Today we visited the following experiences, all created by Beverly Zauberflote:
Here is Drax’s livestream:
And here is Strawberry’s livestream from Twitch (she has switched to Twitch from YouTube for her livestream):
Today, I noticed that we have hit a significant milestone: One thousand published Sansar experiences in the Sansar Atlas (right now we are at 1,005):
Back in November, I presented a list of what I then considered to be the Top 16 Sansar experiences. It’s time to update that list, and here is my (purely subjective) list of the Top 20 Sansar experiences which you can visit today. (This list is in alphabetical order.)
1. 114 Harvest by Draxtor Despres and Ria Bazar is my overlooked gem, a wonderfully inviting suburban California experience with an astounding attention to detail. This is the starting point for our weekly Atlas Hopping adventures, and the scene for many events such as Drax’s birthday party. Well worth a visit to marvel at all the work Ria has done in putting this experience together.
2. 2077 by C3rb3rus is a simply stunning achievement. Never have I been in any VR experience that feels so much like the world of the classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner! Be sure to take the elevator to the penthouse apartment!
3. Accuracy Training Module by Nebulae: This is a simply designed but addictively fun game, put together with basic scripting to keep track of scoring on both sides and declaring a winner. Nebulae demonstrated the power that is evident even in the limited set of scripting abilities we currently have in Sansar, showing us what is possible with unlimited imagination.
4. Art of Drew Struzan: The Studio Experience by the Hollywood Art Museum: Drew Struzan is an American artist known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include all the films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. You’ve certainly seen his work before if you’ve ever stepped foot into a movie theatre! This is a well planned and designed museum experience, complete with a detailed recreation of Struzan’s actual art studio, captured using a combination of laser scanning and photogrammetry.
5. Colossus Rising by Sansar Studios: This sprawling experience really makes you feel as if you are in the game world of Riven or Myst. Animated rudimentary cable cars allow you to move from place to place as you try to solve the mystery: what happened to the occupants of this strange, windy, desert land?
6. The Combat Zone by Gindipple the programmer and Nya Alchemi the mesh content creator is a fun, fast, first-person-shooter capture the flag game with a Desert Storm feel. HoverDerby now has some serious competition in the esports department!
7. The Creator Academy: The Hall of Materials by Sansar Studios is a beautifully-designed space for you to learn about rendering materials, and audio and physics materials. There are examples of all these types of materials, and interactive exhibits where you can press buttons to try out different combinations of materials and see what they look like.
8. Felsenmeer by Silas Merlin: A good example of one person’s artistic expression, Felsenmeer is full of great sculpture and great art in a fantastic environment.
9. HoverDerby by the HoverDerby team (Galen, Jasmine, and Drax): A common complaint I hear about Sansar is that it’s pretty, but there isn’t a lot to do yet. Experiences like HoverDerby are going a long way to counteract the suggestion that there isn’t anything to do in Sansar! HoverDerby was the first competitive team sport in Sansar, and every Sunday you can enjoy (or participate in) a truly fun and fast-paced game!
10. Little Giant by Ria Bazar is an enchanting, childlike Sansar experience where you meet Lilly, a precious three-year-old whose world is full of magic and adventure.
11. Lost Art of Star Wars by the Hollywood Art Museum is a perfect example of how to present a virtual exhibit in Sansar. It’s a wonderful gallery of many never-before-seen pieces collected by curator Greg Aronowitz. Where else can you engage and interact with such a unique collection of Hollywood history like this? Get up close to sketches and early production designs, listen to the history behind pieces, and pick up and throw an X-wing starfighter!
12. Maxwell Graf’s series of experiences: As Maxwell himself says, “Starting with Lagnmoor, to Neptunes’ Revenge, to Rune, to AntFarm, to Respite – you go on a journey from one to the next,” so I am selecting all five of his experiences as one entry. I’m impressed at what he was able to achieve with his ship-in-a-storm scene in Neptune’s Revenge. And nobody else does landscapes better! (UPDATE June 18th: It turns out that only Rune and AntFarm remain of these five original Sansar experiences; the rest have been taken down.)
13. NASA APOLLO MUSEUM by Loot Interactive: A well planned and laid-out museum, filled with useful information, with a teleport to the surface of the first Moon landing!
14. Paranormal Investigation by Abramelin Wolfe: Another good example of scripting and animations to add to the overall atmosphere of the experience. The sense of foreboding is very strong in this mysterious house. I particularly liked the Ouija board and the flying books!
15. Pop Loves Scotch is described by its creator, Steve, as “a VR poem, for Jon’s father and my own”. Jon is the American spoken-word poet Jon Goode, and Steve uses Jon’s moving narrative of living with his alcoholic father to devastating effect in an absolutely outstanding Sansar art experience.
16. Ready Player One: Aech’s Garage by Sansar Studios is a completely faithful recreation of a scene from the Steven Spielberg movie. I understand that it took Intel, HTC Vive, Warner Brothers, and Sansar Studios of Linden Lab six weeks of work to pull all this together, and that work shows. This is a highly-detailed, mind-blowing Sansar experience, particularly in VR, and well worth your time to explore and discover all the clever references to 1980s pop culture!
17. The Silence by Omiluo is a small but exquisitely detailed Sansar experience of a Japanese barbershop with an evocative atmosphere, well worth your visit.
18. Skye Naturae Virtualis by Alex Bader: You arrive in a shady grove of trees, with the sun shining through the branches to illuminate a trail through the woods. The dappled light effect is wonderful! You follow the path which leads between the rocks, and you will discover a small placid lake ringed by trees and fields of daisies, with a small footbridge.
19. The Urban Art Experience, by Charmarley Nightfire: This experience was a great idea: create a street gathering together all the great urban art from around the world! Every time I come here I find some other work of art that I never knew about before.
20. Voyage Live: Egypt by Sansar Studios: An impressive collection of interconnected experiences, allowing you to inspect three different ancient archaelogical worksites. The main office is also carefully decorated with various curiosities.
So, what Sansar experiences did I forget to mention, that you feel should have made my Top 20 list? Please leave me a comment or send me a message in-world, thank you!