Asking about Project Sansar

Loki Eliot asks, “Currently in SL both user and creator are combined in the one viewer experience. Will the Sansar Creator experience be different to a Sansar User experience either by different viewer modes or entirely different viewer clients?”

❤ A Day Dream For You ❤

❤ A Day Dream For You ❤

We have seen the Lab try different viewer modes in Second Life. In 2011 we had a version 2 viewer with a Basic Mode for new sign ups which was their default. It didn’t last long.

I think the brevity of that experiment was due to the viewer having to restart to change from Basic to Advanced mode. It made it hard for residents to provide new users help. That combination spelled the end of viewer modes.

Loki’s question is still pertinent. Our current CEO, Ebbe Altberg, took the position in February 2014, about two years ago and about 3 years after that modes experiment. So, will he have the stats from that experiment? I don’t know.

We do know that viewer version 2 was not as complete a rebuild as we thought. Oz Linden has talked about that. Project Sansar’s viewer IS a complete from the bottom up rebuild. So, Ebbe may be able to build in user level modes with a more user friendly implementation.

It will be interesting to see what they are thinking.

Willow Dion asks, “Will the lab improve its support for Oculus Rift in SL?”

We know we have a Rift viewer for SL. See: Official Alternate Viewers. The viewer is old: 10/2014. It hasn’t kept up with Linden Viewer releases. It is about a year old. Expect it to update some time…

Will the interface change? Will it be improved? Will SL change server side to provide better support? These are questions we all have and there are currently no answers. So, I think it is a good one to have on the list.

I do know that the Lab is continuously working on improving SL. Some of those improvements will help the Oculus Rift experience. But, sadly we have been told by Lindens SL is never going to be a top of the line VR experience. If it could be, we wouldn’t need Project Sansar. So, I think how much improvement they do will likely depend on how many people using SL use VR headsets.

Perrie Juran asks, “Will Sansar have it’s own Forum/Blog or will it all be just shoveled into this Forum?”

Place your bets. I’m betting Sansar will have it’s own everything and there is likely to be a section in the SL form for Sansar discussions.

Crap Mariner asks, “How much development is going into API functions for Sansar, and what will external systems be able to poll and control? Will the API functions use XML or JSON?”

I am betting the answer will be: Lots, yes, and yes. This is an important question for content developers. We are seeing how some API’s are being used by SL Gateway developers like Firestorm to create new ways into SL. We know Sansar is planned to support more of that kind of application.

But, I would probably bet it is too soon to get any detailed answers.

Mariiner later asks if Ebbe has used third party viewers.

This is headed in the direction of whether closed source proprietary code is going to exclusively be the way of Sansar. So far the answer has always been: for now, yes.

Word is that the Lindens in general have come to believe open source is a good thing and are mostly pro open source. So, the closed source is a matter of making the Lindens’ development life easier and delaying the competition.

Carlyle Chaparral asks, “Given this track record in Second Life, what protections for creators will exist in Sansar?   Will it be like SL is now?”

This one has been asked and answered. I can’t find where Ebbe was talking about these issues. But, I do recall it.

Building and selling in Sansar will require more RL information than will be required just to be in Sansar. We have been told the more information a user provides, the more abilities or permissions they will have. More permissions may be granted as a user’s/creator’s reputation improves. Bad behavior can get those well permissioned accounts closed. So, we will likely have fewer griefers and thieves. At least I hope.

Dresden asks, “What part, if any, will voxels play in Project Sansar?”

We have heard that voxels will be used. But, I don’t recall hearing any more than that. So, how they will be used in Sansar is a good question.

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