Monica's Venice

 It sometimes happens on Safari that there's a last minute emergency. It's a tribute to the platform and its people that this is a very rare event, but it happened this week when just about twenty minutes before go time, our lovely host Monica Chanel discovered her internet wasn't working so she would not be able to join us to show us around her build, on Bloodmoon Grid, called Venice.

Monica Chanel, on her region VENICE

Thirza Ember: Here we are in VENICE on Bloodmoon grid

SoA BAD: Don't forget to give me the 10 EURO entrance fee

Star Ravenhurst: Loaded fast for me too

Dings Digital: ooo nice, that is where the good books are

Thirza Ember: Sadly just a few moments ago, our host Monica discovered she could not get inworld, she has problems with her internet, she is very sad about that

Lavia Lavine: Awww that stinks, I would be pretty upset too

Thirza Ember: but we can take a bit of a tour in company with Pierre here Pierre is co owner of the grid, so he can tell us a little bit about Bloodmoon grid as we walk around

Lavia Lavine: The internet is unpredictable

Pierre Segrov: Welcome everyone

ArtDestiny Turns Five

This month, ArtDestiny grid celebrates five years of fun, art, and contributions to the Opensim community. It was fifteen years ago, back in 2011, that RL couple Loru and Tryad found their way to OpenSim.  

Like so many of us, they were previously in Second Life, and after making 'the great leap' they made their home on OSGrid. 

While everyone on ArtDestiny grid is a talented and valued opensimmer, cultivating a wonderful sense of international camaraderie, there's no doubt that Loru is outstanding, and is a much loved figure across Opensim. She has always given so much time and so much of her talent, patience, and understanding to our community, I'm a huge fan not only of what she has achieved, but the way in which she has done it. 

At the Hypergrid International Expo conference last year she gave a wonderful talk about the need for tolerance, for embracing the opportunities of virtual worlds and living our best life here rather than trying to bully others into conforming with our prejudices or ideas, or trying to turn a misunderstanding or a difference of opinion into some pointless drama. As if the world didn't have enough drama. Loru's words and wisdom often come to mind when I come across someone who wants to play pixel police across the hypergrid, I admire her very much. 

Pangea Festival 2026

The 2026 edition of the Arts and Culture festival on Pangea grid is about to get started, don't miss this opportunity to enjoy imaginative builds and thought provoking exhibits. 

The festival, first held in 2022,  is organized by Lampithaler Artist with of course lots of tech input from the other Pangea residents, and the event is held on various regions all across Pangea, over many months. 

Lampithaler Artist

Events are posted on the Pangea website and also in places like the Events page on OSW, in the Pangea facebook group and so on. 

The whole thing kicks off on Friday April 24 at 8pm in Germany, 11am Grid time, with of course a dance party. It's a chance to celebrate the 20 years of Virtual Cologne - yes, all the way back in 2006,  Marlon originally had a virtual Cologne region on Second Life. Since then of course he discovered the opportunities of Opensim, and Koeln is at the heart of his grid Pangea! 

On the Reef

Moonrise Azalee: Okay - well, Hey everyone, welcome to Ravens Reef- a small town, urban 4x4 region- It's a fictional town with a modern North American pacific coastal theme - Roleplay is encouraged here but not mandatory. Ravens Reef was inspired by a few different things - first, I really loved the little immersive regions I found in The Big Grid, but these places came and went pretty quickly it seemed - I would fall in love with a place, then one day it would be shut down, which was sad - but while in InWorldz, I met Curt Halberd who created very realistic builds, and who created a town called Backwater that felt so real - I would wander around his little town, able to imagine myself living there, and I loved how it felt.

Moonrise Azalee: I realized I wanted to make something like that, something I knew I would be able to financially afford for the long term, a place that people could go to and maybe create their own story in a small town setting, and so Birchglen, Ravens Reef was born - it existed in a smaller form in InWorldz, but I had a large land mass in OSGrid where I continued working on it, with help from Curt, and eventually I brought it into Kitely since I had already been a resident here as well.

Moonrise Azalee: It has also been in 3rd rock grid, because i liked the idea of it being always online, but when 3rd rock grid shut down Ravens reef remained here permanently

Moonrise Azalee

Moonrise Azalee: Something that was important to me was to use content from some creators I really enjoy and admire, Curt Halberd and his REALized Mesh, as well as Koshari from Four Winds, Chic Aeon and many others - it can be a challenge to find good, legitimate content in OpenSim but I wanted to show that it was possible - there are some urban buildings that are actually sold on Marketplace in the Big Grid with permissions to bring outside of that grid into OpenSim, and there are of course the  Arcadia Asylum, Urban builds - there are other things that from the process of going from one grid to another have lost the creators names , or some items that may be questionable, but the intention was to build a town that could showcase the work of OpenSim creators.

The Magic of Gimisa

  If you're an Opensim Oldbie, and still have your marbles, the name GiMiSa will stir some memories of adventurous scripting, and a small wonderland of a grid with lots of toys on it. Gimisa quit Opensim a couple of years ago to dedicate more time to rl pursuits and family. He leaves behind many traces of his life in Opensim, for example, on his user profile on the Opensimulator site, there's a neat glossary of OS terminology, which turns into a set of how-to's, explanations, scripts and a touchingly autobiographical survey of dozens of aspects of inworld creativity. On his website called  profil.gimisa.ca you will find a whole bunch of step by step tutorials covering subjects as diverse as removing megaregions, making mesh from a picture, and making a solar panel that tracks the movement of the sun in your EEP.   Despite having left the platforms in 2023, Gimisa was kind enough to respond to my request for an interview; here's what he said.

Gimisa

Thirza Ember: The early days of OpenSim were difficult and unstable. What kept you interested for so many years? Does it require a certain personality to 'survive' in OpenSim?

Safari Gets Gruggy

 Ozone grid was the scene of our final tour this season, and Spax Orion's two talking pigeons gave us the intro talk to his brand new project, aimed at encouraging more games in Opensim. 

It was a quick rez when we arrived directly at the game arena rather than the main landing Point on Atrius region. True, we missed seeing Dirty Helga at her receptionists' desk, but it meant we could dedicate all our visit to learning about IMAGE.

Spax Orion: make yourselves at home and I will wake up the birds

Thirza Ember: /me shakes the biker grit from my hair

Spax Orion: careful, the service androids are on strike

James Atlloud: should we go to the chairs?

Forest Azure: /me looks around for something to clean.. anything?

James Atlloud: You should travel with a towel Forest.

Guano Pigeon: shouts: Welcome to Ozone Miniverse @ xoaox.de OK... so now that your are here, settle down while we explain some VERY IMPORTANT details *** The GAME BOARD is DISABLED until we are ready to begin this exercise. *** Is Exercise a dirty word? *** Someone gave me a funny look!

James Atlloud: fertilizer

Safari on Track

The first season of Safari ended yesterday with two opportunities for playing - one classic and one brand new. Our first stop was on CCI grid with a return to an iconic build, Bikerworld, reputed to be the longest and biggest racing track in Opensim, by SoA BAD, the grid owner. 

SIWAS and SoA BAD, the owners of CCI Grid.

His name SoA comes from the TV series Sons of Anarchy, so it will be no surprise to learn this track is particularly made for motorcycles. SoA and his beautiful partner Siwas are both expert riders and can do the whole track in about an hour, going full blast from sea level, where you'll find the clubhouse and the group joiner and the various motorcycles that you can 'buy' and ride, to the highest point where there is a sort of gasoline dump with tankers and reservoirs. This aspect of motoring - filling your tank from time to time - is an essential part of the game, and you will need to get supplies a couple of times as you gradually rise up through the levels. The last time we visited we were all impressed by the way the region handled the lag made by the group, but that was over two years ago, so this was an opportunity for us to give it another whirl and remind ourselves of how much fun can be had here.

SoA BAD: Hello friends, welcome! Get yourselves a bike, but only copy or buy the bikes and then rez them yourself. Don't use the originals. Most bikes are also suitable for a passenger.  Additionally, you can find biker outfits in the display case on the left; also copy or buy them.

A Visit to Shark-ham

Felix Mafia is an Italian architect whose grid, Arkham, is almost four years old. Best known for the freebies, there's a lot more going on here, in terms of backstory and design, snd Safari wanted to know a bit more about that side of this popular destination.

There are quite a few seasonal regions on Arkham that provide explorers and freebie hunters alike the brief opportunity to visit, and we were invited to see Easter Land, in its 2026 iteration.

Felix Mafia with good friends Grid Admin and Andron Rae
were at the arrival point to welcome us all.

Felix Mafia: thanks for being here

Andron Rae: this is a fun region with a lot of hidden areas to explore

Felix Mafia [it→en]: Grid Admin is creator of the Arkham, he is English.

Grid Admin: I'll just hang out back here, out of the way

Andron Rae: hugs Cherry nice to see you! sorry if I am standing on anyone, I'm not fully rezzed and see clouds haha

Felix Mafia: welcome eva

eva Nowicka: hey Felix, nice to see you

Thirza Ember: we are not a gigantic group this week which is good for lag and for conversation... it's 'Shark city' make sure you see the shark while you are here, he is quite spectacular!

The Tao of Shenn

 Seduced by beauty in opensim, we visited some of the artwork of Shenn Tao, on Atlas grid. Shenn spends a lot of his time traveling in rl so it was an extra special opportunity to meet up with this influential and much loved French artists and to get a few insights into his work. 

Sure, we all know that good art speaks for itself, but that dialogue is always enhanced by a few hints from its maker, and also gives us a chance to thank them for their contribution to the collective cultural heritage of our virtual worlds.

Cornflakes with a Twist

We hit Cornflakes Week with all the bright colors and primmy nonsense of a decade-long tradition this Wednesday, as the HG Safari crew teleported to the newly revived Cornflakes Tribute region, now back online, this time on HG Safari grid. 

For more about the sim in general, don't miss this post that takes a deeper dive into some of the details of the historic region. 

Whirli Placebo

We were honored to have Whirli Placebo as our musical guest, he has been there for us so many times over the years, what we found extra special is the music he shared with us... more of that later.

IMAGE Awareness

IMAGE is a game system that Spax Orion of Ozone grid is working on with a view to making it available for free to other opensim grids. 

The name is an acronym for 'Image Matrix Action Game Engine' and right now it's up and running but needs people to come over and try it out so that any remaining bugs in the system can be worked out.

 So, ask yourself, could you 'sacrifice' a bit of time by going to sim Atrius, playing a shoot 'em up game, and then giving honest feedback, so that the IMAGE project can reach the stage that it becomes shareable?  

Going Solo

 Our second stop this week was on Avirtualworld. Bob Solo and the lovely Shea Butter were on hand to welcome us when we arrived on the region he was showcasing this time, SG1. As usual, the HG Addresses are at the end of the post, simply open your viewer on your home region, open the Map, and copy paste the address into it and go! Avirtualworld is open 24/7 and Bob says he is almost always online so you can go over and say hello to him any time.

Bob Solo

George Equus: SG1  and Atlantis was rather good series

Forest Azure: i have no idea what SG! is

Lavia Lavine: Star Gate

James Atlloud: TV show/Movie named Star Gate

Bob Solo: I built this all in prim, all after the tv show

Equitopia

Our first stop this week was on pangea Grid, and grid owners Malon Wayne and Tutz Gabelin were there to meet us along with region builder Mys Tigerpaw. To try to make life easer in this baabel of various native tongues, Marlon wore the translator orb on his head so we could join it and remaain within its range even when we moved around the sim.

Mys Tigerpaw: today we can call Marlon, Atlas

Marlon Wayne: Hello everybody

Forest Azure: hello

Dorena Bree: Hello

eva Nowicka: that's right, Forest, I should have picked up a bow too :D

Mys Tigerpaw: Welcome to Equitopia everyone! Please let me know when you are all rezzed.

George Equus: Hi all. sorry I am late.

Mys Tigerpaw: As you can see, my name is Mys and  I am a born horse nut. In RL I work with horses, doing osteopathy, massage, acupressure and deep fascia treatment on them. Equitopia has been really fun for me to build. If you have any questions , don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer them.

Nara Nook: I love riding in Opensim

Forest Azure: oh, George is horse-minded too!

Mys Tigerpaw: lol yes i noticed George's last name

George Equus: Well suppose...

Flaking Out

Cornflakes Week, the last seven days of February, has come around again and once again it's time to celebrate a uniquely Opensim tradition.

This year on Wednesday 25 February, at 12 noon Grid time, HG Safari will be celebrating Cornflakes Week on the Cornflakes Tribute region, which also has a shop area with extras inspired by or based on Cornflakes creations - the tp is by the arrival point.

Cornflakes 

Not linked to any real world national or religious festival, it's a time when people can just be silly in their own, unhinged, untethered, utterly Opensim style. 

Some of Cornflakes' stuff might be characterized as solo creations, a single statue, but far more of it is made to form a tableau, each one poignant, with a story to tell if you have time to look for it. Here's just one of the many. 

Marpil's Wonderland

Our second stop was a complete change from the first. We jumped to Alternate Metaverse Grid, to explore another side of an Opensim favorite, Tierra de Volcanes, often abbreviated to TdV. The sim is in the top 40 most visited, in the opensimworld classification based on the beacon system, so pretty much all of us had been here before, but the real treat was of course to get the full background story from the person behind the build, Marpil Grafenwalder.

Marpil Grafenwalder

Marpil Grafenwalder: Hi, welcome, hola a todos

Cherry Manga: Hey Marpilll

Lavia Lavine: Hi Marpil!

eva Nowicka: oh oh.. tierra de volcanes :)

Marpil Grafenwalder: please accept the translator

Thirza Ember: from East Coast USA, to the Canary Islands in one short jump!!!

Marpil Grafenwalder: hahhaha yea

eva Nowicka: son unas islas muy bonitas, recomiendo visitarlas en RL :)

Marpil Grafenwalder: Hola a todos y bienvenidos de nuevo a Tierra de Volcanes. El año pasado, durante el Safari, hablamos sobre los orígenes de esta región: las islas, los paisajes y la inspiración de las Islas Canarias.

Arrival point on Tierra de Volcanes

The translator kicked in, such a useful addition to Opensim. It took many hours of hard work scripting and debugging this addition to our inworld experience, and was generously given to the community for free

AMV-T:[es→en]: Hello everyone and welcome back to Tierra de Volcanoes.  Last year, during the Safari, we talked about the origins of this region: the islands, the landscapes and the inspiration of the Canary Islands.  Today I would like to show you a different facet of this project: how Tierra de Volcanes became a creative store and a playful community space.

Adventures at the Arcade

This week's first stop on Safari was Winxtropia where Bloom Peters continues to perfect her inworld arcade game, Primmy's Adventure. The giant retro Gameboy machines awaited our group, each one set up with places for two players. This was the first time so many people had come to the region to play, so it was not guaranteed that we'd all be able to play without drowning in lag... Safari is always an adventure! Even experienced Safari hosts have a little bit of butterflies in their stomachs when waiting for the crowd to arrive, and it's in those moments when you suddenly have a thought.... 

Bloom Peters: I am a criminal for not building the sim in the game style with the blocks!  HAHAHA... 

Thirza Ember: hehehe !!! the perfectionist...

Bloom Peters: yup!

Bloom Peters: welcome!

Forest Azure: hello bloom

Cherry Manga: aloha Bloom!

Nara Nook: Hey Bloom :)

Boujee GamerGirl: welcome everyone

Forest Azure: friend of yours, cherry?

Thirza Ember: lol cherry  has to pay for 2 tickets

Bloom Peters: haha nice avatar Cherry

Cherry Manga: Always dreamed about being a plumber going through pipes

Cherry showed up with a friend, dressed for the occasion

Bloom Peters: while you are here make sure to set max bandwidth, on your viewer - slide it all the way right... might not be required but it will help

Neverworld's Niagara

Fifty meters deep at its deepest, and 35 km wide at its widest, the Niagara River and its famous Falls are without doubt one of the great natural wonders of the world. Sacred to the Iroquois and forming the border between the USA and Canada, the Falls sprawl over the history of the continent, in so many fields - natural history, geology, engineering, spirituality, tourism, bravado, ecology, brewing, and so many more.

If, for you, the idea of traveling to see Niagara is kind of pie in the sky, then you can do the next best thing and experience them virtually by going over to Neverworld. The NWG team led by grid owner Govega Sachertorte have done a wonderful job in suggesting the nearby towns and giving a really wonderful sense of the vastness of the river and the drama of the two falls.

People are often tempted to ruin a rl build by throwing in a random Stonehenge or Eiffel tower just to zhuzh it up a bit, which of course it doesn't. Long before the rise of computers the best kind of AI - Authentic Intelligence - the intelligence to let the place speak for itself. The sounds and sights here will transport you right into the spray.

ISM's 20th

It's a common belief - you could even call it a truism - that pixel creations in virtual worlds don't last long. Builds come and go, as do the people who make them. This week we made a return visit to a sim on Kitely that has proved this is not always the case. It's the International Spaceflight Museum which these days is an 8x8 VAR region, having grown quite a bit since our group toured it in 2017. 

The HG Address is as always at the end of the post. 

The museum, called ISM for short, was founded just over twenty years ago in SL and moved to opensim in search of more ... space (no pun intended) for way less money. Also for the building opportunities that outperform SL every time. 

Rosa Alekseev

The trip was facilitated by Rosa Alekseev a longtime citizen of the hyperverse, Kitely resident, DJane extraordinaire, community organizer, and member of ISM. To meet us on the day was Kat Lemieux.

Kat Lemieux welcomes us all - with Max and (in the space suit) Forest 

Legendary Mobius

Our first stop this week was on an unforgettable region on Mobius Grid, one of the most unusual and colorful grids in Opensim, run by the unparalleled Royale Mobian. It's a great place to visit any time, by yourself, but to be there with Royale, standing in for the region's creator, was a real treat. 

Not only is the storyline of the Legend of Zelda an epic, the video game's history is also of legendary proportions - beginning in the eighties, the game continues to be popular and has grown with the technology - the latest version is Hyrule Warriors, Age of Imprisonment. 

However for most of the Safarians on this trip, it's associated with early gaming, with their youth and the wonderful sense of adventure and agency that Zelda supplied. This post about the Zelda 'back in the day' captures the vibe.

Zelda has interesting parallel with opensim in that there are opportunities to go out exploring and do side quests within the game and if you do, you will often pick up useful items, or gain experience that will come in handy as you progress from level to level. Just like the HG, but with less hair loss, and more sword-and-shield action. 

The sim and majority of the model work is brought to us by Diana Dismantled, says the Notecard you get when you arrive, which also credits Meme Resident with some of the extra model work, with a nod to the resident builder, Geminai Resident. 

A large landing area awaited the crew of the Safari, and while waiting for them I can't lie, I played with the Chaos while waiting, they are just too cute.

A Night at the Museo

Our second stop was on the great grid Craft, one of Opensim's oldest grids. We visited the MdM, with owner Rosanna Galvani.
 Rosanna Galvani: The Metaverse Museum (Museo del Metaverso) is a virtual institution that replicates a real museum, featuring exclusive content and collections designed specifically for the Metaverse environment. It combines elements of virtual reality, interactivity and global accessibility, offering virtual exhibitions, art galleries, digital replicas of artworks and cultural objects, learning labs, event spaces and more.

Rosanna Galvani: The Metaverse Museum project was created in Second Life for the enhancement of the artwork present in that virtual world. It was founded on December 5, 2007.

 Over the years the Museo del Metaverso has been quite successful, creating permanent and temporary exhibitions. The Museum has participated in many valuable art/cultural events in the physical world, has helped many students of Fine Arts Academies who were coming to Second Life to make their theses and has collaborated with the Academy of Fine Arts of Macerata, participating in several meetings, with the aim of presenting the project of the Metaverse Museum, which was very innovative for those years.

Rosanna Galvani: Today the main Museum resides in Craft-world (a virtual world based on OpenSimulator) and preserves and exhibits purely digital works, i.e., works made on computers, replicas of works made in the physical world, and most recently also images generated by programs using Artificial Intelligence. It continues to work on different platforms, Second Life, Craft-world and Spatial, organizing exhibitions , lectures and discussions. 

Tosha Tyran: but tell me Rosanna, what was the reason to transfer the Museum to Opensim/Craft?