Amazon S3 software clients

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Last update : December 10, 2012

To organize/manage/store files on Amazon S3, you need a special software tool.

The following list shows a few selected free 3S clients :

  • S3Fox Organizer : this plugin for the Firefox browser is easy to install. Developed by Suchi Software Solutions, the most recent version is 0.6.
  • S3Browser : this Windows only free S3 tool supports multiple Amazon S3 accounts, S3 metadata editing and bucket sharing on top of other features. The latest version is 3.6.7 and has been released on November 20, 2012. S3 Browser is free for personal use only. Users who run the application in commercial, business, government, or military institutions, or for any other profit activity must purchase a Pro license. The Pro license provides some additional features, e.g. a working user-metadata edition.
  • Cloudberry S3 Explorer : this tool makes managing files in Amazon S3 storage easy. By providing a user interface to Amazon S3 accounts, files, and buckets, CloudBerry lets you manage your files on cloud just as you would on your own local computer. The current version is 3.7 released November 14, 2012. A CloudBerry Explorer PRO version is also available which offers some advanced features over the Freeware version. It makes managing files Amazon S3 easier, more secure and cost efficient.
  • Cyberduck : this open source client is an FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files and Amazon S3 browser for the Mac. It features an easy to use interface with quickly accessible bookmarks. The outline view of the browser allows to browse large folder structures efficiently and you can quickly preview files with Quick Look. (version 4.21 relaesd December 12, 2011)
  • S3fm : this client is the first 100% Ajax file manager application for Amazon S3. It runs directly in your browser as a standalone Javascript application and loads from and communicates directly with Amazon S3 without having to share your access credentials with a 3rd party Web site.
  • Amazon S3 for WordPress : this WordPress plugin (version 0.4) developed by Joe Tan allows you to use Amazon’s Simple Storage Service to host your media for your WordPress powered blog. The plugin was not updated during the last two years.
  • WordPress plugin for Amazon S3 : Donovan Schonknecht created a very simple WordPress plugin for Amazon S3 which uses his Amazon S3 PHP class.

The latest versions of S3Browser and Cloudberry support the new Amazon AWS archive solution Glacier.

There are also some commercial S3 tools available, e.g. JungleDisk, Gladinet Cloud Desktop,  Bucket Explorer, SMEStorage and CrossFTP.

CVS, SVN, Git, Mercurial, Trunk, Tags, Branches, Forks ?

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CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) is a free software revision control system in the field of software development. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers to collaborate. Dick Grune developed CVS in the 1980s.

CVS became popular in the open source software world and is released under the GNU General Public License. In the early 2000s, many users of CVS began to replace it with Subversion (SVN), which was explicitly designed to circumvent some of the limitations of CVS. As of January 2009, many open source projects have replaced Subversion or CVS with a distributed version control system, such as Git or Mercurial.

Subversion, as an open source version control system, will become a project of the Apache Software Foundation and remains of interest for a lot of projects.

Trunk, Tags and Branches are names of directories commonly used in revision control systems, but there exist no agreed definition. I have the following understanding:

  • Trunk : Main development area. This is where the next major release of the code lives, and generally has all the newest features.
  • Branches : Every time a major version is released, it gets a branch created. This allows developers to fix bugs and to make a new release without having to release the unfinished or untested features.
  • Tags : Every time you release a version (final release, release candidates (RC), and betas) you make a tag for it. This gives you a point-in-time copy of the code as it was at that state, allowing you to go back and reproduce any bugs if necessary in a past version, or re-release a past version exactly as it was.
  • Forks : Separate projects that share a common origin with other source code,e.g. major branches that are not accepted into the trunk by the project stakeholders.

A discussion about this topic can be viewed at the stackoverflow website, more detailed informations are available in the conference paper Streamed Lines: Branching Patterns for Parallel Software Development.

Export Sims from the Sims 3 game

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There are two ways to export Sims from the Electronic Arts Sims 3 game:

  • in a .sims3pack-file created in the folder My DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 3Exports when you “share sim”
  • in a .sim-file created in the folder  My DocumentsElectronic ArtsThe Sims 3SavedSims “when you save sim to bin”

To export or to save any sim in game, take them to a mirror, select “change appearance” to load your sim into CAS, look down at the bottom of the screen at the little square portrait of your sim with the options dots in the corner, click the dots and choice the option “share sim” or “save to bin”.

Les formats .package et .sims3pack de Sims 3

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Sims 3 utilise deux formats pour regrouper les fichiers avec les resources et données du jeu :

  • les fichiers .package sont les fichiers du jeu eux-même
  • les fichiers .sims3pack sont de mini-executables contenant un ou plusieurs .package

Pour télécharger des contenus en format .package,  il faut installer le fichier Resource.cgf dans le répertoire:

C > Program Files > Electronic Arts > Les Sims 3.

et les fichiers téléchargés dans le répertoire :

C > Program Files > Electronic Arts > Les Sims 3 > Mods > Packages > dossier 1 > dossier 2 > dossier 3  (maximum 3 niveaux de sous-dossiers)

Le logiciel Install Helper Monkey permet d’installer d’une façon conviviale les téléchargements au format .package.
En double-cliquant sur un fichier .sims3pack, l’utilitaire associé (le lanceur du jeu Sims 3) installe les données au bon endroit. Pour enregistrer les données d’uen façon plus contrôlée, on peut recourir au programme S3PME.

Postal : DBPF3 package editor and API for Sims 3 package files

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Postal is developed by Echo, a drive-by modder and supermoderator of the Mod The Sims website. Echo is a female software engineer located in Melbourne, Australia; her website is eternal-echo.net.

Postal can open up Sims 3 package files, let you poke at their innards, change things around, then save them back into new package files. Postal can navigate all kinds of Sims 3 package files, and parse/display/write many resources, including OBJDs, OBJKs, STBLs, XMLs, CSTRs, GEOMs, NMAPs, DDSs, PNGs, VPXYs, Texture Compositors and the various text-based formats. The Postal Editor is built on top of the “Postal API” which has already been used in other tools, including The Sims 3 Mod Generator and Merlin.

The latest version of the Postal installer can be downloaded from Sourceforge.

Postal extracts .obj files from the geom to enable users to modify the mesh.

realXtend : Open Source Platform for interconnected virtual worlds

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realXtend is an open source virtual worlds – immersive web platform.  The framework contains server and client software along with content creation tools.

One of the most important aspects of the realXtend framework is its scalability. Anyone can have a personal virtual space with typically only a couple of users, but it is also possible to create entire worlds for greater numbers of users. Instead of separate proprietary sites realXtend will make it possible to connect between the different worlds as easily as browsing web pages today, which will increase the popularity and usability of virtual reality above what is possible for any individual service provider alone.

The most important issue in creating smooth transitions between virtual realities is a global and secure avatar management system. The avatar is the user’s virtual representative, which can be used for a multitude of purposes. In realXtend the same avatar can be used in every virtual world, it will assist the user in communication tasks and possibly even be used for secure online transactions. The avatar services are also available for anyone to host themselves, there are no centralized or proprietary components in the framework.

RealXtend is a partnership company formed from Admino Technologies (now Evocativi Oy) and LudoCraft, two Finnish companies. They have developed an improved version of the Second Life(tm) viewer which can be downloaded here. Information on how to connect the RealXtend viewer is defined by the ModRex interface.

LudoCraft recently developed the Virtual Expo World which is provided by Tekes Spaces and Places Programme; my user name in the realXtend viewer to connect to the Authentication Server Home Grid is gigamon@world.virtualexpo.fi.

Modrex: integrate realXtend features in OpenSim

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Modrex is a project to integrate all of the realXtend features with the mainline OpenSim code by incorporating them in a optional regionmodule – hence the project name modrex. The work is being done by Adam Frisby. The stability of the code is surprisingly good.

The RealXtend viewer employs the open source OGRE game engine and differs from the Linden Lab viewer (LLviewer) in several ways. The most distinct difference is in the new rendering potential offered by OGRE. When using RealXtend as a viewer for OpenSim, one obtains real-time shadows, improved lighting simulation, and more importantly, the OGRE mesh. The mesh is hierarchical (multiple meshes and sub-meshes) and can include a skeleton for defining avatar motion and dynamics.

ModRex (source code) while not part of the viewer, is the glue that connects the viewer to the opensim trunk code. Version 0.5 of  realXtend released on 30.6.2009 is featuring ModreX for the first time.

Open Metaverse Foundation

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Last update : April 10, 2013

Logo Opne Metaverse Foundation

Logo Open Metaverse Foundation

The Open Metaverse Foundation (OMF) is a non-profit organization founded with the mandate of developing open technologies and open-source software related to the metaverse and virtual worlds. The OMF provides support and guidance to selected projects that espouse the principles of the foundation.

The current projects supported by OMF are the Meerkat Viewer and the LibOpenMetaverse, a .NET based Client/Server library used for accessing and creating 3d virtual worlds. The library maintains compatibility with the Second Life protocol and can be used for creating clients and automatons in Second Life, OpenSim or other virtual worlds which use the Second Life Protocol.

The current library (version 0.9.1 released September 3, 2011 ) consists of several .NET Assemblies:

  • OpenMetaverse.dll : The core OpenMetaverse library which can be used for creating client and server applications
  • OpenMetaverseTypes.dll : A 3d specific Types and Math library
  • OpenMetaverse.StructuredData.dll : A serialization library which implements full support for LLSD and Json
  • OpenJpeg A .NET : wrapper for encoding and decoding Jpeg2000 data utilizing the openjpeg library

The OpenMetaverse library is compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and newer and Mono 1.9 or newer.

OSgrid : the largest running OpenSimulator grid

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Last update : April 10, 2013

OSgrid logo

OSgrid logo

OSgrid is the largest running OpenSimulator grid, run by OSGrid Inc., a Californian Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. Users can connect their own Sim-regions to the grid for free. OSgrid recommends the Hippo Viewer provided by MJM Labs. This viewer includes a list of public OSgrids.

End november 2009, OSgrid countet 34 inworlds, 3,105 regions and 28,546 accounts. Mid April 2013, there are 8696 regions and 88.381 total users.

The OSgrid website provides statistics, forums, chats, photos, news, a general store with free items, a wiki, a region lists with connected Sims and a list with the coordinates of free spots. OSGrid “map tiles” are only reserved while a region is online, if a region is offline it risks having it’s location taken by another user. OSGrid Admins may help resolve map position disputes, however this is not her responsibility.

A detailed documentation how to connect a Simulator to the OSgrid and how to configure the .ini-file is available on the OSgrid website.