How to install
Download the below installers, accept warnings that this file is from an unknown provider, but always right click and run your own Anti-virus scan on the installer, even though we of cause ran Anti-virus checks before uploading the installer. If the installer is cleared by your own Anti-virus program, then run it and install the Oligo Academy trayicon, that helps you install Docker image for running OpenSimulator in a virtual machine using Docker Desktop. In the Oligo Desktop trayicon click “Install Oligo ABC” that helps both teachers and students install all the tools they need.
Explainer videos
Running the Oligo Academy tools for OpenSimulator
After installing the Oligo Desktop tray icon run it and click on the trayicon menu Install Oligo ABC, were you can install FireStorm viewer, Docker and the OpenSim Docker Hub image olioaps/oligo_academy_opensim first time.
Click on the Oligo Desktop tray icon and select “Install Oligo ABC” to get a user interface for installing the FireStorm viewer, Docker software and to build the Docker OpenSim image once.
- Start by installing the FireStorm viewer that all students and teachers need.
- Then press install Docker Desktop, if you don’t already have a free Docker Hub account then create one. Go to your mailbox and verify your email address and then Sign in to Docker Desktop, you your account details.
- Finally install Docker image olioaps/oligo_academy_opensim, this takes 5-10 minutes to download 1,8GB. This step is performed only once, so go get some coffee. If you want you can click “Yes” launch the Oligo Desktop trayicon at startup or you can just manually start the application when you need it.
Advanced users can choose to build custom version of OpenSimulator, if latest version if not what you want. Building the image from scratch takes 30 minutes, before you can run 3D learning modules in the OpenSimulator Docker virtual machine container. Therefore we recommended using the prebuild Docker Hub image.
The teachers control panel (My Dashboard)
In Oligo Desktop trayicon select Start OpenSimulator and then open My Dashboard. The dashboard gives teachers an overview of students activities in the virtual world. You can write messages to students in the virtual world from Dashboard or you can click on the map and get their location to join them in the virtual world. Open FireStorm viewer and teleport to their location, by pasting the teleport command you copy from the map.
Students that want to design their own world can start their own local OpenSimulator and build 3D worlds using the FireStorm viewer and if their class mates are on the same network, they can build together by connecting to the IP address of the student hosting the virtual world OpenSimulator on their laptop in a Docker container. Student can thus build on their virtual world at home and then export the 3D models and later import them to a shared virtual world, if they work in groups on a project.
Oligo Academy Builders Collection license
Oligo ABC is a suite of tools for education in virtual worlds, that are free for schools and other non commercial use, if companies want to use this tools for commercial purposes then please contact us on mail support at oligo dot academy.
The tools were made for teaching students in a virtual world on your local school, so if you need to use the tools for an international school project with many concurrent students, then you need to install OpenSimulator in grid mode instead of standalone installation. Please see OpenSimulator performance page for details on running in grid mode.
Oligo ABC comes without any warranty or support, but if you have a commercial project that require other terms please contact us. Oligo ABC is based on OpenSimulator that uses the open source BSD permissive license. The Oligo Docker image, Oligo Desktop tray icon and the Oligo Render Server are licensed under the new BSD permissive license:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Closed source add-ons
The Oligo Dashboard for teachers and the two OpenSimulator add-ons Adaptive Learning System and Ladybird are copyright by Olio ApS, but the full source code is available in a private git repository that anyone can get read only access to on request.
The add-ons are distributed with the Docker image in binary form and the Oligo Dashboard is free for schools and other non commercial purposes, under the same no implied warranty, described in the last line of the new BSD license above.
The Oligo Docker image installed here is using the small free database SQLite, that is fine for teaching in-class, but for international school projects with more than 25 concurrent students, you need to install OpenSimulator in Grid mode for better performance.
Learning outcome
The Oligo Academy Builders Collection tools can be used by teachers to host existing immersive 3D learning modules or enable students to design and share their own 3D learning modules. The Adaptive Learning System add-on for OpenSimulator extends the LSL script language with easy xAPI learning outcome logging, that can be used in the virtual worlds for logging student behavior when they interact with the virtual world. This can later be uploaded to a learning record store like for example Learning Locker.
The self study videos for teaching basic 3D design in the FireStorm viewer and LSL script programming is intended for young people from the age of 13. The OligoABC learning materials make it possible for students to make a project of their own with 3D designs and scripted actions. This is a fun way to learn some general skills in programming, design and problem analysis.
Teachers and students can install Docker on their Mac or Windows and then install the Oligo Academy tools to host a 3D virtual learning environment. Students are only required to install the FireStorm viewer, but installing the Oligo Desktop trayicon makes it easy to connect to the OpenSimulator hosted by the teacher on the local area network.
The Oligo Desktop trayicon lets you as a teacher safely start and stop the OpenSimulator in a Docker container, without using command line tools. The Oligo Desktop trayicon enables you to open the OpenSimulator console, were you can do anything in a command line, but it also gives you a Dashboard user interface, where you as a teacher can login with Master Avatar and password 2222 to create student logins or groups and load or save content using virtual world archive files.
The teacher can show the Dashboard in a browser on a SmartBoard or using a projector, to allow all students to see the virtual world map and other students questions, that can inspire students to help each other. Student to student learning is a key principle for the Oligo Academy tools.
Getting started video material
The Oligo Academy videos found on YouTube allows students to learn 3D design in FireStorm at their own pace and without any technical help from the teacher.
When hosting 3D learning modules the teaching style is flipped learning were students explore the virtual world in groups or watch videos and then the teacher facilitates group discussions on the class concerning what the students have learned.
The teachers role is to facilitate group discussions, to help students think critical about what they have learned.
Windows installer
Download the self extracting ZIP file Oligo Desktop installer and click to open it When Windows protection warns you of unknown source, you select ore information and Run anyway.
Download and execute the below self extracting ZIP file that will install the Oligo Academy tools in the users application data folder under a subfolder called Oligo. The installation will check if Python 3.8+ is installed and if not it will be installed together with any required Python packages.
Mac installer
Download the disk image Oligo Desktop installer and open it to drag the trayicon app to your Applications folder.
Since oligo.academy is not known to Apple the installer is blocked until you open System preferences, Security & Privacy and click the lock to make changes and then press Open Anyway.
Go to your Applications folder and start the trayicon app, then you should see the trayicon showing the Witzy question mark with the red clown nose.
When your machine starts the Docker trayicon will animate until its done loading. You can not start the Oligo Academy OpenSimulator before Docker is up and running.
If you want to start the Oligo Desktop trayicon automatically, then click on it and select Install Oligo ABC to open the install wizard. At the bottom you will find options for installing the trayicon as a launch agent, that will load automatically at startup.
The Oligo Desktop tray icon is developed in Python and can therefore run on Mac and Windows. The Oligo Desktop trayicon is tested with the latest Python 3.8.
The Docker software for running virtual machines on Mac must be installed from https://download.docker.com. The Oligo Desktop trayicon can guide you to the proper installation media.
How a teacher starts OpenSimulator on their laptop
The Oligo Desktop icon has a shortcut link to “Start OpenSimulator” or “Stop OpenSimulator” and to start the “FireStorm viewer”.
After starting the OpenSimulator the teacher can click the “My dashboard” menu, to get a user interface for loading or saving 3D learning modules in different regions.
Login to My Dashboard
Login to the region “Oligo” with username “Master Avatar” and the initial password “2222”.
The dashboard is used by the teacher to create user accounts for students, that allow them to login to any region on this OpenSimulator.
You can also create student groups, to make it easy for them write local chat together in the virtual world. You can load different 3D learning modules in the predefined regions of size 1024×1025, 512×512 or 256×256. The size 256×256 is the normal region size used in many free 3D virtual simulations (see zadaroo.com under OAR menu for examples, that can be converted to .oar files and uploaded in a region). We have already converted these regions and made them available to your on my.oligo.academy.
FireStorm viewer
Starting the FireStorm viewer
When you start FireStorm you must add the localhost in Grid Manager and then you can select it in the Grid dropdown, enter Master Avatar in username and 2222 in password and in Last location you can type the name of a region
Regions are default named:
Oligo (1024×1024),
Region1 or Region2 (512×512) or
Region3, Region4, Region5 or Region6 (256×256).
The smaller 256×256 regions are the default size used, by all the free regions on my.oligo.academy, were you find OAR files for loading regions.
Adding localhost grid in FireStorm Grid Manager under Viewer, Preferences, OpenSim
When starting FireStorm the option to connect to an OpenSimulator Grid on your localhost is not present in the FireStorm application app_settings\grids.xml, that on Windows is stored in c:\Program Files\FirestormOS-Releasex64\app_settings\grids.xml. Therefore we need to add a configuration for the key localhost, under the FireStorm menu Viewer, Preferences and in the left menu choose OpenSim and then look at the Grid Manager tab. In the Manage Grids search for a grid named localhost and if it does not exist then add a new grid named “localhost” with Grid URI “http://localhost:9000” and an optional Login Page of “https://localhost/splash”. In some older versions of FireStorm the grid manager could fail and you would need to open a text editor as administrator and add the below entry to app_settings\grids.xml manually.
<llsd> <map> <key>localhost</key> <map> <key>LastModified</key> <date>2020-06-02T11:41:00.95Z</date> <key>gridname</key> <string>localhost</string> <key>gridnick</key> <string>localhost</string> <key>login_identifier_types</key> <array> <string>agent</string> <string>account</string> </array> <key>loginpage</key> <string>https://localhost/splash</string> <key>loginuri</key> <array> <string>http://localhost:9000</string> </array> <key>name</key> <string>localhost:9000</string> <key>platform</key> <string>OpenSim</string> <key>slurl_base</key> <string>hop://localhost:9000/</string> </map>
Always make a backup
If you build your own 3D learning module, always choose “Stop simulator” in the Oligo Desktop tray icon or you will lose your last changes, if you just close the OpenSimulator console windows, without running the “quit” command that the “Stop simulator” runs for you.
To backup your own learning modules click “My dashboard” in Oligo Desktop tray icon and select “Save” on the region you where working on, then this will download a backup file in the OpenSimulator Archive format (.oar).
The archived virtual world can the be copied to another computer and loaded in a new region.