It’s been more than four years since the hypergrid was invented, and the “4096 bug” has plagued hypergrid travelers for all that time, preventing users from jumping more than 4,096 regions in any direction. The problem involves both viewer and server code, and is a legacy of the Second LifeRead More →

Press release: XR SDK: 3D Player Framework that can turn any website into a Virtual World PHILADELPHIA — After over two years of development, Extreme Reality Inc. is announcing the release of XR SDK, a framework for building multi-user, multi-platform 3D players with dynamically downloaded content based on Unity3D and Photon. A3D Player works like aRead More →

The top 40 OpenSim grids have reached 28,186  regions, a new record high and an increase of 578 regions since this time last month. They also reported 309,792 total registered users and 18,442 active users this month, a total of 281 new registered users and 520 new active users. Some of theRead More →

Press release: Avination is sponsoring and attending the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference on September 7-8, 2013 The first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference will open on September 7, 2013 and Avination, one of the main contributors will not only be part of it but also co-sponsoring the event. It is the first conference ofRead More →

The first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference will open this Saturday morning Pacific time with a keynote panel of core developers discussing the future of the OpenSimulator platform. Core developer panelists include Justin Clark-Casey, who is the president of the Overte Foundation that oversees OpenSim. He will be joined by Intel engineer MicRead More →

CtrlAltStudio released a viewer yesterday that can be used to access Second Life and OpenSim grids with an Oculus Rift. This is a preview viewer, which can be used to walk and look around inside the virtual world, but is missing user interface functionality. It works both in standard mode,Read More →

Press release: Arch Virtual releases architectural visualization application built with Unity3D game engine, including Oculus Rift compatibility This week, Arch Virtual released a new interactive, real-time architectural experience for the Panoptic Group, based out of Chicago, Illinois. The application was developed using the Unity3D game development engine, and can be embeddedRead More →

The folks behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset announced an app store yesterday, called Oculus Share. The site is intended for developers at first, but the company plans to grow it into a full-scale gaming marketplace. Oculus Share is already up and running. “With Share, you can host Oculus-readyRead More →

The top 40 OpenSim grids have reached 27,608  regions, a new record high. They also reported 306,942 total registered users and 17,922 active users this month. This is 709 more regions than on the Second Life grid. Meanwhile, of the 266 currently active public OpenSim grids, 214 reported their statistics this month,Read More →

Linden Lab has restored the 50 percent discount for educators and non-profits last month, but some educators are wary of taking the company up on its offer. “Our IT [information technology] folks, like many who once supported experiments in Second Life, have moved on,” said Joe Essid, who directs the WritingRead More →

Press release: Designing Digitally, Inc. Chosen to Be on the 2013 TrainingIndustry.com Top Content Development Companies Watch List FRANKLIN, OH–Designing Digitally, Inc., a full-service interactive E-Learning development company, has been named as one of the 2013 TrainingIndustry.com Content Development Companies Watch List. “This year’s Watch List includes a combination ofRead More →

Linden Lab has cut its land and setup prices in half for educators and non-profits, the company announced this morning. “We’re pleased to announce an update to Second Life pricing for educational and nonprofit institutions,” the company said. The offer is effective immediately, and applies to any accredited educational institution.Read More →

AviWorlds, a commercial grid which allowed people to connect self-hosted regions, went down yesterday. At the time, it had 138 regions and 319 active monthly users. Many of the grid’s regions, as well as centralized grid services, were hosted by Zetamex. “The owner has just contacted and left me,” ZetamexRead More →

The land area of the top 40 OpenSim grids continued to grow, with the number of regions now at 25,783 — an increase of 535 regions compared to the same time last month. This is another record high month for OpenSim region totals. ScienceSim saw the most growth, with 512Read More →

Press release: OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces Keynote Panel: The Future of OpenSimulator The OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013 will open on Saturday morning, September 7, 2013, with a keynote panel of core developers, who will discuss the future of the OpenSimulator platform. Topics will include a variety of issues including theRead More →

Press release: Stephen Gasior Joins NOBLE Virtual, Inc. ATLANTA – NOBEL Virtual, Inc. has announced the appointment of Dr. Stephen Gasior as the Director of School Development. In addition to overseeing the chartering of NOBLE Virtual Schools across the nation, Dr. Gasior will monitor science content in the NOBLE LearningRead More →

Press release: OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces Keynote Speaker Grady Booch World-renowned computer scientist Grady Booch will deliver a keynote address at the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference.  Grady’s keynote address, titled “My Virtual Life,” will reflect on a quote from Joseph Campbell, who observed that, “One has to know how andRead More →

The Vivox voice platform is currently used on more than 500 OpenSim grids, according to Vivox co-founder and CTO Jim Toga. The vast majority do not pay for the service, and do not need to, because they are non-profits, educational grids, or personal hobby grids. The large commercial OpenSim gridsRead More →

Press release: OpenSimulator Community Conference Needs Participants for Grid Load Test Organizers of the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference are planning a large-scale load test of the OpenSimulator conference grid on Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at Noon PDT.  The conference will take place entirely within an OpenSimulator virtual world designedRead More →

Press release: Proposed Charter School Reaches Final Step NOBLE Virtual World, Inc., announced today that chartering of NOBLE Virtual School of South Carolina is now on the last step of the process – a hearing in front of the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina Public Charter School District.Read More →

Press release: ProtonMedia Announces Mobile Strategy for ProtoSphere 3D Virtual Collaboration Cloud LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia continues to lead the industry by announcing the first enterprise-ready 3D virtual collaboration environment optimized for iPad. ProtoSphere by ProtonMedia brings the ultimate business collaboration solution to the simplicity and mobility of iPad in Release 3.0 of its award-winning collaborativeRead More →

The top 40 OpenSim grids have reached 25,248 regions, a new record high. They also reported 295,411 total registered users and 19,505 active users this month, both of which are also record highs. The previous record high was last October, when the 40 top grids had 25,202 regions. The numbers dropped dramaticallyRead More →

Stand4Love, an annual event in support of marriage equality, has expanded beyond its traditional base in Second Life to include an OpenSim grid, Avination, in this year’s celebrations. “This event is actually our first Stand4Love event in a different grid other than Second Life,” said Stand4Love founder Editorial Clarity. “Our mainRead More →

Avination donated code to the OpenSim project today intended to reduce viewer disconnects, crashes, server instability, and teleport failures. According to the company announcement, the technology is called “HTTP-inventory throttling.” What happens is that when an avatar first appears in a new location, the user’s viewer requests information about theRead More →

Second Life customers who have difficulty buying Linden Dollars from the official LindeX exchange — your voices have been heard. When Linden Lab shut down all third-party currency trading in early-May, there was a mass outcry that included two public petitions. Linden Lab reversed course ten days later,  allowing approved outside exchangesRead More →

Press release: Daden releases White Paper on Mobile Immersive Learning Birmingham, U.K. – New training and education opportunities offered by 3D Mobile Immersive Learning, and the potential benefits to learners and organisations are described in a free white paper released today. Mobile immersive learning is a type mobile eLearning that usesRead More →

Press release: Virtual worlds non-profit applies for charter school status in North Carolina ATLANTA  – Can you imagine a school where students visit the Sistine Chapel, the Louvre and the Basilica of St. Francis and are back home by the bell? Or a school where students learn to operate lasersRead More →

Press release: Virtual Highway Expands and Upgrades Servers, Announces Partnership with Currency Exchange Colorado and Wilmington, DE – Podex Exchange, a US company in operation since 2007, has partnered with Virtual Highway to provide a currency exchange service to the grid’s residents. Terminals are available in the new member center and in various venuesRead More →

More than 200 people responded to our survey of how people use OpenSim, and the results are in — the majority of people use OpenSim for work and for creative self-expression. The first question of the survey asked people who they were. Around 40 percent of respondents said they usedRead More →

Press release: Announcing the 1st Annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013 The Overte Foundation and AvaCon are pleased to announce the first annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2013, to take place on the OpenSimulator Conference Center grid on September 7 and 8, 2013.  The OpenSimulator Community Conference will be a celebration of the platform and of theRead More →

Who are the main users of OpenSim? This is an important question for vendors, grid owners, developers and other types of service providers deciding where to invest their resources. Please help us find the answers by answering a couple of very quick questions.Read More →

In a surprising reversal, Linden Lab has decided to allow third-party exchanges to sell Linden Dollars to users, a move that will benefit international Second Life residents who had difficulties using the official LindeX exchange. “We’ve heard from some users outside of the US who are concerned that it mayRead More →

Update (May 17): Linden Lab launches Authorized Reseller program, five exchanges now live. Linden Lab announcement is here. List of Authorized Resellers is here. The five exchanges currently allowed to sell Linden Dollars to users are  AnsheX, Buildo, VForEx Inc, VirWoX, and Zoha Islands. No third party exchanges are allowed to purchase Linden Dollars from users, however. ——————- WhileRead More →

Recent outages at two of the biggest, most popular grids in the metaverse — Metropolis and AviWorlds — cut into this month’s active user numbers, but overall the OpenSim metaverse continued to expand. The top 40 OpenSim grids by land area gained 1,173 regions this month, for a new total ofRead More →

Despite dire warnings from Linden Lab, the Podex, Crossworlds and AnsheX virtual currency exchanges still seem to be operating, with, so far, no ill effects to users. As a result, DXexchange has decided to resume selling Linden Dollars, pointing to the clause in the Linden Lab Terms of Service that saysRead More →

In the wake of the recent closing of at least 16 third-party Linden dollar exchanges — only AnsheX, Podex, and Crossroads are still up, as of this writing — some Second Life residents have launched petitions to allow third-party exchanges to remain, or asking for more information. A petition on Change.org, Linden Lab: Lets try to openRead More →

Kitely merchants can now start uploading products to the Kitely Market, the company announced today. There’s a 100 Kitely Credit fee to list new items, which is between US $0.33 and $0.50, depending on how many Kitely Credits are bought at once. Adding variations on the same product — different colors, forRead More →

Update (May 17): Linden Lab launches Authorized Reseller program, five exchanges now live. Linden Lab announcement is here. List of Authorized Resellers is here. The five exchanges currently allowed to sell Linden Dollars to users are  AnsheX, Buildo, VForEx Inc, VirWoX, and Zoha Islands. No third party exchanges are allowed to purchase Linden Dollars from users, however.Read More →

PressRelease: RescueSim introduces next generation Head Mounted Display for full immersion virtual incident management training Rotterdam – Leading international developer of simulators and virtual training VSTEP, is proud to announce that its RescueSim virtual incident management training platform is to be fully compatible with the next generation Oculus Rift HeadRead More →

If you rent land or own an OpenSim grid, you can now kick from your parcel or grid using your viewer, like in Second Life, thanks to code donated by Avination yesterday to the OpenSim community and expanded to include hypergrid visitors by hypergrid inventor Crista Lopes. Previously, grids couldRead More →

Will stick with V1 interface Will add support for mesh, media-on-a-prim, server-side baking and export permissions Will continue to support OpenSim Work is resuming on the Imprudence viewer, the developer team announced this week. Imprudence is a popular old-style viewer for Second Life and OpenSim and uses the old-style interface,Read More →

The Singularity team released a new version of the viewer today that supports the new “export” permission that was announced in March. The viewer — which is designed to work both in Second Life and in OpenSim — also added Server Side Baking and mesh uploads, among other improvements. TheRead More →

MakeHuman, a free, open source software project that creates mesh avatars, has switched to the least restrictive license possible for the avatars created with its product. Content created with the software is licensed as CC0, which means that it can use used in any way, including commercial. Previously, MakeHuman putRead More →

The top 40 OpenSim grids lost 634 regions this month, for a new total of 23,411  regions on these grids, mostly due to the fact that ScienceSim reported a loss of almost 2,000 regions. The top 40 grids also reported a total of 17, 591 active users, a drop of 470Read More →

Vivox continues to expand OpenSim support, after offering their voice service for free in December of 2011., when grid owners were asked to personally contact Kamal Jain, Vivox’s director of network operations. Last summer, Vivox set up a dedicated team and email address for OpenSim queries. Now, Vivox has an onlineRead More →

Press release: Utherverse Launches Newest 3D Internet Version: ‘WebWorlds.com’ Vancouver, BC – Utherverse Digital Inc., the architects behind the 3D internet platform, today announced it is expanding its contribution to the 3D web space with the launch of its newest version, WebWorlds.com. Similar to the company’s 2009 Virtual World WebRead More →

Adminotech Ltd., a realXtend vendor, began publicly testing its WebRocket browser-based viewer for its Meshmoon virtual world today. The viewer is in its very early stages, however. It supports text chat and basic movement controls, but has no in-world building tools, avatar customization, user inventories, or voice. “This is not aRead More →

Press release: WebGL Momentum Creating the Industry’s Most Secure and Portable 3D Platform Multiple WebGL implementations now fully conformant on desktop and mobile; WebGL 1.0.2 being ratified for stricter behavior and functionality extensions SAN FRANCISCO — The Khronos Group today announces that multiple WebGL 1.0.1 implementations are now fully conformantRead More →

Metaverse security took a big step forward today as Avination donated OpenSim code implementing an “export” permission setting. The company also worked together with Singularity viewer developers to add support for this new permission to the viewer. Today, OpenSim has three permissions — copy, transfer, and modify — that determine whatRead More →

Only 65 out of more than 110 participants were able to log into an OpenSim scalability test conducted last Friday by the U.S. Army Simulation & Training Technology Center. “Real-time inspection of the logins indicated messages were queuing — getting backed up — by the firewall,” said Douglas Maxwell, the center’s science and technology managerRead More →