Kitely, the cloud-based, on-demand OpenSim grid, announced much-awaited alternate logins today.
Instead of having to sign in with a Facebook account, customers can now choose to use their Twitter accounts instead, or just an email address.
However, signing in with Twitter or Facebook offers more functionality, said Oren Hurvitz, Kitely’s co-founder and VP of R&D, in an announcement today.
“We recommend using Facebook or Twitter to create accounts, because they allow you to use Facebook Groups and Twitter Lists to manage world access controls,” he said. “An email and password account doesn’t have these options, so it’s less flexible in managing world permissions.”
Kitely has a unique business model in that it does not charge per region, but by the hour of use. Access controls allow the region owner to decide not only who can access the region and who can’t, but also how their access will be paid for — by the guest themselves, or by the region owner.
It costs about 20 cents an hour to access a Kitely world, and the first two hours each month are free. Meanwhile, regions cost just 10 cents a month. Learn more about Kitely billing here.
Facebook access has long been a stumbling block for some potential Kitely users. Facebook does not allow users to create pseudonymous accounts — such as accounts for their Second Life avatars, while Twitter does. Some virtual world users are uncomfortable have to use real names in-world.
OSSL Functions
Kitely has also rolled out support for OpenSim Scripting Language (OSSL) functions. These are scripting commands that are only available to OpenSim users.
Not all OSSL functions are available, just those with None, Very Low and Low threat levels.
So, for example, Kitely users can how have scripts that draw on prim surfaces, or write text on them, or pull in any image on the Web and put it on a prim surface — such as a Google Drawing or a weather map.
But they can not have high threat level functions, such as OSTeleportAgent, which can send any avatar anywhere within teleport range. For example, hypergrid-enabled grids use OSTeleportAgent for “blamgates” — hypergates that automatically send avatars to other grids when they are walked through. Such functions can do quite a bit of mischief — for example, a tile floor can be configured to instantly teleport anyone who steps on it. Without any warning.
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