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Avatar Social Network has recently passed SL Universe in Alexa traffic rank, making it the leading dedicated platform for avatars to discuss virtual world topics. “Now of course at the moment it may not mean much,” Avatar Social Network founder Arkad Baxton told Hypergrid Business. “But if it’s maintained or getRead More →

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Update: The poll is now closed. See the results here. It’s time again for the OpenSim grid survey, where OpenSim residents can rank their grids and see how they compare to others. If your grid isn’t on the list, write it in and help the world discover new hidden gems.Read More →

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The London-based Spellscape grid, a magic-themed role play world, has donated code for filtered inventory exports. This would enable grid owners to allow their users to save their inventories in the form of IAR files, while still protecting exclusive content that is not allowed to leave the grid. Previously, this was only possibleRead More →

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The European Union is giving away more than 80 million Euro — US $103 million — as part of the FIWARE Accelerator Programme for tech startups using cutting-edge technologies such as realXtend, an early off-shoot of OpenSim. The funding is in the form of a direct grant — no equity or loan repayments required.Read More →

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OpenSim is a free, open-source platform for creating immersive, 3D virtual worlds. The user interface looks almost exactly like Second Life. The OpenSim software comes in two major parts. The viewers allow you to explore OpenSim worlds, while the server software allows you to create your own world. I wantRead More →

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Zetamex is no longer the low-cost hosting leader in OpenSim. As of today, if you are looking for the lowest-host regions in OpenSim, you have to go to Canada — specifically, to The Great Canadian Grid. Land prices start at just CAD $5 for a 15,000 prim region with noRead More →

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The AviWorlds grid is coming back up — this time with help from Josh Boam, founder of SkyLifeGrid. “I am going to offer him paid servers and unlimited help,” Boam told Hypergrid Business. According to AviWorlds owner Alex Pomposelli, the grid will be hypergrid-enabled, have its own virtual currency, and willRead More →

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The Totem headset from Montreal-based Vrvana, Inc. has launched its Kickstarter this week with a very promising debut — more than $100,000 raised in the first 24 hours. The project is now more than a third of the way to its $350,000 goal with 26 days still left in theRead More →

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I have served on my share of non-profit boards. Still do, as a matter of fact. And most of these nonprofits have one thing in common: they spend money. Sorry, they have two things in common: they also raise money. In fact, raising money is usually a core function of theRead More →

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The new CEO taking over the Zetamex OpenSim hosting company is named Richard Lehman, and prices will only be raised slightly, he said today. In addition, he pledged that 10 percent of the region rental income will go to OSgrid and Metropolis, to support their operations. Zetamex currently offers customersRead More →

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As a result of the recent change in ownership, Zetamex will be raising hosting prices on Nov. 1. “I can’t release how much it’s going up, but it is going to affect all plans,” said acting CEO Timothy Rogers, who will be stepping down from that position on Dec. 1.Read More →

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3rd Rock Grid, a closed, commercial social grid known for its music scene, has stepped up with a fundraising call for another grid. OSgrid has been down for almost a month after a failure of its asset storage hardware and there’s been little information from the grid administrators so farRead More →

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Merchants selling products on the Kitely Market now have a suite of analytics tools to help them optimize sales, Oren Hurvitz, Kitely co-founder and VP R&D, announced today in a blog post. The new features include historical data about sales, traffic sources, product demos, and delivery destinations for exported items. InRead More →

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The grid numbers were down this month, partly due to an outage on OSgrid, the oldest virtual world running on the OpenSim software and one of the largest grids. However, the number of downloads of the OpenSimulator software reached an all-time high this month. The number of standard region equivalents droppedRead More →

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Las Vegas-based Zetamex, a leading provider of low-cost OpenSim hosting, has been sold, CEO Timothy Rogers said in a brief announcement today. No services or existing pricing will be adversely affected, he said in an open letter later in the day, with the major change being the addition of newRead More →

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People interested in attending the 2014 OpenSimulator Community Conference can now sign up for tickets, conference organizers announced today. “Since seats are limited, registration is open on a first-come-first-served basis until the maximum number of virtual conference center tickets is reached,” said conference chair Chris Collins in the announcement. TheRead More →

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Ener Hax is using the Sim-on-a-Stick distribution of OpenSim to create artwork for a new card game, Mint Tin Villagers. Previously, she used the same approach to create art for a previous game, Mint Tin Aliens, which will have a Kickstarter in a month. Read the full post here. ThanksRead More →

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Motion capture device Perception Neuron, from Beijing-based Noitom Ltd., is nearing the end of its Kickstarter, with less than two days to go. More than 1,000 people have already pledged nearly half a million dollars to the project, far surpassing the company’s $250,000 goal. Perception Neuron promises to bring gestureRead More →

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Press Release: Next Galaxy Corp Partners With Miami Beach Chamber Of Commerce To Host The Business Innovation And Growth (B.I.G.) Summit At The New World Center MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Next Galaxy Corp., an innovative Augmented and fully Immersive Virtual Reality technology and content solutions for consumers, is pleased toRead More →

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Press Release: Vortex VR Partners With 3D Systems to Launch Virtual Reality Mobile Phone Case and Head Mounted Display 3DS provides design and manufacturing support in 3D printing VRTX I headset, tailor-made for the LG G3 Quad HD smartphone Selective Laser Sintering used to make headset ultra lightweight, highly functionalRead More →

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Folks who’ve tried to add destinations to the Hyperica directory in the past often complained about the length of time it takes to add their regions and grids. The old form used to go to a Google Spreadsheet, was difficult to use, and often did not notify us when aRead More →

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August was a relatively slow month in OpenSim, but September is shaping up to be full of major events, including an anniversary celebration on Avination, an Air & Space Expo, a 9/11 commemoration, and much more. Make sure not to skip over the RezMela contest, where you decide this weekRead More →

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Press release: Homido virtual reality smartphone-HMD is bringing VR to the masses Paris, France - Moving in the footsteps of Oculus Rift (Facebook), Morpheus (Sony), Gear VR (Samsung), Cardboard (Google), Homido is proud to bring Virtual Reality to the mass market with the 1st multi-feature Iphone app dedicated to smartphone-HMD headsets (alsoRead More →

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The Kokua viewer team is following in the footsteps of Firestorm developers and creating a new branch of the viewer software just for OpenSim. Because of Linden Lab licensing issues, there are some features that viewers can only offer to Second Life users. In addition, there are some features likeRead More →

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About 8,000 people are expected to attend this year’s virtual Utherverse community convention, Virtual Con, twice that of last year’s 4,000 attendees. This year’s convention also includes a job fair and keynotes by virtual reality headset manufacturers Gameface Labs, Metaio, Altergaze and other high-profile virtual reality-related companies. “This is theRead More →

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After I created yesterday’s Hillary Clinton Avatar and uploaded it to the Kitely Marketplace, Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner reminded me that, with an adult skin, it needs to go into the “Adult” category — I would need to create a new skin for a “General” listing. He pointed me to aRead More →

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Last week, I wrote about how I updated my avatar look and copied my shape across grids. I updated my skin, as well, to more closely resemble my actual face without being too creepy. Here is how I did it. Step One: Start with a good freebie skin If youRead More →

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  Version 0.8.0.1 of OpenSim is out, and this is an official, recommended release and includes the attachment fix donated by Kitely last month. The fix solves the problem that some users experience when attachments get dis-attached during teleports. Previously, the fix was only available for people who compiled theirRead More →

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The Developer Kit 2 version of the Oculus Rift began shipping last month, and some OpenSim users already got their hands on one. Now the CtrlAltStudio Viewer has some preliminary support for the DK2, developer David Rowe announced yesterday. “I know some people are very anxious to try their DK2sRead More →

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Update 8/21: OSgrid Dan Banner posted an announcement saying, “OSgrid has suffered a critical failure in one of the primary drives in our RAID10 array. This is a matter of the gravest technical concern, and while we are working diligently with our datacenter services provider to resolve this issue without dataRead More →

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Beijing-based Noitom Ltd. has launched a Kickstarter for its Perception Neuron motion capture product which offers the promise of interacting with virtual environments at a lower cost than available with other platforms. Perception Neuron costs $175 with delivery estimated in February of 2015. The closest other system on the market todayRead More →

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I’ve read on Ener Hax’s blog that you can use Imprudence to copy shapes from Second Life. This month, I redid my skin — using my much-improved GIMP skills to combine an actual picture of myself with a Linda Kellie skin template. And then used that same photograph to tryRead More →

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OpenSim’s 40 largest grids gained over 3,000 new regions this month, many thanks to the new varregion functionality. Registered users and active users also increased this month, despite the summer season. The exact totals are 50,017 standard region equivalents on the top 40 grids, an increase of 3,110 regions; 363,884 registeredRead More →

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A couple of days ago, I rounded up all the places where you can order a Google Cardboard kit. But you don’t have to settled for cardboard, if you have access to a 3D printer. Check out this guide for 3D printing your own Google Cardboard headset here. Several differentRead More →

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Mal & Maria are joined by Zetamex CEO Timothy Rogers and developer Chris Strachan to talk about their price cuts and plans for hypergrid search, a hypergrid marketplace, and a hypergrid directory. Tara gets a week off but also in the studio are Petlove Petshop and Debs Regent. Plus —Read More →

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Tangle Grid is rapidly becoming known as the Expo Grid for their high-profile, hypergrid-enabled events. Tangle Grid’s Fashion Expo, which ended on August 3, brought in 85 visitors — up 55 percent from June’s Steam Expo on the same grid. About half of the Fashion Expo visitors came via hypergrid,Read More →

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Updated Jan. 2, 2016: This page is so out of date! Please go see our Virtual Headsets Buying Guide, which lists over 70 Google Cardboard-compatible headsets categorized by price, and our handy Mobile virtual reality headset comparison chart, which has all the key specs, prices, and buying links for all the headsetsRead More →

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Las Vegas-based hosting company Zetamex — which recently tested out a $3 region offer — has decided to make the low prices permanent, and added some much-requested features. The company also raised prices slightly. Instead of $3 for a 15,000-prim region capable of holding up to 20 avatars, the newRead More →

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  Kitely customers will now have an easier time trying out Kitely Market products. The “Try demo” link is now right there on the product listing page, said Kitely co-founder and VP R&D  Oren Hurvitz  in an announcement this week. Previously, customers had to add the product to their shopping cart,Read More →

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The Virtual Worlds City grid is moving from OpenSim to Unity 3D. “Since our clients only will shop and explore there is no need for all the build tools that the OpenSim-based viewers have,” said Frank Corsi, co-founder and CTO of parent company 3D Virtual Web, Inc. I’ve compared Unity to OpenSim before,Read More →

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Most people who run their own grids — and this includes the little Diva Distro I’ve got on my home computer — use one of the official, recommended distributions of OpenSim. This means the latest stable, recommended release from OpenSimulator.org, or the Diva Distro mini-grid, Sim-on-a-Stick, or New World Studio.Read More →

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You can’t keep these guys down. AviWorlds is back in action, now in its seventh incarnation. The grid is pledging to make backups of everything, grid founder Alexandro Pomposelli  — also known as Alex Ferraris in-world — said in a Facebook post Saturday,  “so that all is well this time andRead More →

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The Cyberinth Virtualizer, which launched its Kickstarter campaign a little more than a week ago, has reached its $250,000 goal with 26 days left in the campaign. The $700 device is designed to be used in combination with a virtual reality headset such as the Oculus Rift, and allows users to walk, run, crouch, jumpRead More →