Smooth Moves from Kelso Uxlay

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Kelso Uxlay will be speaking at the OSCC this year. His presentation is titled ‘The art of smoothly moving objects in Opensim’. The subject matter will be both entertaining and very useful if you enjoy animating your builds in opensim.

“Although the talk is about the power of a particular scripting function, the presentation itself is definitively intended for a non-technical audience,” Kelso explains. “Its most interesting portion consists in a showcase demonstration of scripted moving objects, some of them exhibiting spectacular effects. “Ordinary people” will benefit from learning and seeing what is possible. Perhaps some of them will be encouraged to develop their own scripting skills.”

Kelso first started to be active in SL in 2010, and in OpenSimulator two years later. “From the beginning I had an interest in scripting,” he reports, “but it was only after Dabici Straulino and I established our own grid Creanovale in 2014 that I seriously began to develop my proficiency in LSL scripting. From my previous professional life, I was already thoroughly familiar with SQL scripting in large online biodiversity database systems. Learning LSL was therefore a relatively easy move for me.”

Kelso participated in the foreign language event Hypergrid International Expo in October, and where he gave a version of this presentation in French. Says Kelso, “I saw OSCC as a nice opportunity to improve it based on comments received, and to reach a different audience. I think that people who saw the previous presentation will note the enhancements.” We will all learn a lot from this talk no doubt.

The art of smoothly moving objects in Opensim – Saturday 9 December at 8:30am PST

Practical and Pleasing – the OSCC Keynote Regions

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Every year, delegates flock to the Open Simulator Community Conference grid, for a weekend of information and innovation, in a very special space. The presentations are very useful, of course, but this event also offers a great opportunity in terms of your personal links with the community. You can reconnect with friends you may have lost touch with. You can have fun spotting the many well-known names in the audience, and make new connections with interesting people. It’s exciting to arrive on the grid and see the crowd forming, but have you ever stopped to notice the layout of the Keynote regions?

Perhaps you have been puzzled by the sim crossing warnings. What’s going on here?

The Keynote area of the OSCC grid is, in reality, four sims.

Why is that? The reason is simple. As we all know, every avatar on a region creates a certain amount of lag, as the person’s viewer and the region server communicate with one another. By using 4 regions instead of just one, it’s possible to reduce the lag that everyone experiences. In theory, an opensim region can hold about 100 avatars, but more than 60 people on one sim is a rare and often a very laggy experience for all. The audience at the OSCC is typically around 100 persons – sometimes a lot more! – so, by spreading the public out across four regions, it’s possible for everyone to have a pleasant and relatively lag-free experience during the event.


In addition, the design of the Keynote regions is deliberately kept clean and simple. The light modern structures, low-poly trees, and the abstract art (changed annually by OSCC team member Juliette SurrealDreaming) make a pleasing backdrop to the main auditorium area, without adding any lag which would distract from the interesting presentations being given in the Keynote space.

Nyx Breen Featured at this year’s OSCC

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The Sky’s the Limit ! Photographer and virtual builder Nyx Breen will be participating in this year’s Open Simulator Community Conference.


The theme of his talk will have you looking up! Titled “Expanding Virtual Experiences with EEP creations”, the focus of his presentation will be the use of EEPs. ‘EEP’ stands for Environmental Enhancement Project, the next step on from the old Windlight settings.


Nyx Breen: “EEP is a great creative tool because it’s one of the last unexplored artistic possibilities for creators in Virtual Worlds. Individuals can create an environment that enhances the theme or mood of their creation or stand alone as the arbitrator of their desired perception of what the effect can be. Half of what you see on your screen is sky and water; leaving this massive creative possibility unutilized in artistic ways seems like a waste of developing a fully immersive virtual experience.”


Known for his giant builds, with spectacular abstract visuals, Nyx Breen will be explaining how manipulating the Environment on a region can dramatically change the appearance of a build. It can also become an integral and customizable part of the artist’s palette. Working with EEP settings may at first seem challenging, but with guidance from Nyx, the audience will see how this feature can enrich their world, without adding lag or prims.


This is the second year that Nyx has participated at the OSCC. What motivated him to sign up?
Nyx Breen: “OSCC allows an individual to interact, inform, and learn about many subjects that are unique to virtual experiences. With far-reaching talents, professionalism, and multi-subject knowledge, the group is unique in Virtual Worlds. The ability to collaborate and disseminate techniques and skills is greatly enhanced when participating with the group. The likelihood of the lessons learned at the OSCC being understood, applied, and developed across virtual worlds is greater than the effect it would have if just an individual or single grid were messaging it.”

Behind the Scenes at the OSCC

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It’s said that speaking in public is one of the most feared activities of all time. Yet, every year, the Opensim Community Conference brings together a band of fascinating people who share with us their stories, discoveries, ideas and projects. That’s quite a feat! To accomplish this takes a lot of time and trouble behind the scenes! The team from Avacon organizes training opportunities for all the lecturers, explaining how to use the special HUD for presenting, and going through small but essential technical details that will make it easier for them to connect with their audience, and to feel a bit more at home up on the stage.

These sessions are carefully organized using a slideshow so that each speaker can see exactly what is expected from them. This is also a great time to ask questions and gain familiarity with the conference setup, which can seem a bit daunting at first.

Some might assume that to give a talk at the conference, you just park your avatar on the stage and turn on Voice. Not at all! The audio portion of the conference is actually recorded via Skype and then broadcast or ‘streamed’ into the regions, in the same way that you would normally listen to music on a region. using this method guarantees a much higher quality of sound than you would get using inworld Voice, and makes it possible for people on all four regions to hear what is going on.

Giving a talk for the opensim community is, then, a bit of a challenge, but by working with the team, with plenty of support and encouragement, it’s a rewarding one. Have you a story to tell? Make sure you don’t miss this years event and then, why not consider signing up for next year’s event?

Grid Management Techniques with Lone Wolf

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This is the first time Lone Wolf has presented at the OSCC, and his talk “OpenSim on a Bigger Scale” will explore important issues for all grid owners – size and reliability. Wolf Territories grid is a relative newcomer in Opensim, but it is fast becoming one of the largest, and has a reputation for reliability and flexibility. The Wolf Territories website https://www.wolf-grid.com/ puts many controls in the hands of its residents, from automatic terraforming to region name change.

With the equivalent of 1.7 million kilometers of land on his grid, Lone Wolf has had to face numerous challenges, and come up with innovative techniques to keep his grid running smoothly. He shares his experience with us in this talk. “I’m going to be giving a little bit of the history of the grid, some tech talk, and also some hints about things to watch out for when building an opensim grid,” he says.

Lone Wolf Saturday 09 December at 1.30pm SLT