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Island Oasis pulled in the highest overall scores in the fifth annual OpenSim grid survey, narrowly edging out The Adult Grid for first place. Island Oasis is a top-ten grid by active users, making its high score even more surprising, since scores tend to diminish over time as grids get largerRead More →

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For my hypergate portals, I’ve been using a texture I made a few years back, before I really knew my way around GIMP. So it’s a little jerky. Tonight, I made a new texture and it’s much simpler and easier than the first time I did it. First, you makeRead More →

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The Fifth Annual OpenSim Grid Survey is closing tonight and many of the smaller but still worthwhile grids still haven’t received enough votes. So later on this year, I’m doing another survey — one of favorite hypergrid destinations. What is the best place to go shopping? To hang out withRead More →

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In the face of criticism from GLBT groups, Facebook has rebranded its real names policy as an “authentic name” policy and apologized to the community. “In the two weeks since the real-name policy issues surfaced, we’ve had the chance to hear from many of you in these communities and understand theRead More →

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Reddit, a major tech-oriented social network and news site, has revealed plans to launch its own cryptocurrency backed by shares in the company. Reddit recently raised $50 million in financing, which gives the company a valuation of $500 million. “Led by Sam [Altman, president of Y Combinator, which originally launched Reddit],Read More →

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Press release: The Immersive Technology Alliance Announces Metaverse Working Group AvaCon, Cloudhead Games, SiliconArts, Cubicle Ninjas and More Join Alliance October 2, 2014 – The Immersive Technology Alliance (The ITA) is pleased to announce that AvaCon will be leading a working group pertaining to the development and interoperability of the metaverseRead More →

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Marriott Hotels has found a use for Oculus Rift headsets — teleporting newlyweds to paradise destinations. The video below is set outside New York’s City Hall, but the teleporters will also be visiting DC, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco.Read More →

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Luxury car maker Lexus may soon become one of the first companies in the UK to use Oculus Rift headsets to give customers test drives and the ability to see how their cars will look with their selected options, according to an article today in Automotive Management. “Things like the virtualRead More →

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It’s going to be a busy month, with Oktoberfest and Halloween parties across the grids. One of the biggest Halloween celebration this year is probably the InWorldz Frightfest, on the InWorldz Event sims which will run from October 17 through Oct 31. Island Oasis will hold its Halloween Party on October 31.Read More →

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OSgrid’s files could not be recovered by a simple cloning of the damaged drives as hoped, the grid announced today. Instead, the grid was forced to pay extra for a full recovery — $2,510 extra, to be exact, using up much of OSgrid’s current balance. According to grid administrator Dan Banner, thatRead More →

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One annoying problem I’ve had with hypergate teleport scripts is that some regions have the right threat level settings to run walk-through scripts, while others don’t, and require a different command to activate the teleport. Users had to know what their threat levels were — and who knows that? AndRead More →

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Las Vegas-based OpenSim hosting company Zetamex is recovering from a security breach that hit its servers late Sunday night. Hackers attempted to use the Zetamex servers to attack random websites. “All data is safe, and upon further investigation nothing was lost, no data was compromised,” acting CEO Timothy Rogers said inRead More →

PolyWorld Woodland Toolkit. (Image courtesy Xin Xin.)

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When I demoed my Oculus Rift game, “Black Hat,” recently, one man told me that he felt sick the previous time he tried a Rift. I convinced him to give it another go and he was surprised by how pleasant the experience was. Quite a few people become nauseous while in the Rift. PartRead More →

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Avatar Social Network has recently passed SL Universe in Alexa traffic rank, making it the leading dedicated platform for avatars to discuss virtual world topics. “Now of course at the moment it may not mean much,” Avatar Social Network founder Arkad Baxton told Hypergrid Business. “But if it’s maintained or getRead More →

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Update: The poll is now closed. See the results here. It’s time again for the OpenSim grid survey, where OpenSim residents can rank their grids and see how they compare to others. If your grid isn’t on the list, write it in and help the world discover new hidden gems.Read More →

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Press release: Second Annual Samsung Developer Conference to Focus on Global Developer Opportunities in Smart Health, Wearables, Virtual Reality and Smart Home SEOUL, South Korea–Samsung Electronics today announced the global Samsung Developer Conference will gather the growing community of developers and partners to explore software and services opportunities in smartRead More →

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The London-based Spellscape grid, a magic-themed role play world, has donated code for filtered inventory exports. This would enable grid owners to allow their users to save their inventories in the form of IAR files, while still protecting exclusive content that is not allowed to leave the grid. Previously, this was only possibleRead More →

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Samsung and Oculus VR are expected to release their collaborative project, the Gear VR, sometime before the end of the year. The headset uses the Galaxy Note 4 to power a completely untethered virtual reality experience and will be Oculus VR’s first actual step into the consumer market, since their own headset isn’t expected outRead More →

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The European Union is giving away more than 80 million Euro — US $103 million — as part of the FIWARE Accelerator Programme for tech startups using cutting-edge technologies such as realXtend, an early off-shoot of OpenSim. The funding is in the form of a direct grant — no equity or loan repayments required.Read More →

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OpenSim is a free, open-source platform for creating immersive, 3D virtual worlds. The user interface looks almost exactly like Second Life. The OpenSim software comes in two major parts. The viewers allow you to explore OpenSim worlds, while the server software allows you to create your own world. I wantRead More →

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Zetamex is no longer the low-cost hosting leader in OpenSim. As of today, if you are looking for the lowest-host regions in OpenSim, you have to go to Canada — specifically, to The Great Canadian Grid. Land prices start at just CAD $5 for a 15,000 prim region with noRead More →

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The AviWorlds grid is coming back up — this time with help from Josh Boam, founder of SkyLifeGrid. “I am going to offer him paid servers and unlimited help,” Boam told Hypergrid Business. According to AviWorlds owner Alex Pomposelli, the grid will be hypergrid-enabled, have its own virtual currency, and willRead More →

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As we wrote before, virtual reality is transforming education in many different ways. But one of the most powerful is that it helps students develop a motivation for learning through virtual rewards that provide real value to the learners, a sense of personal or group success, and personal autonomy. Virtual rewards can replace traditionalRead More →

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The Totem headset from Montreal-based Vrvana, Inc. has launched its Kickstarter this week with a very promising debut — more than $100,000 raised in the first 24 hours. The project is now more than a third of the way to its $350,000 goal with 26 days still left in theRead More →

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I have served on my share of non-profit boards. Still do, as a matter of fact. And most of these nonprofits have one thing in common: they spend money. Sorry, they have two things in common: they also raise money. In fact, raising money is usually a core function of theRead More →

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The new CEO taking over the Zetamex OpenSim hosting company is named Richard Lehman, and prices will only be raised slightly, he said today. In addition, he pledged that 10 percent of the region rental income will go to OSgrid and Metropolis, to support their operations. Zetamex currently offers customersRead More →

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As a result of the recent change in ownership, Zetamex will be raising hosting prices on Nov. 1. “I can’t release how much it’s going up, but it is going to affect all plans,” said acting CEO Timothy Rogers, who will be stepping down from that position on Dec. 1.Read More →

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Virtual worlds are providing a new and exciting, interactive landscape for writers. One such place is Nara’s Nook, an OpenSim grid on which which authors gather weekly to discuss their projects and to share or promote published work. But grid owner Nara Malone takes this a step further. She actuallyRead More →

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3rd Rock Grid, a closed, commercial social grid known for its music scene, has stepped up with a fundraising call for another grid. OSgrid has been down for almost a month after a failure of its asset storage hardware and there’s been little information from the grid administrators so farRead More →

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Merchants selling products on the Kitely Market now have a suite of analytics tools to help them optimize sales, Oren Hurvitz, Kitely co-founder and VP R&D, announced today in a blog post. The new features include historical data about sales, traffic sources, product demos, and delivery destinations for exported items. InRead More →

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The grid numbers were down this month, partly due to an outage on OSgrid, the oldest virtual world running on the OpenSim software and one of the largest grids. However, the number of downloads of the OpenSimulator software reached an all-time high this month. The number of standard region equivalents droppedRead More →

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Las Vegas-based Zetamex, a leading provider of low-cost OpenSim hosting, has been sold, CEO Timothy Rogers said in a brief announcement today. No services or existing pricing will be adversely affected, he said in an open letter later in the day, with the major change being the addition of newRead More →

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People interested in attending the 2014 OpenSimulator Community Conference can now sign up for tickets, conference organizers announced today. “Since seats are limited, registration is open on a first-come-first-served basis until the maximum number of virtual conference center tickets is reached,” said conference chair Chris Collins in the announcement. TheRead More →

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Ener Hax is using the Sim-on-a-Stick distribution of OpenSim to create artwork for a new card game, Mint Tin Villagers. Previously, she used the same approach to create art for a previous game, Mint Tin Aliens, which will have a Kickstarter in a month. Read the full post here. ThanksRead More →

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Motion capture device Perception Neuron, from Beijing-based Noitom Ltd., is nearing the end of its Kickstarter, with less than two days to go. More than 1,000 people have already pledged nearly half a million dollars to the project, far surpassing the company’s $250,000 goal. Perception Neuron promises to bring gestureRead More →

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Press Release: Next Galaxy Corp Partners With Miami Beach Chamber Of Commerce To Host The Business Innovation And Growth (B.I.G.) Summit At The New World Center MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Next Galaxy Corp., an innovative Augmented and fully Immersive Virtual Reality technology and content solutions for consumers, is pleased toRead More →

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Until very recently, if you ever found yourself talking about virtual reality, it was probably because you were cornered by a wild-eyed science fiction enthusiast breathlessly describing the holodeck on the USS Enterprise, the light cycles in the Tron mainframe, or dodging bullets in the Matrix. You almost certainly weren’tRead More →

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Education and technology are interconnected. This synergy is able to transform the world we live in. The contradictory phenomenon is that while being an early adopter of technology, education is also one of the last sectors to be fully transformed by it, due to institutional inertia and a number ofRead More →

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Press Release: Vortex VR Partners With 3D Systems to Launch Virtual Reality Mobile Phone Case and Head Mounted Display 3DS provides design and manufacturing support in 3D printing VRTX I headset, tailor-made for the LG G3 Quad HD smartphone Selective Laser Sintering used to make headset ultra lightweight, highly functionalRead More →

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Folks who’ve tried to add destinations to the Hyperica directory in the past often complained about the length of time it takes to add their regions and grids. The old form used to go to a Google Spreadsheet, was difficult to use, and often did not notify us when aRead More →

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August was a relatively slow month in OpenSim, but September is shaping up to be full of major events, including an anniversary celebration on Avination, an Air & Space Expo, a 9/11 commemoration, and much more. Make sure not to skip over the RezMela contest, where you decide this weekRead More →

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Press release: Homido virtual reality smartphone-HMD is bringing VR to the masses Paris, France - Moving in the footsteps of Oculus Rift (Facebook), Morpheus (Sony), Gear VR (Samsung), Cardboard (Google), Homido is proud to bring Virtual Reality to the mass market with the 1st multi-feature Iphone app dedicated to smartphone-HMD headsets (alsoRead More →

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Press Release:  OpenSimulator Community Conference Announces High Fidelity CEO Philip Rosedale as Keynote Speaker The OpenSimulator Community Conference is pleased to announce Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO of High Fidelity, Inc. will be a keynote speaker at the second annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, scheduled to take place virtually on NovemberRead More →

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The Kokua viewer team is following in the footsteps of Firestorm developers and creating a new branch of the viewer software just for OpenSim. Because of Linden Lab licensing issues, there are some features that viewers can only offer to Second Life users. In addition, there are some features likeRead More →

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About 8,000 people are expected to attend this year’s virtual Utherverse community convention, Virtual Con, twice that of last year’s 4,000 attendees. This year’s convention also includes a job fair and keynotes by virtual reality headset manufacturers Gameface Labs, Metaio, Altergaze and other high-profile virtual reality-related companies. “This is theRead More →

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After I created yesterday’s Hillary Clinton Avatar and uploaded it to the Kitely Marketplace, Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner reminded me that, with an adult skin, it needs to go into the “Adult” category — I would need to create a new skin for a “General” listing. He pointed me to aRead More →