OpenSimuator Configuration Sandbox

Some example OpenSimulator configuration setups, using Docker (should also be compatible with Podman) for quick prototyping.

For accessing the OpenSimulator metaverse, I recommend Firestorm Viewer.

Warning

These sandboxes are built targeting the AMD64 platform. Machines running ARM or Apple Silicon may not work.

Experiments

Each folder contains a Docker Compose file that will setup the OpenSimulator prototype.

Folder	Purpose
standalone	Sets up an OpenSimulator instance in standalone mode, using MySQL (mariadb 10.5) as the storage engine.
standalone-wordpress	Same as Standalone, but has a WordPress instance prepped to control the userbase.

Using Docker Compose / Cheat Sheet

• Start up an experiment: docker compose up --build -d
  • --build will build the Docker file needed for OpenSimulator.
  • -d is optional - it brings you back to a prompt. If omitted, your terminal is locked to output (can return by typing docker compose logs).
• Stop experiment: docker compose stop
• Destroying: docker compose down -v
  • -v will remove the associated volumes (e.g. database storage data). If you keep it, the files will still hang around for the next up.

Troubleshooting

How do I run commands in the OpenSimulator prompt

This changed with OpenSimulator 0.9.3.0. If you're running the older (Mono) variants, see here for the original.

To enable you to execute commands on the OpenSimulator server, the OpenSimulator Docker instance runs in screen. You can attach into this by running:

docker compose exec metaverse screen -r -d OpenSim

This executes a CLI command inside metaverse - the OpenSimulator Docker instance - and connects to the screen instance, allowing you to now have full access to the CLI input. You can use the key chord ctrl + a then d to escape.

Please note that this is not normal inside a Docker container. I took this approach because attach would not work correctly, and the container without screen would abruptly terminate. This method will cause issues with docker compose logs metaverse, but you can still access the logs at /opt/opensim/bin/OpenSim.log (will update to account soon).

This does not work on Mac

In 2020, Apple began switching to ARM-based CPUs instead of the common x86-64 type. Currently OpenSimulator does not officially declare support ARM CPUs, so the software will not work as expected.

There are builds of OpenSimulator that do work on ARM, but the current mainline build of OpenSimulator ships with x86-64-only physics drivers. This means that if you start the sandboxes on an ARM machine, you'll crash when the physics library starts operating. If you disable the physics library, you can run OpenSimulator in a crtically reduced state. You can do this by changing the following setting in OpenSim.ini.

[Startup]
    physics = basicphysics

or set an environment variable:

environment:
  PHYSICS_ENGINE: basicphysics

If you do this, prepare for a ... Weird experience.