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...
Hypergrid Business Blog
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...
The Public World
US $17 (15 Euro) on The Public World grid. No setup fee. Hypergrid enabled. German language support.
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...
Party Destination Grid
US$14 per month for a 15,000-prim region on the Party Destination Grid. Hypergrid-enabled.
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...
Disney celebrates Christmas with virtual reality parade
Disney will air a Christmas special, the Disney Parks’ Magical Christmas Celebration on Sunday, December 25, on the ABC television network — and there will be a companion 360-degree video posted on Disney’s YouTube channel and on...
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...
Holiday parties and events on the hypergrid
Christmas and winter themed events, virtual tours, skating, creative contests, parties, and dances have already hit the ground running in various grids. A number of grids are also offering you to hunt and win...
2016 hasn’t been easy for OpenSim
This past year has been a troubling one for OpenSim, with slowing growth rates and increasing concerns that OpenSim will be sidelined by advances in virtual reality platforms. Active users numbers went up, but...
VR ad industry working to fix fragmentation issue
An industry group and individual vendors are working to fix the problem of incompatibility across multiple virtual reality content hosting, distribution and advertising platforms. Currently, advertisers, publishers and brands often have to create native...
Grids close year with record active numbers
The public OpenSim grids reached a new high of active users, 35,692, an increase of more than 2,000 since this time last month. The 2016 OpenSim Community Conference was responsible for about a quarter...
OSCC presentation videos available
If you missed the panels from last weekend’s OpenSim Community Conference, you can now catch up with some of them on YouTube. OpenSimulator Core Developer Panel A discussion of key issues facing OpenSim developers,...
Kitely Market reports strong 2016
Kitely Market sales have increased significantly over the past year, Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner told Hypergrid Business. The market now delivers licensed OpenSim content to 162 grids, with 16,364 product variations grouped under 8,551...
VR stocking stuffers you still have time to get
It’s not too late to order virtual reality presents for the holidays — and they don’t have to cost a lot of money, either! Once you get your headset, click here for instructions on...
Great Canadian Grid has a new events website
The Great Canadian Grid has launched a new website GCG Pulse that allows users to publish their events to be hosted at the grid, and the website uses Google Calendar to help users include...
myVR Launches Social Virtual Reality Platform for iOS
Press release: myVR Launches Social Virtual Reality Platform for iOS myVR – Virtually Everything Brings Together Content Discovery, Social Interactions, Video, Chat and More in a Totally Immersive Experience San Francisco, CA – After...
Dreamland Metaverse tops hosting survey
OpenSim hosting company Dreamland Metaverse received the highest scores for performance, support, stability and its user interface in this year’s hosting providers survey, followed by DigiWorldz and Zetamex Network. There were 40 responses total...
After trying VR, nearly half plan to buy
According to a new survey by Parks Associates, nearly 50 percent of U.S. broadband households who try a virtual reality headset plan to buy one. In addition, 3.5 percent of broadband households, or about 3.4...
vTime social network releases iPhone app
Press release: vTime Becomes The Most Widely Available Virtual Reality Social Network As It Launches on iPhone LIVERPOOL, U.K. — vTime, the VR Sociable Network, today brings its flagship mobile VR title to iPhone, making it...
Oculus to release Quill this week, a VR drawing app
Virtual reality pioneer Oculus will be releasing Quill, a free virtual reality drawing program when it launches its Touch controllers on December 6. Quill seems to be Oculus’ answer to Google’s award-winning Tilt Brush virtual reality drawing...
Verizon Promotes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Verizon has partnered with Lucasfilm Ltd. promote Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission, a Playstation VR game that will released in December. The game released is time to coincide with the holiday release of Rogue...
Hypergrid Hunt activity peaked last spring, next hunt is in January
Tangle Grid has released the participation numbers for the Hypergrid Hunts conducted this year, and participation peaked in the spring. More than 150 different users have participated in the hunts since they were launched a year...
AviWorlds resolves feud, will restore user regions
AviWorlds has received backups of region files of its residents from a former employee, grid owner Alexandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business. “Josh has sent me the files for AviWorlds and AviBrasil grids,” he said,...
Best VR headsets for iPhones
Updated: August 10, 2017 Do want to give a VR headset as a gift to someone with an iPhone — or buy one for yourself? You can. You won’t get the best possible mobile...
VR games that work with iPhone controllers
Unlike Android VR games, which work reasonably well with standard, off-the-shelf Bluetooth controllers, iPhones are a bit more temperamental. Regular Bluetooth controllers don’t work. What you do get are some work-arounds, but they only...
I used DreamWorld to create a free mini grid on my PC
I recently tested the latest version of DreamWorld, a new OpenSim installer that lets you run your own mini-grid on a home computer. If everything goes right, installing the software, setting up a new...
AviWorlds now accepting reservations for free regions
AviWorlds is coming back, grid owner Alexsandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business today. The Avi-Labs OpenSim hosting will also return, he said. “People can already order their free regions,” he said, even before the grid is...
Report: 98% of VR headsets sold this year are for mobile phones
Although high-end sets like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and the PlayStation VR get more attention, the vast majority of the virtual reality headsets sold this year are projected to be the lower-cost mobile-based...
Vrideo folds, will other VR video platforms follow?
There are a lot of 360-degree videos out there and more arriving all the time. They seem to be a killer application for virtual reality. Even the lowest-cost mobile-based headsets — the kind you...
Register now for the OpenSim conference
Press release: Registration is now open for the 4th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference AvaCon is pleased to announce the third annual OpenSimulator Community Conference, to take place virtually on the OpenSimulator Conference Center grid on December 10 and 11, 2016....
Use these Google tools to optimize VR content for search engines
Search marketers can now use Google’s VR View, Street View and Cardboard Camera apps to capture, upload and optimize 360 degree videos, virtual reality videos and images for better and easier visibility on search engines...
7 firms with face tracking tech for better VR avatars
Today, most virtual reality avatars are very basic, cartoony figures, with a limited range of motions and expressions. Vendors are working to change this, and make avatars more realistic, with facial expressions that reflect...
VisionZ to feature holiday destinations
Holiday events on the hypergrid will be featured in the next edition of the VisionZ magazine, due to hit in-world kiosks on December 3.
My Daydream View arrived and it is awesome
Back in early October, I ran out and bought the new Google Pixel phone the day it came out, and immediately put through an order for my free Daydream View VR headset. Last week,...
New mobile VR headset to have built-in positional tracking
Dacuda, a 3D scanning and room-scale virtual reality company is partnering with brain technology company MindMaze on a new headset that will offer positional tracing and improve social interactions in virtual environments. The new MMI...
Kitely, InWorldz OpenSim’s most valuable grids
Update: The data and chart have been updated to include the full 2016 calendar year. Almost every month, at least one person complains about why InWorldz is listed in our stats, or included in...
November a solid month for OpenSim growth
The public OpenSim grids added 1,655 new regions this month, registered more than 10,000 new users, and grew active monthly users by 512. Meanwhile, Avination and AviWorlds are still down for the count, Logicamp suffered a...
Linda Kellie is back at work!
Finally, in these dark and tumultuous times, some good news — Linda Kellie is back, and creating new content. Outside of the core developers themselves, Linda Kellie is the most valuable member of the...
Logicamp grid falls victim to ransomware
The Belgium-based Logicamp grid has suffered a catastrophic ransomware attack, and has lost some content due to a lack of current off-line backups. “I know that it is unforgivable but I am alone to manage...
SkyLife, Sinful merge grids
SkyLifeGrid, launched after the most recent collapse of AviWorlds, has now merged with the Sinful Grid. However, SkyLife will continue offering hosting services, owner Josh Boam told Hypergrid Business, on the SkyLifeHosting.com website. SkyLifeGrid originally...
New browser-based world Space offers free regions
Press release: Space, a new virtual world, launched today with free regions LONDON — Space, a browser-based virtual world platform from Sine Wave Entertainment, opened to the public after two months of private beta and seven years of...
Intel, BBC, and ‘The Rock’ go all-in on VR videos
More big names names are jumping on the 360-degree video bandwagon. This fall, there were announcements from the NFL, the BBC, Sky, USA Today, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. National Football to launch new VR video program on Thanksgiving...
Sunglasses that record 360 degree videos get crowdfunded
The Orbi sunglasses, which film 360-degree videos, have just reached their crowdfunding goal. The glasses raised $88,568 from 269 Indiegogo backers in just a week, and there are still three weeks to go if you’re interested...
Purdue patents picture of a nose to help VR
Purdue University has received a patent for putting a picture of a nose at the bottom of a virtual reality display — and is selling the licenses to use this idea through partner Virtualis...
Escam Shark camera shoots 360 degrees — but just barely
Disclosure: This camera was provided free by GeekBuying. After discovering that Chinese manufacturers were making some of the best Google Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headsets in the world, and at super low prices, I was curious...
AltspaceVR offers event replays
AltspaceVR, a pioneering social virtual reality platform, announced today that it will be now offering virtual reality replays of live events. The full virtual reality environment is recorded, as well as the performances, so...
EleCam 360 a low-cost camera that needs better software
Update: My daughter used the camera a couple of times, and then it stopped working. When she turns it on, the display window just says “Error” and it does not connect to WiFi or to...
Report: VR market to reach $38bil by 2026
The US virtual reality market revenues will reach $38 billion in annual revenues by 2026, after an “inflection zone” over the next five years, according to Greenlight Insights, Inc. Of that, 62 percent, will be hardware...
Matterport converting quarter million 3D spaces to VR
Thanks to the CoreVR option on the Matterport 3D application, real estate and hospitality companies who have Matterport Pro 3D cameras can now capture 3D models of their locations, upload them, and convert them into...
Hockey team to stream game in VR tonight
Tucson Roadrunners, an American Hockey League affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes, will stream, in 360 degrees, their inaugural home opener against the Stockton Heat at 8:05 p.m. Central Time today. The team has entered into partnership with 360fly...
D.C. schools gets $10 million for VR education
Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell Jobs has given $10 million for a virtual reality project to the Washington Leadership Academy, a public charter school in the heart of Washington, D.C. The prize was one of...
Facebook’s Oculus takes triple hit
There’s a battle raging now for who will be the dominant platform of the coming virtual reality metaverse. Facebook, which has been getting a big chunk of the media attention with the Oculus Rift...
Four ways to explore the OpenSim Metaverse using the hypergrid
The main difficulty with networked and distributed spaces like OpenSim is trying to find your way around the 300-plus publicly accessible grids. Exploring and the hypergrid are the two main defining features of OpenSim to...
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