Virtual world Second Life creator Linden Lab from has revealed what its like to create worlds within their new multi-user creative VR platform Sansar in this new video which follows Second Life veteran content creator Loz Hyde as he builds an elaborate virtual space using Sansar‘s toolset.
Sansar is Linden Lab’s shot at recapturing the success they enjoyed with their pioneering virtual online world platform Second Life, this time in virtual reality. The application is designed from the ground up for use in VR and is angled to allow anyone to create virtual worlds with the minimum of technical trouble or fuss while facilitating beautiful results.
A new video released by Linden Lab shows for the first time a user creating their own experiences within Sansar in real-time using the tools you’ll use yourself should you join the platform. Loz Hyde is a veteran of Linden Lab’s Second Life platform, having become one of the leading creative lights within the community whilst also building a nice financial niche for himself as one of the early pioneers of the system’s digital economy. Hyde created objects for purchase by citizens of Second Life, a virtual business that proved remarkably successful. The results of Hyde’s work can be viewed in the video embedded at the top of this page and some more examples of what has been achieved by others with early access to the platform can be seen below. It’s impressive looking stuff.
In addition, and reflective of Second Life‘s previous progressive angle on a virtual, digital economy, Linden Lab is announcing the currency Sansar residents will use to pay for things. The ‘Sansar Dollar’ will have an exchange rate of 100 Sansar dollars to 1 US dollar. We had some more specific questions about how Sansar’s digital economy and how it will all work which a Linden Lab representative was kind enough to answer. See these below:
Road to VR: What the digital exchange rate for Sansar dollars? Is it equivalent to the Linden dollar?
Linden Lab: The exchange rate between USD and Sansar dollars will be floating and will vary according to supply and demand. The rate will not necessarily be equal to the exchange rate between USD and Linden dollars in Second Life (which is also floating).
To begin with, the exchange rate is about USD1 to S$100.
Road to VR: Can owners of Second Life currency transfer it to Sansar for use there?
Linden Lab: For now at least, not directly. At this time, Second Life users can sell Linden dollars for USD on the LindeX, and then can use those USD to purchase Sansar dollars.
In the future, we could potentially allow Second Life users to buy and sell Sansar dollars for Linden dollars, but because the two platforms will have different business models, fee structures, and exchange rates, we’d want to be careful not to set up a system that could be exploited.
Road to VR: What commission does Linden Lab take from in-world digital transactions?
Linden Lab: The rate of commission we take from user-to-user Sansar transactions has not yet been finalized.
Sansar released their ‘Creator Preview’ last year and you can sign up to take a look right here and users of both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift can enjoy it. As it stands right now, there is no set release date for Sansar, but we’re excited to see where this next generation social and immersive creativity platform goes.
