Greetings OSW,

Exotic Realities (a new adult RP grid, not officially opened yet, coming early in 2025) is pleased to announce that we are releasing a modified and upgraded version of the reborn and waifu bodies, complete with lots of bug fixes, a dedicated Waifu version with complete functionality, and both default and custom material capabilities. We have given some of our friends the ability to distribute this for us at their stores. You can find it at the two locations below!

Loc 1 > hop://playground.darkheartsos.com:8002/Boutiques NW/833/813/35
Loc 2 > hop://playground.darkheartsos.com:8002/Boutiques NE/385/105/25

By popular demand, I'm now adding some add-ons for the Reborn 3.0 body I posted a few days ago, they include the Juice Rolls, Soft Arms, and Soft Thighs all scripted to auto-hide and receive materials changes from the body! Since my grid is still being developed, even though my store region is up, my new friends at Sciatti Shops, has offered to put them out for everyone to grab, I thank them very much! You can get them here > https://imgur.com/e5ByT58 > hop://sciattisigrid.it:8002/SciattiShopClothes/14/176/23

All about transgender people. :)
Transgender - From Wikipedia, "A transgender person (often shortened to trans person) is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth."

Transexual - A transgender person who desires medical assistance to transistion from one sex to another.

Transgender - includes transmen, transwomen, non-binary, genderqueer,gender 3 people, drag queens, drag kings, cross-dressers.

Gender 3 - A person who is neither a man or a woman.

Being transgender is distinct from sexual orientation, and transgender people may identify as heterosexual (straight), homosexual (gay or lesbian), bisexual, asexual, pansexual, or non-label.

cisgender - gender identity matches assigned sex at birth.

Transfeminine - any person, binary or non-binary, who was assigned male at birth and has a predominantly feminine gender identity or presentation.

Transmasculine - a person, binary or non-binary, who was assigned female at birth who has a predominantly masculine gender identity or presentation.

androphylic transexual - a transexual attracted to men.

gynephilic transexual - a transexual attracted to women.

bisexual transexual - a transexual attracted to both men and women.

asexual transexual - a transexual attracted to neither men or women.

pansexual transexual - a transexual attracted to men and women, but also the entire transexual spectrum.

non binary transexual - agender, androgynous, androgynes, bigender, pangender, or genderfluid, and exist outside of cisnormativity.

agender non-binary transexual - genderless transexual.

androgynous non-binary transexual - identifies as being both male & female simultaneously.

androgynes non-binary transexual - identifies as being beyond both male & female simultaneously.

intergender androgynes non-binary transexual - identifies as being between male & female genders.

bigender non-binary transexual - switches to male or female gender.

genderfluid non-binary transexual - moves between male & female roles.

transvestite - synonym for cross-dresser. a person who dresses in opposite cis gender style.

Faux Queen - woman who does female drag.

To all the folks who hope to create RP sims sadly in Opensims they don't work. RP should be a large group effort. Opensims just don't have enough people, Unlike SL where there is 1000's online at any given day. At the end of the day we create/build for ourselves which isn't a bad thing.

Honestly... let's be clear... there are grids that are really terrible, they are just awful, and they have the audacity to advertise themselves as if they were the best...

I wonder how users don't realize that they are in a mess and consciously decide to stay there, but we'll address this topic in the days following the holidays. For now, I want to be kind to those who deserve it...

TROPICANA KOKOMO...

PLEASE REMOVE ALL THOSE FAKE USERS THAT YOU PUT THERE WITH REDGAST VIEWER TO GRAB AN USELESS SECOND PLACE! BUT THESE GAMES ARE KNOWN BY NOW, THEN 14 USERS FOR 72 HOURS CONTINUOUSLY AND FOR WHAT? NOTHING, BECAUSE EVERY TIME I COME, NO ONE RESPONDS AND NO ONE IS THERE! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO, COMPETE WITH THE CENTRAL PLAZA OF OSGRID? IN THE SAME GRID, BUT DELETE THIS SHAMEFUL REGION MADE BY USELESS PEOPLE WHO NEVER TURN ON THEIR BRAIN...

And Merry Christmas to all Christians, happy holidays to everyone else.

Servers & Grid closed
The grid is definitively closed due to a bad manipulation on the databases, we have tried everything to try to repair but it turns out to be impossible, in the absence of exploitable asset backup, from February 20, 2022 at 6:35 p.m., the gate is officially closed, we are sorry for the inconvenience, we ask you all to stop your automatic payments and all donations!!!

All I ever did when I was here was build, create magic huds, create oars, and try to help people. I was harassed a lot by a band of trolls, constantly picked on and lied on by others who will say and post and do anything. Even fake made up stuff. Many of you have asked me to come back and keep creating. I will think about it. I did have some more oars I designed and it would be a shame to see them languish on an old hard drive and not get shared. I'm not sure if they survived the last ssd failure on my system. But to date they have not been seen by anyone but me. Perhaps I will come back in a few weeks. I am thinking about it - in the very least to upload the other fantasy oars I have made if they survived.

2days after, 13 august, unfortunately the Opensim gallery that I started on Flickr was deleted by Flickr for investigation on a complaint from a person.
What I can say is that I am asking Flickr for an investigation, that it will take several days, but that it will not stop me in my project, so we will continue to take photos and fill this gallery or another one. NOTHING and no one will stop me from doing it.
In the absolute case I will open my personal blog, there is no shortage of solutions. Thank you for supporting me and for showing up so that we can meet for the project. Best regards, thank you for your participation and photos are still being prepared following the last meetings.

https://flic.kr/ps/44oMtB

***NEW RELEASE*** OPENSIM ONLINE WEATHER SYTEM V1 (*)

🌦 Opensim Online Weather System V1 🌦
Bring your OpenSim region to life with real-time, dynamic weather!

✨ Features
🌍 Live weather updates for any city worldwide
🌡 Temperature shown in both °C and °F
⛅ Realistic conditions: rain, snow, blizzard, drizzle, thunderstorm, lightning!
🎨 Automatic weather textures and matching sounds
🕒 Customizable update interval
💡 Low-lag and optimized for OpenSim
🛠 Easy setup via a dialog menu, no need to fuss with scripts!

PLEASE READ NOTECARD "READ ME" BEFORE USING IT.
AVAILABLE AT WEATHER SECTOR - FREE AND FULLPERM!

(*) Replacing the old Scandinavain Rain/snow Rezzer HUD

Hope you all enjoy :)

I haven't had access to my computer since June 20th. I was hospitalized for a week and since I was discharged I have been crashing at besties.

That means no access to my hanheld discord, handheld yahoo mail or that fb. I have had my virtualverse app on my phone, at least. I just now realized that this account is tied to my Harper Gmail and did a reset.

So, I'm not sure when I'll be home again. One week? Two?

I doubt anyone's noticed (I’ve been scarce as it is) but if anyone asks, I haven’t kicked the bucket yet (though w/ 3 ER visits in June alone it’s been a near thing!)

Thank you for your attention in this matter

Hello all
I would like to explain, why it is better to use animesh instead of NPC. If you just need one or 4 NPCs on your sim then it is not really important to read this. But if you want to have a population on your sim like I have on Big City Life with 400 moving people then it is very relevant.
NPCs take a lot of performance of a sim. It is very resource heavy like the land itself (because of physics) or Avis. Animesh people you can calculate like trees you pant on your sim.
Many still believe you can't do much with animesh. Just put some animation in it to move or dance a bit. But that's not really true. We all know the animesh horses of Roland Francis and what you can do with it. It is similar with all other. Here a video to demonstrate that you can even have sex with it and let them walk around.
https://rumble.com/v5uxybh-demo-for-animesh.html
Usually everyone would use NPC for this. There is one advantage for NPCs, of course, because you can sit them on moving vehicles. But this is the only advantage of NPCs. My Jockeys at the horse race track are also NPCs. There is no easy other way to solve this with animesh Jockeys on the horses.
But for all other things you can easily use animesh people. If you need help for scripting stuff then you just need to ask any AI LLM today. They are already that good that they can script for you in OSSL a script to get all working what you want the animesh do.
For building good looking animesh people it is recommended to use the Ruth or Roth body as root prim and add all other to this body. It has just to be rigged. All stuff you attach to the body has to be rigged. Even if you want to let an Animesh man or woman ride a bicycle then the bike has to be rigged and you put in the matching animation with a route script. Very easy to do. All handmade.
But since newer times you have already really good option to let AI create your animesh. I don't talk about complicated routines you connect your LLM with Blender through Python script or such. There is now very easy solution everyone can do on a website. This is called Meshy AI.
Meshy creates your animesh just by telling him through text. You get first 4 examples as Statue and you choose the best you like. Then you can even give the AI an image to create texture for this figure. But you can let the AI decide what texture is the best. Just give him some hints what it should have. That's all. Then you can let meshy rig the animesh man or woman or monster or animal or whatever you want to have. Meshy knows usually where to rig at arms and legs etc. But for this the statue should be symmetric. You can also rig unsymmetric but then you have to edit a bit by yourself. Usually you get symmetric statue anyway and then every kid can create a rigged statue as animesh. Download this as blender file or any other file and put it in blender to convert it in dae file. Then upload this dae file and you have a new animesh inworld. Just put in the animation script with animation and it moves. We have in opensim now an expert for creating animesh with meshy AI. Ask Prince Amor. He is creating every day tons of new animesh for opensim. And all created with AI. Usually he is showing off his new creation now as Avi on Lbsa. Yes you can also use all this as Avatar too. The complexity is very low compared to usual Avis or NPCs.

Priscilla.Kleenex again out for hunting. Cerfull for this italian monkey him come again to GBG WORLD but i ma so fast to banned this monkey from italy and ejeck so i send him to the hell but stay cerfull all grid .
http://bubblesz.nl:8002/.
2022-07-09 02:27:27,382 INFO (56) - OpenSim.Services.HypergridService.GatekeeperService [GATEKEEPER SERVICE]: Login request for Priscilla.Kleenex @bubblesz.nl:8002 @ http://bubblesz.nl:8002/ () at using viewer Firestorm-Releasex64 6.5.3.65658, channel Firestorm-Releasex64, , Mac , Id0 , Teleport Flags: ViaLogin. From region FreeLand 01 - French Connection () @ http://french-connection.tk:8002/
2022-07-09 02:27:27,386 INFO (56) - OpenSim.Services.HypergridService.GatekeeperService [GATEKEEPER SERVICE]: Checking users Mac against list of denied macs ...

Decimal:

Hostname: mob-.net.vodafone.it

ASN: 30722

ISP: Vodafone Italia S.p.A.

Services: None detected

Assignment: Likely Static IP

Country: Italy

State/Region: Piemonte

City: Ivrea

Another word on ZetaWorlds due to a recent discussion on OSW.

I decided to move Stark to ZetaWorlds some time ago for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, I wanted a professional grid hosted by IT professionals who know what they're doing, because I don't want to mess around with all the technical stuff. I just want to build and have fun. So I'm willing to pay for a sim if I get a stable and reliable service in return.
Secondly, if I have to pay for the service, I want to know who is behind the grid. I would never transfer money to an anonymous person. I have no problem with transferring my real data so that the company, which is registered in the commercial register, can issue flawless invoices.
Thirdly, I live in Germany. As a German, I feel better if I can use a German service like ZetaWorlds, which has to adhere to the legal requirements of my country.

In the discussions about grids and how this is handled with hypergrid access, I think they are comparing apples with oranges. A commercial, professionally operated grid has higher challenges to overcome and is obliged to guarantee a flawless service to its paying customers. In contrast, the operator of a private grid, often hosted on his own PC, can do whatever he wants. If it breaks down at some point, that's just the way it is. The tenants are simply out of luck. With a commercial grid, I can demand the service by law. These are two completely different things that are often forgotten.

To all those who can script or who would know where to find a script I need help. I would like to find a script that can check that several items have been placed into a container like a box or bag. Is there anything like that about and where could I get a copy pls?

No llevo mucho tiempo en Open sim, y ya lo e visto practicamente todo. pero lo que mas e notado, el nivel de competencia entre grids, e incluso entre los mismos residentes de un mismo grid. No voy a explayarme demasiado, voy a ser directa y puntal: No voy a apoyar a quien de manera desleal tome lo que alguien a creado para ser COMPARTIDO DE MANERA GRATUITA, y lo venda x la moneda que sea, no importa si es 1... 5 o 1000 $ , las cosas deben FREE PARA TODOS, e creado contenido PROPIO para ser vendido, pero me di cuenta que los negocios deben ser dejados lado en un ambiente que a sido creado para hacer amistades. Chicos de Matrix , tienen el apoyo de nuestra comunidad!

edito y agrego pruebas de que se venden cosas que son GRATUITAS en otros grids https://tianguis.ola.click/products

Hi folks, you will start seeing a bit more of this around. Long story short: a bunch of as OS contributors have come together to align and improve with our shared brains!
=The Gilded Accord=

The Gilded Accord is a collective of active OpenSim contributors who came together to align and coordinate their efforts.
Its raison the etre is to align the existing efforts and labour of love of the top OpenSim contributors, fostering sharing of best practices, and cross-pollination: because the result of the sum of some part can sometimes be bigger, be the exponential improvement that is born out of many creative minds working together!
Its vision is an OpenSim hyper-world that enjoys free, quality items.

The aims of the Accord are to:
1. Offer a forum for active creators from different grid to coordinate themselves.
2. Foster sharing of best practices.
3. Drive standardisation on standard items, nomenclature and approach that enable further development of dependant items (i.e. appliers, auto-alpha...)
4. Maximise the each members effort by aligning on contributions roadmap.
5. Freely sharing core items (scripts, and similar) that both standarise and improve items
6. Share and align best practices
7. Weave a network of trusted, quality stores across the hypergrid.


The standards of Accord member are:
1. Respecting other people's contributions, while also encouraging consensual sharing of items across stores (particularly 'core' items like body skins, bodies, heads...that are always handy to have in different grids).
2. Standarising the use of [at least!] MOD+COPY format for items
3. Championing the use of normal and specular layers - especially for new items.
4. Making a reasonable use of physics (prioritising bounding box) and reasonable levels of LOD, ensuring a smoother loading on hypergrid.
5. Leverage standardised nomenclature (i.e. use the same names for body and head faces, so other people can create appliers for them).
6. Focus on items for adult avis.
7. Promotion and champion of other members work.

This sounds nice - but what does it look like?
For Accord member: A private discord server section where we can align and share. 'Hey I'm focusing on contributing X', 'Oh, then I'm going to focus on Y which complements X'.
For overall OS members: A trusted networks of stores that meet same standards, as well as regular updates on them from our discord!

Name that Pink Floyd Song ! Answer correctly for a free custom surfboard rezzer with your logo on the boards that rez. AND I will set your waves up on your region. Just name the song that this image fits perfectly.

A bit on erratum (?). Recently uploaded the corner and row store and today, shopping at R. Lion for something else, I realised they are there? *sigh*
Anyway, just a good excuse to remind you folks of this GO-TO store: hop://watersplash.inworldz.net:8002/iPleasure/312/51/1979

Friends of CopyKat
[LATE EDIT]
After decades of managing clubs, regions, and grids, Oni is retiring.

UPDATE: Visit the Tribute Club at the CopyKat Collective Center to hang out and dance with old and new friends. The TP to Collective member regions and shops is also located at the Club
login.friends-grid.com:8002:Collective Central

Ok... just looked through some of the recent front page posts. I've been here in Open Sim for about nine months now.

I have accounts in OSgrid and Kitely.

I'll have to admit a good deal of my wardrobe is possibly copybotted. I'd like to know if anyone is willing to send me a list of LM's showing truly original, OS based stuff (aside from Lunaria), I'd appreciate it. Most of my wardrobe is rigged to the Athena body. I also have a small number of Ruth2 takes. For my male alts (yes, I have a few, using the same names that I established for them in SL), I use Adonis and Roth2.

There was a discussion recently that influenced me to write this post. It's located below the post from Luna Lunaria, #92052. I totally understand creators desiring to be compensated for their creations. I have spent a fair amount of L$ to gather some of my clothes in SL. I wouldn't mind paying a few K$ or O$ for some creations on this side of the metaverse, as I think that's quite fair.

Thansk to anyone that can help me out, I appreciate it. I'd prefer that the links be included publicly (instead of PMing me), so other users can find it easily.

By country:
The following table shows the average sizes, weights and BMI from 131 countries. All figures refer to men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 years.
https://www.worlddata.info/average-bodyheight.php#by-popul...

A list summarized by subcontinent.
https://www.worlddata.info/average-bodyheight.php#by-area

Note that the site will convert units to feet and pounds and back again to meters and kilograms.

An informative blog post about AV heights: Let’s Talk About Proportions - https://strawberrysingh.com/2018/02/05/lets-talk-proportio...

In just the past 6 months, people in the "What Are You Looking For" group have assisted other group members by recommending the shops on this list as a place to find the stuff they were looking for. Some of the owners of these shops are helpers in the group. No surprise then that their shop was recommended. They had the stuff, and they let people know.

Any shop owner can do that. If people are looking for something you have in your shop, let them know. Simple, right? You’ll be happy. They’ll be happy. Happy, happy!

Join us: https://opensimworld.com/groups/1060

Places we've recommended in the past six months when people were looking for something...
• Agora
• Arkham
• Bastelwastel
• Birch Grove Winter
• Bubbles
• CantiereAstralia
• Carpe Noctem
• Cartref City
• Clutterfly
• Dark Moon Roses
• FLORA
• Free Life
• GENESIS
• Grimm
• Home and Gardens
• Houses
• Kingman City
• Little Big City Shopping Mall
• Light and Sound Museum
• Liverpool City
• Maze of the Mind
• ModaPlaza
• Moonrose Shopping
• Never Harbor
• Old World Mall
• Outworldz Hypermall
• Pandanus Pocket
• R. Lion
• Samsara 
• SciattiShopClothes
• Stark North District
• Sunred Mall
• The Spoiled Diva
• Tierra De Volcanes
• Trails
• Vesti
• Yin Yang Town 

Shouldn't the name of your shop be here? Join us and help people find what they are looking for. https://opensimworld.com/groups/1060

THEY CANNOT WIN THE WAR, NO MATTER HOW MUCH $$$ WE POUR INTO IT.
Why not?
Because Putin is afraid that if ukraine gets into nato as a full member they will put a nato base in ukraine. This is about 200 miles from moscow. An ICBM could be at moscow before they could knock it down. Putin is afraid and feels cornered, and like any rabid dog, He will bite. Because Putin is insane, he can and will use Nukes on ukraine if pressed too far. Like if he feels certain He is going to lose with his troops (and let's face it, he's not losing with his troops.) But say he was losing with his troops, He would definitely use nukes. This is why Ukraine cannot win this war. So now what? Do you think we should keep pouring money into a bottomless pit or seek peace? If we do not seek peace, more and more of ukraine will fall until Russia has control of it anyway. (Like what is happening now.) I say give him the land he wants of ukraine so that he at least has a chance in minutes to knock down the ICBMS so he is no longer afraid. If you don't do this, He will kill everyone anyway. Do you see now?

We are in Opensim to step away from the real-life grid for a bit, not to have it tossed in our faces soon as we open OSW. Opensim is an escape, and while I am here, I could care two fucks who you voted for or where you live. We are from Opensim. Leave your RL hate in the RL world, where it belongs. 

I've created a new group to show solidarity with anti-fascism and opposition to other hate groups and individuals. No heavy deal, you don't have to do anything to show your solidarity other than joining the group, and maybe, if you feel you can, displaying the logo on your region or in your club to show that hate groups and anyone associated with them are not welcome.

Obviously those who want to get a little more involved are more than welcome to do so, such as arranging events with a prominent anti-fascist message, even if it's only displaying the logo on promotional materials, to much more ambitious things such as art displays that highlight the dangers of the extreme-right.

To remove all doubt, fascists and their fellow-travellers, (Trumpists, Faragists, Lepenists etc are not welcome! Prospective members are vetted and are subject to approval, which means it's a safe space for the wary.

This isn't a political group, so you won't be bombarded with ideology, it's simply a group for those of us who share a similar belief, that all humans are worthy. I'll even go so far as to say that members should leave both their politics and their religion at the door, whilst anti-fascism is a political stance, it is one that crosses political boundaries. We don't even have to like each other to show solidarity, a point worth remembering.

************************************************************************************************************

Just a heads up. I strive to keep moderation light on comments to group posts, but obviously I will not tolerate intolerance or other comments that seek to denigrate other human beings in any way. Any such comments WILL be removed. Cogent and fair and relevant comment will be respected, even if not agreed with.

To anyone complaining that their rights to free speech have been violated, I point out to you that I am the moderator and it is me who decides what is allowed and what is not. If you wish to express an opinion that is contrary to the values of this group, you are free to do so, somewhere else.

Copies of the logo are available, as is an at present limited range of clothing with an ant--fascist message on it. Please ask me for copies, stating in the case of clothing, what avatar you use. Thank you.

🥳We, at R. Lion Stores, hope the magic of Christmas fills every corner of your heart and home with joy — now and always.🥳
According with Santa's nice List, this year the ladies were the best behaved, so our gift is for them:😇
The new LaraX Mesh Body is available now at our new Avatar's components store, for you to get. Come quick!
hop://watersplash.inworldz.net:8002/iPleasure/121/530/2103

Good morning all
it appears the region has been down for 2 + hours....I have a ticket in to Aviworlds to get this fixed. For those with aviworlds avi; if you wish to log in.....you can by typing in aviworlds welcome in the location . That will get you logged in, but at this moment...still cannot get to Friends region. I am sorry for inconvenience and have submitted high priority ticket

I wanted to clarify my stance as a rebel. To me a rebel is ANYONE who takes a stand for freedom, without government, corporate, or any movements/associations/organizations controlling those freedoms of speech, livelyhood, happiness, or actions that do not harm, or endanger the freedoms, or life of others. We ALL have a right to disagree with others, and to even voice our opinions, but ultimately? How someone lives, what they do is their own personal choice, and right, and must be respected, and treated as such. I disagree with many things, but respect what others believe, and feel. Yah I pray. I believe in God, Jesus, and our Constitution. That is simply my personal beliefs. I respect anyones choices, beliefs, and opinions as their own, and their right. It also means too stubborn to give up, or die to me! haha! ;)
Prayers, love, hugs n high 5's to EVERYONE. :)

This is my version of the BFE Darien Gag-C v3.0 Ba. When attached, it mutes IM's and local. There is no key to take and the menu is non-functional. When detached everything is restored.
There is also an automatic mouth-open pose so it looks correct when worn. If you attach it yourself from your inventory, you can detach (it's not locked on). If you put this in your #RLV folder (create a subfolder under #RLV named "gag") then you can be permantly muted by your Mistress. Quick and easy attach and shutup.
Find your copy at MODERN TORTURE in Red Light District of Stark!

hop://hg.zetaworlds.com:80/Stark%20Red%20Light%20District/...
full perm

* Fixed Pasted in SCRIPTING Area of this Website. b/c posting here removes all text in lesser than greater than signs and makes the script throw errors b/c you dont get the complete script

THANKS TO MISTRESS DALGATO. SHE WAS RIGHT. I WAS WRONG.
GREAT NEWS! THIS ONE WORKS A TREAT! FANTASTIC! :)
The Amazing Device. Have you ever backed up oars for a long period of time, lost several of the original, but hey that's ok! You've got the more recent ones! But then you discover a horrible secret. When you move an item, the exact same item is still in the same spot, so you move that one, and Lo and behold, another one? I recently found that my hallmark sim known as DragonFyre had 3 copies of every object in the exact same spot. Like I had loaded an oar 3 times. Only the problem was, I hadn't done that. I had loaded one oar. The problem is that at some point long ago I must have loaded the oar on top of itself multiple times SOMEHOW....??? So now how to fix it? I've got 3 copies of every item on this sim in the exact same spot. And every oar I've saved for over 3 years has this exact same problem. So I created the amazing device. All you do is enable console commands in osslenable (for region god only). Then put this script in a box and let it run. Over time the box will move all around your sim finding those duplicated items and remove them leaving just 1 original in that exact spot. So your sim still looks the same but now there is only one copy of the item in that spot instead of 2 or more... Here's the script:

* Fixed Pasted in SCRIPTING Area of this Website. b/c posting here removes all text in lesser than greater than signs and makes the script throw errors b/c you dont get the complete script

While SL embraces PBR in an attempt to embrace greater 'realism' using the increasingly creaky old technology we’re all familiar with there is a backlash among Generation Z and other younger demographics towards cutting edge gaming with hypereal graphics and an embracing of older, less graphically real aesthetics. Some of this may be down to the fashionable adoption of retro, as in the numbers buying things like typewriters and traditional film cameras, but is some of it also likely a backlash against the increasing trend for hyperrealism where it’s no longer really easy to spot something real from recorded game action.

I am not a gamer, hence there have been a few times when I’ve been watching videos purporting to be actions in the current Russo-Ukrainian war where the game graphics have been so good that they appear to be real, it’s only when one looks more intently that it becomes subtly obvious that it’s recorded game action and not footage of an actual battlfield encounter.

I’m aware of arguments that the graphics of SL/OS are ‘poor’ but I have never agreed as this is a very subjective area depending on so many different factors, such as the comparisons being made. Relative to Minecraft and Active Worlds the graphics of SL and Opensim are fantastic, but compared to a photograph or the hypereal renderings of high end computer graphics, very poor indeed. Personally I rather like the aesthetic of SL/Opensim and would argue that the aesthetics are neither good nor bad, but exactly what they are. I’m not arguing against hyperrealism for those who want it, but rather agruing that the current graphics are regarded as fine by the vast majority if those who use Opensim and SL.

This article in today’s Guardian prompted me to write the above after last week I read something about the implementation of PBR in Second Life. Sometimes maybe, less is more, and if the aesthetics of retro games are appealing to Generation Z and other demographics younger than the average found in Opensim, then maybe there is hope yet that our hobby will endure. After all, Active Worlds is now nearly in its 30th year, has a very faithful and dedicated community together with graphics that make Minecraft look good!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/02/why-are-yo...