Land

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This article is about Land. For scripting (LSL) related articles, see Category:LSL Region.

This article is supposed to give an overview about land in Second Life, going from the smallest to the largest scale.

Land-hierarchy.jpg

Parcel

An area of land owned by a single user or group, which is at least 16m² and at maximum 65,536m², all within one region. Parcels are composed of square blocks measuring 4×4 meters, but the blocks do not have to be contiguous. Parcels have both an integer local id and a global UUID. Parcel settings are modifiable in the About Land options.

Region

A named 256m x 256m (65,536 m²) area hosted by a single simulator process (sim). In common usage, the term "simulator" or "sim" may also refer to a region, but in fact a single server process can host mulitple regions. They can be flagged as PG, Mature, or Adult.

There are currently three types of regions: Full, Homestead and Openspace (also known as Void). All have the same size, but differ in their avatar-, and primitive limits, as well as in their price. See Private Region Types for official info and Private Region for general FAQ.

Full Region

There is one full region per server host CPU core. A region can hold up to 100 avatars and 15,000 prims.

Homestead

Homestead regions were introduced in January 2009 and are only available for Residents who own at least one full region. It can hold 20 avatars, 3750 prims and the amount of running scripts might be restricted in the future.

Openspace

Openspaces are, like Homesteads, only available for Residents who own at least one full Region. They support a maximum of 10 avatars and 750 prims.

Estate

A collection of regions with a particular shared set of rules, such as banned users, sun position, etc. Estates have integer identifiers. Read also Estate FAQ.

Mainland

The largest masses of non-island linked simulators in the Second Life grid that refer to Linden-designed continents. The “mainland” is estate ID 1 and owned by Governor Linden. Residents with a premium account can buy mainland parcels and need to pay a monthly tier when their land exceeds 512m². See landpricing info. A mainland region supports a maximum of 40 avatars.

Private Estate

Private estates are collections of Resident owned Regions. Some of these Residents are renting their land, so also Basic Account holders can use land this way. See Estate Management and Private Estate Management Companies to learn more.

Grid

In Second Life, a grid refers to an integrated system that provides a networked collection of servers, some of which are simulators that implement the presentation of land. Those are arranged in the form of a rectangular mesh. In addition, the SL grid provides a set of other services, including presence, inventory management, and asset store, that integrate with but are independent of the simulators.[1]

Linden Lab runs several grids for internal and external testing. Asset transfer and teleporting from the main grid (Agni) to another are currently not possible, but might become a feature in the future, when the Open Grid Protocol evolves.

Contrary to common belief (and what the wording implies), the Teen Grid and Main Grid differ only via their estates IDs and are on the same Grid (Agni), rather than different Grids.

Linden Lab's Grids are named after Hindu gods. Many of the Grids supported by the client are either inaccessible to the public or no longer active. To change the Grid you'd like to connect to, press Ctrl-⇧ Shift-G on the login screen of your viewer and choose the grid from the drop-down menu.

Linden Lab obtaines a grid status report about the stability of the grid.

  1. Read the discussion What is a Grid? on the SLDev mailing list for further information.

Agni

The primary Second Life grid to which users connect; named after the Vedic god of Fire, mentioned in the four Vedas.

Some images of the Agni grid are available in this wiki.


Aditi

The beta test grid available to Residents for testing the Second Life server software before it's deployed to the main grid (Agni); named after the Vedic mother goddess, cosmic creatrix. Read more about Aditi in the preview Grid article.


See also:

Vaak

Vaak is a grid used to test interoperability with the Virtual World Region Agent Protocol (VWRAP) family of specifications. VWRAP is the successor to the Open Grid Protocol and is being standardized under the auspices of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). With the successful completion of the Open Grid Public Beta, vaak is currently being rebuilt to adhere to the more recent VWRAP specifications. A public demonstration of a Second Life grid utilizing the VWRAP protocols is expected, but currently unscheduled. Interested persons are encouraged to watch the official Second Life Blog for news and announcements regarding VWRAP and the Vaak grid.

Linden Research thanks all Gridnauts who participated in the Open Grid Public Beta. Without your interest, patience, hard work and bug reporting, we would not have been successful.

Uma

Uma is a test grid but has been reported to be now unavailable for the public.

Name Grid Type Hinduism
Agni Main God of Fire
Siva Preview Destroyer of the Universe
Durga Preview
Aditi Preview Vedic: Mother Goddess
Soma QA A Lunar Deity
Vedic: Drink of the Gods
Ganga QA
Uma
Shakti
Vaak VWRAP Interop Testing
Mohini
Yami
Nandi
Mitra
Radha
Ravi
Aruna
Damballah
Bharati
Chandra
Danu
Parvati
Skanda

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