Tag: Mozilla Hubs

  • Getting Started in WebXR

    Getting Started in WebXR

     

    Tweet from Mozilla Hubs announcing my Creator Labs article Bringing Learners into the Immersive Web; How to Begin"
    Mozilla Hubs put out their social media this week for the article I wrote “Bringing Learners into the Immersive Web: How to Begin” where I described the new user orientation space built by NYU Langone Medical School.
    It was a great example of helping users get started on the basics of entering and moving in WebXR. Their users were in VR headsets but the instructions also apply to WebXR users for the most part.
    The first draft of the article, however, had another focus that doesn’t show up in the final version: the tour that Greg and Kristen took us on and how that tour fit into the Friday Community Meetups hosted by Mozilla Hubs. Matt Cool and I decided that that focus could go into another future article.
    Looking back on the article now since it’s been a couple of weeks since the experience and writing the article, I find the topic very dry.

    Tweet capture of me trying to upspin a dry topic.

    I’ve engaged in a short conversation – that I’m writing up – about the use of virtual reality offices and what those will be in the future. A Facebook community member bemoaned that Meta showed work meetings happening in work meeting offices. 
     
     

    Meta VR Workrooms depiction as of October 2022

     
     She wanted meetings to be held in volcanoes– which brings up a regular decry when something in VR looks new– there will be those who say it’s NOT cool enough. So I went on to explain to her that starting in VR in known spaces like rooms with floors, ceilings, doors, and windows is, IMO, a better idea as it keeps apprehensive (or READ BUSINESS) users comfortable.  With the ‘replication of reality’ of those spaces, users just behave better, then tend to NOT walk into walls, etc. Believe me, that is very important – proper real world behaviors are expected in virtual reality-  because trying to go back in time and remind men that they should not speak openly and derogatorily about women’s avatar bodies is a really hard Pandora’s box to close.

    Then this week, Ford Motor Company just opened their IMG DEI Museum in FrameVR and I took a quick tour. Here are some photos from the space:

    Video of the first few seconds being in the Ford IMG DEI space (no sound, 25 seconds)

    Right off the bat, I liked how they were taking care of what could be first-time-ever XR users.

    They had VERY simple instructions:
    1. Click this link.
    2. An image of the buttons and mouse to use.
    3. A first-person (first-avatar) point of view video of what looking at and entering the Museum looked like, including the ‘floating feeling’ of movement.

    *Note: there is NO acknowledgement or use of avatars in this experience.  So it’s a great example of #MetaverseWithNoAvatars.  You don’t (and can’t) look down at your avatar body.

    So two different WebXR experiences with two different orientations or Getting Started experiences.

    Technically, I prefer the video approach from Ford over the how-to from NYU. Even though NYU did have this very cute Alice in Wonderland-style of instructions that SHOULD be emulated, (Click me, Watch me),
     
    Disney's Alice on Wonderland Eat Me Cookies

     
    the show ’em what you’ll show ’em style of a quick video (it was 21seconds and could have been shorter!) of Ford’s experience nails the quick intro experience WHILE still taking advantage of the XR space.  (READ: YOU SEE AND THEN YOU DO, there are no other choices.)

    It was nice to compare 2 entry experiences so closely together in time. I’m reminded of a recent quote:

     

    “Design as if it [the technology] were something speaking to the learner.”
    ~Donald Clark with John Helmer, The Learning Hack podcast, S1E5 Online Educators.

    The video – especially from the eye-viewpoint of the entering avatar nails the intro. Perfect.

  • Virtual Art, Real Feels

    Virtual Art, Real Feels

     

    I’m hearing plenty of comments that the arts, specifically
    performance art, is taking a huge hit due to COVID-19. On July 24, 2020
    the Sacramento Business Journal reported
    the loss in the United States alone at $9 billion. In some cases, art
    events just shut down with no forward-looking plans to re-open. So the
    loss is incalculable. We are in the middle of the summer concert and art scene. I get it. The arts might be down. But they are NOT out.

    Actually instead of “Get out there and enjoy” for art experiences, it is a case of “Get in there and enjoy.” Modify your expectations and what the art community is already doing will amaze you. Here we begin our short tour through the virtual arts scene in a pandemic.

    Art & Computers: Digital Playmates

    First,
    I want to remind you that video games are no stranger to the arts. The
    release of Civilization IV in 2005 with title song “Baba Yetu”
    (The Lord’s Prayer in Swahili) by Christopher Tin was the first piece
    of video game music to win a Grammy. Personally, I still find this video
    very moving and I use it as my introduction to my doctoral research
    topic.

    Virtual art show: Apart: posters from a social distance

    The Apart gallery had some static posters on the XR walls but also had some kinetic displays like a bunch of paper airplanes flying around.

     

    In
    a metaplay on real world events, the organizers of this art show
    challenged the contributors to make art posters to support the thoughts,
    feelings, and issues of COVID-19 and social distancing.

    I found
    the posters to be a wonderful mental interplay of World War II American
    propaganda and the COVID-19 Public Health efforts.

    Sales have
    ended on buying copies of the artwork, so let that be a lesson to you!
    Just because it is virtual does not mean art is FREE.

    You can still enter the art gallery here! [Update from 2026, it has closed.] It’s in Mozilla Hubs (WebXR) so you should just click and go. (Be
    patient and nice just like you would at an art gallery, people!)

    Hat tip: https://paradowski.com/

    Art show: AA Earth Gallery

     

    Hosted in Mozilla Hubs too and still open!  [Update from 2026, it is closed]

    “The
    project was made to mark 50 years of Earth Day, an annual event held in
    support of environmental protection. All the works on display respond
    to the theme of Earth and human relationships.”

    Clubbing: The Music Scene

    Did I mention that I went clubbing in Paris a few weeks ago? I just like the way that SOUNDS. In
    all seriousness, I never left New York and I only found out about this
    event a couple of hours before it started. And, she writes wincing, I
    had to be late for the actual event but the DJ after some gentle nudging
    played another hour just for my tribe! Yes! Do not be unnerved by all
    the Santas. Remember, Santa is jolly?!?  

    This was the DJ who I’m not going to disclose here as a really cool VR day job.

    The lesson here: Set your social media to *search* for art experiences.

    Live art: SketchGroup (Use Chrome for the link)

    Instead
    of a shared Google doc for your next meeting, how about having an
    artist live sketch your thoughts using Tilt-brush in a space that you
    can re-enter? Talk about a Memory Palace.

    VR Concert: Glastonbury Shangri-La music festival in Sansar

    Yes,
    Sansar is a specific app download. But this was simulcast to Twitch,
    Beatport, YouTube, and Facebook to 4.3 million possible attendees. So,
    no excuses.

    I love my tweet above, I’m writing EXACTLY like I’m in
    a loud event and all I can get out is yelling “MUSIC IS FUN!” while
    pointing to the stage.

    VR Theater: The Tempest by Shakespeare

    “Starting
    July 9 showings will be presented in Tender Claws’ groundbreaking
    virtual theater. Tickets for The Under Presents: Tempest sell for $15
    and that buys you a live performance from an actor who casts you in the
    play for a show running approximately 40 minutes.”

    Did you catch that? Pay your ticket price, show up at a time, and you are in the play!

    The actor and 3 spirits from The Tempest from The Under Presents


     

    “Participants
    are tapped to dress up in costumes and pantomime parts of the
    experience which play out as much in virtual reality as they do in the
    imagination of the player. That’s a remarkable feat and exactly what makes this unlike anything else in VR right now. The Tempest is a fascinating evolution for both Tender Claws and The Under Presents.”

    Suffered through all this art and really want team sports to play at home? Uhm, have you heard of paintball?

    What did I miss or is still coming up?

    SIMULACRA (still running!)

    Virtual Arcade @Cannes XR 

    ComicCon at Home (running now)

    Museum of Other Realities (Hosts new and running shows)

    Virtual Fashion Show – July 29, 2020

    VR Events

    There
    really are NO excuses not to support the art scene right now in
    virtual, online, and computer-mediated senses. It’s safe and it’s
    important.

    I conclude with these words from Ben Okri in his article, We Need Art More Than Ever:

    “For
    too long art has been seen as an extra, an add-on, something
    dispensable unless it can prove its worth by numbers and quotas. It may
    be that we lost sight of art’s special value because prosperity obscured
    its meaning, its profound questions, and its uncanny capacity for
    transcendence.

    It is in the face of death that art becomes most
    powerful. It was said that during the time of the Black Death in Italy,
    people carried paintings through the streets to confront the plague.
    Some might say that it was not the paintings themselves that were seen
    as death-fighting images, but the subjects of the paintings, the
    Madonnas and the images of Christ, that were being used to confront a
    scale of death the people could not understand. It hardly matters which
    it was: art became a weapon against the plague.”

    Stay safe.

    #VirtualArt
    #VirtualMusic #VirtualMusicFestival #VR #VirtualReality #Sansar
    #Glastonbury #LostHorizon #Civilization4 #BabaYetu #ChristopherTin
    #GrammyAward #ApartPostersFromASocialDistance #AAEarthGallery
    #MozillaHubs #TiltBrush #Oculus #Tempest #CannesXR #ComicCon
    #MuseumOfOtherRealities #WeNeedArt #VirtualArtRealFeels

    Updated images, font, and indicated a few dead links (but try Internet Archive!) on February 21, 2026.

  • Best Starting Place for Complete Novices to XR

    Best Starting Place for Complete Novices to XR

     

    When I’m introducing folks to XR as a designer, I often list the pros and cons of each platform, game, event, etc.  But those words are things I mention and then are lost.  My “Best Of…” post here will be an attempt to document and capture those points.  Mind you, the Best Of [Whatever] does change over time!


    Best first starting place for complete novices in XR

    WebXR, Mozilla Hubs, Apart Gallery by Paradowski Creative. 

     

    What is it? A art gallergy of 2D and 3D art related to the concept of social distancing during a pandemic. Art focuses on posters hanging on walls throughout multiple rooms (walls, floor, doors, ceiling), art is “propoganda” style related to public health.

    Where? https://apartposters.com/, Select “Visit Virtual Gallery”

    Pros:

    WebXR 

    • you can get there via a browser windo
    • 2D reduces the possibility of vertigo
    • No need to download an app
    • Can get their via mobile, web, or headset (aka no special equipment needed)

    Ease of entry

    • Users are handed a url or link and usually know to single click on that
    • Entering the first time is relatively fast (I think I counted 5 clicks for Hubs)
    • No need to necessarily know in advance who is attending
    • Avatar choices have always included non-binary and non-humanoid choices

    Ease of use

    • Can navigate by keyboard and mouse
    • Teleporting and flying are possible
    • Spaces can be realistic and simplistic
    • Sound works well (few errors)
    • Controls within spaces are intuitive 
    • Spaces can be saved or discarded.

    Best aspects overall

    • Preserves privacy – I would bring ages 5 -105 into these spaces
    • Entry requirements are really low.  Basically need electricity, web browser.
    • Can easily import from Sketchfab repository of 3D objects.