Use of VRChat and Sansar in China

li-yang-138248-unsplash.jpg
Shanghai, China. Photo by Li Yang on Unsplash

Wuhao, a Chinese user on the official Sansar Discord channel, has shared some information about the current state of VR gaming and social VR in China. He said:

I have feedback from Chinese market. At present several thousands of young Chinese are playing VRChat because of the advertising effect from bilibili, a video sharing website popular with young Chinese. VRChat Chinese community have became the largest virtual world community over Second Life Chinese community based on a view to active QQ Groups (Chinese Discord). The movie Ready Player One is also very popular with young Chinese. But Chinese still have common unstable network problem causing slow loading or uploading in Sansar, and even can’t download the client.

He posted an image of a problem that many Chinese seem to face when trying to use Sansar:

Sansar Installer Failed 12 Apr 2018.png

He also said, in answer to a question as to whether or not VRChat is easier to access:

VRChat should be easier to access in China because it’s a game in Steam.

(I wonder when Linden Lab will release Sansar on Steam?) He added:

VR players are still not mainstream gamers. But more and more Chinese VR [gamers] are buying HTC Vive which has better support than Oculus Rift in China. For me, I only use Steam VR and [the] Oculus Store.

In response to my question about how he is able to run and use Sansar in China, he said:

I use [a] VPN. So I don’t have problem to enjoy Sansar. But many of my Chinese friends and even some Creators in SL who want to develop Sansar really have a common network problem for Sansar.

When asked if he has any information on how common Windows Mixed Reality headsets are in China, he commented:

Not sure. Based on my life in China, I haven’t seen a real AR/Mixed Reality headset product yet and also haven’t experienced one. But it’s no problem to experience VR here even in a small city.

Thank you for sharing your perspective with us, Wuhao!

Worlds Adrift is a Promising-Looking MMORPG/Virtual World

Worlds Adrift 11 Apr 2018.jpg

Wagner James Au of the long-running blog New World Notes has been following the development of an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) called Worlds Adrift, which he calls “the single-shard, open world sandbox MMO with physics, a working ecosystem, and user-generated content — i.e., a virtual world worthy of the term — running on the well-funded backbone of Improbable“.

He recently posted that Worlds Adrift is launching in early-access on May 17th. Now, I’m not a really big fan of MMORPGs (or MMOs, as some people prefer to call them), and I don’t really cover MMORPGs on this blog, but I did play a little bit of World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online back in the day, so I’m familiar with the concept.

Here’s a year-old introduction to the game:

And here’s their most recent teaser:

They refer to themselves as “the world’s first community-crafted MMO”, so they may tempt a few virtual worlds creators to join their early-access program. (Wagner reports that some Second Life users have become Worlds Adrift fans.) It certainly looks interesting! Here’s another video showcasing some of the worlds that people have already created:

Second Life: The E2V Vendor System Is Shutting Down—And How That Affects You

marco-bianchetti-532616-unsplash.jpg
Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

Once again, Strawberry Singh is right on top of Second Life events with a very timely blogpost on a matter of concern to all Second Life users, especially the fashionistas! She is to be commended for providing such a crucial service to the SL community.

The issue? E2V, one of the popular vendor systems used in many in-world stores in Second Life, has announced that they are retiring their product at the end of May. (I first heard the news this morning from Sansar/Second Life creator Debi Baskerville.) You might think that this will not affect you, but if you have bought products from any of the following well-known Second Life brands/stores, you are affected:

  • Maitreya
  • Belleza
  • Slink
  • Catwa
  • 7 Deadly S{k}ins
  • The Skinnery
  • Glam Affair
  • Tableau Vivant
  • Cynful
  • Just BECAUSE
  • Dead Dollz
  • Tres Blah
  • ISON
  • Kaithleen’s
  • EMPIRE
  • Exile
  • Apple May Designs
  • Ingenue
  • etc., etc…

What to do? First, don’t panic; vendors have several weeks to make an orderly switchover to a new in-world vendor system. Strawberry has the following excellent advice for consumers:

  • Check this Pinterest Page from Delmar Quintessa – Delmar is creating a list of content creators using E2V, so you will know if you’ve shopped from them.
  • Self-Hosted E2V Creators – Ask the creators if they are self-hosted with E2V and if they will be staying with the system even after May 31st. They do have an option to do that if they choose to.
  • Check Credit – Go to those stores and check if you have any leftover credit before May 31st. You might want to then also use that credit or contact the creator and ask if they are planning to transfer the credit to any new vendor system.
  • Redeem Gift Cards – If you have any left over gift cards in your inventory from any of these stores and you haven’t redeemed them yet, make sure to do so before May 31st.
  • Get Redeliveries – Redeliver anything that you may need.

The part about getting redeliveries is important, especially if you have a mesh head from Catwa or a mesh body from one of the “Big Three”: Maitreya, Belleza or Slink.

UPDATE April 12th: Here is a Google Drive spreadsheet with a detailed list of all the Second Life stores affected by the pending E2V shutdown. This looks to me to be a longer list than the Pinterest link above, and they are including status updates from the stores themselves. Among the other SL brands affected (not already mentioned above) are:

  • Apple Fall
  • Rebel Hope
  • Runaway Hair
  • JIAN
  • Elikatira
  • Clawtooth
  • Belle Epoque
  • Sync’d Motion Capture

Also, since so many of you have Catwa brand Bento mesh heads, there is news that Catwa has a self-hosted E2V server and will not be impacted by this change. They say:

Regarding the sad news about E2V vending system that they will be retiring. Maybe some of you are wondering what will happen to his CATWA redelivery history and credits balance. We have good news. Since CATWA has a Self-hosted system. It will not be effected. Our redelivery and credits system will keep going. If there will be any other changes I will let you know.

However, since E2V is ending all support for the product after the end of May, eventually they, too, will have figure out a way to move all their customers to another vendor system.

New Sansar Update: Sits and Zippers!

Among the new features in the most recent update to the Sansar client (which happened yesterday) are two that I would like to highlight.

First, WE CAN FINALLY SIT DOWN! It’s not much—a cross-legged sit on the ground—but at least it’s a start. Here’s what it looks like:

Cross-Legged Sit in Sanar 11 Apr 2018.gif

Immediately, Sansarians began posting pictures of their newfound capability!

first_sit_in.png
Picture by Beverly Zauberflote
Sitting at the Park.jpg
Picture by Sergio Delacruz
retro_meditation.png
Picture by RetroMetallic

And second, we can now have working zippers in clothing created using the Marvelous Designer software! Here’s a picture of what that looks like:

zipper demo.gif

Ravioli has released a very funny superhero outfit for both men and women, in red or in blue, on the Sansar Store:

Zippr Superhero Outfits 11 Apr 2018.png

The Zipperman costume has supersized working zippers! (Click on each image for a larger size.)

You can pick up your Zipperman or Zipperwoman superhero outfit on the Sansar Store for FREE (thanks, Ravioli!).

Blogger Isabelle Cheren has posted a cute YouTube video in which she demonstrates all the animations currently available in Sansar, and even shows you how to combine them!