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 OpenSim land area fell by 442 regions this month, to reach 72,978 standard region equivalents. ThisRead More →
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 for free. He tried to have the grid hosted with Dreamland Metaverse, with Zetamex, with Kitely, and, most recently, withRead More →
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 also freebies available. The name of the main region is Design Couture, and it offers aRead More →
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 they will now buy and sell their currency directly from the grid and not from Podex,Read More →
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 of its community, and to attract residents they offer low-cost land and free user accounts. HavingRead More →
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 17 countries — 300 from Pakistan, and the rest from Australia, Argentina, United States, Pakistan, Canada,Read More →
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, poetry and stories from talented artists around OpenSim, and the grid hopes to have the showRead More →
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, more people could be visiting the community without becoming official members. OpenSim Virtual remains the largestRead More →
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 residents free home plots,” grid founder Cheryl Shaw told Hypergrid Business. “These plots are 4,800 square metersRead More →
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. Cash-out limits will continue to rise in the future, Gloebits CEO Christopher Colosi told Hypergrid Business. “As timeRead More →
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 popular grid every month from 2012 on, and had 5,276 active users last month. However, bothRead More →
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 him performing live, in person. “The move to the USA is to pursue a real lifeRead More →
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 the grid first launched in 2011. The grid offers free parcels of 4,896 square meters each withRead More →
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 owner Virtouse Lilienthal announced last week that he would stop selling new products to new gridsRead More →
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 numbers and the number of users currently logged in remain on the login screen, however. AccordingRead More →
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, April 14. The Event Plaza has been re-decorated for the occasion. Participants are competing to create the bestRead More →
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 March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day, to celebrate and capture some of the wonderful storiesRead More →
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 dead grandfather, Grit, sees all the family members as they try to cope with realities ofRead More →
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 system from the Great Canadian Grid, Genesis MetaVerse, Dynamic Worldz, DigiWorldz, Mobius Grid, ZanGrid, 3rd LifeRead More →
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 can’t seem to get any respect. Part of the problem is that many honest, reliable, hard-workingRead More →
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 start at just $5, and are pretty good for watching VR videos and playing casual games.Read More →
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 a couple of grids that had problems with their stats. Overall, OpenSim lost 975 active users this month,Read More →
The Public World
US $23 (19.95 Euro) for a 15,000-prim region on The Public World grid. No setup fee. Hypergrid enabled. German language support.Read More →
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 and a series of financial hits. The grid’s regions and user inventories are saved, but residentsRead More →
Party Destination Grid
US$14 per month for a 15,000-prim region on the Party Destination Grid. Hypergrid-enabled.Read More →
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 domain name expire, and shut down his media accounts and stopped responding to emails, Skype messages,Read More →
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 University. The shop, which is hypergrid-enabled, has virtual world learning and teaching tools, freebies, Do-It-Yourself resources,Read More →
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 featured at the grid’s first anniversary party on Saturday, May 27. “Prizes are virtual, like aRead More →
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 hospital and was treated successfully. “She is fairing well and recovering,” a grid spokesperson told HypergridRead More →
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 to a central server. As a result, Lilienthal was able to discover that the machines were poppingRead More →
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 offering into an actual customer. The effectiveness of your landing page is known as the conversionRead More →
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 in both the in-world currency, Kitely Credits, and through PayPal. Merchants who sell via PayPal canRead More →
3rd Life Grid
US $15 per month for 45,000 prims on the hypergrid-enabled 3rd Life Grid.Read More →
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 spaces connected via the hypergrid protocol,” said editor Sunbeam Magic. The event will feature a live performance byRead More →
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. The hypergrid gained 1,781 new active users to reach a new high of 30,655, or 81Read More →
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 raise money in support of the Doctors Without Borders medical charity. The name was changed toRead More →
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 number of transaction increased nearly three-fold. In 2015, the company’s first year offering the OpenSim vending service,Read More →
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 their region and this is my contribution. I visited a variety of places on the hypergridRead More →
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 – includes an external app integration feature that allows faculty and institutions to easily integrate bothRead More →
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 virtual wallet to shop on any Gloebit-supported grid, and, when the grids allow, take the purchasesRead More →
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 to social media and blogs to get attention for problems The US Copyright office has madeRead More →
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 name with a commercial registrar or using a free external DNS service like No-IP, DuckDNS, andRead More →
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 do. Promoting OpenSim to the 100,000-plus site visitors who might not have heard of OpenSim beforeRead More →
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 over the past couple of months. My life is about to change dramatically as well. SoRead More →
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 other grids and 62 allegedly stolen OARs, or region backup files. On Thursday, Genesis Metaverse CFO JanetRead More →
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, and the in-viewer destination guide. The Hyperica website had nearly 20,000 unique visitors over the courseRead More →
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 the company also provides hosting for other grids. This means that would-be grid owners can focusRead More →
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 for Alchemy. Firestorm was also the viewer that most people had tried. According to the survey,Read More →
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 again as a result of a power surge, he told Hypergrid Business. “My anti-power surge didRead More →
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. Sectors such as gambling were among the first business use cases for the internet, and tendRead More →
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 images on virtual televisions accessible by other users in the virtual rooms, game developers can availRead More →
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 Android mobile platforms. It supports Google Cardboard Camera and iPhone Pano so anyone whose phone supportsRead More →
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 as fascinating as it is complex. In simple terms, it can be described as the mergingRead More →
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 actives, despite the end of the OpenSimulator Community Conference. That event accounted for a one-time additionRead More →
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 mostly due to a multi-month outage on Avination, which is still down. Land area actually shrank thisRead More →
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. The company was formed after last summer’s disastrous flameout of the AviWorlds grid and its associatedRead More →
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 brings to the classroom. I came across CoSpaces through Twitter at the start of this school yearRead More →
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 Love, SingerGirl XOXOXO, Amazon Ballet, DJ Pilou, and TatianaCoin. It will be held in the OpenSim EmbassyRead More →
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 for interested groups to sign up. Organizers are also looking for performers, and there will beRead More →
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 pro and con list,” she wrote in a post yesterday. “And in the end one ofRead More →
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 experiences can sometimes give you motion sickness. But you need to try it anyway, and haveRead More →
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 problems or other temporary issues. The grid’s loginURI and hypergrid address is login.aviworlds.com:8002 and OpenSim users who wishRead More →
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 services for other grids. Genesis MetaVerse was one of the two hosting companies that emerged lastRead More →
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, parcels, events and added classifieds. To access the new “People,” “Places,” “Events,” and “Classifieds” search tabs,Read More →
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 server companies, upgraded its hardware, added more backups and is taking other precautionary measure as well.Read More →
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 world as it launches for Google Daydream. Used by people in 195 countries, vTime is theRead More →
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 than 330,000 page views total. Those are decent numbers for OpenSim, but are tiny compared toRead 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 reality category can be found here and include new virtual reality headsets, 3D cameras, motion and eyeRead More →
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 ads. And even if you don’t vote, this is a great time to catch up onRead More →
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 between 3,000 and 4,000 people a day looking for Google Cardboard QR Codes — on Sunday, thatRead More →
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 ABC’s virtual reality channel. Two holiday-themed Disney videos have already been posted. Watch the first video here:Read More →
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. On Tuesday, I saw this post from DigiWorldz show up in my social media, which leadsRead More →
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 this has become unmanageable. It eats up parts of several days of my time, contacting everyone,Read More →
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 cash and other gifts, or buy lands at cheaper prices. Many will also be hosting newRead More →
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 at a slower rate than in any of the previous years, and a steep decline fromRead More →
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 applications for each of the platforms to distribute and monetize content to as large audience asRead More →
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 of the increase, but many other grids also saw gains. The total number of registered usersRead More →
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, with Avacon founder Joyce Bettencourt, OpenSimulator core developer Robert Adams, core developer Michael Cerquoni, OpenSim core developer andRead More →
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 listings. Of the variations, 11,394 are sold with the export permission, meaning that they can beRead More →
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 what to do next. Here are some of my favorites — and I’ve personally tried these,Read More →
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 artist biographies, venue information and other details in the event description. The new website will alsoRead More →
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 a successful launch on Android on October, myVR, a new virtual reality social platform, today launchedRead More →
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 to this year’s hosting survey, which asks grid owners about their hosting providers. However, many ofRead More →
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 million households, already own a virtual reality headset. Despite the recent media attention to virtual reality,Read More →
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 the most widely-accessible social network in virtual reality. Available to download for free from the AppRead More →
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 application, currently only available for the rival HTC Vive platform. Quill was first unveiled last January atRead More →
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 One, the first stand-alone Star Wars Anthology film and will be released nationwide on December 16. The RogueRead More →
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 ago. In the first hunt of the year, which ran from January 31 to March 1, 2016,Read More →
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, referring to former head of technology Josh Boam. AviWorlds, and its sister hosting company, Avi-Labs, sufferedRead More →
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 experience, however, since the two best headsets — the Samsung Gear VR and the Daydream ViewRead More →
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 work with a a tiny handful of the thousands of VR apps and games in the iPhoneRead More →
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 mini grid, and loading up a pre-built region takes less than ten minutes. At first, being aRead More →
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 back up. “When they sign in, their regions will be up.” The free region will haveRead More →
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 headsets. In fact, the three main mobile VR headset types — Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, andRead More →
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 get for free in a cereal box — do a good job with 360-videos because they’reRead More →
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. The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual conference that focuses on the developer and user community surroundingRead More →
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 with Street View and hence without the need for a native mobile application or virtual realityRead More →
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 those of that actual users. The technology that makes it possible involves facial, body and eyeRead More →
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.Read More →
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, as all the other tech journalists were writing their reviews, I had to sit and grindRead More →