What's the consensus on openspace over-subdividing?

You know what bugs me about that sentiment? If LL truly expects estate owners by the masses to use the void sims in that manner, then price them accordingly already. I would love to have 5 pure water void sims in my estate, but how the hell can I do that at $75 a pop? So what choice do I have but to offset the ownership costs, with residents living there.

That said, I do keep my open spaces sims to one/two residents, and they perform well mostly, and I have no real complaints in that respect, but it just bugs me that LL claims that these sims should be used "just for scenery", while happily taking our money, knowing damn well how we use them.

This is nothing negative to you or your post Faithless Babii. Just a quick rant on my part towards LL.

Sorry, no coffee yet...

Ah Abigail it might be Havok4 I was thinking of rather than Mono. I know there was talk of a potetntial issue.

That bugs me too, they know damn well what they're being used for and how they're being used but they play down this part because they're selling so well and obviously if performance was horrendous we'd have threads galore here with residents complaining about performance.

There have been one or two cases where I've heard of people being told not to use them in a certain fashion, one was being used as a French Orientation island.

My alt has rented a full open space not connected to any other sims and love it, total privacy and full rights to make the land how I want it. I don't have to have people walking through my home, only friends and no ugly builds alongside me.

I have found no problems with performance, it's actually lovely to come home after a laggy trip around SL.

whilst that may be the case for you....that isnt how i saw voids being marketed this w/e...sure saw a few offering half or a quarter (still really really undecided as to wether stores & clubs are really a fantastic idea on these types of sim) But the majority i viisted were split up in multiples..nothing stating it was a lower performance piece of land- for one person i could see maybe it was fine..dunno...my overall gripe is that estate owners can not compete given that LL hasnt taken into account these new breed of agents specialising in just voids, sure they own one normal sim..but shouldnt there be some limitation on how many you can buy and rent out for housing & commercial gain? or is there and ive missed that?

maybe i should just shut up...

Nope Your contribution to this thread has been really valuable Faithless. So don't shut up, please.

They are called Openspaces. They were given a new name to reflect their new versatility. Sticking to the term VOID sims shows how biased you are against them. I think the overwhelming number of people still purchasing them are very satisfied with them.

Of course people are over stocking them with residents on the hope that all the renters are never there at once - this is no different than anything else in RL being exploited for maximum profit.

It really seems like you are wailing for personal reasons more than anything else. Regardless of what is being said to you here in this thread, you are sticking to your guns about how bad they are and you did not even know how many Openspace sims run per server/cpu - which should tell everyone that regardless of how much "listening here and there" you have done about Openspace sims, your information was incomplete to form any real conclusions about their use when you were lacking information about how they are even set out per server/cpu by LL.

Openspace sims need to be advertised as such so people can judge them appropriately when they want to rent some land and go to view the sim and see it subdivided into several residential/commercial lots.

I personally think Openspaces are moving as LL planned in the way LL planned and like any 'shared resource' we will have our tragedy of the commons on many Openspace servers as well as full sim servers - there will always be those who ignore the data and abuse the resources to the detriment of others. It does not make Openspace sims bad and by how they are distributed on a server i would say it is all relative.

Wildefire Walcott ran a series of tests on an Openspace sim compared to a standard Sim and posted the data on several Forums i believe. I think it Could possibly help in discussions like this.

And as far as that guy running a club on his Openspace goes. What does it matter? Is it any different than someone running a club on a regular island estate? Our sim could be sharing a server with any SL club at any given time so what does it matter if its on an Openspace sim as opposed to a Regular sim because no matter what some other sim is possibly feeling the effects of that club script-use and avatar population.

Openspace sims are a learning curve consisting of what can be done and what cannot or should not be done.

I see more positives than negatives thus far.

No worries, I'd be glad to. I'll add you as estate manager next time I'm inworld here and drop you a note telling you the region name - it's not a Caledon name, it's a place where I develop new stuff for regions to come.

I should be inworld and set you up within 12 hours or so I'm pretty sure - I'd pop on and do it now, but if I log in 'just for a minute' I'll be besieged with 20-30 immediate requests causing 2-4 hours of work (sadly typical for me).

You don't need to write an 'enormous schpiel' to inform potential tenants that they're looking at a special class of sim, designed for light use, and that script performance may be slower than on a regular sim. I just said it in a single sentence.

And regarding the 'sour grapes' comment- there may well be a number of people feeling that way about openspaces, but I'm not one of them. It's a popular product that I happily provide to folks who ask- but I guarantee you that every one of my tenants knows exactly what they're getting into; I make sure of it. It only seems right that they're able to make informed decisions.

i know there are 4 to a cpu ? and im stating what ive witnessed thus far...i like to look forward to see how to take my business ahead...so im curious..and open to listening. I dont feel im "wailing" , im stating my thoughts..they may or may not coincide with others thoughts- and im ok with that, no need to be vitriolic.

"For those estate owners wishing to provide empty areas such as water, hills and forest -- we offer Openspaces, light use regions sometimes referred to as voids."

- as written on the current info guide on this web site- i prefer the term void...(i hardly see any that ARE left open )

Ive never been the sort of person who twists or bends what little rules there are to my own ends, (and i do see splitting a void into 16 as really over the top) so yes...iam struggling to see how estate owners can compete (another personal thought not a wail btw) and also am surprised that LL havent offered some sort of passifier to those who arent grossly over using this resource ie: splitting into 16th's and marketing them irresposnsibly.

Wildfire began this thread with some interesting thoughts about how she feels on the economic impact of these spaces...and i have the same curiosity after this w/e also.

aww ty

/me adds VWR-8768.


Vote at http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-8768.

The land store still states:

"Why are they "light use"?

Normal regions run on their own dedicated CPU, but the Openspace regions run four per CPU; as you would expect, this limits their performance. Openspaces only ever share with other Openspaces on a server.

It is therefore important to understand what these regions are. They are provided for light use only, not for building, living in, renting as homes or use for events. As a stretch of open water for boating or a scenic wooded area they are fine, but we do not advise more serious use than this and will not respond to performance issues reported should you not use them in this way."

The widespread misuse of them is something that should be questioned, or at the very least Linden Lab should update their land store to reflect the fact that residents don't agree with this description.

The thing is, residential use generally IS light use. Most residents do not use tons of laggy scripts. They may have a security script, a bed, and maybe a few poseballs or a dance ball. We are not talking about hundreds of poseballs or scripted vendors. So dividing an openspace up into 16... that's pushing it, but it's not inconceivable.

I wouldn't divide it up more than 8, and probably 4 is optimal for residential use.

Ive seen people use a lot more than a bed and a few pose balls plus an orb...fish emitters to make the water pretty , coral emitters , prim saver gadgets , i check my land regulary even the most innocuous things can have listener scripts in them (a single chair was horrrendous would you believe because of its method of scripting) Pets are another biggy that everyone seems to want to leave out...marine life too...havent checked personally the new style of surf waves, but the void i went to to use them was grinding to a sticky halt every 10 mins or so, so much so you thought youd crashed-then it sort of jerked to life and you were the other side of the island.

My experience, having been a tenant on one for a few months on the Waikiti estate, was that I had very few performance issues - at least nothing worse than on a typical day in SL. I used to sail yachts, fly planes, that sort of thing with no issues.

The thought of sharing it with 16 other tenants and all their buddies makes my blood chill, however - they *really* aren't designed for that!

I guess like everything else in SL - if the estate manager is good and honest, then you're likely to have a good experience, regardless of the sort of sim you're living on; I would still live there now if I could justify the expense.

Surty ..

Are you sure about all of this? This really isn't the kind of problem you'd experience because of script lag. I dunno if you're just exaggerating for effect or if you really are experience some of these problems but it's not the kind of thing I've ever seen or anywhere close to what other people are reporting on this thread.

If you'd said that scripts failed to run or ran very slowly I'd believe you but all this kind of stuff you're having problems with seems more like client side lag or something. Is it just a particular sim that's having these unusual problems?

I have read with keen interest just about every thread regarding openspace sims. Prior to acquiring my own, these threads along with my own research lead me to make an informed decision to purchase. Mine is from a reputable land baron if that's one wants to call her that. I have lived on her sims for a year and half and place a considerable amount in trust in what she tells me. I love me some Jackson, her word is gold. Based on that, I feel I have made an informed to decision.

IMHO, I love my openspace sim. I use it exactly for what I believe as it is intended. I have lived both on mainland (still have my cabin) and private sim. What is attractive for me, as many said IS PRIVACY. I have no covenant to contend with not that mattered. I don't have tons of scripts. I don't need 15,000 prims. I am not a builder/scripter. I am just a citizen of sl that wants the good life.

I do concur if there are not full disclosure of how these sims function then yes that is unethical business practice. I won't say some in this thread have "sour grapes" because of the explosion of these sims and the effect on their profits, tenancy rates and so on as they do raise some very valid points about their performance as well as how this is affecting their business. Which as consumer I DO appreciate.

However, the role of a consumer is also taking the time to education themselves about how these sims function. Although I have one, I still want to know about any issues regarding their performance. To me it is an ongoing learning experience. I would love to have a full sim but I can't afford one. Having the openspace sim for the most part at this time satisfies the desire of wanting a full sim. I don't have the prim allowance of a regular sim. I wished I just had about 2000 more LOL. But I have the land size which makes it very nice to go horseback riding for example.


So in my case, thumbs up for the openspace sim and I much don't care for the term void. But that again is MY opinion.

No im not exaggerating..i went to this place beause i LOVE surfing...and just couldnt believe the poor performance...then i looked at the details of the sim (by the amount of prims you can tell its a void/openspace if you prefer) So i went off to a few other places to play...nothing untoward happening, returned to the place id had problems- just the same hiccuping along every 10 mins or so. They did have a few houses, a bar, a few people danicng and live music also happening...the waves were the sculpted type and the high curling surf waves...scripted surfboards and a few jetskis in use...it was quite poor, shame because it is a pretty place.

thanks voted.

Hi Wildefire! So then really, all your ordinary sims turned into extraordinary sims, because Second Life lowered the bar. If you've got it, flaunt it! If there are openspaces that don't want to talk about the differences, you can do it for them! Four times the prims of the discount land. Dedicated CPU. Full support. Swimming pools. Movie stars.

I personally don't see how regular sims will survive the open space competition.

Unless they are themed communities or something that would change the equation.


I cant help but think of a Real Life Comparison -

You get the same size house, but get four times the yard.

I think this is why (so far) there is a Company requirement to have at least one standard region before they let you have openspaces.

Indeed the bar has been raised for land on the grid, in some ways.

But openspaces are terrible for community; with standard regions averaging maybe 2 residents in them on average (just look at the mainland map) - a region of ten openspaces might be lucky to have five people in all that.

...and VWR-8770 to add the sim type and server host type to About Land, per Wildfire's request.

My partner and I bought an openspace a few weeks ago. We do run a moderate to heavy script load. I have yet to see much in the way of lag. A small amount of walking lag during peak times on the grid, but nothing more than I have normally seen during those times on mainland sims.