DiscoveryGrid Community Meeting
DiscoveryGrid Transition to O3DE
This is a compendium of notes and slides presented at the September 14th 2024 Community Meeting. It includes the latter part of the agenda that would have been the DG Round Table meeting, which is usually held monthly. The first few slides form the context for the important decisions that have been made by Discovery Grid.
The Agenda
The Firestorm version 7 viewer, notably v7.1.9, inherited an unusually higher number of bugs compared to previous versions, primarily because the release introduced compelling major features which introduced additional burden to integrate conflicting OpenSim back-level features. Physically Based Rendering, the introduction of new protocols, and a new inventory protocol created a much higher development load. Furthermore, the webRTC voice replacement to Vivox voice also added to the workload of the Firestorm team. These issues have given us a viewer which is not able to run reliably with OpenSim. Until further notice, do not use the v7 viewer. Instead, use v6.6.17.
WebRTC voice development is underway for OpenSim. The work is presently in the design phase, so a release estimate is months away.
I mentioned recently finding corrupted inventory, and subsequently I wrote a diagnostic applet to scan for corruption. It found three avatars with mildly damaged inventory, repairing the corruption with no losses. But, inventory corruption will recur if people continue to run older viewers.
Recent Grid Actions
These are some of the actions taken in the last two months:
- I am closing the WEB marketplace as only one person to date showed interest in it when it was introduced many months ago.
- I closed region Bathurst because it was not used.
- I ended new 1x1 region purchases because they are a net revenue loss.
- I lowered tier overall by 10% and for some existing regions with low prims by as much as 30%.
- I released a region server as it was not needed for the current grid workload.
State of the Grid
Looking back from 2019 to the present, this is what has transpired:
- Active accounts down to 26%
- Monthly active users (MAU) down to 19%
- Monthly Hypergrid (HG) visitors down to 21%
- Total regions down to 55%
- Private regions (24) down to 21%
- Revenue generating regions (19) down to 17%
Contributing Economy
I also looked at the overall economy, and how our residents have contributed to the grid offerings. One measure I use is to look at the merchant contributions, event creators, and land rentals. Although they do not directly bring revenue to the grid, they do bring in people which creates a good vibe. The DG WEB site shows the classifieds, parcel destinations, merchant offerings, and entertainment venue offerings. Those listings are replicated automatically inworld at the Hall of Regions, the Hall of Merchants, and the Club & Rental boards in region Discovery City.
The Hall of Regions display boards (which list searchable parcels), used to be full and now sits at 75%.
Click on any of the photos to zoom into them
The Hall of Merchants boards, which also used to be full, now sits at 51%. The Clubs/Venues boards used to have 18 entries. I had to hide the side panels because of the heavy losses. Only two offerings remain, so it sits at 11%. Clearly this is not a good trend.
What's Next
Thinking on this, it is clear to me that this grid needs new experiences. It needs the means to ease the development effort by creatives; modern tools are required. Unfortunately OpenSim lacks these tools. If you travel to grids throughout the metaverse or in Second Life, what you find is the same old look. Second Life has introduced improvements, but core OpenSim does not believe in taking a number of them. I find this reluctance troubling. It is time to "Think Different". I have stayed with OpenSim because up until late 2023, there was no other 3D world platform better than OpenSim that did not come with either a very high price or encumbered with royalties. That changed a few years ago when Amazon transferred its Lumberyard code base, which was based on the CRYΞNGINΞ® codebase, over to the Open 3D Foundation, a part of the Linux Foundation.
A Modern World Platform
In three years, this new platform has been developed and enhanced into a fabulous 3D world platform called O3DE. Open 3D Engine (O3DE) is a free open-source, cross-platform, real time 3D engine that you can use to create high performance interactive experiences, including games and simulations (that which we call virtual worlds). It is modern with true ocean swells and waves, realistic volumetric clouds, several sophisticated particle systems. You can import industry standard 3D models and avatars. It uses PhysX5 for physical objects and physics cloth. These features impart highly realistic scenes. The land space is 64 km x 64 km. That is 39 x 39 miles or 512 8 x 8 OpenSim regions. Nonetheless, there is need to develop simplified tools to let the average person build things.
To see visual examples of the new platform follow these links:
The Transition
Transitioning to this exciting new platform is going to take considerable effort and time. I believe it is well worth it, and I believe it is going to require my total focus to get it completed ASAP. To make that happen I have to be looking at OpenSim 'in the rear view mirror'. I must leave it behind.
What's Next
And so, to everything there is a season. I will close Discovery Grid in 90 days, specifically by December 15th 2024. That will be a run of 8 1/2 years of DG running on the OpenSim platform. This is not end of Discovery Grid the business, as I intend to recreate a new virtual world based on the modern O3DE platform.
Don't Panic
But first, don't panic. I promised long ago that if the grid were to close I would ensure an orderly closure. The grid will operate at full efficiency throughout this 90 day period. What follows is the staged closure process.
The Staged Closure Process
About a week before the end of tier for a region owner, I will deliver a full asset OAR for free. This has to be staged gently because there are 1.4 terabytes to deliver to the region owners. Most important: do NOT clear your regions before I deliver those OARs. I plan to start the process September 22nd. There is no rush.
Please take your time to decide where you plan to go. I list my recommended grids in the next slide. Once you find the Grid you wish to call home, create an avatar on it. Cross-friend it with your DG avatar. Make your inventory items full perm (those with which you have that ability), and begin to pass them over to your new alt. I have more on this in a later slide.
Recommended Grids
Here is the list of grids I recommend. My #1 choice is Utopia Skye Grid. It runs the same version of NGC OpenSim as used here. One of the owners, Mike Chase, is the prime developer for NGC OpenSim project. This codebase offers high stability and performance. Both Mike and his partner Calliope Andel are here today to answer your questions after my presentation.
About Money
One final thing to do is to cash out your DC$. That currency is entirely maintained by PODEX. You cash out by going to region Discovery City to the building with the PODEX terminals. Pay the orange terminal your DC$. It will then direct you to their WEB site to conclude the transaction. Payout takes a few days on average, but PLEASE take your time because causing a run on their bank can quickly stretch out payouts.
Summary
In summary, PODEX is fully responsible for the DC$ currency. I have no stake in it. Likewise, I have no stake in Gloebits (G$). For Gloebits, it is easier because Gloebits transfer between grids. But again, it is the Gloebit company who is fully responsible for their currency and cash outs.
The next 90 days will be normal grid operations. There will be staged free full asset OAR deliveries, do not rush canceling your regions, stay as long as you need during this staged closure period. For hypergrid transfers of your inventory, do so on your own region. If you have no region, do the transfers at regions Discovery City or The Annex. Those are the only public regions that have hypergrid outbound transfers enabled.
Q&A
It was my pleasure serving you. I want to thank all the people who strived to make this place the best it could be. This is not the end. I truly hope to see you drop in when the new platform is ready. And now, questions and answers.