We were pleased to welcome Dr Peter Miller (University of Liverpool) to the Centre to conduct a seminar relating to virtual worlds and the open source platform OpenSim. This talk looked at the benefits and current limitations of the platform. It outlined ways in which OpenSim can be deployed and showed some of the education-oriented and more generic content already available or under development. Finally, the potential role of the Hypergrid, the system for linking OpenSim regions, was considered in terms of establishing educational communities and disseminating good practice.

1. OpenSim: an educator’s perspective Peter Miller University of Liverpool BioZone NWG Graham Mills

2. OpenSim is... Not a virtual world but a platform supporting standalone regions (“sims”) multi-region grids optionally connected by Hypergrid (HG) Both familiar (Second Life®-like) & novel, e.g. extensible Open source: more affordable, more control

3. But... Less content, fewer sims and users than SL Issues with Voice Physics Lag Client and server stability IPR

4. OpenSim(ulator): a selective history 2007 SL Viewer open-sourced OpenSim project starts; OSGrid founded 2008 New World Grid & ReactionGrid established First avatar “jump” between OSGrid and SL 2009 Hypergrid, Diva Distro 2010 End of SL education discount; interoperability work stops Aurora fork of OpenSim 2011 Kitely (OpenSim-on-demand) Mesh and interactive web pages Overte Foundation established

5. How it works Database Server http://www.multiurl.com/l/5O8 Region/sim Client Client/viewer, e.g. Imprudence (Kokua) Server running OpenSim (OS) simulator + database

6. Regions can be organised as grids    i6 Dec 2010 Upper VWER Grid Kitely Middle 73 listed grids (34 shown, 56 HG-enabled) 14K regions (SL: 31K) 21K users/month* (SL: 1M Oct’10) *inc non-HG grids Hypergrid Business: March 2011 Edu Hypergrid: Lower OS 0.6.9 OS 0.7.1 OS 0.7.0.2 Map: Pam Broviak, GovGrid http://www.multiurl.com/l/5O5

7. Clients include... Based on SL version 1.23 Imprudence Astra* (OS import/export) [Stored Inventory] SL Viewer 2 (web, mesh) Kirsten’s Web (Unity3D on-the-fly) BuiltBuyMe* NB IP issues, esp moving content from SL BuiltBuyMe web viewer * Not on SL approved TPV list, [ ] no personal experience http://www.multiurl.com/l/5Ob

8. Low-end clients Radegast (not Mac) 3D object viewer, accessibility Mobile No scene graphics Future: streaming, Unity3D, etc ? MobileGridClient*(Android) OpenSim Mobile(Windows J2ME) Pocket Metaverse*(iPhone, iPad) * commercial

10. The Hypergrid:Where do you want to go today? HyperGate: walk through to access other regions/grids Core1, ReactionGrid secondlife://71.6.165.170:9000:Core1/ NB Inventory & avatar appearance maintained

11. How to Hypergrid Yes Yes Sims HG-enabled? Sim on hgurl.com? Chat search term & touch Success? No No Try other services No Find address, e.g.Hyperica Yes secondlife:// Yes Within 4096 regions? Chat address Click link in chat history No No Sim closed? tp issues? Success? Find way-station Also: Map search if within 4096 regions Direct registration, e.g. if different HG versions http://www.multiurl.com/l/5RH

12. Exemplar builds: History Mount Grace Priory NWG (shared core; suits 3-4 avatars) mainland.newworldgrid.com:60400:Mount%20Grace%20SE Christi Maeterlincket al.

13. 1939 New York World’s Fair Trylon and Perisphere, ReactionGrid 216.75.32.156:9030:TrylonandPerisphere/ Ruud Lathrop Joey Chernov

14. Science on a mountain top Aime SocratesCendres MagicLollyiFrog Jeff Kelley Pic du Midi de Bigorre observatory Lab, NWG 94.23.236.55:26000:Lab/

15. Mathematics E8 Polytope Wizzy, ReactionGrid 71.6.165.147:9000:Wizzy/ Wizard Gynoid

16. Population Biology ScienceSim http://fernseed.usu.edu/ Aaron Duffy

17. Landscape Green and Wild jokaydiaGRID 66.240.233.81:9000:Green%20and%20Wild MarmottinaTaurog

18. Cityscape Nick Lassard Image CC-BY John”Pathfinder” Lester Romenna PMgrid

19. Conclude: Prims are abundant... so use them! Mycobacterium tuberculosisGene Regulatory Network BioZone, NWG

20. But: Lag can be an issue Interactivity via marker overlay prims rather than scripting original prims

21. Intel stress test: Scaling is possible Each map dot is an avatar (most are bots) 655 avatars on ScienceSimcloud-based megaregion Distributed services (Intel Distributed Scene Graph)

22. Personal small group use 4 GB hosted quad-core standalone, 10 Mbit/s bandwidth Groups of 20, 10 and 1; large textures, heavily scripted Configured to 4 regions Outcome Class functional, no server crashes A few avatars slow to rez but still operable Lag varied; due to scripts or time of day (local bandwidth) Future: optimise, e.g. opensim.ini to reduce rate of updating NWG Events on dedicated cores with 20-25 avatars, light scripting Shared core sim supported 3 students building, light scripting Next version will support >100 avatars per sim Zephyr, NWG Lolly iFroget al.

23. Bonus: Native megaprims Also free texture uploads large linksetsscript delays switchable Proteins BioZone NWG

24. Hooray: Region modules in C# Multi-body gravity simulation New World Innovation, NWG Olish Newman

25. And: OSSL writes on prims and notes PubMed search BioZone, NWG

26. Version 0.7.1: Mesh format molecules Kirsten’s viewer(supports mesh) COLLADA format Free content: TurboSquid, etc Imprudence viewer(no mesh support)

27. Interactive Web Pages (of course) Shared media on prims in OpenSim 0.7.1 http://join.me/ for screen sharing Also provides voice option via Scribblar, etc

28. Hey, where can we get content? Emporium Scooter, jokaydiaGRID IP issues closed commercial grids, e.g.Inworldz Many inworld freebie stores Freebie shops Crackou Island, NWG NewVCE NWG Austin Tate

29. Free web content for import OSavatars Ina Centaur http://www.multiurl.com/l/5RE Fleep Tuque IAR imports to Inventory e.g. Diva Distro IAR Search via http://metaverseink.com/ http://bit.ly/hyperfind KatijackStudio

30. OARs Element 4 Keystone Bouchard Commercial Sim + terrain Backup/restore http://www.multiurl.com/l/5RF The Far Away, AM Radio via OpenSim Creations (some NSFW)

31. Server access (remote desktop application) save oar myregion The console: load/save/merge inventory and sim content; register avatars

32. Avatar management Via console Via grid if hosted Via Wifi on Diva Distro http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Wifi_Module

33. OpenSim: ready for the big time? In my opinion, yes but would be helped by... Guidance on platform choice/transition Simplified hosting plus info on scaling/stress testing Better sim/class management tools Mobile client with inworld graphics Scene and object rendering options for mobile clients Edu/subject-specific OARs, IARs, HG directory/search Sharing/experiences VWER, JISCMAIL VW listserv...