skimi3d Grid Log in Visit the grid
Getting in

Get a viewer

One program, and you are inside.

A viewer is the program that draws this world on your screen. It is free, it takes about ten minutes, and there is exactly one place where people get it wrong. That part is near the top of this page rather than buried at the bottom.

The window, not the world

The world itself lives on our servers. What you install is the window you look through: it draws the terrain, streams in the things other people built, and carries your voice and your typing. Nothing of the world sits on your machine beyond what it needs for the next few seconds.

Because the window is separate from the world, you get to choose it. Several are free, they all reach this grid, and none of them is ours · we do not build a viewer and we do not want you locked into one. Pick the one you get on with.

The one thing that goes wrong

Firestorm ships twice, and only one of the two can reach us

Read this first

Take the build that says with OpenSim support.

Firestorm is built twice from the same source. One build talks only to Second Life; the other also speaks to independent grids like this one. Once installed the two look identical, so there is no way to tell from the program itself. The other viewers below ship a single build that reaches both · this is a Firestorm-only trap, and Firestorm is what most people install.

If you took the wrong one, skimi3d will simply never appear in the login list and nothing you type will change that. Uninstall it and fetch the other build; the two do not sit well side by side.

This one thing accounts for most people who give up before they ever arrive. It is not your fault and it is not a hard problem, it is a badly labelled download button.

Which one

Three that work here

All free, all made by other people, all able to reach this grid. If you have no opinion yet, take the first one · it is what most of the grid uses, so it is what any answer you find will assume.

Firestorm

start here

What most of this grid uses, and the one every answer on the internet assumes. More settings than you will ever open, which is the point once you know what you want.

Two builds · take the OpenSim one
Windows · macOS · Linux
firestormviewer.org

Alchemy

Lighter and tidier, and it treats grids like this one as a first-class platform rather than an afterthought. Fewer panels shouting at you on the first day.

One build, reaches both
Windows · macOS · Linux
alchemyviewer.org

Singularity

Older in style and lighter for it. A long-running favourite on independent grids, and it asks the least of an ageing machine.

One build, reaches both
Windows · macOS · Linux
singularityviewer.org

On a machine that cannot manage 3D at all, there are text-only clients that let you chat, teleport and handle your inventory without drawing anything. They are a genuine way in, not a consolation prize.

Point it at this grid

Three steps, and one line to paste

grid.skimi3d.com:8002
01

Install the right build

The one that says it supports OpenSim. This is the step from the warning above.

02

Add this grid

In the viewer's preferences there is a page for grids. Paste the address in, add it, and save.

03

Pick skimi3d and log in

The grid now appears in the list on the login screen. Choose it, enter your avatar name and password.

Your avatar name is two words, first and last, exactly as you registered them. The password is the same one you use on this website; the account is one account.

What your computer needs

Less than you think, with one honest limit

A laptop from the last several years runs this comfortably. Integrated graphics work if you keep the settings modest, and a dedicated card mostly buys you draw distance rather than a different world.

The honest limit: this needs a real computer. There is no browser version and no phone app, not because we withheld one, but because nobody has built one for worlds of this kind.

Worth knowing before you start
Set bandwidth to about 1500 kbps

Not the maximum. Asking for more than the connection can carry makes things stall rather than load faster, and this is the first setting worth changing.

Leave a few gigabytes for the cache

The viewer keeps what it has already drawn so the second visit is quick. A small cache means everything loads slowly, every time.

Everything will look grey at first

That is the world arriving, not a fault. Stand still for a moment on your first login and let it finish.

Voice is optional

Most of the grid types. Nobody will think you are unfriendly for keeping the microphone off.

Once you are in

Nothing is expected of you on the first day

Your first login lands you on the arrival island: a shore, a jetty, and somebody who lives there. There is no tutorial to finish and no checklist. Walk around, look at the water, work out the camera. The grid is not going anywhere.

See where people are Who else lives here
Stuck at the login screen? Write to contact@skimi3d.com and say what you see. Somebody has almost certainly seen it before.