Linden Lab Introduces User-Created Clothing Market For Sansar
Sansar has come a long way since we first caught wind of the project. In 2015, Linden Lab, the company behind the wildly successful Second Life virtual life simulator, saw the potential of virtual reality and set out to develop a successor to Second Life that would take advantage of modern graphics technology.
Second Life is a virtual world where you can create an alter ego that mirrors your desires. The platform features a rich marketplace filled with custom user-created items and clothing, which you can purchase for your Second Life avatar. The marketplace in Second Life enables users to sell their custom virtual items for real money, and many creators have made a good living from doing just that. Second Life’s virtual marketplace generates more than $500 million in sales to date, and from the get-go, Linden Lab intended to build a similar, yet superior, marketplace for Sansar.
When we first spoke with Linden Lab in September 2015 about Sansar, Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab, explained that the virtual marketplace is what allowed to Second Life to live on for more than a decade, and the company plans to replicate Second Life’s success with Sansar. In January, the developer revealed Sansar’s monetization system and opened it for the small selection of creators who were invited to join the Sansar platform in mid-2016.
Initially, Sansar’s marketplace enabled creators to purchase items for their virtual simulations, such as furniture or props. Today, Linden Lab expanded the marketplace to include clothing for your avatar. The company with CLO Virtual Fashion to integrate CLO’s Marvelous Designer clothing design software with the Sansar platform.
“Innovative fashion companies, world-leading film and gaming studios, and creative hobbyists around the world are already using Marvelous Designer to create incredible virtual clothing designs,” said Jaden Oh, CEO & CTO at CLO Virtual Fashion Inc. “Our integration with Sansar is the first of its kind, and it makes it easy for our users to sell their creations in this new market.”
The Marvelous Designer software simulates the way that fabrics with different textures interact with objects to create realistic attire for virtual characters.
“Our experience operating Second Life has shown how important and valuable user-created avatar fashions are, and with Sansar, we’re taking it to an exciting new level,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab. “Our integration with Marvelous Designer means that not only can you change what you wear, you can customize the fit and style to adjust how you wear it in Sansar. For example, you can roll up your sleeves, loosen your collar, and arrange your scarf just as you like it.”
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Marvelous Designer is a costly piece of software. CLO Virtual Fashion offers multiple licensing levels, including personal use and enterprise-level packages. The personal use license is available for $50 per month, $300 per year, or $490 for a perpetual license. The personal license allows you to sell the items that you create with Marvelous Designer, but companies must purchase the more expensive enterprise license. CLO Virtual Fashion normally offers a 30-day free trial for Marvelous Designer, but for a limited time, Sansar users can access the software on an extended 60-day trial. To gain access to the extended trial period, new Sansar uses must sign up for Marvelous Designer within 90 days of creating their account. You can sign up for the Sansar Creator Preview at Sansar.com
Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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lindarog Reply
I think that it is an incorrect assumption that the virtual marketplace was the main factor in the decade-long success of Second Life. Linden Lab has repeatedly missed the boat in not realizing that Second Life is primarily a form of social media (with a lot in common with Facebook, G+, etc.) enhanced by the creative expressiveness of avatars and virtual environments. While dressing your avatar is fun, without user-organized events, it would be a case of "all dressed up and nowhere to go". The under-valuing of the role played by musicians, artists and event organizers has led to a slow drift of these important content creators away from Second Life, and they've not been engaged to shape Sansar.20497442 said:Linden Lab took one more step towards realizing its ambitious plans for Sansar. The company announced that it partnered with CLO Virtual Fashion to integrate Marvelous Designer to enable creators to produce and sell avatar clothing.
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