Category: Sansar News & Announcements

Following the recent deployment of the Friends release for Sansar (see my overview for more), the promised Events update has now been deployed to the web Atlas, as the first iteration of an events notification capability that the Lab intends to grow over the coming months.

For this initial deployment, the feature is – as noted – limited to the web Atlas, where it appears on the Home tab for the Atlas, located between the banner list of experiences and the Recommended Experiences (aka “Featured” experiences, as referenced in the client Atlas, and more generally by the Lab). Note that if there are no events listed, the section will not be visible in the Atlas.

The capability is currently limited to just three events at a time being displayed, as shown in the banner image at the top of this article, and below. Each is displayed with an image of the experience hosting the event, the event title,the time (PST) / day (and presumably date, if the event us further out than “tomorrow”) it is being held. Beneath this is a short description of the event, which can be expanded by clicking on the More… option, as shown below.

Clicking on either the image or the title for an event will display a pop-up message, again repeating the day / time of the event, and which also give the URL for the host experience, allowing users to visit it via the experience’s web page & then launching the client.

Currently, the events are limited to those run by Linden Lab – simply because these are the major form of event in Sansar – such as the daily Community meet-ups and the weekly Product Meetings, as listed.

However, in the future, as the capability grows, users will be able to e-mail the Lab with details of their own experiences for inclusion. I’ll blog on this / update this article once the e-mail address and requirements for submitting an event have been made available.

The Events feature itself will, as noted, be expanded over time to allow more events to be included, although exactly what form it will take (additional tab in the Atlas?) is, I gather, still TBD at the Lab.  Again, I’ll cover further updates as they appear.

 

On Friday, September 1st, Linden Lab launched two new Sansar contests with Oculus Rift prize bundles and – for one of them – US $10,000 as part of the grand prize.

Sansar’s Scariest Experiences

Creators are asked to create a scary / Halloween immersive (VR) experience and list it in the Sansar Atlas no later than 17:00 PDT Sunday, October 15th, 2017. This can either be a brand new experience or an existing experience updated to fit the scary / Halloween theme.  In addition, entrants should also e-mail creatorchallenge@sansar.com with:

• “Creator Contest – Scary Experience” as the subject line.
• A link to the experience.
• Their Sansar user name.

A panel of judges comprising Sansar staff and “special guests” will award the grand prize on the basis of the environment that they regard as the best, most frightening, and fun to explore. The grand prize itself comprises:

• US $10,000 (USD)
• An Oculus Rift + Touch bundle
• A one year Sansar Super Creator Subscription.

Time allowing, the grand prize winner will also be the venue for a special Sansar meet-up between Lab staff and Sansar users.

There will also be three Honourable Mentions in this competition, who will each receive a one year Sansar Creator Subscription.. The full rules for the contest can be found at: Sansar Build Challenge – Sansar’s Scariest.

Sansar’s Top Avatar Props

The second contest is linked to the upcoming Sansar release (now planned for Wednesday, September 6th), which will see creators able to sell avatar props (attachments) in the Sansar store.

To enter, creators are invited develop avatar props in the following four categories:

• Most Innovative.
• Best Halloween Costume.
• Funniest.
• Most Fashionable.

Entries must be listed on the Sansar Store with a price of not more than 500 Sansar Dollars no later than 17:00 PDT on Sunday, October 1st. In addition, entrants should also e-mail creatorchallenge@sansar.com with:

• “Creator Contest – Avatar Prop” as the subject line.
• A link to the Item.
• The Entry Category/ies the item has been submit for.
• Their Sansar user name.

A panel of judges comprising Sansar staff and “special guests” will select one winner from each category. Each will receive:

• An Oculus Rift + Touch bundle.
• A one year Sansar Super Creator Subscription.

The full rules for this contest can be found at: Sansar Build Challenge – Sansar’s Top Avatar Props.

Linden Lab, by way of Sansar, is one of the sponsors of a 3D printing competition organised by Pinshape. Running through until the end of the August, 2017, inviting people to Design Your Avatar. Hosted on Pinstripe, the competition offers three prize packages, the first of which includes a 1 year Creator Level subscription to Sansar, worth US $9.99 a month.

The competition website gives the best description of the requirements:

Imagine a future in which Virtual Reality is just as commonplace as cellphones and social media are today. In this future, everyone is represented in virtual space by an avatar of their own creation. What would you look like? What would you be wearing? Would you be human? Animal? Something new altogether?

Let your imagination run free … Design an original character that represents your personality and spirit. Feel free to design an avatar in your own image, or take this as an opportunity to design a character that you aspire to be.

Entrants are required to upload their finished design to Pinshape, where a panel of judges will judge all entries, and award points based on design creativity and uniqueness (40 points); technical excellence and ease of 3D printing (30 points); presentation – image quality, print settings, assembly instructions if required (20 points); and background story and design documentation (10 points).

The prize packages comprise:

First Prize	Second Prize	Third Prize
Formlab Form2 3D Printer package worth $3,499 ZBrush 4R8 license worth $795 Mold 3D 3D Character Creation for video games with J Hill worth $699 Oculus Rift headset and hand controllers worth $499 1 year Creator Level subscription to Sansar worth $120	Mold 3D 3D Creating Appealing Heads with B. Jefcoat worth $699 ZBrush core license worth $149 1 year subscription to 3D Artist magazine	3D printing for ZBrush artists worth $200 1 year subscription to 3D Artist magazine

There is also a bonus prize opportunity for entrants to win a free SLA print of their design from Formlabs by posting a link to their design on social media with the tags @pinshape @mold3D.

Full entries rules can be found here, and current entries can also be reviewed on the website.

Whilst primarily aimed at 3D printing, the competition is an interesting way for Sansar to potentially extend its reach into the 3D modelling / VR world, particularly with the obvious synergy between the first prize Oculus Rift headset and Sansar (“you have your shiny headset and somewhere to go with it!”), although obviously, the chance to win a 3D printer is liable to have the far greater appeal among designers and entrants.  It’ll certainly be interesting to see if any of the avatars that are created for the competition eventually find their way into Sansar by way of .FBX and rigging, once the Sansar avatar skeleton is more opened out to developers. It’ll also be interesting to see how else Linden Lab seek to raise Sansar brand awareness through endeavours like this – or through running competitions of their own, similar to the Creator Challenge I wrote about recently.