Space Instancing

I noticed there was another thread titled Instancing, but that is a different kind than this.

It would be totally awesome if it was possible to have some implementation of instancing in SL. Other MMOs use this to create seperate copies of dungeons for parties. Each copy exists independently of other copies. Even a very limited implementation could open up a new set of tricks for SL. It could also potentially solve a whole slew of problems like privacy, and sim lag from clubs.

Since SL's architecture is diametrically opposed to just about any game, where all content resides strictly on the server, and everything you have is a VNC-style thin client, the only way to do this would be to run your own server.
Since the server only runs under Linux, and handing it out would probably get it reverse-engineered sooner than you can blink, don't expect this to happen.
I do wish LL could do something like this, though. SL is laggy. I want to build locally and upload everything to the server when it's done.

Wasn't thinking of that specifically when I posted. I think it might still be useful for what you are describing though. Maybe it would be better illustrated by example:

Lets say you ran a club and you wanted to hold a large event. When a critical mass of people appear, you would be able to summon an instance where people inside the club would see the club and everone currently in the club. It would almost be like a mini-sim. Things outside of the instance don't get all the updates from inside the instanced world, and vice versa. People who show up later would see that the event exists in this parallel dimension and might be given the option of joining.

It could even happen automatically, but the idea of being able to open up an isolated copy of a parcel manually might be appealing to some people.

There might be a few issues with things working this way in terms of what happens with physical and interactive objects, but I think it would be a very versatile tool for SL.

I think the "ultimate instance" will be the day users are able to host "sims" on their own home servers. That'll happen eventually... I would bet on it.

But not for some time yet.