Metaverse Ink

It took a long time, but OpenSim 0.7 is finally here! It’s quite difficult to explain the value of refactorings and of  re-conceptualizations of the software, which is what happened to OpenSimulator between 0.6.x and 0.7. Those things tend to be intangible at first (”WTF? This does the same thing! And it has bugs that it didn’t have before!”, etc.); the ROI only shows up later.

As an example of the new interesting things that can now be done, this new release features an embedded Web application for handling user registrations. It’s called Wifi. The features of Wifi are quite simple:

• Account creation, optionally controlled by the administrator
• Configurable default avatars for new accounts
• Account updates by both users and administrator
• Account deletion by administrator
• Password recovery via email
• Simple user inventory management

These features are enough for the worlds I run; they’ll be enough for many people, I think. This is just the first release, I expect Wifi to improve as we go a long — especially if more people want to help… I welcome help on this!

See it in action in one of my test worlds. Feel free to create a dummy account, login to it, recover your password, etc. And login to the world afterward. You can also use it for testing your own installation of the diva distro by hypergriding to it. (Note: this world is just for demonstration of Wifi and of the latest diva distro release; it will be shut down in a couple of weeks)

Wifi has a few interesting properties that make it a good fit for small-to-medium OpenSimulator-based virtual worlds. First of all, it doesn’t require the installation of Apache or other Web servers; it’s all done within the OpenSimulator code base. If you’re like me, you will think of this as a major win. Not having to install an additional major component like Apache and PHP/Python/what-have-you means less administrative hassle, less load on the machine, and just plain joy. Web app! No Apache! Just OpenSimulator! Yey!

Second, using the OpenSimulator code base brings many technical benefits. This isn’t an immediate benefit, but it is a benefit in the long run. Unlike the Apache-based Web apps that interface with the DB directly, Wifi interfaces with the OpenSimulator services layer using the core code, and therefore it is isolated from future changes to the OpenSimulator DB schema. In short, and of interest to diva distro users, Wifi will probably never be in the situation that other apps of the same kind are, always on the verge of being discontinued due to the hassle of making it catch up with the OpenSim schema. In the long run, this is a very good thing.

Third, technically, Wifi is a set of components that can be loaded up by both standalone simulators and Robust servers. What this means is that the exact same thing can serve diva distro worlds as well as larger grids in one seamless environment, OpenSimulator. I haven’t packaged it up for grids, but I might consider doing it at some point. So if your world grows to a medium grid, Wifi can handle it with no hassle.

Enjoy!

And, of course, also enjoy the extra security in HG 1.5, but that is invisible.

Here are the relevant links:

• Latest diva distro
• How to set it up in 5 steps (6 for *ix)

If you already have a diva distro up & running, simply run Update.exe on it and follow the instructions. This time, it’s really important that you read the release notes.

One last important note: the sequence of upgrades has a ‘pivot’ release at r12751. In other words, r12751 is a mandatory stop from all older releases. From r12751 on, upgrade gets you the latest. This new release today is r13458.

The OpenSim Library has been a neglected part of OpenSim since I can remember. Apart from a few animations and example scripts, there hasn’t been anything interesting there. Even though it was possible to add things to it, the process was so cumbersome and error-prone that no one cared to do it. So the Library stagnated. That stagnation has finally come to an end.

As of today, it is now possible to add any arbitrary elements to the OpenSim  Library simply by using IARs. I’m going to explain it below. For starters, the latest release of the Diva Distro already has some new freebie content in the Library (see picture above — zoom in). I added three outfits, 2 female and 1 male, that you can use to replace the horrible Ruth avatar; and I added a very small collection of objects. They are available to everyone with the latest diva distro, diva-r11766. (Remember that to use the content in the OpenSim Library you first must copy it to your own inventory, and then wear it or rez it.)

I have a larger object collection available from the github site. I didn’t include this in the distribution, because it’s quite large, larger than the distribution file itself. You can download it and place it under bin/Library if you want.

You can add more IARs to your Library, so that the content of your choice can be made available to all your users. The process is very simple: produce or get one or more IARs with your favorite content, and place them under bin/Library — that’s all. The content of those IARs will be added to the OpenSim Library automagically.

A few details. In general, IAR content is placed at the top level of the Library. If, however, if you are careful with the name of the IAR files, you may be able to control their placement better. For example, if you want to add things under, say Clothing Library, name your IAR something like “Clothing Library part1.iar”. When the first 2 words of your IAR file name match one of the existing subfolders of the Library, the content will be placed under the match. Content always adds up, so you can have several IARs, and they will all be loaded.

One important limitation: this only works for standalones, for the time being — which is what the diva distro is all about anyway. It will be nice to make this work for grids, but that will require substantial changes in the way IARs are coded.

Enjoy!