Category: Uncategorized

One of the most eagerly-awaited new features of the September 8th Sansar software release was the ability to use an interactive Terrain Editor to sculpt land, much as you can do in Second Life! Today I tested this feature out, and despite a few bugs it worked well.

Here’s what the Terrain Editor looks like in Sculpt mode, where you can create hills and valleys:

The smallest size of land that you can sculpt at one time is 32 by 32 metres square, and the largest is 256 by 256 metres. You can set the size of your sculpting tool anywhere from 1 up to 32. You can also set the strength, hardness, and noise of your sculpting. All of these features are described fully in the Terrain Editor documentation.

It’s possible to soften or sharpen the peaks and valleys you create, and even flatten it all out if you want to start over! Here’s what I got after only a few minutes of sculpting. You can see where I smoothed out one of the hills. You can also “paint” the land using one of the preset textures (stone, grass, soil, etc.). You cannot yet add your own textures, but that feature is promised for a future release.

Everything is not yet perfect. Using the Terrain Editor did crash the Sansar software for me three times in a row, and I did come across a screen display problem when in Paint mode. I reported these bugs to the Bug Reports section of the Sansar Community website. This sort of thing is to be expected when beta testing software. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the Terrain Editor! It is a powerful new tool for Sansar creators.

So, I have taken several days off from blogging, waiting for the latest release of the Sansar software to arrive. As of late this afternoon, we now have it, and everybody is busy trying out new features.

It is now possible to list avatar attachments for sale in the Sansar Store. There are already 52 items listed in the Wearables category as of this writing, with that number expected to grow quickly over the next few days. Use this handy link to get a list of wearables sorted in order of newest first. Here is a screenshot of some of the caps, sunglasses, watches, and pipes already put up for sale by the very first creators:

Looking good already! Among the other new features outlined in the Release Notes are:

• The new Terrain Editor (details on how to use this are here)
• Trigger Volumes (more info here)
• Streaming Web Audio (e.g. ShoutCast; more info here)
• OBJ-format files can now be imported directly into Sansar (previously, they had to be FBX-format)
• Keyframe animated objects can now be imported into Sansar
• Multi-part objects can now be imported into Sansar
• Tintable avatar nails!
• Your avatar can now run!
• And many more features! See the complete Release Notes for September 8th for all the details.

I think the first thing I will do is set up a new experience using the Terrain Editor, and get used to this powerful new tool.

 

 

Image caption: The Asylum experience

It turns out that Linden Lab has not one, but two Sansar contests going on! I’ve already blogged about the avatar attachments contest, but there’s also a new contest for Sansar’s Scariest Experience!

Here are all the details. The grand prize is huge: US$10,000, an Oculus Rift + Oculus Touch Virtual Reality Headset Bundle (estimated value US$399.00), and a one-year Super Creator Sansar Subscription (estimated value US$359.88). There’s also an Honourable Mention prize of a one-year Creator Sansar subscription (estimated value US$119.88).

Today is a holiday Monday in the U.S. (and Canada too), so there’s no in-world casual meetup today. Starting tomorrow, they will be held at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/Sansar Time at the experience The Lost Treasure of Coral Canyon. See you there!