OSGrid Update Available.

A newer version of OSG was released this week. You can download it at OSGrid directly . The Red Dragon Regions are upgraded and up to speed with this new version. Kokua viewer (former imprudence) will unlikely be updated this year, as its Dev's decided to take a december holiday.

Quick notes on how we upgraded 10 regions in 3 instances  :
- Download OSG file & extract it 3 times in 3 folders
- Look for changes in new opensim.INI file
- Copy Opensim.ini / config-include/Gridcommon.ini / regions/regionconfig.ini  from old to new directory's
- Boot the new versions. (yes, it is that simple). Mind that if you have DrawprimonMaptile enabled, it will take a while to start if you have many prims. Just be patient. We always perform a restart after first boot.

If something fails, we can quickly revert back (old install is still there). I post this as I still hear people mentioning  that they'll be copying a new installation over an older existing folder. If you WANT bugs and headaches to hit you, and no rollback option, thats the way to go. Mind that on SQLlite you either need to manually copy the old database files (.db) , or import an OAR after any upgrade.

Other news ? Make your own animations with the Kinect maybe ?  (Likely more potential than using it as a joystick  ). Also the links section below has been updated. If you have great stuff we missed, feel free to share it.

Page Success !

Bade Plaza Tower

I have recieved a lot of nice responses on this shiny new Blog, and we just hit the 1000 pageviews, which is pretty cool for a 3 week old page. It also indicates people love to have news and updates on their favorite grids, so we will try and keep things running here. Thank you for your interests & feedback sofar. The real goodies are down in the links section though, updated regularly. All the tools & goodies you need to make the prim / texture / sculpt / mesh / scripted stuf you always wanted to have. 

I feel small....

Since LBSA plaza (the welcome area, and "hangout" of OSG) was down this morning, I decided to hop around the grid a bit and shoot some pictures to put in this article. The one above is Bade Plaza, of which i just love the architecture. Click the picture for a higher resolution image. Notice my AV in the 2nd picture, left bottom corner, so you get an  idea on the size of that tower. Bade Plaza is easily reachable by the Plaza teleporters, that are found everywhere in OSG.

Zapping3

The picture to the left and below are shot on a region named Zapping3 which is a steamworks build in it's characteristic rusty metal look. I got tipped on that one by the OSG forums, so decided to fly in and capture some pixels. Very nice spot, good for a closer look, as you can see. 

I also recieved some questions on why the Red Dragon club and Stores are not reachable, or why people can't teleport to "fill in region here". The reason is simple. Many OSG users host their own sims, from their own homes. And I, for one, shut down my servers when i go to sleep. Which results in an average uptime of 16 hours a day. This means that when you connect and you get a destination unreachable, likely the sims are disabled. The only thing you can do is try again later. 

Zapping3

For other regions, it's advisable to do a search, and IM the region owner. After the grid upgrade last month, some users relocated or even renamed their sims. Sometimes a region is supposed to be up, but crashed in the background while the sim owner is unaware. (For example : A region can crash / hang when people try to login when the sim is still starting up. Workaround for that is available HERE ). Also people come and go, some regions will simply no longer exist. These will be removed from the map, when the grid administrators purge it to clean it up. With thousends of regions it should not be too hard finding a "live" one, and generally there are always people at the plaza's to help out if you run stuck, or dont know where to go. Keep exploring. There are beautiful things to be discovered. 

Sneak Peek

On Red Dragons Wall Of  Fame, you will find landmarkgivers to various regions and venues in OSG. Eevery once and a while, we put up one with a "Sneak Preview" This is an LMgiver with no picture displayed. Often it indicates a sim or region that has not opened to public yet, or is awaiting loadtests. In any case, chances are small you will have seen it before, as these regions tend to be sparkly new and still in development.

This weeks "new kid on the block" is Club Shark. Hosted in the US by Reo Landar, on a single region. The sim took a full week to build, and there working on the finishing touches before they can open the gates to the masses. We have been there already and "Approved it to Party". Stylish modern build, a nice wide dancefloor, stage, a variety of dances, and an own unique atmosphere, with awesome light and FX like a club is supposed to have. We advise you to go check it for yourself. You can find this club on Sharks Region in OSG. We have no ETA on the opening party for club Shark yet, but likely you will find an announcement on the region when the doors officially open to the public.

Region ShowCase "The Navigators"

Cambrian

The navigators sims consist out of 22 regions, and are administered by OSG residents Mitch Shelman  (Netherlands) and Ni Lemon (Portugal). They met in SL 3 years ago, and moved over to OSG approximately one year ago. For less than the tier they rented a single region for previously in Secondlife, they now have a virtual private server, keeping their 22 sims online 24/7. The regions are actually a massive Art project, each with its own unique atmosphere, and a huge variety of objects, biotanicals, surrealistics and other scenery's.

Random Helicoptershot:

Technical information on the regions: The navigator regions run on a hosted datacenter VPS environment in germany, on a win2k3 machine, with 6 GB RAM on a 100/100 Mbit connection. It's installed and kept up to date with the latest OSG versions. The regions harbour approximately 4000 scripts and around 30.000 prims total.  Each region has its own theme, and the 22 sims are separate regions. So mind they have borders (It's not a Megaregion).

Dooms End Inferno

22 regions is a whole slab of land but as you can see from the pictures, all transitions between sims are visually fluent. Large distance views are awesome. Despite each region having is own theme you will feel submerged in the wondrous world of the Navigator builds.  Enjoy the Art, the beautiful variety of nature, and various freebies in the shops. Not all builds on the regions have permissions set, most of the "goodies" can be found in the shops. If you see something you really want, and its not available, asking can help you a long way. Mitch & Ni love to share their creations. Along with the inspiration of other creative minds, and OSG's helpfull community, it's one of their main reasons to be in this grid. Sharing is very satisfying.

Descent into Maelstroem

When asked for their personal favorite regions, Descent into the maelstroem, (right picture),  Graciosa, (below) and Inferno (above) regions were mentioned. These regions bear the unique expression of its creators. " Immersive Region size artwork " is the official name, but it translates into : You should TP there, and go see it, as you will not find this view nor experience elsewhere.

The pictures are still, and they cannot give you the experience from wandering in this strange worlds. Red Dragon tip ? Walk instead of fly, and rezz your AV an extra pair of eyes. It needs them to capture all the beauty. The teleport system is awesome, but we advise a healthy walk.

Graciosa

Apart from all the beauty in their regions, Ni & Mitch run various shops elsewhere, for instance the Tugtastic Shops are by their hand. You can find them in the Navigators regions, as well as on Port azure west. Most contain Home Decoration, and biotanicals, flowers etc. As you can see, they love building and decorating, in prim, sculpt, mesh or whatever technology available to wield their creativity. They love to experiment with shapes forms colours textures and scripts. Also check out the greenhouse built by Ni. We believe its the biggest greenhouse in any grid, and it's a beauty.

The regions are not planned for opening in other grids. Navigators stick to OSG for their Main regions. They love OSG's free spirit, and have full confidence in its improvements for the future. Their ultimate goal is to keep crafting the creative, and making digital art, and OSG has proven to be the very best platform to do so. If you haven't visited these regions, you've missed out big time on what OSG can do. Feel free to visit them any time. The regions are all public, and up 24/7. Open the OSG map, and find Cambrian Explosion when you have a spare hour. (You wont be able to see all in less time:)
You can also find them on Red Dragon's "Wall of Fame" located at Red Dragon Shops.

Club Omega Kraftworks, MyOpenGrid, and upcoming News

Omega Kraftwork Club

I missed their opening party yesterday, But here is a screenshot of what the new Club Omega Craftwork looks like. I do recommend to go and watch for yourself (find it at Omega Region in OSG), as it is a Dynamic Lightshare environment, filled with animations, light, smoke and particle effects, which are hard to capture in static imaging. It looks very appealing, and has a great atmosphere.

Soon Red Dragon will start posting Region Showcases, of places worth to visit in OSG / Aurora and where you can find the action.

Also a new Grid found its way to the internets. It can be found here : http://myopengrid.com and has a fair share of the users you normally found in OSG, trying their luck in a new Grid. Since the upgrades to 0.7 some stability problems hit the OSgrid, which results in a small exodus of people that prefer stability over innovation, or are simply unable to overcome the issues that haunt & frustrate them. They try their luck in other grids.
To connect to Myopengrid, use http://login.myopengrid.com in the Grid Manager after you made an account on the page above. Red Dragon will not track or start sims in this grid, but will keep you posted if we get any news on it.

That's all for now, check back soon for the 1st official Red Dragon "Region Showcase". This will be a photo article of a region in OSG, and a small interview with it's owner (s).

Note : a new OSgazet themed "FUN" is available (issue 8) at the newsstands. Might want to grab a copy, as you cant have too much of that. Newsstands can be found at most plaza area's in OSG.