The Reason Sansar Doesn't Have a Mac Client Yet Will Shock You (Hint: VR)

Here's a really good podcast interview with Lu Chen, Data Analyst at Linden Lab, and Tara Hernandez, Linden's Senior Director of Engineering, who also gave that great talk last year about plans to move Second Life into the Amazon cloud. (Embedded after the break.) Lots of interesting nuggets of insight, the most noteworthy happening at around 27:30, when the interviewer,  TC Currie, asks Hernandez if Sansar is available for Mac. Her reply:

Unfortunately it is not on the Mac yet and the reason for that is because we're really focusing on the immersive experience and there is no immersive experience on the Mac. You can't run an Oculus or Vive on the Mac yet. So you could get after Tim Cook and then we’ll talk.

It's pretty surprising to hear it spelled out that way. To put it another way:

Linden Lab prioritized high-end VR devices, which have a tiny install base and slowing sales, over an operating system that's incredibly popular among 3D artists and other digital creatives, including (and especially) Second Life content creators. Had Sansar prioritized a Mac client over VR, we'd almost certainly see a much larger and more enthusiastic early user community than what exists now. (Which by all reports, even from Linden Lab's CEO, is minimal.)

To be fair, it's likely that the company designed Sansar to be so VR-centric three+ years ago, when many expected Oculus Rift and Vive to quickly become mainstream devices. To be fairer still, the company will probably come out with a Mac client relatively soon (likely this year), before or soon after Sansar officially launches. (It's still in the Creator Beta.) But in any case, this sure seems like a concrete case of VR euphoria leading to a major missed opportunity.

Comments

[Saint Isidore]

Where do you get your 'especially SL content creators' data from please? Every content creator I know except one or two use windows. I don't even think it's 'incredibly popular among 3D artists', especially given some industry standard 3D applications run only on windows.

The problem with VR is only a few people are interested. It's a very 90s idea bearing a resemblance to those tropes used in the Lawnmower Man and Tron. Nobody needs a virtual world, it provides no added value beyond novelty such as an exhibit in a museum.

The telephone was a great invention because it enabled communication across large distances; it provided extra value over using a pen, paper and the mail service. The 'sell' that the added value to VR is socializing doesn't hold water for me. There's no need to enable new ways to socialize, this is better served outside in the real world with human to human contact. Indeed, even our visions of society in our science fiction movies show us communicating with nothing more than a video call.

[Grid Famous Games]

great article, but the click-bait style headline made me throw up a little.

[David Cartier]

I gave up on Apple when they stopped making large laptops, and I needed one. I haven't looked back. And if people had given the Windows Phone a fair shake, it was actually fairly adequate. I've been in Sansar, and while the rocket museum thing is rather fun, the whole thing is a bloody bore; fuckung dull in fact. When there is shopping, or they make having a five pound box on one's head, comfortable, when one is attempting to engage in simulated sex, perhaps the crowds will venture into Sansar.

[Samantha Atkins]

One year later no Mac support. I don't use Windows. I very much despise Windows as a software developer as many of us do. If Sansar doesn't support Mac and preferably Linux also then I will never develop for it or use it.

[Thomas]

Except VR does work on mac now. Including the fact I work at a facility that has 360 space run with mac, there is also the following.

https://www.imore.com/best-vr-headset-imac-pro

And really yes Mac still owns much of the market in the creative industry. I wonder how much Microsoft is padding the pockets of Linden Labs.

[Damo]

I dont need vr for secondlife on my mac (which is still alive and kicking). I wouldnt think of using vr for sansar. Why would i even need it?