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Mozilla Hubs

Mozilla Announces Redesign For Hubs Web-based Social Experience

Mozilla announced a redesign for its Hubs web-based social experience that connects people across a wide range of Internet-connected devices including VR headsets.

The design features a new chat experience and different user interfaces depending what kind of device you’re using to connect. The service works across desktops, mobiles and VR headsets with components that make is super easy to set up a room and share with friends. On an Oculus Quest, for example, you can set up a room on another device and get a four character code to enter into the Quest browser and join from standalone VR.

A blog post from Mozilla notes that the user interface for Hubs was very similar across devices even though “vast majority of Hubs users are visiting rooms on non-VR devices.” The newest update separates the mobile and desktop interfaces “and makes the experience of being in a Hubs room more tailored to the device you’re using at any given time. We’ve improved menu navigation by making these full-screen on mobile devices, and by consolidating options and preferences for personalizing your experience.”

Previously, messages sent in Hubs would disappear after a few seconds and were displayed in a way that could obscure the view of a room. “With the new chat sidebar, you’ll be able to see chat from the moment you join the lobby, and choose when to show or hide the panel. On desktop, if the chat panel is closed, you’ll still get the quick text notifications, which have moved from the center of the screen to the bottom-left,” according to the blog post.

For customers of Mozilla’s Hubs Cloud the new interface will release after March 25th, 2021. If you’re running the software on Amazon’s servers without customization, the update should be automatic. There’s a guide to explain how to make the changes if you’re using a forked version of Hubs.

Mozilla laid off hundreds of people in August 2020 with many of the people working on VR losing their jobs. Hubs, however, survived the restructuring and today’s announcements represent some of the first big changes announced for the platform since the layoffs.

Quelle:

Mozilla Announces Redesign For Hubs Web-based Social Experience

2. Februar 2021 0 comment

Knowledge Software/Apps

Using Mozilla Hubs To Hang Out With Friends Online

Mozilla Hubs is a useful, free tool that lets you create virtual rooms. Here’s how to use it to hang out with friends…

Remote work (and remote play) experienced a huge boost with the rise of conferencing software like Zoom. However, these one-dimensional platforms leave much to be desired.

Then there’s Mozilla Hubs, which gives users access to immersive virtual rooms and spaces, with tools for collaborating or playing with others without the need to put on a headset, download an app, or even create an account.

Here’s what you should know about Mozilla Hubs to get started and use it as a place to hang out and chat online…

What is Mozilla Hubs?

Mozilla Hubs is a free, hardware-agnostic, immersive remote communication platform. Users share a virtual space with the ability to interact, communicate, and share documents in realtime.

It’s reminiscent of VR and mixed-reality spaces like the VRChat game on Steam but doesn’t require any VR equipment.

That said, Mozilla Hubs does work with virtual reality headsets, namely headsets connected to your computer or the Oculus Quest 2. However, this hardware is not necessary to use Hubs.

Hubs works on desktops or just about any other internet-connected mobile phone or tablet through your browser. However, there is also a desktop app available.

How Can You Use Mozilla Hubs?

Mozilla Hubs is free to everyone and there is no application process. Mozilla advertizes Hubs as a meeting place for „friends, coworkers, and communities“ and includes plenty of resources for a variety of use cases.

You can use Mozilla Hubs to have a virtual coffee with distant friends or family or bring together your remote work team to discuss projects. Performers have even used Mozilla Hubs for live entertainment.

How to Get Started Using Mozilla Hubs

You will start your Mozilla Hubs journey on the platform’s website, where you will either join or create a room.

Here’s how to get started…

How to Start or Join a Room

From the homepage, simply select the Create a Room button at the top of the screen to create your own virtual space. Or, to join someone else’s room, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Have a room code? to enter the code sent to you by the room host.

How to Navigate Scenes and Avatars in Mozilla Hubs

If you are creating the room yourself, you have the option to choose a scene. To do this, select the stacked icon menu in the upper left corner of the window and select Choose a Scene.

You can do this before you open the scene to other users or do it at any period during your session.

The menu also allows you to access available scenes made by the Mozilla community for different seasons and styles of events.

There is a similar system for choosing an avatar. When you enter a room, you can also choose and edit the name of your avatar.

Or, just wander in with whatever default avatar they set you up with. Whichever route you choose, click Accept to confirm your avatar.

Exploring and Creating Scenes in Mozilla Hubs

Once you have your avatar and you are in your scene, roam around using the WASD keys and a mouse. Holding the spacebar brings up a selection of emotes to share with other users.

On-screen text boxes explain other commands and interactions that come up while moving through a scene.

A toolbar at the top of the screen has familiar controls to other remote meeting and collaboration tools, such as muting your microphone and sharing your screen, as well as a marker that works on most surfaces within the environment.

The magic wand icon in the middle of the toolbar allows you to edit a scene by importing models of objects from an expansive public library of digital assets.

You can import 2D assets including images, video, and PDFs by simply dragging them into the window. Afterward, they appear in the environment for other users to move, view, or save.

If you drag these assets onto screens in the scene, everyone can gather around a video or document just like using a projector in the physical world.

What Else Can You Do With Hubs?

Everything explained in this introductory article is possible in a browser window on just about any internet-connected device without even creating an account on Mozilla Hubs.

If you care to take a deeper dive into Mozilla Hubs, creating an account allows you to create your own custom avatar. Resources and communities available through Mozilla also allow anyone to build custom scenes and custom models for use by other users. You can even host your own server.

If you have not explored Mozilla Hubs, there is nothing stopping you. The platform is free, works on almost any device, and is extremely user-friendly.

Quelle:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/social-xr/using-mozilla-hubs-hang-out-friends-online

20. Januar 2021 0 comment

Knowledge Research

Mozilla Releases Update On Its Mixed Reality Program

After recent restructuring announcements earlier this month, Mozilla has now released an update regarding its Mozilla Mixed Reality program.

The company announced that going forward, it will be focusing much of its efforts on Hubs – Mozilla’s open-source virtual reality (VR) chatroom designed for every headset and browser. Mozilla will be increasing its investment in the project, and Hubs will now welcome several new members from the Firefox Reality team.

Adding to its announcement, the company noted: “Having developed a solid initial Firefox Reality offering that brings the web to virtual reality, we are going to continue to invest in standards. We’ll also be supporting our partners, but in light of Covid-19 we have chosen to reduce our investment in broad new features at this time.”

At the end of the month, Mozilla will be releasing Firefox Reality v12 for standalone VR headsets, which will also be its last major release for a while. The browser will continue to receive support, however (including security updates), and Mozilla will continue to make updates to support Hubs and its partners. In addition, the company states that it will continue to remain active in the Immersive Web standards group.

Additionally, the recently released preview for Firefox Reality for PC will continue to receive support, and the company will also continue to provide Firefox Reality for HoloLens, which will be accessible in the Microsoft store.

Finally, the company stated that for iOS users, the WebXR Viewer will remain available, but this will not continue to be maintained.

For anyone interested in contributing to the work, Mozilla added that it is welcoming open source contributions at:

– Hubs

– Firefox Reality for standalone VR headsets

– Servo (for Firefox Reality for Hololens)

For more information on Mozilla’s Mixed Reality offering, please click here.

Quelle:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/tech/mozilla-releases-update-its-mixed-reality-program

31. August 2020 0 comment

Knowledge Software/Apps

Two Tools to Make Your Own Avatar for Social VR Apps like ‘VRChat’ & ‘Mozilla Hubs’

With growing usage of social virtual worlds and spaces like VRChat and Mozilla Hubs, you might be looking for a way to make your own avatar to represent yourself in VR. Here are two user-friendly avatar character creator apps for that purpose which won’t require the use of developer-level tools like Unity, Blender, etc.

Tafi Avatars (compatible with VRChat)

Tafi Avatars VRChat Edition is a freemium app which lets you configure and build a VRChat avatar.

With Tafi, you have control over your avatar’s body properties (like height, body shape, skin color, head shape, eye color, hairstyle, etc) as well as clothing and accessories (like shirts, pants, shoes, hats, tattoos, earrings, etc).

The app uses a ‘freemium’ model which allows you to pick from a range of free options, while many options are premium and paid with in-app currency. When you first make your Tafi account, you’ll be given 1,000 coins (enough to buy a premium hairstyle or article of clothing); if you want to buy more premium options you can purchase more starting at $2 per 1,060 coins.

When you’re done building your avatar in the Tafi creator, you can link the application to your VRChat account and then upload your newly created avatar directly to your account for use.

Tafi says that its avatars are automatically optimized to work on both the PC and Quest versions of VRChat; the avatars are also fully rigged for IK, mouth, and eye animation.

As far as we can see at this time, Tafi Avatar VRChat Edition doesn’t offer any kind of direct download or export of your avatar, which means your avatar is not currently portable or editable in other applications.

Ready Player Me (compatible with Mozilla Hubs)

Ready Player Me is a free web-based avatar creator which allows you to make avatars which are easily imported into Mozilla Hubs or portable to other applications which support the .glb file format.

The Ready Player Me avatar creator works on both desktop and mobile devices. You’ll start by taking a selfie (or uploading a photo) which gives a rough foundation for your avatar.

From there you can define features like hair, eyebrows, eye color, glasses, and shirt. The number of options is fairly limited for now, but we hope to see them grow with time.

When you’re done making your own VR avatar, you’ll be given a link to download the model in the .glb format to do whatever you want with it. There’s also a simple set of instructions for importing your model into Mozilla Hubs, which is as easy as pasting your avatar URL into the Hubs avatar page.

Ready Player Me avatars currently only give you a head and chest, meaning they aren’t rigged for full-body IK or other animations like hand-tracking.

It’s early days for the world of VR avatar creation, and if you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty with 3D modeling and animation tools, the options for easily creating your own for use in VR remain fairly slim.

In the future we hope to see more social VR apps support external avatars so that users have more options for defining what they look like in VR, and the ability to have a persistent virtual persona across VR applications.

Source:

Two Tools to Make Your Own Avatar for Social VR Apps like ‘VRChat’ & ‘Mozilla Hubs’

4. Juni 2020 0 comment