As you’ve probably heard by now, Sansar has opened its beta doors. I’m not sure whether Sansar is something I’ll stick with, but I wanted to at least try it out (and snag my avatar name before anyone else did!).
I watched several of Strawberry Singh’s Sansar videos, which were really helpful, because there isn’t a lot of information on how Sansar works (that I found, at least).
First you have to set up a Sansar account (click for the link, because I had to search around for it – you’re welcome 😛 ). Once you set up your account and verify your email, the next step is to download the Sansar client.
The specs seem pretty stiff to me, so if you have an older computer, you may find it takes a while for things to load. I have a decent graphics card, and it still took a few minutes for some of the experiences to load.
I will say, the graphics are fantastic. I snapped a couple of pics, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to take a hi-res photo in Sansar as you can in SL.
The avatars leave a lot to be desired compared to what is available in SL. I’m sure Sansar will catch up as creators join. There are some customization options, but they are currently fairly limited.
For now, I’ve set up my account and I will probably log in now and again to see what new improvements they make. In the meantime, SL will be getting most of my game time, and what free time I have left over will be spent trying (once again) to learn Blender. My new 3D printer needs something to do, right? 😀
A Kat and A Mouse 
Reblogged this on thomas mcgreevy.
I really could not feel the splendor of the graphics as so many are claiming, sure by the time i entered the only experience i did manage to, after 6 minutes of waiting all was rezzed, big news, is the same when you jump to a new sl region, wait 6 minutes and all will be rezzed as well. Sure no lag but i was also alone almost all time i was there.
I do feel the interface and all surrounding Sansar at this point was made with 3d users in mind and they did rush to allow a 2d experience via keyboard with all the flaws that are already noticeable (no precision on camera controls, no interaction as intuitive as on SL with left crtl+left shift and mouse).
I can accept all of this on a beta project but i can not endure any more pushes trying to make Sl users think Sansar is SL2, it is not, it is aimed at a different audience, i bet that for 3d users is already an amazing one, i fear that LL realized that that is not enough to make it profitable and ensure its survival so they are not denouncing and making clear that is not a SL replacement and the more they wait the more users will be deluded with Sansar and on fear of putting money on SL.
Apparently you don’t need to snag your avatar name in Sansar. I almost made an account for that very reason until I read in a post about the avatar creation process that avatar names don’t have to unique only the user ID is tied to your account and must be unique.
The information I read was a bit confusing. It does say that avatar names do not have to be unique, but that the avatar ID does. And if I understood correctly, the avatar ID is what others will use to find you in Sansar for messaging and such. So, I decided to snag my ‘avatar ID’ name. I’m not sure how that will all work if/when you are able to have more than one avatar tied to your account. I’ll have to wait and see!
I agree it is confusing. From what I’ve seen in other posts there are not name tags floating above avatars like there is in SL which seem like it will be a problem in social situations where someone new might wander in and everyone looks almost the same.
I have a friend in SL who was part of the beta test for that so he has a rez date longer than SL has been in open existence. I always thought that was neat. Is having such and early Sansar rez date reason enough for to go through the bother of creating an account? Maybe it is the the account creation process along with the avatar creation process while limiting and confusing seem to be running smoothly.
There are not name tags, and no way that I found to discover who someone is, short of actually asking them their name. 😛 I will likely visit and take photos, but I’m curious to see how much data Sansar consumes compared to SL.