Another Look at AnyLand: Social VR With Prim-Based Building, a New PC Client & 10,000+ User-Created Areas

It's been two years since we took a look at AnyLand, a VR-based virtual world for Oculus and Vive that evokes Second Life in its very earliest incarnation over a decade ago, when the creative space was open and abundant, and we all built quirky things of wonder with prims (i.e. building blocks). Lead creator Philipp Lenssen just hit me up with an AnyLand update of what's new since then -- starting with a PC client  that you can get on Steam here.

You can't create with the PC client, by the way, but you can interact with everyone else, and the 3D scenes they've created. Philipp: "[Use] WASD to start moving, and Esc to open your dialogs. You can then navigate dialogs as normal, but with the mouse. Voice chat and pretty much everything else works as usual, so you're basically sharing the same universe and talking to the VR-ers."

Since 2016, 10,000 areas have been created by users -- here's a brief video tour from Philipp :

“A new fireside chat area..."

“We're now supporting custom made board and card games...

“The VR elevator of horrors!

“Bridging the universe dimension gap -- visiting Manyland in Anyland!

“Destroying areas, just for fun...

“Someone invented a calculator using the in-world scripting language!

"A great lava area...

“A 2d walls-style area..."

“Sculptures...”

"Some of the AnyLanders were around in the early days of Second Life," Philipp says, "and they tell us -- it reminds them of that early phase!" In terms of users, it's still small and in early days, but "we do hit the top 20 of all Steam VR-only multiplayer apps at peak times in evenings."

I'm fairly charmed by the childlike innocence of the graphics, and the depth of the user-created content. Definitely plan on taking another look a lot sooner than two years from now!

Comments

[Thegraphicsmonkey]

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the building blocks... it only seems childish until you get into it, it’s actually got a powerful programming built in.

[Medhue]

Kind of funny that in order to play with this, you need a rig that can handle VR, but the actual world doesn't utilize the dang card they needed for VR. Sorry, Kind of a waste, if you ask me. I also do not see anything even remotely complex. All the interactions are basic features. I find it interesting that people think prim building is still a thing, outside of minecraft. Why would I purposely want to build inferior 3D things? My view is that it's a niche thing, of a niche thing. I'd rather keep creating amazingly real mesh models, with pbr materials. My prediction is that the worlds that will make it, will be those that cater to artists, and professionals, not tinkerers. Those people have Minecraft. lol

[game]

This is a great idea! I like the charity thing too. Good job!!