Three Weeks In
So it's been three weeks in Sansar now and I have had a great time and learned a lot but ready to come back to SL (not that I really left). I proved a few points and made a few waves (all good as stagnant isn't a great place to be) but ---
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| homemade hair and glasses |
I suspect I will return in a bit to see how things are going and maybe build another experience. December (if you aren't doing the advent calendars) is fairly calm. Maybe then.
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I made my experience much like it would be in SL. That didn't sit well for some folks that are deeply enmeshed in PBR and Phong (different look to the graphics) but personally I feel like the only way Sansar will "make it" will be by appealing to a wider audience that VR. My site is made for the desktop folks and I am happy to state that. It seems like The Lab has figured that out also judging by some changes of late.
It is definitely a fun place to vacation for free and play and learn some new skills. No argument there.
So venture over if you want a change of scenery.
Ranch Life
A little tardy, I am posting this here -- a copy from the forums.
A bit over two weeks of working everyday (with lots of things already made of course for SL) and I have published my first experience.
I was a bit worried as we all know about those 30 minute downloads and no one (NO ONE) was willing to give any hints on "Best Practices" and downloads. Happily the site seems to have an average download speed of about 15 seconds which is pretty much unheard of in Sansar :D. So I am a happy gal. I learned a lot and definitely got my feet wet.
The mesh is made in Blender with Cycles textures (natch) which is definitely NOT the norm for Sansar. I has a different look than the other experiences I have visited, more dreamy (my environment setting probably has a bit to do with that). I pretty much used my SL knowledge of how to build a fast loading an unlaggy site -- and happily it worked.
So stop by and wander around if you are out and about. I am happy to answer any building questions.
RANCH LIFE (not sure if I am supposed to put in an "outside" link here but you should be able to find it -- or poke me).
Two Weeks In
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This copied from a post on the SL forums for Sansar folks.
I have been working in Sansar every day all day for two weeks now. My experience (mostly items I had made for SL or other platforms and updated) is almost complete. I have had a great time building and I love the look.
To answer @animats question more fully now that I know more -- I do not believe Sansar is any easier for uploading mesh than Second Life. Indeed the uploader is picker in that any unused materials OR UV maps (just discovered that today) left in your file when you make your model to export will cause grave issues.
That's not a bad thing. It is easy to fix those issues in a few clicks once you know they are required. And adding those steps to my workflow will make my blender files neater for both platforms. It's nothing you would see in a finished product, but neatness is a good thing.
I have built my first experience much like I would build a quarter sim installation in SL. Sometimes the textures were a bit larger and I added normal maps to quite a few items, but all in all I wasn't trying for "new", just "prettier". And prettier it is all because of the atmosphere. Turn that off (availability in edit mode) and SL looks better - LOL.
In general I made my build with "game assets" in mind. I believe it will load quickly even for those with less than stellar download speeds. I won't know that for sure until published. I doubt I will redo it if it is slower than I would like --- other than turning off some normal maps perhaps. Either way it is a good benchmark as to what you can do for good loading times.
And that brings me to my biggest worry about Sansar -- and nothing new here. The loading times can be painful even with a 20mps connection (very good for my part of the world). I went to a much advertised privately built experience this afternoon as a test of the cache system which someone told me would make it difficult for me to actually KNOW how fast my experience would load.
I clicked on ENTER and waited. I waited TWELVE FULL MINUTES with the "loading assets" only half way done before I gave up and went out to water the garden. When I came back 20 minutes later I had arrived. To TEST (you know how I like to test) I exited the scene, closed the Sansar viewer and waiting a minute or two then logged in again directly to that experience thinking it would load faster. The bottom line? Well I waited twelve minutes again and then closed the viewer.
IF this doesn't get better, I can't see Sansar going too far. The official Sansar Studios sites I have visited load in about two minutes for me -- this with a couple of SL avatars on as well. That's fine. I can live with that. Some private experiences were in that same timeframe. They were small and not too exciting but at least I wasn't going out making breakfast and washing dishes while I waited to visit.
I guess it is no surprise that some folks are going overboard on "pretty" and yes the sim was pretty, just not worth waiting half an hour for. So MIDDLE GROUND. That's what I am going for. I am hoping (and I will likely put in a request) that LL might add icons on the "desktop friendly" quickly downloading experiences. If not, I can see folks coming in to try and leaving lickety slipt. Honestly I would NOT have waited all that time for the scene to open had I not been testing.
I am still spending my entire month of August over there. I have a ton of stuff to upload to the store (figured it would be better to have a link to see things as I always like to SEE things). I don't expect to sell a bunch now. I am there for the future, much like Kitely keeps sending me checks most weeks *wink*.
After that I will play with more hair and jewelry just for fun.
PS. think I figured out the problem with the house from hell upload -- a multiple UV map thing and the Sansar uploader takes the FIRST of your UVmaps and not the one USED and turned on --- so now I know and I will likely remake. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not :D.
