⚠️ Opensim: Free as in Freedom ⚠️ NOT Free-For-ALL ⚠️

TIME FOR A FRESH SERVING OF OPENSIM TRUTH!
FEEL FREE to share this TRUTH with others when necessary =D

There could be a potential trigger warning here but I expect most people will will agree with the sentiment illustrated in this article.

FACT: Opensimulator is free and Open Sourced Software, licensed under the BSD. This gives you a multitude of freedoms! You can change the software, you can share your changes, sell your changes or even use the software in any means you feel is morally or socially responsible. It even includes security features some of your visitors might not like if you use them.

FACT: That means if Opensim gives you, the grid operator freedom, that means you get to decide how end users will experience your work. You can deny entry to troublemakers or entire grids. There is nothing in the Opensim documentation which tells you NOT to do this AND if the developers did not want people using these features, they would not have been included in the first place.

FACT: I saw someone leave some negativity on a region because they were not allowed to run scripts or do their petty deeds upon landing on a foreign grid. Their reasoning: 'Everything must be free and open in Opensim'.

To this special brand of simpleton I say: Opensim is free, just not in the way you think. Opensimulator is NOT a free-for-all. Grid operators are NOT under any obligation to PLEASE YOU. If you do not like the way someone runs their grid, DO NOT GO! Spreading vitriol over a situation you have absolutely no control over is an excellent way to lose friends fast. Don't be angry over a MMO game.

FACT: When traveling hypergrid destinations you need to remember one thing: YOU ARE A GUEST, someone is providing you with a visual experience at their expense. When you go to someone's grid you are expected to obey their rules, much the same way if you were to visit someone in real life. If you crash the party, started a fight or broke something you are asked to leave.

SOLUTION: Know what you are getting into: Read the description before visiting these worlds, an honest person will let you know what to expect up front. Some grids do not have public shopping malls, each world tailored to a theme; there is no ONE SET OF RULES every grid must follow, that is NOT FREEDOM.

OPERATORS: Enjoy the freedom OPENSIMULATOR software gives you and make all or your dreams a reality.

GRIFTERS: Some ART is meant to be SEEN not TAKEN, so wipe your feet and put on a smile before entering the transit beam. You will probably enjoy your visit a whole lot more.

TL,DR: Opensim may be free as in freedom but that does not mean operators are required to run the software in a free-for-all fashion. Those who do not like it can always opt for another socialization platform OR pound digital sand.

OPENSIM IS FREE - SERVERS AND RESOURCES ARE NOT, GRID
OPERATORS AND CONTENT CREATORS NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Dragons, new and never seen before -- even more coming today.
Lots of Animals, land or sea :)
Gothic items, from wall decoration to bench and table.

All items are resized for best viewing options, of course you can resize all to the desired size.
Enjoy
hop://hg.ansjelagrid.com:28002/Eternity/685/644/24

NORGE rebuilt with terraformed mountains (*) on this vast 8x8 var region - I confess I've never liked much the effect of it, tried many times then I kept building with mesh mountains for years.. and now once more, I tried and finally liked what I see.
Old SIM was great but I lost a lot of space. Now, one can actually "use" the mountains". So I`m starting slowly building trails to one go around.
(*) using png picture as model.

My "Christmas Island" is saying good bye. It will come back totally different, I promise. Thank you so much for the visits, the likes and so many sweet compliments, all treasured in my heart and encouraging me to keep believing in magic. Let's have an amazing magical New Year. Love you all. Bebe

For the new year 2026, we wish you as much luck as there are drops of water in the ocean, as much love as there are stars in the sky, and health every single day. New opportunities, letting go of the old, and appreciating the moment. It's not the happy who are grateful. It's the grateful who are happy. New year, new chapter – with pages full of courage, happiness, and joy. Here's to a year full of small miracles and big moments. Wishing you a great start, Crazy and Carmen

Für das neue Jahr 2026 wünschen wir euch so viel Glück, wie Wassertropfen im Meer, so viel Liebe wie Sterne am Himmel und Gesundheit an jedem neuen Tag. Neue Chancen, das Loslassen des Alten und das Wertschätzen des Moments.  Nicht die Glücklichen sind dankbar. Es sind die Dankbaren, die glücklich sind. Neues Jahr, neues Kapitel – mit Seiten voller Mut, Glück und Freude. Auf ein Jahr voller kleiner Wunder und großer Momente. Einen guten Start wünschen Crazy und Carmen

🌟 Ein Gruß an Die Freunde/Community

"Wir, das Team von MiraclesWelt, wünschen euch ein wundervolles neues Jahr! Möge 2026 für euch ein Jahr voller Gesundheit, Glück und kleiner Wunder sein. Wir freuen uns darauf, euch auch im neuen Jahr begleiten zu dürfen und gemeinsam magische Momente zu teilen. Alles Gute für 2026!"

"Für das neue Jahr wünsche ich dir nur das Beste: Viel Sonnenschein, wenig Sorgen und eine riesige Portion Lebensfreude!"
"For the new year, I wish you only the very best: plenty of sunshine, few worries, and a huge helping of joy!"

I want to wish everyone a wonderful New Year.
It’s been an incredible year on the grid, filled with new creations, events, and moments that have made our community shine.
Your attendance and support mean the world to us, whether our Residents or Hyper Gridders.
Seeing so many new faces join AMV has been truly inspiring, helping our grid grow and continue striving to be the best community in OpenSim.
As staff, our commitment to you remains at the heart of everything we do, working to keep you smiling, entertained, and feeling at home here on AMV.

On behalf of Grid Owners Clifford and Cataplexia, and the entire staff team, we wish you and family an amazing year in 2026.

Tyler
Grid Manager

Admin Panel Updates – More Convenient, Cleaner, Faster

We've just released a series of improvements to the admin panel to make management even easier and more intuitive.
✅ New, more modern interface

Clearer and more readable layout

Tab navigation to quickly find everything

KPIs/indicators at the top for an immediate overview

✅ Smarter operations

More intuitive tmux session management (fewer clicks, more control)

Quick search in lists (users and simulators)

Clearer confirmations and modals for important actions

✅ Stability and cleanliness

Improved workflow to avoid double submissions and "dangerous" refreshes

Clearer feedback messages for each operation

In short: less time searching for things, more time doing them
If you're an admin, you'll notice it right away.

#Update #AdminPanel #WebApp #DevLife #Tools #Productivity

Sonntag:
🎉 Benvenuti zum Italienischen Abend!
Am 28. Dezember 2025 ab 20:00 Uhr feiern wir virtuell mit mediterranem Flair, guter Musik und charmanten Gästen.
Mit dabei: Tommy White & Paristelle Marisol – sie bringen den Sound von Bella Italia direkt zu euch!
Dresscode: La Dolce Vita – ob Vespa-Chic, Pizzabäcker-Style oder Opernglamour, alles ist erlaubt.

I've been working on a project that is 18th century Acadia / Caraquet New Brunswick. This is the interior of a church that one of my ancestors actually had built in the late 1700's, I'm no longer a Catholic. But the statue of Mary made me cry a bit. I think this came out nice. :)

Important Notice
The NEW LIFE ITALY shopping center will be temporarily closed for maintenance work.
At the moment, we are unable to provide a specific reopening date, but what we can guarantee is that we are working hard to offer you an even better and more exciting experience.
When we reopen, you can look forward to many amazing new features:
- beautiful new women’s and men’s clothing,
- unique items you’ve never seen before,
- and many surprises created especially for you.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.
A big hug to all of you and Happy Holidays from the NEW LIFE ITALY team 🎄

Alina Custom Vehicles
Hot rods, Monster Trucks, Classic Car, Modern Cars,
Indy, Touring cars, Pro Stock cars, F1 cars. ALL DRIVEABLE
Semi Truck, Full Size Rigs, Semi Trailers

3 full sims of vehicles approximately 900 different vehicles in stock

A great addition to the already huge amount of vehicles and trucks in region.

Region teleporter for easy access or take a segway ride at your leisure

Brand new truck showroom with NEW trucks added.

Lots of new things to see i cant list all here.so come over and find things you didnt think you needed

All vehicles drive unless stated

hop://hg.osgrid.org:80/Alina%20Custom%20Vehicles/118/35/22

All vehicles can be altered or modified should you need, adjustments or additions happily done on request..

2025 RESULTS
Every year, in December, my team and I review the "outgoing year," highlighting our achievements and setbacks. We also share the development of our community. And this year will be no exception.

This year, like last year, has been challenging and eventful for us. It's not over yet, but challenges and minor problems continue to surround us, and we, in turn, continue to actively address them. We wish each of you strength and success in overcoming all the difficulties you encounter along your journey.

For the "Opensimulator" virtual community as a whole, this year was also challenging and eventful in terms of development, setbacks, and losses. And despite all the difficulties, we managed to survive this year and maintain the integrity of our idea and commitment to our values ​​and interests.
So, let's start by talking about our failures and losses.
FAILURE OF THE YEAR
I consider geoblocking, which arose as a result of targeted control measures (data protection, blocking access to information due to law or security requirements) in the Russian-language segment of the internet, to be the failure of the year. It affects the social development of our world as a whole. And although it exists, our world has continued to function and develop. Yes, it is a significant hindrance. But so far this year, we haven't been able to completely circumvent all the restrictions that were imposed. I hope we will definitely solve this problem next year. And next year will be filled with positive emotions for all of us.
LOSS OF THE YEAR
This year, we lost two truly wonderful residents of the Opensim metaverse who always supported our world and the Opensim community as a whole, and who have made enormous contributions to the development of the metaverse. Luna Lunaria, the great designer and creator of the Wolf Territory world. She has passed away, but her memory and her work will forever remain in the metaverse. For me, she was a good friend, whom I often turned to for advice when I was struggling. Together, we explored PBR materials and studied the conceptual development of PBR worlds. Rest in peace. Your fire of enthusiasm for the development of worlds continues to burn in our hearts. Verna Avril is an excellent DJ in the OSGRID world. She dedicated her entire life to creating magnificent sets. I loved listening to her sets and attending parties with her. She was also a good friend of mine. Rest in peace, my friends. Your memory will forever remain in my heart. We remember you guys and will always remember you. Another loss is the passing of my co-owner, Trevor Belmont. For five years, he was an excellent creator and developer and my supporter. He decided to take a different path. I respect his choice and appreciate his contribution to the development of the RussianGrid world. ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR
We've all had plenty of accomplishments this year.
- We've all had the chance to meet new, interesting creative people and worlds open to friendly collaboration with the Russian-speaking segment of the OpenSimulator. We're open to everyone.
- We completed construction and opened the enormous Galaxy Hall cinema and concert hall.
- We've begun creating a museum of Russian art at the Alex Leo residence. The residence was completed entirely using PBR. Thanks to Luna Lunaria for the consultations.
- We managed to complete (independently, without consulting scripters) the Kario male body.
- The new OpenSimulator engine allows us to fully work with PBR materials.
- Restructuring of the STEKLOFF club. Branches of the club, which was very popular with OpenSimulator residents, will now be located in many regions, and they will broadcast events from the main STEKLOFF club.
- This year has seen tremendous development in our world's web resources. We've acquired services such as our own messenger, our own social network, our own cloud storage for users, and our own Flikr equivalent. Most importantly, we've finally managed to create a fully-fledged media streaming grid server, allowing every user to host full-fledged video streams completely free and without restrictions. Our cinema is powered by it.

- We've created a texture cache proxy server. This allows users with slower computers to play comfortably. Cache and textures load instantly. Thanks to this, you no longer need to store tens of gigabytes of cache on your PCs and worry about clearing it every time it gets full.
- Huge thanks to @FerdFrederix for his support, development, and optimization of the DreamGrid project. We appreciate it.
- Huge thanks to @Mike Mills for providing technical support and solving huge problems in the world. My favorite system administrator. I'm glad the server problems are in his hands.
- In terms of server optimization, we were able to achieve excellent frame rates with the most minimal hardware requirements. The security system has also been optimized. There's no longer a need to block users. After the global rules are finalized, intelligent security will be enabled in all regions.
The "Zorkiy Glaz" intelligent system will automatically monitor regional security.
Despite all the restrictions surrounding our world, and the discrediting of our world by unfriendly worlds, we managed to end this year with dignity. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, Alex Leo 12/06/2025.

***let`s do it just again***

Event begins: 2025-12-05 ...... 12:00pm SLT / 09:00pm GMT

The first party was a huge success and so much fun! So let's do it just again and make it amazing once more!! The Weed Shack is calling you back to the dance floor. It starts at 12pm Grid Time with DJ ChiChi playing minimal techno tunes.
come over and have fun with us again,we are waiting of you ♥♥♥

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199081945@N02/54959367903/in...

Meine Weihnachtswelt ist fertig. War zwar viel Arbeit aber am Ende wird man belohnt wenn man sich das Ergebnis anschaut. Danke an Alle die hier Shops haben und wo ich mir alles zusammen holen konnte. Tolle Arbeit die ihr Alle leistet und das für nichts. Wir können euch nicht genug danken. Eine schöne Weihnachtszeit für euch alle und kommt gut ins neue Jahr.

My Christmas world is finished. It was a lot of work, but in the end, it's so rewarding when you see the result. Thank you to everyone who has shops here and where I could get everything. You all do such amazing work, and for nothing! We can't thank you enough. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season and a happy New Year.

In OpenSim, people don’t really vanish.
Sure — the avatar logs off, the profile goes still, and the regions they touched fall a little quieter. But the truth is, no one who poured their creativity into this world ever truly leaves it behind.

Every builder, scripter, artist, designer, and dreamer who passes on becomes something more permanent than any prim or mesh:
they become a new star over our metaverse.

A bright point of light watching over the worlds we keep shaping.

Their work, their ideas, their imagination — those stay woven into the grids, the stories, the landmarks, and the communities they helped grow. And every time we rez a prim, sculpt a landscape, or chase some wild idea just to see if we can… we’re carrying their spark forward.

We honor them best by continuing to build boldly.
By creating freely.
By keeping OpenSim vibrant, weird, beautiful, and alive.

Because the metaverse doesn’t forget its creators — it turns them into constellations.

And we look up, keep going, and make sure our worlds shine even brighter. #Luna #Mal #Torben #Triz

and online again...
I too join in the condolences for Luna. I was completely shocked when I read this. She was a good friend and always gave me tips on how I could improve or could do it better. We had many intense conversations. I will miss her. Rest in peace!

About the newest Firestorm Viewer: I want to love it, but I don't. I really do love PBR materials and they show up just fine with the new viewer and they seem to have fixed the blurry, out of focus view when you move around in-world. Problem is, Animesh. I have to be right on top of the animesh to see it move. Koshari and I were in-world tonight and couldn't see any animesh moving unless we were right next to them and even then they seemed to lag out a bit. We both changed our viewer to the old, pre PBR viewer 6.6.17 and could see the animesh moving from all the way across the sim. My guess is that, because you are constantly rendering PBR textures in-world, they decreased the animation visibility to compensate for it. Until Firestorm gives us a toggle, slider, or patch to bring back proper animation distance, sticking with 6.6.17 is the smart move. The PBR viewer is beautiful, but not worth sacrificing functional animesh. That's a hard pass for me
Anyone have thoughts on this? Does anyone have any inside scoop on whether they plan on fixing this.

“Animation culling” is basically the viewer deciding not to bother updating animations for things that are “too far away” or “not important enough.”

Think of it as Firestorm saying:
“Hmm… you’re 40 meters away from that animesh? Yeah, I’m not wasting CPU cycles on making it dance. Freeze frame it is.”

More technically:

Animation Culling = Distance-Based Animation Shutdown

The viewer stops updating animations on avatars or animesh once they’re beyond a certain distance or priority threshold.
Instead of actually animating them, it just shows the last frame and saves performance.

Why viewers do it

To reduce:

CPU load

GPU load

Network updates

Overall rendering cost

In the PBR viewer, the rendering pipeline is heavier (PBR = shiny but hungry), so the viewer culls animations more aggressively.
What is the point of animesh if it only animates when you’re making out with it?

Grand Opening Gala, Golden Dreams Ballroom tonight at 6:00pm!
Mermaid’s Cove, OS Grid
hg.osgrid.org:80:Mermaid's Cove

“Step into the magic, stay for the music!”

Step into a world of glamour and enchantment as the Golden Dreams Ballroom opens its doors for the very first time on the OS Grid!

Your favorite DJ, DJ Macy, will ignite the night with her sensational mix of rock, blues, and a few sparkling surprises that will keep the dance floor alive!

Expect elegance, energy, and unforgettable moments as we celebrate the beginning of something truly magical! Dress to impress — formal or dressy casual attire encouraged. Shine, shimmer, and show off your style!
Couples AND Singles but NO CHILDREN!!

My PBR Japanese Home at Lunaria Emporium has been updated with better reflection probe coverage and improved day lighting inside. As seen in the photo, there are light switches in each room that control the different zones and the colors represent different lighting types.

Blue is for inside daylight and red is for the interior lamplight. The green one is only in the front room and out in the garden in the pavilion and controls exterior lighting.

If you have a previous version of this home, please contact me in Discord for an updated version https://discord.gg/SMBaqan3Ny If you would like to know more about reflection probes and PBR, check out the Tutorials channel in my Discord server.

You can walk through the home at the Emporium by clicking the Japanese sign on the left as you enter the lobby.

Happy Birthday, Ferd Frederix! 🎉

Today we celebrate not just another trip around the sun, but the man who’s kept whole worlds spinning.

Ferd, thank you for the countless hours you’ve poured into OpenSim — the fine-tuning, the bug hunting, the late-night fixes, the jaw-dropping characters and assets you’ve created, and the tools you’ve built that make our grids feel like home.
You’ve kept servers alive when they should have flatlined, solved problems the rest of us couldn’t even pronounce, and inspired new creators with your generosity and skill.

The OpenSim community runs smoother, plays harder, and dreams bigger because of you.

Here’s to your brilliance, your humor, your creativity… and to many more years of building worlds with your signature magic.

Happy Birthday, Ferd — we adore you!💕😘