This post is not so much a how to, than a list of links to how to pages and other useful information.

Inventory Transfer:

Since opening up the Caerleon sims on ReactionGrid, I have had a lot of questions about exporting content from Second Life to reactionGrid. This post is not so much a how to, than a list of links to how to pages. (there is plenty of stuff out there already) One important thing to consider though, is that the content you are exporting should either have been made by you, or the original creator has provided permission for the content to be exported and used on another grid (as per the TOS for ReactionGrid)

There is a ReactionGrid knowledge base article about content importing at http://metaverseheroes.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=33

Maxping has an article (with video) on using meerkat to export and import builds: http://maxping.org/business/news/meerkat-may-impact-second-inventory-market-share.aspx and also one on transferring your avatars appearance over: http://maxping.org/technology/platforms/open-simulator/transfer-your-sl-avatar-appearance-to-opensim.aspx

Second Inventory have their own tutorials at: http://www.secondinventory.com/files/start.php

** ReactionGrid ask if you are going to be bringing over a large amount of items at once using SecondInventory you give then a courtesy warning as it can be quite heavy on the servers @ http://metaverseheroes.com

building efficiency:

I will Quote Chris Hart of Reaction Grid with some tips here:

”
Take care with physics – OpenSim has the ODE engine, not Havok
When doing a big unlink, or when deleting a lot of prims, take your time and wait for the prims to be unlinked or deleted. This can take longer than you might think, as the code here takes a while to run through the objects in the database and update them all.
Go slower when terraforming with brushes – let the server catch up with you. Again, this is heavy I/O work on the server, so go slow but enjoy it
”

Scripting:

* A few initial hints and tips from RG knowlegebase – http://metaverseheroes.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=34#

* OpenSim has a more extensive range of scripting languages available than SL and also a whole set of functions (OSL-functions) that are native to OpenSim, see: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Scripting_Documentation

* Our sims have C# scripting enables, so scripts should have their first lines either as

//lsl

or

//cs

(avoid starting the script with any other commented lines to avoid compiler confusion)

One Final Thing:

try and get into the habbit of renaming all objects from the default ‘primitive’ then if stuff goes wrong and a database deletion is needed it is easy to find the right object..

Here is the long promised instructions for using the pre-compiled version of OpenSim provided by OsGrid to make a local sandbox version of OpenSim.

This will utilize the inbuilt database and allow you to test and build stuff on a local computer – which you could then export to a live grid such as SL or ReactionGrid…

_____________

tested (most recently) on OSX 10.6.2 and  OSgrid OpenSimulator 0.6.8.96be5e5

These instructions work for me.. It might be a good idea to do a time machine backup before ferreting around in the terminal…just in case)

1.    install mono: mono is the underlying framework that OpenSim runs on – the code that runs the code that runs openSim http://www.mono-project.com (to install you pretty much just double click and accept and put in password)
2.    download the prebuilt version of openSim from OsGrid webpage: http://www.osgrid.org/elgg/pg/utilities/software
3.    unpack and move the ‘bin’ folder to a new folder called opensim in your root user directory (ie: the folder with the little house picture and your user name)
4.    open the ‘bin’ folder by double clicking (there are LOTS of files in here be careful with the next two instructions to choose the right ones)
5.    rename the file opensim.ini to opensim.ini.osgrid
6.    rename opensim.ini.example to opensim.ini
7.    open a terminal window (applications –> utilities –> terminal)
8.    move to the right directory in the terminal by typing “cd ~/opensim/bin” (no quote marks)
9.    then type  “mono OpenSim.exe” (without the quote marks)
10.    lots of text will scrawl past then you need to add some details… The fields –> ‘new region name’ , ‘ master avatar first name’ , ‘master avatar last name’ and ‘master avatar sandbox password’ all need your attention.. The rest you can hit enter (which chooses the default)
11.    more text will scroll and it might take a minute or so, but you will end up with a command prompt saying Region (myRegionName) #
12.    login using meerkat (download from http://meerkatviewer.org/ )–> start meerkat –> choose ‘local’ in the pull down grid menu –> login using the credentials you specified above
13.    you should appear as ‘ruth’ on a small island in the middle of a large expanse of water
14.    to shutdown OpenSim go back to the terminal window and type ‘shutdown’
15.    now got to http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Server_Commands and read up on all the other stuff you can do with your local install..

** if you mess something up in step 10, the easiest thing to do is delete the file userName/opensim/bin/Regions/regions.ini and then start again at step 7.

(hope these steps are useful – but remember if any of it is unfamiliar to you to do a backup first)

We have set up a presence for the Caerleon Collective on Reaction Grid.. This is an adjunct rather than an alternative to Second Life and is just one of the steps being taken into the larger metaverse.

Nonnatus can be seen here testing the new sims by slowing filling one of them with a tower of 45,000 cubes…

btw… at the recent Electrofringe OpenSim workshop, there were a number of educators interested in OpenSim as a platform.. I can really recommend ReactionGrid which has a strong virtual-world / education leaning..