How to navigate between virtual worlds joined together by the 'hypergrid', and how to find resources to assist in planning visits to various grids for virtual shopping, virtual events, community building, roleplaying, and more. ====================
Hypergridding:
Outside of Second Life there are a great number of virtual worlds, many of which have chosen to be connected through the hypergrid. Basically that means the grid itself has chosen to be ‘open’ to visitors from other hypergrid-enabled worlds. For the user, it means having the fun and convenience of travelling with the same avatar to multiple worlds. This means, for example, an avatar from Metropolis Grid or 3rd Rock Grid can easily travel to Digiworldz Grid to attend an event, participate in a roleplay, or shop.
Lag Tips: Just so you are aware, travelling from one world to the other is hardly any different from travelling from one sim to another. Still, you may crash or have difficulty with transport for a variety of reasons. It’s a good idea to have your draw distance low and clear cache before heading out on the hypergrid. Also as a general note in order to support Second Life and other worlds it is helpful to ensure your computer has been recently restarted and runs a defragment program weekly. Check your viewer graphics settings and keep them on low or minimum. Additional choices that may assist in reducing lag are: turning off names and group tags; checking your audio/video tab to be sure media won’t be automatically streamed, and make sure voice is off when you log in.
Search function:
Put simply: you can search on whatever grid you are on for people who are resident on that grid. You cannot search for people on your home grid while visiting another grid, and vice versa. You will also find your profile and inventory (except for your ‘suitcase’) to be unavailable to you when travelling. You are rarely able to search for events or places using the viewer search function on opensim. Most grid welcome areas therefore offer you either a transport hub to shopping and other areas of interest, and/or a vendor or other giver from which you can obtain landmarks. There are also several online resources that will assist you to find shopping, roleplay regions/groups, events, and other places of interest.
Navigation:
In Second Life we may find places to go by search keywords or names, or by using landmarks. Opensim is slightly different. We navigate using Map, and Landmarks. In order to get around then, you either need to use an LM to travel from your home grid to another, or have the hypergrid address of where you wish to go. I will also sometimes use the Map search function.. for example, if I am at the welcome area of a grid, I search 'free' and all the regions with free in the name are displayed, some are bound to be Freebie Malls or Stores. I can then choose one and click transport. Most of the time, though, I just paste the hypergrid address into the search box, click search, and when I see ‘region found’ I transport to where I want to go.
$$ Money:
Opensim is made up of non-commercial grids and commercial grids. Everything available at shopping areas on a non-commercial grid is absolutely free, as there is no currency on these grids. Do not imagine that means that the content is wanting in some way. There are awesome things available for nothing on the hypergrid. However, you might see a donation box where you are visiting, typically they will accept paypal and if you’ve enjoyed your visit you might consider supporting the region with a donation. For those grids which have currency, you will have to investigate how it works. In some cases you need to create an account on that grid to buy the currency, in other cases you can simply use paypal. But if you are just starting out, I would recommend exploring several grids and experiencing what is available to you before spending any real money.
Shopping: Now that we’ve covered some basics, let’s discuss finding what you’re looking for! Here are some resources: This is a searchable list of opensim events, shopping and other interests. Look under ‘categories’ to find what you need or pick a listing and read all about it. When you are reading the specific page for the item you have chosen, look to your right for the Hypergrid address. Copy and paste that into your map to travel to the place you have chosen. http://opensimworld.com For example, they list “Mall” as a category, and that takes you to this page: http://opensimworld.com/?vm=cat&cat=13 If you choose ‘Wright Plaza’ to the right of the description is the Hypergrid box with this address: hg.osgrid.org:80:Wright Plaza Open your Map, copy and paste this address into the search box, click “search” and when you see ‘region found’ click “Transport”. It was here that I found the listing for Lani, and I was amazed at the terrific sci fi items available there for free. Here is the page: http://opensimworld.com/hop/75049-Lani and here is the hypergrid address: hg.osgrid.org:80:Lani Another great resource is http://www.hyperica.com - in the menu you can choose retail, venues, culture, entertainment, and more. For example, I choose ‘Retail’ and then ‘Avatar Clothing & Accessories’ and get this list: http://www.hyperica.com/category/retail/avatar-clothing-accessories I might want to visit ‘AviWorlds Shopping Mall 1’ .. when I go to that specific page, under the photo is the hypergrid address: login.aviworlds.us:8002:AviWorlds Shopping Mall 1 Another cool thing is that on the same page, listed below, are ‘More Avatar Clothing and Accessories’, ‘More Avatar Shapes and Skins’ and ‘More Freebies Destinations’. One last thing: when you obtain an item on the hypergrid it usually goes into your ‘Suitcase’ so make sure to look there when you return home. If by chance you want access to something while you are hypergridding (a notecard with cool HG addresses, for example), make sure to put it in your Suitcase
before leaving home. And be aware, if you do crash while HGing, when you relog you will be on your home grid at whatever place you have set as home. So it is a good idea to take LMs as you travel, or keep a list of favourite locations either on the back page of profile, or on your computer with notepad or another text program. I hope you have found this article on hypergrid shopping to be helpful! =^= Po Toocool is an avatar roleplaying at Starfleet Nyota, an outpost of United Federation Starfleet based on Metropolis Grid. We are a Passionate Community of Trek-inspired Storytellers Writing Powerful Virtual Adventures Daily. #Fun #UFStarfleet #StarTrek #SciFi #ParaRP #Trekkies Blog: https://starfleetnyota.wordpress.com/
=A cool place to shop for Sci Fi items on the Hypergrid is Lani Mall=