A Whole New World

The past few days, I've been experimenting with OpenSimulator, the open-source sim server that is compatable with the SL client. I hadn't paid much attention to it, thinking that I would need a dedicated server machine, but found out that you can host the server on the same machine as your client (of course, having a fast computer with lots of memory helps). Of course, having the server on a dedicated machine would have advantages.

Installing and configuring OpenSim isn't for the fainthearted technophobe, but there are some good tutorials on setting it up.

OpenSim comes with SQLite for database storage, but I decided to install MySQL which is better able to handle larger number of assets without a lot of lag. Here again, there is a tutorial for installing it and integrating it with OpenSim.

With a bit of head-banging and googling, I was finally able to bring up the server. So I made a copy of the shortcut for the SL client, and added command line options specifying the local OpenSim server IP address and port: "C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -loginuri http://127.0.0.1:9000/ -loginpage http://127.0.0.1:9000/?method=login. I clicked on the shortcut, and found myself standing on a small round island in the middle of the default sim.

When you arrive in OpenSim, you are in the "T" pose, which is a bit annoying. However, as soon as you move, the walk animation kicks in and everything is OK from that point. Assuming that the noobie "duck walk" is OK.

After doing some random terrain building, I decided to experiment further and created a second sim on the server, next to the first one. This worked just fine, especially once I found out that the coordinates are sim-oriented (i.e. (1000,1001) is the sim next to (1000,1000) instead of (1000,1256) like I first assumed). So now I had two whole sims to play with.

I don't know how many sims I can support on my long-suffering Compaq without it melting its CPU down into a puddle of silicon, but two should be enough for my personal empire for the time being.


One of the big problems with OpenSim at the current time is that there isn't much in their library in terms of objects, textures, animations, and the like. You basically have to build everything up from scratch, and about all you can get out of SL is copies of modifiable scripts (by copy/paste into a text document on your computer and then in the opposite direction into a new script in OS), and textures for which you have full perms. I cloned Mare by going into Appearance and writing down all of the slider numbers, then applying them to my new avatar in the OpenSim world. This was a bit tedious, and I don't look right without my prim hair :-(

The contents of a sim can be exported to what is called an OAR file. Googling around, I found a very limited number of these available, some with trees and buildings in them. I was able to load these into one of my sims and get copies of the trees for my own inventory. Confusingly, OAR files normally have the extension .tar.gz, which indicates that they are actually Unix-style compressed files; this extension convention will probably be changed in the future. Caution: loading an OAR file wipes the previous contents of the sim, so be sure to save it into an OAR file of your own before importing another one if you want to save it!

If you don't mind spending 29 € (US$25 or so), there is a utility/modified client called Second Inventory which allows you to download items out of your inventory (only the ones for which you have full permissions) to your hard drive, and then upload them into OS. I don't have that yet, because I'm just experimenting right now and am too cheap frugal to spend any money on this.

If you get lonely or don't want to handle the care and feeding of hosting your own server, there are several public OpenSim grids on the Internet to explore -- here's a list. If you have your server on a machine that is visible to the rest of the Net, you can add your sims to one of the grids and "go public". I haven't explored any of them myself yet, but I will before too much longer.

OpenSimulator is still considered alpha software, which means that it's a work in progress, and I've run into several bugs and gotchas already; but nothing that is a real show-stopper in terms of playing around with it. I plan on reporting any problems I find, if they already haven't been reported: things have been and should go on improving rapidly.

There is a feeling of power in having your own private virtual world!

Tails To Be Sold Told

It's been a while since I've added any products, but I finally finished (if any of my projects can ever be said to be "finished") a new line of mer tails and put them in a vendor in my shops and on Xstreet. Called Nereid, they come in a variety of colors and include hip and dorsal fins. I've got 12 different color schemes (so far). Apparently, I seem to have hit some kind of limit on the number of images Blogger will let me upload for this post, so I can only show the first five:

Black/Blue
Black/Gold
Black/Red
Black/Green
Blue/Aqua

Blue/Gold

Blue/Green

Green/Gold

Lavender/Gold

Purple/Gold

Red/Gold

Silver/Gold

The Neighbors are Having a Ball

Or, more correctly, a couple hundred of them. I discovered the mess when I went for a swim this evening and found several errant spheres rolling around the sea floor under my dock. I pushed them back over the boundary of my property and retired for the night, shaking my head...

May I Have Permission?

A customer told me that she was having problems with the Mermaid's Dream AO: it was giving her a script error saying that "the texture is not transferable". I added permissions on the two button textures in the AO, and the problem seems to have gone away.

Getting all of the permissions right on products for sale is an arcane art; I need to go to the Minoan Empire and make the proper sacrifices to the gods, I guess.

Idle Hands...

I spent some time making a few changes to my skybox home the other day. It's still a work in progress.

Fine Print

A couple of Mermaid's Dream customers have complained to me that the Fish Rezzer and/or the Fish Bracelet sometimes don't work. I finally figured out that -- duh -- they can't rez the fish if you don't have build privilege in the parcel. I *cheerfully* refunded their money, and have added a warning on the vendor signs.

It seems like one way out of this quandry would be for SL to allow rezzing of temp objects, even if build of permanent objects is disallowed; but there is probably a good reason why that wouldn't work. *sigh*

Free Market

At the advice of a friend, I finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago: put my Mermaid's Dream products up for sale on Xstreet (formerly SlExchange). You can find my things by going to Marketplace in Xstreet and viewing Merchants, then digging down to Mare Novi.

I have the "Dream Mer" tails, the latest version of the Mermaid's Dream AO, and some of the gadgets from my vendors. I should make pages for the other things just laying around the store, like the "mernature" and the poseballs. Maybe they'll get more customers online then just waiting for people to wander into the store.

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz

I ran into a friend sailing her new Flying Fizz 3.0, and after crewing for a few minutes in it, I just had to have one. It seems to sail even more realistically and faster than the Flying Tako(!), which can make it more challenging to navigate. They're for sail -- er, sale -- at the Starboards Yacht Club in Hollywood.


There are several levels of operation, though; so if you just want to sail around, you can put it in "Fun Mode" and not worry about the sail settings and the like. Other levels give you control over the sail trim and tautness, to get the maximum performance out of the boat in races. Your crew, if you have one, doesn't just sit there, but can take an active role in manning the rigging and hanging over the side to help counterbalance the boat when it's well heeled over.

The colors and textures are fully configurable, so I can see I'm going to be spending some time fiddling with the paint job.

Cost is L$1,250, which was a bit more than I expected -- but well worth it!


The wind is freshening, and I hear the Blake Sea calling...

Battle Cry

And now for something completely different:

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Sprinting along the icy wasteland, brandishing a sharpened screwdriver, cometh Mare Novi! And she gives an ominous roar: "I'm seriously going to beat you into a fine spicy powder!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

Reverie

Half asleep I hear a voice
Is it only in my mind
Or is it someone calling me someone I failed and left behind

To work it out I let them in
All the good guys and the bad guys that I've been
All the devils that disturbed me and the angels that defeated them... somehow
Come together in me now

Face to face I greet the cast
Set in silence we begin
Companions in an empty room I taste their victory and sin

To work it out I let them in
All the good guys and the bad guys that I've been
All the devils that disturbed me and the angels that defeated them... somehow
Come together in me now

A tale of beauty and the beast
I defend my soul from those who would accuse me
I share the famine and the feast
I have been the world and felt it turning seen the jester yearning to amuse me

Like a circus on parade
Seldom close enough to see
I wander through an angry crowd and wonder what became of me

To work it out I let them in
All the good guys and the bad guys that I've been
All the devils that disturbed me and the angels that defeated them... somehow
Come together in me now

- Paul Williams
Phantom's Theme (Beauty and the Beast)