OpenSim reverses last month’s hefty decline in land area and user numbers
OpenSim added a total land area of 2,436 regions this month, reversing some of last month’s dramatic drop. The active users tally dropped by 579 users and registered users fell by 6,155 but both are much smaller than last month’s drops and are fully accounted for by outages and statRead More →
Three reasons people love VR — from psychology
According to psychologists, three reasons people love VR are that it reduces stress, helps us face our fears, and lets us have fun by warping our normal sense of time. As the VR industry takes off, VR headsets have become more affordable and accessible, leading to even greater adoption amongRead More →
Ukraine 2025 art installation opens August 5
Ukraine 2025 is having its grand opening on Friday, August 5 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time in Craft World on sim Ukraine. The hypergrid address is craft-world.org:8002:Ukraine The event features an art installation and concert by Terra Merhyem. Ukraine 2025 is the first contribution to the Ukraine Borderland Art project, runRead More →
OSgrid birthday celebration starts July 25
OSgrid, the largest grid in land area and active user numbers, will celebrate its 15th birthday starting on Monday, July 25. The celebration will run through July 31. “We’ll have live music and DJs to entertain us as we celebrate everything that is OSgrid,” grid president Wizard Atazoth. Former presidentRead More →
OSFest 2022 sees record attendance
OpenSim Fest 2022 still has three days to go, and it’s already breaking attendance records. “Since we opened the OSFest 2022 grid at the beginning of June, there have been a record 763 unique avatars on the grid from 158 hypergrid-enabled grids on the OSFest 2022 Grid,” OSFest 2022 director ShelennRead More →
OpenSim numbers fall as Metro closes
The public OpenSim grids lost more than 4,000 active users and nearly 2,000 regions since this time last month for a combination of reasons, the biggest being the closure of the Metropolis grid. Metropolis closed at the end of June so that the owners could focus on educational projects. TheRead More →
OpenSim grids getting better at handling griefers
Griefers can be a real nuisance in OpenSim. Also known as bad faith players, they can fill a world with various self-replicating items to deliberately irritate other users. There are a number of ways to do away with the objects left by griefers, including automatic detection, shutdown, and restarting ofRead More →
OSFest 2022 has successful first weekend
OSFest 2022 had a well-attended first weekend with 36 hours of performances in genres ranging from poetry and prose to techno music. “OSFest 2022 kickoff weekend was both a success and a lot of fun,” said OSFest director Shelenn Ayres in a blog post. “Attendance was excellent with no oneRead More →
Facebook’s latest AI attempts to understand the world still fall short
Facebook parent company Meta released a set of papers last fall in which the company erased big chunks from photographs or videos — then used artificial intelligence to fill in the gaps. This required the AI models to have some type of common sense understand of how the world works,Read More →
Snoot Dwagon’s OpenSim Fest 2022 exhibits
I’m Snoots Dwagon, head of greeters, exhibitor, and a performer at this year’s OpenSim Fest. It’s my first OpenSim festival, and I’ve got two parcels you might want to check out, Rascal Flats and Replicant City. In the case of both exhibits, the entire purpose is to provide some funRead More →
OpenSim Fest 2022 kicks off this Friday
This year’s OpenSim Fest 2022 kicks off at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Friday, July 8 with pomp and color and goes until Monday, July 25, 9 p.m. Pacific time. The hypergrid address is grid.opensimfest.com:8022. For further information check out the fest’s Discord community page or the official event website. The firstRead More →
Metaverse Museum’s sea-inspired art exhibit featured at Summer Sailstice 2022
The Metaverse Museum — founded in 2007 and one of the oldest and largest virtual museums in OpenSim and Second Life — has a new Sea-of-Blake-inspired art exhibition named Emerald in Water which opened on June 18 and runs through July 8 at the Summer Sailstice 2022 conference in SecondRead More →
Meta shows off four 4 New VR headsets
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off four new headset prototypes a few days ago that, he said, make virtual reality feel almost real. The goal is to invent displays “that are as vivid and realistic as the physical world and much more advanced than traditional computer screens we use today,”Read More →
Discovery Grid celebrates sixth birthday with a bang
Discovery Grid is celebrating its sixth birthday with an air show and a pyro-musical fireworks display. The event, Thunder over Discovery 2022, takes place this Saturday, July 2, at 2 p.m. Pacific time, with an encore event at 6 p.m. Pacific. The hypergrid address is discoverygrid.net:8002:Lousville. You’ll want to arrive earlyRead More →
Diva Distro seals vulnerability, grids need to update
OpenSim customers that use Diva Distro version of OpenSim or its Diva Wifi website interface screen, as in the image above, should install the latest security patch to the software to seal a vulnerability that could render their grids susceptible to crashing. The Diva Distro software is almost as oldRead More →
New play premieres on Metropolis grid
The Metropolis grid will shut down on midnight on June 30. But before one of the oldest OpenSim grids closes for good, it will be the site of the premiere performance of a play by Reiner Schneeberger. The play is titled “The Art Giantess Is The Work: Thea von Harbou,”Read More →
OpenSim users, land area hit record highs
OpenSim reported land area growth for the third month in a row with the addition of more than 1,400 new regions, for a new record high of 114,567 standard region equivalents. Active monthly users went up by 525, for a new record high of 44,061. Logicamp and Creatrix World —Read More →
Metropolis grid closes down so owners can focus on education project
Metropolis, one of the three oldest OpenSim major grids is shutting down on June 30 so that the owners can focus on another project, the educational Yunis grid. In May, Metropolis reported more than 1,600 active users, nearly 20,000 registered users, and the equivalent of more than 800 standard regions.Read More →
Creed: Rise to Glory VR boxing game gets you in the mood for upcoming Creed III movie
You can experience Creed in virtual reality before the release of Creed III, an upcoming boxing movie that premieres in theaters on November 23 and follows blockbuster successes Creed I and Creed II, released in 2015 and 2018. Creed: Rise to Glory is available on the Oculus Quest store for $30, andRead More →
Eduverse to launch in Second Life this weekend
The Virtual Worlds Education Consortium is launching a seven-region virtual education campus called Eduverse, comprising a group of education-focused virtual sims in Second Life. The event starts at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, May 21 on VWEC’s VWEC Eduverse region, the group’s welcome sim. The other regions that areRead More →
OpenSim land area hits new record high as all stats rise this month
OpenSim land area is up by more than 12,000 standard regions this month compared to last month, bringing the total land area to a record high of 113,151 standard region equivalents. The growth happened despite some grid outages and closures. In particular, four French grids have shut down over theRead More →
Google offers free AI-powered audiobook narration
Last night, Google sent me a message that I could have one of its virtual AI-powered voices record my audiobooks for me. I wrote an article about for MetaStellar here: Google offers free AI-powered audiobook narration. You can edit the finished file to fix pronunciation mistakes and then download theRead More →
April stats all up despite outages
All OpenSim stats are up this month. The total land area of the public OpenSim grids increased by more than 1,000 regions, to 100,880, while the active users increased by more than 3,000, to 43,272. Creatrix World, which reported more than 700 regions last month, is currently recovering from aRead More →
My third metaverse book is out
Just like Brandon Sanderson, I, too, have been busy during this pandemic. In fact, I’ve written more than ten new books. Take that, Sanderson! Okay, most of them are really short. His books are 400 pages long. My books are shorter. Krim Deeds, for example, is 150 pages. But, onRead More →
Pavlov Shack offers free detailed multiplayer combat gaming for Oculus Quest II
Pavlov Shack is one of the best free VR combat shooter games I’ve seen that you can play on the Oculus Quest 2. I’ve taken some time to search for free realistic and detailed VR combat games without success, but this is a clear winner. This game offers a satisfyingRead More →
Ukraine play returns for encore this morning on OSCC
The educational play “We Are Going to Lviv” is back for a single performance tonight on the Meta region of the OpenSim Community Conference grid. The trip was originally part of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2022 conference and is an artistic journey that spans the past andRead More →
This year’s VWBPE conference focuses on Ukraine
The 15th annual Virtual World Best Practices in Education conference kicks off on Thursday, March 31 and will run through April 2 at the VWBPE region in Second Life. This year, about 23 exhibitors including universities, non-profits, journals, community organizations, and individuals are set to exhibit at the VWBPE Conference Exhibit Hall,Read More →
We’ve been added to “the list for destruction”
So I just got a warning in my email inbox from a “touche@1studi.ru.” The domain name is associated with a company that runs a couple of Russia-based OpenSim grids. Apparently, the flag of Ukraine is now a “Nazi” flag. Now, I mean sure, there are Nazis in every country —Read More →
The top 10 AI enterprise strategy trends for 2022
CIOs, CTOs and technology leaders agree: AI will be the main driver of innovation across industries throughout the next five years. Nearly half of CIOs say they’ve either already started using AI or plan to implement it in 2022, and two-thirds of workers surveyed recently said they want employers toRead More →
Hypergrid Art Hoppers are going to Ukraine
You can join the Hypergrid Hoppers — a club for explorers of the OpenSim hypergrid — as they travel to Ukraine. The trip is part of the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2022 conference and is an artistic journey that spans the past and future of Ukraine with a focusRead More →
What is the metaverse?
“Metaverse” is a word thrown around a lot lately, and its meaning seems to mean whatever anyone wants it to mean. Here’s a breakdown of the most common definitions. Metaverse as virtual reality The term “metaverse” was first coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. He usedRead More →
OpenSim monthly usage up, land area down on grid outages
The total number of active users was up quite a bit this month, but total land area and registered users dropped slightly. The loss of 144 standard region equivalents and 1,141 registered users was more than accounted for by the fact that FrancoGrid had server issues and didn’t report itsRead More →
Firestorm Viewer developers deny it affects other apps after closing
The developers of Firestorm Viewer say it’s not affecting other apps after closing — but they’re also offering troubleshooting tips for people who say they’re having issues with other applications slowing down on Windows or Linux systems. Whirly Fizzle, one of the developers and support staff, has denied there’s a bugRead More →
Grids stand with Ukraine following Russian invasion
Most OpenSim grids have not given an official statement regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but quite a few are standing with Ukraine.Read More →
Survey: Half of Americans don’t know about the metaverse
If you haven’t heard about the metaverse, or you think it’s just something Facebook invented, you’re not alone.Read More →
Sheffield DocFest Alternate Realities program is taking submissions
The 29th edition of Sheffield DocFest, the United Kingdom’s biggest documentary and digital media festival, will take place from June 23 to June 28 this year — and it’s looking for submissions. Sheffield DocFest’s Alternate Realities program has some upcoming deadlines if you’d like to apply, and applicants from theRead More →
OpenSim metaverse land shrinks, but usage grows
The total land area of the public OpenSim metaverse shrank by over 2,000 regions over the past month. Nearly all of that loss can be attributed to ZetaWorlds — which lost 2,336 regions due to maintenance on the grids. The total number of both active monthly users and registered usersRead More →
Virtual Reality Learning in the Hybrid Workplace
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic we’d expect hybrid teams to regularly meet, work and learn in virtual reality (VR), wouldn’t we? After all, over 10 million high-quality, reality-bending virtual reality (VR) headsets have been sold heavily. But here we are in our video meeting, staring at a webcamRead More →
Top VR Games To Play On Oculus Quest 2
Strapping on an Oculus Quest 2 to explore the vast game options on the Oculus store and all over the internet is thrilling, and some of them are sure to give you an adrenaline rush. I searched around and tried several games on my new Oculus Quest 2, thanks toRead More →
Motorola and Verizon release 5G neckband to lighten up virtual reality headsets
Virtual reality headsets are bulky and two companies have collaborated to take the weight off your head for augmented and virtual reality — and put it around your neck instead. Motorola yesterday announced a 5G neckband that’ll put connectivity, processing, and the battery in a collar and leave your heads upRead More →
Marketplace suspends almost all NFT sales due to rampant fakes
Plagiarism and scams are a serious problem in the NFT space — and it’s gotten so bad that one NFT marketplace has suspended almost all NFT sales on its platform. Cameron Hejai, founder and CEO of Cent NFT marketplace, announced in a statement that Cent is removing the ability toRead More →
MultiNFT launches token presale and opens nightclub in Decentraland
This year, metaverses and NFTs are all the rage, and one company’s doing both. MultiNFT, a company that provides live shows and festival experiences to fans, launched a presale for its native token, $MNFT, and set up a club called Rage at Decentraland’s festival district. The club will host in-world virtualRead More →
Biggest marketplace for non-fungible tokens admits at least 80 percent are knock-offs
OpenSea, the largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens openly admitted last Thursday that over 80 percent of the items created using their free minting tool were plagiarized works, fake collections, and spam. In Twitter last Thursday, the company said that creating NFTs on its platform was too easy. “We’ve recently seenRead More →
Podcaster Joe Rogan says the metaverse needs a complete redesign
We could end up with a metaverse that is inherently hard to control, will eventually fail, and collapses society, controversial podcaster Joe Rogan said in an interview with Inner Vision on Saturday. The metaverse should be restructured right from the start to get the right design criteria instead of  basingRead More →
Phillip’s return unlikely to turn Second Life around
Phillip Rosedale is returning as a strategic investor and advisor to Second Life, a company he founded 19 years ago, but it is unlikely that Second Life is going to change much given the tough company culture, closed nature of the platform, and the fact that High Fidelity is itselfRead More →
Gaming industry veteran debuts metaverse for music and games
Steve Gray, former executive at Tencent Games, the world’s largest gaming studio, is getting into the metaverse. His new company, Meta Music Studios, launched The Apollo Project last week, a blockchain-based gaming platform for music and games, with its first game TAP Stars, an avatar growing game, set to launch next month.Read More →
Microsoft’s Activision acquisition can help move it forward towards the metaverse
Microsoft‘s purchasing of Activision Blizzard was the largest sale in the history of video games at US$68.7 billion dollars making the company the third largest gaming company after Sony and Tencent. The acquisition could solidify the company’s position in the overly hyped metaverse because of the large gaming user baseRead More →
How science fiction precedes science fact and what it means for the metaverse
While we still don’t have the flying cars, time machines, and holographic movies that sci-fi has long offered us, though other predictions have come to life, such as the Star Trek communicators that became Motorola flip phones. Today, virtual fiction is having its moment in the spotlight as the tech world leans into the metaverse.Read More →
New VR boots aim to make walking realistic for job training
It’s too expensive and it’s not available yet, but there’s a startup company that says we’ll be able to walk in VR. Ekto VR, a VR hardware startup, has invented a pair of boots that allow realistic walking in virtual environments with no risk of running into a wallRead More →
NFTs and blockchain key to metaverse future, crypto boosters claim
Blockchain technology, used to power cryptocurrencies and other decentralized record-keeping systems, has been struggling to find practical use cases outside ransomware and speculative projects like Bitcoin and NFTs. There have been a number of pilot projects in a variety of industries, but they’ve rarely turned into anything with significant businessRead More →