Second Life dev launches user-driven social VR platform Project Sansar

Linden Lab, the creator of MMO Second Life, is to launch a user-driven content creation platform for virtual reality.

The studio’s latest virtual world, currently known as Project Sansar, is described as a “platform for user-created social VR experiences”.

Supporting multiple headsets on PC, such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, as well as mobile, the title is designed to be accessible to amateur-level creators, requiring no coding experience.

Among the platform’s features is the ability to model 3D assets, record in-game videos and share content between users via a marketplace.

Invitations to Sansar’s creator preview will be sent to applicants during the summer, with a full release planned by the end of the year.

“We believe we will democratise the medium of VR,” Linden chief exec Ebbe Altberg told GamesBeat. “We provide all of the difficult pieces of creating VR in our platform. We are lowering the barrier of entry to content creation.

“Social VR will replace a lot of things in the future because it will augment our communications. We’ve learned from a decade of Second Life that an immersive experience is so much more compelling. There will be a huge broad range of use cases from education to brand promotion and socialising.”