Grid Map And Dimensions

Map of all continents

This is an overall article about the Agni grid and its size.

Overview

Grids

1. Agni is the main grid, the Universe of Second Life. It hosts 26672 sims (Octomber 12th, 2013).
2. Aditi is the preview grid, with about 110 sims. consider it a microuniverse for testing.
3. There were other grids in the past, now it looks like they no longer exist.
4. Every day, between 10 and 100 sims change: new sims are born, sims vanish, change their position or change their names.

Every sim has its own coordinates. At Gridsurvey [1], you can find coordinates for every sim. Other methods are to use a product from marketplace and to make your own script, using llGetRegionCorner or llRequestSimulatorData. Coordinates are given in sims. The central and oldest sim of the grid is Da Boom in Sansara continent, with coordinates 1000/1000. A sim left (West) to Da Boom will have coordinates 999/1000, while a sim right (East) to Da Boom will be at 1001/1000. A sim to up (North) will be at 1000/1001, while a sim down (South) will have coordinates 1000/999.

Grid Sectors

Every sim is a square of 256 meters wide, so a distance of 1 sim means 0.256 km. 10 sims mean 2.56 km, 100 sims form 25.6 km, while 1000 sims are 256 km.

A grid sector is a square-surface of the grid, of 100 sims length and 100 sims wide. This term is not official. It had to be used for editing the List Of Microcontinents And Sim Clusters. Since the grid is too large, it had to be divided into smaller structures. A grid sector is separated by clear coordinates. For example, sector D6 includes sims with ltitude 400-500 and longitude 600-700 (or, more compact, 400-500/600-700).

Size

Since Da Boom is in the center of the map and the oldest sim, this is the best place for orientation.

Continental Maps

K10 sector and most of mainland continents

a scheme of mainland continents

At left, there is a scheme of mainland continents. Distance are on-scale. At right, there is a grid sector, K10. The sector is marked with a red square. So, if a sector has 100 sims wide, you can see that all these continents fit into 3 or 4 sectors (they fit into a single sector if there is no void between them).

Majority of maps show only a few continents: Sansara, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Corsica, Nautilus, Satori, Gaeta 1, Gaeta 5, Blake Sea and in a separate square Zindra. Zindra is far away (will talk later about that). The distance between these continents is up to 200 sims (about 50 km). That is a big distance to walk, anyway. However, you must keep in mind that this is only a tiny fraction of the map. However, these are not all the continents, even mainland continents.

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Map with compact sims

Grid Sectors

Grid, sim density

At left: a scheme showing higher sim densities. At right, a scheme of all the grid. Compare the size of the black-white schemes, to see the differences in size.

Now look at the map to right. It shows all what is on the grid. For an easier way to use, it has been divided into grid sectors. It is in fact almost like the map at the top-right of this article, but with grid sectors marked on it. All places with sims are colored in dark blue (and you can see map features if you zoom). Light blue is the void ocean, a place without sims (see below). You can see that the map is composed of two different places: one with a high sim density (forms a rectangle) and one with remote sim clusters. The high sim density extends from D sectors in West to K sectors in East and from 8 sectors in South to 14 sectors in North. This rectangle concentrates almost all the sims of second Life. It is about 700 sims (East-West) and 550 sims (North-South). This is about 180/140 km. The world from continental maps could be included into 3 grid sectors. To include all the compact sims, the map has 53 sectors. There are 32 sectors without light-blue spots. All the square coud be compacted into 38 sims. So, the map grew 13 times larger.

A very interesting fact is that the mainland continents are in South-East corner. Da Boom sim is there, in South-East. It separates sectors I9, I10, J9 and J10. So, the majority of map structures are here, in the part of map with compact sims.

Map with remote sims

However, the map is much larger. Grid sectors also include places with only one sim, like sectors E5 or L13. There can be found isolated sim clusters, sim groups, microcontinents or even remote continents. In this part of the grid you can find the Premium Continents, places where you can get a premium home. The continent Zindra is far at the East, very isolated. There are 81 grid sectors that host something inside them, even a single sim.

Now, Da Boom is again in the center of the map.

Is something further away?

If Da Boom is the center of the map and has coordinates 1000/1000, the most South-West sim should be at coordinates 1/1, while the most North-East sim should be at 2000/2000. If so, the map should have 361 sectors, from A1 to S19. However, as seen above, only 81 sectors host something, the remaining 280 are void. That is the Void Ocean.

See also

Second Life Geography

List Of Continents

List Of Microcontinents And Sim Clusters

Oceans