Altspace Tech Sampler

 

Gavan Wilhite

AltspaceVR

Myself

 

 

 

 

 

Cofounded AltspaceVR

Background in games and front-end web

Focused on client and SDK

 

Engineering Team

 

Jimmy Zhang

Services

Steven Vergenz

Ecosystem

Patrick Arnesen

Client

Engineering Team

 

was 15 engineers pre-acquisition, thus..

 

as things spark your interest, know that there are many opportunities to have an impact

 

feel free to walk over and say hi

our service

connect with anyone on the planet in the most natural and fufilling way possible

many platforms

operating systems

headsets

many devices

controllers

body sensors

live since the start of 2015

(stand-ups were amusing back then)

 

acquired two months ago

fast iteration

driven by data

empowering people

a place where we get to ask questions like...

why is my hand crawling up my wrist?

have you tried to juggle the crates with your eyes?

Roles & Abilities

Build System

Anti-Trolling

Web SDK

Friends System

Dynamic Configuration

Android Support

Large Event Scaling

Attribute System

Space Templates

ChromaKeying

Browser Modifications

Audio & VOIP

Unified Tracking Skeleton

Physical Objects

Input System

Asset Pipeline

SDK Profiler

Topics

Unity

React

Chromium

Rails

Postgres

Kafka

Kafka Streams

Photon

Three.js

Node.js

A-Frame

Firebase

 

C#

JavaScript

Ruby

Java

Technologies

let's build the future of social MR together

  talk with us - aka.ms/altspaceteam

work with us - joinaltspace@microsoft.com

AltspaceVR

why we work on the VR web

be together

do things together

 

people want information, applications, and games

 

in VR, people can

  • meet
  • discuss​
  • laugh
  • attend

but they want more

they want the web

 

across all platforms, instantly, and safely

What does this look like?

Holograms Against Humanity

  • three.js + socket.io + node.js
  • 5,000+ games played last month
  • open source

 

What makes it successful?

  • humor
  • encourages communication
  • jump-in, jump-out

Traditional Browser

Browser

Engine

Game

Engine

+

MR Browser

=

+

Application

Browser

Engine

=

+

Application

We built a MR browser

and a SDK to make it easy to use

MR Web

Traditional

Browsers

+

Low-level

 MR APIs

+

Polyfills

MR Browsers

+

High-level

MR APIs

two paths to the MR web

 

one incremental,

one experimental

 

both make sense,

given goals and starting points

Chromium

three.js

A-Frame / 

<html></html>

game engine

application

scene 

browser engine

web app

Implementation

Three.js Renderer

  • Three.js is renderer agnostic

  • So we wrote our own renderer

  • Converts the three.js scene graph to Unity objects

  • Supports a subset of performant materials

Javascript APIs

getUser() 
// public information about the user
// useful for nameplates / highscores

getSpace() 
// information about the space
// useful for persistence 

getEnclosure()
// enclosure dimensions and scaling
// useful for reactive VR design

getThreeJSTrackingSkeleton()
// returns polled skeleton as fused from all body sensors
// useful for using the location of body parts as input

getGamepads()
// returns all gamepad-like input devices, including 6dof
// useful for game input or manipulation of objects

Have automatic access to

  • VOIP

  • Activities

  • Events

  • Avatars

  • Environments

 

Live on the web

  • Host at any URL

  • Use any backend

  • No gatekeepers

With the SDK,

you can make apps and games that 

Fullspace

  • Environments
  • Decorations
  • Immersive games
  • Avatar-attached items
  • Designed for VR

"Fullscreen"

Enclosed

  • Tabletop games
  • Visualizations
  • Objects
  • Interfaces
  • Designed for VR or AR

"Windowed"

look for the

 tick marks

AltPDB

  • Visualize proteins
  • Dynamically loads from RCSB PDB
  • Multiple display modes

 

Live interactive lessons

  • Content is synchronized
  • Presenter can indicate parts of the molecule using body trackers
  • Audience can ask questions

We've got the basics, but we want more

 

We want reusable, high-performance building blocks

What next?

The 2D web needed <textarea>, <image> and <iframe> as native building blocks

 

What are the equivalents for the MR web?

Building blocks

Native Components

a new way to extend the web with native functionality

A-Frame

  • Built by Mozilla

  • Entity / Component / System

  • Uses Three.js

A bit about A-Frame

  • Implemented by the browser, rather than in Javascript

  • Directly access game engine features

  • Use platform infrastructure

  • Look for the  "n-"

Native Components

<a-entity position="0.5 1.25 3" n-spawner="res:interactables/basketball">

Text

Object

Spawner

Collider

Native Components

Container

Sound

Skeleton

Browser

Portal

Text

  • In-world or UI

  • Rendered natively with signed distance fields

Native Components

Common Grounds

  • Conversation starter
  • Required dynamic text
  • Needed to stay in the background while not consuming resources

Native Components

Object

  • Pulls in a native 3D model

  • Growing library of free assets

  • Makes building apps / environments quick

  • Particle effects (like fire!) are popular

SVVR Poster

  • SDF text + super resolution
  • 3D graphic design with a text editor
  • 12k screenshot sent directly to print shop

 

Check it out at the booth

  • Tutorials running every day
  • Meet developers hanging out in VR
  • Pick up custom HaH cards

Native Components

Spawner

  • Rigidbody objects

  • Natively synced

  • Player lifespan

Fireball

  • Built in a day
  • No custom assets
  • "Secure" high-score system

 

Uses a variety of components

  • Object
  • Text
  • Spawner

Native Components

Skeleton

  • Attach objects to a unified tracking skeleton

  • Zero latency

  • Zero bandwidth overhead

  • Makes use of our exisiting avatar network traffic

Armory

  • Super simple
  • 100 lines of HTML
  • Works with all body trackers

 

Native Skeleton 

 

<a-mixin id="parent-to-head"
    position="0 0.05 0.03"
    n-skeleton-parent="part: head;"
    sync 
    sync-n-skeleton-parent>
</a-mixin>

Native Components

Collider

  • Static bodies

  • Integrated with movement system

  • Supports arbitrary meshes

Crystal Cave

  • Fullspace environment
  • Great hack for being "underlava"
  • Unveiled at a meetup

Native Components

Container

  • Counts how many objects are in a volume

  • Enables door triggers or lock / key setups

  • Internally solves many edge cases 

  • Automatically synced via object synchronization

The Gauntlet

  • Container around spikes..
  • ..for very loud screams

Native Components

Sound

  • Spatialized

  • Placed at the entity transform

  • Ogg / MP3

Lost in Time

  • Guided story
  • Large environment
  • Entirely A-Frame

 

Uses a variety of components

  • Sound
  • Particles (Object)
  • Text
  • Containers
  • Colliders

Native Components

Browser

  • Similar to <iframe>

  • Enables the placement of sub-apps

  • Useful for events and other fullspace apps

  • Creates browser-ception

  • Natively synchronized, parsed in layout phase

Native Components

Portal

  • Instantly travel to elsewhere in the same space,
    or to another space entirely

  • Enables the creation of multi-space events

  • Use our interface, or customize it with your own

Developer Community

 

  • Outside of VR

    • Slack

    • Dev portal

  • Inside of VR

    • Collaboration sessions

    • Thursday meetups

 

Tech Talk Overview

By Gavan Wilhite

Tech Talk Overview

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