@natalie I ended up realizing that this was High Fidelity, the Second Life's founder next project that ended up shutting down and forked. I did mess with that one but it didnt grab me.
@Polychrome@poly.cybre.city i haven't really had time to try it so i can't give you an informed answer unfortunately. Basis is another one to look out for too. and of course there is v-sekai
sadly i think i will pretty much have to wait for one of them to gain some measurable amount of momentum over the others before i can give it a fair try. i'm very interested in any open source vrsns but i already have so many ongoing projects and limited time to spend in vr at all...