Linkup Opens its Doors

 Five friends  have set up a new grid and the opening party is today ! Starting at 10am SLT, there will be dancing and celebrating for four full hours with DJs and live singers.

The grid's called LinkUp and as the name suggests, the emphasis is on sociability, with many opportunities to play, to learn, and to chat together.

The five friends are Winter King, Dave King, Whisper Carfield, Sofee Supermarine, and Ted Giano. They've been working hard over the summer to bring the grid online, and it already looks very bright, friendly, and easy to navigate - with so many years of experience, that comes as no surprise. 

They have known each other from the days of Zangrid - to give you some perspective about how long these guys have been pals, I looked up the last times Safari visited that lovely but now offline grid, turns out it was back in 2016 and 2017. Of course, the past decade has brought with it all kinds of technical knowledge, and now they're in a position to open their doors to the hypergrid on a platform tailored for getting together.

Sofee Supermarine: We want to link up everyone who contributes something special to OpenSim — whether it’s fashion, building, education, amazing places, events, creativity, technology, and so much more. By working together, sharing our knowledge, supporting each other, and bringing our different talents together, we can build something stronger as a community.

Thirza Ember: Can anyone join? What about if people have technical questions about Opensim and need some help or support ?

Sofee Supermarine:  At Linkup Grid we believe in helping one another in any way we can. Anyone can join, it's easy to make an avatar. Whether you need technical assistance, publicity, creative support, or simply someone to work together with, we want to be there. Every person has something valuable to contribute, and together we can create connections that bring us closer.

The grid's just getting started but there are already a range of different styles to the sims here, this photo shows Summer Vibes, with boats and waterfront houses. But there is a strong emphasis on group activities here.

Sofee Supermarine:  Yes, there will be AI, DJ, and building classes, at our dedicated Education building. Go there and you can find all the info. 

Sofee Supermarine: There will be regular events for Fishing, Greedy and BINGO during the week. There will be some special events too, but talking with people is more important then partying all day. And just having a chat with people is important to us.

The party begins at 10am SLT today Friday September 4 at 

hop://login.linkup-grid.com:8002/LinkUp%20Welcome/118/70/23

Safari gets into the Zone

Our first outing for the 2026 Fall season of Safari was on a new grid, called The Zones, which is the home of Kimm Starr and Cooper Swizzle. They have prepared an interactive build, or Experience, that is colorful, fun, and breathtaking, on the theme of 'Day of the Dead,' which is also the name of the sim. We were delighted to be invited to see it and while about halfway through our visit, there were some technical problems, it's clear that this is a lovely build you should see for yourselves! The HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

The  grid is chock full of bright and cheerful mesh, and for this first Safari visit to the new grid, we were invited to a Day of the Dead spectacular. Also, so nice to see many people on the trip, new faces and regular safarians alike. As you know anyone who wants to join us is welcome, so don't feel shy, come on over next week and be part of the event! Of course, no guarantees your bits and pieces will travel at the same speed when you grid jump...

Ayla Alvarez: I don't want to say hello until I look like a normal human avatar... ah... there I am...  phew!

Alex Salamander Hello everyone :-)

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Alex

Mike Fleetwood: hello everyone

Tutz Zabelin: hi to all new

Cooper Swizzle looking drop dead gorgeous

Cooper Swizzle: Welcome everyone.  We will begin at 5 after 12 so others can join us and rez in. In the meantime, if you turn your sound on there is music. Welcome Ayla, and Neo. Hello Alex.

Kimm Starr: We will start in a couple of minutes... please check your environment is set to midnight and your in-world sound is on

Max Well: hello everyone

Cherry Manga: Hi all!

James Atlloud: wow, so many stars in the sky!

Jade Serenity: yeah and clothing :P

Marlon Wayne: Huhu Yara

Cooper Swizzle: Hello Koshari

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Dorena

Cooper Swizzle: Please come stand behind the yellow line...

James Atlloud: define 'behind'

Safari at the Crescent

 Yay back on Safari!  Oh, and there are ten weeks of Safari this season, so join us soon if you can! Wednesdays at 12 at the Clubhouse. Our second stop this week was on Winxtropia (addresses at the end of the post, as always). 

Here's what we learned from the lovely Bloom Peters of Winxtropia grid who had lost of news about things she's been building recently. There's quite a bit of info on the same subject in this blog post 'Giddy About MIDI', but yesterday's visit geve everyone the opportunity to meet with her in person. We met on Crescent Melody region, under this dome, where the animated orchestra resides.

Bloom Peters: Welcome all. Please,  enable your mic for this experience

Petlove Petshop: Hi Bloom!

Farstar Enoch: hi all

Boujee GamerGirl: hello!

Dorena Bree: i like the sky, its really pretty

Ayla.Alvarez: I'm afraid to ask what the buffer rate is

Bloom Peters: so far 190... not bad. Smart buffer is critical for timing

Bloom Peters: you are free to chat before the show case of course. Today will showcase a brand new viewer created.. as soon as thirza says she is ready. If your mic wont activate do a relog

Farstar Enoch: You need mic enabled to hear the music

Petlove Petshop: ahh ok!

Jade Serenity: i have no mic but i have voice enabled

Bloom Peters: yes that's perfect, as long as u get the dot hehe, you only need to enable Voice checkbox

Neo Cortex: Unfortunately I don't have that voice client on Linux

Nara Nook: I don't have voice either

Thirza Ember: i have voice but it doesn't kick in immediately in a big group but i am sure it will soon!

Bloom Peters: For those who cant get voice not a problem links will be provided for youtube demonstration

Dorena.Bree: great

 Farstar Enoch: Bloom has it all covered

Bloom Peters: this everyone?

Thirza Ember: looking... yes i think so...

Giddy about MIDI

 You already know this, but MIDI files, although often used for music, aren't like your average audio file. Instead of saving a continuous set of notes or sounds, like say an MP3 file, MIDI  (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) makes a tiny file out of every single noise. That means, each one can be tweaked to change the tone or the tempo, but it also means that you can assign each note on a keyboard to an inworld object, which would then move, make a sound, or do something else.

If like me your brain is now semi fried at this concept, yet intrigued by the possibilities, why not check out the work of Bloom Peters over on Winxtropia grid. She has been bringing MIDI to virtual worlds, so that you can either animate a fantastic 'orchestra' to move and play sounds forming a melody, has been the dream of Bloom Peters of Winxtropia for many years. 

If you've ever visited the region Crescent Melody, you may already be familiar with the core idea behind her MIDI project. Cats and instruments and clapping hands all move to the command of the MIDI tune being played. Here's an example if the Safari crew dancing on the sim some time back... these cats are a classic example of how Bloom ties each MIDI 'note' or file to a specific object on the build.

So this idea is far from new to Bloom, but her real aim is to make it available to other people. As she says, a musician could develop it to make any object move or flash or change color, creating a really bold and immersive experience for the audience, or a very cool video to go with their music.

Therefore the next step was demonstrate the interface and explain how it works - there's a blog post with some info about that here and the Safari visited Crescent Melody Studio to see the 'inner workings' of how to match up notes to 'instruments', here's a pic of that, as you can see it's a very complex piece of kit. Yes, it's quite complicated, but Bloom has done a great job in setting up lots of visual stuff to help you understand how to use the program.

revamped Crescent Melody Studio

Over the summer, the project has been 'blooming' in a bunch of different directions. For one thing, Bloom been redeveloping the instruments that she uses, as shown in this pic. 

Bloom Peters: The Safari visit on September 2 will be the final use of the old Crescent Melody Region because a new one is being made on the side, but this time enabling microphone is required for crescent melody since I am no longer using in world sounds.

On top of rethinking the instruments, Bloom also wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to use the tools, so she has created her own version of the Viewer, with added tools. These include a build-in mp3 player...

 ...real metal effects and fancy glowing  lighting effects, called Volumetric Lighting...

...and some remarkable enhanced weather...

Bloom Peters: The viewer also has storms built in still being worked on, here is a video of it. The thunderstorm affects the lighting in the region too, and all the rain and stuff is completely viewer sighted optimized. And works in every sim and second life also the water has been made 3D.

Thirza Ember: What does that mean?

Bloom Peters: The raindrops respect structures and therefore do not rain through roof. It does not rain inside of houses too. The rain particles bounce off the houses and the meshes. 

Bloom Peters: There is physical water now which makes things sitting on top of it float up and down, hey don't shift out of position. You can now go for a natural swim and float on water and swim inside. The Avatar floats on the waves and follows their curvature like the objects. The viewer automatically forces swimming animations which overtakes any other animation when you're in water.

Yeah, that's a lot to take on board! To return to the MIDI part of all this gorgeousness, this video shows  one of her performances, and you can see the window for the MIDI tool.  

Bloom plans to release the new viewer on September 2 at the Safari event, so of course you should join us! Or at least read the blog post about our visit the day after. The package that those who want to try this experience will consist of two things,  the Crescent Melody region, predisposed for bringing the MIDI tracks inworld, and Bloom's Viewer, which has not only the MIDI tools, and the modified Viewer with all the above-mentioned extra tools built into it. 

Bloom Peters:  Just to make it easier for people to understand, here's an image of the interface of crescent melody as it shows people can connect midi input devices and output devices too as well as game pads and VST, like this...

Bloom often posts about the development of her build on the HG Safari Discord server, so if you want to join that and check it out, her handle on Discord is AfroSniperGirl. That invite to the Discord server expires after about a month, but get in touch inworld if it's explored by the time you're reading this.

Important point - You don't need to have the modified viewer to be able to attend a performance of MIDI music, because that just comes through Voice, but it's what the person setting up the MIDI tune and corresponding moving parts will need to use to efficiently set up their installation. So what exactly are we talking about with the modified viewer?

Bloom Peters: It's just a normal PVR Firestorm with the custom stuff added it even has weather. And all of it is built into the viewer so anyone will be able to play anything they want and it will come with the OAR studio, The viewer will come with an oar with all 140 MIDI instruments. 

Thirza Ember: There's always some resistance by people to download a viewer that's not from the firestorm page (they always give dire warnings) so what can I say to non techy  folks who worry about that?

Bloom Peters: You might not want to use it as your main daily driver of course, it could have some odd bugs here and there. But for making movies and videos and midi trigger events or someone who wants to be in world musician could use it and find it handy for a performances. It would be released as something they would either choose to use or not there is nothing I can say that would convince people that it would be safe. Especially since it's not signed. 

Bloom Peters: However in crescent Melody tab it does have my contact information that's kind of like my you can trust me blueprint I certainly wouldn't tattletale on myself!! 

Bloom has even ported the same technology to Second Life. 

Here is SL Thirza, who earlier this week made a rare trip to the old place (specifically a parcel on sim Astral) where Bloom, aka Cute Potion, has a mini version of her Frutti build from Winxtropia. Here, rather than the big Crescent Melody orchestra we all know so well, Bloom has constructed a wearable mix of instruments, hands clapping, and so forth, like a one man band.  From the back view you can see the piano keys lighting up as she played the melody, and from the front, some very intense rythyms.

She showed off this instrument inworld to a party of friends, and I must say that for me, although textures were a bit slow in arriving, the music and the corresponding lights and movements were immediately flowing in sync - a lively performance!

Oh, and one last thing...

Cute Potion (apollosmile): i modified UBODE to support Hinges

Thirza Ember: oh nice! hinges on doors you mean?

Cute Potion (apollosmile): ya, exactly, and on roller coasters... supports multi dimension coasters now, which was impossible before,: it can now support this roller coaster which I am making haha 

Cute Potion (apollosmile): hehehe

Creativity makes you happy! Join us on Wednesday if you can

HG Addresses:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Astral/225/212/23

Safari Reentry

 After a long sultry summer, at least in this part of the world, with lots of distractions and complications when it comes to being inworld, the Safari mechanism is creaking back into gear in time for our first trip on September 2. It will begin at the usual time, 12 noon SLT, which is 3pm on the East Coast and 9pm in Paris. If you use Opensimworld,  Discord or FB or Mewe you can get regular reminders of events, and there's usually a reminder on the day in the HG Safari group on OSGrid..

Among the many things that have distracted me during the long break is a YouTube channel that you might enjoy - BobbyFingers . In a way, his channel is a bit like Opensim, although it's not virtual... with lots of passion going into very specific builds, lots of unexpected global connections, an open-ended, slow pace to the building process, and some amazing, thoughtful, and humorous creations.

Speaking of humor, the new season of HG Safari will bring us to twenty different destinations over the ten week arc, with visits to regions with poetry, art, and new inworld tech, as well as racing and riding, mazes and beaches; mermaids and goddesses, installations and vortexes. Or should that be vortices.

Second Sanctuary

Back again, sorry about that... distracted. 
Opensim is so full of interesting grids and regions, it's impossible to know it all, and there are always people and places out there worth discovering, or rediscovering. It's a place of joy, adventure, wonder and friendship, with zero jetlag and very little drama unless you go looking for it.

The HG Safari tours return on 2 September for another ten weeks of variety, vistas and vibrant destinations. One neat place that the Safari will be visiting for the first time during this upcoming season is 2nd Sanctuary Grid. Here's the welcome region, with handy teleports to the main places of interest.

This grid is owned by Pete Taylor and Naomi Volturi. Now all you oldbies, don't be confused with the sadly long gone Sanctuary Grid by Shaun Emerald, famous among early HG explorers for Eld, the region of portals. 2nd Sanctuary isn't a new grid though, both the grid and its owners have been around for quite a while. Pete shared a few details about how he found Opensim.

Safari Signs Off for the Summer

Our second destination was on the Ozone grid, address of course at the end of the post. This is our last tour until the Fall, so we went somewhere with stunning effects.

We were making a return to Dismayland the theme park with a twist, or rather many twists, jokes, puns, insults, a place that is gleesome and gruesome at the same time. After navigating the skybox where the security guards are pretty alarming, we arrived at ground level in the entrance tent where Spax, the grid owner, was awaiting us.
Spax Orion:  Last time HG Safari graced these grounds, every single one of you got a taste of Dismayland swamp water. ::: THEN ::: Atrius Station: The game arena didn't survive the evening. The IMAGE party got hijacked and the presentation was delivered entirely by pigeons. You took the game home in pieces. Dirty Helga called it a masterpiece. 

James.Atlloud: nice

Spax Orion: What started as an iniquitous fun fair is now a virtual novel — the NPCs, the sideshows, the rides, the rubbish on the ground — every piece is a word in a story designed to mock the very reality you just escaped.

Spax Orion our host and guide

Spax Orion: I thought we would have a SCAVENGER HUNT in the middle of a minefield this evening. There are several fountains in this park. ONE is the fountain of youth. Almost every fountain is a liar! Watch your health! Find the REAL one, tell the GAME BOARD its exact object Name — then describe WHY. What did it do? What did it say? Where exactly is it? What's nearby? 

Forest Azure: ah, one last time this season on Thirza's head