Ebbe question & answer session at the VWBPE Conference

[Parhelion Palou]

Here are some tidbits I picked up from listening to most of the session. I hope there will be a transcript available soon.

We were told early on that the two things that would transfer to Sansar are our avatar names and Lindens. It's now very unlikely that Sansar will use the Linden dollar. There will be a mechanism to exchange L$ and whatever the Sansar currency will be.

It's unlikely that tech developed for Sansar will be introduced into SL. The code bases and uses are too different.

Linden Lab is handling SL and Sansar completely separately, as any company would do. They have separate teams working on each and they want to make SL as good as it can be. Ebbe expects both products to continue. He also said there are things you can do in SL that you won't be able to do in Sansar. There will also be some things you can do in Sansar that you can't do in SL. The two products have different business cases and potentially different customers.

Starting around May there will be a link on SL's website to apply to get into Sansar. LL isn't interested in people who just want to look around. They'll be looking for people who will build things and have lots of time available to provide feedback so LL can make Sansar better. LL will increase the number of people accepted each month (in the hundreds) until open beta happens around the beginning of 2017.

The Windows client is first, also for the Oculus Rift then HTC Vive (and others? -- I missed things). They're also compiling for MacOS now. They will have clients for iOS and Android, but those may not appear till the beginning of 2017.

Someone asked about age range for Sansar. LL is aiming for 13+. They haven't worked out the rating system yet -- I suspect they've got too much basic stuff to work on to worry about it yet.

In Sansar you'll set up your scene (objects, lighting, sound, etc.) which Sansar will then run through a publishing step to optimize the content. After that it will be available for use. This is necessary to get the level of graphic goodness (my words) they want.

I expect the schedule to slip. It's a big job, LL still seems to be undecided about features, and CEOs are notoriously unreliable about milestones.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

2020

[sirhc DeSantis]

So to summarize - No News is No News. Carry on.

[Bree Giffen]

Reading official news about Sansar is like visiting a closed Disneyland in a pitch black night with just a small flashlight. 

[JessiSweeney]

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Bree Giffen wrote:

Reading official news about Sansar is like visiting a closed Disneyland in a pitch black night with just a small flashlight. 

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Waiing for any possible "Wally World" ref...

[Inara Pey]

For those interested in the VWBPE address, which covered both Second Life and Project Sansar:

VWBPE video is available here:

Transcript with audio is available here: http://modemworld.me/2016/03/11/vwbpe-2016-ebbe-altberg-transcript-with-audio/

[Dillon Levenque]

Thanks, Parhelion. I have read so much idle speculation about Sansar it's nice to see an SL relevant discussion which hits a lot of the "important" issues.

So, no gawkers/wanderers need apply until early 2017. At best. And it clearly will not have SL's carefree vibe (carefree as in flirtation/tittilation) if the target age range is 13+. The normal 'just walking around' dress code for females in SL is inappropriate for thirteen year olds, to say nothing of the party outfits.

Sansar will be a different place. When it's actually open for casual exploration (if such a thing even will exist in Sansar—there may not be interconnected sims, for instance—then I'll no doubt check it out. Until then (not being a builder or creator) I will pay little attention.

Thanks also for the replay links, Inara.

[Parhelion Palou]

The age range question seemed to catch Ebbe off-guard. If LL wants to be the WordPress of virtual worlds, i.e. providing the backbone for other people's virtual worlds, then an age range at LL's level doesn't make sense. The experience/world owner would have to set the age range since the content would belong to the owner and the owner would be liable.

Experiences are separate -- LL even said early in the process that experience owners would (or could) provide their own registration systems. They've also said that experience owners would have to attract their own customers. Going between experiences would be like browsing to another website. It may be possible to connect experiences so they appear to be within a single world, but I haven't read anything saying so.

[Prokofy Neva]

Optimize the content? Or censor the content?

[Perrie Juran]

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Prokofy Neva wrote:

Optimize the content? Or censor the content?

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Racheal Rexen wrote:

Hello Ebbe, thanks for taking the time to answer ours questions, My question is if the Adult Community will have a place in the new Virtual world? 

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"We have no plans to disallow anything that's going on in SL and is legal. We're proud of the freedom we offer."

Then in a further response he said:

"We have no plans to disallow anything that's going on in SL and is legal. We're proud of the freedom we offer. 

rather than "...going on in SL..." I could have said "...adheres to SL policy..."

https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Linden-Lab-is-building-a-NEW-virtual-world/m-p/2758810/highlight/true#M185801

 

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Parhelion Palou wrote:

The age range question seemed to catch Ebbe off-guard. If LL wants to be the WordPress of virtual worlds, i.e. providing the backbone for other people's virtual worlds, then an age range at LL's level doesn't make sense. The experience/world owner would have to set the age range since the content would belong to the owner and the owner would be liable.

Experiences are separate -- LL even said early in the process that experience owners would (or could) provide their own registration systems. They've also said that experience owners would have to attract their own customers. Going between experiences would be like browsing to another website. It may be possible to connect experiences so they appear to be within a single world, but I haven't read anything saying so.

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He had stated age 13 on prior occasions.

Probably because they don't want to get involved in dealing with COPPA.

"The primary goal of COPPA is to place parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online.  The Rule was designed to protect children under age 13 while accounting for the dynamic nature of the Internet.  The Rule applies to operators of commercial websites and online services (including mobile apps) directed to children under 13 that collect, use, or disclose personal information from children, and operators of general audience websites or online services with actual knowledge that they are collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13.  The Rule also applies to websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information directly from users of another website or online service directed to children. Operators covered by the Rule must....:  You can read the rest here:   https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/complying-coppa-frequently-asked-questions

[Elinah Iredell]

Thank you for the information but it is frustrating . It seems every time I read about project Sansar they role back the date it will be debuted. First a beta version was to coincide with the debut of oculus rift which is starting now but Sansar is not here, then it was to be in June,but now you are saying 2017?Will a beta of  this thing ever debut? I do not know if I will like it better than Second Life or not but I admit I will check it out.

What I want to know is what kind of computer requirements are necessary to get on Sansar? I read that it will be compatible with oculus rift ( or maybe it will have a separate version for it ?) but only the highest end computers will currently work with that virtual reality headgear I mean the really expensive new type of  gaming computers only. I have not decided if I even want oculus rift or not I read it can make you feel sick and disoriented not fun and if Sansar will only work with virtual reality headgear I may not be interested. However if it can work separately what computer specs will be best for it?

I need to buy a new computer soon and I just wondered what I should  be looking at for Sansar. Does anyone know?

[Parhelion Palou]

LL claims open beta by the end of the year. Dates like that almost always slip, so I said 2017 (early, I hope). If you're not creating things with mesh then there won't be much to do at first. I assume LL will have some experiences up for people to explore, but they're really targeting the people who will build things (and pay LL to host those things).

Sansar should work with pretty much anything that can run SL. You get more graphical goodness the better your machine is, same as SL. I haven't seen any official information about machine specs though.

[Elinah Iredell]

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Parhelion Palou wrote:

LL claims open beta by the end of the year. Dates like that almost always slip, so I said 2017 (early, I hope). If you're not creating things with mesh then there won't be much to do at first. I assume LL will have some experiences up for people to explore, but they're really targeting the people who will build things (and pay LL to host those things).

Sansar should work with pretty much anything that can run SL. You get more graphical goodness the better your machine is, same as SL. I haven't seen any official information about machine specs though.

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Thanks for the reply but I do not really understand how the payment arrangement in Sansar will compare to  the the premium membership I have in Second Life? How do they expect creators to pay them and what will they gain from it?  My only real creating ability so far is to make textures to be used on prims or mesh . Not sure if there will be any place for me in Sansar as a creator unless I learn new skills. You say that Sansar will probably run on the same computers Second Life does but then how can it be compatible with Oculus Rift which will only run on high end  gaming computers? Or will that be a separate version of Sansar that works with  virtual reality headgear?  I do think you are right Sansar will be empty at first like Second Life was . I think that may be part of the fun to create something new however I somehow feel in their push to attract big money they may lose the socialization of second life.