Just discovered this -- Agni?? Huh? lol

[Constance Finchy]

I was looking through the Second Life Glossary on their wiki and found an entry called Agni, which is apparently like a "nickname" for the main grid? I've never heard of this -- can someone explain what this means or is it just a nickname that stuck culturally? Have you ever heard of Agni? 😝

[Rolig Loon]

Yes indeed.   Agni is the Hindu god of fire.  It's been used as the formal name for the main grid since the early days of SL, just as Aditi (the Hindu goddess of motherhood, consciousness, unconsciousness, the past, the future, and fertility) has been the formal name for the Beta, or test grid.  Neither of the formal names is used very often these days. Most residents aren't even aware that there are two grids, much less that they have formal names.  Still, that's what they are.

[Constance Finchy]

7 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Yes indeed.   Agni is the Hindu god of fire.  It's been used as the formal name for the main grid since the early days of SL, just as Aditi (the Hindu goddess of motherhood, consciousness, unconsciousness, the past, the future, and fertility) has been the formal name for the Beta, or test grid.  Neither of the formal names is used very often these days. Most residents aren't even aware that there are two grids, much less that they have formal names.  Still, that's what they are.

Thanks for the in-depth explanation! I didn't know all this.

[Arielle Popstar]

18 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

Most residents aren't even aware that there are two grids, much less that they have formal names.  Still, that's what they are.

The SL viewer still lists Agni and Aditi by name in the Grid selector so you'd think most would know of it?

[Jaylinbridges]

8 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

The SL viewer still lists Agni and Aditi by name in the Grid selector so you'd think most would know of it?

Well newbies miss a lot.  LL should add Agni and Aditi to the Community Exhibit.  Actually a detailed world map would be nice too

[Rowan Amore]

People may see it in the drop down menu at log in but have no idea what they are.  They attempt to.log into Aditi and can't so.don't bother with it.  Heck,.some people don't even know there's a difference between Mainland and private regions nor how to see which they are on.

[Love Zhaoying]

12 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

Yes indeed.   Agni is the Hindu god of fire.  It's been used as the formal name for the main grid since the early days of SL, just as Aditi (the Hindu goddess of motherhood, consciousness, unconsciousness, the past, the future, and fertility) has been the formal name for the Beta, or test grid.  Neither of the formal names is used very often these days. Most residents aren't even aware that there are two grids, much less that they have formal names.  Still, that's what they are.

Oddly, as a Hindu myself, I never heard of those gods until Second Life. 

The word "Agni" is also used to just mean the "fire" in some context (such as the flame used in any formal worship offerings).

ETA: They could be "Old", pre-Rg Veda. (I don't want to Google it lol!)

Edited February 28 by Love Zhaoying

[AmeliaJ08]

You don't really hear it referred to as Agni very often but internally it is and if you have access to Aditi it is something people refer to more often, I believe the friendly name is Beta/testing grid.

If contacting support or anyone though you can refer to Agni/Aditi and be understood.

 

[Persephone Emerald]

12 hours ago, Rowan Amore said:

People may see it in the drop down menu at log in but have no idea what they are.  They attempt to.log into Aditi and can't so.don't bother with it.  Heck,.some people don't even know there's a difference between Mainland and private regions nor how to see which they are on.

It took me months to realize there was a world map. To this day I don't know where the first 2 places I rented were located on the inworld map.

[Rolig Loon]

Just now, Persephone Emerald said:

To this day I don't know where the first 2 places I rented were located on the inworld map.

Thanks to the magic of teleportation, most people don't need to know what Agni looks like. You can't fly or sail to most private estates, so it doesn't really matter where they sit on the grid. In fact, LL can move regions around any time they want to clear space for something big (like Bellisseria). Your previous home might not even still be where you left it.

In a way, RL is becoming more like this as time goes on too. Our RL magic of airplane travel and mass communication means that we can visit or view far flung places without ever knowing how we got there. It's no wonder that plenty of people can't even find states in the U.S. on the map, much less countries like Bolivia and Burma.  We don't look at maps as much any more; we just go.

[Sid Nagy]

True, 17 years (minus a few days now) in SL and I never really bothered where what land is situated.
At the moment I have a shop at private land and a houseboat in Belli. I honestly can't even tell in what regions they are. I have landmarks in the favorites bar that I use.

[Rowan Amore]

45 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

It took me months to realize there was a world map. To this day I don't know where the first 2 places I rented were located on the inworld map.

The first place I lived was on a private estate that I'm sure no longer exists.   I may not know what continent I'm on when I'm on mainland but I can easily tell it's mainland since it says right in about land.   One thing I have realized over the years is that a large part of SL residents don't read anything.  Is it really a wonder ANY attempt at having a new user experience where people need to read tutorials is a failure in some way?   RTFM!   Probably the same people who would rather voice than text.  Reading is hard!

[Jaylinbridges]

I have always wanted to know where I live, in RL and SL.  I guess Geography is no longer taught in schools.  No wonder nobody gets along. Living in isolation is not how you learn about other people.

How many can name all the SL continents that make up the mainland? 

I live on one of those private islands, in a sea of isolated islands.  I am a west of Heterocera Atoll by a long shot, and Zindra (Scarlet Veil shown) is stuck way way out East, far from anything.  The kids can't paddle out that far, I guess that was the idea.

 

[AmeliaJ08]

2 hours ago, Jaylinbridges said:

I have always wanted to know where I live, in RL and SL.  I guess Geography is no longer taught in schools.  No wonder nobody gets along. Living in isolation is not how you learn about other people.

How many can name all the SL continents that make up the mainland? 

I live on one of those private islands, in a sea of isolated islands.  I am a west of Heterocera Atoll by a long shot, and Zindra (Scarlet Veil shown) is stuck way way out East, far from anything.  The kids can't paddle out that far, I guess that was the idea.

 

I'm 2018 intake and I am just beginning to be able to name continents by looking at them on the map... not all but my time flying in the Blake Sea shining my spotlight at suspicious yachts taught me my bearings somewhat.

I first learned of mainland when I bought a parcel on Gaeta V which I can confidently say is the most boring part of mainland but it taught me to look at the World Map and learn where I was. Now I'm on Heterocera which is much more interesting.

I sometimes wish that it was an easier prospect to go on a very long journey, it's something that is technically possible with the connected continents but is logistically difficult. Maybe I'm just a huge nerd but the idea of sailing from my new house in Heterocera all the way to my very first home in Gaeta V sounds neat.

 

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Just use an amphibious vehicle. Back in May of 2021, I completed a non-stop nine hour trip across of all of SL's connected mainland continents - in a hovercraft!

😎

Edited February 29 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

On 2/28/2024 at 3:44 AM, Rolig Loon said:

Agni is the Hindu god of fire

In the late 80s and early 90s. network admins had the habit of naming  their servers after all kinds of ancient gods, Green, Roman and here at LL, apparently, Hindu. Back in the days of Telnet, FTP and very small DNA databases, I mostly encountered servers with names of Egyptian gods and Pharaos.

[AmeliaJ08]

8 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Just use an amphibious vehicle. Back in May of 2021, I completed a non-stop nine hour trip across of all of SL's connected mainland continents - in a hovercraft!

😎

Can I ask how you planned the route? it's so cool I want to do it! I guess you could just study the world map and plan it out region by region but is there any special tool that makes it easier?

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

@AmeliaJ08

*No special tools necessary. Just plan ahead and do your homework for the route you want to take. Rehearse tricky bits before doing the whole thing.

*I like to use just one vehicle, no flying, no teleporting, no changing vehicle for the entire journey.

*Research and find alternative backup routes too if your primary route doesn't work out as planned, or is changed somehow by unexpected parcel redevelopments.

*Experiment with low graphics settings to keep the FPS rate up.

*Surprisingly, a 200m draw distance seems to actually help preload (cache) a sim in during long-distance trips and sudden background "pop-up" rez lag is reduced.

*Make your avatar as basic as possible and don't wear unnecessary scripted attachments and HUDs.

*Use an amphibious vehicle which is quick and turns easily, like a hovercraft, or can climb steep hills or cliffs - like a fast moving hovercraft!

*Don't be afraid of taking big jumps from cliff tops into the seas!

*Keep the World Map open in a top corner of your screen with "you" focused in the middle of it, so you can anticipate what is ahead.

*Have the Minimap open in the opposite corner, with parcel boundary filter on to avoid driving into or through private parcels.

*Keep an eye out for rez zones just in case you need to back track and rerez your vehicle. Don't cheat and skip sims forwards to find an "easy" place to rez.

*Find a "trip logger" HUD which counts and records all the sim names you pass through, some HUDs also record the distance travelled, your speeds and time taken. 

Edited March 1 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[animats]

At one time, there were plans to have more grids. IBM briefly had their own grid cross-connected to Second Life.

The architecture supports this, and the Other Simulator has many loosely-associated grids. Some share objects, some don't. Some use different money systems. The original idea was to grow this to Internet scale. Then came Facebook.

[Nalates Urriah]

On 2/29/2024 at 1:17 PM, AmeliaJ08 said:

Can I ask how you planned the route? it's so cool I want to do it! I guess you could just study the world map and plan it out region by region but is there any special tool that makes it easier?

There are tools for travelers. Sailors use USB HUD Pro or aka Ultimate Sailor's Buddy. It is used for racing and group sailing. It can be used for any navigation task.

Shergood Aviation has a nav computer for planes. It has interesting real time features and they have a web site that tracks security orbs so you can avoid them when planning a route. Both Shergood's and USB use way-points you or someone creates.

There is also a Ban Line HUD that forewarns of ban lines on a parcel level. Great for driving. Not so much for flying. It also forewarns of ban lines in adjoining regions. Very handy.

Also, the Firestorm Viewer's mini-map (aka radar) indicates ban lines and offline regions.

I think there are more such tools. But these are the ones I know of and use.

[Porky Gorky]

3 hours ago, animats said:

At one time, there were plans to have more grids. IBM briefly had their own grid cross-connected to Second Life.

The IBM folks were great, they were so enthusiastic about SL, and they paid ridiculously high fees for commissioned builds as did a lot of those big real life companies that jumped on the SL bandwagon back in the day.

[Constance Finchy]

On 2/29/2024 at 4:41 AM, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Just use an amphibious vehicle. Back in May of 2021, I completed a non-stop nine hour trip across of all of SL's connected mainland continents - in a hovercraft!

😎

Okay, so you are officially cooler than all of us. Just saying.

[Rathgrith027]

I've often alluded to SL as Agni, sort of as a loving term for the place I've called home for 10 years. I implore all our residents to take a closer look at the inner workings of the place and its' history. It's why I love it so much - such a fine tapestry of beauty forged from chaos.

 

16 hours ago, Constance Finchy said:

Okay, so you are officially cooler than all of us. Just saying.

Worst I've done is fly from Sansara to Second Norway out in the Blake.. I couldn't fathom the planning and navigation a 9 hour flight would take. Dude's got balls like Duke Nukem.

[Sid Nagy]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:46 AM, Porky Gorky said:

The IBM folks were great, they were so enthusiastic about SL, and they paid ridiculously high fees for commissioned builds as did a lot of those big real life companies that jumped on the SL bandwagon back in the day.

Paying RL wages for RL jobs isn't ridiculously high IMHO. They saw their projects as doing business, not playing Second Life.

[HeathcliffMontague]

On 3/1/2024 at 12:05 AM, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

@AmeliaJ08

*No special tools necessary. Just plan ahead and do your homework for the route you want to take. Rehearse tricky bits before doing the whole thing.

*I like to use just one vehicle, no flying, no teleporting, no changing vehicle for the entire journey.

*Research and find alternative backup routes too if your primary route doesn't work out as planned, or is changed somehow by unexpected parcel redevelopments.

*Experiment with low graphics settings to keep the FPS rate up.

*Surprisingly, a 200m draw distance seems to actually help preload (cache) a sim in during long-distance trips and sudden background "pop-up" rez lag is reduced.

*Make your avatar as basic as possible and don't wear unnecessary scripted attachments and HUDs.

*Use an amphibious vehicle which is quick and turns easily, like a hovercraft, or can climb steep hills or cliffs - like a fast moving hovercraft!

*Don't be afraid of taking big jumps from cliff tops into the seas!

*Keep the World Map open in a top corner of your screen with "you" focused in the middle of it, so you can anticipate what is ahead.

*Have the Minimap open in the opposite corner, with parcel boundary filter on to avoid driving into or through private parcels.

*Keep an eye out for rez zones just in case you need to back track and rerez your vehicle. Don't cheat and skip sims forwards to find an "easy" place to rez.

*Find a "trip logger" HUD which counts and records all the sim names you pass through, some HUDs also record the distance travelled, your speeds and time taken. 

Yeah, keep the graphics at the appropriate level for you travel experience and your pc (or whatever). And as a long-time driver in SL, don't be so afraid of draw distance. Mine is never below 128, sometimes even higher. Worked with my old i3, works with my new Ryzen as well.