Month: November 2019

InsiteVR: A Brief Introduction to a Social VR App for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Meetings

InsiteVR is a social VR platform that is intended to work with designs created in software such as BIM 360, Navisworks, Revit, Sketchup, and other programs that create three-dimensional models. Planners and designers can meet up in a virtual space to explore and “walk through” their 3D models. According to their website, the benefits of InsiteVR are:

REDUCE COSTLY SURPRISES: Eliminate model error ambiguity: Validate designs and identify issues before construction begins and it’s too late.

UNDERSTAND THE SPACE: Experience designs from a human perspective to increase understanding and confidence across all project collaborators.

IMPROVE CONFIDENCE: Coordinating with VR meetings helps ensure everyone is on the same page about issues and resolutions.

DIRECT INTEGRATIONS WITH EXISTING AEC TOOLS: All you need to get started is a BIM 360, Navisworks, Revit, or Sketchup model. In the click of a button your model will be VR ready and synced to the InsiteVR cloud for your coordination meetings.

VR MEETINGS MADE EASY: Inviting collaborators to your VR meeting is as easy as sending them a link. Participants can see other as VR avatars, talk over VOIP, and review model issues together. Compatible across desktop and standalone VR like Oculus Quest and Oculus Go.

BUILT-IN ISSUE TRACKING: Keeping track of issues identified during a VR meeting is critical. With speech-to-text annotations you can easily flag issues identified without removing your headset or requiring a second person for note taking.

PDF MEETING REPORTS: InsiteVR will automatically generate a PDF report of your annotations and screenshots so you can review and address issues after your VR meeting.

InsiteVR supports The Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Oculus Go, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, as well as desktop users.

You can contact the company to request a demo using this form. You can also follow InsiteVR on social media via Facebook and Twitter.

Acadicus: A Brief Introduction to a Social VR Platform for Education

Acadicus is a social VR platform for educational purposes, created by a Wisconsin-based company called Arch Virtual. The platform is similar in scope and aim to other educational social VR products such as ENGAGE.

Acadicus offers a massive library of environments and assets for educators to create and share customized VR training content and recordings. They explain the purpose of the platform as follows:

As new research continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of VR training and more people have an opportunity to experience it, there’s steadily increasing demand for quality VR training and education content.

However, the complexity, expense and time required to develop quality VR training has become a massive bottleneck to adoption.  One-size-fits all applications are inflexible, expensive to keep updated, and only cover a fraction of topics.  Every region, institution, and individual does things a little differently, and these differences are important to them. 

We created Acadicus to revolutionize the process of accessing and creating VR training experiences at a fraction of the cost, enabling broadband knowledge transfer from the mind of an expert into the immersive experience of a learner in VR.  

You can download a copy of the Acadicus client software for Oculus Rift VR headsets from their website for free, and use it to explore their featured content, offering everything from pediatric surgery roleplay to Blackhawk helicopter training!

Acadicus offers a Pro Space service, which they describe as follows:

Acadicus Pro Spaces include everything needed to create, customize, and host simulations and multi-user demonstrations.  Gain access to our large and growing library of assets and environments you can use to create and save your scene.  Acadicus is currently compatible with Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S.

Acadicus Pro Spaces are a US$10,000 per year subscription, with multi-space discounts available.

There’s a detailed user guide available to download from their website. You can also follow Acadicus vis social media on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. And I’ve added it to my list of social VR/virtual worlds.

Mixtive’s VR Conference: A Brief Introduction to a Social VR App for Meetings

Mixtive is a Swedish company which has partnered with Telia Company and Sony Mobile and create a 3D meeting service called, simply, VR Conference. Yep, another example of YARTVRA: Yet Another Remote Teamwork Virtual Reality App.

Here’s a few videos of the platform in action:

Note how awkward the hands on these avatars look! Using Telia VR Conference, Sony 3D Creator, and Shadow Avatars, users can create a 3D avatar that resembles them, although the results do have that creepy Uncanny Valley aspect to them (there’s no audio on these two videos):

According to their website, Mixtive’s VR Conference app supports the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets, as well as iOS and Android apps. You’ll have to contact Mixtive via their website to obtain a copy of the software to test, and to get pricing information.

Arthur: A Brief Introduction

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.