Vets in Neverworld

 Tig Eberdene: If you wish, you can click the box by the sign here and receive a poppy to wear. Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate. I am a Canadian veteran so I very much agree

Beth Ghostraven: Remembrance Day is one holiday that everyone should celebrate ...maybe "celebrate" isn't the right word - I think I mean "honor)

For our first destination of the day, the HG Safari crew landed in neverworld to explore ways to remember those who have served in the Military, with two veterans, Tig and Troy. Though each served ina different country, and have independent regions on Neverworld, they have found unity of purpose in the way they'll celebrate on Monday the many lives dedicated to the various branches of the armed forces. The event will be posts on Opensimworld and Facebook, and the HG Address to get to Georgetown (and to Troy's aviation collection, on Painted Sky) you'll find at the end of the post, as always.

The commemoration area is right next to the forced landing spot on sim Georgetown

Tig Eberdene: As you arrive in Georgetown you can see we are set in autumn right now. The setting is to be as how it is in Real life Northern Ontario.  Georgetown is a special place, named for my father George Thomas Wilson. He was a WW2 veteran and my personal hero.  My aim in Georgetown is to make it feel like a real place. There are 3 2x2 sims here, which are all based off a combination of places I have been or lived in RL. This sim is the downtown area. The sim directly to the North is homes for anyone who wishes to live in Georgetown, as well as a small lake and Provincial Park.

The Art of Aaack

For many years, Aaack Aardvark and his original mesh creations, available free and full perms in his store Arcadia on OSgrid, have been a familiar and much loved part of the opensim galaxy. Recently, Aaack decided to step away from the platform, but he very kindly took a few minutes to tell his story.  Like so many of us, he came here from SL.

Aaack Aardvark and his signature store

Aaack Aardvark:  When I was in Second Life I spent all my time in a sandbox called Little Blue; I made friends with the owners and eventually helped moderating it, all my available time there was distributed into play with friends and build, especially build. One of my friends there started to experiment with Open Sim and used to comment his discoveries about the platform. That was my first contact with OS, at the time I learned two very important things:

1. You can be in SL and OS at the same time, it’s not like you go to hell if that happens and,

2. OS exists.

N'orlins Night

 Our second stop this week was among the tombs of the Lafayette Cemetery of New Orleans. It's located on Ms Cal's grid Lagniappe ( you will find the HG Address as always at the end of this post) and she was on hand to show us around this extraordinary, photorealistic region.

Ms Cal: Welcome, explorers, to the heart of New Orleans—the iconic Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, a true gem in the middle of the Lagniappe grid! Please be sure to click shared environment for the best experience... follow me and I'll give you a little history while we walk to the city of the dead....

Ms Cal

Ms Cal: Back in 1788, New Orleans faced a major yellow fever epidemic. The old St. Peter Street Cemetery was too close for comfort, and the water table made in-ground burials a rather soggy affair. So, city officials created Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 as a solution.

Pumpkins and Prizes on Yaksha

 It's that time of year again and we were guests of Nani ferguson and ANge Menges on their Halloween Hunt this week. The sim will be open until November 6, so you can come back and complete the Hunt, if you wish. It's called Yaksha, over the years I've often asked Nani if there's some sort of storyline or cultural reference behind the odd and distinctive names they pick for their sims, and she's always said something like 'it's funny' so I'm guessing this year is much the same. You can invent your own etymology - bonus game! The full HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

Ange Menges: Welcome to all the safarista, you don't have a lot of time, so I will help a little those who want to play the game. You can visit the sim as you like, and for those who want to play the game, start by reading the panel carefully. In the region you can find 10 laughing pumpkins that will give you a gift.  Follow me inside the castle so I can show you one.

Escape 2 Halloween

 Back in 2010, Mystic found her way to Opensim, and settled on OSGrid. Relatively recently, she  made a move to a new grid, which she shares with friends, Escape2Reality, and here she has an annual Halloween region worth a look! The HG Address is, of course at the end. It was too much of a good opportunity to miss when we met up to ask her a few questions about her life on the platform and to know a little bit more about her home.

Mystic Moonshine: Ozzmosis  started this grid  a year and  2 months  ago. We  are finally getting things done here, it's been a slow process - rl  things of course take first place - but  Ozzy, Purr, myself and  Hippie are admins here and trying to make a  wonderful and inviting grid for all to  come use and explore. Many nice places being set up here... I love that the grid is  filled with friends and  family  that  want to get together and share and build a happy environment for anyone wishing to do the same.

Mystic Moonshine: It's  always  nice making friends. However we have had people come  join  the  grid then not  come on  to hangout or join into the grid activities. We want  people that are  wanting to  stay and interact and  enjoy and make the grid better, if that makes sense.

Fair Progress

 This week's HG Safari involved a visit to Wolf Territories to see how the Opensim World's Fair project is getting along. Several of the core organizers were on hand to give a warm welcome to the group! Most of the photos here are by Rosa and Kimm, you can also see some great pics by Star Ravenhurst on Facebook, and of course, the great Lifted Pixel filmed the whole event - you can watch that video on YouTube - don't forget to like comment and why not subscribe to her channel.

This is a massive sim, and the landing point has a 200m tall Observation Tower which seemed the ideal point to arrive  - don't worry, no stairs, there's a convenient TP down to ground level. The view from the top of the tower, when there are a lot of people, takes a moment to kick in, as you would expect of a well filled VAR  of epic proportions. The HG address is... yeah you guessed it, at the end of this blog post, where it always is.

Kimm Starr:  Hi and welcome to the Opensim Worlds Fair build.   Your presenters today are  Kimm Starr, Cooper Swizzle and Koshari Mahana along with our Entertainment Co-ordinator Rosa Alekseev.  We're excited to have you here today for an early sneak peak of the OpenSim World’s Fair, which officially kicks off on March 1st, 2025! This project is under construction and has been since February of 2024 and is no way complete. Everything has been designed to be conveniently close—whether you prefer walking, flying, or driving, all exhibits and entertainment are easily accessible. Directly below and surrounding the landing zone is the heart of the OpenSim World’s Fair, full of amusements, games, and rides. 

Dings Digital: I am looking forward to all this

Who Goes There

This week's first destination was to one of the wonders of Opensim, the Doctor Who region on Littlefield grid, often known as lfgrid because it's shorter! As usual the full HG Address is at the end of the post. The sim creator, Toy McBride, lives on the other side of the world to most of the Safari-goers, so she wasn't able to join us in person.

Dirk Mathers

However Dirk Mathers, one of the founding members of Littlefield grid, a master scripter and none too shabby builder in his own right, was kind enough to step in as guide. He's a knowledgeable Whovian, but even he admitted to getting a little lost in this build, which is encyclopedic and labyrinthine. Much like the long, mysterious and twisted plot of one of the most popular ever sci-fi shows on TV. 

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past half century, you probably know that Dr Who is a British TV show for children which began back in 1962, took a hiatus in the 90's and came roaring back in the naughties to an even wider audience of all ages, and it is still going strong.

OSCC Past and Present

 Every year for over a decade, the Opensimulator Community Conference has offered an opportunity for the platform to unite and learn about projects, passions and plans for the future of Opensim. But what is the OSCC? 

James Atlloud: Many people think Avacon is involved with the development of Open Simulator but that isn't the case - Avacon was created to build the community of people who use and care about Open Simulator. 

Avacon Plaza already looking festive

Inworld, there are two distinct grids - Avacon, and OSCC. The Opensim Community Conference, on its dedicated grid, is a weekend of talks, workshops, and parties about opensim. 

It's held this year on December 7 and 8, 2024.

The conference is live inworld, and you can also watch on Youtube. Here's the link to the 2023 presentations so you can get an idea of what goes on. But how did this come about? what are the origins of the event?

Joyce Bettencourt aka Rhiannon Chatnoir got into Second Life in 2005 and was drawn immediately to the community aspects of the platform. That included people and inworld places, and of course people and real world places. Rhiannon attended real world meetups for SL people, and in 2007 she had joined the Second Life Community Convention organizing team. 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: By SLCC 2009 in San Francisco, she was the conference content lead - coordinating all the talks. At the end of that year, the original SLCC planning team decided not to organize any more events, so a new group formed, called Avacon. The original Avacon team was Fleep Tuque of Chilbo, Linden Lab's Misty Rhodes, musician Katydid Something, and virtual fashion designer Crucial Armitage. We did two more real life events, in 2010 and 2011 but as we got more interested in Opensim, - Fleep set up Fleepgrid, if you remember that - our focus shifted.

The OSCC conference area

Rhiannon Chatnoir: We decided with the skills and lessons learned from organizing SLCC, we could help bring together the greater OpenSimulator user community in a way similar to what we had done in SL. We reached out to the Overte Foundation, the organization run by the Core Developers of OpenSimulator. That began the collaborative planning process, Nebadon Izumi initially setting up the OSCC grid and eventually launching the first OpenSimulator Community Conference in 2013!

Neverworld's Ninth

 Neverworld will be turning nine in a few days and there's a big party planned for October 22 - 25 over on a dedicated sim, NWBB9  

It's a chance for Gov and the guys and gals of this builder's paradise to celebrate another year of challenges and achievements.

Mike's Towns End

Our second stop this week was with the magnificent Mike Townsend, friend of the Safari and frequent tripper with us back in ye olden days when it was a three hour, uncertain slog through any number of  destinations. These days, Mike is busy with his Tropicana sims, where you can rent a bit of pixels for yourself in some very atmospheric places! HG Addresses at the end of the post - but you knew that already.

Coming from another grid, we all met with a fair dose of lag but the welcome was warm from both mike himself and a bunch of Tropicana friends.

Mike Townsend, flanked by Blancanieves and Tina Bey

Mike Townsend: Welcome everyone to Tropicana Village, If everyone is ready we can start the tour

Leoa Urmah: (pt:en)  I'm very ready

Mike Townsend: We will explore the area around the abandoned village and then take the path to the Trailer park. In a state of part ruin and abandonment there is still evidence of people living here. Lets walk to the trailer park.

This part of the build is a great mix of grunge and rundown architecture, with everything from nodding donkeys to a nice red phone box. Walking among all these detailed elements proved to be tricky, to say the least, but while we lost Mike for a moment, most of us were able to power through it. OSgrid's ongoing inv issues and unexpected kicks, when paired with a mass avatar event, kind of reminds us what a privilege it is in reality to be able to be part of a global community, despite the ructions of RL with its solar flares and political shenanigans.

Playing with Infinity

On sim Sirocco, one of the VAR regions belonging to the 3rd Wind community, on Zetaworlds, Han BoShi, Dolfke Barbosa, Jed Dagger, Ellemir Maven,  Nila Mari and Alia Soulstar awaited the arrival of the Safari crew. What better time to confirm or deny a popular myth about Star Trek 

Dolfke Barbosa: am I the only one wearing a uniform?

Thirza Ember: my other avatar has a red uniform on... does that mean I'll get eliminated in the first scenes ?
Nila Mari: /me chuckles

Alia Soulstar: yes, our priority is to thin out security every mission

Ellemir Maven: There was an analysis done that said red shirts are not actually more prone to death and dismemberment.

Left to right, Jedburgh, Alia, Nila and in red, Security Officer Dolfke Barbosa

Dolfke Barbosa: they tend to seed death and dismemberment

Ellemir Maven: lol it does seem to be true of the original series.  I have not checked these numbers... Being a "Red Shirt" on the USS Enterprise is one of the most dangerous jobs in any (imaginary) military. Don't believe me? SiteLogic founder Matt Bailey crunched the numbers: 13.7% of Kirk's crew died during their three-year televised mission. 73% of the deaths were Red Shirts.

Jedburgh Dagger: but as a whole there were more redshirts on the crew

Ellemir Maven: /me gets dol a second red shirt to wear

Dolfke Barbosa: thx for that, Elle, I will wear it with care at my funeral

Alia Soulstar: the dangers of space are best represented by the violent deaths of security

Dolfke Barbosa: Tasha Yar her dead was not necessary for the plot, and she wore yellow

Ellemir Maven: It was necessary for her contract though

Dolfke Barbosa: are you offering me a contract, Elle

Alia Soulstar: with a Christmas bonus... if you reach Christmas

For the Love of Lucy

Lucy was always there for me inworld with a word of encouragement, a joke or a useful observation. Always the same, generous, funny, creative.

In virtual worlds, when you don't see someone around for a while, it is easy to assume that they're simply busy elsewhere, or perhaps not feeling up to sitting in front of a computer. That happened with me and Lucy. This summer came along, the Safari trips took a break, and so did I, from virtual worlds... life got busy, and I totally missed seeing the news on Facebook that Lucy (in RL Peter Jones) had passed away. Only today, going to check his Facebook profile to see how he was doing, did I find out what happened.

Lucy Afarensis

That's part of the paradox of the modern world where in theory everyone is in touch with everyone else and we all know everything. In reality, we only know what we know, follow what we follow. Information we need and care about doesn't always get through.

Lucy was key to the HG Safari tours around Opensim throughout the years. More than either of us ever put into words, whenever we got the opportunity to chat - I wish told him more often what our friendship meant to me. Lucy was in SL from 2007 and in Opensim not long after that (Lucy's regions faced onto the OSGrid Moat, close to LBSA),  and the choice of the name name 'Lucy Afarensis' was a humorous reference to age - by a person who was never a fossil by any means.

We had a memorable visit to Lucy's region, including the Grove Gallery, in May 2018. We visited her place on Francogrid back in 2016 also, enjoying a concert by Nazira Avro - Lucy was always a canny opensimmer, spreading the wealth of builds over different grids, so as not to risk losing all if one of them should fail. That's not a lot of Safari visits, you may say, considering how interesting these places were, but Lucy was always the first to give up a spot in the HG Safari calendar, in favor of some other builder or artist, so to finally get to bring the whole group over to experience the horseback trip across this vast landscape was an absolute privilege.

Lore of Loru

This week for our first destination of the Safari, Loru Destiny allowed us to come see "DestinyLore", an installation she first mentioned to the public eight months ago, with this video on YouTube

Designed to be visited by one or two people at most, our trip was an interesting experiment in mass tourism in a confined space, and also an excellent load test. 

Loru Destiny: Hello everybody and welcome to my exhibition. I'd like to tell you about this exhibition a bit. DestinyLore invites you to enter my world. In this exhibition I have visualised personal experiences, thoughts and feelings with the tools that opensim offers me. Sometimes I have also worked with sounds or music. Some things here are interactive. So I ask you to follow the instructions. 

Loru (center) with her painter husband, Tryad Destiny

Loru Destiny: There is no guided tour. Like in real life you decide what you perceive, how you process it, and what you don't like or want.  I am only the narrator, you are the active ones. Sometimes there are texts. What I have written is not the final truth, it is my truth. I am happy to talk about it with you.

This build is divided into 5 parts, each has its own theme:

 - Opensim! (the place where it all begins)  - I am a human being  - Brainwalk - Find yourself  - Peace is an inner process   - Reality is what you make of it

Marvelous Moonrose

The name Moonrose is such a romantic one. This week we had the opportunity to discover just how rich and varied are the regions on the grid, most famous for its Mall. This was our second destination of the day, and it had been really nice to see that Chrissy and friends were there to support Loru during our first stop, on the fascinating DestinyLore installation - you can read about that in a separate post.

Thirza Ember: Thanks you for inviting us, Chrissy and Dark!

Chrissy Coage: yw, I am very happy

Dark Wolf: just moment

Taarna Welles: Confession? :)

Dark Wolf: I'm NOT a owner. I made the technical side on the grid

Thirza Ember: well thanks for making a fast rez for us, Dark!

Arriving on Moonrose Welcome

Chrissy Coage: Welcome to the Moonrose Grid, My name is Chrissy Coage and I am the owner. 

Pangea's Birthday

 This weekend there will be a big party event to mark the 4 years of Pangea grid.

There's a parade, a ballet, a party, on 12 October from 11.00 am SLT on region Koeln not to mention en exciting GoKart competition. Marlon Wayne and his merry band of builders, scripters, and artists are celebrating a big milestone. Here's an in depth interview with the man himself.

Marlon Wayne: My virtual life began in 2006 in Second Life. Back then, I was fascinated by the limitless possibilities of this virtual world, where one could build their own projects and immerse in communities. I was especially drawn to virtual Cologne, partly because of my real-life proximity to the city. I quickly became part of a special family in the virtual city and was passionately involved in the carnival, as well as in music and show projects.

When Second Life changed its terms of service (TOS) in 2011, I decided to move to Avination. I was allowed to take my virtual version of Cologne with me, which remains an integral part of Pangea today. In Avination, I met many new people who accompanied me on my virtual journey, and some of them are now part of Pangea.

After Avination closed in 2015, I began looking for a new, stable grid that could be a reliable home for my vision and the virtual communities we had already built. However, the search proved difficult because many grids at the time were struggling with technical issues and unstable servers. Although I didn’t have the technical expertise to run my own grid, I was determined to try. I rented a server, but I knew I would need support.

sim Koeln as it looks today on Pangea

Luckily, I had already met Kitty Sarrassine in 2010, an extremely talented server administrator and programmer. Thanks to her technical knowledge and tireless effort, I was able to bring my vision and long-held dream to life: creating my own grid. Kitty supported me from the beginning and played a crucial role in making this project a reality.

On August 31, 2020, the first avatar of our new grid was born—Kitty Sarrassine herself. She worked meticulously to ensure that every detail was set up correctly and that the grid ran smoothly and reliably. After weeks of hard work, it was finally ready, and on September 27, 2020, the second avatar, Marlon Wayne, was born.

Bink's Ballet

 The bees and the flowers, what's not to love. They are pretty to look at and essential for life on this planet as we know it. Why not bring that spirit into Opensim, where cross pollination between builders, artists, tech people and of course the public create a veritable ecosystem of fun and fecundity. 

Bink met me on sim Koeln on Pangea to talk about her upcoming show. It's going to be on 12 October, at 11 am SLT so save the date, this is going to be a great opportunity to see something extravagant and also catch up with so many friends, and friends of the grid.  The HG Address is at the end of the post, but if you're a regular reader, you know that already.

Bink Draconia: I always wanted to create a men's ballet..Men's ballet is different... it's a funny kind of dancing. i don't know why, but just karsten Runningbear wanted to dance in a tutu for me... so i needed to create npcs for it.... (ok, that's a joke, i wanted npcs from the beginning^^)

Bink Draconia

Thirza Ember: hahaha well that is a funny idea, but Karsten is class so anything he is an inspiration for, will be very good. So your show will be part of the Pangea Birthday celebrations on October 12?

Bink Draconia: yes.... first Lampithalers rainbow parade will start at 19.00 CET, then the ballet and after that an art show by Lampi.

Thirza Ember: oh that's great, a nice mix of entertainment... tell me, what is the biggest challenge with the NPCs?

OSFest24 Begins

 OSFest begins today, on a grid that appears rather smaller than in previous years, but nonetheless containing a wide variety of attractions. I ran into Sally Cherry, setting up her store in the Merchants Zone. Hers appears to be one of only 3 stores being used, so if you're selling merch in opensim, it's not too late, they have room for you! The event runs right through to October 20 ao it will no doubt grow before they get to the final Burn party.

Sally also has a sponsor's exhibit space, where she has set up a display.

Sally Cherry: My Exhibitor exhibit is to celebrate my 56 year journey in medical laboratory science as a Medical laboratory Scientist

So Fine, Safine

 Yeah... it's only just the beginning of October, but this year on Safari we're going to be overloading on Halloween , so if it's not usually your thing, we ask your indulgence because this festival is a huge creative trigger in virtual worlds. Between the costumes, the colorful accessories, the possibilities for scripting spooky things and weird effects, there's a lot to work with in the building gap-months between, basically, Easter eggs and Christmas trees. 

We are beginning this ghoulish month with a flourish, on the lovely Friends Grid where we met Safine Mahoe and Zuzu Bahro. Complete HG Address of the venue is, as always, at the end of the post.

Safine Mahoe: Welcome to the Haunted Halloween Isles!  

Ankh Senaton: hello Zuzu, I saw your art gallery, I like it

Bink Draconia: hi safine and zuzu

Zuzu Bahro: We're glad you're here.

Safine Mahoe: My name is Safine and  I am honored to be included in HG Safari, and appreciate everyone  coming out today.   We want to help with your Halloween decorations, so you will find many items available for copy, lets start out in the Pumpkin Patch... this area is not haunted....but certainly Halloween

 Zuzu Bahro and Safine Mahoe 

Safine Mahoe: The Halloween  region was made by myself and Zuzu Bahro.   Please note, there are 7  different Halloween areas to see, ranging from the extremely fun and seasonal Pumpkin Patch to the terrifying, dark Zombie Hunt.     There is a  round tp stone at  the landing point which will take you to all the areas. Today we will just see a few. areas because of time.

Ankh Senaton: I need some pumpkins for my pies

Thirza Ember: so before we go too far, can you tell us how you two work? who does what? I love to hear about collaborations

Love and the Lake, on Ignis

We are halfway through the current Safari season, so of course, it's already time to start thinking about the next one! If you're interested in showing the HG Safari tour group,  get in touch with Thirza Ember ono OSGrid, but first, read this page for Safari Hosts, it explains in excruciating detail how the trips work, what to expect from the group, and will help you avoid common pitfalls. That said, we have plenty still to see on this season, and our tour of Borderlands on Ignis Fatuus Grid was a treat! The HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

Nadir Rae

Best sellers in the 21st century are often fantasy and romance novels, adventures, and life hack books - and ever more frequently audiobooks, as people like to be read to, rather than read. The Middle Ages were pretty much the same! The legends around Viviane, Merlin, Arthur and all the gang of the Round Table are a mixture of magic, love stories and battles, with a lot of contemplative allegories mixed in. Nadir has perfectly captured this on her build, which is as large as it is full of detail. As always, we only had an hour to see it, and so of course there's more to go back and revisit.

We arrived at the church by a great waterfall.

Max Well [fr→en]: good evening to all of you, thank you for coming

Dings Digital: I can see myself live on TV, hooray

Arriving by torchlight on Borderlands

You too can see yourself on live TV if you come on Safari, as Lifted Pixel aka Jessica Pixel often livestreams our events on Youtube - here is yesterday's visit, as seen through her eyes.  The arrival point is an old church, it's the place where Nadir and Max had their big wedding ceremony, so it holds many memories for the virtual as well as representing the departure point in the journey around the region's story. Nadir gave everyone a torch on arrival.

James Atlloud: Thank you for the torch

Venus Love [fr→en]: watch out for the wigs lol

Tosha Tyran: yeah, I already tried to set Mal on fire... but he seems to be of stone

Forest.Azure: i'm very naked... and no face

Venus Love: lol yes forest 

Tosha Tyran: I thought that was your costume

Picturing the Paradox

 The state of mind between sleeping and waking is always fraught with paradoxes. Not just the orthodox opposition between the two states, but also all the language - in any language- between the two. Sleepwalking and dreamwalkers, for example, are definitely not the same. A daydream and a waking dream, too, are quite separate states. Or are they? 

Paradoxical Sleep is a collaboration between Nico Kailani, who provided the musical soundtrack to the sim, and Cherry Manga, the builder of the environment. Stream was supplied courtesy Suzi Avonside, and of course the region is part of the gallery complex belonging to Star Ravenhurst, Le Beau Retrouve.

Today was the grand opening of the exhibit, along with the rest of the show in the Gallery building (You may have read this post about Star's project)  and so lots of people jumped over to see what it was all about.

Nico Kailani 

The region comes alive if you turn on the stream, and go out walking on the otherworldly sea, with its many mirrorings. Golden showers (not, not that kind, promise) spring to life as you pass, and there are leaves of exquisite pattern. The gold colored torii, that liminal landmark between the sacred and profane. Don't forget, you always walk just a little to the right or left when you step through a Torii - it shows respect for the spirits.

Sights and Sore Eyes

In virtual worlds, here's an experience that most of us can relate to. Well, it's a bunch of experiences but they all boil down to the same thing. 

You're at a party and you realize that, although you like the company, you're not enjoying the music. You go to a freebie sim, and the radio is awful. Or someone's in Voice, and it's annoying. Or the sim has ambient sounds that are getting on your nerves.  

What can you do? Well it's quite easy. The Viewer gives you a subjective, personalized experience.

You can mute your Viewer (top right) or open the Volume controls and mute the specific source of sound that is bothering you. The beauty of this is that, chances are, nobody will know you did it. You can even throw a few Applauses into Local Chat when everyone else does, and you'll seem to be in synch with the set. 

What, though, can you do if the thing that bothers you is visible, not audible? 

That's a bit more tricky, but yes! It may be possible for you to resolve the problem without you having to leave the party, and without you having to ask other people to modify what they're doing, thus interfering with their enjoyment of an event. Because nobody wants to be that person. 

Weekend at Winx 2

 Bloom Peters: I created a special viewer for serious creators, its a custom Firestorm that allows you to upload insanity mesh haha

Thirza Ember: is there a link to it? or maybe there will be in the future?

Bloom Peters: not yet but i can show u the city, it demonstrates that.

"swishing tp sound... to a region called Whiterun"

Whiterun

Bloom Peters: We can and should have better limits in place. What your about to see was uploaded all in one go in less than 4 mins on my viewer - full textures. With the custom viewer you have no limits to what you can upload. Super super complex mesh, like this town, and it doesnt lag us. I believe Opensim should not have the same limits as Second Life.

Thirza Ember: I have almost 80 frame rate and the build rezzed in about 2 seconds - all of it. Admittedly, there are only the two of us here, but still...

Weekend at Winx 1

 At the end of a long week, what better way to relax than visiting a nice resort in good company.

Off to visit with Bloom Peters, famed throughout Opensim for her funfairs, scripts, castles. mesh, and of course her grid Winxtropia.

Bloom wanted to show me a sim she has been working on. She's a creature of passion when it comes to creating. SHe has several different projects going, but has put much of the planned work on hold to focus on this fun place, the Frutti Music Bar. it's a region and a resort, all in low lag mesh, and just adorable.

Bloom Peters: Welcome to Frutti Music Bar

Thirza Ember: wow love the look

Bloom Peters:  It's designed to push animesh and dining experience, every NPC does their job. Use shared environment, you should see an orange like night

Thirza Ember: the menu is making me hungry!

HIE Times, High Tunes!

 It's still a long way off, the next Hypergrid International Expo, but we have a new region on a new grid for the next event so we are already making sure the bones of the place are nice and healthy.

This week, for our second destination, we jumped over to the region - still a work in progress - to see if we could crash the sim. Our Load Test only got up to about 26 at any one time, which was a good start... and it was a hugely fun event, thanks to everyone who showed up for a little or a long time!

Thirza Ember: This is the region where we will be holding the Hypergrid International Expo in the spring, so we are just beginning to test this 3x3 for performance

Sunshine Szavanna: hope everyone can hear well - I have tunes for you on stream

Tosha Tyran: yes, pretty nice music

James Atlloud: no lag for me

Tosha Tyran: no lag

Sunshine Szavanna: Taarna has the best moves

Jupiter Rowland: Okay, I'm putting some load on the server with a ridiculously over-equipped dance HUD.

Tosha Tyran: Hi Uta,  what a nice surprise!... waving to Dings

Sunshine Szavanna: welcome to the Crash test party :)

Thirza Ember: The HIE event in April will have 4 bit Art performances. One by Sunshine Szavanna, featuring Ubuntu and  African language also... the amazing Bink Draconia will be doing an Art performance, plus, Cherry Manga, and our lovely Tina Bey for the Spanish part... plus talks in German, French, Spanish and Italian  (with the usual subtitles, of course!)

Dings Digital: oh great

Star Ravenhurst: Love the music!!

Tosha Tyran: yes, the music is really great

James Atlloud: yes - it finally started!

Dings Digital: the sim is performing wonderful

Forest Azure: oh, my eyes!

Thirza Ember: do everything you can to crash it, people

Sunshine Szavanna: /me tries her best

lifted pixel: loading QUICK for me

Taarna Welles: O_oooooo

Sunshine Szavanna in the red top was our music maven!

Boldly Going with Prince of Amor

 This week's trip took us to visit the Prince of Amor on his megaregion on OSGrid, Maze Space. 

It was quite a daring exercise, because this was our first Safari visit to Prince's regions (he has a lot!) on OSGrid, and this particular region is a challenge for any visitor, due to the dimensions and the darkness of space. On top of all that, Hurricane Helene was knocking on Florida's doors, and so Prince warned us before we got going that anything might happen RL-wise, and if he disappeared that'd be why. Luckily our timing went well, nothing got unnecessarily damp, and we had an out-of-this-world tour of the sim.

The start point for Maze Space (full HG Address at the end of the post, as always) is at over 8000m just about the position of Pluto . It's really essential that you come up here to begin, because at ground level you'll be in the sun, not a lot to see and a little to close to the heat for comfort. 

Prince Amor, today dressed as a Borg, welcomes the tourists

Instead, at the Space Station, you will find a collection of freebies, some info about the ideal Graphics settings for this build (spoiler alert, set everything to the max possible for your computer) and the main means of transport, the flying saucer. 

A Haven for Jimmy

Everybody hopes to have one, a little private haven somewhere in the virtual world. So many creative people share their fabulous sims with the general public and enjoy and allow strangers just to pop in at any time, and that frequently includes having lots of freebies in the form of art and assets - we're very fortunate to have them ! But it's also nice to have a place where you can kick back. 

This is Jimmy Olsen's hideaway, Tromsø, on Alternate Metaverse Grid.

You might have heard him called the Norwegian Elf, in reality Jimmy is Brazilian. That's a very un-Scandinavian country, where right now it's very hot! As a way to beat the heat, his inworld home sim is far cooler and darker than his RL experience. Jimmy has a special script that makes it rain on his region when it's raining in Tromsø (and it rains 234 days a year, on average) so no wonder he suggested I bring an umbrella when dropping in on him!

The EEP is everything to Jimmy. That's how he starts every build, with the feel of the sim, the colors and the shadows becoming an integral part of the construction - and incidentally, covering the occasional imperfection. It might seem impractical to some of us who prefer to build in mid daylight so they can see what they're doing. But too much stark daylight can crush creativity for some people. Which category do you fall into? Or do you do a bit of both?

Atlas à la Mode

It was all about the outfit, today over on Atlas Grid, on a dedicated sim called Atlas Grid Fashion Show.  If you missed it, here's a little glimpse of what went on.

The wild haired lady is Cherry Manga

The venue is a formal garden with ponds and flamingoes, framed by palm trees, with a large écru-colored  Maison de Maître in the background - the departure point for the mannequins.

Harthelie Atlas, with Mike Helsing and the evening's MC, Chip Atlas

The fashion choices were all selected by Harthelie thanks to her many freebie shopping expeditions all over the hyperverse.

Safari Gets Romantic

 The City of Light and the Island of Bled - two very romantic places in the real world, and also, it turns out, on the grid SV3d. This was our second destination of the trip, and a big thank you to Minord Loup for helping this event come about! The HG Addresses of the places we visited are, as always, at the end of this post.

Island of Bled

SV3d is a largely French speaking grid and we were guests of Draghan Marksman and his husband Belko Rau, and the very talented builder Glenn Dayafter. The trip began on a gorgeous sim with a distinctly non European name  ChomromDontri.

kjs Yip: it's a long stairway...

Glenn Dayafter: Yes :)

Belko Rau: It is in original island 99 stairs

Minord Loup: bonsoir a tous

LadyKa.007: Good evening to everyone who arrived :-)

At the top of this magnificent staircase, a beautiful square awaited.

Gino's Butterfly

Dale innis asked why we meet, and where we meet, before heading to destination 1 on Safari.

The 'why' is simple. If we all meet together before jumping to the first destination, then I can let the hosts know how many people to expect, so it's easier for them to know when to begin their presentation. Meeting at the Clubhouse means anyone new can make some friends beforehand, so they can ask for help if they get lost. Also, there are often last minute changes to the Safari, so if you come to the Clubhouse, you'll have the latest news about what's going on. Lastly - have you ever invited a group of friends over for a meal, and one person shows up waaaay too early, and you don't know what to do with them? We want to avoid that situation, which is embarrassing and stressful for our hosts.

Dale Innis and Karima Hoisean, on Gino's Butterfly

The 'where' is simple too. We meet at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid and there's usually someone on the sim to welcome you half an hour before the event begins.

Thirza Ember: welcome Kjs, bonsoir Prodyck, grande soiree pour les frenchies ce soir!

Prodyck.Theas: hellooo... On va voir ça :)

kjs Yip: Hi, I know I'm early, but I don't want to be late...

Thirza Ember: omg Kjs sitting on that Hand chair I made... I feel very proud and happy now

kjs Yip: It looks very comfortable...

Tosha Tyran: incl. one finger for back scratching

kjs Yip: It's the thumb...

Kjs Yip on hand at HG Safari clubhouse

Thirza Ember: i hope it doesn't leave fingerprints on the clothes! I am really happy that Prodyck says he will be one of the French speakers at HIE in 2025. it's going to be a great event

Tosha Tyran: I am sure it will be! Hi Prodyck

kjs Yip: Hi all... I'm a newbee at the safari, please be kind ...I try my best to run behind you...

Tosha Tyran: if you want, kjs, I take you by the hand,  or better yet: Forest will, heheh

Forest Azure: you can always tp to Thirza's head, kjs, she likes pple landing on it

Thirza.Ember: I have big hair so it doesn't hurt me if you tp to my skull

Tosha Tyran: Holzkopf

The End of Discovery

 Discovery Grid is closing, and will be gone by December 15. The news was announced at a grid meeting last Saturday. If, like me, you're busy on Saturdays and missed the meeting, you can get a recap of the main points of Balpien's announcement here. 

It seems the main reason why Balpien decided to shut down Discovery is that the internal economy of the grid has ground to a halt, with few merchants and money making sims, and a general decline in residents and regions.

It's always a shame to see a grid go offline, and one that's been around for over eight years is a loss to the general hypergrid community. But you still have a few weeks to go around and take one last look!

If you can't quite place Discovery among the many grids we have visited, here are a few reminders. The Safari has been lucky enough to tour here once or twice, beginning with a visit to Spirit Rock Ranch when the grid was just one year old. 

At that time our guide, Angel Discovery, explained how the grid was born out of friendships forged in Inworldz, so it's no surprise that, in his statement about the closing of Discovery, Balpien makes reference to that shambles of a shutdown that happened to Inworldz back in the summer of 2018, and vows to do better.  

Titanic going down

More recently we made a return to Discovery to see Kayaker Magic. He has a fabulous interactive Titanic build which is the scene of an annual party, to memorialize the sinking of that great ship - he very kindly let us see the dramatic sinking play out - so many details, with icebergs and lifeboats and flotsam and even rats deserting the ship!  The sporty Panthalassa region, with its opportunities for surfing, riding, hiking, and shooting dinosaurs, will surely survive on some other grid, it is a jewel of a sim.

200 days to go...

Wait, what? Two hundred days from now? That's forever! 

Well, kinda... but time is like a train, chugging along with a regular rhythm but moving much faster than you think until it's suddenly right there, on top of you! So we're already planning ahead for the next HIE event, which will be from April 4 to April 6,  2025. Scroll to the end of this post to find out how you can stay informed about the event via the Socials.

What is HIE, or Hypergrid International Expo? 

It is an Opensim conference, party, expo, and art performance extravaganza, experienced live and archived on our Youtube Channel - please help people find it more easily by giving a Like and Subscribe! 

HIE gives Opensim people of any and all grids, whose first language is not English, the opportunity to speak about the projects, experiments, sims, and builds that they are proud of. They get to tell their stories in their own languages, and we provide a sort of Subtitle system that allows you to follow what's being said in English, or any one of the major languages of Opensim.

In the past, HIE has been held on Craft Grid, with the kind assistance of the lovely Licu Rau.

This year, we have a new home, a 3x3 space on the new HG Safari grid - address at the end of the page. This will resolve a few logistical issues, and means we have a brand new playground for all the HIE activities.

Nazirah Avro speaking in Spanish, HIE23

Why aren't the talks in English?

Simple - there already is a very big annual event for Opensim, where all presentations are given in English. It's called the OSCC  the Opensimulator Community Conference and this year the 12th annual event will be held on December 7 - 8, 2024. However, not everyone's comfortable giving a lecture in English, so the Hypergrid International Expo is a space for these other voices, a sister convention, if you like.