Helios Welcomes New Users from Sansar, and the First User-Created Worlds

Helios, a new social VR platform by SubLight Games that I first wrote about last month, appears to be attracting interest from Sansar users. According to a post made to their official blog today:

I’ll say it again. This has been an amazing week. We have had the first (and second) player created worlds. A record breaking eight concurrent players participating in the weekly Discord Community Test. Daily impromptu player hangouts also reaching up to eight participants. Players helping players make maps. Players helping players make avatars. Rareden was also able to get the Documentation page (work in progress) set up. At the request of a community member, we also added a third person camera to desktop mode. More functionality to come.

The Sansar community has planted its flag firmly in Helios this week as most of our recent Discord members are Sansar alumni. They are bringing with them a passion for creation that is truly remarkable. In fact, both player-created worlds added to Helios this week were from recently joined members.

The newly-created worlds are by Zod and C3rb3rus (who appears to have recreated his Sansar world Cerb’s Lounge within Helios, complete with flying dragon!).

Cerb’s Lounge, recreated in Helios

While the company has handed out 120 early-access Steam keys, going forward they are changing how they are handing out keys:

We’ve handed out over 120 Steam keys. With this in mind and after a good deal of internal debate, we have decided to move to a referral system when handing out keys. This is to make sure that Alpha participants are going to be active members of the community, whether that be showing up at organized tests or bringing their own content into Helios. If you don’t know someone already in the Alpha and still want a key, feel free to ask for one in the request-a-steam-key channel in the Helios Discord. Once we re-open our Alpha to the general public, keys will be handed out on a first come, first serve basis. It is entirely possible that hanging out in the Discord and being an active member of the community will get you a key before that.

If you are interested in following Helios as they grow, you can visit their website and their Steam page, or follow them on YouTube or Twitter. They also have a Discord server, as well as a Patreon page.

Sansar Pick of the Day (Again): 2077 by C3rb3rus

I have already profiled C3rb3rus’ urban noir science fiction experience 2077 as my Sansar Pick of the Day, here and here. But I revisited it today at our regular Saturday Atlas Hopping, and I was so impressed by what C3rb3rus has added to the experience that I am making it my Pick of the Day again!

At the spawn point is a new Holomap, which gives an overview of all the locations within the sprawling sim. And C3rb3rus has even scripted it to include little red figures to indicate where all the avatars are located in 2077 in real time!

The Holomap outside the Palladium club in 2077

When you arrive at the spawn point for this experience, turn around and go downstairs into the subway station (C3rb3rus has added some fun, futuristic advertising there). Get on the subway train when it arrives and ride it until the next station, then get off and come back up to street level. You will have arrived at a large opulent club called Palladium, complete with a DJ booth, and an extensive aquarium built into the walls, complete with animated schools of fish, and even sharks swimming around!

DJ Booth of the Palladium Club in 2077

With all these wonderful, inventive new additions, 2077 is a joy to explore. Even if you’ve visited before, it’s definitely worth another visit!

And C3rb3rus has hired DJ Puddles to perform for us today (Saturday, February 2nd) at 2:30 pm Pacific time, so come join us! We’re starting the party off with a street rave on the main street, and then moving over to the Palladium club. Here’s a Sansar Altas link to 2077.

Sansar Pick of the Day: Eternity

C3rb3rus has, once again, created a jaw-dropping experience in Eternity! A giant mechanical horse with glowing green eyes gallops in place within an intricate cage, mesmerizing to watch, bathed in an eerie purple light:

Eternity 2 4 Mar 2018.png

Eternity 1 4 Mar 2018.png

Beyond the horse is an oversize orrery, with planets revolving in endless orbits before a gigantic wall of spinning gears:

Eternity 3 4 Mar 2018.png

The gears extend along a catwalk. The overall effect is one of time inexorably marching onward, much like the mechanical horse which gallops forever.

Eternity 4 4 Mar 2018

Vanity Fair is wearing the same outfit she wore to another one of C3rb3rus’ experiences, 2077.