First User Impressions of Sansar, Good & Bad, Start Hitting the Web

Linden Lab started expanding its user invites to Sansar last week, and apparently this new wave didn't sign the kind of NDA previous users did, because some are starting to share their experiences on the web. Above is YouTube video footage from SL user JJ Coronet, who added a bunch of spasmodic visual effects in an attempt to make it more interesting, but you can still get a general sense of what the experience is like right now.

"It takes 20 to 40 minutes to load each sim," he writes in the video description. "I nearly gave up because it takes so long to load. If they fix this major problem it will sorta be usable." JJ isn't OK with the UI: "You can't run, fly, jump, crouch, but you can walk slowly; chat is restricted, talking is non-existent... oh, it didn't crash, which is really weird for Linden Lab."

A much more positive point of view comes from /Guitar7 in the /Sansar subreddit, who also notes the long load times, but loves the details of the graphics, and the user creation tools:

"I'm off to what appears to be a bridge... I have played quite a few games and this bridge all by itself rivals anything I have seen for detail and just sheer size...

Anyone with experience with game engines or using Blender type software wont find the Creator UI difficult to adapt to. After a few hours, I was finding it very fluid to use.

I have a background in real world engines, race engine's performance vehicles and more. This style platform with VR will make racing in [VR] a unique and mind-blowing experience in the near future I believe, at least that's my plan for the future...

TL;DR. Tried Sansar thought it was good has a lot of potential."

More first impressions as they arrive.

Comments

[Gattz]

You can detach the camera which moves a lot faster. I think it was F4 and you use WASD to move it.

[Just Say'n]

TL;DR. Tried Sansar thought it was good has a lot of potential."

That will not mean linden lab will harness the power of that potential, Many of use are already locked in one walled garden why risk another?

High Fidelity is the only one thinking beyond the box here and I can run it on my own PC.

Looking back Linden Lab should have just kept it a secret working on it for years then once ready sprung it out when it was done.

[Dawny Daviau]

I did not encounter the same experience as JJ. All runs smoothly for me and loading times of the scenes is not more then a minute. I am really impressed with the content creation by Sansar and users! I see myself saying bye bye to SL and move there.

[Ryan Schultz]

This latest batch of users agreed to the same NDA the rest of us did. They are not supposed to be sharing photos and videos of Sansar.

[yaakov]

"It takes 20 to 40 minutes to load each sim
for me 1 min no more how 40 min
and sansar need time for to be good
And I believe this to be a great future
Anyway do not know how it load you 40 minutes for me it load half a minute minute the most

[Galatea]

40 minutes is either an exaggeration or the commentator is having real connection issues or is trying to run Sansar on a toaster. It is annoyingly slow to load an experience, but it's more like a couple minutes on my Dell 7559.

[Isabelle cheren]

The loading I think is definitely pc and speed of connection as well. My load time was 2 - 2 minutes and once in an amazing lag feee experience.
Walking is s but jerky on a keyboard and mode which is all I have but the whole enormity of the builds is amazing.
To enter this world you had to agree the terms of device which was at this time you cannot share the video and photos. Not worth risking your sl account over.

[Bufje]

The minimum spec about connection for Sansar is 5 mb minimum, at least 10 recommended. For sure this user think that Sansar is SL, with progressive download and relative lag... but no. You donwload the experience, then she stay in your computer and all become very fast (or slow, if the pc don't meet minimum requirements).

[Joe Guy]

Time to upgrade that 1200 baud modem, friend.

Also - I need a mirror for that video, it's dead Jim!

[Carlos Loff]

Thanks for sharing this Google resource, can those be uploaded to SL or Opensim ? The hell with HF, lol

[Pep]

Racing in VR? It sounds like you would have to compete on penny-farthings, and you would still struggle to see any movement!

[Clara Seller]

Everyone just needs to be patient and remember what we told you. Get that video down and remind these people to keep it zipped. This is what happens when you let in the riffraff with their cheap hardware and pedestrian connections. It's all good. WordPress,Facebook,Fortune,...breathe.

Wherever You Go, There You Are.

[JohnC]

Well I am happily with the riffraf, even though I have a setup that can handle Sansar no problem, because creating something that is supposed to be "democratizing" virtual worlds, as we were told, that only runs on elitist machines is an instant fail as far as I can see. Each person says it like they see it, as it appears to them and works for them on their machine. That's what the rest of the world will do when LL finally pick up the courage to let them see this so closely guarded secret that has absolutely nothing special about it in any way compared to any other VR engine. It is LL who have created this elitist attitude by selecting those who may see their "special" product first. And keeping it hidden for so long rather than just be open about it all and sharing it with the community. And because of that they deserve all the criticism that comes with that kind of attitude.

[Clara Seller]

Yep John, this is a problem I have when I see people being blamed and shamed for not having incredibly expensive tools and skills to play in the reindeer games. Wasn't this all about getting the masses? Isn't that why devoted SL users who spent a ton of money and time were shafted out of a real upgrade to their world?

There's such a glaring contradiction between what we've been told and what we are seeing. This project should absolutely be at a point where basic functioning should be working on a phone or a tablet if it was ever about the masses. Sorry, that's where the masses are at and there is nothing to indicate that will be changing any time soon. Epic misfire at the feet of the dingle berries who wouldn't listen to the people who they were supposed to be appealing to.

Prediction: This project is about one bad quarter away from blaming Russia.

[Todd Adams]

So you can't build in-world? Wasn't that one of the best features of Second Life? I got less interested when designers started dumping meshes in SL. It took all the wonder away.

What would really be cool is if, using 2017 server hardware, they upped all the in-world design limitation 10x. Allow regions equal to opensim in size without charging a stupid tier for it, Allow 150,000 prims and tack on a more modern in-world building module that allows for a few new things, like booleans, chamfers, fillets, etc. Finally allows us a terrain model built on voxels.

Stuff like that would be "moving forward"

[Mondy]

I don't have the greatest machine or a VR rig. I just about meet the minimum spec. *Just*... and my experience still isn't THAT bad so I don't know what's going on there.
I can see the potential. Enough that I want a better machine and VR to experience it properly but it's nice to finally see it.

[Ember]

I feel lucky to have received an invite to Sansar in this recent wave as a beginner 3D modeler. The "20 to 40 minutes" of loading a scene really is an exaggeration (or the person's computer or connection isn't up to par.) For those that believed Sansar was going to be "SL2", you will will likely be disappointed at this stage in Sansar's development. But for those 3D modeling creative types who dive into creating their own experience, you will very likely flourish. I'm still on the fence about my opinion of whether Sansar will sink or swim, but it will be fun to see for myself now that I'm in. :D