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Both land area and active users increased this month in OpenSim, possibly because people are spending more time inside, where it’s warm. But who knows, really, why people do what they do? Anyway, I am now tracking a total of 2,6617 public grids, of which 290 were active this month and 231 published their statistics. […]

Discovery Grid. (Image courtesy Discovery Grid via Facebook.) Discovery Grid, which had been in OpenSim for more than a dozen years, is moving today to the Open 3D Engine platform, also known as O3DE. In his announcement, grid owner Rene Vega — also known as Balpien Hammerer in-world — cited declining user engagement and the

(Image courtesy OpenSim Community Conference.) The OpenSimulator Community Conference, starts today with music and celebrations, then gets off to its full start tomorrow morning with a welcome panel with OpenSim core developers at 7 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow morning. You can see the full schedule here. You can also watch the presentations live streamed at AvaCon’s

The weather’s been getting cooler here in the US where I live — some days, at least. The weather’s been a little wonky lately. And there have been other things happening in the country that make me want to spend less time in the real world and more time in a virtual one. So it

Kitely has added support for physically based rendering (PBR) materials in both its virtual worlds and on the Kitely Market, the company announced this week. The update also includes support for textures up to 2,048 by 2,048 pixels in size. PBR materials allow for more realistic textures by simulating how light interacts with different surfaces,

Olivetree Ghaelen Elli Buffy Beale Petlove and Marcus Llewellyn. (Image courtesy OpenSim Community Conference.) The clock is ticking for virtual world enthusiasts and creators looking to share their innovations at this year’s OpenSimulator Community Conference. Potential presenters have until October 29, 2024 to submit their proposals for the twelfth annual gathering of the OpenSim community.

AvatarLife Viewer. (Image courtesy AvatarLife.) The AvatarLife Viewer now supports video conferencing for up to 5 participants, audio conferencing, screen sharing without video, and six-language support. “We believe in empowering our users with the tools they need to communicate and collaborate seamlessly. Whether it’s for a small group chat, a business meeting, or sharing work

It’s the spooky season here in the United States, with Halloween coming up soon and all sorts of creepy scary stuff happening, and cooler weather outside. Also — we’ve got the elections. So, three reasons for people not to want to leave their house and spend time in OpenSim as well. Or maybe there’s another

(Image courtesy Storylink Radio.) This year’s Storylink Radio’s October celebration is more ambitious than ever before, organizers told Hypergrid Business. There will be live in-world Halloween storytelling all month long and dozens of YouTube exclusive presentations, including short Halloween tales every night on Storylink Radio’s YouTube channel. All the videos were filmed in virtual worlds.

This time of year — in the northern hemisphere, at least — people start spending more time inside as temperatures drop and school starts. So it’s no surprise that the total number of active users on the public OpenSim grids is going up. According to their published stats report, there were 44,129 actives this up,

OSFest 2024. (Image courtesy Lisa Laxton.) The virtual doors of OSFest 2024 have swung open, welcoming creators, builders, merchants, performers, and sponsors to begin crafting their digital spaces. This annual event, hosted on the OpenSim Fest grid, is set to run from October 4 through October 20, 2024, offering a diverse platform for virtual exhibitions,

Summer is generally a slow time for OpenSim, and virtual worlds in general, as people spend more time outside and on vacation and educational projects go on break. The total number of active users went down by more than 3,700, to 43,001. DigiWorldz, for example, lost 1,220 actives this month, according to its stats reports,

Kitely’s Coopersville region is a Mega World. (Image courtesy Kitely.) For a limited time, Kitely‘s “Mega Worlds” region packages are on sale again, for $90 a month, the company announced today. A “Mega World” is a variable size region the size of 64 standard region that can hold up to 150,000 prims. That works out to

The total land area of OpenSim’s public grids jumped by more than 33,000 region equivalents this month, with the addition of a large new grid to our list. However, the total number of active users was down by nearly 1,500, due to several grids not reporting stats this month. Missing grids included Fire and Ice,

(Image by Maria Korolov via Adobe Firefly.) I’ve been interacting with OpenSim bots — or NPCs — for nearly as long as I’ve been covering OpenSim. Which is about 15 years. (Oh my God, has it really been that long?) I’ve been hoping that OpenSim writing would become by day job, but, unfortunately, OpenSim never