As you noticed, all the sims are in the same machine — the same Opensim process actually; at one time we were using two Opensim processes in a severless grid configuration, one with “public” islands and another with “private” ones (I mean regarding the MetaverseInk search service), but nowadays we do no longer need this combination.

The machine is running Windows XP SP3, and it’s an Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 running at 2.40 GHz with 3 GB of RAM and two standard 372 GB SATA HDs, assigned to C: and D:; Windows aperiodically burps its stuff to C: (swapfile, temps et al), and MySQL and Opensim access D:, which I’ve found is a quite practical arrangement. I take care to defrag the disks every so often, and of course to backup the MySQL database and the Opensim directory; apart from that, it’s a no-maintenance system.

Internet access is provided by JazzTel, a spanish ISP, and it’s a 2 Mb symmetrical SDSL line.

The Opensim process eats between 800 KB and 1 GB of RAM for 11 islands (the 10 you’ve catalogued in your directory and a private sandbox), which allows for ample space before we get to a memory trashing situation, and CPU consumption oscilates between 0% and 3%, which is very nice, taking into account both that the new islands by Omurtag have *tons* of scripted objects and the Opensim process is continuously storing the altered state, and that we must have at least 40.000 prims in total.

As you say, being able to have as much land as you need is a fantastic situation :-) Omurtag had created tons of sims in a private Opensim instance, but, as it happens to most prople, he wasn’t able to get a proper access to his sims from outside. And shoshisn’s creativity is endless; I’m very proud to have been able to allocate some virtual land to my friends to show their work.

When we started Condensation, it was as a rebellion against the Openspace fiasco — a rebellion which was very successful I might add :-) With time, Condensation/Opensim started to diverge from its previous SL incarnation: Breen Whitman contributed his fantastic gasworks building, currently located in Condensation South; shoshisn gave us some of her wonderful sculptures; I coordinated and setup, with the help of shoshisn and Ludmilla Writer, another of the original Condensation founders, the Mirrow Worlds art exhib, with works from seven SL photographers and artists; and lately Mikil Tiki and shoshisn have got a sim each, and Omurtag has brought three new sims for all to enjoy.

Now I see Condensation more like a public playground, and also as a proof-of-concept of the fact that for a relatively small amount of money (this would cost > 2,950 US$/mo +VAT in SL!) you can have 10 or more islands, full of wonderful stuff, and make it accesible to everybody.

As you well say, in a near future land will be free. When I think of all the wonderful sims that have been force-trashed by the deliriously high prices of SL I get very sad. LL’s position towards IP rights is very understandable, but a lot of wonderful (and historically significant) islands have been lost forever.

We’re pioneers of the 3D internet. Most probably, our stuff will look simple and primitive in some years — if Opensim survives and gets to be the Apache of virtual worlds, as I fervently wish. In any case, I don’t see any reason to dump it or delete it; to the contrary, I’m determined to spend the little free time I’ve left to care for it and make it grow. At this moment, amateur, non-for-profit grids like Condensation are works of love; it’s very nice to see prople showing some interest, as it is the only reward we get, and I thank you very sincerely for that :-)

P.S.: If you want to try Condensation with a local avatar, drop me an email and I’ll instantly create one for you.

What distribution of OpenSim are you running? Is it the Diva Distro? Or the standard OpenSim?

Also, judging by the hypergrid addresses, all these regions are running on a single server. What kind of machine are you using?

Meanwhile, it must be nice to have as much virtual land as you need. I can see a future — very soon — where new regions come at no additional cost (just like most Web hosting companies these days offer virtually unlimited space). I wonder how that will change how people create and use virtual worlds. :-)

– Maria

Re: stability: Condensation is wonderfully stable and lag-free, as you commented, which is quite astonishing because it’s a home-based machine and the sims are quite loaded (e.g., Condensation Land has > 10,000 prims). There’s an annoying bug which causes Opensim.exe to crash lately, but apart from that it works wonderfully — and the only cost is the enterprise-grade SDSL line (around 220 €/mo).

Thanks for all the work you’re putting in your directory — it’s a great and much needed job :-)

We returned to CondensationLand and added a few more regions to our directory:

http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/worlds/tag/CondensationLand/

Wow, what a great collection of fantastic builds! I hope to see some events held here, so more people get to see them.

No problems teleporting in — in face, I teleported in and out quite a bit to other grids (mostly Cyberlandia) while checking that the hypergrid addresses worked. No problems at all. Very stable, very fast!

– Maria Korolov
Editor, Hypergrid Business

I WILL BE BACK, LOL and knack open that inventory to Tralfalmadore-LaMikilina island OS for all to enjoy the freebies

wishing you all the best Zonja

Mikil