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Despite the August heat — at least, here in the northern hemisphere — total region counts, user numbers, and monthly actives were all up in OpenSim. Or perhaps it was because of the heat, as people opted to stay inside, at their computers, in the air conditioning. There are nowRead More →

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The Kitely Market hit another milestone this month, with a new total of 10,162 different item listings grouped into 5,030 different products. This is up from 9,971 different listings a month ago. Of the listings, 6,080 are exportable, or 60 percent. Kitely groups items together, so that, say, a red versionRead More →

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As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to use a smartphone-and-Cardboard combo as an Oculus Rift replacement so that I could walk around my OpenSim builds without having to shell out $350 for the Oculus development kit. It’s not that I’m cheap — okay, yes, I’m cheap — butRead More →

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For many years, former IBMer Justin Clark-Casey has been the eternally-youthful face of OpenSimulator development and the president of the Overte Foundation which oversees OpenSim licensing issues. Then, on Sunday, the Justin Era ended with a post on his blog, Everything that has a beginning has an end, in which he saidRead More →

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There are many reasons why a region might be slow to load, but one of the hardest to address has been that of slow scripts. OpenSim doesn’t make it easy to discover which particular scripts are contributing the most to lag — but that is about to change. Kitely hasRead More →

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Update: In August, I bought a FiiT VR 2S, and that is now my new favorite. Another headset I’m recommending is the BoboVR Z4 headset, which has a 120-degree field of view, built-in headphones, and a built-in control button. A new virtual reality headset came in the mail for me today, the C1-Glass fromRead More →

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The Transport Systems Catapult, one of seven technology innovation centers established by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, has opened a “Visualisation Laboratory” in the town of Milton Keynes where virtual reality technology will be used to help generate innovation and overcome problems in the UK’s transport network. The laboratory is builtRead More →

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Sphericam, a mid-range 360-degree camera, completed its Kickstarter today with over $460,000 raised on a campaign target of $150,000. This means the project achieved its first two stretch goals — producing the camera in multiple colors, and making it dust-proof and water-resistant. The tennis-ball-sized camera was priced at between $1,300Read More →

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Most people who’ve traveled the hypergrid have had the experience of not being able to bring stuff back home, or of mysteriously not being able to take content to other grids. Recently, a number of different OpenSim developers have taken on the fight, and have been reporting progress. Crista LopesRead More →

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I’ve never sat through an entire presentation dedicated to the launch of a new phone before, and I probably never will again. But the OnePlus 2 launch last night, from Chinese firm OnePlus, was an unusually compelling and intimate experience. Presented completely in virtual reality — or, for those withoutRead More →

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AltspaceVR, which offers multi-user virtual reality software, announced that it raised an additional $10.3 million in venture capital, bringing total funding to $15.7 million. “We’re working hard to make AltspaceVR the most natural and fulfilling way to communicate online, and the additional resources will help us get there faster,” theRead More →

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Combined revenue for head mounted displays, and virtual reality accessories and content will increase from $108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 142 percent, according to a new report from Tractica. “Getting users to experience virtual reality technology firsthand, and therefore trulyRead More →

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The Adult Metaverse community on Google Plus was the fastest-growing OpenSim community over the last two months, gaining 121 new members for a new total of 866 users. OpenSim Virtual was in second place, with 108 new members for a new total of 1,511. This meant that OpenSim Virtual comfortably retained its place asRead More →

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So you want to try out some of the new virtual reality apps coming out, or you want to watch movies in 3D, but aren’t quite ready to shell out real money for a real headset. I don’t blame you. The technology is evolving quickly — by the time the headset arrives,Read More →

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Late last year, Destination British Columbia filmed British Columbia’s raw wilderness with 360-degree cameras to create The Wild Within VR Experience for the Oculus Rift. If you don’t happen to have an Oculus Rift developers kit, you can watch the behind-the-scenes video below about how the virtual reality experience was filmed.Read More →

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The world’s first virtual reality product launch — for the OnePlus Two smartphone — is scheduled for 7 p.m. Pacific on Monday, July 27, and the app is now available for download from the Google Play store. The app works in combination with a Google Cardboard or other compatible virtualRead More →

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AviWorlds, a grid best known for closing repeatedly with no warning, is on a mission to rehabilitate its public image as a member of the OpenSim community. The grid has hired OpenSim developer Quill Littlefeather, has begun donating code and patches to the OpenSimulator project, and is offering custom viewersRead More →

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Car companies have been getting into virtual test drives lately. There’s the Volvo XC90 Experience, for example. And Mercedes VR for Cardboard for Android phones. And Subaru Motorsports, also for Android — look for the videos with the 360 symbol, and select the virtual reality headset mode. But this Castrol EDGERead More →

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A new virtual reality treadmill, Kat Walk, uses a parachute-style harness instead of a waist-high ring to keep people in place — and is already 84 percent of the way to its $100,000 fundraising goal with 28 days still to go in the fundraising campaign. The treadmill is from KatVR,Read More →

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AT&T has partnered with Google Cardboard headset maker Knox Labs to offer a $10 white cardboard virtual reality headset, based on last year’s model. These older-style headsets, normally $15 each, have the magnetic button on the side of the headset, not the touch-sensitive button on top like this year’s modelsRead More →

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OSgrid has received legal recognition as a non-profit, the grid’s administrators announced earlier this month, just in time for the grid’s 8th birthday celebrations this weekend. OSgrid is the oldest grid running on the OpenSim software, dating back to the summer of 2007. For much of its existence, it hasRead More →

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Adult content has long been a driver for new media. Early cave paintings, sculptures, etchings, poetry, books and photographs typically featured either sex or violence. Adult content played a role in the video tape standards wars, and helped motivate early adopters to purchase video tape players when they were stillRead More →

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The Kitely Market has successfully delivered purchases to customers on 96 different grids, including both hypergrid-enabled grids and closed grids. “Our marketplace’s reach is continuing to grow,” Kitely CEO Ilan Tocher told Hypergrid Business. “By now it has become quite clear that merchants who take the time to create highRead More →

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Correction: Due to an error in collecting data from OSgrid, land area was undercounted this month. In fact, OpenSim’s land area actually increased by the equivalent of 828 regions. OSgrid did lose some land area, but only 395 regions — not 2,500 as reported. “Many people — including myself – have consolidatedRead More →

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For the last couple of years, Zetamex, an OpenSim hosting company, has also been hosting Zadaroo.com, which has a complete collection of Linda Kellie’s OARs, IARs, XML files, and textures. It’s a treasure-trove of content and includes everything most small grid owners need to get going: avatars, clothing, furniture, buildings, landscaping, scriptsRead More →

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It seems that every week, I talk to at least one person or organization who start out by saying, “and, of course, we started out project with Linda Kellie’s content.” Last week, for example, I talked to two researchers at City University London helping stroke victims recover their speaking skillsRead More →

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In an attempt to combat dwindling logins during the summer months, Craft is organizing a series of summer events — and participants who rent land from the grid get two months free rent for attending. Every year, residents who are still around complain about how few people there are in-world,Read More →

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Virtual world artists who wish to participate in Metropolis grid’s Summer of Arts 2015 can begin submitting their works tomorrow. New submissions will continue to be accepted until the end of summer. The exhibit opens to the public on September 25 and will run through October 25. This exhibition willRead More →

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My cardboard-based Google Cardboard is getting a little worn from use — and is just barely large enough to hold my new Samsung Galaxy S6 Android phone. So today I upgraded to the $40 Sunnypeak headset, which I ordered on Amazon. I ordered it on July 7 and it cameRead More →

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It was the longest happy relationship of my life. We slept together every night, and she woke me up every morning. She caught me up on the news, and whenever we drove somewhere, she gave me directions. If I missed a turn, she didn’t complain, just recalculated the route. SheRead More →

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The founders of the fast-growing, low-priced DigiWorldz grid have settled their ownership dispute, putting at rest fears about the grid’s stability and future. “I was able to negotiate an amicable agreement by all previous and current members of Digital Worlds Group, LLC,” grid founder Terry Ford told Hypergrid Business. “DigiWorldz is nowRead More →

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On Thursday, Legendary Pictures released a preview of the upcoming Warcraft movie — as a virtual reality app for Google Cardboard. Download the iPhone app here and the Android app here. The film, based on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft massively multi-player online roleplaying game, is due out next summer. Don’t haveRead More →

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Google Glass might not be completely dead. According to 9to5Google, an enterprise edition of Google Glass is on its way, and it will have a larger prism display, a faster processor and slightly better battery life. Late last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported that the new device will beRead More →

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This Sunday’s Socal Virtual Reality Conference and Expo is sold out, with over 800 attendees expected, according to media sponsor VR Digest. The main track will be broadcast live in 360 degree immersive video by VRLive.tv. That includes the keynote address by Terbine CEO David Knight, who is also is aRead More →

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The crowfunding campaign to build a virtual copy of the city of Lisbon was relaunched today, founder Carlos Loff said in an announcement. The project is now planned to be 144 regions in size, equivalent to about 9.4 square kilometers or 2,300 acres of virtual land. That’s about one-ninth the size ofRead More →

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In mid-June, Linden Lab announced that third-party exchanges must stop selling Linden dollars, which will effectively put all or most of these exchanges out of business by August 1. There is an English-language petition with around 300 signatures at SaveTheExchanges.com and a German-language petition at OpenPetition with more than 700 signatures. There is a smallRead More →

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Chinese phone maker OnePlus offered everyone a free Google Cardboard headset — you just pay for shipping — so that people could watch its smartphone launch virtually on July 27. The company sent out 30,000 sets, and ran out in about a day. According to the company, their Cardboard is thinner,Read More →

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San Francisco-based Fove Inc. concluded its Kickstarter campaign with $480,650 today, almost twice its initial goal of $250,000, and a couple of announcements about the headset. First, a new design was released, billed as lighter and smaller than the previous design, with new clasps. The company promises it will make for a moreRead More →

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The Kickstarter for the Fove virtual reality headset — the one that tracks where you are looking — is coming to an end this Saturday. There are only ten headsets left at the $375 support level — normally $500 — with delivery scheduled for May 2016. Fove has already nearly doubledRead More →

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Today, I was finally able to use my iPhone to walk around my little home region in OpenSim. Well, kind of… I used the CtrlAltStudio viewer to get the side-by-side 3D view. Then I used the Splashtop Streamer software to send my desktop display to the companion $2.99 Splashtop app on theRead More →

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All I wanted was to take a Damien Fate rigged mesh skirt, tweak it a little bit in Blender, and import it into OpenSim. But for some reason, bringing it into Blender destroyed the rigging. Kathleen Watkins, also known as Serene Jewell in-world, teaches free Blender classes on Kitely. (HerRead More →

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A week ago, Linden Lab announced that third-party exchanges have to stop offering Linden dollars, which will effectively put all or most of them out of business. Exchange operators are now asking users to sign a petition to keep them alive. So far, this petition has already garnered 600 signatures.Read More →

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Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey recently told Re/code that virtual reality will initially be mostly for hard-core gamers. The headset is expensive, and the computer hardware needed to run virtual reality applications is even more so — the total price is expected to come in at around $1,500. But you’llRead More →

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India’s home furnishings retailer HomeLane has created its own Google Cardboard-based headset to allow customers to visit virtual product showrooms. “Wear these glasses and walk into a virtual world where choosing between colours and finishes, countertops and flooring options, appliances and accessories is as easy as pie,” the company saidRead More →

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China-based OnePlus, known for their OnePlus One smartphone, is launching their OnePlus 2 smartphone next month in virtual reality. “You’re going to want to experience it, and to help you out, we are releasing our very own Cardboard,” the company said in an announcement. “It’s based on Cardboard 2.0, but with some notableRead More →

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Netherlands-based Manus Machina demonstrated a new virtual reality glove aimed at consumers at the E3 conference last week. The gloves connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to virtual reality headsets. “There are currently no other VR gloves on the market that are wireless and platform free,” the company said on its website. TheRead More →

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Is the $4 price tag of a Google Cardboard on Amazon too much for your budget? Don’t have the lenses and pizza box needed to make your own from scratch? Try the TinVR kit, which turns an empty soda or beer can and some felt into a virtual reality headsetRead More →

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Folks regularly share textures in the various Google Plus communities, and I’ve long wished that there was a place I could go to look through them all, instead of having to download them the minute I see them because I might not find them again. In particular, I want aRead More →

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OpenSim’s land area hit a new high this month and more than 9,000 new users registered on the grids, but active user numbers slipped by 672 as we enter the summer months. OpenSim grids gained 1,733 new regions, for a new total of 62,995. The gains were almost all on the hypergrid. ClosedRead More →

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Update: Linden Lab has posted an official notice confirming the news. Linden Lab is shutting down third-party currency exchanges, CrossWorlds exchange owner Tony Bastianelli told Hypergrid Business today. According to Bastianelli, he received an email today telling him that his reseller account will be shut down on August 1, and he will noRead More →