More features are coming soon to Sansar! VP of Product Bjorn Laurin met with the community to discuss highlights of the next release and to answer questions in the most recent Product Meetup, held Aug. 18.
THE NEXT RELEASE
The Sansar community can expect another update with several new features and bug fixes in the next couple of weeks.
Highlights of the new release include:
- Terrain Editor - Make mountains and more with the first implementation of our new Terrain Editor. In the future, you’ll be able to upload your own textures.
- Support for Web Audio Streams - Add music and live streaming to your experiences and scenes with new support for Shoutcast , Icecast, and other MP3 Internet radio stations. OGG and several other (more obscure) formats will also work. AAC isn't supported yet, but we are investigating the possibilities.
- Avatar Attachments on The Sansar Store - Create your own avatar attachments and then sell them on The Sansar Store.
- Trigger Volumes - Add interactivity to your experiences or scenes with the new "Trigger Volume" feature, which can be used to associate scripts with objects to make all sort of things happen (including pathfinding).
- Object Animations - Add animations to objects to bring them to life! Create them in Maya, StudioMax, or Blender and import them into Sansar.
- 3D Videos - Imagine watching a 3D movie within a 3D space! Support for 3D video is coming soon to Sansar.
The latest meeting was held at the Accuracy Training Module by nebulae.
COMMUNITY Q&A
What can we expect in the first version of the Terrain Editor?
The first version works in desktop mode and will enable the creation of mountains and craters. The terrain will be an object-based system where you will drag the terrain out of your inventory, and you will be able to sculpt it. In subsequent versions, you will be able to upload your own textures so that you can make the terrains even more personalized. There will be support for multiple terrains, too.
On The Sansar Store, will creators be able to re-deliver a product that has been sold so that buyers can automatically get updated versions of their purchased items?
The Store is still in it’s early stages and we are still building it out. As far as re-delivery goes, we don’t yet have the ability for sellers to push out updates to items their customers have already purchased. However, we are working on this functionality.
Will there be an idle animation or pose added to avatars so that VR users have a more natural default pose when the hand controllers are inactive?
Yes! In the near future, we will add an “idle” mode that allows you to choose what default animation or pose you want to use when you are inactive.
When can we expect Sansar to support a robust fashion market for creators who want to sell customized clothing, etc.?
User-created accessories are already possible in Sansar and, in the first quarter of 2018, you’ll also be able to sell these in The Sansar Store. We’re putting a lot of work into the backend development so that we do it right, according to Bjorn. This is one of our highest priorities.
Will there be any improvements to how video is displayed within Sansar?
We are re-working this system to improve it. Stay tuned!
When will Sansar add volume sliders so that visitors can individually adjust the volume of people and/or elements within an experience or scene?
We'll likely support that eventually, but one thing we think about is enabling experiences that are realistic. For example, if you go into a bar in the “real world” you can’t selectively mute out the crowd noise or music. We’re trying to find the right balance in keeping realistic immersion, but also ensuring that people have an engaging experience.
What is the timeframe for having a script editor within Sansar that saves and compiles in real-time within the app -- so that there is a quicker way to test scripts without having to repeatedly upload and test each script?
We will try to bring in one of our scripting experts to a future meeting to address this and other scripting questions.
Will Sansar support 3D mouse devices, such as the Space Navigator?
There aren’t current plans, but we’ll look into it. We’d want to see that there is a large enough user base to justify allocating development to support it.
What about collaborative building? Will we be able to build together with friends?
Yes, it is coming! It is one of the most fun things to do and it is high on our list of priorities.
Will there be some form of "grid snapping" or other visual indicators for the XYZ axis that helps builders align objects correctly in Sansar?
Yes. We are aware of the importance of this feature to creators and are working on it.
Can you publicly share some of the top feature requests that you are getting from creators?
We see a lot of interest in the addition of object interactivity in desktop mode, as well as camera control movement improvements. We also see many requests for features that support an avatar fashion market including the ability to shop directly within Sansar. All of these features are on our development roadmap, so stay tuned!
Some participants in the latest meeting tosses shiny rocks as part of an Accuracy Training game.
DON’T MISS FUTURE MEETUPS!
Did you miss the most recent Product Meetup? Check out the Meetup Announcements section on Sansar.com to stay informed about future opportunities to interact with the Sansar development team. In future meetings, we’re going to bring in our internal developer experts on scripting and the forthcoming Terrain Editor - so don’t miss out!
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