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Technical Reference -> Terms -> Developer Documentation

Developer Documentation

General

• Development Team — OpenSim is brought to you by...
• OpenSim: Introduction and Definitions — A work in progress describing the high level components of OpenSim
• OpenSim: Technical Reference — A technical description of the simulator operation.
• Grid Architecture Diagram
• OpenSim: Screenshots — Various OpenSim screenshots.
• The OpenSim API

Development

• Release Cycle
• On revisions, tags and branches
• Hacking OpenSim for fun and profit — A starters guide for programming OpenSim.
• Coding standards — Coding conventions for developers.
• Automated Testing — How to write tests for OpenSim.
• Debugging Unit Tests — How to debug the automated tests.
• Branches — An overview of the repository branches and what they are for.
• Monodevelop — How to use the monodevelop IDE for editing C# solutions.
• Creating New Solution — How to create new solution according to OpenSim conventions.
• Improving Performance — Efforts to increase OpenSim's performance.

Services

• Mantis Bug Tracking — Mantis is the issue tracking tool of OpenSimulator.
• Bamboo Continuous Integration — Bamboo builds the source base continuously and runs unit tests.
• OpenSimulator GForge — Project hosting for OpenSimulator related projects.

Client Stacks

• Sim Throttles — Information on how OpenSim handles throttling of packets to the client.

Database

• Database Documentation — A map of grid and region instances used in OpenSim
• MonoSqlite — How the database model currently works.
• LSL:PrimitiveParams — Notes on converting SL Edit GUI values and LSL PrimitiveParams to OpenSim PrimitiveBaseShape fields
• NHibernate Performance Testing — SQLite and MySQL performance tests with NHibernate.

File formats

• Technical_Reference/OpenSim_Archive_Region_Format - Opensim Region Archive (OAR) file format.
• Inventory_Archives - OpenSim Inventory Archive (IAR) file format

Grid

• Asset Server problems - list of known problems with the asset server
• Teleports - some diagrams about OGP and Hypergrid teleport sequences
• Agent Domain / Service - Details about the GridForge hosted Agent Domain/Service code

Web Integration

• Webinterface — How to mashup with the web.
• RemoteAdmin — How to use the remote admin plug-in.
• RestConsole - Description how to use the REST remote console
• REST — Information about the REST interface to assets, inventory, etc.
• Known Web Interfaces within OpenSim — The set of CAPS, XMLRPC, or REST entry points in the project.

Modules

• RegionModules — The various modules that are used in the RegionServer and how to write new ones.
• How to create a dynamic plugin - A tutorial for using PluginLoader
• Getting Started with Region Modules - This brief tutorial is intended to get people started with developing applications with/for opensim using region modules and the opensim API.
• Web Statistics Module - The web statistics module documentation and counter wish list.

Permissions

• OpenSim:Permissions(Server) — Permissions system as implemented on the region server.
• OpenSim: Permissions — Notes on how object permissions are handled on the client.

Physics

• PhysicsEngines — Options for physics engines in OpenSim.
• Physics Engine Interface — what methods and such exist in a Physics module

Protocols

• Metaverse Exchange Protocol — MXP is alternative protocol for secondlife protocol.

Regions

• Overview of How Regions Work - notes from ter_afk to rknop in #opensim-dev, cleaned up a bit
• OpenSim: Permissions — Notes on object permissions & definition of the ObjectFlags variable.
• OpenSim Load Balancing and Region Splitting - Instructions for using load balancing and region splitting features.

Threading

• OpenSim: Threading strategy — How threading is implemented and handled.

Scripting

• Scripting_Documentation — How to use scripts and what limitations apply.
• LSL Implemented — A list of LSL-functions that are available in OpenSim.
• OSSL — Some information about the OpenSimulator Scripting Language, and how to implement an OSSL function
• OpenSim.Region.ScriptEngine — How the ScriptEngine looks internally.

Search

• OpenSim.Region.DataSnapshot - Shiny new data gathering/search system
• ImageService - Shiny new region module for serving search-related images

Testing

• Automated_Testing — Writing Automated tests for OpenSim.
• Debugging Unit Tests — Debugging unit tests.
• OpenSim: Debugging - profiler dumps — Dumps of OpenSim profiles to aid in tracking memory leaks.
• Prim_Linking_Testing — Test cases for in world link/unlinking of prims.

Proposals

• Opensim: 0.5 Release Target Discussion
• Opensim: 0.6 Release Target Discussion
• Opensim: Future Release Discussion

• A better SimCrossing - A work in progress about implementing a smooth simcrossing
• OpenID - Proposal for using OpenID in OpenSim
• AssetServerProposal - Proposal for a distributed asset server
• Creating profiles not used for login - RFC for alternative ways of creating profiles that will never be used for login
• OpenSim_Services_and_Service_Connectors - new infrastructure for connecting region simulators to backend services
• OpenSim Profile Anchors - a mechanism for retaining creator information for offline item transfers
• Explicit Object Serialization - a proposal to explicitly serialize scene objects rather than using automatic .NET XML serialization

Proposed projects

• OpenWiredux: Taking the next step
• Using SNMP in OpenSim

Communication

A good first point of contact is the OpenSim IRC, on irc.freenode.net channels #opensim / #opensim-dev. The OpenSim developers hold office hours once a week in-world on Tuesdays at "Wright Plaza" on OSGrid. There is a "Test Hour" on Saturdays, also generally on "Wright Plaza". Both these weekly events are held at 1900UTC. Check on the #opensim IRC channel on Freenode just before each of these events if there is any confusion.

There is also a mailman email distribution list available at https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev

Interest Groups

• OpenSim Quality Focus Group - A proposed group for developers interested in improving the quality of OpenSim as we head towards beta status.

Git Access

You can browse the source code for OpenSim using a web browser or via git.

• Anonymous Checkout - see Download
• Developer Checkout

git clone ssh://USERNAME@opensimulator.org/var/git/opensim

Submitting Patches

Please review Submitting_code_to_OpenSim

Recent Git Commits

a few changes to last patch (UbitUmarov) (Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:37:22 -0700)

a few changes to last patch UbitUmarov <ajlduarte at sapo dot pt> .../InventoryAccess/InventoryAccessModule.cs

Handle failed asset stores for InventoryAccessModule (Vincent Sylvester) (Tue, 30 Jun 2026 01:58:32 -0700)

Handle failed asset stores for InventoryAccessModule Signed-off-by: UbitUmarov <ajlduarte@sapo.pt> Vincent Sylvester <vincentsylvester at zetamex dot com> .../InventoryAccess/InventoryAccessModule.cs

fix typo in function name (missed file) (UbitUmarov) (Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:32:56 -0700)

fix typo in function name (missed file) UbitUmarov <ajlduarte at sapo dot pt> .../Avatar/Attachments/AttachmentsModule.cs

fix typo in function name (UbitUmarov) (Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:31:33 -0700)

fix typo in function name UbitUmarov <ajlduarte at sapo dot pt> OpenSim/Region/Framework/Scenes/Scene.cs

cosmetics and things (UbitUmarov) (Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:50:17 -0700)

cosmetics and things UbitUmarov <ajlduarte at sapo dot pt> .../External/ExternalRepresentationUtils.cs

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