Glossary

Here are listed some terms to help people that are not familiar with these virtual worlds.

SecondLife :

SecondLife is a 3d virtual world managed by the company Linden Labs.
The technology is axed around proprietary servers and an opensource client.
The "official" client can be runned under Windows, MacOsx and Linux.
You can see more informations on their website.

OpenSim :

OpenSim is an opensource server written in C# to provide a SecondLife client compatible server that every one can host for free.

Sim :

The sim word is coming from a derivation of the "simulator" word.
A sim is a 256x256 square meter virtual land.
These virtual worlds are made from an interconnection of sims in a "grid".

Grid :

A grid is a server that interconnect grids together.
OpenSim is providing a lot of private or public grids where the people can connect.
SecondLife provides some grids and mostly 2 ones are used : the "main" grid ( where most of the people are living ) and the "beta" grid ( where people can go to test functions or to help debugging the next version of the grid server.

Primitives :

All the elements in these worlds are made with "primitives"
The primitives are the simplest 3d element.
They are :

• box
• cylinder
• prism
• sphere
• torus
• tube
• ring
• sculpted

Items :

The avatars have an inventory containing "items".
The items are :

• texture
  a texture can be applied to a primitive
• sound
• landmark
  landmarks are like an "url bookmark" to teleport to a place
• clothing
• object
  objects are primitives or a set of primitives
• notecard
  a notecard is like a text file
• script
• bodypart
• animation
• gesture
  a gesture is an ensemble containing keyboard shortcuts to animate an avatar and play sounds

uuid key :

Every item ( and avatars ) in these worlds are represented by a unique uuid key.
You can see more informations on this page.