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.

Safari on the Socials

The Alps and the New York metropolitan area both have about the same number of residents - 19 million. They both have worldwide fame as tourist destinations, and are full of storied locations - some scary, some beautiful, all memorable in their own way. They say that in New York City, you can hear just about every language on earth. The Alps, on the other hand, have given life to scores of local dialects and languages over the centuries, from Romansch and Piemontese to Walser and Friulian, and of course the mysterious language of the Voynich Manuscript is an alpine tongue.

Thinking  of Opensim and Second Life in those terms goes a long way in illustrating the difference and similarities between the two. 
Opensim is like the Alps, which span eight different countries, from Monaco to Slovenia. The weather, the culture, the laws, the history, even the mountains morph in shape and nature as you travel from the Maritimes to the Dolomites. The people aren't always so easy to spot, down in the valleys or hidden by a range of majestic peaks.

Safari Goes Into the Light

 First stop this week, Dorena's World! We visited a beautiful art sim, more More Than Lights, in company with two of the creators, Miara Lubitsch and Kjs Yip. HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Our arrival point on More Than Lights

Every Safari begins with an avalanche of greetings... and some teasing. ON the practical side, here's how Safari works. The LMs and a notecard explaining our trip are located inside a giant prim, at the Clubhouse on HG Safari grid. Simply touch and 'Buy' the pack, which has the Week number on it. The weekly LM pack is generally left up from Wednesday to Sunday, for anyone who wishes to take the tour but wasn't able to join the group. 

This week, we had the nice mixture of first time Safari goers, occasional and regular Safaristas, as you know all our welcome, and we're very happy to provide TPs and help if you're new to this group hypergridding lark, so don't be shy - join us if you can.

Inside the theater - very comfortable seating!

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Yara and Alex

Yara.Eild: Hi Star, Loru :-)

Loru Destiny: -*- HeLlO-*- everybody :-) I hope I'm not naked

Forest Azure: hi loru .. and no

Loru Destiny: ahh great, a new experience when I HG

Safari Maitai

May your journey and your drink never end, or be boring

Eiaha e pau to oe haereraa e to oe inu, eiaha râ e riri

Our second stop this week was on Alternate Metaverse grid, and a beautiful VARregion with low lag and dramatic scenery. As always, the HG Address is at the end of the post.

Thirza Ember: Welcome to Tahiti... waiting just a sec for any people are trapped between tps

Lynnestra Parker: Maldrul said he has to relog, he can't tp Star Ravenhurst: I hate when that happens, Microsoft did an update so that doesn't help

Thirza Ember: yes and that brings me to my next point... This region is by Yana Dakota - you can see her photo here Forest Azure: /me peeks Thirza Ember: it says 'offline' by her picture, that's because just a little while ago her computer did that update, and something went wrong, so Yana can't be with us today sadly. However, I have some of the background, if you'd like to hear about it... In RL, Yana in the Canary islands, like our friend from last week over on Astralia grid, Marpil (altho Marpil is a native of the Canaries, not sure Yana was born there). Star Ravenhurst: Oh wow! Small world.

Thirza Ember: Because Yana loves islands, she decided to make a sim all about Tahiti, as you may be able to see it's huge...

Call it Communauté

Community! However you spell it, it's important in virtual worlds.

Nadajdae region on OSgrid is home to Hella Yver and her partner Badr Norseman, and recently they've decided to open up the sim to social events for the Francophone community.

A little opensim history, which you probably know already. 

FrancoGrid was the best-known French grid, and arguably the oldest, it started in February 2007, and closed in March 2022 when the servers suffered an irreversible breakdown and the FG committee came to the sad decision that the grid was no longer viable. Just over a year later Metropolis Grid, the giant in the family of German-speaking grids, finally went offline (you may remember the wonderful party we had to mark the end of that era!). 

Metro and Franco - these two gaps in the Opensim scenery, not to mention Osgrid's 8 month 'hiccup' in 2014, brought home to most people that probably, the way forward was  to have lots of smaller grids, where people can do their own thing, and comfortably avoid people who have different ideas and uses for virtual worlds.

But little grids, though they lead to less drama, also fracture the community, making it less likely and less easy to stay in touch.

If you read this blog often, you already know of quite a few Frenchies in OSGrid - from the lovely Paela Argus, who for many years served the OSGrid community as an active admin member; Ange Menges and nani Ferguson are here, with their signature Hunt builds three times a year; and there's Cheops Forlife of course, with the Theatre d'Adret; not to mention the delicious Cherry Manga who has sims here and on many other grids. That's just to mention a few of the better known folks on OSGrid - there are many more, plus a whole archipelago of Francophone grids out there, many of which we have visited, from Ignis, to Creanovale, to Logicamp, to Vibel, to Atlas and more. Wondering where the other French grids and French creators are located? Well, Prodyck Theas has compiled a useful list on Artefactix, his interesting blog, you can see the grid list here.

Tierra de Marpil

"Abre el ojo y desparrama la vista"

Love it when we end up on yet another new sim where paying attention pays off, and you get the full benefit out of all there is to see and learn. 

That was the case at our second destination this week, as the new season of Safari began with an exciting visit to Cloe Kegel and Vins Watanabe's grid, Astralia.  We were guests of Marpil Grafenwalder who exploded onto the Opensim scene less than two years ago. She has been a positive torrent of creativity ever since. The region is Tierra de Volcanes, 'land of the volcanoes' and of course, the full HG address is at the end of the post.

Marpil Grafenwalder

Marpil's region Tierra de Volcanes is famed for its wonderful Mall up in the sky, but our visit this time was aimed at learning more about her homeland, the Canary Islands. 

The build at sea level is beautifully put together to combine art, entertainment, and RL information and we arrived in the colorful, highly detailed plaza. 

Arriving on Tierra de Volcanes

Marpil Grafenwalder: Hello everyone, and welcome to “Tierra de Volcanes".Tierra de Volcanes was born as an inspiration from the Canary Islands

Safari Fall

It's September, so it's time for a new season of the Safari! We also have a new base for meeting up, on a dedicated grid, the address is at the end of the post. As usual, the event began at 12.00 SLT and as always, Safari trips are on Wednesdays. This post describes our first destination, you can read about our second destination in the post called Tierra de Marpil.

Appropriately, our very first destination for the Fall season was God Fall, by Tutz Zabelin, on Pangea grid, and Tutz was on hand to tell us all about it.

Tutz Zabelin: For those I haven't met before, a short history about me and Pangea. In reality I am a girl from Sweden. And i have a background from SL where i started 2007. Pangea started 4 years ago. Marlon Wayne is the man who came up with the idea.

 At Pangea, we are a blending of different skills and, like me, just a builder. There is much much  more to say about Pangea, there is some information about this on the Welcome sim. You will also find TP board to Pangea's various sims.

Thirza Ember: nice EEP

Tutz Zabelin: I was supposed to invent and write a story about God Fall but my imagination has been stuck in sim Construction.

Luna Lunaria: I get that way also

Tutz Zabelin: But briefly about the history of the God Fall is: It is at the beginning of the creation of the Earth. Good beings from space, gods and goddesses, come in a spaceship. They come to help create the Earth and protect it from evil forces that threaten to take over. On the way to Earth, the good gods spaceship is attacked by evil aliens The goddesses on the ship then stand around the ship and protect it. They succeed in using their powers to drive out the evil ones.

On Offworld

Any day of the week, no matter what the season, you'll find music and dance parties happening all over Opensim. It is one of the enduring and vivifying features of the hypergrid culture. I asked popular German DJ Genie Fegte to say why he thinks this is so.

Genie Fegte: Music is international and lets you forget the problems of the world for a moment. Music can connect people, even across language barriers. You enjoy the music together and shut everything negative and evil out of your head for a while. I think that's a main reason why parties are so popular in virtual worlds.

Offworld grid is a popular spot for dancing on Friday evenings, European time. It's a grid with a long history, all the way back to 2007 when the owner, Genie Fegte, set up his first opensim grid called  "Land of Vikings". This of course was before hypergridding became a commonplace in opensim, pre-mesh, and things were still pretty basic and often very unreliable. 

Genie Fegte:  I never let that put me off and continued working with Opensim. I am a perfectionist and when I have a problem in front of me, I sit on it until it is solved. I got my first computer in 1988. There was no real internet or pre-made programs. So I learned to program from magazines and books. Everything I know about computers today I taught myself.

Fair Do's

Opensim Worlds Fair (OSWF for short) is getting closer, and on Saturday at 12.00 SLT there was another progress meeting for people interested in this project. The steering team - Kimm Starr, Koshari Mahana, and the magnificent Cooper Swizzle, were on hand to share the news, confirm details, get feedback and explain how it's still possible for you to participate in the event - there is still time to get on board!

At the meeting took place on the huge sim on Wolf Territories Grid, with some unique chairs and couches provided for the public.... all the fun of the fair!

That hatted figure you see silhouetted in these photos is, of course, grid owner Lone Wolf. For the address of the huge region housing the entire World's Fair, feel free to scroll to the end of the post, the traditional home of all HG Addresses on this blog.

M is for Music

Morlita Quan's Second Life adventure started 16 years ago, and it was pure boredom.

Morlita Quan:   I even remember myself thinking : " Ok, I won't stay here more then two days". But as you well said, SL is a nest of creativity and very soon, I had the luck to meet persons there who used SL as a professional tool for art and music, and not like a simple social game. 

Morlita at her new, as yet unfinished, gallery on sim MorlitaM on OSGrid.

Sixteen years later, Morlita is still working on projects that overlap between the real and virtual worlds. Recently she has revived her interest in Opensim, and has an exciting new sim on OSGrid - address at the end of the post, as usual!  What, though, makes virtual worlds a special place to be creative?

Safari Countdown

 It's just ten days until the new season of  HG Safari begins, on Wednesday September 4 at 12 noon Pacific time. otherwise known as SLT or Grid Time. 

If you are familiar with our region on OSGrid, please be advised that the OSGrid region is no longer online. HG Safari now has a new home.

The new Clubhouse is located on the grid HG Safari, here's the address:

grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HG Safari

Once again, we will have ten weeks of visits to different grids and regions all across opensim, visiting art and tech builds, some representing real places, others inspired by fiction and fantasy. It will be an opportunity to make new friends, meet builders, learn about projects, passions, and of course problems that all come together to make up the Opensim experience.

Austin's Eye

Opensim can be  a tough place to get your arms around. It's like Second Life, but it also has distinctive features in terms of the technology and the culture. It's a dislocated, often quite mysterious place, in the sense that people often give a lot of weight to their subjective experience when talking about 'how opensim works'. 

That's a fun way to live the adventure, but solid information about resources, innovations, and changes to Opensim, (and where the two are related, in SL) is a must for anyone who's serious about understanding the platform. An outstanding source of knowledge is Austin Tate's blog. 

Ai Austin on RuthandRoth region OSGrid

Austin Tate, known inworld as Ai Austin (pronounced 'eye' not A.I.)  is an Emeritus Professor of knowledge-based Systems at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. 

His career in Information Technology started in the 70's, but his interest in computers goes back even further. We chatted during a tour of three sims on OSGrid, and you will find the HG Addresses at the end of the post, as usual.

It takes an eye for detail, and a talent for sharing complex knowledge in a way that works for both experts and casual readers, and Ai has achieved this with his blog, making it the go-to read for anyone trying to parse what's currently happening in Opensim.

One of the community projects he has consistently championed is the idea of an original open source mesh body for Opensim, called 'Ruth' and 'Roth'. That's the theme of the sim where we met up.

RuthandRoth sim has resources, information and teleports 

Ai Austin: This is the Ruth2 and Roth2 home region as you might know. Its where the open source Ruth2/Roth2 mesh assets and avatars are made available. The NPCs here are examples.

Thirza Ember:  Can you tell me a bit about how you got into computers to begin with?

Dreams on the 10th Dimension

All is like a dream

Star Ravenhurst's new grid Tenth Dimension is home to her art gallery Le Beau Retrouvé, and there's a big new show scheduled for September 29. 

You're still just about in time to participate. If you make art this could be your chance to exhibit alongside the likes of Tina Bey, Xenon Darrow, Remmy Ravenhurst (no relation), Savannah Joy, Forest Azure, Arcfury and a huge multimedia install by Cherry Manga  and Nico Kailani. The deadline to submit art is September 23, although the sooner you do it, the better it is for Star's nerves! Organizing art shows can be onerous, so why does Star do it?

Star Ravenhurst: It can be difficult to get into a gallery in the real world and most artists never get that opportunity. In fact, they are lucky if anyone beyond their family, friends, or instructors ever sees their work. Having my own grid, I can now give them more opportunities to showcase their work in virtual.

If you're a regular dipper-in to this blog, you may remember reading about Le Beau Retrouvé here although bear in mind, the location of the gallery has changed since then (just part of the way opensim is always in flux and keeping it interesting), and perhaps you caught the episode of Inworld Review where Star spoke about the gallery, among her many other projects. 

Star Ravenhurst:  What does the gallery mean to me? I am an artist in RL and have formal education in Fine Arts, Graphic Arts, Art History, and Design. During college, I worked for an art gallery and learned a lot during my time with them and also took classes in Marketing and Professional Practices to help me learn the business side of art. I do not have the funds in RL to open my own gallery, but in virtual, everything is possible. I have seized the chance to create an art gallery that is welcoming and supportive of new artists as well as established artists.