...tempus fugit... a lot has happened since my last post:
- i finally got my very own Rift dev kit
although it is always mentioned that this is in no way the final consumer product
it is miles ahead of what i was able to tinker using my 7" tablet, some lenses and cardboard ^^
You put it on your head, fire up a demo and "baam" you teleport into that new world.
I cant really describe other than "you have to see it to believe it" and "it looks as if you are there"!
- it seems Cracker Hax has put his development on a hold, KirstenLee didnt respond to my query,
but: David Rowe at http://ctrlaltstudio.com/ has created a first alpha version of a viewer (based on Firestorm) that can display SL / opensim on the Rift... "YAY!"
So far it is "just" capable of walking around your creations and look around using the Rift's head tracking. No menus, no HUD, no chat. Nevertheless it is impressive! You can switch between the Rift and your normal monitor by alt-ctrl-3 or pushing a button, so you can use your normal mode to get to where you want to and then switch to 3D for full immersion.
- i have set up another Region os OSGrid (Riftdemo1) where i want to put together a showcase for Rift in opensim.
The idea is to try out what works best to show some great content and get developers and builders interested in the combination of 3D and opensim.
So far my goal is to present all technologies that are available today, from prims to mesh and materials, projectors, etc. while keeping load times low and frame rate high.
For this i am looking for builders interested in showing some of their best pieces.
Also i want to set up some guidelines about how to build stuff to work best for the Rift (scale, use of textures, etc)
Once i have a worthy collection of presentable things on that sim i intend to release it as an OAR and provide some instructions how to set it up e.g. using a Sim on a Stick installation so Rift owners can easily check it out.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The Hyperbase is still alive and preparing for the Rift
Cough, cough... Hello? ..."ello, ...ello..."
seems it is about time to dust off the microphone and start spreading some news again.
The latest developments around the Oculus Rift have for sure rekindled my interest in becoming a more active part in the Hyperverse once again.
Time to update the base and prepare it for the thousands of visitors gathering there every day ;-)
...and now to something completely (?!?) different: bringing together what belongs together: the opensim world(s) and 3d head mounted displays!
Yay!
What?
Who?
How?
Ok, CUT, next shot....
So, there is that fancy new hype thing called the Oculus Rift out there. Everybody wants to see it or have one (in fact i ordered a dev kit too).
It will be wonderful to finally be able to "really enter" our worlds and "be there"!
But: at this moment only very few have the priviledge to do so because:
so far most of the developers seem to concentrate on integrating the Rift with DirectX graphics and engines like Unity3d, Unreal and others, but the opensim viewers run on openGL, so thats another story.
Fortunately there is some light on the horizon:
Cracker Hax is working on adapting the SL viewer
Kirstenlee Cinquettis viewer has already anaglyphic stereo rendering and finally
there are "official" rumors that Linden Lab is working to integrate the Rift fully into their viewer.
For sure it will take a huge effort to make a viewer fully usable wearing a head mounted display considering you dont see your keyboard and have a rather limited number of pixels to display your UI with, but even the basic functionality to render a full immersive stereo world and be able to look around in it by moving your head will make a lot of yaws drop.
There will be plenty fields of development: from creating optimized renderers via implementing alternative steering methods (Razer Hydra, anyone?) to a complete redesign of the UI.
So: lets try to motivate some of the highly talented viewer developers out there to start creating the next puzzle piece of the Hypergrid: full 3d immersion!
seems it is about time to dust off the microphone and start spreading some news again.
The latest developments around the Oculus Rift have for sure rekindled my interest in becoming a more active part in the Hyperverse once again.
Time to update the base and prepare it for the thousands of visitors gathering there every day ;-)
...and now to something completely (?!?) different: bringing together what belongs together: the opensim world(s) and 3d head mounted displays!
Yay!
What?
Who?
How?
Ok, CUT, next shot....
So, there is that fancy new hype thing called the Oculus Rift out there. Everybody wants to see it or have one (in fact i ordered a dev kit too).
It will be wonderful to finally be able to "really enter" our worlds and "be there"!
But: at this moment only very few have the priviledge to do so because:
so far most of the developers seem to concentrate on integrating the Rift with DirectX graphics and engines like Unity3d, Unreal and others, but the opensim viewers run on openGL, so thats another story.
Fortunately there is some light on the horizon:
Cracker Hax is working on adapting the SL viewer
Kirstenlee Cinquettis viewer has already anaglyphic stereo rendering and finally
there are "official" rumors that Linden Lab is working to integrate the Rift fully into their viewer.
For sure it will take a huge effort to make a viewer fully usable wearing a head mounted display considering you dont see your keyboard and have a rather limited number of pixels to display your UI with, but even the basic functionality to render a full immersive stereo world and be able to look around in it by moving your head will make a lot of yaws drop.
There will be plenty fields of development: from creating optimized renderers via implementing alternative steering methods (Razer Hydra, anyone?) to a complete redesign of the UI.
So: lets try to motivate some of the highly talented viewer developers out there to start creating the next puzzle piece of the Hypergrid: full 3d immersion!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Upgraded to 0.7.3.1
...unbelievable! Has it really been THAT long since i upgraded my opensim installation?
Well, looking at my server it seems so ^^
Finally i have "snoopyfied" my installation, i.e. i did something similar to what Snoopy Pfeffer did at Dreamland Metaverse a loooong time ago: installed a structure that seems to be more manageable than the one i used before. If you want to know more about the details (careful, long and techy stuff):
http://snoopypfeffer.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/opensim-service-management/
Now all my sims and the grid service are running opensim 0.7.3.1
Everything i tested so far seems to work as expected. Please let me know if you find something not working or misbehaving.
Have fun on the Hypergrid!
cu,
Neo
Well, looking at my server it seems so ^^
Finally i have "snoopyfied" my installation, i.e. i did something similar to what Snoopy Pfeffer did at Dreamland Metaverse a loooong time ago: installed a structure that seems to be more manageable than the one i used before. If you want to know more about the details (careful, long and techy stuff):
http://snoopypfeffer.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/opensim-service-management/
Now all my sims and the grid service are running opensim 0.7.3.1
Everything i tested so far seems to work as expected. Please let me know if you find something not working or misbehaving.
Have fun on the Hypergrid!
cu,
Neo
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Time to say goodbye...
...at least to the old version of the hyperbase ^^
Seems really noone is using it anymore, so i decided to switch off the "old" 0.7.0.2 base.
The new base seems to be useful (and used) as a hub and a place to test hypergrid functionality, so i will keep it running.
See you in the hyperverse,
Neo
Seems really noone is using it anymore, so i decided to switch off the "old" 0.7.0.2 base.
The new base seems to be useful (and used) as a hub and a place to test hypergrid functionality, so i will keep it running.
See you in the hyperverse,
Neo
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Upgrade to new 0.7.1 opensim release!
Hi!
Since there is a new "stable" 0.7.1 opensim release out now (and an accompanying Diva distro as well) i have upgraded the hyperbase to this release.
To allow for a smooth migration for those who are still on 0.7.0.2 i have set up a copy of the old one on a new port. It now resides on
http://hbase42.hopto.org:9032
All the accounts that existed on the hyperbase have been carried over to the new release, i wont do any further migrations of data you collect on the "old" 0.7.0.2 base, so please consider using the new base as your "home" if you want to continue using it as your starting point into the hypergrid.
cu,
Neo
Since there is a new "stable" 0.7.1 opensim release out now (and an accompanying Diva distro as well) i have upgraded the hyperbase to this release.
To allow for a smooth migration for those who are still on 0.7.0.2 i have set up a copy of the old one on a new port. It now resides on
http://hbase42.hopto.org:9032
All the accounts that existed on the hyperbase have been carried over to the new release, i wont do any further migrations of data you collect on the "old" 0.7.0.2 base, so please consider using the new base as your "home" if you want to continue using it as your starting point into the hypergrid.
cu,
Neo
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Aftermaths of a great event
first i want to thank you all for participating! We were about 12 people in each of the two meetings we had on sunday. Considering this was the first time we met on this new base all went extremely smooth.
For me there were some interesting lessons to be learned:
-> the server is able to provide enough power for HGAC meetings. Aside from the slowdown i will descibe later everything went very smooth.
-> doing a jump with large groups of hypernauts stresses 0.7.0.2 server too. Our jump to TGIB slowed that sim down to near death. I think Vanish will write something about that.
-> setting up a freebie area needs a bit of planning and communication. It was amazing to see the amount and variety of freebies that were placed on the freebie area. But... ;-) ... i feel we should talk about what should be placed there. Since we could come up with a sheer unlimited number of good stuff to share this would blow up the ressources needed by the simulator. To keep this one as smooth as possible i suggest to keep just some "essential needs for the hypernaut" here. It should provide some acceptable looks to allow new hypernauts to start exploring the hypergrid. If we want to set up a hypermall this should be on a dedicated sim (server?) of it own.
-> trying to do too many steps at once isnt good. Many new accounts have been created, most of wich needed to have some initial outfits. The freebie area was filled with stuff. We had many new visitors from other grids. All those activities add some load that in combination lead to slowdowns.
-> dont try to pass things to first time visitors from the hypergrid during meetings. It seems there are some ways to trigger a complete inventory transfer for new visitors from outside (i.e. not having accounts locally). We had several occasions where i could see asset or inventory transactions on the console, going on for minutes, slowing the system. During the final minutes of the meeting we even had the sim stalled to a point that chat was blocked for several minutes. We will try to reproduce this in a test session. I hope that once the assets have been transfered it wont happen again. So we could use a mix of organizational measures to reduce that stress (dont do big inventory things during a meeting, try to trigger them before)
-> something builds up eating more and more cpu during such sessions, finally rendereing the system slow. When i restarted the server sunday morning it took about 5% cpu. As the first visitors came it this slowly started to grow to 15-20%. After the freebie area was filled with some things it never fell back below 30%. Something seems to have only partially manifested itself there (something non-existent blocking the path, it roughly felt like a larger copy of the hobo "ruins" that had been placed in one corner).
The server load continued to grow constantly, building up something in the "PhysFT" part of the stats.
At the end of the first session it barely dropped back below 100%. Durind the second session we permanently ran above 130%, ending in about 150%. When i inspected the system the next morning it was constantly at 200% (i.e. both cpu's running at 100%), the sim wasnt responding, i could not even shut it down gracefully.
Enough of that techy stuff now!
The meetings showed there is an interest in joining the hg1.5 realm, exploring new grounds.
Lets continue to explore and build this base into something useful for us all.
cu,
Neo
For me there were some interesting lessons to be learned:
-> the server is able to provide enough power for HGAC meetings. Aside from the slowdown i will descibe later everything went very smooth.
-> doing a jump with large groups of hypernauts stresses 0.7.0.2 server too. Our jump to TGIB slowed that sim down to near death. I think Vanish will write something about that.
-> setting up a freebie area needs a bit of planning and communication. It was amazing to see the amount and variety of freebies that were placed on the freebie area. But... ;-) ... i feel we should talk about what should be placed there. Since we could come up with a sheer unlimited number of good stuff to share this would blow up the ressources needed by the simulator. To keep this one as smooth as possible i suggest to keep just some "essential needs for the hypernaut" here. It should provide some acceptable looks to allow new hypernauts to start exploring the hypergrid. If we want to set up a hypermall this should be on a dedicated sim (server?) of it own.
-> trying to do too many steps at once isnt good. Many new accounts have been created, most of wich needed to have some initial outfits. The freebie area was filled with stuff. We had many new visitors from other grids. All those activities add some load that in combination lead to slowdowns.
-> dont try to pass things to first time visitors from the hypergrid during meetings. It seems there are some ways to trigger a complete inventory transfer for new visitors from outside (i.e. not having accounts locally). We had several occasions where i could see asset or inventory transactions on the console, going on for minutes, slowing the system. During the final minutes of the meeting we even had the sim stalled to a point that chat was blocked for several minutes. We will try to reproduce this in a test session. I hope that once the assets have been transfered it wont happen again. So we could use a mix of organizational measures to reduce that stress (dont do big inventory things during a meeting, try to trigger them before)
-> something builds up eating more and more cpu during such sessions, finally rendereing the system slow. When i restarted the server sunday morning it took about 5% cpu. As the first visitors came it this slowly started to grow to 15-20%. After the freebie area was filled with some things it never fell back below 30%. Something seems to have only partially manifested itself there (something non-existent blocking the path, it roughly felt like a larger copy of the hobo "ruins" that had been placed in one corner).
The server load continued to grow constantly, building up something in the "PhysFT" part of the stats.
At the end of the first session it barely dropped back below 100%. Durind the second session we permanently ran above 130%, ending in about 150%. When i inspected the system the next morning it was constantly at 200% (i.e. both cpu's running at 100%), the sim wasnt responding, i could not even shut it down gracefully.
Enough of that techy stuff now!
The meetings showed there is an interest in joining the hg1.5 realm, exploring new grounds.
Lets continue to explore and build this base into something useful for us all.
cu,
Neo
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Preparing for the big event
as Pathfinder mentioned here: http://wp.me/p11U98-
Time to clean up and test and fix some things...
Most of my gates dont seem to work anymore because the target grids have upgraded to 0.7.1 :(
Many destinations coming out of the Hypergate seem to have the very same issue :((
Since we will visit my beach house i have removed some non pg13 stuff ;-)
Vanish & i tried to set up a Hypertaxi between the Base and his TGIB Inn.
No matter what we tried we couldnt succeed getting the osTeleportAgent call to work (thew one that actually performs the teleport). I think it is due to this bug
http://opensimulator.org/mantis/view.php?id=5211
( Fix osTeleportAgent for hypergrid destinations.)
So: no automagic transports, but "show-on-map-and-click-teleport".
So much to do, so little time ;-)
cu,
Neo
Time to clean up and test and fix some things...
Most of my gates dont seem to work anymore because the target grids have upgraded to 0.7.1 :(
Many destinations coming out of the Hypergate seem to have the very same issue :((
Since we will visit my beach house i have removed some non pg13 stuff ;-)
Vanish & i tried to set up a Hypertaxi between the Base and his TGIB Inn.
No matter what we tried we couldnt succeed getting the osTeleportAgent call to work (thew one that actually performs the teleport). I think it is due to this bug
http://opensimulator.org/mantis/view.php?id=5211
( Fix osTeleportAgent for hypergrid destinations.)
So: no automagic transports, but "show-on-map-and-click-teleport".
So much to do, so little time ;-)
cu,
Neo
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