What would you recommend?

[Michael Vallance 2]

Hi. I am about start a project between students at 3 physical locations: my university + school A + school B.

I (well, my uni) has to pay for EVERYTHING. No problem so far.

The students will meet in-world as avatars (obviously) and there will be a maximum of 10 avatars in-world at any one time, including the 3 teachers.

I am thinking of this set up:
Standard World / 2 x 2 / Universal Campus.

The most important factors are reliability and access 'speed'.

I can pay monthly via Paypal.

Q1: Do you think my set up is appropriate for the number of users?

Q2: Will the paypal amount be fixed every month?

Thank you.
Michael

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Michael,

The Universal Campus is a good choice for an education projects and a Standard World should be able to host your 10 avatars without a problem.

A Standard World is a fixed-price world so the amount charged to your PayPal account will be the same each month.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

[Graham Mills]

It costs but another design to consider: http://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Jon ... TS-for-100 (and related builds http://jonbrouchoud.com/?cat=7; we used Element 3 this year). That said, I'm not sure how active Jon is these days given that his architecture business seems to have blossomed post-Rift.

UPDATE: These builds came from SL so you may need to put in a few transparent ramps to cope with the steps (an OpenSim quirk). You might also need to fix the seats (I use the Magic Sit Kit). The lower prim count may help if any of the connections are low bandwidth.

Another freebie possibility would be The Mall by oddball otoole. Not quite sure where that's available now although my guess would be that quite a few folk have copies. I'd put a transparent prim across the water feature if the avatars are new to OpenSim.

[Selby Evans]

MIchael -- I think there are some lag-producing structures in the Universal Campus. On tests that I made, I found the the FPS went down a lot when I looked in certain directions. When you get your own copy, however, you can make your own tests and delete structures that cause lag.

[Michael Vallance 2]

Thank you.

How about the Virtual Collaboration Environment?
Would that be better?

Michael

[Ilan Tochner]

The Collaboration Environment Environment is a much smaller world and a lot less visually impressive than the Universal Campus. You can, however, run it on a Starter World which is cheaper than the Standard World option that you'll need for the Universal Campus.

[Graham Mills]

Selby's right. There was some discussion regarding this previously on the forum. I think the problem lies with the atrium adjacent to the landing space but I don't think it's insuperable depending on what you want to do (and 10 avatars isn't a heavy load). There are plenty of other spaces on UC, of course.

It's worth noting that there is also a version of UC that has additional content iirc, e.g. microscopes in the lab (though they are, erm, mainly eye-candy). I'm guessing that this might be it: http://uc.onikenkon.com/

MIchael -- I think there are some lag-producing structures in the Universal Campus. On tests that I made, I found the the FPS went down a lot when I looked in certain directions. When you get your own copy, however, you can make your own tests and delete structures that cause lag.

[Armix Portal]

MIchael -- I think there are some lag-producing structures in the Universal Campus. On tests that I made, I found the the FPS went down a lot when I looked in certain directions. When you get your own copy, however, you can make your own tests and delete structures that cause lag.

Hello, sorry for being nosy.
Here i would like to correct you, Selby. Lag is not caused by the structures. The lag you noticed by zooming, "caming" around it is caused by textures. Best texture to use 512 X 512 (1024 X1024) Jpg2000, but the 1024 jpg or png is handled very well. Png can be saved "for web", best to use this format for png. I would recommend to fix the texture resolutions instead of deleting the structures.

[Selby Evans]

MIchael -- I think there are some lag-producing structures in the Universal Campus. On tests that I made, I found the the FPS went down a lot when I looked in certain directions. When you get your own copy, however, you can make your own tests and delete structures that cause lag.

Hello, sorry for being nosy.
Here i would like to correct you, Selby. Lag is not caused by the structures. The lag you noticed by zooming, "caming" around it is caused by textures. Best texture to use 512 X 512 (1024 X1024) Jpg2000, but the 1024 jpg or png is handled very well. Png can be saved "for web", best to use this format for png. I would recommend to fix the texture resolutions instead of deleting the structures.

Well, the textures are on the structures. Your advice would be of considerable value, though, if one really wants to retain the structures.

[Michael Vallance 2]

I have been using this now for over 6 months and have a moveable robot in the space. The structure lag is not a problem as I have deleted ones not being used so much. It is a good training and familiarization area for my students. I like Kitely. It's just right for my limited needs at present.