several people have asked about OpenSim on a stick for the Mac. i tested mine and, of course, it did not run. then Dream Walker tried it via bootcamp with the same results
but there is someone who is just now playing with this and if anyone can do it, they can (i did not get to ask yet if i can mention their name, so we will keep this suspenseful for the moment)
i anticipate hearing from them this week or next as to the ability to have this working
i have only used Windows (since like Win 95 i think) and have no frame of reference for Mac usage in virtual worlds. a decent number of comments, tweets, and emails to me make it seem like it is a sizable number though
i saw that another blog had the total OpenSim install available for download. this of course means that you accept some generic avatar name, but that should not be an issue. your exported IAR items or OAR files will change to your name once imported elsewhere
if you would like a full sim-on-a-stick install zipped up that you can simply unzip onto your stick (or even onto your PC, i copied it into a folder and it ran as well as connecting to our dedicated server) just let me know and i can also place this online for you. i figured if i could install it that most people would prefer to install it on their own as well
so let me know and i can place it online and in the meanwhile let us know what you tend to run OpenSim on =)
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Well, 38% of my readers are Mac users, so it’s a fair number who will be very glad. I have a little skill but have not yet managed to get a local sim… obviously not smart enough…so I for one will Whooot!
soror Nishi
7 Nov 10 at 7:00 pm
holy cow soror! that is a way bigger number than i thought! thank you for letting me know, this info needs to be common knowledge for virtual worlds in order to keep advancing the overall experience. lol, don’t think that you are not smart for not getting OpenSim up on a Mac! i could hardly get it working following the video tutorial for a PC! i had to watch it twice and that was after i had tried the very simple instructions like a dozen times! =D
and doh on me, i never thought of looking at my google analytics to see operating systems that hit this blog, duh! o_O
Ener Hax
7 Nov 10 at 7:05 pm
Is that PC running Windows or PC running Linux? Viewers and server work on both…
Aaron Duffy
7 Nov 10 at 7:18 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ener Hax, soror nishi. soror nishi said: RT @iliveisl: w00t! new post – OpenSim on a stick for the Mac? http://bit.ly/ayqPnC [...]
Tweets that mention OpenSim on a stick for the Mac? at i live in science land -- Topsy.com
7 Nov 10 at 7:25 pm
oh well there you go, making it all complicated . . . umm, good point – any PC for this purpose i suppose =)
have you run it both ways? i understand that Second Life was faster in Linux a few years ago but don’t now about OpenSim (isn’t OpenSim in some way a Microsoft partner like thing?)
Ener Hax
7 Nov 10 at 7:27 pm
I run opensim viewers and servers on Mac and on PCs with linux. In terms of sim-on-a-stick, mac and pc-running-linux have more in common than pc-running-linux and pc-running-windows do. When someone gets it working on the mac it will likely work on linux as well.
I played with it for a while, but got stuck trying to install mono to a usb drive. If mono is already installed on the mac, I would think it should just work, but I found that opensim installed on a usb drive hangs at the point where it tries to load modules. I hope someone has success with this.
Aaron Duffy
7 Nov 10 at 7:48 pm
@Ener: “i understand that Second Life was faster in Linux a few years ago but don’t now about OpenSim”
I thought I would address this by some quick and dirty bullet points. I am sorry in advance is this upsets some people, and it will be devoid of qualifying statements.
- The Second Life server architecture is written in C++ and with Python web services.
- The Second Life Server software is proprietry, and not open.
- The SL server software is hence, natively compiled to Linux servers(Debian distribution)
- The SL Server software shares between C++ and Python to communicate with Linux native installs to MYSQL etc.
- The Second Life Server software is very efficient.
- Linden Labs open sourced their viewer software some time ago. This is different to the non open Server softtware.
- Opensimulator is a reversed engineered solution guessed from the protocol calls between the viewer and Linden Servers.
- Opensimulator is written in C# and hence will be native(most efficient) running on a Windows machine.
- To run on Linux or Mac(A Unix drivitive), Opensimulator must run in an interpretive compiler called Mono.
- Mono Just-in-time compiles C# code to Linux bytecode at runtime.
- Mono is not allowed to use some C# libraries(ADO for example)
- Microsoft has indicated that Mono is “potentially a violation their Intellectual Property” but currently have no intention of inforcing that.
- Max stable Opensimulator avatars per region stands at ~40 for Mono(Linux) and ~60 for Windows hosted Opensimulator servers in tests done by the Opensimulator developers.
- THere are currently some issues between the interaction of the C# Opensimulator libraries and other libraries especially on 64bit and *nix. For example, SQLLite etc.
- As it stands right now, Opensimulator can not, in the medium term even get close to Linden Labs native Server Software on Linux in performance.
- Opensimulator potential has the ability to be as efficient on Windows Based Systems
- Last year Reaction Grid signed an endorsement partnership with Microsoft to run Opensimulator Software on Windows Servers.
Breen Whitman
7 Nov 10 at 9:23 pm
fantastic explanation! now i see what the Linux issue is, i mean i can understand why OpenSim would not do as well
no doubt that Sl runs very well and much has been poured into it from a development standpoint. there is a huge difference between a company with capital and talent working on software R&D versus a handful of volunteer coders
that being said, it is amazing at what a great software OpenSim is
from the outside, it can seem that Linden Lab is on a self-destruct course and they have much more to answer too, which also inhibits some of the great things we see in OpenSim development
now what benefit does Microsoft get by this endorsement partnership with Reaction Grid? with SimHost, i run on Windows Server and it runs rings around what I had with Reaction Grid (strictly a hardware matching the customer’s needs issue, not Windows per se)
Ener Hax
8 Nov 10 at 1:23 am
“that being said, it is amazing at what a great software OpenSim”
Yes it is. A fantastic effort by all involved. C# is a good choice as its truely an enterprise language, and the future of Opensim is not who codes it today, but who will come into it in the future, and find a well documented, logical, and consistent structure to the project.
That is the strength of C#.
I have also noticed the late .69 releases and .7 releases are much more stable. IE last couple months.
Breen Whitman
8 Nov 10 at 1:41 am
It SHOULD be possible to run Mac OpenSim on a stick, at least under Bootcamp or Parallels with Windows, and assuming you have video drivers that don’t balk at it, etc.
Apple is not known for having great video drivers that like SL/Open Sim/OpenGL, so that’s always an issue for some people running native Mac OS. Apparently there are mixed reports, for example, of how well or badly Second Life runs on the new Mac Air laptop. I know SL certainly runs better for me under XP/Bootcamp than Mac SnowLeopard… but I’m not much of a Mac tweaker.
OpenSimStick prolly failed on my older Intel MacBook Pro cuz I don’t do all the XP updates (I have my reasons), and I don’t have room to install Service Pack 3, sigh. If I ever wipe the Winblows XP partition and install Vista or 7, I’ll try again.
Thanks to everyone interested in Ener’s Sim on a Stick project. It does work great on my lil PC, even on a basic 2 GB Kingston Data Traveller USB thumb drive! Now someone should write a quick batch file to automatically run the required .exe files in order ;)
DreamWalker McCallister
8 Nov 10 at 2:14 am
@ DM says – “It SHOULD be possible to run Mac OpenSim on a stick,”
Yep – am running into Mono + Diva Distro oddities…
But, yes, it should be possible.
Already have apache/mysql/php running in /Volumes/MacSimStick …
Will say more in a day or two.
shh, don’t tell anyone it’s me :)
Daniel Smith / Bucky Barkley
Daniel Smith
8 Nov 10 at 2:52 am