Hunting on Coralys

Our first stop this week was on Ignis Fatuus grid which has always been a favorite for Safari, since  Max's regions combine extremely beautiful fantasy with an elegant gallic style. Coralys is a recent addition to the dozens of builds, often made in combination with Max's partner Nadir Rae but this one is a solo effort. As always the address is at the end of the post.

Nadir has been very busy recently making a new region, Courant d Art, featuring world class art, which got a shout out on Hypergrid Happenings recently - that's a weekly short on Youtube that features upcoming events and news, and is part of the Inworld Review show. 

Nadir and Max

There were about ten of us Safarians on Coralys, together with the welcome company of Vlad and Vanessa VanHelsing of Bloodmoon grid, always nice that the francophones support each other's events. A special shout out to Nadir who has a long standing commitment to DJing in SL on Wednesdays but who always seems to manage to be there for us, and of course, Prodyck Theas who livestreamed our event on Twitch. All this, plus the wonderful Roff Kisses who took a bunch of lovely pictures and shared them with us on the HG Safari group on Facebook. We are surrounded by excellence!

Around the World on Creative Landform

Our second destination this week was on Altternate Metaverse grid (call it AMV for short) where we met up with Zelle Mist, Sofee Supermarine, and Ted Junior, to tour Ted's build Creative Landform.

Sofee Supermarine

Zelle Mist: Welcome. good to see you all

Sofee Supermarine: Hi Hello everyone Welcome to Japan the land of the Rising Sun, Ted will be here in one minute

Ted Junior: hi everybody What you going to see today are 5 different setups, the one we standing on is Japan

Dings Digital: looks beautiful

Ted Junior: we can walk around if you like, its not so big... a small harbor with the boats

Thirza Ember: what inspired you to make a build with 5 styles all on one region, Ted?

Ted Junior: well the thing was that i wanted something different,  so I put some major cities... here in Japan is the freebie isle

Art Still Standing

Film makers, builders of figurative, immersive, animated, and multimedia art, Zonja Capalini together with Ludmilla Writer and Plastichansa Bade have roots in the Opensim art scene going back well over a decade. Here, for example, is Zonja's build at Avatarfest a hypergrid community festival that was such a joy for so many of us.

When hypergridding was still not an immense thing in opensim, Zonja invited me to make an avatar on her minigrid Condensationland to review the art over there, and it was an unforgettable experience to wander the installations and drink in the landscape there, it led to this blog post from 2012 . 

Breaking Banham

Our second stop on this week's trip was on Arkham Grid. We lost a few at the first stop, so it was quite a small group - but very enthusiastic about visiting another art region by Felix Mafia. Felix, his partner Sharon, and Grid were on hand to welcome us. HG Address as always, at the end of the post.

Not too many of us and for once, we didn't break anything - although it remains to be seen if James poisoned the fish. 

Most people think of Arkham as a place to grab freebies, and while there is that side to the grid, there are also dozens of installations by Felix that merit a visit. This one, Banham, is a s Cyberpunk Futuristic Egypt. 

Grid, Felix and Sharon were there to meet us

Felix is Italian, and while his English is good, our visit at 10pm at night, Rome time, is a little late in the day to be fielding questions in your second language. Luckily Grid Admin, a native |English speaker as well as grid guru, was on hand to help us with lots of info that contextualizes the build, and really brings it to life. He told us that the title of this very cinematic build could be Banham Region “Your heart may be much older.” A vision of the future where past and destiny collide - that's at the back of this extraordinary place.

Hooray for Monterey

 Our first stop this week was in California, on the misty, mysterious, magnificent waterfront of Monterey. This build, on Groovyverse Grid, was a group effort, and so we not only got a glimpse of some terrifically well done landscaping, but also of a warm generous welcoming team of builders. 

Our Guide was Dee Zee, on horseback so it would be easier for the gang to see where she was going - great idea! and on hand to meet us was Grid owner Hyacinth Jean, builders Herbie Haven and Doc Indy

dee zee: Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid. My name is Dee, I am another of the builders and will be acting as your host / guide while you are here.  Welcome to the Monterey Bay Region on the Groovyverse grid.  We thank you for visiting us today and hope that you enjoy your visit.

Thirza Ember: mmmm smell that ocean air

Forest Azure: /me sniffs

 dee zee: First off, I would like to introduce two of our "primary" builders  here with us today.

 Herbie Haven  and Doc Indy.  They are both wearing our  Cacophony Society group tags.

 Also, please say hello to  our grid administrator/owner,  Hyacinth Jean.

Lavia Lavine: Hi Hyacinth Hey everyone sorry I'm late.

Arwen Evenstar: Hi Hyacinth

Dings Digital: Hi all

Hyacinth Jean: Hi everyone :)

eva Nowicka: /me waves

Thirza Ember: have my meds kicked in or is Hyacinth on a reindeer

Hyacinth Jean: This is clearly a ferret.

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

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?  

How Not to be Lonely in Opensim

Ever heard someone say 'there's no-one in Opensim'? Or maybe that was you, talking to yourself - hey nothing wrong with that!

Opensim can often feel like a wide open, empty place. Quite intimidating after, say, the bustling sims of SL. That's not surprising when you compare its size to that of Second Life. 

SL in 2024 by primerib1 aka Claire Morgenthau

SL is not small. This picture shows the main continents at the center of a galaxy of private regions, but if you think that's huge, Opensim is waaaay bigger - if fact, if you're wondering why there's no map of opensim here, that's because it's impossible to say how big the connected hypergrid universe is. 

A few people try to give statistics about it, but they do not, and indeed cannot, know the full extent of opensim, since it is a completely decentralized and unregulated meta-place where anyone at any time and for any duration can have a grid without reporting to any higher authority. 

That means there's no central control, nobody keeping complete records of all the comings and goings of our hyperverse - it just can't be done in a meaningful way. 

Happy 17th Birthday OSGrid

 Yes, it's that time of the year again, as OSgrid is celebrating its 17th anniversary from July 22 to 28.   As always, there are a whole lot of parties planned, and as well as the usual dancing, there's a special emphasis on music, because the theme of the Birthday Expo builds this year is exactly that. 

As always the builders of OSGrid have come through with some special builds celebrating the field. There are four regions, and it's recommended to use region environment settings in order to see the installations at their best. Wow are we all getting old or what? The first time I covered this event was a ten years ago... These were the exhibits, on that occasion.

Victoria Logan's delicious little dancing park has a very apt message board 'Music connects generations, crossing barriers of time and space" and this installation is just on of the gems on show this year. Here's a few hints - you should definitely go yourself to see these builds properly when everything's in place and up and running.

Hairy's Style

He is a bit of a rock star for his amazing work maintaining a beautiful and diverse grid, Bridgemere. The stylish Hairy Thor - one of the coolest guys in opensim - kindly agreed to meet with the Safari band and tell us a bit about the Dreamgrid experience. 
For anyone unfamiliar with DreamGrid, the invention of Fred Beckhusen aka Ferd Frederix, you can't do better than to check out the information available on Fred's website Outworldz.com .  

We met Hairy at the Welcome region of Bridgemere - HG Address as always at the end of the post. It's a 30+ region grid, where you can walk or sail from place to place, giving a strong sensation of connectedness, as befits the name of the grid.

Mal Burns with our host Hairy Thor

Hairy Thor: Welcome everyone to Bridgemere

Mal Burns: hiya hairy one

Kitely's Fifteenth

From brainchild to booming platform, 15 years is a big deal for any grid in opensim. Our second destination for this week's Safari was Kitely Welcome, to meet with Ilan Tochner and learn more about the motivations, interests, innovations, and passion that has kept the man and the grid so central to the opensim community for so long.

Ilan Tochner: We started working on Kitely in Sep 2008. We opened our doors to the public on Mar 27, 2011.

Lifted Pixel: 15 years of Kitely? is that right? I remember when it was new and the whole 'spawn an instance when needed' was the new hotness. I assume the grid still uses that?

Ilan Tochner: Yes it does, Lifted. Though we do offer one always-on option (the Dedicated Server option).

Thirza Ember: what do you think is the secret of your success?  

Ilan Tochner: I think our attention to technical details and ability to modify OpenSim code when needed had a hand in it. Also, I've been told that my personal involvement in the day-to-day needs of the people who use our services helped :-)

Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen is an important milestone in any aspect of life, and OSGrid, the 'crossroads of opensim', the Test grid, and home to hundreds of residents, has reached this grand old age with the traditional parties and of course the Expo regions, all shaped like the OSGrid logo.

The expo regions are in a circle in the sea, all around Event Plaza, and contain all kinds of lively tributes to the grid, by its residents.

Matilda Charron: Osgrid is a great community home to many talented people (and creatures) from programming, scripting, wide variety of creativeness and well run events for all to enjoy. It is a great social platform and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I admire such talent and thankful to be a part of such great place and thankful for the people I call friends.

Osgrid Auction

The OSGrid Auction is coming ! 

This year, the  grand sales event will be from 25 September - 1st October. 

That means, if you're a creator, builder, scripter or texture maker,  now is a good time for you to create something original to contribute to the mix. The items are gathered now, put on an exhibition region where everyone can take a good look, and then auctioned off for real money to support the costs of keeping the Test grid of opensimulator on the rails.

Auction organizer Caro Fayray was on the sky platform on Echo 1. The platform is empty as of now - so - is it too soon for people to begin building, and contributing their creations to the Auction?

Caro Fayray: Not at all,  stuff can  be given anytime:)

Coordinating any big event can be a hassle, but Caro seems to take it all in her stride with unflappable good humor. Is it a complicated job?

Caro Fayray: getting  people  to  commit  and give  me stuff in  advance is a challenge,  I  have to   bug  a  lot, and  I  make over  100  textures  for all  the boards, then the Auction Lots that fit go  here, if  not, I  have  tps  to see the original  item. There is no limit on the size of the items put up for sale. From smallest  jewellery  to a complete oar  is fine:)  but  items  have to be  unique.

Going, Going... Gone

 'Gone' is not a word we want to hear - not if you're talking about a grid being gone, especially if the gone grid is OSGrid. 

The historic 'Test Grid' of OpenSimulator, OSGrid, just celebrated its 15th anniversary. As tradition demands, in a couple of weeks there will be a Fundraiser Auction to help bring in some money to support the grid.

So here are some fundraiser questions, do you agree with these answers?