Arthur is another social VR platform I discovered via Immersivt’s report, from a German company called Arthur Technologies GmbH. It is YARTVRA: Yet Another Remote Teamwork Virtual Reality App. (And yes, I am going to keep using that acronym in hopes that it catches on among the rest of the population!). There’s a fifty-second promo video (no audio), to give you an idea of what the platform looks like:
Frankly, Arthur’s avatars leave a lot to be desired. To avoid having to rig eye movements, the avatars all wear black sunglasses like Corey Hart (“I wear my sunglasses at night…”). To avoid having to rig the mouth, they all wear wraparound black microphones that cover the avatars’ mouths so closely, they look as if they are being gagged! And the avatars’ arms fade out to controllers instead of hands. The avatars look extremely off-putting, and it’s a definite strike against Arthur.
Also, there’s really not a lot of information about Arthur on their website. Arthur is quick to tick off the benefits of remote teamwork: lower carbon emissions, less staff commuting, financial savings.
There’s really nothing here to make Arthur stand out from the crowd, as far as I can tell. It looks as though you have to get in touch with the company via their website in order to try out the software, and there’s no pricing information available. So, if you’re looking for a social VR platform to support remote workteams, you can take a look at it. I will be adding it to my comprehensive list of social VR/virtual worlds, along with all the other YARTVRAs.
