Open Up the Ocean Sims

I've been toying around with an idea for the last few days. I recently discovered sailing in SL and found I enjoy it. The problem is, there isn't enough water to sail anything other than the small boats. What I'm proposing is opening up all (or at least some) of the empty "ocean" sims around SL.

This may not be possible without a major software rewrite, but I'd like to see if it's doable. If I understand the way SL works, each sim is being run by a server. Every sim has it's own server processing everything in it. Correct me here if I'm wrong. If this is how the system works, then it would be way too expensive to open the ocean sims like that. Basically, the number of servers on the grid would need to double or more.

I came up with a possible solution to this. Currently, the regular sims have a cap of 15000 prims (correct?). Reduce that on the ocean sims. What I am thinking here is make ocean sims with a prim cap of 750 - 1000. Theoretically, the prims and landscaping would take the lion's share of the server's power. Ocean sims would not need landscaping, just a flat ocean floor would be fine, IMO. Reducing the prims from 15000 to 1000 would theoretically mean that one server could handle 15 sims. This probably isn't exactly how it would work, but the theory should be sound. Reducing the prim count should reduce the load on the server, thereby allowing that server to handle more sims.

Unlike regular sims, where there may be a lot of avatars (do they count against prims?) as well as a lot of various structures that need the 15000 prims, the ocean sims will rarely see anyone. When someone does enter one, they will usually either be flying (one avatar) or they'll be sailing a boat. I don't know how many prims are in most of the boats in SL, but I bet most are under 30. At 30 prims, 33 boats could occupy the same sim at a 1000 prim cap. What are the chances of that many boats all venturing into the same ocean sim at the same time. Not likely IMO.

Of course, there is still a bit of an expense involved. Even this solution will require a fair number of new servers. To pay for this, make ocean travel a premium option. Like land ownership, Residents would pay a monthly fee for access to the ocean sims. Maybe include it in the monthly fee for landowners. I don't know if that would really help, since the landowner fees go to help pay for the regular sims. Maybe make ocean travel an extra $9.95/month. I know I would be willing to pay it. I can't say if anyone else would agree with me.

One other thing, don't wipe the ocean sims clean like is done with the rest of the map (at least with the Linden owned areas). Don't allow anything to be rezzed in the ocean sims, but don't remove anything left in them. Then, it could open a new option for folks to basically live on their boats. Build or buy a boat, then always make sure you leave it in an ocean sim. When you return to SL, your boat is still there, right where you left it. If this is not feasible, then make a harbor or two where people can moor their boats when they leave and the boat will stay. I think something like this already exists.

This is something I would be interested in. I can't say if anyone else would be, but I bet at least someone else out there would also like it. The major problem with it is that it would probably require a major update to the software for the new sim handling. I'm not a programmer, so I don't know there.

I also have another idea for this that would involve the same basic plan, but on a much smaller scale. Instead of opening all of the ocean sims, open just those adjacent to land/regular sims. Still do the 1000 prim limit and have one server handle multiple sims. This way, it would open things up for a lot more freedom in sailing, without the huge overhead of keeping a bunch of ocean sims open that may never actually see anyone. If anyone thinks this idea sounds better, I could start another thread on it so we don't clutter this one up. That is, of course, if anyone else is even interested in this idea.

If it does get a few "Yeas" I'll propose it to LL in the for votes.

Branson Bailly

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Boy howdy, that's a lot longer post than I'd planned on. Sorry 'bout that.

We have something similar to your idea, in the "Void" sims. These are the inland water sims. The void sims are one server, running four sims - if I remember correctly. They were installed because people didn't like having to fly all the way around these lake regions, when flying from point to point.

I believe the four sims connecting the south continent to the north, are also void sims running on one server.

Prims are not the only thing which restricts performance. Avatars per sim/server can also be a significant drain on resources. I don't think you could stretch one server to 15 sims, but you certainly can divvy things up four ways. Most of the void sims, if I remember correctly, are actually run on 1/4 of a server. Adding more open water seems to be a priority now, though they've stuck to filling in water within the continent for now.

If you're interested in sailing, check out the new void lake just south of Grant. It's fairly large, and may suit most of your purposes.

OK, I hadn't heard of the Void lakes. I'll look into that. I still think opening the ocean would be cool because as I said, it would open an option for people to live on a boat instead of having to buy land. We would still have to pay the premium fee, so LL wouldn't be losing any money, except the cost of the servers.

this might be nice but lets expand on this

we can the make ocena to connet the island not nonnected to main land. if ocena should get in the way then just pay to have sim moved some where else.

would be nice once havok 2 is unleashed large 15 century boats sailing across.

That doesn't work. The private sims are just that, private. They aren't meant to be connected.

They are actually essentially arranged in a grid pattern already, with one empty spot between each one. The holes in the grid you see are hidden sims.

LF

It could be arranged to make some islands publically accessible at the owners option, you know. For those who are absoultely about privacy, set aside different grid area for them. Personally though I don't think it would change much. Most people still seem to use teleports, even with some really good flying vehicles available.

When I take my seaplane up to the lake I'm pretty much by myself there, excepting one or two other people with similar vehics. Though given, I do think that if there was more useful water people might travel it more, such as spanning between islands. (Would be nice if, at least, we got another bridge or two between that big one in the north. And openned the rest of the inland lakes.), Right now there's not a lot of case for it. Wait till the lakes start getting crowded, then we might have a case for this.

Well, Welsh has quite a bit of water and has two sims around it that are all water. Some of the other regular sims near Welsh also used to have waterways, but think in some cases people couldn't resist the urge to build on them. At one point if you had a small boat you could navigate your way across four of five sims. I haven't checked it lately. A lot could be done in the area of getting land owners to provide waterways as an alternative to doing all their building on land masses.

I guess this is kind of a related thought. Personally I'd love to take my sailboat out more often and spend an afternoon sailing on one of the ocean sims, if I was able to actually leave the boat for more than a couple of minutes. Most of the Linden-owned oceans I've seen so far have autoreturn set to something like 5 or 10 minutes, which is great for preventing a buildup of junk, but not for sailing. It'd be nice to be able to stop the boat and swim for a while, or explore the shoreline, without having my boat returned to my inventory. I'd like to see a better system to deal with the junk *and* help out the boaters... even setting autoreturn for a longer time would help.

I agree,up the return time to at least an hour or so. Also there needs to be a linden owned place to "put in". There is a huge island in the middle of the lake I live beside, and it's all NO BUILD, as is all the water. They could at least make a small parcel, perhaps a small marina where non land owners can rezz thier boats.

Rausch would be a GREAT sim to rez your boat! The only problem you'd run into there is the possibility of dying... (because Rausch is a "combat" enabled sim.) Intimidating as this may sound, I hardly ever see anyone in Rausch. And most of the people I DO see there are just passing through, or staying to use the sandbox (since the whole sim is also a sandbox). And Rausch is surrounded by a great deal of open water, as well as some small islands for scenery

I was just thinking that the huge lake north of Mullet would be an AWESOME place to go boating (or flying, as I normally do). It would be great to see that made into open waters.

Check this thread for a map of a 22 simm lake that is set to 60 min return and has an island in the middle to rezz on /120/73/59923/1.html

I've had open access to water throughout SL up on the boards for a while and it is starting to garner votes. One of the pleasures of SL to me is exploring much as I would a place in RL, on a sailboat and just drifting by. It is very frustrating to sail up a river and find that there is a restrict block across the way so you have to derezz, fly around and rez the boat up again.

I would have to agree, travel via the ocean is a great way of exploring SL. It really sucks when you run into a building or a restricted area.

Since the Nautilus area was opened up there is some great sailing all around that area - my only disappointment is that I can't sail all the way around the big continent to the south because there is no Linden protected passage through the Terric region.

As far as I can tell all the other regions on the edge of this continent have a (narrow) open water passage: but the feature seems to be missing from this sim.

Does anyone know whether this was an oversight by the land designers or perhaps I am just mistaken?