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Metaverse Minute: The versatility of VR featuring Cas and Chary

November 3, 2022 in Industry | 13 min. read
Metaverse Minute: The versatility of VR featuring Cas and Chary | Hero image
Metaverse Minute: The versatility of VR featuring Cas and Chary | Hero image
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Who says that virtual reality (VR) is limited to gaming? Not Cas and Chary. Our team had the absolute pleasure of collaborating with the renowned duo on the Unity-sponsored YouTube video, AWESOME things to do in VR that’s NOT gaming.

More than virtual reality’s reigning cutest couple, Cas and Chary are deeply passionate about showing how technology can improve our lives today – and shape the future. Here are just a few applications of Unity mentioned in the video that demonstrate how.

Explore the Great Pyramids in Emissive’s Horizon of Khufu

The Great Pyramids of Giza in Emissive’s Horizon of Khufu.

During Cas and Chary’s segment on how VR can change the way we travel, they explored the Great Pyramids of Giza in Emissive’s Horizon of Khufu. This experience was designed in partnership with Peter Der Manuelian, professor of Egyptology and his team at the Giza Project at Harvard University. On the experience, CEO of Emissive Fabien Barati shared, “We are thrilled by the success of Horizon of Khufu. Both entertaining and educational, it shows how VR can be appealing to a wide audience.”

With several years of research and data collected onsite, they managed to produce an immersive VR landscape that allows you to freely roam and discover one of the Seven Wonders of the World. A small group of us at Unity actually had the opportunity to try it at a pop-up in New York City, and we can confirm that it’s as magical as it sounds.

“We are thrilled by the success of Horizon of Khufu. Both entertaining and educational, it shows how VR can be appealing to a wide audience.” – Fabien Barati, CEO of Emissive

Bring your home to the metaverse with Custom Home Mapper

To quote Cas in the video, “You want a window that looks out to the universe? Done. You want five TVs instead of one? Done!” That’s where Custom Home Mapper comes in.

It takes a one-to-one map of your home and brings it into the metaverse in three simple steps:

  1. Trace out the perimeter of your home.
  2. Mark out large objects, such as your couch or bed.
  3. Set your anchor, and you’re ready to start customizing your home for VR mini golf, or just about anything else you can imagine!

The solo developer behind this SideQuest project, Ryan, explains why he created the app: “To help people experience real freedom of movement in VR. It was a joy to try and solve these unique, creative problems of multi-room gameplay and social home interactions.”

Ryan acknowledges “The tremendous amount of support received from enthusiastic users who wanted to see the same dream realized… Couldn’t have asked for a more interesting project to keep busy with during Covid lockdowns!”

Up your game with Rezzil VR for sports training

We’ve been fans of Rezzil for a while now and couldn’t wait to introduce the app to Cas and Chary. Rezzil uses a VR headset with both eye- and feet-tracking to register a player’s skill level in a particular sport.

Rezzil’s suite of drills helps athletes achieve excellence in specific modalities they need to improve. And it doesn’t end there: Rezzil puts players back into past matches so they can understand where there’s room to improve their performance. Top clubs like Manchester United F.C. and the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL are using the app, and while the team at Rezzil can’t say who, we know that at least five World Cup teams took the app with them to the competition.

Attend the next red carpet event with Cause + Christi

Image of Cause + Christi's custom social VR world designed as a red carpet premiere for Baobab Studios' "Baba Yaga".

Our friends at Cause + Christi XR worked with six-time Emmy Award winner, Baobab Studios, to build a custom social VR world for the red carpet premiere of Baba Yaga. Daisy Ridley and Jennifer Hudson brought some star power to the virtual event and even took photos with fans in AltspaceVR.

As Cas points out, doing premieres this way is fun and gives anyone with internet access and a headset the chance to join in. That’s our kind of guest list.

Conquer your fears with BraVeR

BraVeR is doing something pretty spectacular. With intentionally designed VR spaces, this team is working to help people overcome their fears. All of the levels and tasks in BraVeR are tested by experts and users alike, and based on proven methods and studies to help people cope with their anxieties. Each of BraVeR’s unique spaces centers on a fear to offer a mutually challenging yet enjoyable experience.

In the words of Moshe Radman, CEO of BraVeR, “I saw that there is a huge technological change coming at us and decided to use this change for good. Mental health is a great place to start. As I dug in more and more, I found out that this is an inefficient and overloaded market. But VR can radically help take the load off and make mental health-related solutions more accessible.”

“VR can radically help take the load off and make mental health-related solutions more accessible.” – Moshe Radman, CEO of BraVeR

Create in 3D with ShapesXR

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We can’t wait to see how extended reality (XR) will shape the future of product design and prototyping. One of the apps that gets us super excited about this is ShapesXR. Gabriele Romagnoli and his team created a product that’s intuitive to use, even for beginners in the XR space.

Visualizing your thoughts with 3D sketching enables you to communicate in a way that isn’t really possible with traditional methods. Safe to say that Cas and Chary are thrilled with the app.

“We’ve been in the XR space since 2015 and have seen that creatives still have a hard time contributing their skills and knowledge to this new world. We created ShapesXR with the mission to empower designers and any non-developers to ideate, design, and prototype immersive apps,” states Gabriele Romagnoli, Founder of ShapesXR.

“Some of our users call us ‘the Figma for 3D and immersive’ and it is actually very spot on. ShapesXR is, in fact, easy to pick up, and you can mock up interactions in a way that is fully collaborative. We strongly believe that working together and being able to effectively communicate your ideas in real-time is the key to success.”

Design for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) with Arkio

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For the construction folk among us, it’s impressive to see how Arkio has made it so much easier to design interiors, sketch buildings, and craft environments with our hands.

As Cas says in the video, “It supports the right tools for the industry and it’s really, really powerful.” With Arkio, the only limit is your imagination.

Forge a new career path with Transfr

Transfr trains people for well-paying careers in high-demand fields. It enables learners to find secure jobs currently available and facilitates their upward mobility thanks to immersive, hands-on VR training.

With complete VR courses, tailored to audiences at diverse educational institutions and companies, Transfr puts participants in simulations that teach real-world skills relevant to their career paths. They even include tests that are reviewed by instructors in specific fields. When Cas gave it a try, she had a blast learning about autobody tools.

“There is so much undiscovered and underdeveloped talent in our world. These high-potential individuals are often passed over because they lack access to the training needed for well-paying careers at great companies,” says Bharani Rajakumar, CEO of Transfr.

“VR allows us to deliver on-the-job training at a massive scale to support the economic development needs of different communities, so that employers get what they want, a highly skilled workforce – and we get what we want, a pathway to upward mobility. By working with everyone in the ecosystem, from customers to technologists, we are creating pathways, from classroom to career, that can help workers and learners access new skills and a better quality of life.”

Unleash your child’s creativity with Kai XR

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We’d like to see more XR experiences created for younger generations. After all, they hold the future of these technologies.

That’s why the Kai XR platform is so exciting. Created by educators, it provides students with the ability to explore the world of immersive tech. Schools, libraries, and extracurricular programs like summer camps across the United States are using the platform to show students what’s possible with XR.

According to Kai XR CEO Kai Frazier, “Kai XR works with a wide variety of students ranging from those at juvenile detention centers to charter schools. Some students are expert coders while others don’t know what coding is. From working with a range of experiences, I wanted to create a makerspace that lets all students dive into their imaginations, and doesn’t limit them due to schools lacking the tools or experience to create. All of their ideas are valuable and it’s great to see what they create in our drag-and-drop Metaverse Makerspace, Kai XR Create.”

“I wanted to create a makerspace that lets all students dive into their imaginations, and doesn’t limit them due to schools lacking the tools or experience to create.” – Kai Frazier, CEO of Kai XR

Get up to speed with Volvo and Varjo

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The combined forces of Varjo Technologies and Volvo have done some stellar work with Unity. The two companies first came together to create a digital twin of the entire car factory – Volvo’s own metaverse. Engineers and designers can now show each other exactly what they envision in VR with an interactive 3D model.

As Cas states in the video, this has resulted in improved collaboration, faster design iteration, and accelerated development. Working together in the metaverse, from start to finish, has been beneficial for Volvo, and it could not have happened without the incredible people at Varjo.

Sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch the video

And now, it’s time to enjoy more awesome things you can do in VR outside of gaming. Let Cas and Chary take it away.

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November 3, 2022 in Industry | 13 min. read

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