Run OpenSim - Install, Build, and Connect to Windows Standalone

Ever wish you could run your own sim from your own computer desktop so you could create and preview content before uploading to Second Life, or without having to use the preview/beta grid, or worse, dealing with fees and lag of tweaking things in world?

Well you can. And no, this is not an advertisement. Here is an eight minute video showing you how using a standalone simple OpenSim installed and running from your Windows desktop. [Yes. you can do the same with Mac or Linux, but this just covers windows.]

http://blip.tv/file/1421954

If you have not discovered OpenSim, head on over to http://opensimulator.org to check it out. It will do nothing but enhance your Second Life experience. Clearly still alpha software, it might even make Second Life look really good on some days also, but educators among others are taking serious interest in what some thing might be birth of a budding 3D internet with OpenSims like web servers, hosted by anyone with a computer and internet connection.

Hope this helps,

Mo Hax
http://imohax.com

wow... great post.... even if it is not to do with the actual movie...

I'm curious.. why is the region a Dot? I assume you can make that a flat grass region?

I'd like to talk more to you.... please contact me inworld....

Before I go.. can others join you in your new world (assuming you have anough upload bandwidth)?

Region is just the default, you can do all the terraforming you like as you move beyond that basic tutorial, another great reason to use OpenSim. You cannot practice terraforming cheaply in SL by any means.

Because it is a video seemed to fit best here.

Happy to talk to you as I am able. I do recommend http://opensimulator.org for followup. Another 'Join the OpenSim Community' tutorial coming.

We have a huge vested interest with the development of the OpenSim platform that goes back 10+ years. I just don't want to become a scriptor to gain something useable. Our business plan is too big to become overly bogged down.

However, it certainly has merit for some of the short term projects we have, such as filming certain scenes, that only require space and a few thousand prims, and only one character, maybe 2 including the wife on our networked system, almost like a remote studio.

I will check it out, thanks for sharing

Ok....SL went online in 02. Beta ended in 03.

So how do you have a huge vested interest in the OpenSim platform that goes back over 10 yaers?

Did OpenSim exist before SL and LL took OpenSim and made the grid from that? If so, that is a total twist to the history i though i knew before reading your post.

I don't know about the 10 year matter but your opening post I find most helpful as one who is keen to explore the benefits of hosting my own sim.

For some more useful information try this link...

http://rock-vacirca.blogspot.com

Rock Vacirca is both an SL resident and has been working on his own virtual space which he covers in his blog, Chapter & Metaverse. Loads of tips there. It's more like a turorial in plain language.

The Linden Lab corporate info page says LL was formed in 1999.

Does it require VS C# 2008 or will 2005 do? (guess I'll find out)

<sigh> Why do people think the world began with SL?
AWM=A World Maker, a Virtual handle I have had for around 10 years, a 'world' also refered to what you may know, as a sim/region. It started with unlinked worlds, which later developed onto internet based worlds. Except back then a sim was more like a remote world linked to a grid that was connected through portals. A portal was a java triggered http link, that you walked into to 'teleport'. You could enter the grid from any location over the internet (website), even from a http link that was emailed to you, or dropped inworld.

Avatars, which many of us made ourselves, were your own property (although easily shared with anyone, by drag/dropping them on someone), and you could also provide 'themed' avatars linked to your world, so users that teleported to your world, could be offered avatars to use, or just stick with their own. The Avatars used animations which are on par with mocap and the Avatars themselves were better quality than SL (still the same variances in style and shape, such as human, furry, plate of meatballs, whatever), in fact, you could use a RL photograph of yourself on the avatar face. Interactions were Java based between Avatars and the virtual world.

The grid/worlds were accessed through a bespoke client, or a internet browser pluggin. The main difference between then and now, is content creation. The worlds could not be contented created on the fly like OpenSim, they were created in a stand alone software and ray traced before being hosted. A world could fit on a floppy disc, but were superior quality to say SL (think Twinity/There.com).

Until a year ago, I hosted 8 worlds (sims) on my standard webhost, accessible by clicking a simple http link from your favourite internet browser and interconnected via portals. Other enthusiast had websites that included 100's of other linked worlds creating linked grids.

Why now OpenSim? Simple, whilst over the years this has developed into a platform with content creation and exchange on the fly, it now has the potential to be multi-linked and have access direct to any Grid, although Avatars have to be recreated for each Grid for now, this will change probably next year, releasing the grid related avatars and you can take your avatar and potentially, when the IP rights are attachable to the 'Credit Card' mechanisims, you... become portable. Grid linking will develop along the lines of the 'portals' I stated earlier and become transparent to the user.

This will be an important stage, as currently, anyone can take your SL name and open an account on other grids and potentially portray themselves as you (before you try, I have already registered my name with most of the opensim platforms ). In the previous type of grid platforms I was involved in, the difference then, and with the ilks of OpenSim grids, is that YOUR Avatar was 'transportable' between any world added to the grid(s).

Imagine that you make an account for say Google, Yahoo, MSN etc, then one for SL, one for OpenLife, Legend City etc etc... none of which are linked in anyway... now we have the evolution of the 'ning' blogs whereby your account is portable, when the OpenSim platforms reach that stage, your account can be linked to your IP rights and also become transportable. This can be melted to include say a CC or Paypal, and the OpenSim platforms become truly part of the internet. OpenSim platforms become no more than internet webhosts/websites that can have its users be able to not just buy goods securely, but also sell like ebay. So..... this is a step back in time for me in some ways.. but back to a time, when that potenial was a reality, which has been missed in the evolusion of the OpenSim project.

Big thanks Mo Hax. I looked at Open Sim a while ago but never reinstalled it. Your movie was the motivation I needed to go and get it running on my new compy.

I cheated and used the precompled version of Open Sim skipping about 3 of your steps. So if anyone reading this is put off by downloading and compiling source you can still play with Open Sim by going here http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Download and downloading a binary. Go to the end of Mo's tutorial where he sets up Open Sim and the client to run and voila! You have a nice sandbox of your very own!

Great stuff, please keep em coming!

Thanks Mo and Pygora for posting this info. By following these few easy steps I have been able to make an opensimulator copy of my SL island in stand alone mode on my computer.

All that was necessary to make the terrain was to put a copy of my exported SL island .raw file in the opensim bin directory. At the command prompt with opensim and the hippo viewer running type:

terrain load yourfile.raw

Instant clone of my SL Island minus its 5k prims of course. Wish I had used this when I was doing my original terra forming as it would have made experimenting easier.

Just thought I had better add the if your have more than one region make sure your are in the proper region first. Don't know what additional steps my be necessary if you are working with a grid as I haven't gotten that far yet.

How do you get the PhysX dll that is not included in the package?

The default installation I did allowed my avatar to walk through prims.

In openSim.ini under [Startup] change:

physics = basicphysics

to

physics = OpenDynamicsEngine

Not sure if this answers your question about PhysX.dll but keeps me from walking through objects.

Thanks for the link!

I already had 3DXServer installed (the setup is muuuch easier, but it also has more bugs!).
Works (almost) like a charm

How does one do .raw files with open sim?

Not how to make them, to start with, there should be some premade one somewhere, but how to install an existing one.

Might as well ask where the premade raw files are too while I'm posting.