It is recommended that you first get OpenSim running in standalone mode, before you attempt to connect it to a grid, either your own grid or a public grid.

A simulator actually consists of four services, known as UGAS which stand for User, Grid, Asset & Simulator. They are started in that order.

A simulator running in its default standalone mode has all the services self-contained, but they are very modest. This means any first/last/password works. It also means inventory is all local with no region or grid-wide connections.

A simulator running as a local grid runs all four services on the same computer. Multiple sims can be run, across-region crossing including teleporting and a set of inventory items that are within this local grid.

A simulator running as part of a public grid runs only OpenSim.exe and the other three services are running on a server common to many regions. This also means that understanding the needed UUID, X,Y location, server handshake passwords, master avatar first/last/password and a couple of other settings. These are not difficult, but do require a little care in setting up.

Command Line arguments passed to OpenSim.exe

OpenSim.exe responds to various command line arguments. These include "-gridmode", "-accounts", "-realphysx", "-bulletX", "-ode", "-localasset", "-configfile", "-noverbose" & "-config" as of r1510.

Most users in standalone mode will not add any command line arguments. For local grid or public grid, the "-gridmode=true" is usually the only argument used. The rest are for more advanced configuration.

"-gridmode=true" sets sandBoxMode and startLoginServer both to false.

"-accounts" sets userAccounts = true.

"-realPhysx" sets physicsEngine = "RealPhysX".

"-bulletX" sets physicsEngine = "BulletXEngine".

"-ode" sets physicsEngine = "OpenDynamcsEngine"

"-localasset" sets gridLocalAsset = true.

"-configfile" sets useConfigFile = true.

"-noverbose" sets silent = true.

"-config" sets configFile = string passed on command line.

All of this is described in Application.cs.

Standalone mode

When you start OpenSim in standalone mode, it will ask you several question at the console. The first set of prompts that start with "NETWORK SERVERS INFO", you can just hit return to accept the defaults if you will be running in standalone mode.

The prompts that start with "DEFAULT REGION CONFIG" are where you need to start paying attention. Some are self-explanatory. Here are explanations for the others:

• Grid Location. OpenSim regions can be placed anywhere on a 65536 by 65536 grid. In standalone mode, it is safe to leave these X and Y locations at their defaults.

• Filename for local storage. Safe to leave at default.

• Internal IP address; This should always be 0.0.0.0

• Internal IP port for incoming UDP client connection. You can make this any port you want, but it is safe to leave at the default 9000.

• External host name. If you will only be attaching to your sim from a SecondLife client on the same machine, you can leave this at the default 127.0.0.1. If you will be wanting to connect to it from a client on another machine, this should be the IP address or hostname of the machine you are running this sim on.

To connect to your new sim, start up secondlife with the following command line switches:

-loginuri http://127.0.0.1:9000/

This assumes you are running the secondlife client on the same box. If you are running it on a separate box, substitute the IP address of your sim machine.

Grid mode

You want to run your own grid. Great! Assuming that you already got your sim running in standalone mode, here is what you need to do:

1. Current builds of OpenSim grid mode are using mysql to store the grid information. You must have this installed and configured if you want to run your own grid. See mysql-config for more information.

2. The servers should be started in a certain order. UGAS: UserServer, GridServer, AssetServer, Sim. These are all found in the bin directory. In windows, you can just double-click on the executables to start them. In linux, you will probably have to start them with mono. The executable names are:

OpenSim.Grid.UserServer.exe
OpenSim.Grid.GridServer.exe
OpenSim.Grid.AssetServer.exe
OpenSim.exe

3. Start the UserServer. If you will be running the GridServer on the same box, hit enter to accept the defaults, until it gives you the prompt

OpenUser#

This is the main prompt for the user server. If you will be running the GridServer on another box, change the Default Grid Server URI as appropriate.

4. Start the GridServer. Again, you can hit return at all the prompts if you are running them all on the same machine. If not, change the URIs for the Asset Server and User server to point to where you are running them. You will finally get to the console prompt for the GridServer which looks like this:

OpenGrid#

5. Start the AssetServer. This is not used at the current time, so you don't need to start it. The console prompt for this server will be:

OpenAsset#

6. If you are running all of these servers on the same box, which would be the normal configuration. You should be ready to start up your sim. Since the OpenSim.exe starts up by default in standalone mode, you will need to give it a command line switch to tell it to use gridmode instead:

OpenSim.exe -gridmode

or

mono OpenSim.exe -gridmode

With any luck, everything will come up without too many arrors.

7. Go to the UserServer console, and type 'create user' to create a new avatar. It will prompt you for the name and password, and the X and Y of the sim that should be his home location. Use 1000 and 1000, or wherever you told your sim to live when you brought it up in standalone mode.

At the console of any of these servers, you should be able to type 'help' to get a list of commands.

You should now be able to connect to your new grid with your secondlife client. You need to tell your client to point at the UserServer rather than direclty at the sim, though:

secondlife -loginuri http://127.0.0.1:8002/

8002 is the default port for the UserServer, and that IP address should be changed to the server you are running the UserServer on, if they are not all on the same box.

Happy OpenSimming!

Attaching your sim to someone else's grid

In your bin directory, you will find a file called

network_servers_information.xml

This file has the configuration for telling your sim how to attach to a grid. You can edit this file with any text editor.

The grid owner should provide you with the following information to configure this file so that you can attach to their grid:

• GridServerURL

• GridSendKey

• GridRecvKey

• UserServerURL

• UserSendKey

• UserRecvKey

• AssetServerURL

The keys are used to make sure that you can both know that you are connecting to the correct box at the other end. This offers a level of security.

The other file you may have to change is in your bin/Regions directory. This is where your individual region config files are. If you only have one region, it will by default be called:

default.xml

This can be edited with any text editor. The grid owner may tell you what X and Y location you can place your sim at (you can't have multiple sims at the smae location on the grid). If so, the fields you will need to change in this file are sim_location_x, and sim_location_y.

A list of public grids that you can attach your sim to are at OpenSim:_Grids