Hypergrid Business

At Hypergrid Business, we’ve been covering OpenSim and other desktop-based virtual environments since 2009, and began covering virtual reality extensively in 2014. Our goal has been to promote an open-source, distributed metaverse, and to help the little guy and gal with navigating that landscape. Specifically, the people running OpenSim-based virtual worlds — because I think […]

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.) Hi, everyone. This is me, Maria, your friendly local technology reporter and blog editor. You might know me from such things as my annual OpenSim stats presentations at the OpenSimulator Community Conference, my various attempts to run an OpenSim grid on my home computer, or the fact that, since

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.) After ChatGPT was released on Nov. 30, 2022, the world changed. Whatever you might personally think about AI, the events of last year showed that AI was capable of human-level creativity in art, music, writing, and coding. And, for the first time, AI demonstrated common sense. Or, at least,

Prices start at $80 per month for a two-region private grid, with $50 setup fee. Includes voice, currency, hypergrid, and a user registration website. Additional regions are available for $12.50 a month for five regions with a $5 setup fee. All plans include full backups and root server access. The higher-priced plans have higher limits

Hosting4OpenSim, a virtual world hosting company, has announced its grand opening. Founded in December 2022 by three friends from Mexico, the US, and Brazil, the company aims to become the leading provider for OpenSim hosting services. As part of its launch, the company is offering a deal to the next nine customers who respond, with

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.) Samsung, in partnership with Qualcomm and Google, has announced plans to develop a new extended reality product. XR is a term that encompasses virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technologies. I myself switched from Apple to Samsung in 2015 specifically for Samsung’s Gear VR headset. But when Samsung

I love building in OpenSim, but I don’t love the process of finding or creating textures. It’s hard to find just the right one, and even harder to figure out its license terms. All those texture packs floating around — are they legitimate? Or are they ripped off from Second Life? For a while, anytime

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.) Last Friday, AltspaceVR announced that will be shutting down its virtual environment in March. AltspaceVR was a consumer-focused immersive space that could be accessed either via the desktop or through a virtual reality headset. Since its launch in 2016, the platform has hosted big names and quickly became the

(Image by Maria Korolov via Midjourney.) On Nov. 30, OpenAI released a beta of its ChatGPT chatbot to the public — for free. It is currently, hands-down, the best text and code generator out there. Within the first six days, more than a million people signed up to use it. They’re using it to write

As OpenSim technology continues to improve, prices are dropping. The average 15,000-prim region in OpenSim is now $12.89 a month. The median price is now $10 a month, unchanged from what we had in 2021, but the average has fallen more than $2, from $15.18 last year. And that number is deceptive since some grids

(Image courtesy Avacon.) The tenth annual OpenSimulator Community Conference is scheduled for December 10 and 11, and the call for proposals is now open. “We’re interested in your wonderful content, insights, and accomplishments. We hope that you can join us for our tenth year celebrating the current and future use of open source virtual worlds

A new art installation has its grand opening today, Monday, Sep. 12, at 1 p.m. Pacific time on the Craft World grid, the second contribution to the Ukraine Borderland Art Project. The installation, Ukraine Victory 2025, is by artist Rage Darkstone. The hypergrid address is craft-world.org:8002:Ukraine (Image courtesy Reiner Schneeberger.) The installation is a “lyrical and

If you want to try high-end consumer virtual reality headset, one that’s not part of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta ecosystem, the best options are the headsets that you tether to a PC. One that I haven’t tried yet is the HP Reverb G2 VR headset. And it’s discounted today, from $599 down to $399. It’s compatible

OSgrid’s OSG15b1 region. (Image courtesy Maria Korolov.) OSgrid, the largest grid in land area and active user numbers, will celebrate its 15th birthday starting on Monday, July 25. The celebration will run through July 31. “We’ll have live music and DJs to entertain us as we celebrate everything that is OSgrid,” grid president Wizard Atazoth.