Second Life, the popular virtual world platform that has been around for over two decades, is finally releasing a mobile viewer. The new mobile viewer is currently a work in progress, but the Second Life development team has shared a sneak peek at what users can expect.
Watch the preview in the video below:
The focus of the development team has been on delivering full rendering of avatars and 3D environments, and they have achieved impressive results so far. The mobile viewer is based on Unity and will be available on both Android and iOS platforms, allowing users to access Second Life from their mobile devices.
“We’ve started our development work with some of the most challenging aspects first…the full rendering avatars with all their complex attachments and behaviors as well as the full red ring of 3D environments that are so critical to the Second Life experience,” said Andrew Kertesz, Linden Lab’s VP of engineering, who is also known as Mojo Linden.
It is important to note that there is still no news about a web-based viewer for Second Life, which, in my opinion, is a bit more important since it makes it easier to invite new users to visit you inside the platform. Right now, the existing viewers have steep learning curves and it doesn’t help that the movement and camera controls don’t match those of popular video games.
Still, Second Life continues to be popular with its user base, despite the lack of significant innovation over the past twenty years.
Maybe a mobile viewer will get some former users to come back and revisit the platform, but it remains to be seen what impact it will have on the popularity and growth of Second Life.
“Over the past nearly two decades I have seen Second Life enable people from all corners of the globe to create socialize experiment engage in education business or even develop relationships,” said VP of product operations Eric Nix, also known as Patch Linden in-0world. “Imagine being able to stay connected with your Second Life from anywhere chat with friends visit your favorite in-world hangout spots and later do pretty much anything you can do with the desktop Second Life viewer without being tethered to your computer.”
The Second Life team has promised to keep users updated on the progress of the mobile viewer, but the beta version is expected to launch later this year.
”We are seeing a quite resurgent of returning as well as new users coming in to explore Second Life,” he said. ‘‘We can actually see countries and states that imposed strict stay-home policies, we see a corresponding jump in people in those markets jumping into Second Life.”
He asked existing residents to be kind of returning and new users in this difficult time.
Second Life services will continue normally without any interruption as a result of lockdowns in different countries following the pandemic, he said.
”We are also working on a product that enables people to have social connections and interesting vibes, in a virtual space where they stay much much safer than doing it in a physical space,” he said.
One such product could be yesterday’s announcement that Second Life will be debuting a new program of virtual world book tours, hosted by in-world personality Draxtor Despres.
The Second Life Book Club debuts today, April 8 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time with a multi-author panel that will discuss the new reality of writing and selling books in the age of COVID-19. The event will feature a live Q&A with best-selling authors Matt Ruff (“Lovecraft Country”), Ken Liu (“The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories”), SL Huang (the Cas Russell series) and CB Lee (the Sidekick Squad series).
Upcoming shows will feature guests such as Tad Williams, Christopher Brown, Qiufan Chen, Kelly Robson, Chana Porter and Premee Mohamed.
“When I first reached out to authors, some of them very high profile, I was surprised to get super enthusiastic feedback like: ‘Of course I will come on the show. Can I be a tentacle monster? Can I be a parrot? Can I fly?’,” said Despres in the press release. “It’s a dream come true for a book nerd like me!”
Linden Lab will not implement across-the-board reduction on the cost of virtual land on Second Life due to coronavirus outbreak, according to the interview with Lab Gab. It also does not foresee the number of tenants going down or increase in the number of region closures due to reduction of income as a result of the outbreak.
But it has made some changes to help educators and non-profits.
Linden Lab has put aside a total of seven turnkey region solutions for business use which can handle up to 350 avatars in total – each can handle 75 avatars without becoming stressed. The initiative was a response by the company because more educators and businesses continue calling for support from Second Life to use their regions for education and other purposes more during this time of coronavirus pandemic.
Second Life creator Linden Lab stepped into the virtual reality (VR) field back in 2017 with a social platform called Sansar. One of the earliest open-world VR apps designed around social interaction Sansar has had a very mixed life and now Linden Lab has handed the reins over to Wookey Project Corp. which has purchased the platform.
Wookey Project Corp. is a San Francisco-based technology company which has assumed full control over Sansar. In a blog post, Linden Lab said this was done: “to streamline its focus to continue the development and operations of the leading virtual world Second Life and licensed money services provider Tilia.
“We are proud to have given birth to this amazing platform for creativity and live events, and encourage our community to continue the process of supporting Sansar as it shifts to new ownership.”
Linden Lab has always struggled to maintain a healthy ecosystem and user base, trying to do so through live events such as last years Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience. This was a virtual party to celebrate the label’s eighth-anniversary featuring performances from more than a dozen Monstercat artists.
It seems Wookey might be going for a similar tact with a Sansar post saying users can expect: “More of the amazing events you know and love! More cosplay karaoke, more zero-gravity game nights, more of the massive interstellar shows that Sansar’s known for – thousands joining from anywhere in the world for one-of-a-kind live performances. You can also expect more features for meeting, socializing and hanging out with friends from around the world.” Whether this will grow the community remains to be seen. One thing that could help is wider device support, with further details on this expected in the coming weeks.
With the sale, Linden Lab is now moving away from VR as Second Life isn’t compatible. Even at 16 years old the platform still has around 40,000 active users creating content.
As people are forced to work and socialise remotely, 2020 is certainly going to be the year where online VR interaction can grow. Sansar already has competition from the likes of Somnium Spaceand AltspaceVR, with Facebook Horizonalso due out this year. For further updates as Sansar looks forward, keep reading VRFocus.
Linden Lab has announced that they’ve sold Sansar to San Francisco-based tech company, Wookey Project Corp., which has assumed all operations without service interruption to the community.
I couldn’t find anything about this company, Wookey Project, because their website seems bare, but the news is verified on the official Linden Lab blog. Reportedly, Linden Lab decided to make this move in order to “streamline its focus to continue the development and operations” of user-created virtual world, Second Life, which still appears to be going strong.
According to the announcement, “effective immediately,” Wookey Project now has full and total ownership of Sansar and is contracting with Tilia Inc. as a third party for back office functions, so Linden Lab no longer has any ownership or management at all. VR is also explicitly stated as a continued focus for Sansar moving forward as well:
“Sansar will continue to evolve as the premier platform for live events and entertainment including (but not limited to) support for VR, while Second Life is positioned as the Internet’s leading user-created virtual world platform. Both Linden Lab and Wookey Project Corp. will continue to develop our respective platforms independently.”
With the implosion of High Fidelity, explosion in popularity of VRChat, continued evolution of Rec Room, reliability of Altspace, and new platforms like Sinespace rising up, what do you think of the current social VR landscape? Let us know down in the comments!
Independent music label Monstercat has been growing its virtual reality (VR) of late, most notably thanks to a collaboration with Beat Games and Beat Saber. Today, Monstercat has announced a new partnership with Linden Lab and its social VR platform Sansar, bringing live music and entertainment via Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience.
Set to launch on 12th July 2019, Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience will start with a virtual party to celebrate the label’s eighth anniversary. Featuring performances from more than a dozen Monstercat artists, free and premium tickets have now gone on sale via the Call of the Wild lobby in Sansar.
In the run-up to the event next week the lobby will feature special quests where visitors can earn prizes whilst unlocking clues to the party lineup. After the inaugural event, regular shows will be held every Wednesday at 1pm PT.
“Partnerships like these help us realize the very best of what virtual reality has to offer: access, connection, immersion – the feeling that we’re part of something bigger, no matter who we are or where we live,” says Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “With the Call of the Wild Experience, we’re giving fans all over the world the chance to connect in a shared experience with other fans and the artists they love, but more than that, we’re using gaming to elevate the concert experience – questing, raffles, special in-game prizes, across both VR and PC. This is the future of live music, and we’re excited to have Monstercat on board.”
“We’re offering our fans something truly unique in the Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience their own space to meet, connect and share creative ideas with each other,” says Dan Scarcelli, Head of Programming at Monstercat. “Social VR has the power to transform how communities gather online, and we’re thrilled to be leading the charge with Sansar.”
Monstercat has always done things a little differently when it comes to music distribution, ignoring conventional avenues like radio reaching fans within popular channels like YouTube, Mixer and Twitch, hence the VR partnerships.
If you’d like to check out the Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience then it’s fairly easy to do so. Sansar is free to download, either direct from Linden Lab’s website or through platforms like Steam. While usable in standard desktop mode, for the best experience, use an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Valve Index headset. For further updates on Monstercat collaborations in VR, keep reading VRFocus.
Die soziale (VR-)Plattform Sansar von Linden Lab (bekannt für Second Life) zieht seinen Hauptfokus von VR ab, wie Ebbe Altberg, CEO von Linden Lab, kürzlich in einem Interview gegenüber New World Notes mitteilte. Grund dafür sind die vergleichsweise geringen Nutzer mit VR-Brillen.
Sansar – Linden Lab reduziert VR-Fokus für soziale Plattform
Mit Sansar veröffentlichte Linden Lab im Jahr 2017 seine soziale VR-Plattform für Creator, um eigene VR-Räume zu erstellen und diese für andere Nutzer zugänglich zu machen. Ebenso wie bei Second Life können die Anwender miteinander interagieren, um digitale Objekte und Inhalte innerhalb eines eigenen Ökonomiesystems zu vertreiben.
Während man sich damals noch stark auf das Thema VR fokussierte, sehen die heutigen Pläne komplett anders aus. In einem Interview auf der GDC 2019 im März sprach Ebbe Altberg über die zukünftige Ausrichtung des Unternehmens und welche Rolle die VR-Technologie dabei spielen wird. Demnach sind die aktiven Nutzerzahlen der VR-Erfahrung vergleichsweise äußerst gering. Bereits seit dem Release waren klassische PC-Monitornutzer die Hauptzielgruppe der sozialen Erfahrung:
“Ich weiß nicht, wie die genauen Zahlen lauten im Vergleich von Desktop gegenüber VR: vielleicht 75 % zu 25 % oder sogar 80 % zu 20 %. Entsprechend kann man verstehen, dass wir es weniger als ein VR-Thema pitchen.”
Als Sansar veröffentlicht wurde, war die Virtual Reality in aller Munde. So setzte man auf dieses Pferd, um auch die eigene Plattform ein wenig vom Hype profitieren zu lassen. Letztlich wollten die Devs allerdings für eine optimale Erfahrung sowohl für VR- wie auch Nicht-VR-Nutzer sorgen:
“Es war heiß, angesagt und interessant, über VR zu sprechen, und wir sind ein wenig darauf aufgesprungen, aber letztendlich ist es unser Ziel, dass Desktop- und VR-Nutzer Sansar gleichermaßen genießen können. Ich schalte hin und her; ich fahre auf dem Desktop herum, aber wenn ich mit Leuten rumhänge, ziehe ich definitiv meine “Ausrüstung” an und tauche ein, weil es so viel immersiver ist, mit Leuten rumzuhängen und Sachen in VR zu machen.”
Eine derartige Ausrichtung kommt allerdings mit größeren Herausforderungen daher. Alleine die unterschiedlichen UI’s erforderten eine Menge Ressourcen und Aufwand, um sie parallel zueinander zum Laufen zu bekommen. Im Vergleich zur Desktop-basierten Anwendung wurden allerdings nicht sämtliche Möglichkeiten bei der VR-Option zur Erstellung von Inhalten ausgereizt.
In Zukunft wolle man die Nutzererfahrung durch Updates langfristig verbessern. Die Plattform befindet sich nach wie vor in der Betaphase und zielt derzeit auf die Zielgruppe der Creator ab. Erst zum Release der Vollversion wolle man seinen Radius erweitern und auch Casual-Nutzer anziehen.
Über die genauen Nutzerzahlen schweigt Herr Altberg, allerdings lässt er verklingen, dass der geistige Vorgänger Second Life, welcher nach wie vor parallel betrieben wird, weiterhin die Haupteinnahmequelle des Unternehmens darstellt. Insgesamt 70 Entwickler arbeiten momentan an Sansar, während das Dev-Team von Second Life knapp 130 Entwickler beheimatet.
“Second Life konnte mehr als eine Million Nutzer anziehen und weist heute knapp weniger auf. Was bräuchte es, um eine Plattform aufzubauen, die bei richtiger Umsetzung mit der richtigen Strategie Dutzende oder Hunderte von Millionen Menschen aufweisen könnte? Um dies zu erreichen, war vieles, was wir in Sansar gemacht haben, anders. Wir haben solch einen Erfolg noch nicht erreicht, aber ich denke, es ist definitiv einen Versuch wert, denn ich denke, es ist möglich.”
Linden Lab’s website maintains Sansar is their platform for creating social VR experiences, and that “Sansar will democratize VR as a creative medium, making it easy for people to create, share, and sell their own social VR experiences.” It seems however the company is less bullish on VR now that hype has died down—at least as far as the company’s messaging goes.
Speaking to New World Notes at GDC 2019 in March, Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg says the company’s latest platform has always been a majority desktop experience ever since it went live back in 2017, and it seems he doesn’t expect that to change in the near term.
“Statistically, it’s always been a majority PC, desktop. I don’t know what the exact numbers are: 75/25, 80/20, of […] desktop versus VR. And so you’ll probably be seeing us less pitching it as a VR thing,” Altberg told New World Notes.
In the early days of release, Altberg says Sansar rode high on VR’s hype, however since hype has died down somewhat following the heady days of 2016 and 2017, the company is recentering its messaging around desktop users.
“It was hot, hip, and interesting to talk about VR, and we kind of rode that a little bit, but ultimately our goal is to make it so that desktop and VR can both enjoy Sansar. I switch back and forth; I cruise around on desktop, but when I hang out with people, I definitely put my ‘gear’ on and hop in, because it’s so much more immersive to hang out with people and do stuff in VR.”
Image courtesy Linden Lab
Altberg says that since day one, Sansar has been focused on bringing equal access to both desktop and VR users, however he admits it’s been a big challenge.
“You have to rethink a lot of user interfaces in dual. It’s kind of like desktop and mobile. It’s a very different paradigm in how things work. We want to make it so you don’t have some magic advantages on one versus the other. Certainly on more of the play side. On the create side, we dabble a little bit with VR, so that you can at least you look at your environment and move some stuff around but we didn’t go all out on VR creation. It’s definitely much more of a desktop creation environment.”
a scene from Ready Player One created in Sansar, image courtesy Linden Lab
While Altberg didn’t speak about Sansar’s concurrent user numbers in depth, its forerunner Second Life is still the core business for the company in the interim, and undoubtedly funding Sansar’s creation. The studio employs around 70 developers to build Sansar, while Second Life’s development team has around 130.
“Second Life has an audience that peeked just over a million, and is now just below a million. What would it take to build a platform that could, if executed properly with the right strategy, have tens of millions or hundreds of millions of people on it? That’s why a lot of the approach we took to Sansar has been different. We still have to prove that degree of success, but I think it’s definitely worth a shot, because I think it’s possible.”
Notably, High Fidelity, the VR social platform from Linden Lab co-founder Philip Rosedale, recently announced is taking a similar step back from VR by emphasizing the platform’s desktop userbase—something that appears to be in response to slow platform growth.
You can watch New World Notes’ full interview here.
Die soziale VR-Erfahrung Sansar von Entwicklerstudio Linden Lab ist zukünftig Heimat spezieller VR-Streams des erfolgreichen eSport-Titels Overwatch aus dem Hause Blizzard. Dank einer Partnerschaft zwischen dem Entwicklerstudio und einigen professionellen Overwatch-Teams sollen Fans die Möglichkeit erhalten innerhalb der Virtual Reality die action-reichen Matches des First Person Shooters zu verfolgen, spezielle Goodies abzugreifen und in virtuellen Meet and Greets mit ihren Idolen in Kontakt zu treten.
Overwatch – VR-eSport-Streams in Linden Labs Sansar
Linden Lab arbeitet zukünftig mit den populären Overwatch-Teams Houston Outlaws und San Francisco Shock zusammen, um die Wettkämpfe innerhalb der sozialen VR-Erfahrung Sansar zu übertragen. Dadurch sollen Fans die Möglichkeit erhalten, innerhalb der virtuellen Umgebung als interaktive Zuschauer ihre Lieblingsmannschaften in speziellen Zuschauerräumen anzufeuern. Zusätzlich sollen exklusive VR-Goodies in Form von Giveaways für die Besucher bereitgestellt werden. Um mehr Interaktion zwischen den eSport-Zuschauern und Profispielern herzustellen, sollen in virtuellen Meet and Greets Kontaktmöglichkeiten hergestellt werden. Außerdem sollen spezielle Merchandise-Artikel der Mannschaften käuflich zu erwerben sein, um die Fanliebe visuell auszudrücken.
Das neue virtuelle Clubhaus der Houston Outlaws trägt den Namen Hideout und soll erstmals auf einem RL-Event mit Livestream vom 18. bis 19. Mai enthüllt werden, während das Team San Francisco Shock ihre VR-Arena am 25. Mai ebenfalls in einem RL-Event mit Livestream der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich macht. Beide VR-Schauplätze sind exklusiv in der sozialen VR-Erfahung Sansar zugänglich.
Der CEO von Linden Lab, Ebbe Altberg, erläuterte das neue Feature folgendermaßen:
“Wir haben erkannt, dass sich innerhalb des eSport-Markts eine tiefere Fanbeziehung gewünscht wird, etwas das die Personen wirklich einbezieht und über normales Zuschauen hinausgeht. Wir denken, dass Social VR genau in diese Nische passt und freuen uns darüber, dass unsere vorausschauenden eSport-Partner genauso denken – die bahnbrechenden Teams, die das Potenzial der VR erkennen und gewillt sind eine innovative und einzigartige VR-Erfahrung zu schaffen. Die gemeinsame Investition in Sansar ist gleichzeitig eine Investition in ihre eigene Community.”
Neben den bisherigen Funktionen sollen zukünftig weitere Features in die Streaming-Räume der Teams integriert werden. Dazu zählen unter anderem eine Echtzeitübertragung der aktuellen Statistiken der jeweiligen Runden und das Mithören der In-Game-Audiokommentare des Teams.
Die soziale VR-Erfahrung Sansar ist kostenlos auf der offiziellen Webseite für PC-Brillen erhältlich.
Linden Lab’s social virtual reality (VR) platform Sansar launched in beta form last summer for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Only available through the studios own website, today marks the first time Sansar has been made available on a VR store, now downloadable via Viveport.
Sansar has recreated Aech’s Basement, a central location from Ernest Cline’s novel, which interprets the original ILM design for Ready Player One. This new space joins Aech’s Garage, already available to Sansar users. Visitors can test their 80s pop culture know-how as they peruse Aech’s collection and interact with Aech, voiced by actress and Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe – creator of Showtime’s The Chi and star of Netflix’s Master of None.
“Viveport has always recognized the value of transformative virtual experiences, and we couldn’t be happier to partner with them in sharing Sansar with the world and expanding its reach,” says Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab in a statement.
This launch adds to the growing library of Ready Player One content for HTC Vive on Viveport, alongside titles like Battle for the Oasis by Steel Wool Studios, Gauntlet from Directive Games and Rise of the Gunters from Drifter Entertainment.
“We’re excited to bring Sansar’s boundary-pushing VR content to Viveport, and we look forward to sharing unforgettable experiences inspired by ‘Ready Player One’ with our users,” adds Rahul Sandil, VP of Marketing at Viveport.
Sansar is a free to use virtual world created by the team behind Second Life. VR users can host events and live-stream, watch parties, explore and create new spaces, and connect with friends from around the world. They can also create thier own content which can be sold to other user via Linden Lab’s store. Available for download on PC, the beta title is compatible with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. For any further updates on Sansar and Viveport, keep reading VRFocus.
London City region in Second Life. (Image courtesy David Kariuki.)
Second Life is moving its architecture to the cloud, Linden Lab announced last week, and that might help them offer lower land prices.
The reason? On-demand cloud-based regions would only be up and running if people are currently visiting them, similar to how the commercial Kitely grid works on the OpenSim platform, an open-source alternative.
Although Second Life did mention that moving to cloud will help them improve performance and could see them offer more products at cheaper prices, they did not release any details about upcoming land offers.
Kitely was in the cloud from the start, when it launched in 2011 and that allowed them to provide server resources only when they are needed, and thus reducing their hosting fees, Kitely CEO Ilan Tochner told Hypergrid Business.
The same could work for Second Life.
Ilan Tochner
“They will likely do so by offering people the option of paying lower tier in exchange for having their regions shut down when not in use,” he said. “They may also try to provide a pay-per-use option like Kitely used to offer, until we discontinued that option in 2015 when we decided that offering it was detrimental to our bottom line.”
Kitely now offers flat-rate packages starting at around $15 per month per region.
Changing the pricing model could also be a strategy to improve margins so that they are able to cover new salary and data center expenses for Sansar, a VR-friendly platform that is not currently bringing in revenues.
“It will be interesting to see how Linden Lab will balance using Second Life as a cash cow for funding their new platform, with offering additional pricing options that can affect their profit margins from second Life,” he said.
Will OpenSim users come back to Second Life?
Many current residents on OpenSim grids started out in Second Life, but moved to OpenSim for lower prices.
They were also drawn by other features, such as lower upload fees and currency exchange rates, larger regions, personal support, custom user management, and region and inventory backups.
“I still maintain that with the talent available within OpenSim grids that OpenSim has a very definite future,” Kea Nation grid owner Don Hayward said in a comment to a post.
But what happens if Second Life doesn’t just lower prices but also increase region sizes and allow exports? That could cause OpenSim users to jump right back, former Second Life creator since 2007 and Virtual Lisbon owner Carlos Loff told Hypergrid Business.
Carlos Loff
“Many will say — ‘no,’ and many will say, ‘ Second Life never again’,” he admitted. “But if you sit and relax and deeply think about it, the minute they seriously lowered their prices, increased land sizes and allowed OARs, I believe 90 percent of OpenSimers would dive back in Second Life right away.”
Loff has been a creator in Second Life since 2007 before moving to OpenSim but, like many OpenSim users, still has an account in Second Life and visits occasionally.
“For me, the main reason to leave Second Life, and I believe for many others, was the relation of land size verses land fees and OpenSim has a huge strong selling point — ten times more land with ten times less fees,” he said. “No matter which other aspects you bring to the equation, this is the determinant factor at the end of the day.”
Loff himself has three large projects currently underway in OpenSim.
“All this said, and with no offense to many wonderful OpenSim efforts, we must keep recognizing that OpenSim still has a bit of an refugee camp feeling,” he said.
Second Life has significantly more users, content, activities, and commerce, he said.
“They can — yes, they can — wipe out OpenSim in a few months,” he said.
Second Life, in addition to moving to cloud, says it will add features to the environment editor, introduce a grid-wide game experience, allow non-avatar objects to use more powerful and efficient animations, and introduce other creator tools.
Sansar not ready for prime time
Users in Sansar. (Image courtesy Linden Lab..)
Linden Lab’s new Sansarr platform, designed around virtual reality from the ground up, was supposed to be the next-generation replacement for Second Life.
However, it’s been criticized for its steep learning curve, poor graphics and lack of collaboration tools.
High Fidelity, is another platform designed for virtual reality, created by Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale.
In addition, High Fidelity is an improvement in that it has distributed architecture, is open source for both server and client and has better graphics with better shadows, said Lupus Furyo, who creates content for both platforms.
“Sansar was released in such a great rush, the only advantage it may have over High Fidelity is its shades,” he told Hypergrid Business. “The only advantage of Sansar could be, you can run it on a device with less demanding specs.”
Project Sansar. (Image courtesy Linden Lab.)
Sansar would be better with creator collaborator tools, one Second Life and OpenSim creator told Hypergrid Business.
“The quality of what we have seen in Sansar is amazing, but the tools to make it easy to create are not,” she said, requesting anonymity. “I understand it’s not supposed to be another Second Life, but I would like to see a few things change so we can collaborate because we enjoy working together.”
