Monday, July 31, 2017

Breaking News: Linden Lab Finally Opens Sansar


Over three years since it's development was announced, two and a quarter years since it was given a name, about two years since it was made open for volunteers to test, and several months after it's first estimated date it would be ready, Linden Lab announced today that Sansar was finally ready and open for the public to enter.

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, 360ยบ 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.”

So far, none of the Newser writers have been able to get an early peek at Sansar. One person who so far who has is Steelhead's Fuzzball Ortega, whom in group chat stated he wasn't particularly impressed, "Beautiful graphics, but if all I wanted to do was walk around and not interact with objects, I can do that here in my sim. ...  even game developers include interaction with objects and such. All I've done is walk around, and tried to figure out if there is object interaction."

It's also notable that in Linden Lab's press release, they say, "Until now, complexity and cost has limited who could create and publish in this medium." But what about users of their existing virtual world whom are able to build in "sandbox" areas inworld? Another suggestion that Linden Lab is aiming at people who haven't been to, or possibly heard of, Second Life.

The Newser will have more to say on this "Next-Generation virtual world" once one of us has had a look for ourselves. Those who wish to download the Sansar client, Click here. Their suggested hardware they state should be at least:

Operating system: Windows 7 SP1 or newer
CPU: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory: 8GB+ RAM
Video card: NVIDIA GTX 970 equivalent or greater
Bandwidth: 10 Mbps recommended; 5 Mbps minimum.
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output 2x USB 3.0 ports
Bixyl Shuftan

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