Sansar Removes In-Game Terrain Editor To Make Experiences "Accessible to As Many Users as Possible"

The latest update to Linden Lab's Sansar comes with event creation, avatar emotes, and sad to say (even Eliot, the Linden staffer writing the update, seems palpably bummed to announce this), the end of the in-game terrain editor:

This is the sad news. We are removing the Terrain Editor in order to improve performance. While we know many creators will be upset by this, in the best interests of making all experiences accessible to as many users as possible, sunsetting the Terrain Editor is the obvious choice. You can still import your own terrain objects created in 3rd party tools.

The Terrain Editor will be disabled as of today, and assets created by it will be replaced after the April release. 

I know it’s not ideal. We’re sorry.

If you have used our Terrain Editor to build any of your experiences, we’ll work with you to make this a smooth transition. You can read more in our documentation here.

I'm not surprised by the collective disappointment, because the terrain editor was Sansar's key tool for dynamic, in-game content creation -- a key feature that was fun in itself. (See below.) The mystery is why Linden Lab would remove it to make "all experiences accessible to as many users as possible":

Terrain editing starts at 2:10!

I assume a Sansar experience is inaccessible when the owner is editing the terrain in it? (Double checking on that question with the Lindens now.)

In any case, unless I miss other examples, this means the only social VR platforms with dynamic in-game terrain editing is High Fidelity and Sinespace. Let me know in comments if I should mention any others!

Comments

[Pulsar]

I agree, this goes exactly against the dynamic content creation, that was so much appreciated in other VR platforms, as in your previous article:
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2018/03/which-socivr-platform-is-best-for-content-creation-award-winning-developer-tries-the-chair-test-in-s.html

[Clara Seller]

It's kind of like WordPress, but you need a professional web designer to publish your blog. It's a race that starts at the finish line and runs backwards.

We could really use an emergency LL cheer squad about now. I think somebody needs a participation trophy.

[Scary Mary]

Reducing features instead of improving them, now were have I seen this happen before?

[Clara Seller]

Well, apparently the cheer squad got snowed in, so I'll do my best.

This is like the point in the movie Apollo 13 where Tom Hanks says "We just lost the Moon". Yes, the command module is trashed and the mission goals are lost, but we don't have to let the crew suffocate in outer space for the entire world to see.

Yes, we need to move the men back into the only thing left that's working and somehow get those parachutes opened or something like that.

Go team.

[Connie Arida]

People don't go to see "experiences". They go to do so much more. Turning a virtual world into a sort of "Cooks Tour" would make you think L.L. are Noobs at this sort of thing.

[calm]

Exciting news on the way though!

Soon you will be able to creatively log on to Sansar and spend money creatively by doing those two things upside down, sideways or while eating ice cream! Yay!

[Vivienne]

Happens when a knownothing Silicon Valley cheerleader leads a bunch of techies.

Altberg: "So you say it´s possible to transform these pixels into living dolphins?"

Techie: "10 1001 1 0000 1 001 111 11110101 001 0100 101000"

Altberg: "Grrat, let´s do it!"

[Iggy 1.0]

Hmmm "as many users as possible"?

That would be like what? All seven of them?

I'll stay in SL. The mainland is so deserted I can drive my fake car again and even cross sim borders if I don't floor it.

[irihapeti]

making my world: terraforming the land, making stuff inworld out of prims and scripts, mounting meshes that can be made more efficiently than with prims, and doing so colloboratively with others inworld in real time is still my greatest online happiness.

I had hoped that Sansar would enable me do to this on a much larger scale but seems not. I get all the reasons why not and understand the frustrations of the LL company and staff not being able to do so.

I get that animations, sound,textures have always been externally made imports, but when move the entire terrain and model making to external also then is all a bit meh for me really. I don't get anything out of making stuff myself for gallery display. I would if I was a gallery artist though and gallery artists do often make fabulous stuff. But I am not so oh! well. Its still SL for me forever, until.

[Alexander Duncan]

What's the largest terrain you can create in Project Sansar?