The website Hypergrid Business is now holding the 2026 annual OpenSim grid survey, and we need your help to be able to attract additional people to use our grid and marketplace. If you’re willing to spend a few minutes to help spread the word about Kitely then please answer this short multiple choice survey. At this time Kitely doesn’t appear as one of the default grid options so please open the survey, select “Other” and add “Kitely” as your home. Please emphasis the good things about our grid to help attract more people to it.
This year we celebrated 15 years since Oren and I signed the founders agreement for Kitely Ltd. We would not have outlasted the thousands of virtual-world platforms (OpenSim-based and otherwise) that have come and gone during this time if it weren’t for your help in spreading the word about Kitely. It is your support and promotion of the Kitely grid and Kitely Market that has helped us remain in business for all these years.
We upgraded Kitely today with major performance and stability improvements. Most Kitely worlds now start in less than 20 seconds. Even very complex Kitely worlds, with more than 100,000 objects and 15,000 scripts, now start in less than 90 seconds. We also updated to the latest OpenSim release, augmented with our own proprietary patches.
Upgraded to OpenSim 0.9.3 With Proprietary Kitely Improvements
We upgraded to the latest version of OpenSim, and significantly improved it with hundreds of our proprietary stability and performance patches. The version number hasn’t changed (it’s still called 0.9.3.0), but it provides better performance, stability and security than before.
We upgraded many parts of our system. We use faster servers, and we now run on DotNet 10 instead of Mono. We also made big improvements to several parts of OpenSim that were slowing down world startup times. Worlds now start much faster, greatly speeding up the time it takes to finish teleports and logins. In addition, terrain and objects rez faster than they did before (which was already faster than regular OpenSim).
Note that the first time a world is entered after this upgrade will be slower because that is when the world will automatically recompile its scripts to support the new OpenSim version. Once the scripts have been recompiled the world will start faster.
Improved Physics
The new version of OpenSim doesn’t support ODE anymore, so we don’t either. Anyone that still had a world that used ODE was automatically converted to ubODE.
We patched ubODE to make it much faster when starting a world and when handling inworld physics.
AI Bot Protections
Sometimes when you visit Kitely Market or our Forums, you’ll see a page that asks you to confirm that you’re human. We added this protection because we’ve had a lot of trouble with AI bots that crawled our website and slowed it down, sometimes to the point of preventing human visitors from accessing our site. This change will make our system a lot more responsive because our site won’t be constantly overloaded with serving AI bots anymore.
This should also stop Kitely worlds from being automatically restarted due to AI bot activity. The same bots that slowed our website also overwhelmed our main servers such as Robust, which caused worlds to lose connectivity and shut down. But with our new anti-bot measures we’ve eliminated the problem.
Try Us!
If you’re looking for a reliable, high-performance grid to host your OpenSim regions then take advantage of our 14-day money back guarantee and try Kitely risk-free now.
We are happy to announce that we’ve upgraded all Kitely worlds, and they are now up to 50% faster than before! We’ve done this by upgrading to the latest Amazon server technology, the m8i generation, while keeping our existing prices. This upgrade enables your worlds to handle more scripts and avatar activity without experiencing server lag.
We’ve always taken pride in providing great performance to our customers, which we achieve by using powerful servers; placing at most four Kitely worlds on each server; and using our modified version of OpenSim that has proprietary high-performance asset and inventory systems. Our servers also benefit from being hosted in Amazon Web Services, the world’s leading cloud provider. Our servers are automatically moved between 3 different US-based AWS data centers to minimize the chance of a problem in one data center taking down our entire system. To maximize your download speed, all our servers have very high-performance connectivity to the internet. This latest upgrade further bolsters our commitment to providing a premium experience to our OpenSim customers.
Kitely opened its doors to the public in March 2011, making us one of the longest-running OpenSim grids. We have a great reputation for customer support, reliability, and high-performance virtual world hosting. Kitely is also the home of Kitely Market, the premier marketplace for buying and selling virtual items across the Hypergrid.
If you’re looking for a reliable, high-performance grid to host your OpenSim regions then take advantage of our 14-day money back guarantee and try Kitely risk-free now.
We’re happy to announce that Kitely now supports PBR Materials! Materials are supported both in Kitely worlds and in Kitely Market.
PBR materials are a way to create more realistic textures. For example, here are two spheres with PBR materials: mud and metal. The spheres’ surfaces seem like they have raised and lowered areas, and light reflects from them realistically.
You need a recent version of Firestorm in order to use PBR. We recommend using Firestorm 7.1.11 or newer.
Using PBR Materials
Using PBR materials is simple. When you’re creating a prim, instead of setting a Texture on the prim you can set a PBR Material:
Your inventory has a new folder called “Materials”, where you can collect PBR materials.
Creating PBR Materials
Although using materials is easy, creating them is a lot more complicated. We won’t attempt to describe how to do this here. If you want to learn more then a good starting point is the Second Life page about PBR materials (warning: it’s long!).
Support for 2048 x 2048 Textures
Kitely now supports textures as large as 2048 x 2048 pixels.
Please keep in mind, however, that large textures make worlds rez slower because viewers need more time to download the textures. Larger textures also take more graphics card memory, and this reduces the viewer’s FPS. So the question isn’t whether you can use larger textures (you can), but whether you should. Do you actually need the increased resolution?
Kitely Market
We’ve added support for PBR Materials in Kitely Market. We’ve renamed the category “Textures” to “Textures and Materials”, so that’s where you should put products that are primarily Materials. Of course, materials can also be a part of any other product; such products may appear in any category in Kitely Market.
PBR isn’t yet supported in all OpenSim grids. This is a feature that will be part of OpenSim 0.9.3, but that version of OpenSim isn’t finished yet so many grids (including Kitely) are still using the latest stable release, which is OpenSim 0.9.2.2. The reason that Kitely can support PBR now is that we ported the PBR features from OpenSim 0.9.3 into our version of OpenSim.
If your product uses PBR Materials then you should mention this in the product description. That’s because if someone from a grid that doesn’t support PBR buys your product then it won’t look right! You should let people know about this before they buy the product. Alternatively, make sure that your product also uses regular textures as a fallback, so that it will look decent even on grids that don’t support PBR.
PBR Terrains
Although the main use of PBR Materials is in objects, OpenSim also supports using them as terrain textures (instead of the dirt/grass/mountain/rock textures). This feature technically works, but we’ve encountered many problems when testing it. For example: if you enable PBR Terrain in the viewer, and then you disable it, then the viewer forgets your old textures and you have to set them again from scratch. So you can try using PBR terrains, but be ready for problems.
World Maps
World maps correctly show objects that use PBR. For example, if you have a building with a PBR tile roof then you’ll be able to see it in the world map. Only the basic color texture will be used (what’s called the “albedo” texture); not the other PBR textures (normal/roughness/emissive). But that’s good enough for a map.
World maps don’t show PBR terrains at present. This feature is problematic so we decided not to try to display them in world maps, for now.
Support in LSL
A new feature related to PBR Materials is a prim option called “Reflection Probe”. The LSL functions GetPrimParams and SetPrimParams have been extended to support a new parameter for this option: PRIM_REFLECTION_PROBE.
At this time, we don’t think it’s possible to change the Material properties of a prim using LSL. The OpenSim page about PBR says that this should be possible, but we haven’t seen any specific code in OpenSim 0.9.3 that adds that feature. Please let us know if this works for you.
We are happy to announce that we’re making Kitely Mega Worlds available again! Mega Worlds are a type of huge world that we made available for a limited time four years ago. Following our recent performance upgrades that sped up world startup times, we decided it was time to bring them back. Mega Worlds are giant VarRegions that can be up to 64 regions in size, hold up to 150,000 prims, and get a dedicated server of their own whenever they are active. As a special introductory deal, we are offering them at a 25% discount for the first 25 people who order.
Update (Sep 1, 2024): several educators have asked to be able to order after the school year has started. To accommodate their request, we’ve decided to extended the offer until September 15. Only 10 more people will be able to take advantage of this deal, and there will be no more extensions after this.
Mega Worlds vs. Advanced Worlds
If you’re considering getting a large world then you’ll probably want to choose between Kitely’s Advanced Worlds and Mega Worlds. What are the differences?
Most Kitely worlds share a server. We place at most four worlds on each server, to ensure that each world gets sufficient resources. This is important because many other OpenSim providers cram a lot of different worlds (VarRegions) into each server. If your region shares server resources with many other regions then it may run slowly because of what happens in those other regions. By strictly limiting the number of worlds on a server, we reduce the effect that other people’s worlds have on your user experience.
What is unique about Mega Worlds is that Mega Worlds don’t share their server. A Mega World is guaranteed to always get a full server of its own, so it can fully use all of the server’s resources without being impacted by other people’s worlds. This means that Mega Worlds can run bigger worlds, with more scripts and more visitors, than other worlds.
The following table compares Kitely’s most powerful world types: Advanced Worlds and Mega Worlds.
Advanced World
Mega World
Maximum (VarRegion) size
4 x 4 (16 regions)
8 x 8 (64 regions)
Maximum prims
120,000
150,000
Dedicated memory (RAM)
4 GB
8 GB
Guaranteed a Dedicated Server?
No
Yes
Maximum avatar capacity?
80
80
Price
$39.95 / month
$119.95 / month $89.95 / month (Limited Offer)
Here’s how these world types stack up:
Mega Worlds can be up to 4 times bigger than Advanced Worlds.
Mega Worlds can include 25% more prims than Advanced Worlds.
Mega Worlds get 2x more RAM than Advanced Worlds.
An Advanced World might share a server with another world, but a Mega World is guaranteed to get all of its server’s CPU, RAM and Network resources.
Both world types allow up to 80 avatars to visit them at the same time. But Mega Worlds will perform better, because they can use more server resources to support many avatars.
Mega Worlds, like all other Kitely worlds, are started on-demand. This means that worlds are started when someone enters them, and they’re turned off when they aren’t in use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long will this offer last?
A: Mega Worlds will remain one of our world options for the foreseeable future, but you’ll only be able to get the 25% discount if you are one of the first 25 people who order one. In any case, the offer will end on August 31 September 15 (see update note above).
Q: Why is this a limited time offer?
A: Mega Worlds get an entire server of their own when they are active, and they’re more expensive to run than other world types. We can therefore only afford to offer a few such worlds at the discounted price.
Q: What happens after the offer ends?
A: You get to keep your existing Mega Worlds at their discounted price for as long as you continue paying for them. But you won’t be able to order new Mega Worlds at the discounted price, nor will you get the discount if you later upgrade a non-Mega World to be a Mega World. To be clear, if you continue paying for your Mega Worlds then you’ll be able to keep them even if we stop offering them. (This is what happened to the Mega Worlds that people ordered four years ago: many of these worlds are still active to this day, years after we stopped offering new Mega Worlds!)
Q: Does ordering a Mega World require a setup fee or a long term commitment?
A: No, there are no setup fees. We bill for worlds on a monthly basis, and you can cancel your subscription at any time.
Q: Can I order multiple Mega Worlds?
A: Yes, if you are one of the first 25 people who order then you can get as many discounted Mega Worlds as you want while this offer lasts.
Q: Does Kitely offer a money back guarantee?
A: Yes, we offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee on new world orders. If you aren’t fully satisfied with your new Kitely world then let us know within 14 days and we’ll refund your order.
Q: Can I upgrade an existing world to be a Mega World?
A: Yes, you can upgrade any Kitely world to be a Mega World. The price you pay for the first month will be the difference between the price of your current world type and the price of a Mega World, adjusted for the number of days remaining in the month and for the deal discount (if you are one of the first 25 people who order).
Q: Can a Mega World be smaller than 64 regions in size?
Q: Is there a benefit to making a small world (smaller than 64 regions) be a Mega World?
A: Yes, because Mega Worlds have a lot more server resources at their disposal than the other world types that we offer. You can use these extra resources to build more complex worlds and support more visitors without lag.
Q: Does Kitely still offer always-on worlds?
A: We used to offer Dedicated Server worlds that were always on. However, as Mega Worlds provide almost all the same benefits at a much lower price, we’ve decided to remove the always-on Dedicated Server option from our order page. If you’re still interested in ordering an always-on Dedicated Server world then contact us for details.
High Performance Worlds
Mega Worlds are our best offer for hosting complex builds or big events. In addition to getting a dedicated server when they are active, Mega Worlds take advantage of the fast performance that every Kitely world enjoys:
Our service runs on the world’s leading cloud computing platform: the Amazon Web Services datacenter in California. We run OpenSim on the latest AWS m7 class servers that have 10 gigabit network connections, and we place no more than 4 worlds on each server to ensure that each world gets plenty of RAM, CPU, and network resources. (Of course, in the case of Mega Worlds, we place only one world on each server.)
We use CloudFront, Amazon’s renowned Content Delivery Network, to quickly deliver content to people’s viewers. CloudFront has practically unlimited bandwidth, and it has servers in many cities around the world (see this map). This ensures that your world’s visitors can quickly download content from Kitely no matter where they’re located or how many other people are currently using our system.
In addition to running excellent hardware in one of the world’s top datacenters, we use a proprietary and highly optimized version of OpenSim 0.9.2.2 which further improves performance. This includes using our own cloud-based Asset and Inventory services, which run on top of high-availability Amazon systems. This enables our services to be much faster than the services that come with regular OpenSim. As a result, Kitely worlds are rendered quickly, and Kitely users don’t have to wait for their inventory to load.
Act Now!
We encourage you to take advantage of this limited-time offer to get a Mega World at this highly discounted price. This offer will not be available after August 31, so if you want these benefits you should order now.
We upgraded Kitely today to an enhanced version of OpenSim 0.9.2.2. Our version of OpenSim includes hundreds of proprietary stability and performance improvements that we’ve developed for OpenSim over the years. This long-awaited update includes many changes and improvements, including ones that speed up world startup times. This is in addition to our system-wide upgrade a few weeks ago that doubled world performance.
The biggest new feature in OpenSim 0.9.2.2 is that the scripting system has changed from XEngine to YEngine. While using YEngine offers many benefits, there are also a few downsides to this change:
YEngine is designed to more closely follow the LSL script syntax. This makes it easier to port scripts that were designed for Second Life into OpenSim. However, this change can also cause some scripts that worked on XEngine to break. If you encounter scripts that have stopped working properly then you’ll need to fix, replace or remove them from your Kitely worlds. You can read more about these script changes here.
In addition, the change from XEngine to YEngine caused all of the scripts to reset to their initial state. That’s because the state files where OpenSim stores script state have changed their format, and YEngine can’t use state files that were created by XEngine. So if you used any scripts that need configuration after they’ve been rezzed then you’ll need to configure them again.
And finally, switching script engines requires our system to recompile all the scripts in your worlds. This happens the first time each world is entered following today’s update. This means that each world will take longer than usual to start the first time anyone enters it after this update. This is just a one-time delay, and the next time anyone enters that world it will start faster because its scripts will already be compiled.
We hope you enjoy this upgrade! If you encounter any problems then please let us know here.
We are happy to announce that we’ve upgraded all Kitely worlds, and they are now up to twice as fast as before! We’ve done this by upgrading to the latest Amazon server technology, the m7i generation, while keeping our existing prices. This upgrade enables your worlds to handle more scripts and avatar activity without experiencing server lag.
We’ve always taken pride in providing great performance to our customers, which we achieve by using powerful servers; placing very few Kitely worlds on each server; and using our modified version of OpenSim that has proprietary high-performance assets and inventory systems. Our servers also benefit from being hosted in one of the world’s top data centers, the Amazon Web Services data center in California, which has very high-performance connectivity to the internet. This latest upgrade further bolsters our commitment to providing a premium experience to our OpenSim customers.
Kitely opened its doors to the public in March 2011, making us one of the longest-running OpenSim grids. We have a great reputation for customer support, reliability, and high-performance virtual world hosting. Kitely is also the home of Kitely Market, the premier marketplace for buying and selling virtual items across the Hypergrid.
If you’re looking for a reliable, high-performance grid to host your OpenSim regions then take advantage of our 14-day money back guarantee and try Kitely risk-free now.
The website Hypergrid Business is now holding its 13th annual OpenSim grid survey, and we need your help to be able to attract additional people to use our grid and marketplace. If you’re willing to spend a few minutes to help spread the word about Kitely then please answer this short multiple choice survey.
This year we celebrated 14 years since Oren and I signed the founders agreement for Kitely Ltd. We would not have outlasted the thousands of virtual-world platforms (OpenSim-based and otherwise) that have come and gone during this time if it weren’t for your help in spreading the word about Kitely. It is your support and promotion of Kitely grid, Kitely Market and Kitely Organizations that has helped us remain in business for all these years.
Please help us by showing your continued support for Kitely by spending a few minutes to complete this survey. Thank you!
The website Hypergrid Business is now holding its twelfth annual OpenSim grid survey, and we need your help to be able to attract additional people to use our grid and marketplace. If you’re willing to spend a few minutes to help spread the word about Kitely then please answer this short multiple choice survey.
Last year many of you participated in the survey and your endorsement helped convince more people to join our community and attract additional content creators to list their items in Kitely Market. Your continued support this year is crucial for our continued growth.
Please take the time to complete this survey. Thank you!
Over the past few months we’ve made some major improvements to our backend and website. And today we’ve updated Kitely with a few usability improvements and bug fixes.
When you upload a mesh, usually the mesh includes some textures, and they are automatically uploaded as well. Previously, the uploaded textures were placed in the top-level Textures folder. Now, they are placed in a subfolder of Textures that has the same name as the uploaded object. This makes it easier to find them, and to keep the Textures folder organized.
We fixed a bug that prevented Estate Managers from making some changes to parcels in the estate. For example: Subdivide parcel, Join parcels, Eject user, etc. (This bug didn’t affect Estate Owners, so it wasn’t very noticeable: it only affected additional Estate Managers that had been added to the estate after the Estate Owner.)
We’ve improved some OpenSim error messages to make them easier to understand.
We’ve made many other improvements in the past few months, which we haven’t mentioned in our blog until now (we only talked about them in the weekly Kitely community meetings). One of the biggest changes is a huge improvement to our mobile website; check it out if you haven’t already! (Visit https://www.kitely.com from your mobile). We also overhauled our desktop website to make it more modern and easier to navigate. There have also been some major backend improvements, such as upgrading to MySQL 8, switching to a different and more modern Linux distribution and improving our internal system monitoring capabilities.
