Whereas the Metaverses are located and managed by servers, the visitors should use a viewer to access, navigate and build into the metaverses. The viewer is much like the Internet browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Mozilla, Opera, etc.) we daily use to access and browse the Internet websites. Please refer to the Viewer section for details.
Your Account
To enter into a metavers you need an account and to login in.
To enter a QSims metavers Privately running on your SOHO server, owner and visitors shall use an account registered on the SOHO QSims server. Registration is handled by the QS-Manager and is available from the left menu.
To enter metavers running on a Public grid, you shall register to that grid (refer to the Public grid instructions). You will be able to navigate the entire metaverses (made of Sims located on numerous servers) with only one account registered on the Public grid server.
To register:
You shall provide all required information
You must give a valid email address in order to receive the confirmation email that will enable your account.
Registration not validated within 24 hours need to be resubmitted.
Your Avatar
Your Avatar or PC (Personal character) is a (human or not) representation of yourself into the metavers. You will create your avatars as you feel your identity to be seen into the virtual world.
At start, your avatar is very basic and in order to customize your avatar you need to create new items (shape, clothes, etc.) in the inventory:
Click on the new items and select "Wear" to wear these news items
Click on "Edit" to edit one item and start to customize the different parameters.
Avatar customization is the first operation to be done once your account has been created and you just entered into the metavers. Read the numerous tutorials available on Internet about avatar customization.
To customize your very first avatar, start your viewer and login (see Viewer setup for instructions).
Once connected to your Sims with the viewer, click on Inventory to display the list of your items.
Right-click My inventory/Body Parts, then select New Body parts from the menu and click New shape.
A new entry named New shape appears. Right-click this new items and select Worn.
Now you wear this new shape and can start to customize it. Right-click this new entry and select Edit.
A dialog box is displayed. You can move the different sliders to customize your avatar.
Select the button [1] corresponding to the body part to customize.
[1] Shall an item be "impossible to create", add first the missing item under "Body Parts" and do the same as above again.
NOTE: If your Sims is linked to a worldwide grid such as osgrid.org, you will have access to Inventory items such as preconfigured avatars and Freebies.
Like any website, you can browse (navigate into) the metavers and interact with different objects located into. Nevertheless, there is a feature specific to virtual world which is the capability to "build". Building may concern different types of items.
As a terrain (grid) owner, you are entitle to "terraform" your land (modify the landscape).
Terrain's owners and sometimes also visitors are allowed to create basic objects made of "prims" (short for primitives that refers to elementary object forms) and to assemble these objects to create building, systems, vehicles, etc.
Objects in metaverses have properties such as
copy and duplication,
copy only (you can take a copy but cannot give it to someone else)
not available for copy.
Some actions can be also associated to objects such as "sit", "take" etc. Some objects are "physics" and react to gravity and collisions. There is much to say about building* into metaverses but the best is to have your own experience...
NOTE: If your Sims is linked to a Public grid, visit the Freebies shops to get items for free.
To start "terraforming" your landscape, start your viewer and login (see Viewer setup for instructions).
Once connected to your Sims with the viewer, in the top menu bar click on View and select Build.
Click on the mechanical shovel icon.
Select with the radio buttons the type of work to do (eg. rise, level etc.).
Zoom back in order to encompass the area to modify. Left-click and move your mouse over the area to modify. According to your selection, the ground will be modified.
To create a pond, level down the ground below the sea level.
To add trees, select the magic wand. A new list of icons is displayed. Select the last icon for grass or the one before for trees. Left-click and move your mouse over the area to modify.
New regions are small islands in 256 x 256 meters land.
Backup your work
Check the automatic nightly SQLite/MySQL backup system
From a SSH terminal, use the save oar <filename> instruction from the Opensim console
We would like to remind you that the current status of Q-Sims (OpenSim) is alpha. Therefore you may lose all the work you have done due to bugs, security breaches, incompatibility between versions, new database format, etc.
For example migration from a SQLite to a MySQL database or going from a Private to a Public grid will not permit to transfer:
