XRChat: A Mixed Reality Simulation

The following is a transcript from the interview. But seriously, do yourself a favor and watch the video in a VR headset! It’s pretty trippy to see at-scale 🤯

[Kuya]
Yo! Kuya here in VR 180, and I’m here with a very special friend –

[Joker]
Hey what’s up, I’m Joker and I’m not an ambiturner.

[Kuya]
Aye Joker, come back, come back, come back, come back! This my buddy Joker. We met in VRChat, he’s a very talented guy and he was gracious enough to help me out with this test, which is simulated mixed reality. That is using VR 180 IRL footage mixed with stereoscopic VR gameplay capture. And yeah, this is mixed reality, so hopefully you have your VR headset on and you can enjoy the full 3D immersion as well as just hang out with us in mixed reality.

So if you’ve ever been on social VR platforms like VRChat, Neos, AltSpace, you know that people form real connections on those social platforms. People can form friendships, professional link ups, romantic interests, even rivalries. Someone once said that VRChat is essentially a 3D spatialized form of Discord, and I think that’s absolutely true. Social VR is more of a virtual medium to come together, connect and run activities with each other. So imagine what would happen when we go from social VR to social XR.

[Joker]
Oh, hey, I didn’t see you there.

[Kuya]
“XR” as in the cross between all realities: virtual, mixed, augmented, actual. Imagine a future where everyone has lightweight XR glasses and can broadcast into real spaces, like this one, and navigate them like they do in social VR. Like, I’ve been to a bunch of music events in VRChat, so much so that when I go to an IRL bar or venue, I miss having the VRChat audio option so I can turn up the music or turn up other people and turn down the music. I especially miss the ability to throw emojis when I’m really feeling a song, or I just want to give a friend some laughs or pizza emojis just for fun.

Social VR is laying down the groundwork for mechanics that may persist into future social XR experiences. So maybe when we’re at a concert, there with both our IRL friends and XR friends, we can all throw money emojis at the performer after a great performance.

[Joker]
Why does everybody think that there’s pumpkin in pumpkin spice coffee?

[Kuya]
I don’t know, bro. This is just regular Dunkin Donuts. Well, I’ve done enough talking. Let’s hear what the homie Joker has to say.

[Joker]
Ah, I got into VRChat because of the “TUP” community, The Under Presents. Then Underpresents started kind of slowing down. It was like they needed- they all kind of needed like something to do, a place to be, a place to hang out.

I was into RecRoom at the time, but they all like come into VRchat and hang out. Sorry. I just disconnected a little bit there, but yeah. So I came in to hang out with them and didn’t end up spending much time with them. I kind of found other things to do. I started creating stuff.

[Kuya]
Well, what do you think the future of social VR is going to be like? Like, right now, it’s either a bunch of kids messing around or a bunch of tech-savvy-enough adults having fun, but also making pretty remarkable like relationships and connections.

[Joker]
I think it’s I think it’s more adults. Yeah, more adults figuring it out and getting comfortable and I think it’s more things for adults to do. And a kind of like economy for stuff that they want, like the interests of adults rather than just kind of like the kind of pop culture stuff that kids are always into. Mm hmm. I mean, I don’t know why I say that, honestly, because, like every – the future of everything is whatever what kids want. I guess that’s where all the money is selling stuff to sound stuff to teenagers and young people. But I don’t know. I hope it’s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Kuya]
So imagine a future where everyone has lightweight XR glasses and can broadcast into IRL spaces like you are right now in my living room. What do you think Social XR would be like? Yeah. What do you think it’ll be like? Like we have social VR right now. Like how we met. So imagine that extrapolated into social XR with real people like myself and virtual avatars like yours.

[Joker]
Now, that’s interesting. I mean, probably like the same way VR is a blend between real environments and virtual environments. I guess social XR’s a blend between your local social network and a global social network, right? So I mean, it would be you’d be at the bar and you could be with your buddies from the area who you, you know, maybe grew up with and just, you know, you know, you see really regularly. But you could introduce them to your buddy from, you know, Australia, right? Or you know, from Europe. Yeah. And you know, tell them what you tell them what they’re about and, you know. Yeah, I thought you guys should meet because you have this interests in common or, you know, you’re both part of this industry and you could – you’re meeting in the same context and forming that connection in that really natural way that before you could only do like, you know, with your own bodies. Yeah, you know, the people who happen to live in your city.

[Kuya]
So like friends, family from around the world in real spaces, feeling real presence with each other, you know, it’ll be mind blowing. So how do you think that’ll affect new relationships? Like new friendships, even new romantic partners? Like what? What’s social XR’s affect on dating?

[Joker]
Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s that’s that’s going to be the, the first thing that, that people really learn all the important lessons on and start to like get right earlier than – earlier than later because I mean, like, we’re seeing it here in the, in the purely virtual world, right? We’re already seeing.

[Kuya]
VR dating

[Joker]
Those are the first real successful apps are the dating apps. Cause, you know, that’s like people’s needs, right? That’s what they need. They need companionship. They need to find out. So XR will be, I think, an extension of what we’re already seeing. You know, it’ll be it’ll be like, you know, same stuff I was just talking about. It’s like, you know, you can meet this person from halfway across the world and then show them like, Hey, this is my favorite spot to go eat. This is my favorite, you know, this is my favorite restaurant. You can introduce them to your friends, your friends who might not be, you know, running in the same circle, you know, virtually as this other person.

[Kuya]
So as an avid VR chat user, what are things that we see in social VR that we should be aware of in social XR? Like what are some possible problematic things, pitfalls that we should be aware of as we get closer to social XR?

[Joker]
I think the thing to be aware of, the things to watch out for in XR is probably just the same stuff that people really ought to be watching out for in all of tech and all the whole idea of tech is like you’re creating tools that are powerful. Like, that’s what tech is, what technology is by definition. So the people creating those tools tend to like to retain control over those tools, which means they’re retaining power. So the people creating XR technology, they want to retain power over it, which means they’re retaining power over you and over your future. I mean, that’s the thinking-big version of it.

[Kuya]
Word. And I think a big part of that is not allowing us to rely on big corporations to make all the content. Like I have nieces right now in middle school who can code whole games or develop games. They’re taught in middle school how to use like codeless platforms to develop whole games. Do you think the future of content creation for VR?

[Joker]
I think it’s yeah, but I think I think I have an answer for that. Right, because it’s – it’s probably going to be the same as the web. Right. So Web tools, I remember were back when I was in fourth grade. You know, I took like a basic HTML class and like I kinda tinkered around a little bit. And I remember how complicated that used to be. But even then there were tools people were putting together, or you could just sort of organize, you know, like you could visually draw out your web page rather than having to like, you know, input text to describe exactly what was going to be.

So those tools will get more accessible then that’ll be good to a degree, because there’s always going to be people who are who are discerning, like the demand for web pages is like you can tell a web page that was kind of tossed together by an amateur with maybe kind of powerful tools. But you can tell that apart from something that’s really professional, right? Because of course, the industry is going to get standard – They’re going to create standards of like appearance and behavior for content that is going to, is going to – that people are going to be able to differentiate between high quality and low quality.

[Kuya]
Yeah, that was my XR conversation with the homie Joker. If you have any questions, I’m – Yeah, I’ve been developing this whole stereoscopic capture of VR gameplay over the past year. Like you’ll see in my channel. Like I’ve had various recordings, but ultimately this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to simulate mixed reality, especially with, you know, Pico four and Varjo and, and the new… what’s that Meta joint called… Cambria all that. Like shout out Lynx. I helped back there Kickstarter whatever. Like, I think that XR is going to be mind blowing like and as our tools for creation for VR and XR get easier, more widespread. It’s going to bring like a new level of immersion, interaction, and communication, connectivity with each other across the world. Who knows? Maybe it might be like a crazy propaganda dystopian machine or maybe it’ll bring harmony with human subcultures and kumbaya and all that shit. Right. All right guys; Kuya – out.