I Used this method to quickly create a 3d model based on a terrain I built in SL (I wanted it for experimenting in VastPark and Unity)

1. Export a RAW terrain file from SecondLife. You need to be estate owner or ask the estate owner to do this.. (Region/estate menu –> terrain –> Download RAW terrain)
2. Open the RAW file in PhotoShop using the following import settings: 256×256, no header, 13 interleaved channels.
3. turn off all but red channel (should look like a greyscale version of the sim from the air)
4. select all and cut and past into a new file so you only have this grayscale channel as a single layer
5. save out as a Targa file, 24 bit
6. follow the instructions on the following page, starting at the heading–> “Create grid and add the image as texture”: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Making_Landscapes_with_heightmaps BUT I recommend ‘unwrapping’ the mesh when it is a flat grid for UV texturing later (so unwrap and create UV image before you start to click the noise button)
7. texture by painting the UV or using the technique outlined here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Landscape_Modeling_II:_Texture_Stenciling (which will allow you to replicate SL style land texturing by painting areas where different textures will blend across the terrain surface

i was having all sorts of trouble with lsl script that contained timer events in them using up all of (and more) of the servers cpu limit, I restarted OpenSim using the [  DefaultScriptEngine = "XEngine" ] flag in OpenSim.ini and the issues seemed to resolve - or atleast everything is a whole lot more stable, though i still seem to need to restart the server about once a day to keep things runnig at their peak. (wonders if a script can be written to do this at a convenient time)

next: try comparing scripts running in C# and lsl

A list of the web resources I used to get my opensim install up and running with hyper-grid functionality and inter-grid messaging functionality.

http://opensimulator.org/ is the obvious place to start and to return to when/if things get stuck

HOSTING:

advice on choosing a server: http://chapter-and-metaverse2.blogspot.com/2008/11/hosting-sim.html

the vps (Virtual Private Server) solution I chose:  http://tektonic.net/vps.php

(there is a lot of stuff out there about why/why not use a vps solution over a full server to run opensim, it seems to boil down to resources and RAM, which the tektonic US$15/month package is certainly at the lower end of BUT this is very much about finding an economical and accessible way to run a sim. Which in the end might mean some things don’t quite run at their full potential or the server falls over every now and then, but hey… this lets think about it romantically and call it issues with the new frontier.)

from paying my inital $15 through paypal to getting the email saying all was good and ready to go took all of 10 minutes. I chose a debian system with mysql, php and phpMyAdmin pre installed. (though in hindsight I have a feeling Ubuntu would have been an easier install path)

INSTALL:

All of the folowing resources were helpful in one way or other to getting opensim installed

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Debian_4_Build_Instructions
(I used ‘apt-get’ in place of ‘aptitute’ in these instruction and all went well)

http://www.virtualwhite.com/?m=200808
(this link provides some of the configuration info missing in the previous link)

LOGGING IN:

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Connecting

USING YOUR SIM IN HYPERGRID MODE:

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Hypergrid (despite the security issues this is one of the most exciting reasons to get a stanalonde sim up and running. Teleporting and exploring the (hopefully expanding in size) hypergrid.)

and finally

INTER-GRID IM COMMUNICATION:

The Parralel Selves Message Bridge: http://justincc.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/the-parallel-selves-message-bridge/ (makes it possible to be working in your opensim and communicate via IM with people logged in the Linden Grid.)

standing next to big hole in the ground that will shortly be nonnatus’ experimental home at openLife… [ http://openlifegrid.com ] as most of my projects are heavily script based, i will be experimenting in coming weeks to see how things go on that side of things in openLife..

well perhaps not, an odd sort of bug, but somehow one of my objects I have been working as part of a self replicating SL native ‘plant’ life has offered me an inventory item… and here is the proof…

The object ‘branch’ in Second Life has offered you inventory.
Log in to accept to decline this inventory.

= branch is owned by Nonnatus Korhonen
= http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caerleon%20Isle/97/0/21

.

2 day workshop as part of the ‘ecology of self-replicating systems’ program. physical computing, max/msp and second life scripting… (5th & 6th september)

so i have promised a few people that i will actually blog my canadian adventures to The Ecology of Self-Replicating Systems @ Neutral Ground - Regina.

So just because i can here is a photo of what long haul travel can do to you.. me in transit, vancouver airport - the time is 10.10am on friday, exactly the same time and day my flight left sydney…

i just noticed this discussion of oracle by Aleister Kronos.

http://slambling.blogspot.com/2008/05/oracle-of-culturegion.html

oracle will be de-rezzed forever at the end of this week - though i already have plans for some of its parts in a the institute of the self on new caerleon.

an experiment in exponential self replication based on simple recurring cell divisions (the cells take a little while to get going..this is a five minute time lapse of a thirty minute period.)

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