I just ordered my Oculus Quest 2 headset this morning — and it already came this evening. Initial impression is that it’s the easiest-to-use headset I’ve tried so far. Very comfortable, very lightweight, and I didn’t even need to charge it up when I took it out of the box.Read More →
Wyldwood Bayou grid will celebrate first anniversary from Friday, October 29 through Monday, November 1, which coincides with the grid’s second Halloween Bash to be held on Sunday, October 31. The grid was launched a year ago by Kith Whitehawk as a destination grid for the club Rockin’ the Blues, andRead More →
More than 300 valid responses came in for the Twelfth Annual OpenSim Grid Survey, and Wildwood Bayou received nearly perfect scores in all categories, with Utopia Skye, Enchanted Grid, Craft World and Kitely close behind. Wildwood Bayou, Utopia Skye, and Enchanted Grid were all write-in grids. Most years, there’s at leastRead More →
AviTron, is testing out cryptocurrency as an in-world payment method in addition to its in-world currency, Tron. The grid will be accepting Bitcoin and Dogecoin as payment for land rentals and in-world purchases, despite the fact that the currencies are highly volatile and pose regulatory and other hazards for grids.Read More →
All OpenSim stats were up this month. Despite Tag grid not reporting its user numbers, OpenSim actives were up by 107, while land area increased by the equivalent of 673 standard regions. In addition, OpenSim’s public grids registered 875 new users. Most of the regions added this month are hypergridabble,Read More →
It’s been ten days since AviTron first reported Gloebit payment problems, and more than a week since Gloebit acknowledged the issue, but Gloebit purchases are continuing to fail across the hypergrid and grid owners complain that they haven’t been able to reach Gloebit CEO Chris Colosi for help. There alsoRead More →
After AviTron reported Gloebit payment problems on Saturday, other grids also seem to be having the same issue. Today, Gloebit confirmed that there’s an issue. “It appears that starting Sep. 27, some grids had some notifications of completion of transaction not make it back to the grid,” Gloebit CEO ChrisRead More →
The AviTron grid is reporting an outage in the multi-grid Gloebit payment system. “I have been emailing these guys for two weeks now,” AviTron grid owner Alex Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business. “No response yet.” According to Pomposelli, the problem is that the Gloebit DLL needs to be updated. TheRead More →
I run a breedable pet business in both Second Life and on Enchanted Grid in OpenSim under the name Foxtrot Breedables. Starting at 6 a.m. this morning, we began getting an influx of tickets. We found that our OpenSim customers were not affected by the disruption. The Second Life issue,Read More →
OpenSim grids are going all-out this year with Halloween events. Here is where to visit and things to do virtually in-world this Halloween. Halloween Day on Wyldwood Bayou Halloween Day on Wyldwood Bayou grid will take place beginning 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, October 31. You can enjoy aRead More →
OpenSim added more than 1,300 active users this month, after a drop of nearly 5,000 last month. Public grids also registered 2,670 new user accounts. Land area slipped slightly — by 507 regions, but nothing like last month’s drop of 4,361. The drop in area was fully accounted for, andRead More →
StoryLink Radio, a group of Irish storytellers at Seanchaà Library, will host a series of Halloween events on Kitely and Second Life next month. There will be live in-world storytelling sessions and hunts from 7 p.m. Pacific Time every Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and most Tuesdays from 1 October to 30 October,Read More →
Russia-based OpenSim company Caprica is now hosting private grids starting at just $20 a month. The company also runs its own grid, also called Caprica, That grid, which was founded in early 2018, currently has 310 regions and reported 300 active users in the last 30 days. Caprica’s new privateRead More →
To celebrate the completion of my most recent novella, Time of the Meatheads, the first novella in set in the Krim virtual world, Krim Times, is free this weekend. And it’s got a new cover, too. The book made the Amazon category bestseller list when it was released back inRead More →
Birdland, an illuminated novel by Luciwa Peregrine, premieres tomorrow, Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Nuna Gallery on 3rd Rock Grid. The hypergrid address is grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002:The Nuna Gallery. The opening is at 11 a.m. Pacific time, and then the book will be a temporary exhibit at the gallery for people toRead More →
OpenSim lost both land area and active users this month. Part of it is seasonal, with schools out of session, and people going outside to enjoy the nice weather. Part of the loss is because The Tag Grid, which reported nearly 1,700 active users last month, did not share thoseRead More →
Earlier this summer, Google shut down two more virtual reality apps, the 3D objects library called Poly, and the education-focused Google Expeditions.Read More →
OpenSim’s public grids reported an increase in land area this month, continuing an 11-month growth streak. Total area increased by the equivalent of 2,252 standard regions, for a new record high of 103,625 regions. That’s nearly four times the area of Second Life, according to the latest stats from GridSurvey,Read More →
OSgrid, the largest grid in land area and active user numbers, will celebrate its 14th birthday starting on Monday, July 19. The celebration will run through July 25. And to celebrate its birthday, the grid will give away free parcels in the OSGB14 regions where creators can showcase their bestRead More →
The Infinite Metaverse Alliance called on OpenSim users to take a survey today. “Given the number of new features for users that have evolved in the past two years, we are interested in knowing more about what users want and need,” said CEO Lisa Laxton. The results will help theRead More →
OpenSim stats went up across the board this month, with the number of regions hitting yet another record high, despite a cleanup on OSgrid that took down more than 1,000 region map reservations. Overall, land area went up by the equivalent of 86 standard regions, for a new high ofRead More →
DreamGrid 4.01 now has an easier interface that makes it quicker to set up a mini-grid compared to earlier versions I tried, and it now allows grid owners to automatically shut down regions that have no visitors and restart them back up again when people teleport in, and lets peopleRead More →
According to Unity PR head Ryan Wallace, OpenSim grids can still sign up to get free Vivox voice services — but there might be some technical hurdles to jump through. But OpenSim grid owners say that those technical hurdles pose some significant challenges, and they’re not getting any support fromRead More →
Update: Free service still available, but needs integration work. See full story here. Vivox, the voice service acquired by Unity two years ago, is discontinuing its free OpenSim service. “As of May 25, 2021, the Free Virtual World Voice service has been deprecated and we will no longer be acceptingRead More →
Two grid owners have successfully enabled Podex for hypergrid visitors to their grids. Discovery Grid owner Rene Vega, also known as Balpien Hammerer in-world, and AviWorlds owner Josh Boam have allowed hypergrid visitors to buy and use Podex-based local currencies while visiting their grids. “Thanks to Josh Boam as wellRead More →
A few OpenSim grid owners have contacted me about price updates, and there have been some dramatic drops out there fueled by improved management tools on the part of the grid owners and lower hosting prices by infrastructure providers. That inspired me to review all the grid prices on theRead More →
DigiWorldz, a leading commercial OpenSim grid, is giving away a years’ free rent for 25 regions, each one a two-by-two varregion with 25,000 prims, The drawing is free to enter and its open to both local residents and hypergrid visitors — applicants just need to fill out a form beforeRead More →
When I arrived in Austria I had to complete a German language course before I could attend university, but I had trouble focusing in the online learning platform. Immersive virtual reality solved the problem.Read More →
The Fire and Ice grid now has a new better performing server, allowing region owners to offer role play games, racing games, performing arts, and other computationally demanding activities to their visitors. These changes will boost performance of regions by reducing workload, said grid owner Sara Payne, who is alsoRead More →
OpenSim land area increased by 2,326 regions this past month to a new record high and the fifth month in a row where reported land area grew. However, active users fell for the second month running, with a net loss of 452 active users in the last 30 days. ZetaWorldsRead More →
The Gloebit outage has entered its second week and there is still no word about when it will be back up Gloebit is the most popular payment platform for OpenSim grids, in use on about 50 virtual worlds. The service was launched five years ago by Christopher Colosi, who usedRead More →
Editor’s Note: The ArtGate International 2021 kicks off with an opening ceremony tomorrow night, followed by three days of virtual art events. The art exhibition is open to the public and there is no cost to attend the event. A virtual reality headset will make the experience more immersive, butRead More →
Last month, Rec Room — a virtual reality app that lets users build virtual environments and games which they can play virtually with others across mobile and PC platforms — became the latest virtual reality startup to achieve a unicorn status, Â which means it reached a $1 billion valuation. ExpertsRead More →
Do you ever wish to bring some of your virtual life into your real one? Your pet flying dragon may have to wait but the jewelry you wore to your last ball might be available to order. Monentes Jewelry, best known for its jewelry store on the Continuum Grid —Read More →
Littlefield will celebrate its eight year anniversary since it started as a standalone grid on Saturday, April 10 with music and an exhibition of in-world creations. The event starts at 3 p.m. Pacific time on the Anniversary region with a live performance by Terry Wildman, followed by a dance partyRead More →
The Hypergrid Hoppers, a club for the explorers of the OpenSim hypergrid, is going to Vulcanicus Tuesday to meet the Gods of Second Life. The trip will start at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time on the HG Hoppers region on Craft World on Tuesday, March 23. The hypergrid address is craft-world.org:8002:HG Hoppers.Read More →
Interested in seeing the evolution of metaverse art? The Craft World grid will be hosting an exhibition on Friday, March 19 on the Uqbar region, of photographs and 3D builds from Second Life created between 2006 and 2012. Voxel 1 is only the first event in the Retrospective Exhibition series, saidRead More →
OpenSim land area grew by the equivalent of over 5,000 standard regions over the past month and grids registered more than 4,000 new users. However, active monthly users fell slightly, down 2 percent from last month’s record high. There are now 95,537 regions on the public OpenSim grids, a recordRead More →
Signal Theory has built an immersive and interactive app that lets you take a selfie of yourself on Mars and share it on Instagram. Plus, the app lets you explore the red planet through the eyes of the Perseverance Rover. The app is built using the National Geographic Mars 360Read More →
Story telling is increasingly blurring the line between the physical and virtual worlds, according to presenters at the just-concluded this year’s  Technology + Storytelling: Engaging The Immersive Future event organized by NYC Media Lab. We’re already seeing this happen on the production sites in series like Disney’s The Mandalorian, as youRead More →
Podex, the second-largest OpenSim payments provider, has suffered a fire at its data center and services are temporarily down, but no user money has been lost. “The Podex system is on OVH servers based in Strasbourg and fire destroyed some of their data center,” Podex CEO Jacek Shuftan told HypergridRead More →
The Kitely grid, the largest commercial OpenSim grid by land area, now has a tiny community. “It is called Weefolk Township and it’s located on the ‘always-on’ 64-region megaworld of Wellspring,” builder Snoots Dwagon told Hypergrid Business. Always-on regions are a new feature that Kitely added in January. Previously, regionsRead More →
Smartphones have radically transformed how we communicate with each other, learn, shop, get the news, get driving directions — they touch nearly every facet of our lives. The transformative effects of smart glasses, also known as augmented reality glasses, can be equally dramatic. Instead of looking down at a screen,Read More →
Our sister site, the speculative fiction magazine MetaStellar, is accepting original flash fiction stories this month. If you have an original, never-before-published sci-fi, fantasy, or horror story of 1,000 words or less, you can submit it here. Authors whose stories are accepted will be paid 8 cents a word forRead More →
The Great Canadian Gid has reopened under new management and is now back up online after shutting down for nearly one year. The Canadian Grid, whose website is also online now, has new reduced land offers at $5 Canadian dollars — or about US $3.80 — for a standard-sized regionRead More →
Tangle grid offers free skypads on the Skylife Properties region for people who want to set up private homes, private clubs, and other services. A skypad is a small island floating in the sky above a region, allowing users a plot of land with more privacy than traditional home plotsRead More →
OpenSim’s total land area hit a record high this month, with the equivalent of 90,310 regions. And this is actually an undercount — many grids don’t report their stats, many schools and company grids run in completely private mode, and some grids count large variable-sized regions as single regions. ThisRead More →
Gay Nation, which is an area on the AviWorlds grid dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community, is offering free spaces for shops, businesses, venues, recreational activities, and hypergrid travel agencies. Anyone can request space, including residents of other grids, as long as their offerings are of service to the LGBTQ+Read More →
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