Trying to get my head around 'SIM'

Today, my task is to try to understand the concept of 'SIM'

In my reading this word/term/phrase/TLA/whatever, seems to appear more than any other.

wikipedia says:

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Sim

A Second Life simulator: the area hosted by a single server CPU. (Also called a region or - rarely on SL but commonly on other online games - a zone). These are independent Second Life simulator, each with their own characteristics, rules, ratings (PG or Mature), and themes.

========

OK so if I look on the map I see (for example) a lable 'Juliet' I presume this is the name for that area. It is surrounded by other areas such as Costard, Rebech, Froth etc etc.

Is Juilet a SIM ?

How can you 'own' a SIM and what is it that you own, do you buy the hardware ?

TIA

Idaho

A simulator is the software that runs one Second Life region. Juliet, Costard, etc, are regions

OK, so who are the SIM 'owners' ... can residents 'own' SIMs

Idaho

Yes. You can either buy islands, or mainland sims. Why don't you read the information on the LL webiste?

cu
Aleco

Well, yes, thank you I am reading all sorts of things in all sorts of places.
I think you probably mean the second life website don't you. I have found all sorts of articles about owning Islands but very little about how you go about owning a 'SIM' or region. Still, I will keep looking.

Idaho

If you look at your map inworld and zoom into the mainland area, you will see the squares outlined, each with a name. As far as area goes, each of those squares is a sim. You can own one of them on mainland, or buy a private island which is the same size.

Yes all those names you listed are names of sims/regions. To summarise some of the other posts - a region is one square on the grid - 65536m^2, supports 15,000 prims, and each is run on a cpu.

You don't buy the hardware, all the sims are run on LL's own servers. Instead, you pay a setup/purchase fee to LL, and then a recurring monthly tier payment. You can either purchase a private island sim, or one on the main grid.

A private island sim will cost you US$1675 setup, and US$295 per month tier, and can be purchased from the land store:

http://secondlife.com/apps/mapapps/buy/

Alternatively, you may be able to find a second hand one, but I'd not advise going that route if you are still finding your feet.

Land (including full regions) on the maingrid can either be purchased directly from LL as it is released via their auction site:

http://usd.auctions.secondlife.com/

Or purchased directly in-world from another resident. The tier per month on a maingrid region is US$195.

What ever you decide to do, I'd advise you take some time to understand as much as you can about land in LL before making a big purchase.

Hope that helps.

ETA: There is another type of region/sim - a void sim. These are the same size, but only support 3750 prims, and run 4 to a cpu. You can only purchase one of these if you already own a normal private island region.

There are some old private islands that are grandfathered at US$195 per month, but you will only be able to grab one of those second hand from another resident, and they usually sell for a premium.

I think the issue is confused by the fact that in 'The Sims' game, a sim means a person, or avatar, whereas in Second Life it means a simulator, or region.

Ah, o.k. since SL is a game as well, that could explain the confusion...

Sim=simulator=region

One of those squares on the map.

You can own a sim in one of three ways:

1. Buy a private estate ("island" from LL for $US 1,695.
2. Buy a new region of mainland from LL at auction. The price varies, but is almost always higher than purchasing an island.
3. Buy up all the parcels in a mainland sim from their owners. That's probably the costliest way of all.

In addition to the purchase price, you will pay a monthly fee to LL for your sim. In the case of private estates, it's $US 295. For mainland, $US 195.

Most people don't want to shell out this much, unless they have an idea of how to make some or all of it back...like subdividing the land and selling off parcels, or renting out parcels, or putting up a big build like a mall or a huge store and selling things.

If you can't afford, or don't want, a whole sim you can buy smaller parcels of land from individuals (on the mainland) or rent them from estate owners (on a private island). Owning land gives you a place where you can rez objects and leave them there, instead of in your inventory.

Ooo.. a question.

Because she chose to come here and ask other residents. You know, in RA, Resident Answers..
We all choose to learn using different methods. No one is forced to come here and answer questions, most do it because they enjoy helping others.

OK, some excellent answers here, thank you, it's much clearer now.

I wasn't intending buying a SIM just yet, just trying to get my head around the concepts, actually I'm still looking for my first parcel of land, I'm interested in building and scripting but I like the ocean as well ... guess I'll have to keep looking huh.

Thanks again for the excellent answers.

Idaho

*wonders if the OP is gearing up for the CEO interview?*

Back in the old days there was a one to one correspondence between a server, a processor, an instance of the simulator software, and the virtual region being simulated. It was nice and simple back then, but then the hardware improved and things became a bit more complex.

Normal sims are run by an instance of the simulator software running on one core these days, but there are some regions (sims) with reduced prim capacity per region that are run by multiple instances of simulator software on one processor core.


The term island adds a bit of confusion to things, which is fortunate, for the subject certainly is in need of additional confusion, don't you think?

When SL started, or probably shortly thereafter, there was one big clump of land, all the regions being owned by LL, only parcels being owned by users. When the first regions starting being owned by users, they weren't connected to the main body of sims, and had what looked like water around them, hence they were called private islands, private meaning privately owned, by users instead of LL, and the island part was because they were surrounded by water void. The word private as used there causes confusion because it can be interpreted as meaning that visitors aren't welcome, which in many cases is far from the truth.

Now that users own big clumps of contiguous land, such as Azure Islands, for one of many examples, it doesn't make much sense to use the terms private island synonymously with private region or private sim. A sim that is surrounded by virtual land isn't a very good island.

The term private island is sometimes used in land ads to mean a body of land in a parcel which is surrounded by virtual water, suggesting isolation and privacy like a moat would provide, and possibly allowing the use of boats in the waterway.

Before closing, I'd like to add a qualifier; I don't think the very first privately owned region was a private island, I think it was contiguous with the old mainland. I'm sure some oldtimer will correct me if I'm wrong. Was that Avalon, Fizik Baskerville's region? The next bunch of private sims did get created disconnected in the void.

Wasn't there one called something like Calypso or something that was first - maybe a contest prize or something?

I think it was Avalon, and I'm seeing it called an island - but maybe it was considered part of the mainland - they might not have worked out the distinction between mainland and non-mainland. So it might have been distinctive because it was both private and part of the mainland. Not sure. It might have been distinctive by being the first private island region but otherwise the same sort of thing technically as today's private sims.

There's another term used in discussions of SL land and region ownership, the term private estate. What does "private estate" mean?

Here's a link on this history: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2004/01/what_will_the_i.html

sim = simulator a simulated virtual environment running in it's own process structure on a single core of a cpu. (openspace or 'void' sims run in groups of 4 on a singe core.)

region = an area of continuous virtual land (256x256m) representing the sim.

estate = a term to define service level. Any piece of land or lands covering more than 65536m2, this can be either a private region or mainland, (owning half an 'estate' allows you concierge service)

To my recollection, 'Avalon' was the first private region directly owned by a company (Rivers Run Red)
The first private island, i think, was Krittania.

I think it was Cayman.

So it seems to follow then that the number of prims supported by a particular region/sim depends on the amount of processor resources allocated to it.

Is it correct to assume that the core responsible for hosting the sim is also responsible for managing all the avatars present in that area at any one time ?
This might explain why things slow right down in heavily populated areas.

Nice answer anyway

Thanks
Idaho

All normal (not Open Space) sims have 15k prims. The prims can be alloted in different ways, however.

You got it in one. Everything that happens in a sim (be it mainland region or island) is controlled by the processor core that's in charge of the Sim... except that there's some overlap. A portion of each sim (maybe 10% from the boundary) overlaps on the processors of the neighboring sims. So if an object is near the sim corner, it could actually register on 4 processors. This is what makes border crossings possible, but as we all know, not reliable. It also can result in severe lag if a megaprim is overlapping a boundary or if a lot of physics interractions are happening on the edge.

Also, please -- it's not SIM (an acronym), it's just sim -- short for simulator.

One of my pet peeves.

P2

A private estate is a region separate from the mainland. Also termed "private islands". These regions are purchased by ordering one or more from LL. The cost is a flat $1695 US, and monthly tier is $295 US. (As opposed to the purchase of a mainland region by auction, and tier of $195 US).

Estate owners may subdivide and rent out their land, but may not resell it in pieces, as can be done with mainland. Estate owners also have greater powers in such things as terraforming, banning residents, and monitoring and controlling region performance.

Some residents have purchased many private islands, and combined them into extensive archipelagos or even mini-continents. Examples include Desmond Shang's Caledon, the FairChang Islands, and Anshe Chung's Dreamland.