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''[[Opensimulator]]: Region and Parcel Owners''

Information and links to information for grid owners.

=== Content Libraries ===
There are lots of websites with free meshes of all kinds. Those can be great resources, BUT:
* Unless it's the personal site of a known and trusted 3D modeller, there is always a chance the content is stolen. Even the most carefully monitored and moderated file collection may include content that slipped through the cracks in the control routines.
* Read the license! Free content comes with a bewildering variety of (usually open source) licenses with different restrictions. Make sure you understand which uses are allowed and which aren't.
* Meshes not specifically made for OpenSimulator aren't really suitable for OpenSimulator. All virtual reality/game platforms have their own quirks and OpenSimulator maybe more so than most. Content made for other platform not only can but will affect a sim's performance negatively. Most free content online wasn't made for real time dynamic rendering at all and that will reduce the performance even more than content for other VR/game platforms.

What content you add to your own land on the hypergrid is nobody's business but your own (provided it's legal of course) but if you want to distribute some of your uploads, please make sure it's legal and properly optimized for OpenSimulator. We have more than enough legal and performance issues already-

<!-- Content temporarily hidden. This is the list of cautionary points from when this chapter was part of the content creators sections. It needs to be added to the wiki somewhere but not here. 
# Try to avoid duplicate uploads! Every single copy of a mesh or a texture adds to the load both for server and client. It's not much but it adds up. If you can find a good upload of the mesh on the hypergrid, sue that one instead.
# Consider the polycount! General purpose meshes are not intended for realtime rendering and they are not intended to share rendering time with other objects. Because of this they often have very complex meshes with superfluous vertices and tris. Even "game ready" content may be too complex for the more crowded scenes we typically find in a shared virtual world.
# Try to make decent LOD models! Meshes not made specifically for Opensim and/or Second Life will never come with relevant ready-made LOD models. (If they do, it's a very strong indication it's a copybotted object.)
# Try to make decent physics models! Same as above.
# Check the textures! There are three issues to be aware of:
## Meshes made for other environments often use textures with a higher resolution than what we can afford in a shared virtual world. Consider scaling them down.
## Meshes not intended for realtime rendering may sometimes come with multiple small textures and/or duplicates of the same texture. If so, see if you can consolidate them.
## Opensim and Second Life have an unusually dark light setting compared to most other virtual environments. It is often necessary to compensate for this by making the textures lighter.
-->

===== itch.io (game assets section) =====
Link: https://itch.io/game-assets (Confirmed 2023-05-26)
* Content: Various, mostly models
* License: Various
Wikipedia says: "Itch.io (stylized in all lowercase) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie video games, indie role-playing games, game assets, comics, zines and music."
Much of the content is also found at OpenGameArt and/or SketchFab and it seems many game content creator regards itch.io as their main distribution channel and the other(s) as secondary one(s). This means there's a good chance you'll find new content here first.
Most of the content is pay-what-you-like-or-nothing-at-all donationware, a few items are commercial.

===== OpenGameArt =====
* Link: http://opengameart.org/
* Content: Objects, Textures, Sounds, Music
* License: Various
An exceptional repository of permissively licensed content for game creation.

===== Outworldz =====
* Link: http://www.outworldz.com/Opensim/ (confirmed 2023-05-29)
* Content: All kinds
* License: Various
Collection of textures, meshes, objects, avatars and other items. Licenses vary.

===== Renderosity =====
* Link: http://www.renderosity.com/ (Confirmed 2023-05-26)
* Content: Mesh models
* License: https://www.renderosity.com/wiki/policies/standard-license
A marketplace for content for DAZ Studio, mostly commercial but also some freebies. The content is not supposed to be game ready and much of it is too heavy for real time rendering but it's still worth looking at.

===== ShareCG =====
* Link: http://www.sharecg.com/ (Confirmed 2023-05-25)
* Content: Various
* License: Various
A source for free animations, 3d models, textures, etc.

===== SketchFab =====
* Link: https://sketchfab.com/feed (Confirmed 2023-05-26)
* Content: Mainly models but also a few textures
* License: Various
A huge collection of models. Apparently SketchFab was originally intended to be a resource for storing 3D models to be embedded onto web sites but many of the models there are also for sale or downloadable for free. Like all generic online 3D model collections, most of the content is not intended for games/virtual worlds and too heavy for real time rendering. There is still a lot there that can be used for opensim though.