10 Observations (Some Snarky) on Sansar's New Teaser Video

It went live earlier today, let's take a look:

Ten observations, roughly in the order of viewing:

• Very little new is revealed: The vast majority of scenes are drawn from assets depicted in screenshots that were published months ago.
• Graphics are good, if not great: Unless I missed a convincing money shot, Sansar's proprietary 3D engine looks quite decent, roughly on par with the state of the consumer art, but doesn't pop with anything that suggests a major leap forward. Speaking of which:
• "Something is coming... something revolutionary. And it's unlike anything the world has ever seen.": Gross usage of Silicon Valley hyperbole, especially coming from the creators of Second Life, which is very much something like Sansar the world has already seen. In fact, I don't think the trailer shows a single thing not already evidenced in Second Life or another virtual world. Speaking of which:

• Those avatars though. OMG, those avatars: This is the first extended glimpse of Sansar avatars we've seen, and I have to say, they're rubbery, generic, eerie. In fact, they distinctly remind me of Blue Mars avatars from literally seven years ago.
• "SAN-sar". That's the pronunciation we're going with, really, with the emphasis on "san"? Not a more natural-sounding (at least to American ears) uninflected pronunciation? OK then.
• Great physics, though: If objects crash like they do at :23 on a consistent basis, color me impressed.
• Old-school, SL-style object position editor! See below! With prims in the UI, no less. Love the nostalgic nod to SL's user interface in the actual user experience. (One of the few aspects of the SL UX that was relatively intuitive.)

But wait, there's more:

This social VR doesn't actually show much that's social: Avatars stand near together and sometimes speak (without making eye contact), but there's not much we'd typically call "social" -- no dancing, or hugging, playing games together, etc. etc. Which suggests those aspects don't yet exist yet, or Linden Lab is confident with telling but not showing.

"Sansar is going to change the way we live our virtual lives": Again with the unearned hyperbole. Facebook didn't start talking about connecting the entire world until many years after launch, and the social network was well on its way to doing just that.

• Impressive lip sync. Those avatars though. I just can't with it the zombie eyes above a perfectly in-sync mouth.
• Not a single mention of Second Life. So to the uninitiated consumer who's never used Second Life in recent years (roughly 99% of the potential audience), there's a lot of promises of greatness without anything to back them up. Second Life was (is) great for a number of narrow but important use cases, so why not acknowledge that success, rather than pretending it never existed?

I guess that's actually 11 observations, but I'm sure readers can come up with at least 11 more.

Comments

[Connie Arida]

Remember what SL looked like and how it worked when it was new? Survived the snark.

[Roland Legrand]

I think Linden Lab has a point: compared to Second Life this is a VR-envrironment, so effectively different from SL, and compared to the current "social VR" propositions this is way more sophisticated. I agree that a video is not the best way to appreciate VR, so I'll wait until I'm in-world and wearing my headset before daring a final judgment.

[sirhc deSantis]

All these months, so little to show. Given its still pre release, even so :
Theres that bridge again with things flying through - err wait could be a static backdrop.
Oooh can knock blocks over! And Bloke seems to have finished his ballroom.
Judging by the trees and the motors, not going to have to fret over triangle count (well of course you still do),
Currency is S$ ? Yay Spacebux!
Lighting looks neat and like the combi position/rotation thing.
Beethoven! So sound seems covered thats a plus.
Urgh those avatars....
The sepia walking on bridge shot looks good.
Bits of the Egyptian walkthrough from previous...
Auditorium of bloke with system hair (!) talking to - multiple copies of same avatars. Cloning for corporations...
End shots which look good graphic wise and then -- urgh that av again. With not quite lip synch.

Overall, structural graphics look rather good but if its being pitched as a platform - not a lot as enticement so far.

(One thing though, got a little bit more confirmation on scripting side. A well known artist was asking in their group if there was any c# coder who could help them out with a work they are making in there (something about flocking behaviour). Quite why they felt the need to ask in SL rather than within the current Beta testers escapes me.)

[Carlos Loff]

Im open to try but whatever it brings, I will not spend time, as a world builder, using VR Goggles, so they better not forget classic user ways, soecially if they want to overcome and bring SL users

[Clara Seller]

As far as looks go, it's attractive enough in a pedestrian way. It looks less like fun date and more like tea to discuss an arranged marriage. Everything about the presentation seems impersonal. Put on your masks and buy from our store and fill up your designated box with stuff.

If your real life isn't rewarding enough, our vision for your virtual life is going to make you sob uncontrollably until you have no tears left. Then you'll be ready for our experience. Bring your credit card.

[Imagin Illyar]

Sine Wave's new virtual world, Space, has actual cloth physics. It's quite impressive. They also have automatic rigging & weighting and avatar skin automatically is hidden underneath clothing. I wonder if Sansar will have any of that?

[Tizzy Canucci]

Well, as a Brit, I can honestly say that British accent grates. The rest... as a machinima editor myself, the cutting just feels like a headlong rush to avoid anything being looked at too closely. And the content is just too dry and emotionless.

I need £500 worth of reasons to upgrade my system for this - it's not selling it.

[Han Held]

Facebricks are the future. You don't have to like it (I certainly don't), but you'd better get used to it.

Maybe it's from reading so much on SLU; but what jumped out at me was how generic and uniformly human the avatars are. No hint of customization -or the ability to customize? It's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off.

[cyberserenity]

It is not on the market. Why? Something wrong? Most companys just want it out there.

[Fred]

I think your spot on Hamlet. Plus it's so incredibly annoying when "talking avatars" eye focus is not in the camera. It would be kind of cool if someone made a similiar video but using Second Life instead.

[Vurt Konnegut]

I dunno.I think this looks pretty cool actually.For the first nascent version of it at least. I remember SL looking like absolute dog egg (even for it's time),when it first came out. It's not really about the gfx in social VR...
How the Rust player generation will settle on this is another matter. It looks wide open for trolling opportunities. But that's another chapter in itself.
Best of luck to everyone involved. (nice to see you slightly warming to the idea of eyephones as well Hamlet:).

[Violet]

No land- bad Avatars- Little support- have to wear googles--- who the heck wants a platform that only Unity users can build in--- not me--

[sirhc deSantis]

And latest via venturebeat (haha)

Linden Lab’s prior online world, Second Life, democratized the creation of virtual objects in a virtual world on the PC. And now Sansar is meant to democratize VR

If I had tears left - thats a link from em.sansar.com I had to check

Smells to coffee