Discovery Grid, which has been used in OpenSim for over 12 years, is today moving to the Open 3D Engine platform, also known as O3DE.
Grid owner Rene Vega, also known to the world as Balpien Hammerer, cited declining user engagement and limitations of OpenSim technology as key factors in the decision in his announcement. Statistics show active accounts are down to 26% of 2019 levels, while monthly active users are down to 19% and overall regions are down to 55% of previous numbers, he said.
“It is clear that this grid requires new experiences. We need a means to facilitate creators’ development efforts. We need modern tools,” Vega said. “Unfortunately, OpenSim lacks these tools.”
The transition to O3DE promises significant technical improvements, including more land space equivalent to 32,768 standard-sized areas, along with advanced features such as realistic ocean dynamics, volumetric clouds, and PhysX5 physics simulations.
To ensure an orderly closure, Discovery Grid has implemented a 90-day transition plan, providing free local backup to all landowners and partnered with Utopia Skye Grid to facilitate the transfer of inventory for users.
Rather than a complete shutdown, Vega said it would use this move as a strategic pivot to continue operations on a new virtual world platform based on O3DE technology. However, no specific timeline was provided for the launch of the new platform.
This closure reflects broader challenges within the OpenSimulator ecosystem, particularly viewer compatibility issues and the platform’s efforts to keep up with the latest virtual world features. Discovery Grid’s transition marks one of the first major moves of a traditional virtual world from OpenSimulator to the newer O3DE platform.
What is O3DE?
O3DE initially launched as Amazon Lumberyard, built on CryEngine gaming platform technology.
Amazon donated the project to the Linux Foundation in 2021, and O3DE became fully open source through the Apache License.
Since it is a partner of the Linux-based Open Metaverse Foundation, which was launched in January 2023, it may one day support teleportation between worlds.
You can check out the O3DE example showcase here. Not much yet. A few empty city builds, a few robotics simulations, and a few game demos. There is no easily accessible link online, but there is no link to the GitHub project page. I can’t find any examples of worlds built in O3DE that you can actually visit.
Additionally, both Unity and Unreal have free options. Unreal, an advanced game development engine, is free for those with less than $1 million in annual revenue. Widely used on the web and mobile apps, Unity is free for individuals and businesses with revenue under $200,000.
Is OpenSim losing steam?
In 2007, Second Life users figured out a way for viewers to communicate with backend servers. This allowed people to build bots for Second Life and create alternative audiences to the official audience.
Meanwhile, companies were excited about the possibilities of using Second Life for productivity, training, product prototyping, marketing, and customer support. But they didn’t want users to be on a public Second Life system full of gambling, nudity, and financial fraud. They needed a safe, private environment for their customers and employees.
So IBM, Intel, and a few other companies and volunteer developers built a new server infrastructure that used the same viewer communication protocol as Second Life. That way you can access it through any Second Life compatible viewer. But on the backend, it was completely different and rebuilt from scratch. We even used different programming languages and architectures.
People were excited about the fact that they could have their own private world and build a commercial alternative to Second Life.
Then, in 2008, Christa Lopes, a computing professor at UC Irvine, invented the hypergrid, and many of these new worlds were connected by hyperlinks.
Then something bad happened.
Companies have realized that there isn’t much benefit to doing anything in the virtual world. There were better platforms for virtual prototyping, and video calls were much more convenient for meetings. OpenSim had a high learning curve.
The way large, complex open source projects typically work is that there is a large community of developers contributing new fixes and bug fixes. These developers typically come from the user base. More users means more developers. We need a very large user base to continue innovating because most of our users are not developers, nor are they users who do other things.
The use of the platform, especially by large companies like IBM, is key. This is because you can assign developers to work on your project. Of course, it’s not just out of the goodness of one’s heart. They want the projects they use a lot to evolve in a direction they like, rather than being abandoned.
Without corporate support and a large, passionate user base, OpenSim development slowed significantly.
But so was Second Life.
The learning curve was too steep, the usability was lacking, and the benefits were not readily apparent. The technology was supposed to go viral, but it never did. People tried it and said, “Oh, that’s cool,” and then never went back.
You’re like me, with a huge collection of virtual reality headsets.
And OpenSim is too slow and expensive to be used as a game engine. A successful video game must be able to support thousands of players, at least without lag. Of course, OpenSim doesn’t have any built-in game mechanics.
As a result, minor, incremental improvements have been made over the past decade. Teleportation has been improved. Stability has been improved. Graphics have been slightly improved. But basically, anyone who used Second Life or OpenSim 10 years ago will find that it’s pretty much the same today.
Usability has not improved. The learning curve couldn’t be shorter. There is no good web viewer or mobile viewer yet.
And there is no real motivation for change other than some kind of emotional connection to OpenSim and a desire to see it survive. For current users, OpenSim and Second Life are fine on their own. They liked it 10 years ago and they like it now.
There is no killer use case that people are asking for.
To me OpenSim is retro now. Like text-based games or 8-bit graphics.
I’m a little sad about that. I’ve been writing about OpenSim for 15 years and used to think it was the future of interaction. However, I no longer have my own grid and rarely use OpenSim for meetings or events these days. So you can see why grid owners are looking for alternatives.
One big thing I would miss if there was a large migration to something like O3DE is hypergrid. Maybe Crista Lopes can take a look at this and see what she can do.
How about you? Are you planning to check out O3DE? What do you think about the future of OpenSim?