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Obtaining OpenSimulator Available Viewers

OpenSimulator does not come with a viewer in its distribution. You'll need to download an OpenSimulator compatible client before connecting to OpenSimulator grids.

If you find a viewer which can connect to OpenSim, feel free to add it to the list.

Viewers with Grid Selector and Grid Manager

Below are viewers that have both a grid selector and a "Grid Manager". It enables you to select one of the many grids, including a grid or region on localhost (your own PC). There is also a UI interface to allow you to modify or add connection settings to these grids.

• RealXtend - a fork of the 1.23 Linden Client that has specialized features (not fully supported.)
• Hippo Viewer - a fork of version 1.23 of the Linden Client with OpenSimulator specific enhancements
• Imprudence Innovative viewer with a high focus on OpenSimulator (good OSSL support). Highly popular amongst users on OSGrid.
• 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)
• Singularity - A V1 based viewer, with the all the good stuff from v2/3 added. Supports Mesh, OSSL, LightShare, multiple attachments, and more.
• Cool VL Viewer - the oldest of all actively maintained Third Party Viewers (former name: Cool SL Viewer), fully OpenSimulator compatible. It also got support for Mesh, Alpha, Tattoos and Physics, multiple attachments per joint, multiple clothing layers, inventory links, etc...

Viewers with Grid Selector

These viewers don't have a Grid Manager, but you can a grid from a list, including localhost. You may need to manually edit a configuration file in order to connect to grids that are not originally included.

• Looking Glass viewer, Discontinued. Only OSGrid, ScienceSim and localhost are available from the list.
• Firestorm viewer v3 based TPV, touted as Phoenix's successor.
• Kokua v2/3 based successor of Imprudence. Currently in alpha/experimental stage.
• Dolphin Viewer v3 based viewer, but v1 and v2 based versions are also available. Contains modifications which are useful for building, sailing, and for using vehicles.

Viewers without Grid Selector

You will need to launch this viewer with a --loginuri command line parameter to connect to OpenSimulator grids. See [1] for the syntax of this command, or visit the support section on the homepage of your preferred grid.

• Second Life Viewer

Text-only Viewers

These are lightweight viewers, which either do not offer a graphical component or where the graphical component is not used by deault. The function of these viewers however is to connect to a grid, chat, manage inventory, etc. Useful on systems with low specifications or for bringing an alt online without having your main avatar log out, or to quickly take care of messages, inventory, etc.

• Radegast Metaverse Client Works with OpenSim-based grids, as well as with SL. Has Windows, MacOS and Linux versions.

Other Viewers

• Idealist viewer, Not actively developed.
• 3Di viewer, Status unknown.
• Xenki, an XBAP 3D application intended to be a browser add-on for OpenSimulator. Not actively developed.

Feature Table

Viewer Name

Based on Version

Grid Selector

Grid Manager

Graphical

Mesh

OSSL support

LightShare [1]

Parcel Windlight [2]

Multiple Attachments

Multiple Clothing Layers

Operating System

Notes

RealXtend Naali

n/a

√

√

√

?

?

?

?

?

?

[3]

Hippo Viewer

v1

√

√

√

X

√

X

X

X

X

Imprudence

v1

√

√

√

X

√

√

X

X

X

Phoenix Viewer

v1

√

√

√

√

X

X

√

√

X

Singularity

v1

√

√

√

√

√

√

X

√

X

Cool VL Viewer

v1

√

√

√

√

√

X

X

√

√

Kokua

v2/3

√

X

√

√

X

X

X

√

√

[4]

Looking Glass viewer

?

√

X

√

?

?

?

?

?

?

Second Life Viewer

v2/3

X

X

√

√

X

X

X

√

√

Firestorm viewer

v2/3

√

X

√

√

X

X

√

√

√

Radegast Metaverse Client

n/a

√

X

Text client with graphical component

√

X

X

X

√

?

Idealist viewer

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

[5]

3Di viewer

Browser

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

Xenki

Browser

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

[5]

Dolphin Viewer

v1/2/3

√

X

√

√ (v2/3)

X

X

X

√

√ (v2/3)

Notes

• #1 LightShare is a method for altering WindLight settings on a parcel or region by means of a script. See Lightshare.
• #2 The Parcel Windlight referred to here, is a Phoenix/Firestorm feature which lets parcel owners define a windlight setting which is to be applied to a user's viewer if the viewer supports it, and if the visitor has enabled that feature. See the Parcel WL article on the Phoenix wiki for more info.
• #3 RealXtend requires an additional module to be active on OpenSimulator. See ModRex.
• #4 Data based on Kokua-3.0.0-WIP [2], may soon be out of date!
• #5 Only source code is provided. No precompiled binaries!

Some other viewers that can connect to Second Life can also connect to OpenSimulator. You can find them in the Third Party Directory at the Second Life wiki.

Note that you will have to register a new account for each grid that you want to be on. This means that your Second Life login does not work on any other grid, and that your login for other grids will not work on Second Life, etc.

Many viewers with grid selectors will show a link to that grid's signup page when selecting a grid. You can create your account by clicking that link, and following the instructions on the signup page.

Connecting to the Grid with A Grid Selector (Recommended)

Most viewers have a grid selector which in many cases is already visible, and located at the bottom of the login screen. If it is not visible, try pressing Ctrl-Shift-G to (un)hide the grid selector.

If the grid is present in the list

If you see the grid you want to connect to in the grid selector, then simply choose it from the drop down menu, enter the username and password that you chose when you created your account on that grid, and click the "Log in" button.

If the grid is missing from the list

If your preferred grid is not present in the drop down menu, then you will have to add it manually. You will have to do this only once. First, find the grid manager. Usually, this can be found in the preferences of your viewer, in a tab called "Grids". In general, the only fields that you will have to fill in are:

• Grid Name (or alike) - A name you can easily identify the grid by. OpenSimulator grids don't use this information, so you can name it anything you like.
• Login URI - The most important information. It should be like "http://someserver:9000" or "http://someserver". For instance, for OSGrid, this is "http://login.osgrid.org/".

Near these fields, you will also find a button named "Get Grid Info" or similar. If you click it, it may fill out several blank fields with URIs. In some cases, clicking the button will cause an error message to pop up, or in rare cases, freeze the viewer. If clicking the button causes problems of any kind, you can leave the remaining fields empty, or find the missing info and add it manually. Leaving the fields empty will normally not cause problems, and you will still be able to log in to that grid, although on some grids, some features may be unavailable until the missing info is added.

Click the "Apply" or "OK" button to store your new grid in the menu, and you will be ready to log in as explainted under If_the_grid_is_present_in_the_list

For instructions that are specific for your favorite viewer, see your viewer's website.

Connecting to the Grid with Viewer Parameters

If your viewer doesn't have a grid selector, or if you are having problems adding the grid to your viewer's grid list, then an alternative method is to use viewer parameters.

Basically, all you will really need is to pass the --loginuri command line parameter to the viewer and launch with it, although you will want to use all of the viewer parameters that are suggested for your preferred grid.

For example, you use the Second Life Viewer on Windows, and want to connect to OSGrid. A quick-and-easy way would be as follows:

• Press Windows Key + R, this wil open the Run dialog.
• In the Run dialog, enter the following:

SecondLife.exe --loginuri http://login.osgrid.org/ --loginpage http://www.osgrid.org/splash/

• Press "Enter", or click "OK" and your viewer should start. After clicking the login button, you will enter OSGrid.

On OSX, you could also use AppleScript, which enables you to select multiple grids to connect to. See the OSX Grid Selector Script article for a pre-made script.

For more information on viewer parameters that are known to work with the Linden Lab Second Life Viewer and with Snowglobe based viewers, see this Second Life wiki page about using viewer parameters.

The Linden Labs viewer has a number of additional options. Most of which are not useful to average users. See the parameter reference on the Second Life Wiki for details.

Connecting to your locally hosted server from behind a DSL router using NAT

Loopback Most DSL routers/modems prevent loopback connections as a security feature. This means that a NATed IP address ( such as 192.168.2.40 ) can not connect to your forward facing IP address ( such as 199.149.252.44 ) from behind your DSL router/modem. In a case like this, external IP addresses may connect to your server/region but you can not ( this applies to both standalone and grid modes ).

List of routers featuring NAT Loopback : NAT Loopback Routers

Router solution If you are using a ZyXEL DSL router/modem from Embarq, please read this guide. This will show you how to reconfigure your DSL router/modem to fix this problem. Similar solutions may exist for other DSL router/modems. A Google search for the make and model of your DSL router/modem may provide you with a manual to assist you in this.

A word of caution : be VERY careful what you change and take good notes along the way so you can undo any changes you make in error.

DNS solution(Linux) It's possible to host your own DNS-server, so you can prevent some of the dns-naming problems mentioned before. If http://example.org resolves to the external ip, and that loopback connection is prevented by your router, you could point your resolv.conf to a local nameserver like:

nameserver 192.168.2.2

Now you need bind/named installed in order to handle the dns-requests. You can find a bind example configfile here.

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 OpenSimulator viewer.