A sneak peak image of an enviroment I am developing as part of the ‘Caerleon artificial-agency research collaboration’ on ReactionGrid..

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..

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..

links that we looked at and discussed at the electrofringe 2009 openSim workshop.

openSim itself:
main page: http://opensimulator.org/

grids:
osGrid: http://www.osgrid.org/ (host your own sim)
reaction Grid: http://reactiongrid.com/ (doing really interesting stuff – more to say on this soon)

resources:
maxPing: http://maxping.org/ (many great articles)
adam frisby: http://www.adamfrisby.com/ (core developer)

viewers:
meerkat: http://meerkatviewer.org/ (* i recommend this one)
hippo: http://mjm-labs.com/viewer/
snowglobe: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Snowglobe (the “official” Linden Lab sponsored openSource viewer project)
realXtend viewer: http://www.realxtend.org/ (if only for the ease of exporting and importing an avatars appearance.)

libOpenMetaverse: http://lib.openmetaverse.org/ (text only command line ‘bot’ client)

mono:
mono: http://www.mono-project.com/

cheap remote servers:
a whole server: http://cari.net (from $50/month – have run 6 regions with light loads or one heavier region)
a VPS: (virtual private server: a part of a server that acts like a whole server – each could host a light region – though sometimes a little sluggish, in particular if more than a few avatars are there at once)
$15 option: http://www.tektonic.net/
$10 option: http://fsckvps.com/

(more workshop notes soon, please subscribe to the rss feed or twitter for updates.)

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..

2.48pm: startup windows…

2.49pm: log into publisher… delve into amazon web services for my keys and download s3 safe to make a ‘bucket’ in my new amazon account.

3.00pm: upload .x model created and uv mapped in blender… (uv texture saved as .tga in directory model is exported to.)

3.01pm: use publisher to upload model to amazon server

3.02pm: back to ‘creator’ application.. model is there ready to use.. drag and drop into my park with uv texture attached..

next step… setting up the server and trying to access a park externally… oh… and looking at multi user support…

4.30pm: restart my laptop in windows. (hoping that cross platform support is high on the VastPark development list)

3.34pm: point browser towards VastPark beta tools download

4.36pm: download the VastPark Browser. Install. (which also automatically searches for dependencies and asks to install the required .NET framework)

4.42pm: install complete. attempt to connect to a demo park listed on the forums

4.52pm: explored the maze of dark park..

4.54pm: pointing browser towars the tutorials page

4.55pm: downloading ‘creator’ and starting tutorial no. 1

5.17pm: made first basic world in the creator tool.. (took some time to work out: shift lmb to drag object)

5.30pm: played with other tutorials and available content.. download publisher, send email for publisher account and make an amazon web services account in readyness..

5.40pm: back to os x and building some bits in blender ready to export as .x and import into a park….

to be continued….