The OpenSim Library just got more interesting

DivaLibrary

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!

13 replies on “The OpenSim Library just got more interesting”

  1. Karen Palen says:

    Great Christmas present for everyone Diva – thank you!

  2. Dave Coyle says:

    Diva, great stuff! Under what license(s) is the content in your larger IAR available? Or is it without restriction?

    Thanks.

    -coyled

  3. That’s absolutely fantastic news, a very simple and elegant way to add content to the library, many thanks for that! I was planning on putting a freebies shop in my grid, but indeed I hate freebie shops, they tend to be ugly, and content really belongs to the library.

    One question, tho: does update.exe move the iars from release to release, or should we move them manually ourselves?

  4. One small note: you should change the filetype of Objects_library__large from iar.gz to simply iar — otherwise it doesn’t get loaded.

  5. […] are now running release 11766 of the Diva distribution. As noted in this post by Diva, this release includes a very nice mechanism by which you can add content to the Opensim Library […]

  6. Diva Canto says:

    @Coyled unrestricted. This is stuff I have collected from freebies in OSGrid, they were full perms. This is actually pointing to a much needed convention about authorship and license. People should start putting a note inside their creations saying who they are and the terms of use, so that that information doesn’t get lost as we move content around.

    @Zonja: oh great point. I forgot to update the Update tool to do that move automatically. I’ll do that next time. That means that the very next update you need to move the iars manually, but the one after that should be done automatically.

  7. I did the update, and I do not find any new content in the library. I was hoping that the update would allow me to make my visitors feel more comfortable not looking like Ruth. How may I check if the update was applied?

  8. Diva Canto says:

    @Ethos: The new installation should be in a folder named diva-r11766. You need to stop your current instance of OpenSim and launch OpenSim from there. (Read the instructions on the screen just after update, they tell you this)

  9. Clive Gould says:

    I have checked out 0.6.8-post-fixes using git, updated my installation, downloaded the iar files into the bin/Library folder and started OpenSim. However I cannot find any new content in the Library when I log in via the client. Have I missed a new configuration option with 0.6.8-post-fixes somewhere???

  10. Diva Canto says:

    This is not in 0.6.8, this is only in Git master head.

  11. […] added a facility to add items to the inventory library by placing IARs in bin/Library.  See her blog post for more details […]

  12. Clive Gould says:

    Thanks Diva – I have now successfully downloaded the git master head and installed 0.6.9(dev). Now I have enabled the StandaloneHypergrid.ini configuration the new Diva libraries are working fine :)

  13. Neo Cortex says:

    Hi Diva! Thanks for offering this nice collection! But… it seems some pieces in the small collection are broken (i didnt check the large one yet) e.g. the “cabelo da carlinha preto” is messed up totally… someone has used the partially alpha texture all over so the hair flickers and one prim is even using a wrong texture & colored black… i have made a fixed version of it and can send it to you if you like. I am just not sure whose copyright i might violate by doing so…. Besides that the male skin seems to be a lower resolution (unsharp) version jpeg.

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