Getting Started In Sansar

Linden Lab’s Sansar is now in public beta, so if you have a PC that meets the system requirements you can create an account and explore right now.

In terms of getting started the process is relatively straight forward, you will need to register with your real details, the account creation page states :

During the course of your account or transaction history you may be required to submit to an information request to verify your identity. Please use accurate, current, and verifiable information.

So you will be faced with a screen like this :

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These details are for your account, but once the account is created and you create your profile you will be able to choose an avatar name and avatar ID the first time you login and your avatar name will be the one that appears inworld.

Once your account has been created you will be all set to download the Sansar client. When you first login to the client, that is when you will be asked to create your avatar name and avatar ID. The link here is very important because it explains some important information about your avatar name and avatar ID, most notably than an avatar name is not unique  :

Avatar Names are not unique and it is possible for multiple users to share the same Avatar Name. For example, there can be multiple users named “John Smith” in Sansar. However, while multiple users can have the same Avatar Name, they cannot have the same Avatar ID.

On the other hand, an Avatar ID is unique :

Your Avatar ID is a permanent ID that serves as a unique identifier for each user. This unique ID is linked solely with your account; no two users can have the same Avatar ID. For example, once a user uses “@johnsmith” as a Avatar ID, no one else can use “@johnsmith” as an ID and will have to choose a different one (For example, @johnsmith123).

At the moment, you cannot change your Avatar Name, but that may change, however an Avatar ID is permanent, therefore this is a very important step in the creation of your account and I really urge people to read the Avatar Name and Avatar ID page before creating their account.

Once you have created your avatar name you are then presented with the avatar creation screen, which has an number of default avatars, although it should be pointed out at this stage that none of them involve Dwarves or Elves!

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Linden Lab’s Sansar Goes Into Public Beta

Sansar

Linden Lab have today announced The Metaverse’s Next Chapter : Sansar Opens To The Public In Creator Beta :

SAN FRANCISCO – July 31, 2017 – Sansar™, the world’s leading social VR platform, today opened its creator beta to the public. Sansar empowers individuals, communities, schools, studios, corporations, brands and others to easily create, share, and ultimately sell immersive 3D social experiences for consumers to enjoy on HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows PCs. Developed by Linden Lab®, the company behind the groundbreaking virtual world Second Life®, Sansar is a brand new platform built from the ground up to enable everyone to become a creator.

At opening, Sansar’s Atlas directory already features hundreds of engaging virtual experiences, including multiplayer games, recreations of historic sites and landmarks, art installations, movie theaters, museums, narrative experiences, jungle temples, 360º video domes, sci-fi themed hangouts, and much more. Creators invited to the platform during a limited-access preview have published thousands of amazing public and private experiences, and with the opening of beta today, the world is now invited to join them.

“Sansar democratizes social VR,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Until now, complexity and cost has limited who could create and publish in this medium, and Sansar dramatically changes that. It’s been inspiring to see the thousands of virtual creations that have already published with Sansar during our limited preview, and I’m looking forward to the explosion of creativity we’ll see now that we’ve opened the doors in beta.”

What this all means is that if you have a PC capable of running Sansar, then you can go to the Sansar website now, register and get in to have a look around.

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An important point to note is that of the system requirements, which can be found here. The specs differ depending upon whether you’re a VR user or a desktop only user, so pay close attention to those specs.

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Sansar Will Be Free To Access But Will Have Subscription Options

Sansar Screenshot 1

Cecilia D’Anastasio’s recent article for Kotaku regarding Linden Lab’s Sansar has certainly started some heated discussions and one point of major discussion has been regarding subscription pricing. Cecilia wrote :

Right now, only 2,000 select virtual artists, builders and designers have access to Sansar, but later this summer, Sansar will open its doors to everybody with its open beta. Users may pay a small subscription for access.

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes covered Cecilia’s post : Sansar May Launch With “Small Subscription” Fee, Kotaku Reports. with Hamlet pondering whether this would be a subscription model similar to that used by World of Warcraft.

The comments on the New World Notes article are lively, but into the fray stepped Gray of The Lab from San Francisco, AKA Peter Gray, senior director of global communications for Linden Lab.

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Sansar, Sustainability and Suspicion

A couple of unrelated articles about virtual worlds have caught my attention. One is by Cecilia D’Anastasio for Kotaku : Hands-On With Sansar, The New Second Life.

The second is regarding a greener future by Julia Rosen for Nature, International weekly journal of science : Sustainability: A greener culture.

Whereas the articles are unrelated, I’m going to link them because the latter article covers a subject that Sansar could help with.

First Cecilia D’Anastasio’s article for Kotaku, this as the headline suggests, takes a hands on look at Linden Lab’s Sansar and has some very positive commentary about the platform :

my favorite, an Egyptian tomb. In real-life, this tomb is only accessible with permission from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities. The level of detail a Lidar-scanned image of it betrayed in Sansar was astounding.

Also impressive were Gholston’s facial movements as we toured around the world. Sansar is developing a new facial recognition software that contorts avatars’ mouths into shapes it knows people’s faces make when they pronounce certain sounds. It’s like vocaloid software, but it blends into the whole Sansar caprice of “immersion,” an empty buzzword that took on sudden meaning inside Sansar today.

This exemplifies how immersive Sansar and other Virtual World / Virtual Reality ventures will get. Whether this makes them more popular remains to be seen because beyond superb technology you will also need communities.

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Ebbe Altberg Talks to The Irish Times About Second Life and Sansar

Outside Blarney Stone

Marie Boran of The Irish Times has been talking to Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg about Sansar and, inevitably, that also means talking of Second Life too.

The article is entitled Virtual reality is giving Second Life a second lease of life and although it starts off with some negative commentary around Second Life, the article actually goes on to make some positive points about Second Life.

The article also points out that Linden Lab do not consider Sansar to be a replacement for Second Life :

The idea is not to replace Second Life or even phase it out, says Altberg, who describes it as “a very healthy virtual world that will be very healthy for a long time to come”. It is celebrating its 14th birthday this summer and continues to have a dedicated team continually improving content and interaction experiences.

An interesting point is made regarding Second Life in terms of it not being easy to find what to do unless you’re inside Second Life and have familiarised yourself with the platform. Sansar will take a different approach, but let’s not forget that Second Life has also started to take a different approach, when Linden Lab announced that places pages are available to all land owners, the blog post also mentioned :

Many of these pages will also soon be discoverable via popular search engines, such as Google. This means that more people than ever have the potential to learn about your Second Life place!

Sansar sounds as if it will start with the aim of being more easily discoverable for people.

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