Compare & Contrast: Sansar & Lumberyard Graphics

Ironically or coincidentally enough, Ebbe Altberg started sharing screenshots from Project Sansar roughly around the time Amazon announced Lumberyard. Which as reader Issa Heckroth suggests, inevitably means 3D graphics developers interested in the next generation of VR-compatible platforms will be doing compare and contrasts.

Here's an outdoor shot from Project Sansar:

And here's an outdoor shot from Lumberyard:

Now here's a night-time screenshot from Project Sansar:

... and here's a night-time shot from Lumberyard:

Much more images here. Not necessarily a fair or apples-to-apples comparison, but then again, 3D/VR developers looking for hints about which platform they should devote their time and talent to are going to be making that compare and contrast all the same.

Many more Lumberyard screenshots here. Any questions?

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Comments

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Sure, the capabilities of the engine and tooling is important. I think the screenshot comparison tells part of the tale quite well.

One of the problems with Sansar is that they're coming into the existing game engine market (or an experience engine if it makes LL feel better) partway through the game engine pricing wars.

Unity3d had been expensive, as had CryEngine. Unreal Engine came out pretty recently, replacing their UDK product first at $19/month and then knocked it down to completely free with 5% revenue share.

CryEngine went subscription for drastically less, Unity3D dropped their prices, and now Amazon comes out with a free alternative based on their hosting and services model.

Sansar is probably going to try to stick with their same monetization by selling currency and their associated sinks, as well as hosting costs and a much higher percentage of their content marketplace as well as whatever other sinks and services.

There's even a more obscure engine called Hero Engine that already has collaborative live game building that handles game currency, handles the hosting, etc.

Facebook and Google are likely to come out with game/VR tools as well with their own business models and possibly some surprise players will enter the market over the next year or two.

So for people not familiar with Second Life, but familiar with mesh and content creation, game programming, animation, etc., they know that Sansar doesn't exist in a bubble and that there are other choices.

These people will be looking at issues such as not only who has the best rendering capabilities, but also who has the best business model for my game/experience, what platforms does the engine port my game/experience to, what are the restrictions.

By the way, if that LL ToS comes along for the ride with Sansar? It's going to be a no-go for a lot of people.

But yes, Sansar is coming into a market where people have options. It's not the only walled garden in town that Second Life was and it will have to find a niche or good business model because it won't be able to compete with some of these companies that already have better product, more employees dedicated to engine development and more money to throw at it.

It can be done without being the best engine, but they've got to have something special to offer and be far more transparent. If they handle Sansar with the same attitude that they handle Second Life, it's going to bite them.

There may be hope yet for a metaverse.

[Cube Republic]

Can't really make a judgement yet without seeing some vegetation and water rendered. Also there's very little difference between the two bottom pictures in your article.
Surely one game engine being better than another is dependent upon what content is being utilized within that environment. e.g. garbage in garbage out. I can't believe that sansar will look crap. Why would it?

[Clara Seller]

Dartagan Shepherd has, again, done a very good job of organizing information and making sense out of senselessness regarding Sansar.

His conclusion is sound and troubling. Relying on Sansar to deliver "special" service or transparency to future customers is like banking on McDonald's to deliver wholesome nutrition.

It's just not who they are.

[metacam oh]

took a look at Lumberyard this weekend... has potential but right now you can only import models from Maya and 3ds which who has the money for that shit? Until they open up sketchup, blender etc won't be able to do much with it.

[Adeon Writer]

Nature scenes are always going to be more impressive and that's what you do when you want to brag about an engine's power. One important fact about this comparison is Sansar has not yet *attempted* to produce a nature scene, so it hasn't actually even had it's trial by fire yet.