Ever since we introduced Advanced Worlds with 16 regions, people have been asking us how they could combine these worlds to make an even bigger world. So today we’re happy to announce a new type of world: Mega Worlds, with up to a whopping 64 regions! Each Mega World is as big as four of our Advanced Worlds combined. In order to provide great performance for these monster worlds, when a Mega World is active it gets a dedicated server of its own, so it doesn’t have to share server resources with any other world. Mega Worlds are Kitely’s biggest and fastest worlds.
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?
All Kitely worlds are started on-demand, meaning that worlds that aren’t currently in use are turned off. The worlds are started when someone enters them. We place at most 4 worlds on each server, to ensure that each world gets sufficient resources. This is important because many OpenSim providers cram a lot of different worlds (VarRegions) into each server, which makes them run slowly because they don’t have sufficient resources, and because they are affected by what happens in other people’s regions.
Unlike all other world types, 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. When a Mega World is started on-demand (because someone entered it), we assign a private server just to that world.
The following table compares Kitely’s two most powerful world types: Advanced Worlds and Mega Worlds.
Advanced World | Mega World | |
---|---|---|
Maximum world size | 16 Regions | 64 Regions |
Maximum prims | 120,000 | 150,000 |
Dedicated memory (RAM) | 4 GB | 7 GB |
Guaranteed a Dedicated Server? | No | Yes |
Maximum avatar capacity? | 80 * | 80 |
Price | $39.95 / month | $99.95 / month |
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 75% more RAM than Advanced Worlds.
- An Advanced World might share a server with another world, but a Mega World is guaranteed to get all 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long will this offer last?
A: You’ll be able to order new Mega Worlds until the end of November 30.
Q: Why is this a limited time offer?
A: Mega Worlds are a lot more expensive to run than other world types, so we need to see that the price that we’re charging for them covers their costs. We don’t want to make support for Mega Worlds permanent until we understand the impact that they’ll have on Kitely.
Q: What happens after the offer ends?
A: You get to keep your existing Mega Worlds for as long as you continue paying for them; you just won’t be able to create new ones. To be clear, if you continue paying for your Mega Worlds then you’ll be able to keep them even if we decide that it doesn’t make sense for us to extend this offer after November 30.
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, you can get as many as you want while this offer lasts.
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.
Q: Can a Mega World be smaller than 64 regions in size?
A: Yes, all our world types are VarRegions and you can resize any Kitely World.
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.
High Performance Worlds
Mega Worlds are the most powerful world type that we’ve ever provided. In addition to getting a dedicated server, 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 data center in California. We run OpenSim on powerful servers with 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 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.
The following video demonstrates how well our worlds perform:
Act Now!
We encourage you to take advantage of our limited-time offer to create a new Mega World, or upgrade your existing Kitely world. This offer will not be available after November 30, so if you want these benefits you should order now.