Tessa Harrington and SpotON3D

I am proud to present to you Tessa Harrington, the creator of SpotON3D, a new virtual environment. I would like to call it a world but it is so much more! Tessa is

*One of the first pioneering women of the 3D Web.

*Opened the first 3D Internet Mall with paying vendors in Active Worlds, Xmas of 1995 - Biz world by VirtaCity Studios.

* Been Deving Sims in SL Since 2005 with a team of over 20 artisans.

Designers, scriptors, artists, are all welcome to come to a meeting tomorrow. There are two times chosen for these meetings to occur for the convenience of both USA and European countries. The first one will be at 11:00AM SL time, the later meeting will be at 5:30SL time. If for any reason you cannot attend one of Tuesday the 14th of April meetings, there will be other days you can attend. You can either Im me in SL or Tessa Harrington, if you want to attend another day, will be glad to place you on the list!! Or you may look at the blog for other dates to attend.


The following Document is an introduction to SpotON3D;

SpotOnN3D … 3D Web Introduction

SPOTON3D.com - The 3D Web is HERE

The goal of SpotON3D.com is to make the first intentionally designed 3D Web Application – an alternative to SL, rather than competing head-to-head, providing many different and innovative ways to provide services and products our denizens. This includes virtual land rentals that offer many pricing points to give everyone a chance to be a part of our virtual community. As such, you’ll see a different way of communicating what we offer, such as Virtual Environs instead of the old virtual worlds, because these aren’t individual worlds. We are all part of a bigger community and this can be a simple room, a beach, city or fantasy scene. They are all expressions of your passion and can’t be contained in a simple sphere call a ‘world’.

Opening Date

The anticipated opening date is April 25th, though it could stretch out to May 1st, depending upon your needs, i.e., time to set up your stores and get acclimated.

Why now?
Because many Second Lifer® users are seeking an alternative. They will come homeless, without furniture, hair shoes, clothing or most anything, because of the rights on their inventory items. We would like to welcome them with some of the best designers, so that they feel like they’ve come home again and are a part of the birth of something new and different. A place where all the participants are valued and appreciated for their contributions – not just their tier.

In that spirit we’d like to ask all our designers to offer a freebie item from their regular merchandise – a top, hat, hair, shoes – and rotate that offering monthly, so something new is available every 30 days. We have the skills to open our own stores, but we feel its important that SpotON not compete with their content providers in this way. This is a way to reach out to the residential users and show them you value them. And, its good for business, because they’ll want to buy the rest of the outfit and come back for more.

The Look & Feel of SpotON3D.com -

Building in SpotON3D is much the same as in Second Life®, using the same tools and menus, so you won’t have to learn new skills to migrate. The Physics engine is different than Second Life’s®, so vehicles don’t operate very well yet, but everything else works very similar.

We hope to continue to add functionality to the building tools in time, such as the ability to flag products as Mature Population and/or General Population use. This will make it possible for our server to remove Mature WORN items automatically from avatars as they travel back and forth. We also will be exploring the idea of giving our content providers the right to decide what grids they want their products to rez on, and what grids they want to block. This would put the power of that decision in the hands of where it belongs- the creators.

Content Creation –

Building on the Grid
Although building in the OpenSim platform is very much like building in SL, there are still a few rare bugs that need to be worked out. First and Foremost, you need to be aware that OpenSim (Open Simulator) is still ALPHA software. That means it is still having its innards worked on and isn't really ready for prime time on a national level. Think about where Second Life was three years ago and you'll get an idea of how things are on our grid. There are bugs and work around for those bugs, and problems that we just have to be patient and wait for the Core Developer Team to get to. Example: If you walk on hills and such, be in on a flat prim or terrain land, your ankles will look like they are broken. Stinks for us girls and its probably not been addressed yet, because most of the users and developers on the OpenSim scene are males and walk around barefoot or with drawn on chose. SpotON3D plans on purchasing a subscription to a JIRA account for all the OpenSim (Open Simulator) Community so everyone can voice their needs and vote what is important to them in a way that the Core Developers can listen to and use.
It is recommended to do some testing first and decide if it’s something you can work with until the rest of the bugs are ferreted out. We’ll be offering a limited area of sandbox work space in Second Life® for those who would need to continue to build there, while the bugs are worked out.


FlexScale Prims
Larger builds can take advantage of what we call FlexScale Prims that exist by default on OpenSim grids, if activated. FlexScale Prims are fully scalable up to 256m in any direction, as opposed to Second Life’s® prims that stop as 10m. This eliminates the need for Megaprims on our grid. We highly recommend you look over any existing builds you plan on bringing to our grid, via Second Inventory, and removing all Megaprims from them, as they are not allowed on the SpotON3D grid. They were found them to be a possible causes of instability and lag, due to the nature of their creation.

Bringing in Backed-Up Second Inventory Items
Second Inventory has a Quick Start tutorial on their website that might be helpful for anyone new to using their backup tool. You can access that webpage and more video, text and forum help from the rest of their website. http://www.secondinventory.com/files/start.php

We’d recommend the Multi-User version of their program, as it will allows you to bring over items from multiple avatar accounts/names. If you only have one serious avatar you might question this idea, but if, in the future, you choose to bring your items over to a different grid, and your avatar’s name is already in use, you’ll be blocked from uploading them through the Second Inventory panel, strictly because the names won’t match.

We’ve done a bit of work bringing in our own content and have found some solutions to the whole problem of not being able to bring over nested or rez boxed items with Second Inventory and we have a few ideas we’d like to share.
Builds over 256 Prims
1) If you have a built that is over 256 prims in total, you’re going to have to resign yourself to rezzing them in pieces and puzzling them back together once they are uploaded in your inventory, so make sure they are named in such a way that you can know they belong together, i.e., Arabian Mosque-1a, Arabian Mosque-1b, etc.
2) You’ll want a way to bring them back together as close to perfectly as possible. If you’ve been around a while Second Life® long enough to remember how it was done before rezzers were a common thing you’ll recognize this next method.
a. Using our example, Arabian Mosque-1a and Arabian Mosque-1b, you create two post from either a cube or cylinder in the same exact spot.
b. Color each of them strikingly different hue, such as red and green
c. Name them Arabian Mosque Post-1a and Arabian Mosque Post-1b
d. Click on part one of the main build, Arabian Mosque-1a then, click on the corresponding post, Arabian Mosque Post-1a.
e. Repeat this with the second part, Arabian Mosque-1b and Arabian Mosque Post-1b, making sure the last thing you link to, are the posts, so that they are the root prim.
f. Now you can take them up as one object into your Second Life® inventory, but realize they won’t upload as one through Second Inventory®, (SI). SI manages to backup and upload your items by attaching them to your avatar’s body. This is why you’ll come back from a backup session and find you’re avatar has no hair or is missing one attachment of another. But, this also means that is can’t handle nested or multiple part builds, because you can only have one item attached to each avatar attachment point. The purpose of the two posts sharing the same exact location is so that, when you re-rez it on the SpotON3D grid, you’ll only have to match those two posts up again to make the build come back together perfectly, using the position XYZ tool on the Edit Menu.
3) If you have a build that is less than 256 prims, but you’re having trouble linking it up as one because of its spread too far apart, then we have an trick for that as well. The idea is to miniaturize your build, using the rescale all white cubes in the edit gizmo mode, to the point that you can link it all up together, but remember not to include anything that you don’t have full rights to, like furniture, visitor counters and other items you are not creator for or have limited rights to.

a. To do the miniaturization you’ll want to go over your build carefully, hunting down anything that might stall the rescaling down of your build, such as plants, glass windows, pictures, walls or anything less than .010m thick.
b. You’ll either want to remove those items, or thicken them to about .075m.
c. Next, you’ll want to link up your build in sections, trying to be as tidy and clean on the breaks as you can.
d. After that is done, go through and click on all the parts you’ve linked up, raise the build over the area they were placed in, and see if anything got left behind. If some pieces did. Let go of the build in hand, use the YELLOW BOX Mass Selection tool, and highlighting all those extra pieces, and link them together. Then go back to the parts hanging in the air, selecting them all, then going to EDIT on the top toolbar, and UNDO to force all those pieces to return to their original position, remembering to grab the leftovers too.
e. Now you should have all the build in hand. If you hold down SHIFT and CONTROL you’ll get the CUBED WIDGET. Using one of the WHITE corner cubes, drag your mouse in towards the center of the build. That should make all the pieces reduce their size together and in scale simultaneously, until they are close enough to re-link as one group. Then you can back them up as one object using SI.

If you have a trick or treat way of handling SI content, and would like to share that with the community, please feel free to write up your idea, and send an email to us titled ‘SI Tip’ care of suggestions@spoton3d.com, and we’ll share it with the community.

Concierge

Concierge staff will be available to anyone to answer the questions of all the denizens of SpotON3D. We feel it’s imperative that, when you have a question or problem that can’t be answered or resolved by your neighbors or friends, that you have immediate access to a higher level of service. You aren’t required to be a land baron or even a land owner to access this. It’s there for everyone to tap into. We’re hoping it will be like the old days, when there was LIVE HELP volunteers, where you could holler out to the community via IM’s for help, but if they couldn’t answer or take care of the problem you could ask for an official grid staff member to take over.

Only problem with this idea is, 1), groups aren’t activated yet – they are being programmed in by the OpenSim Core team as we speak, and how to fund that level of service? We didn’t want to make concierge services part of our revenue stream. Just didn’t seem very neighborly, but solving grid problems can sometimes take hours to solve. How were we going to fund such an expense? The idea was brought up to charge a reasonable fee and pass on those revenues, minus a small allowance for accounting and transaction fees, right back into the community in the form of real jobs. The idea is for us to take the cream of the crop volunteers, and hire them as contractors to be our Concierge Agents, paying them $7.99 of the $9.99 per call for help. This should provide us, over time, with a great network of volunteers and paid representatives to assist everyone from newbies to veteran denizens to collaborate and help each other. We know we’ll grow over time, but we feel this is just one way to keep the spirit of community alive in SpotON3D.com

How SpotON3D is organized -

There are many problems we’ve all recognized over the years with how avatar accounts are setup on virtual grids, and while we haven’t found a way to solve all of them, we feel we’ve made great strides in overcoming many of the big challenges and hope you agree.

SPOTON3D ACCOUNTS –
Registering
If someone wants access to our grid they must register for what we call a Web Account. This is the main account that stores all the data for all your avatars via a web page. This is where you will create your avatar, up to 5 are allowed, establish and fund their wallets with the SpotON3D/CacheBooty wallet system via your PayPal account. This will allow you to buy things, upgrade your account and buy or rent land. This is required for all accounts, even our Freebie 30-Day Trial Account to inhibit griefing. To learn more continue to read.

FREEBIE 30-DAY TRAIL ACCOUNT
Many have lamented over the problem of griefing and pointed to the free accounts as a reason behind that problem. With anonymity, griefers feel comfortable playing havoc on communities like SpotON3D. We think we’ve come up with a reasonable solution for that with our Freebie 30-Day Trial Account. It will allow interested persons to explore, chat and shop as much as they want for 30-days. We block their ability to rez, build, script or own land during this time period, giving them plenty of opportunities to experience the social aspects of the 3D web, and rewarding them with a fully interactive experience once they upgrade. As a by product, this also dramatically reduces the chances of griefing the SpotON3D grid, because they won’t be anonymous, nor will they have the ability to make things that are typically used to grief.

UPGRADING TO GENERAL AND MATURE POPULATION ACCOUNTS
We have two sections to our grid - General and Mature Population and each have their own membership fees of $1.99 a month - that's our introductory price and is just enough to cover any accounting and processing fees. Everyone has to have a General Population membership and can add on the Mature Population access if they wish. The upgrade options are done web side through our web account pages.

The General Population grid is for ages 16 and up. Everyone has to buy into the general population with $1.99/month access. This would require users to get a paypal account. A Paypal account helps us limit subscriptions just enough to keep out kids without their parents knowledge and approval. It also limits the ability of griefers to access the grid anonymously. The rule of thumb as to what is acceptable behavior on the General Population is this- If you’d not do it in front of your Mother, Grandmother or an eight year old, then its probably not a good idea to do there.

The Mature Population is for ages 21 and up. To get a Mature Population account, you must be over 21 and already have a General Population account with a verified PayPal account. An additional $1.99 will be charged over the General Population costs for access to the Mature Population areas. This is to keep the financial support for the grid evenly balanced, as we are trying to make sure both venues are well funded and supported by the community. Like the General Population account, the upgrade options for Mature Population are done web side through our web account pages. The Mature setting must also be applied to individual avatars through your Web Account settings. Only registered and paid users with a Mature Population membership can gain access to that part of the SpotON3D Grid. This is to protect minors and keep our main grid family friendly.

The avatar accounts can be controlled from this web account as to what grids they will have access to. In other words one account can have mature access, while another can be restricted to the general population grid. Eventually a tween (8-15) grid may be implemented as well, when a sponsor willing to moderate it can be found.

For each web account, a variety of up to 25 avatar options will be made available to new users. These initial avatars will replace the default Ruth avatar. This is so you do not look like every other user who first comes on to our grid. All avatars, up to five will be created under this web account. So one paid membership will allow for five avatars. This allows a company to create an account for their employees, or a family to create accounts for each member under parental guidance and moderation.

Each account will be set up with a wallet system. The user will fund the wallet with a set amount each month, 10, $20,$30, and so on and up to $2500. This will be used to pay for your account, land holdings, and purchases on CacheBooty.com. The money in this wallet may be divided up among any avatars in this account.

Buying and selling

All sales within SpotON3D will be made through the SpotON3D/CacheBooty Wallet system. Sales and income will be recorded through these Services and sales statistics will be provided to content providers both to track what is selling and to use for taxes. This information can be viewed online and also will be sent to each selling account through email. You are responsible for maintaining your records and paying your own taxes however.

The SpotON3D Services will operate on web pages where both virtual and real world product can be purchased. This will cut down on lag seen on other grids from inworld vendors. It should also reduce the amount of strip malls and clubs, as all items for sale will be linked directly to the Cachebooty.com web selling venue from their image sign inworld and be viewed in the SpotON3D Web Window that is embedded in our 3D Browser/Client. Having an open product sold on a web site will also cut down on content theft and in world scams since the sold item will have to be displayed on the selling site for all to view. There will eventually be a rating system and a feedback option to give buyer’s the necessary info they need to feel confident about purchasing their goods online through the SpotON3D Services.

The monetary system in world is not used for purchasing product. All purchases will be made through the CacheBooty system using the SO3D Bucks. Users should take care to be sure that they are purchasing from legitimate sellers. If a user is found with stolen content purchased unknowingly, that content can and may be removed from the purchaser’s inventory, depending upon the finding by the Mediation Panel and the wishes of the offended creator/designer. As an alternative, the original content creator may offer a replacement for a discount at their own discretion, something the Mediation Panel will strongly encourage.

Items you create or purchase can still be given away inworld provided they have the proper permissions. You will have full control over permissions on the items you create. Items you have purchased will need to be transferable in order to give them to another user.


HyperGrid

The HyperGrid will one day allow us to expand beyond our walls and link with additional grids. These grids will have a strict criterion for acceptance as a “Trusted Grid”. They will be required to submit their real world corporation papers, have at least 12 months or pristine operational experience, be in good standing with the OpenSim Core Team, agree to follow our business practices, present all applicable disputes to the SpotON3D Mediation Panel and adopt the SpotON3D TOS and Community Standards. In exchange, those grid owners will be given access to our grid tools, tap into a rich real and virtual world economy, and have the right to model their grids after our copyrighted methods as long as they pay their monthly premium and remain in good standing. They will also have to agree to handle any disputes through our mediation panel.



Mediation Panel – Socialization of Content Protection
A region on the SpotON3D grid will be devoted to the Mediation Panel that is overseen by a real world online Judge whose decisions are recognize here in the states and most of Europe. The Mediation Panel will consist of 5 randomly chosen users from the community who represent 5 areas of expertise - legal, content designer, scripter, land baron and user. They will be the "virtual jury" and the online judge who will make the final arbitration and recommendation. Anyone presenting a case to this panel will have to accept and understand the decision is final and binding and if and agreement through arbitration online can’t be reached, then their only recourse is to go through the civil court system, which will cost them no less than 2K USD. The arbitration costs will be about $100- $300 or less, depending upon the case, which is in most people's ballpark.

Land sales

Renters of land parcels will be able to build within their parcel up to their allowed prim limit. Each parcel will be surrounded by “white space” that contains the regions landscape. This space is placed so parcels are not right next to each other and to allow for trees, rivers, roads, etc. Users are asked to refrain from placing objects that overlap these white spaces.

Region owners will have an initial prim limit that is dependant on the package they have purchased. Sovereign Island, Merchant Sovereign Islands and Estate Continent owners will be able to parcel the regions as they desire. Merchant Sovereign Island and Estate Continent owners have the option of increasing their prim allotments in 2,500 increments for 1 cent per prim per month, or $25 a month, over their regular land fees.

Open Seas owners will have a limited prim count as these are void sims meant for nautical themed regions. They will be allowed to build limited structures, such as a house on an island if they choose. This package however is not meant for club/shopping venues. Such use will be discouraged, and if it is found the region is being used for club/shopping venues, they will be automatically upgraded to Open Land Continent status and be charged the matching fees. Below is a detailed breakdown on the SpotON3D land offerings.


Hamlet Parcel :: $29.99 setup @ $9.99/month :: 32x32 usable land :: 500 prims :: 5 users
 
Villa Parcels :: $49.99 setup @ $19.99/month :: 64x64 usable land :: 750 prims :: 7 users
 
Chateau Parcels :: $99.99 setup @ $39.99/month :: 128x128 usable land :: 1,500 prims :: 10 users
 
Sovereign Isles :: $149.99 setup @ $79.99/ month :: 256x256 usable land :: 3,750 prims :: 15 users
 
Merchant Sovereign Isles :: $199.99 setup @ $149.99/month :: 256x256 usable land ::15,000 prims :: 25 users
 
Estate Continents :: $299.99 setup @ $299.99/month :: (4) 256x256 Connected Isle Sims :: 40,000 prims (10,000/sim) :: 60 users (15 per sim)
 
Open Seas :: $129.99 setup @ $99.99/month :: (4) 256x256 Connected Ocean Void Sims :: 800 prims (200/Sim) :: 28 users (7 per sim)


If you need any further information or would like to attend another day, you can im me or Tessa in SL or you can email me at butterfly32344@yahoo.com.



See you there!!

Butter


MEETING PLACE