Press release: VIRTUAL REALITY START-UP IMMERSIONN OPENS FOR BUSINESS New Discovery Engine for Immersive VR Content Launches with ‘Immersive Journalism’ Partnerships with Dagens Nyheter and Euronews 6 January 2019, London: Immersionn, a content discovery engine for virtual reality, today announced that it had officially launched its platform for subscribers and VRRead More →

Over the past year, the public OpenSim grids lost both land area and active users. Since last December, grids lost the equivalent of 8,276 standard-sized regions, going from 81,326 regions to 73,050. And the total number of actives fell by 2,019, from 37,745 to 35,726. However, some individual grids didRead More →

This past year has been full of questions for the OpenSim community. Who are we? Where are we going? Is the platform even worth it? The OpenSimulator software dates back to January 2007, according to the official history of the project. The open source virtual world software was meant toRead More →

There will be New Year’s Eve party all over OpenSim tomorrow night, Dec. 31 — and during the day, as well. Mark your calendars — all times below are U.S. Pacific time. Caribou on Kitely at noon Get a head start on your New Year’s Eve celebration with DJ SaraRead More →

[Update: Since the article was first posted, the total raised has increased to $1,120.] The Great Canadian Grid is holding a fundraiser to raise money to pay for technical help to restore the grid, and to pay for servers. As of this writing, the grid has raised $385 towards theRead More →

A personal dispute between the owners of Great Canadian Grid and DigiWorldz has resulted in an outage on the Great Canadian Grid. DigiWorldz, which is not only a grid but also an OpenSim services provider, had been providing some critical grid services to Great Canadian Grid and cut off thoseRead More →

The metaverse is filled with humor it’s everywhere; it is what leads us back time and again, those hilarious memories with friends. With this in mind, I asked Maria what her position was on having a comic strip here at Hypergrid Business featuring the comedy of OpenSim humorist Reyn Softly.Read More →

AviWorlds, the grid that oscillates between proclaiming itself the highest-priced grid and the lowest-priced grid is back on the lowest-priced side again, with a free region offer for all residents. Addition regions are available for as low as $5 a month for a standard-sized, 15,000-prim region, and up to $25Read More →

The OpenSim-specific Dayturn viewer was updated this weekend with Bakes on Mesh support. According to Dayturn developer and Xmir grid founder Geir Nøklebye, this viewer is a big improvement over previous versions. “It is a significant change for anyone using a mesh avatar because it lets you use old systemRead More →

US $6 for a 20,000-prim region on the hypergrid-enabled Fire and Ice grid, with hypergrid and Gloebits. Each region can be a variable-sized region at no extra fee.Read More →

Land area went down slightly but active users were up this month, thanks to the OpenSim Community Conference and holiday events. The total number of standard region equivalents on OpenSim’s public grids dropped by just over 1,000, from 74,063 to 73,050. The number of active users went up by 137Read More →

Hypergrid Business readers were more optimistic about the fate of OpenSim this year, more satisfied with its technical progress and ecosystem, and the number of readers who planned to spend more time in OpenSim next year increased as well. However, this year’s respondents were slightly less likely to think thatRead More →

The seventh annual OpenSimulator Community Conference starts today, at 7 a.m. Pacific on the OSCC grid. Hypergrid address: cc.opensimulator.org:8002. Conference schedule #OSCC19 features over 60 speakers sharing innovative content, dynamic short presentations, and panels that all take place Saturday, December 14th and Sunday, December 15th within our OSCC Keynote regions.Read More →

High Fidelity is shutting down its apps, marketplace and virtual currency, shutting down its open source project, and laying off about half its staff, founder Philip Rosedale announced in a post rather misleadingly titled “Updates, and a New Beginning.” Rosedale is best known as the founder of Second Life. HighRead More →

This Friday, the public is invited to tour the International Spaceflight Museum in Kitely. one of the several community social events organized to coincide with this year’s OpenSim Community Conference. ISM Exhibit Building Chair Mike Lorrey will personally lead and narrate a tour of the ISMuseum region in Kitely, withRead More →

Join us this weekend for the 7th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference 2019 celebrating the community and development of OpenSimulator opensource software. OSCC19 features over 60 speakers leading presentations, workshops, panel sessions, music, and social events across the diversity of the OpenSimulator user base. View the #OSCC19 Schedule here. Attending the conference event isRead More →

Creating jewelry for me has become quite the obsession, so much so that I feel it is now time to teach others just how amazing creating jewelry can be. Where does my inspiration come from? I get inspiration for my design ideas from shapes of nature, including flowers, stars andRead More →

Big things grow from small things. Sometimes a couple of small things collide and merge and grow into a really big thing. I recall first stepping into virtual reality some years ago, into Second Life, and thinking “What the…?” From that very first exposure, looking through the eyes of anRead More →

Discovery Grid will hold the grand opening of its 2019 Virtual Seattle Winter Market 2019 on Saturday, December 7, 2019. The market will be open until January 7, 2020. The hypergrid address is discoverygrid.net:8002:Seattle. The market’s region coordinates are 503/448/46. This makes the second pop-up market for the grid, butRead More →

The December issue of HyperGrid Zone magazine is out, and packed with profiles of OpenSim artists and creators, as well as Christmas events and destinations. The cover story is about the Nuna Gallery, which is located on 3rd Rock Grid and is having its grand opening on Dec. 15. To visitRead More →

AviWorlds is celebrating a whole year of not closing down. “To celebrate one year online AviWorlds is now offering $5 per month private regions with 25,000 prims,” grid owner Alexsandro Pomposelli told Hypergrid Business. The grid is currently hypergrid-enabled, allowing residents to teleport in and out to other grids, andRead More →

I’m barely able to type this right now. I have a massive turkey hangover. But that’s not stopping me from scouring the web for Black Friday deals. This is probably a bad idea, because my sales resistance is so low, but I just can’t help myself. But it’s not justRead More →

Tangle Grid has long offered free land plots to both local residents and hypergrid visitors, as well as free stores for merchants Now, the grid has expanded the offer. Instead of two free land regions, there are now six, joined together. “It gives it that community feeling,” grid owner LeslieRead More →

It may look at first glance that OpenSim numbers went down this month. The total number of region equivalents fell by 8,955 to 72,911, and the number of active users fell by 1,166 to 35,589. But in fact, grids actually gained both land and users. The discrepancy is due toRead More →

Tangle Grid‘s sixth annual Winter Expo starts Sunday, Dec. 1, and will run through Jan. 13, 2020. The expo is fully accessible to hypergrid visitors at tanglegrid.net:8002:expo isle. (Learn how to hypergrid here.) Visitors will be able to get freebie items, and also purchase content using the Gloebit currency. (Learn how to use GloebitsRead More →

The Infinite Metaverse Alliance released the beta version of its simplified SceneGate viewer for OpenSim this weekend. The official launch of the viewer, which is available for Windows only, was Monday, November 25. Linux and Mac versions are coming soon, according to the organization. The SceneGate viewer is a forkRead More →

Some lucky cows are apparently finding virtual reality to be quite moo-ving. A farm in Russia gave its cows custom made virtual reality headsets in an attempt to reduce their anxiety and improve the quality and quantity of their milk production. The experiments took place northwest of Moscow at theRead More →

Missing the ability to search for content across multiple OpenSim grids? Outworldz‘ Fred Beckhusen has an answer for you. The Diva Distro, from hypergrid inventor Crista Lopes, used to have a grid-wide search, but it’s been offline for several years., he said. “I have reverse engineered it and extended itRead More →

In addition to the official distribution of the OpenSimulator software, there are several variations of the open-source virtual world platform, including the mini-grid Diva Distro version, the easy-to-install-at-home DreamGrid version, the HalcyonGrid distribution from the now-defunct InWorldz grid, the AuroraSim distribution which hasn’t been updated since 2014, the still activelyRead More →

  The November issue of HyperGrid Zone Magazine includes a feature about how to get banned from DigiWorldz, as well as features about artists, performers, and designers from around the hypergrid. HyperGrid Zone Magazine is supported by DigiWorldz grid owner and founder Terry Ford, and is published monthly. “We’re workingRead More →

When you think of university level English education, an AR game might not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, with the current availability of powerful cellphones and inexpensive standalone VR headsets, augmented and virtual reality could be regularly used in college humanities courses sooner rather than later.Read More →

Halloween is tomorrow, and OpenSim grids are turning up the spookiness — and the music. Get your costume on and check out these creepy spots tonight and tomorrow night! I’ve sorted the events below by time, in case you want to hit them all. OSgrid’s Halloween party Date and time:Read More →

Nearly 400 valid responses came in for the Tenth Annual OpenSim Grid Survey, and Craft World received the highest overall scores, followed by Encore Escape, Utopia Skye, and 3rd Rock Grid, in that order. Craft World, which will turn ten years old on January 27, is not only one of theRead More →

The United States Air Force had a problem. They needed to train hundreds of airmen, but there weren’t enough real aircraft to go around. Virtual reality offered the next best thing. Vinci VR, a two year old virtual reality startup founded by a 22 year old college undergrad, was recently awardedRead More →

The new release of the OpenSim server software is out, OpenSimulator 0.9.1.0, also known as “Snail.” It supports animated mesh, the new YEngine script engine, and fixes a few bugs, according to core developer Ubit Umarov. It is also the first release to have a name, not just a number.Read More →

The hypergrid turned 11 years old today. If you’ve ever wanted to teleport from one virtual world to another and be able to make friends and go shopping on other worlds, that’s the hypergrid. You can even join groups and send messages to friends on other grids. And if youRead More →

Are you interested in presenting a panel at this year’s OpenSim Community Conference in December? Visit the OSCC’s Call for Proposals page and fill out the form. This year’s conference will focus on visions of the future and the evolution of the platform. It will take place on December 14Read More →

The Tag Grid Marketplace, in development since 2015 but which the grid began widely promoting this year, has grown at nearly twice the rate of the Kitely Market over the past five months. Tag Grid merchants added 4,058 new item listings, while Kitely merchants added 2,289. However, Kitely is stillRead More →

OpenSim land area went up by 3,300 regions this month, with the largest growth recorded on OSgrid, which gained more than 1,500 regions. OSgrid conducted a major clean-up last month, and some of this increase may have been due to region owners reconnecting their regions to the grid. OSgrid alsoRead More →

The sixth annual Tangle Grid Halloween Expo is live now and will have its grand opening next Tuesday, Oct. 15. It will run until November 19. The expo is fully accessible to hypergrid visitors at tanglegrid.net:8002:expo isle. (Learn how to hypergrid here.) Visitors will be able to get freebie items,Read More →

I’ve been using the Oculus Go for a while myself, and I’d say it’s totally worth it for most people, but it’s not for everybody.

If you’re new to VR and want to give it a try, then you should absolutely get the Oculus Go.  It’s affordable, and you’re getting a lot of good stuff for just around $200.
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DigiWorldz, one of OpenSim’s most successful commercial grids, went down Tuesday due to a database issue and will be down for a few days while the grid uses the opportunity to do a major update. All in-world events have been canceled, and residents are used to follow the grid onRead More →

Update: Monentes Jewelry has shut down its physical store, but the jewelry can still be found in OpenSim on the Continuum Grid, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in March, 2021. The hypergrid address is continuum.outworldz.net:8002:Monentes Jewelry. Learn more at Marianna Monentes’ blog. Nineteen years ago, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosisRead More →

This year, self-driving cars started getting pretty good. Deep fakes video started getting pretty convincing. Our virtual assistants got to the point where they could understand us well enough to do some simple things, like tell us the weather or get driving directions home. When it comes to artificial intelligence,Read More →