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HBO Documentary ‘We Met in Virtual Reality’ Explores the Real People of ‘VRChat’

From roadtovr

A new documentary that was filmed entirely in VR is coming to HBO later this month that focuses on the individuals and communities growing in social VR spaces.

Created by director Joe Hunting and premiered at 2022 Sundance Film Festival, We Met in Virtual Reality explores the lives of real VR users who met in VRChat and their experiences living on the platform.

VRChat is one of the most popular social VR platforms thanks to its ability to allow custom avatars and user-generated content such as rooms and experiences. The platform, which is available on Quest and PC VR headsets, is also free as well as being open to non-VR users on PC.

The film is said to reveal “the growing power and intimacy of several relationships formed in the virtual world, many of which began during the COVID-19 lockdown while so many in the physical world were facing intense isolation.”

The film follows a few people on their journey through VR, such as Jenny, an American Sign Language (ASL) teacher who’s dedicated to building a welcoming community for deaf and hard of hearing VRChat users. The film also follows a number of long distance relationships sparked and maintained in VRChat. A fitness dance instructor named ‘DustBunny’ talks about building a career in social VR dance classes.

The creators say the film has “elements of humor, serendipitous interactions and unexpected events that characterize real life.”

“We Met in Virtual Reality tenderly documents the stories of people experiencing love, loss and unexpected connection, expressing vulnerability around mental health struggles and questions about identity, offering a hyper-real journey into the human experience of an online world that may soon shape the future,” the film’s description reads.

We Met in Virtual Reality debuts on July 27th on HBO (schedule here), and will also be available to stream on HBO Max.

ENGAGE Reveals First Look at ‘Link’ Metaverse Platform for Enterprise & Education

From roadtovr

ENGAGE, the XR education and enterprise metaverse company, today unveiled its Link social platform which the company calls a “fully featured corporate metaverse.”

Previously codenamed Oasis when it was first revealed in June 2021, the Ireland-based studio calls Link a “professional metaverse,” as it was designed to host persistent virtual worlds which serve as gateways to individual spaces where employees, students and individual users can interact.

The studio published a six-minute first look at Link today, shown below:

In the video, ENGAGE’s Chris Madsen takes us through the basics of the Link platform starting with ‘Central Plaza’, a jumping off point to other worlds and as well as serving as a meetup location for events. Heading through any one of the portals takes you to what the company dubs a ‘Metaworld’, or virtual persistent locations built specifically for individual businesses.

Madsen then shows off two more hubs, ‘Enterprise Plaza’ and ‘Education Plaza’, which respectively organize portals according to business and educational content.

Link also features an ‘Apartment Plaza’, which hosts configurable personal spaces for anyone who joins the platform, available as a sort of Home space not just for enterprise or education-focused users. The user’s virtual penthouse is what Madsen calls “an opportunity to have friends and family over, to socialize, hangout, watch movies and have a great time.” Besides being able to customize the apartment, Madsen shows off a ‘simulation room’ that lets you launch bespoke experiences.

This follows the studio’s €9 million (~$10.7 million) fund raise last year which spurred the creation of Link, which Engage XR said at the time would be pitched as an “opportunity for corporate users to expand their customer base and provide immersive services at a reasonable price.”

Engage is accessible via SteamVR headsets, Meta Quest 2, Pico headsets, Vive Focus Plus, in addition to desktop and mobile devices. To enquire about pricing and additional features, head over to the company’s website to learn more.

Meta’s ‘Horizon’ Social VR Platform Surpasses 300,000 Users in 3 Months

From roadtovr

Meta opened its Horizon Worlds social VR platform in December, rolling out its proto-metaverse project to Quest users in the US and Canada. During an all-hands company call this past week—where CEO Mark Zuckerberg dubbed Meta employees ‘metamates’—the company announced its Horizon platform has now exceeded 300,000 users.

Meta’s chief product officer Chris Cox made a statement during the call regarding Horizon World’s user growth, saying that the social VR platform’s userbase had ballooned by a factor of 10 since its closed beta, now accounting for 300,000 users. The news was broke by The Verge’s Alex Heath, who was first to reveal the contents of the call.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed that number, stating that it includes the base social platform Horizon Worlds and live event viewing app Horizon Venues, but not the work-focused app Horizon Workrooms.

It’s not exactly clear what the number signifies in terms of actual Horizon users; it could refer to unique visitors over the lifetime of the project since launch, or monthly active users. Still, the milestone undoubtedly highlights the sort of immediate reach Meta has as the Quest platform holder.

Meta’s deep pockets also ensured that everyone at the Super Bowl could see Horizon in action, visually telling the story of a Chuck E. Cheese-style animatronic dog who is cast away from his pals and then meets back up with them in VR, underlining the tech’s ability connect people and share unlikely experiences.

300,000 is a big number any way you slice it for a VR app, although here’s some perspective. Rec Room—arguably Horizon World’s largest competitor—announced in early 2021 that it had broken one million monthly active users in VR, half of which used Quest 2.

Like Rec Room, one of the big draws to Worlds is the ability to create custom rooms using in-app tools, to which Meta says its users have now created over 10,000 worlds. Prior to securing a $145 million funding round, valuing Rec Room at $3.5 billion, the kid-friendly platform announced in 2020 its was hosting over three million user-created levels. Meta clearly has some ground to cover.

Some of that catch-up strategy will likely entail opening Horizon up to the rest of the world, and not just Quest users in the US and Canada. It’s still not certain when that will happen.

Eventually, Meta also hopes to fuse all of its Horizon apps to make them more accessible, which could even include the ability to connect with non-VR users too. That would put Meta much closer to its goal of running its own metaverse—what you might define as an interconnected, immersive experience that allows for persistent identity, items, avatar, etc.

While that day hasn’t come yet, with Meta’s (née Facebook’s) recent pivot to the metaverse, it may arrive sooner than you think. Shareholders are counting on it.

What Might Office Culture Look Like in the Metaverse?

From vrfocus

Almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s no doubt that this seemingly neverending crisis has shifted how our societies work and connect with one another. It’s also rapidly accelerated the adoption of various integral technologies — particularly XR technology, blockchain, NFTs and Web 3.0 — the next phase of the internet that will bring us closer to the metaverse.

The term “metaverse” has existed for many years now, having first presented itself in Neal Stephenson’s iconic 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. The idea of a metaverse is that it is a virtual space that appears to be completely real and three-dimensional, allowing for a more immersive and interactive experience for connected users. In a matter of months, it’s also become one of the biggest buzzwords of our current era — especially after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans to rebrand the company name to Meta and turn the social media giant into a leading metaverse platform.

Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates has also recently shared his belief that within two or three years, most remote meetings will take place in the metaverse. While we can’t be certain that we are headed into the metaverse on such a proverbial bullet train, we do know that in due time, much of our professional and social lives will soon find footing within the next phase of the web.

As our work lives carry on, what might office culture look like in the metaverse? Here are some of the key changes we can expect to see in the not-so-distant future.

VR Work - PR Image Factory
Photo by © PR Image Factory – Shutterstock.com

More personalised remote connections

It seems that remote and hybrid work is here to stay — albeit, still through “flat-screen” applications such as Zoom, Slack and Google Meet. As functional and familiar as these applications have become, their “two-dimensional” experiences haven’t quite managed to replace the efficiency of meeting with people in-person (an ordeal that has led to the now popularly coined term “Zoom fatigue”). 

While employees seem to have enjoyed the idea that they can work from anywhere, prolonged periods of remote meetings have also made workplace cultures feel more bland and impersonal. Without things like body language or sharing similar settings, remote work has offered less room for people to form organic, human connections. Humans are spatial learners who learn most efficiently by doing — which explains why it can be harder for us to feel like we’re really in the presence of our colleagues or friends when speaking to them over an ordinary video chat. 

Leading brands, such as Meta and Microsoft, believe we can improve the art of connecting remotely in the metaverse. Cognitively, the use of VR and metaverse platforms are likely to make us feel more focused and present with our connections. And instead of speaking with coworkers over a “flat” screen, multiple parties will be able to experience more immersive, life-like meetings that will simulate the sensation that everyone is in the same place and time.

In an effort to make remote communication easier for employees, Big Tech platforms have started unveiling more immersive communication tools. Facebook (or Meta) has already explored the idea of an early metaverse platform in their early metaverse platform Horizon Worlds, where users can use their Oculus Quest headsets to access and hold meetings in VR. 

Microsoft’s new Mesh Teams software also combines mixed-reality capabilities found in Microsoft Mesh — a platform that allows for people in various locations to create digital avatars of themselves, collaborate within a shared virtual space, chat with one another, complete projects inside shared documents and much more.

Fit Studio
Photo by © Fit Ztudio – Shutterstock.com

More enhanced collaboration software for employees

With a massive rise in remote and hybrid working, several technology firms have seen opportunities to offer more enhanced digital collaboration solutions for teams. Collaborating on projects in real-time also presented itself as one of many post-pandemic challenges, with employees often struggling with logistics or team communication while working on projects simultaneously.

3D design platform Gravity Sketch has recently launched its innovative LandingPad virtual collaboration room, making real-time collaboration between professional designers and teams much easier and more accessible through VR. Users have the ability to create personal collaboration rooms, invite team members and design at scale in 3D. There are also functions that allow for in-app voice conversations, the ability for users to edit others’ work and the ability to move around projects at scale.

NVIDIA also recently made its popular metaverse-building Omniverse software free for individual creators and artists to access in 2022. Omniverse has been a leading contender in the growing collaboration software market, with downloads from over 50,000 creators and counting. So far, Omniverse has been adopted as an industry-standard within a range of different sectors — such as the robotics, automotive, construction, media and architecture industries.

When we think about what collaborating in the metaverse may look like 10 years from now, platforms like Omniverse are leading the way. With its stunning interface and cross-disciplinary functions, NVIDIA has taken input from several developers, customers and partners to produce real-time renderings and interactive workflows that, well… work.

More diverse and inclusive teams

Working in a metaverse office, as opposed to a physical office, means there are zero limitations on who can access it. In our post-COVID era, we may remember a time when we would only seek employment in markets where we were restricted to the job market that was tethered to our home city or our physical location. Those who choose to work remotely can already wave goodbye to the days of spending two hours commuting to get to work on time, or feeling pressured to relocate for the sole purpose of seeking employment.

Companies that adapt to metaverse technology should also consider how this will impact their diversity and inclusion targets. A non-physical office or remote team will allow them to hire nationally or internationally, providing them with greater access to global talent.

Final thoughts

According to recent research released by Owl Labs, nearly half of the UK population believes that working in the metaverse will be an asset to workplaces. 52% of respondents also claim to be confident that the metaverse will “bridge the gap between in-person and remote workers by creating a more immersive environment.”

A smart idea for workplace vendors may be to consider implementing a metaverse strategy that will well-position them to access new opportunities offered by Web3. This may include staying on top of metaverse products — or looking into more streamlined integrations between space reservation interfaces and collaboration platforms.

Either way, the emergence of the metaverse is an exciting time for workplaces — offering many possibilities for companies to improve their workflows, advance their collaborative capabilities and hire more diverse talent. These possibilities, combined with the optimistic view from survey respondents, suggest that we will soon see more immersive, embodied office environments come to life.

Somnium Space Reveals Modular VR Headset

From vrscout

Somnium’s PC VR headset allows you to program its sensors and buttons to meet your individual needs.

At the beginning of the year, social VR platform Somnium Space began teasing a new VR headset with a unique modular design. During the first-ever Somnium Space Connect event, Artur Sychov, CEO of Somnium Space, gave us a more detailed look at a combination standalone/PC VR headset centered around an open source community-driven software ecosystem.

The headset, which Sychov refers to as the “Somnium VR Headset”, is packed with some killer specs and designed specifically for a VR audience that doesn’t want to be tied to a specific app store or be boxed into any sort of platform restrictions. 

“We wanted to create a headset that you truly own. We didn’t want to lock you down into our ecosystem,” said Sychov. “We didn’t not want to allow you to do things with your own items. If you buy a VR headset from Somnium Space, you truly own it.”

Image Credit: Somnium Space

According to Somnium, the headset features a modular design that allows you to easily customize your experience. You can also remove the sides and bottom of the headset to add custom 3D printed accessories (up to 55 lbs!), making it a truly customizable VR headset. “We really believe in modularity,” said Sychov, adding, “with access to the platform, you’ll be able to extend the life of the headset.” 

Another cool feature is that Somnium’s VR headset is completely programmable, which means you can dive into the system to change the actions of the buttons and sensors in order to meet your custom needs. 

Somnium Space, which is best known for its open social VR platform that integrates blockchain and cryptocurrency for true ownership of digital goods and virtual land, partnered with VRgineers (makers of the XTAL 3 headset) to develop their own hardware. Though not as beefy as VRgineers’ XTAL 3 headset, which is designed for enterprise use, Somnium Space looks to raise the bar for non-enterprise VR headset expectations.



Sychov still believes in PC VR, declaring “Go PC VR!” Not only is Somnium’s headset a standalone VR headset, but it is also a natively wired PC headset. You can stream VR experiences directly from your PC to your headset via the built-in WiFi.

Internally, the Somnium VR headset features a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor, two 3.2 inch LCD panels with a 2880 x 2880 resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate that could possibly clock up to 120Hz, a 115 degree FOV, custom VRgineers lenses that are very similar to the same lenses in the XTAL headset, and inside out tracking powered by several onboard cameras. For improved tracking, the headset can also be used with standard ‘lighthouse’ trackers.  

Located on the bottom of the headset are a series of ports that you can use for tethering, charging, and other accessories. There is also a MicroSD card slot in the headset. No word on if that’s for additional storage or if that’s the only storage. 

Image Credit: Somnium Space

During his presentation on the Somnium VR Headset, Sychov mentioned a lot of incredible features of their modular headset and is hopeful to have the hardware in the hands of consumers by Q4 of 2022. One thing he didn’t mention, however, was pricing. But again, this is a work-in-progress for Somnium Space. Instead of talking price, Sychov said he’d like to have people along for the ride in progress, which seems like a pretty good marketing approach to get VR users invested into the project. That said, some are speculating that the headset could be priced around $899.

You can watch the Somnium Space Connect Event in its entirety here. To learn more about Somnium Space, click here.

Feature Image Credit: Somnium Space

Meta’s Latest Avatar System is Finally Rolling Out to All Unity Developers

From roadtovr

Following an initial announcement eight months ago, Meta has released its latest avatar system for all Unity VR developers, including support for App Lab titles and limited support for non-Oculus platforms like SteamVR.

Update (December 13th, 2021): Meta today announced that its latest avatar system is finally available to all Unity developers. Formerly called Oculus Avatars 2.0—and now called Meta Avatars—the system brings a huge upgrade to avatar style and expressiveness compared to the company’s prior avatar systems.

The Meta Avatars SDK offers support for Unity-based VR applications on Quest and Rift, with limited support for non-Oculus platforms, like Unity VR apps built for SteamVR. Meta says that Quest apps on App Lab can make full use of the Meta Avatar SDK, just like those on the official store.

Meta Avatars aren’t yet supported in Unreal Engine, but support is expected eventually.

The company says it has built the Meta Avatar SDK “with developer needs in mind.” Developers can override the system’s positioning of avatar bodies and facial expressions if necessary to fine-tune avatar behavior for their given application.

The company also says the Meta Avatar SDK uses an interesting distributed architecture for performance. Instead of having all headsets redundantly calculate all of the positions and expressions of all avatars in a given scene, each headset performs the calculations for its own avatar and then streams that information to other participants. Developers are also free to use the system with whichever networking stack they’d like, which increases flexibility over a proprietary solution.

Oculus-based applications using the Meta Avatar SDK will use the avatar that player’s have customized through their headset’s avatar creator. SteamVR applications can use the Meta Avatar SDK, but because those apps aren’t tied to the Oculus platform players are restricted to choosing from one of 32 pre-configured avatars. In cross-play scenarios, Meta says that although non-Oculus players can’t fully configure their own avatar, they will see the fully customized avatars of Oculus players.

Documentation from the Meta Avatar SDK also includes a ‘Best Practices’ guide for developers to consider how they handle avatars within their apps.

As far as we know, the Meta Avatar system currently doesn’t support multiple avatar outfits or app-specific outfits, which means you can only have one ‘look’ at any given time. Similarly, it doesn’t appear to be possible for applications to offer their own unique outfits, accessories, or styles for players to use with their avatars within a specific app.

The original article, which overviews the preliminary release of Meta Avatars to select developers earlier this year, continues below.

Original Article (October 28th, 2021): Facebook began rolling out its latest avatars in the Oculus Avatars 2.0 update in April, which creates new default avatars for the company’s first-party social VR platform, Facebook Horizon.

In addition to being more lifelike and visually appealing than its prior releases, Avatars 2.0 is also positioned to unify the Oculus and Facebook ecosystems somewhat by bringing them to the full swath of Facebook properties including the Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram, and more.

Over the past year a number of third-party applications have worked with Facebook to adopt the system. You can already see the new avatars in Epic Roller Coasters, PokerStars VR, and Topgolf with Pro Putt, Synth Riders and ForeVR Bowling. This SDK release will allow all Quest developers to do the same thing.

In comparison to previous avatar systems created for the Oculus platform, Avatars 2.0 offers up more possibilities for customization, including customizable skin tone, hair style, face shape/markings/lines, eye shape, eyebrows, eye makeup, and more. You can also choose clothing, glasses, and body types—something Facebook says makes for one quintillion possible combinations.

The company hasn’t said exactly when to expect the Oculus Avatar 2.0 SDK, although we’ll be glued to the company’s developer blog then to give you the heads up.

Watch YouTube In VR With Friends On Quest With ‘Couch’ App

From vrscout

No VR-ready PC required.

Despite the numerous streaming apps available on the Oculus (Meta) Quest, you’d think watching your favorite video content side-by-side with friends in VR would be a relatively straightforward process. Unfortunately, most Quest-based streaming apps—including Netflix and Prime Video VR—feature little to no social functionality.

This includes YouTube VR. Thankfully, one indie developer has created a workaround that allows you to watch any YouTube video side-by-side with both friends and strangers in VR on the Quest, no PC required.



Available now on Quest via the App Lab, Couch is a simple, but effective social VR app that immerses you in a virtual theater where you can access any YouTube video you’d like in VR, all for the low, low cost of $0.00. Players are represented as basic egg-shaped avatars and can interact with one another via built-in voice chat. You can hop into a public lobby and browse videos alongside strangers or meet up with friends in one of 1,000 private rooms.

The video browser itself is about as barebones as it gets. You can browse for specific videos via the search bar and, well, that’s about it. Still, this is a great way for Quest users without a dedicated PC to watch videos with others in VR. In the future, I’d love to see additional features, such as the ability to create and share playlists, schedule virtual meet-ups, and watch 360-degree videos.

Image Credit: Mr. Cheerio

Couch is available now 100% free of charge on Quest headsets via the App Lab. For more information visit here.

For those with access to a VR-ready PC, I recommend checking out Bigscreen. This free app allows you to mirror your PC directly to your headset and host large-scale viewing parties in VR. There’s even a virtual cinema where you can purchase tickets for access to both new and classic film screenings.

Feature Image Credit:Mr. Cheerio

Social VR Startup Raises $57 Million Investment Led by Major Japanese Mobile Network

From roadtovr

Japanese social VR startup HIKKY announced today that it has raised ¥6.5 billion (~$57 million), led by Japanese mobile network operator NTT Docomo. The startup says it will use the funds to expand its web-based metaverse platform.

Founded in 2018, Japan-based Hikky is best known for its series of ‘Vket’ events, virtual marketplaces where exhibitors market and sell real and virtual goods to attendees.

Image courtesy Hikky

The company says that its virtual events have drawn more than a million visitors and have attracted major brands as exhibitors like HP, Tencent, Disney, Bandai Namco, Audi, and more, algonside independent creators selling virtual goods.

A Disney branded booth at a Vket event | Image courtesy Hikky

Following its latest Vket 6 event this Summer, the company today announced it has raised a ¥6.5 billion (~$57 million) Series A funding round, led by Japanese mobile network operator NTT Docomo (other participants weren’t revealed). Hikky says the amount is the “initial stage” of the Series A funding round, and that it is open to additional funding.

The company says the capital will be used to strengthen its foundation, expand products both domestically and abroad, and continue to develop its web-based metaverse platform, Vket Cloud.

While the company’s Vket events have largely been hosted in social VR platform VRChat, Hikky is betting long term on its own Vket Cloud platform, which it says is designed as an open metaverse platform where users can host virtual spaces on their own domains which are accessible through any web browser, be it in or out of VR.