This information is now obsolete. The hosting service that I was using for my island has closed, so the island is no more, and I have yet to find a new host. Watch this space for any news, though.
Before I can tell you about OSGrid, I first need to explain about OpenSim. The OpenSim project has been developing a clone of the Second Life server (actually, they eventually hope to create something that outclasses Second Life, but that’s a long-term goal). Many of the other virtual worlds which have sprung up recently, such as OpenLife or Legend City, make use of OpenSim.
OSGrid is another of these virtual worlds, but takes a somewhat different approach. In the other worlds (and Second Life itself) the world is hosted on a set of servers owned by a single company. Instead, OSGrid allows you to plug your own OpenSim server into a grid that hosts multiple servers. As you wander round OSGrid, you are actually moving between regions which are hosted on lots of different computers, scattered all over the world. OSGrid is the first major step towards a truly distributed metaverse.
Because it is relatively new, you need a reasonable amount of technical knowledge to be able to host your own server and connect it to the OSGrid. However, there is at least one person who can provide this service for you, in a way that is similar to a web-host company hosting your web-site — a model that I imagine will become as standard in the 3D web as it is in the existing world-wide web.
For more information, see this web-page:
Templar Island on OSGrid
Templar Creations has taken advantage of the above-mentioned hosting, and now has an island on OSGrid. If you want to visit, you will need to register with OSGrid (it’s free) and connect to the grid either using the Second Life client, or a compatible client (OSGrid recommends the Hippo client — I’ve never used this, so I can’t comment).
Full instructions on how to connect will be found on the OSGrid website. Once you have started your Second Life client program, you will be presented with a new log-in screen, which includes a list of regions connected to OSGrid. Scroll down this list, and find a region called ‘Templar’. Click this, and log in to visit the island.
Here is the Templar Island version of the main store, under construction:
Feel free to visit and have a look around. There isn’t much to see yet, but that should change soon.
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