OpenSim HyperGrid : Is the HypeGrid in Danger of being Fragmented into the Have's and Have not's ?

By Avatar JayR Cela

       I don't mean to sound gloomy, however the HyperGrid is currently facing a very serious dilemma. With the recent introduction of OS 0.9.1.x there is a HUGE incompatibility issue dealing with Viewers and wither or not you will be able to travel freely between 1 grid to another successfully. Let me rephrase that, yes you can still travel about, however how people see your Avatar when you arrive at your destination can be troublesome to say the least. I have been doing some testing using Singularity v.1.8.7.8193 as an example.

      I am able to log into my home grid 3rd Rock Grid with this viewer just fine, 3RG is based on OS 0.8.2.x and things work well for me as long as I remain in 3RG, (or travel to another OS 0.8.2.x grid) however if I HG out to another grid running OS 0.9.1.x and return to 3RG, that's when the trouble starts, my avatar (witch is non-mesh) simply will not rezz, it's gone!!! POOF!!!, you can see all of my mesh clothing but not my avatar and neither can anyone else. Conversely if I log into another home grid that is running OS 0.9.1.x and travel to another grid running OS 0.8.2.x I can see my avatar just fine, but to other people, they can see my mesh clothing only, I have coined the term as "The Hollow Man Effect" just like the old "Invisible Man" movie as he removes his bandage's. And it doesn't stop there, I have found my avatar to be completely trashed a few time's after experiencing this problem, and it has been an unnecessary pain in the ass to fix afterwards.

    Now we get the one of the most troubling aspect's of this, and that is the decision of the viewer developers, should they choose to support OS 0.8.x or 0.9.1.x ? or can they actually support both, that may or may not be possible, *note* the FireStorm viewer's project manager clearly pointing out this issue a few months ago with her decision to place OS FireStorm future development into a holding pattern at the 6.0.2.56680 version.

    The bad news is this problem may not be solvable, the good news is some of the major players in the OpenSim Dev field are aware of this, and OS 0.8.2.x proponent Shelenn Aires of Metaversedepot Grid  and uBit Marmanov the current lead dev of OS 0.9.1.x team are talking with one in other to hopefully find a solution.

     If this problem ends up be an unsolvable one, then I think we can kiss the HyperGrid goodbye as a usable platform.

    Unless every grid out there decides to upgrade to OS 0.9.1.x, and I seriously doubt that is going to happen any time soon.

JayR Cela :_)