The new version of "Second Life" Project Sansar experience notes

When Second Life was launched in 2003, only a few customized bars and the promise of wireless possibilities allowed users to indulge in the concept of virtual reality. Now that we have come to 2017, our standards are higher than before. Simple microphone and content creation software is difficult to achieve the so-called "immersion." Now, the "Second Life" developer Linden Lab hopes to meet the 2017 standards through the new Project "Project Sansar". Project Sansar is a virtual world that allows users to create content at will, just like Second Life. Three and a half years ago, the publisher Linden Lab began polishing their own engines, allowing users to create in VR based on their imagination. Then basically everyone can socialize together and play together. There is a night club, a Russian language school, and an underwater mansion. Everything you like is something you like. In a recent demonstration in New York City, Peter Gray, public relations director of Sansar, called it “Wordpress for VR.” (Note: Wordpress is a personal blog system that users can use on their respective servers. Set up your own website) Only 2,000 specific virtual artists, builders, and designers currently allow access to Sansar, but the beta version of this virtual world will be open to all in the late summer. Users only need to pay a small subscription fee to access the login. As the population of Second Life has been reduced from millions in 2013 to around 800,000 now, people are eager for a new and promising virtual world. In the demo event, Gray and Bjorn Laurin, Associate Director of Sansar Products, put me on the HTC Vive headline and sent me to Zen Garden in Sansar. )" in the area. There, I met Jason Gholston, another product director of "Sansar," wearing a cute green dinosaur costume. This Zen garden is magnificent with a movie-grade sky and well-defined grassy texture. Golston told me how to walk in VR and how to send it. I followed Cornston into a tidy little garden. We play lawn games like throwing sandbags inside. Surprisingly, the sandbags have real weight. Then we passed it to a movie theater, an entertainment room full of ruined corners, a bedroom with Alice in Wonderland style maze, and my favorite Egyptian tomb. You know, in real life, you can only enter with the permission of the Egyptian National Antiquities Department. In this series of scenes, the level of detail in the "Sansar" scene is very shocking. Equally impressive to me is the facial movement of Galston. "Sansar" is developing a new face recognition software. The shape of the virtual avatar can match the user's speech. This is like the software of Hatsune Miku, but the integration of the whole interaction into Sansar's "immersion" makes it seem that this empty pop word suddenly has practical significance. "Project Sansar" is promoting the development of VR. In the brand promotion and preview of “Sansar”, users seem to only have access through VR headsets and peripherals. On the official website, Linden Lab called “Sansar” as “a platform for social VR experience... Popularize VR." Everyone can explore Sansar through the PC, just like Second Life. Gray explained: “We were first faced with VR. We now think of “Sansar” as a platform that mainly creates social VR, but at the same time it can be accessed via PC instead of one (second life). PC platform." Gray emphasized that "Sansar" is not intended to promote or replace "Second Life." This is a good thing because the reason why Second Life has become a hotbed of creativity is the concept of mass design. Although the UI is tricky, Second Life was considered as an equal creative space for everyone in the early days of the Internet. Due to the high cost and technical obstacles of VR, Sansar will be difficult to reach the height of Second Life in the short term. When talking about the survivability of VR social platforms, Laurin said: “Second Life” has already reached its 14th year of existence. We are not just doing 4 months or 1 year. We have already started early. ” For Second Life, many users are those who sincerely believed in 2003 that the virtual world is the future of business and human relationships. In 2017, it is clear that they are not entirely correct. But they have always been pioneers, just like the early creators in Sansar now. Hopefully, Sansar's VR efforts will not scare off their biggest trump card.