OpenSim is now a semi-RFC1459 compliant IRCd. IRC clients are treated as full members of the virtual world, gaining a presence with a horrible default avatar, as the screenshots below picture. Each IRC client has an implementation of IClient* which means we could in theory insert text descriptions of the world and any events in. (Although in practice it’s unlikely to be useful for anything beyond basic text & IM messaging with an IRC client).
The advantage of this over the IRC Bridge module is that each presence is visible in both environments (users show up in the ‘who’ list on IRC, and have an avatar ‘in world’), and we will be able to handle a number of events more directly and appropriately – such as private messaging or group discussions. The IRCd framework I have written is extremely basic and probably not 100% to spec – if anyone with IRCd experience wants to get into the code and fix it up, please do.
In the mean time, enjoy. You can enable this by using the [IRCd] Enabled=true option in OpenSim.ini and connecting on port 6666.
Fig 1. XChat
Figure 2. Hippo Viewer
Great!
Ran into an issue when I tried to enable it in my master .ini file; on machines running multiple instances of OpenSim, the second and subsequent instances would crash because the port was already in use.
I’ve submitted a minor patch (mantis 3852) which adds a Port specifier in the [IRCd] section, so individual instances can select a different port number.
Warin Cascabel
29 Jun 09 at 1:16 pm
I could not stop giggling and then all out laughing at the eloquence of your screenshot verbiage and visuals. I love the reversion to courier font when using the very imagination-demanding text-only environment of OpenSim.
And the “horrible default avatar” is REALLY horrible!(I do some more audible lol’ing). However, it could be quite effective if you were using the IRC client to act as moderator for any large group discussions or events, especially events with local chatting audience members causing lag or otherwise disrupting the presenter/focal point of the event. You’d get immediate compliance with that avatar. It would be further enhanced if you could super-impose or otherwise insert your X-chat “grey-screen” style into the standard Hiippo/SL viewer local chat window.
Lisa Wells
1 Oct 09 at 8:48 pm