone simulators, if they have their Pc open to the
internet and when they " create a new account in the DOS console" for you from
their simulator ,and when they give you that name and password and the login url
from their external Ip you should be able to login there ' ruthed'...
5-On some grids are regions that are hypergrid enabled , those regions can be
used to be able to teleport from and to your standalone , wich means you can't
teleport to just any region on a certain grid, the region must have hypergrid
enabled to make it work.
6-The sim on a stick is a standalone simulator that can be configured in several modes
,standalone, hypergrid enabled standalone, or gridmode.
7-All opensimulator worlds can have public access, no matter where and how they
run it.
8-You can run more simulators on your pc , in standalone or in
gridmode, at this pc i run 3 instances of standalone versions (1 instance with 4
regions, one with 12 regions and one with 8 regions in megamode.
On my other pc i run 4 instances of opensimulator,a total of 12 regions on a
wellknown grid.2 simulators run 2 regions and 2 simulators run 4 regions each.
9- You can run multiple opensimulators on a PC , even different versions, and have 2
or more regions per simulator,2 normal regions or 4 water regions per simulator is
possible on a dual or quadcore PC with enough RAM.Just make folders on your PC,
give them names like opensim1, opensim2 opensim3, unzip the simulator package
in those folders and make a shortcut for each of those simulators and send those
shortcuts to your desktop, rename them (opensim1, opensim2, etc) and start them
Each simulator must have a port open to the internet for gridmode, your router
and firewall must be set properly .Each simulator can run 2 or more regions in
normal mode or in megaregion mode , or running more simulators you can run
a simulator in normal mode and others in megamode, etc.
Each simulator should run regions with a unique ID and name,and port open the
internet when you run them in gridmode, this will not conflict, you can start and
stop each simulator without any problems.
10 On Secondlife, Openlife, Osgrid etc. you will have to make a new account, that
means you will have inventories at those grids, it isn't possible to use the same
inventory on different worlds, but you can import/export your own stuff to other
grids by using the import/export function of third party viewers, some viewers allow
import /export of shapes too , in xml format.
11-The regions on opensimulator based grids are the same as you see in Secondlife,
256 x 256 meters, primcount can be set to 15.000 or higher, i have a region
that contains 71.000 cubes right now, flying isn't a problem but i had some trouble
to login, after restarting the simulator all was oke, i think i can drop a few more
prims , there isn't a limit for prims but in the configuration of the simulator you
can set a limit yourself, 15.000 or 20.000 prims a region is a good value .
Have seen some regions at osgrid that had a little more then 20.000 prims, and
it all depends on what performance you want your regions to have, and how your
PC and network connection are performing.
Other things, groundtextures, waterlevel, about land, estate settings, public or
private, all is the same as seen on SL, exception is the primsizes, prims can be
256 meters max, configuration of the simulator allows changes to this.
12-4 megaregions , ehm, think these are 4 regions in a square set as mega, and yes.
those regions are the same as the secondlife ones ,only difference is that there
are no borders in between, 1 region in the southwest is the " home' region, the
other 3 extend that one, wich means you can fly over those 4 regions and see
that your coordinates go over 256, at the second region you will see it's up to 512
meters. So actually a 4 megaregion is 512x512 meters wide, one large region.
You can run on a simulator 4 , 6, 8 , 9,or more in a square or regtangular
in megamode. On a dualcore PC in standalone mode i tested it more then a year
ago ,i was able to run a simulator with 192 regions in megamode, quite heavy
without prims...only with the small islands in the centres of the regions.
13-Normal prims, up to 256 meters of size, sculpties, and hollowing up to 99% as far
as i know.
14-Some SL script work without any adjuments, others don't.
You can copy and paste your scripts in a textfile at your harddisk and create a
new script and paste the script in your new world , exporting in a object from sl
won't work with a third party viewer, but it seems the Second Inventory app can
handle that.
15-You can backup any entire region , prims, with scripts, textures, groundtextures
, the terrain itself, all buildings and stuff into a oar file , and drop it back on the
same, or on another region any time you want.Wich means you could make a
winter, spring, summer, autumn region , save those 4 oars and drop them back
on a region when you want a saison change.You can also share them with friends,
give those oars away or sell them on the grid where those oars were made once
15A-A oar you make contains all what you made on that region, so , such oar will
when someone loads it onto their standalone show the same and if scripts are
runing/working, that depends on what settings they use for their simulators, some
scripts may start right away and work well, others perhaps won't.
15B- The terrain textures are 4, as in Sl, and setup is nearly the same , in the
viewer screen you can use the same tools for that as you do in SL.
16-On osgrid.org i saw in the forum a list of free working scripts somewhere.
Free Scripts from Sl can be tested and when they work beeing published.
17-Sharing oar and iar's would be a good way to make content available to others,
or put the " copy to all" at you stuff on your regions, or run a freebee shop
there.
17A-Vehicles still are a problem, but i used the "Nebadon car" at my standalone
region, after i loaded a " race circuit " oar from the maingrid onto there, it
worked well there.
18-If you give a flowerpot to someone then that person has to use that on the same
grid or the textures won't be shown, since those textures are served by the grid.
Exporting/importing objects from grids with prims, sculpties and textures in xml
format from one grid and importing exporting to other grids can work but not all
third part viewers use the exact same export import features, so they should know
wich viewer you have been using for making that xml export in the first place.
19-Many viewers can be used, on openlife you need a special one, and for standalone
simulators imprudence is the best.
20-When you run a simulator in gridmode and drop your regions on a existing grid out
there then people must have a account on that grid too.
I assume when you start your own grid then you should setup a website and let
people register a account there, or you can create accounts in the console from
the simulator and hand over that info to your visitors , they will show up ruthed .
20-B, not sure if thats all useable, time will tell us, but if it's opensimulator based it
should be....and a lot of work i assume.

Your regions will be cleared from al prims and terrain shape, textures,platforms in the air, whatsoever when you load a oar file on there, so better be sure you backed it up before you load a new oar there.
It's not neccesary to remove existing software from a PC before installing simulators,
after shutdown of the simulators and shutdown/reboot of the PC you should be able
to fire up your regions and your world should be alive again if windows allows you to.
When things go wrong hopefully you have backups from the simulators and regions
and the best is to make backups from the partitions on your PC, or have a copy of
everthing on a second HD.

I would recommend you download a simulator zip from osgrid.org from the downloadsection, unzip it , and run it in standalone first to see how it goes, then
try switching over to grid mode, make a account on osgrid.org and try dropping your region(s) there, it's true that a lot of info is a bit outdated but changes made in the
past year aren't that dramatic.

KKaras

@Daffi

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these. It helped a lot to clear up the confusion.

Since asking, I've been considering going with the VPS option with my website host. Do you know if that diva distro option would work with this method? It seems logical it would, just unzip it, install it and set it up according to the instructions, but things usually aren't always as they seem ;-p

OS would get lots more people if it was more intuitive than it is, or at least all current, updated, and in one spot. Organization would be helpful. My issue is less about the learning curve of installation and more about a current paradigm available with the above kinds of questions answered. I can figure out code before long, but not know what to get, where to get it, what's the best fit for my agenda, how to set up the external aspects like the websites to let people get info to even access it, how to set up more than one region, what happens to inventories across the different grids - all the info is so scattered and outdated, it has given me the impression there's nobody "minding the mint" these days and you're left to weed through 5 years of posts on half a dozen versions and figure it out the hard way.

Opensim has info, but osgrid, every time I click a link there, it's broken so who knows

If there is a current tutorial for setting up an opensim installation (or more than one?) on VPS to have multiple regions and accessible to other grids out there, and that would include the right sort of interface or where/how to make these user accounts please point me to it.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer.


@Suzi

Piss off, be a jerk on your own time.

Clinton

OSGrid links work fine. OSgrid

Joshua Nightshade

This thread is immensely difficult to read. I would like to help, but the formatting and incredible walls of text make my eyes hurt every time I sit down and start formulating a reply.

Rage

Ha ha.. he said walls of text. I agree.
TL;DR

Daffy

Hi, i saw the diva distro, dated 28 sept 2010, preconfigured standalone, after uzipping it showed me the same folder structure as the zip download from OSgrid org, so actually it's the same simulator package, both can be used for creating standalone simulators, but i know OSgrid requires at least version 0,7x to work with that grid, (that package is updated once a week and more recent), so for use on that grid you probably must get that one from their downloadsection.

VPS hosting companies can be found at several places, but wich one you want to use depends on where you live, what the costs are ,and what they offer, the more you are willing to pay, the more regions you can run, using windows or linux, whatever they offer for a fair price. For a example see here SimHost - Premium OpenSim & realXtend Hosting by DeepThink

The diva distro ,the hypergrid based one seems to be preconfigured running 4 regions,and after following the instructions you should have 4 standalone regions with the possibilty to tp out there to hypergrid enabled grids,please see hypergrid instructions here . http://thehypergates.com/ , but as said,
it's not the most recent version, the package from osgrid can be configured like that by editing the opensim.ini file ,and by renaming the standaloneCommon.ini.example (inside config-include subfolder)to " StandAloneCommon.ini.

Takes some time to edit that opensim.ini. Inside that file you must enable 1 mode, by commenting or uncommenting the lines there.
So, for standalone use uncommment the line " Include-Architecture = "config-include/Standalone.ini, take away the ;; in front of that line, and put a " ;' in front of the line " Include-Architecture = "config-include/Grid.ini " . so the simualtor reads only one line , thus forcing your simulator into that mode.

As you see in that section [Architecture] you can switch over to any of the 7 modes by uncommenting or commenting in that section the mode you want .
For standalone mode at your Win7 , 64 bit you won't need much more, it probably has framework 3,51 installed and will be ready to run after editing that opensim.ini.

To startup the simulator you will have to use the file ' Opensim32BitLaunch.exe', so, first find that file inside the bin folder, rightclick that file and create a shortcut , then " send ' that shortcut to your desktop.

On your desktop rename that file and doubleclick it and your simulator will startup.
It will ask you a few questions wich can be answered by a " Enter"on your keyboard , except the avatar first name, avatar last name and password.
When finally the simulator prompt is shown ( Region Root #-) you are able to login there with a third party viewer using the local or localhost grid login and by using the avatar name and password you've created before in the simulator console.

In the subfolder Regions will be a region.ini created by the simulator, that one can be edited to have more regions, or you can type the command " create region" in the Dos console to create new ones.I prefer editing them into the regions.ini file , giving them names and uuids.

As said before, best is to use the standalone version for a while, and then make a avatar at osgrid org and try the gridmode, check that forum there and ask for VPS hosters in the forum or inworld, i know there are people using VPS , or homeserver as i do, or even a combination of both. In that forum is info about VPS and you probably want to know more about using linux , since that is often used on VPS based simulators.

Maria Korolov

You can also check out Sim-on-a-stick -- Sim-on-a-Stick -- which is a packaged-up Diva Distro that you can run from a USB stick (or from a regular computer, of course.)

If you want a super cheap, quick way to try out OpenSim, check out Kitely (Kitely - Virtual Worlds on Demand) where -- if you have a Facebook account -- you can have a region up and running in less than two minutes, with just a couple of clicks. It's free right now since its in Beta, but eventually will cost 10 cents a month per region, with an additional 20 cents per user per hour of use - a good deal if you want a lot of regions, or if you don't have a lot of heavy traffic.

We've got a complete list of OpenSim hosting providers here:
OpenSim hosting providers – Hypergrid Business

If you're setting up a new region, you probably don't want to start with just that little island. Fortunately, there are now a growing number of websites offering OpenSim content -- including entire regions in the form of OAR files. You can take any of those files and upload them to Kitely, for example, and have a ready-made Mars base or faerie castle.

OpenSim Worlds: OpensimWorlds
OpenSim Creations: OpenSim Creations | share amaze
KatiJack Studio: KatiJack Studio - OAR file terrain downloads for OpenSim including Kitely
FleepGrid Shop: FleepGrid Shop

Full story here: Designers offer OpenSim goods on Websites – Hypergrid Business

These sites make DRM-free content available in the form of OAR files, or individual objects that you can upload using the Imprudence viewer.

Of course, you can upload the content (except for the OAR files) to Second Life, as well.

-- Maria Korolov
Editor, Hypergrid Business

Vanish

For sake of better reading I answered this in a blog post.

__________________
The Twilight’s Green Illuminate Beam,
This Great ImBalance, that I’ve seen,
That Trees Got Icy Branches and,
The Good In Bad, That God I’ve Been.

http://tgib.co.uk/