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Difference between a sim, a simulator and a region.

Simil Miles
Creator
Join date: 1 Mar 2007
Posts: 300
04-04-2007 09:29
Lets see what everybody thinks about it.
Please add your definitions.
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Sys Slade
Registered User
Join date: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 626
04-04-2007 09:48
There's not really much room for opinion with this poll.
Sim is an abreviation of simulator, and a sim handles 65,536 m2 which is one entire region (as defined on the land fees page), so there's really only one correct answer.
Meade Paravane
Hedgehog
Join date: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 4,845
04-04-2007 09:51
There are several partially correct answers, though..
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Kepster Cure
Paradigm Shifter
Join date: 7 Jan 2006
Posts: 198
04-04-2007 09:55
In short....sim=simulator=region=65,536 m ²



ONLY ANSWER.
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Dnel DaSilva
Master Xessorizer
Join date: 22 May 2005
Posts: 781
04-04-2007 09:55
Ya there is nothing to poll here. They are all the same thing.

'Sim' is short form for simulator.
A region is the same thing as a simulator.

Therefore: Sim = Simulator = Region.


Just to add:

A region always belongs to an estate.
An estate can have one or more regions.
All regions in an estate must have the same owner.
The largest estate in SL is 'Mainland' and has thousands of regions and is owned by LL.

Of the choices, the first four are correct.
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Simil Miles
Creator
Join date: 1 Mar 2007
Posts: 300
04-04-2007 10:21
From: Sys Slade
There's not really much room for opinion with this poll.

From: Dnel DaSilva
Ya there is nothing to poll here. They are all the same thing.


Hehehe, from the beginning I guessed that there was a difference between a region and a simulator (why 2 names for a same thing !?), but I thought a sim was a simulator, until I came across the glossary of the official wiki, which says :

From: someone

Region

Data set for a region of the world, like “Orientation Island” or “Ahern”. A region can be run by any simulator process, and regions move from sim to sim as the hosts are shut down, crash, etc.

Sim

Server host machine, for example sim1234.agni.lindenlab.com. The SL server grid consists of 2000+ sims. Sometimes “sim” is used incorrectly to mean simulator process or region.

Simulator

The primary SL server process. Each simulator process simulates one 256x256 meter region. As the viewer moves through the world it is handled off from one simulator to another. Multiple simulator processes run on each server host, currently 2 to 16.


(This makes sense, I believe it was written by an insider if not a Linden.)

In brief, a sim is a computer, a simulator is a software and a region is the (land & primitives) data.
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Sys Slade
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Join date: 15 Feb 2007
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04-04-2007 11:21
That's just machine names. They could have had jelly1234.lindenlab.com, and most of us would not call the servers jellies.

In general usage, sim and region are completely interchangeable. People talk of buying sims (regions), sim performance (a measure of the performance of that simulator) etc.
LL just needed some name to use when they started cramming 4 regions onto a server. I have no idea why the word "server" wouldn't suffice though :p
Simil Miles
Creator
Join date: 1 Mar 2007
Posts: 300
04-04-2007 11:46
Considering what each are, it's a complete nonsense to use one for another.

Now up to everyone...
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Maximillian Desoto
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Join date: 26 Apr 2006
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04-04-2007 12:50
From: Sys Slade

In general usage, sim and region are completely interchangeable. People talk of buying sims (regions), sim performance (a measure of the performance of that simulator) etc.
LL just needed some name to use when they started cramming 4 regions onto a server. I have no idea why the word "server" wouldn't suffice though :p


But they are not interchangeable to the PROGRAMMERS. Note that sim is the process, region is the DATA that the sim processes. So sim 1234 could be region "Papa" today and "Milyang" after the next reboot.

Programmers need very clear distinctions in these matters, even if the rest of us don't know or care what the difference is.

Max
Jopsy Pendragon
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Join date: 15 Jan 2004
Posts: 1,906
04-04-2007 12:59
I think it used to be one 'region' per 'simulator', so they were, back then, referred to as 'sims' for short. Not to be confused with a game with a similar name.

Now that there are 4 regions per simulator, the term 'sim' isn't as clear... and I believe LL started referring to them as 'regions' more consistently around the time they started having more than one per server.



At least that's my take on the differences. :)
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Doubledown Tandino
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Join date: 9 Mar 2006
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04-04-2007 13:11
sim < simulator < = region - X45 * 4 = pie


... i think regions have religions involved.
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Simil Miles
Creator
Join date: 1 Mar 2007
Posts: 300
04-04-2007 13:35
From: Maximillian Desoto
Note that sim is the process, ...

From: Jopsy Pendragon
I think it used to be one 'region' per 'simulator', ...
Now that there are 4 regions per simulator, ...

Now that each terms have been defined, not using them makes things confusing.
Simulator is the process.
There has always been one region per simulator but not always one region/simulator per sim.

Having assigned sim to the server is problematic because we're always going to use sim as short for simulator.
And, it doesn't make sense to name a server a sim because unlike a process and data, it isn't specific to SL.

I would suggest that we name a process a simulator or a sim, a server a server, and a region a region.

Calling a region a sim(ulator) is like saying "come see my PHP installation" instead of "come see my website".
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Warda Kawabata
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Join date: 4 Nov 2005
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04-04-2007 14:50
From: Doubledown Tandino
sim < simulator < = region - X45 * 4 = pie


... i think regions have religions involved.


A li is an ancient Chinese unit of measurement, roughly equal to 512 metres. To walk around a region would take two li. So you have to subtract one li from a sim to get religion.
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