Connecting
From OpenSimulator
Compatible Viewers
Before you can connect to OpenSim, you'll need to have downloaded one of the following clients that can connect to OpenSim.
- Linden Client (Release version 2 is not fully supported by OpenSim.)
- Hippo Viewer - a fork of version 1.23 of the Linden Client with OpenSim specific enhancements
- RealXtend - a fork of the 1.23 Linden Client that has specialized features (not fully supported.)
- Cool VL Viewer - one of the oldest Third Party Viewers around (former name: Cool SL Viewer), fully OpenSim compatible.
- Phoenix Viewer Based on the now discontinued Emerald Viewer (which was based on the 1.23 LL viewer), one of the most popular viewers. Combines many improvements and features from different viewers. (Not fully supported)
- Imprudence Innovative viewer with a high focus on OpenSimulator (good OSSL support). Highly popular amongst users on OSGrid.
Other compatible viewers
The viewers below are open source, and not based on the Snowglobe, nor on the Snowstorm viewers.
- Idealist viewer, Not actively developed.
- Looking Glass viewer, Status active.
- 3Di viewer, Status unknown.
Connecting with the Linden Viewer
***NOTE***: These instructions apply to the Linden Labs viewer ONLY. Most other viewers have a more elegant method to choose a grid. See the documentation for those viewers for more information.
Every OpenSim grid or instance will specify a loginuri, which is a uri of the form http://someserver:9000 (standalone mode) or http://someserver:8002 (grid mode). For instance, for osgrid, this is http://login.osgrid.org. The following sections assume that you have that uri. We'll use http://login.osgrid.org as our example url.
A list of major public grids can be found at Grid_List. OSGrid is just one of many available.
Linux
- change directory to you viewer (SecondLife_XYZ)
- run
./secondlife -loginuri http://login.osgrid.org
Windows
- make a copy of the SecondLife icon on your desktop
- rename it to the grid you want to connect to
- edit the properties on the icon and set the command line to
...\SecondLife.exe" -loginuri http://login.osgrid.org
Mac
- Make a 'somefilename.sh' file, and put this in it:
- /Applications/Second\ Life.app/Contents/MacOS/Second\ Life -loginuri http://login.osgrid.org
- set it to executable
- run it
If you have multiple viewers and multiple grids to connect to, you can try the following AppleScript (one could do something similar with a shell script). Feel free to copy and modify for your own use.
-- -- This script selects a viewer and a grid for virtual worlds. -- -- -- Variables for the two supported viewers. More may be added here. -- set lindenViewer to "\"/Applications/SecondLife/Second Life.app/Contents/MacOS/Second Life\"" set emeraldViewer to "\"/Applications/SecondLife/GreenLife Emerald Viewer.app/Contents/MacOS/GreenLife Emerald Viewer\"" -- -- Variables for options to select the specified grid. Since the viewers -- are based on the 2nd life viewer, the options are the same for each -- viewer. Also, connecting to the Second Life grid is the default option -- if no other options are provided. -- -- Currently, four grids are supported. More may be easily added. -- set lindenOptions to "" set localStandalone to " -loginuri http://vw.server.lan:9000 -loginpage http://vw.server.lan/opensim/index.html" set localGrid to " -loginuri http://vw.server.lan:8000 -loginpage http://vw.server.lan/opensim/index.html" set osGridOptions to " -loginuri http://osgrid.org:8002 -loginpage http://osgrid.org/loginscreen.php -helperuri http://osgrid.org/" -- -- Display dialog and select the viewer. -- set dialogResult to display dialog "Choose viewer: 1) 2nd Life viewer 2) Emerald viewer:" default answer "1" with title "Select Viewer" with icon 1 set option to text returned of dialogResult if option = "2" then set viewer to emeraldViewer else set viewer to lindenViewer end if -- -- Display dialog and select the grid. -- set dialogResult to display dialog "Choose server: 1) 2nd Life grid 2) local standalone 3) local grid 4) OS Grid" default answer "2" with title "Select Grid" with icon 1 set grid to text returned of dialogResult if grid = "1" then set options to lindenOptions else if grid = "2" then set options to localStandalone else if grid = "3" then set options to localGrid else if grid = "4" then set options to osGridOptions else set options to localStandalone end if -- -- Combine the grid and viewer and execute the result. -- set command to viewer & options do shell script command
Linden Viewer options
The Linden viewer has a number of other options. Some are useful, some are not. The viewer has a help option which produces the following results:
--autologin log in as last saved user
--channel arg n/a
--console arg n/a
--cooperative arg Yield some idle time to local host.
--crashonstartup Crashes on startup. For QA use.
--debugviews n/a
--drop arg n/a
--god Log in a god if you have god access.
--grid arg Specify the name of the grid, local, or an IP address
to connect to.
-h [ --help ] display this help message
--helperuri arg helper web CGI prefix to use
--ignorepixeldepth Ignore pixel depth settings.
--inbw arg n/a
--logfile arg n/a
--login args 3 tokens: first, last and password
--loginpage arg Login authentication page to use.
--loginuri arg login server and CGI script to use
--multiple Allow multple viewers.
--no-verify-ssl-cert n/a
--noaudio n/a
--noinvlib Do not request the inventory library.
--nopreload n/a
--noprobe n/a
--noquicktime n/a
--nosound n/a
--novoice Disable voice.
--outbw arg n/a
--port arg n/a
--purge Delete files in the cache.
--qa Activated debugging menu in Advanced Settings.
--quitafter arg n/a
--rotate n/a
--safe Reset preferences, run in safe mode.
--set args specify the value of a particular
configuration variable that
overrides all other settings
--setdefault args specify the value of a particular
configuration variable which can be
overridden by settings.xml
--settings arg Specify the filename of a configuration file.
--skin arg ui/branding skin folder to use
--slurl arg Startup SLurl
--url arg Startup location
--psn arg MacOSX process serial number
Note
The above described methods work for the SecondLife viewer, other viewers that support the GridInfo protocol won't need this.
Alternative Connection Approaches
Via a Web Browser
You can also set up a Browser Protocol Handler which will make opensim:// links in your browser do the expected thing, and launch the right OpenSim viewer.
- Xenki - Xenki is an XBAP 3D application intended to be a browser add-on for OpenSim.
