AltspaceVR is not dead after all
AltspaceVR, a social virtual reality platform, has come back from the dead. A couple of weeks ago, the company announced that it was shutting down because it ran out of funding. Today, it announced...
Educators sour on virtual worlds
Educators are souring on virtual worlds, as evidenced by declining participation in online forums, in virtual conference attendances and education-related destinations on the Second Life grid. For example, Second Life Educators, the forum for...
Renamed SineSpace holds summer festival this weekend
SineSpace — formerly known as just Space — will hold a summer festival this coming weekend, August 19 and 20. The festival will include contests, live music, carnival games, a roller-coaster, movies, fireworks, and...
Different way to scrape stats
As you folks know, I’ve been struggling with collecting all the stats from all the grids every month, and, earlier this year, have almost fully automated the process, using an extremely jury-rigged Filemaker script....
Summer sale on Daydream VR apps
Google’s Daydream virtual reality platform is currently my favorite. It’s built into the next generation of the Android operating system, and headsets cost under $100, making it widely accessible. And the platform’s motion controller...
Island Oasis gets a new owner
The Island Oasis grid now has a new owner, and has been offline since Monday while the servers are being moved to their new location. The grid is expected to be back up on Friday, according...
How to find VR apps
It can be hard to keep up with all the new virtual reality apps coming out. But, if you’re just starting out, it can be equally hard to find good ones to start with....
How to play old Cardboard apps on Daydream View
Last night, I wanted to try out the VR Spaceship VR app for Android on my Pixel phone with my Daydream View headset. Unfortunately, VR Spaceship is an older, Cardboard-compatible app, not a Daydream app, and...
A default avatar could make you look like a copybotter
If you’re using a default avatar that comes with some versions of OpenSim, your name might wind up on copybotted content without you knowing about it. That’s just what happened to a user known...
AvatarFest entry deadline is Aug. 15
AvatarFest, which will showcase and celebrate non-commercial builds from talented OpenSim creators, will take place on September 23 and 24. Many exhibitors have submitted their applications but those who have not and are still...
Craft down for weekend maintenance, Genesis Metaverse back up
Craft World grid is down today for maintenance, and is expected to be back up in three days. Meanwhile, Genesis Metaverse has completed a major upgrade of its own and is back up. Improvements...
8 key virtual world features moving to VR
Eight year ago, when I first launched Hypergrid Business, virtual worlds offered a unique set of compelling features. There was presence, and immersion, and the ability to create your own virtual environments. Plus, they...
Grid-within-grid a great option for future grid owners
Starting your own grid isn’t easy. You need your own servers, membership website, plus, of course, residents. Plus, if you want an in-world economy, you have to put payments in place. There are hosting...
AltspaceVR to close next week
AltspaceVR will close its doors next Thursday, August 3, because it ran out of money. “We can’t afford to keep the virtual lights on anymore,” the company said in a note posted last night....
Xiaomi’s Play2 is a Cardboard headset that looks like Daydream
I got the Xiaomi Play2 VR headset in the mail today, and while it looks a lot like Google’s cutting-edge Daydream View headset, it’s not. It’s just a Cardboard-compatible. It’s not made of cardboard...
BoboVR takes on Daydream
The first set of Daydream View clones have hit the market, and I just got one of them in the mail – the BoboVR Z5. Disclosure: I received the BoboVR Z5 free from GeekBuying,...
OpenSim land area passes 80,000 region milestone
The total reported land area of OpenSim’s public grids has passed 80,000 regions — a record high. This is despite the fact that InWorldz, the most popular OpenSim grid, did not report its land...
ZanGrid urges residents to donate unused currency
If you have a unused balance in your ZanGrid virtual currency account, the grid is suggesting that you donate it for War Child charity to help children and people affected by war. The grid is...
3rd Life celebrates first birthday Friday
3rdLife grid will be hosting it is first year birthday on Friday, July 14 on its Amusement Park region, featuring live music and DJs. The following is the schedule for the day. 4...
10 worst excuses for content infringement
On Tuesday, David Kariuki’s article about a freebie store that distributed content that was “found and collected” on other grids — without any checks that the content was legal — drew some comments from...
Hypergrid Chamber of Commerce to hold first meeting next week
The first meeting of the Hypergrid Chamber of Commerce will be at 11 a.m. Pacific time on Friday, July 21 and several major players in the OpenSim economy have officially joined as members, including Gloebit, Podex, and Kitely. Another...
Lost World opens freebie shops with iffy content
Lost World grid is offering avatar make over freebies such as custom shapes, skins, hairs and clothes that have been collected from around OpenSim, all for free. However, the grid cannot confirm the origins...
Best VR deals on Amazon Prime Day
Amazon is going all out today with deals on virtual reality products, running the whole gamut of headset options, computers, and accessories. If you’ve been waiting to get into VR until you see a...
AviWorlds is back online, now a closed grid
After trying several business models with fail and shutting down and reopening several times thus earning the name “the yo-yo grid,” AviWorlds is back online. This time, it’s a closed grid, meaning people will not...
WorldViz VR solutions help university research
WorldViz virtual reality solutions are being used in a variety of ways in learning institutions, from enhancing virtual learning and collaboration, boosting academic research, studying human and behavioral interactions, to enhancing student language and...
HelloPro a solid VR viewer with headphones
It’s taken me a while to write this review, because I’ve been out of town and caught up with various other issues. So, my apologies to HelloPro, who sent me this headset more than...
OpenSim records gains in land area and active users
Public OpenSim grids gained the equivalent of 1,257 regions this month, while the number of active users rose by 511, after falling for the past three months in a row. Great Canadian Grid, InWorldz...
How to win at virtual reality marketing
Low-cost virtual reality viewers — some made out of cardboard — are a minimal investment from consumer standpoint or from a company who would like to distribute their virtual reality experiences themselves. A user...
Average OpenSim region price falls to $19
Last September, I looked at the land prices on all the public OpenSim grids, and the average price was $20.39 per standard region. Today, I reviewed the prices of all 55 grids that I...
Top five business models for successful grids
I occasionally get emails from people starting new OpenSim grids, and wondering how they’re going to pay for them. Here are the top five ways that OpenSim grids find success. 1. Commercial grids These...
UploadVR lawsuit is a warning for nascent VR industry
Last week’s lawsuit against UploadVR is a reminder to the emerging virtual reality industry that it needs to pay more attention to being more inclusive and welcoming to women. This is an issue endemic...
Land area, active users down due to reporting issues
OpenSim lost land area and active users this month — on paper, at least — as one large commercial grid did not report its stats this month, and another grid suffered an outage. The total...
AviWorlds back with new business model featuring Second Life
AviWorlds is coming back — again — with a brand-new business model and a brand-new technology partner. Since early 2011, owner Alexsandro Pomposelli has experimented with being the most expensive grid, and with offering land...
Neverworld opens hypergrid fashion center
Neverworld Grid has opened a fashion center, a group of hypergrid-enabled regions for avatar fashion and fashion shows where designers can showcase and sell items to both local residents and hypergrid visitors. There are...
Genesis Metaverse takes currency battle public
Genesis Metaverse, a commercial grid that emerged last fall from the collapse of Avi-Labs, has been having problems with its currency vendor, Podex, and took the dispute public today. For residents, this means that...
15 marketing ideas for a grid
Today, I got another submission for a free ad that was basically just the grid’s name. And I regularly talk to grid owners who try to tell me that their grid is special because...
PenPal Schools launches a VR field trip for students to promote Pakistan
Students from around the world can now travel to Pakistan and learn more about the country — virtually. Online educational community PenPal Schools has launched a free six week field trip project to connect about 2,000 students from...
GCG to host annual Art Fest this weekend
The Great Canadian Grid will host its first annual Art Fest at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on Saturday, April 29 and Sunday, April 30 at the RR Estates regions. It will feature display of art, photography,...
OpenSim Everything fastest-growing community
The Google Plus community OpenSim Everything gained 131 new members since last September, bringing it to a total of 506 members. It was the single biggest gainer of the OpenSim-specific communities we follow. However,...
Haven rebrands as AviUnite, offers free homes, hypergrid, social features
The grid Haven Your World is rebranding as AviUnite this month, with new social features, a free land offer, Kitely Market deliveries, and hypergrid connectivity. “From Saturday, April 22, we will be offering all...
Gloebits enables cash outs and raises sale limits
All approved Gloebits merchants can now, from Saturday, withdraw their in-world proceeds through PayPal. The cash-out limit of 5,000 Gloebits is also going up, based on the merchant’s transaction history and level of identity verification....
OpenSim numbers down as two popular grids drop stats
Key OpenSim stats fell this month, as two popular grids — InWorldz and The Adult Grid — opted not to report their total land area or their active users. InWorldz has been the most...
Virtual musician moves to Ohio to perform live
If you’re a fan of Torben Asp — and you probably are, as he’s one of OpenSim’s favorite performers — and you live or visit the US east coast, you might now be able to catch...
Island Oasis free land marketing campaign pays off
On the back of a new free land offer marketing campaign, Island Oasis gained 603 new registered users this past month, nearly twice as many as in March. This was the highest number of new registrations since...
DigiWorldz takes over VirTec vending machines
DigiWorldz has bought VirTec this week and will resume normal business in two weeks when the vending machines will be running on DigiWorldz servers and be deployed to other grids. This comes after VirTec’s previous...
InWorldz stops publishing falling stats
InWorldz announced that as of this month, it will no longer be publishing its region stats or active user numbers, two statistics which have been falling over the past few months. Total registered user...
OSgrid, Island Oasis, Littlefield and KiWo host Easter events
A number of grids are hosting Easter events including Easter Egg hunts and contests this Easter season. That includes two events on OSgrid. OSgrid‘s Easter Egg contest began last Monday and will go through Friday,...
AltspaceVR launches Women in VR talk show
AltspaceVR, a social virtual reality platform, has launched a talk show focused on women in virtual reality that is taped before a live audience — well, live virtual audience. The show was launched on...
VR film shot from point of view of dead grandfather’s ashes
Submarine Channel, an Emmy-winning studio, has released their first-ever short virtual reality film Ashes to Ashes, which was shot from point of view of an urn containing the ashes of a dead grandfather. The...
VirTec stops selling vending system, still supports old customers
VirTec has stopped selling its products to new merchants, but the company says it will continue to support existing customers of its multi-grid vending system. VirTec has removed the stands that sell the vending...
How to build trust for your OpenSim product or service
It seems unfair, but there are some people out there who seem to have the trust of their customers, no matter how many times they let them down. And other, completely decent, honorable grids...
App lets you configure your VR viewer
Google Cardboard-compatible viewers are a great choice for people who want to experience VR but don’t want to shell out the hundreds of dollars that the big-name headsets cost. In fact, these viewers can...
Reporting issues cause stats drop this month
OpenSim grids reported a net fall in both regions and active users this month, but the regions drop was due to one grid with server issues, and the active users drop was due to...
Avination, a significant OpenSim grid, officially shuts down
Avination is one of the oldest commercial OpenSim grids and was, at one point, the largest. This week, both the grid and the company behind it has officially shut down after a long outage...
AviWorlds closes for tenth time
This time, AviWorlds shut down not with a loud scandal, but without even a whisper. Over the past few days, grid owner Alexsandro Pomposelli has opted not to renew his grid servers, let his...
Educators open free resource shop on OSgrid
To help schools and educators create, access and share more virtual learning and educational resources, an Educator Commons shop has been set up on OSgrid‘s Wright Plaza region by Kay McLennan, a professor of practice at Tulane...
Kroatan holds photo contest to celebrate first anniversary
To celebrate its first anniversary later on this month, the Croatian-language Kroatan Grid is holding a photo contest themed “my crazy virtual life.” The deadline for submissions is Monday, May 15, and the winning photos will be...
Island Oasis postpones anniversary party after founder’s heart attack
Island Oasis postponed its sixth anniversary, celebration, originally scheduled for March 1, after grid grid founder and COO Nicole Dreyer suffered a heart attack. Dreyer, also known as Sugar Paolino in-world, was rushed to the...
Infringing content removed from grids
All active grids with infringing content have addressed the problem, according to VirTec owner Virtouse Lilienthal, one of the affected content creators. VirTec makes a multi-grid OpenSim vending system which has machines that report back...
How to create a landing page
If you want to rent land, or sell other products or services, you need a landing page. A landing page is a page that converts someone who is vaguely interested in what you are...
Kitely Market passes $100,000 in sales
The Kitely Market has passed the $100,000 sales milestone, the grid announced last week. The Kitely Market, which now delivers to 174 different OpenSim grids, is the leading online marketplace for OpenSim content. It accepts payment...
VisionZ celebrates second anniversary March 15
VisionZ HG Magazine will be celebrating its second anniversary on March 15 from 1 to 3 p.m. Pacific time on the 3rd Life Grid. “Our focus is on all things happening in the Hyperverse, those...
Hypergrid share of active users hits record high
Active user numbers on the OpenSim hypergrid crossed the 80 percent share mark this month, reaching a new record high, while the hypergrid share of land area reached 95 percent, another new record high....
Music festival starts today
The annual No Borders Festival, which was previously known as ROBstock Festival, will take place on Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12 from 8 a.m to 8 p.m Pacific time on 3rd Rock Grid to...
Spending doubled last year on VirTec network
The total amount of money spent on purchases over the VirTec OpenSim vending machines network nearly doubled last year, increasing by 92 percent from $4,206 in 2015 to $8,080 in 2016, the company reported. Meanwhile, the total...
My favorite shopping places on the hypergrid
I am passionate about OpenSim and making OpenSim more accessible to people unfamiliar with the OpenSim platform. New people, like myself a few years back, need places to get things for their avatar and...
Prof asks OpenSim viewer devs to help schools
Dear OpenSim Viewer Developer: A new trend in learning management systems could be a vehicle for expanding educator use of the OpenSimulator platform. More specifically, one of the newer learning management systems – Canvas...
ZanGrid goes live with Gloebit, merchant payouts coming soon
ZanGrid went live with the Gloebit virtual currency on Monday as the platform gets ready to start approving merchant cashouts. The currency can also already be used on Mobius Grid. Users can use a single...
DMCA registration costs drop from $105 to $6
$6 for three years of protection against lawsuits from US creators — for any grid, anywhere in the world helps protect against take-downs by hosting companies and domain registrars helps keep creators from going...
OutWorlds now offers free domains, easy region creation
OutWorldz has released a beta version of the DreamWorld OpenSim installer for home-based mini-grids which now offers users a free subdomain for their grid, such as anygrid.outworldz.net. Previously, users had the option of registering their own domain...
How to make an ad
In response to yesterday’s post about the changing editorial direction at Hypergrid Business — and free ads — I’ve been flooded with requests for advertisements. And I want to run the ads. Really, I...
Changing direction
The world seems to have hit a tipping point when it comes to immersive environments, and the pace of change is exploding. These changes have been dramatically reflected in the readership of this site...
OpenSim community comes together to defend content
Grid owners, content creators, and other members of the OpenSim community are working to solve a serious case of alleged content theft that surfaced recently on the Alife Virtual grid and may involve several...
OutWorldz founder buys Hyperica
OutWorldz founder Fred Beckhusen has purchased the Hyperica OpenSim directory from Hypergrid Business. He will continue to maintain the current website, add more content, and add more functionality, as well as the in-world hyperport,...
AviWorlds moves to DigiWorldz hosting
AviWorldz has officially joined the big grid migration of 2017, becoming the latest in a string of grids to switch to DigiWorldz hosting. DigiWorldz is mostly known as a popular commercial OpenSim grid, but...
Firestorm most popular viewer in OpenSim
Firestorm is the preferred viewer for OpenSim users, based on a survey of Hypergrid Business readers. Nearly 53 percent of respondents chose Firestorm as their favorite, followed by 26 percent for Singularity and 7 percent...
Power surge takes out AviWorlds
It didn’t take long at all. It was less than three weeks ago that Alexsandro Pomposelli announced that AviWorlds was back up and running — from his garage. The much-troubled grid is now down...
VR is a smart bet for the future of gambling
It has often been the so-called vice industries that have driven forward new technologies. This will also be the case with virtual reality, where we are already seeing it shaking up the gambling sector....
myVR now supports in-world marketing
myVR, a social virtual reality platform from the folks at myWebRoom, has opened the platform to allow brands and marketers create and publish in-app branded experiences. For instance, companies can place branded videos and...
Viar.Live stitches 360-degree photos into virtual tours
Viar.Live allows users to upload and share 360 degree photos, create virtual reality tours from the uploaded 360 degree photos, embed virtual reality content on websites, and distribute the content across desktops, iOS and...
How to develop for Microsoft HoloLens
One of the devices that generates the greatest interest among the tech community at the moment is Microsoft HoloLens. By revolutionizing the way we perceive reality-altering solutions, the technology that stands behind HoloLens is...
OpenSim grids off to a solid start this year
Public OpenSim grids gained land area, registered users, and active users this month, with active users reaching a new all-time high. Grids reported a net increase of 638 active users, for a new total of 36,330...
OpenSim year in review
Last year was a mixed year for OpenSim grids. Active users were up, but the increase was much lower than in the previous year. The increase in registered users was also smaller, but this was...
Genesis Metaverse switches to DigiWorldz hosting
Genesis Metaverse, a company which previously ran its own grid and also provided hosting to other grids, has left the hosting business and is now using DigiWorldz to handle its hosting and OpenSim management....
How I use CoSpaces to help students create their dreams
My role in my school district, involves working directly with classroom teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade to help them create effective learning experiences with technology. Recently, I’ve become a fan of what virtual reality...
OpenSim Embassy celebrates grand opening Wednesday
The OpenSim Embassy has a grand opening tomorrow, January 11, on the Second Life grid. Performers at tomorrow’s event, which starts at 11 a.m. Pacific, include the ChangHigh Sisters Fireshow of Light, Life and...
Canadian Sun to hold St. Patrick’s Day parade
The Canadian Sun, an in-world magazine on the Great Canadian Grid, is sponsoring a St. Patrick’s Day parade on Friday, March 17. Participants are starting to build floats now, but there is still room...
Mesh bodies available in OpenSim
OpenSim users can buy legal mesh bodies for their avatars — and the news has helped keep noted designer Linda Kellie from leaving. “Jessica Random and I sat down the other day and made a...
10 super-cheap viewers for trying out VR
Updated: January 19, 2018 Virtual reality is still in its very very very early stages. The headsets are bulky or uncomfortable, the interfaces aren’t really there yet, there isn’t that much content, and the...
AviWorlds relaunches from owner’s garage
The AviWorlds grid is back up and running, grid owner Alexsandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business today. This is now officially the grid’s tenth incarnation, not counting the times it was down due to server...
Baller Nation, Kea Nation grids switch to DigiWorldz
The Baller Nation and Kea Nation grids have both moved to DigiWorldz. The two were previously the marquee customers of Genesis MetaVerse, which, like DigiWorldz, both runs its own grid and also offers hosting...
Kitely adds a new classified system and search features
Kitely has added a complete classifieds system to enable users to buy classified ads using Kitely Credits, as well as new search tabs in the viewer to allow people to search for avatars, OpenSim groups,...
Genesis Metaverse adds servers, backups after attack
Genesis Metaverse has been attacked and some systems have been damaged, but the grid has been able to recover much of its data. To help protect against future attacks, the grid has also switched...
vTime social network now on Daydream
Press release: vTime Now the Most Widely Available VR Social Network with Launch on Google Daydream Liverpool, UK – vTime, the VR Sociable Network, today becomes the most widely-available VR social network in the...
Shutting down Hyperica
For the past few years, the Hyperica grid and website has been a directory of hypergrid destinations for OpenSim users. Nearly 40,000 people have visited the site over the past two years, with more...
CES 2017 to feature more than 70 VR exhibitors
More than 70 virtual and argumented reality companies will showcase their products, innovations and demos at CES 2017, starting this Thursday in Las Vegas. The full list of those exhibiting in the gaming and virtual...
Check out best VRFest video, game nominees—3 days left to vote
The Virtual Reality Festival will be holding its Extreme Virtual Reality Challenge event in Las Vegas starting next Thursday, January 5, but you still three days to vote for your favorite virtual reality movies, video games, and...
So many people got VR headsets as presents
It seems that everyone has been getting virtual reality for Christmas — and posting the reaction videos on YouTube: And on Twitter… Holiday 2016 VR Reactions Here at Hypergrid Business, we normally get...
DigiWorldz posts model guarantee for residents
At a time when grid outages and scandals are in the news (okay, just the one grid, but they do create a lot of news) it’s nice to see a grid do something positive....
Upcoming changes to monthly stats report
I’ve been doing the stats report every month — without a break — since mid-2009. With nearly 300 active grids, many of which don’t have standard stats pages, the amount of work going into...
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