(Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with framevr.io other than as a user. This tutorial is for my students, collaborators, friends, who would like to use this for discussing, visiting, working, and collaborating with me, and indeed, working on their own on framevr.io)
(Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with framevr.io other than as a user. This tutorial is for my students, collaborators, friends, who would like to use this for discussing, visiting, working, and collaborating with me, and indeed, working on their own on framevr.io)
Framevr.io is a virtual world, a metaverse that allows many things:
meetings in virtual spaces,
holding “exhibitions”,
simulations.
To help you use this tool, I have written a step by step tutorial. The requirements of this software tool are:
You need a Chromium class browser (Google Chrome or Chromium, or Brave, or Vivaldi, or others that are based on Chromium browser). If you want, here’s a list:
A desktop, a notebook, or a Chromebook
A mobile device such as Android or iPhone or iPad
A VR headset (optional), this works well in browser
Step 1. Access the space and give access to the space. — This is the easiest part, as all you need to do is to visit a web browser (Google Chrome or Google Chromium class browser), and just clicking the hyperlink that starts with
`https://www.framevr.io/` Remember to activate “hardware accelaration” for Chrome/Chrome class browsers, as follows: Settings > System > Use hardware accelaration when available
Hardware accelaration for Brave (similar for Chrome) To access and use the space, you will NOT need to have a dedicated account NOR do you need to download any software, NOR your host will need to be present when you are in the space. Like any webpage, it is open 24/7. Step 2. Name and design your avatar. — Once you enter the space, edit your avatar and set a name. Here are the steps You will be prompted to enter a name when you enter the space like so: Type your name, click connect, and you are ready to enter. Then, once you enter, edit your avatar. For this, step by step: Click on a button that looks like this on the top right hand corner: This will bring up a box that looks like this: Two things in this figure right away: Turn on the Avatar Cam if you want to show a video of your face to the other members who are present in the space Click on the “Customise Avatar” to customise your avatar. This will bring up a box that looks like this: There are several choices here, so let’s go: On the top bar, you can switch between an Android and a Human Avatar As you can see, the “Human” Avatar is activated here (in white on black background) You can choose the skin tone, eye colour, all the way through the hair colour to tweak the appearance There is no save button, exiting this box will save your avatar and you will be ready to move in the space. Step 3. Learn to move around once you enter the “frame”. — Two things here: Move the avatar. Remember that you will always have the first person view, so you will NOT be able to see yourself If you want to move yourself, one of the three ways: use either the arrow keys on your keyboard use the AWSD keys, where A = move left, W = move AWAY from where you are, S = move TOWARDS you, D = move right Click on the mouse and keep it pressed and move the mouse around If you want to move the room, use Q and E keys to move the space to the left and right Step 4. Learn and practice to use speaking and chatting in the space. — Once you enter the space, you will see that in the bottom centre, a panel that looks like this: From left to right, there are a few panels: The microphone, that you can activate to speak and mute yourself. This space has “spatial” voice or sound features so that if you are farther away from someone, you will not be able to hear that person loud enough. Also, the designer of the room may have activated special voice zones, so that only in some zones of the room will the voice features be available. The Megaphone, if you use it, you can speak anywhere in the room and people will be hear you in the space. Webcam, so that you can show your camera feed The presenting screen, so that you can screenshare If you are a member of the space, you can edit the space The plus sign will allow you to share different types of documents in the space A ‘scene switcher’; if the designer of the space has enabled or created more than one scenes, you can switch between screens An emoji, where you can share emojis to the space The cog wheel, which will let you tweak the settings for yourself For speaking, unmute your microphone and activate your camera. Once you do so, and once you have activated your “Avatar cam” (see above), you are ready to speak and show yourself like a regular videoconferencing. You can also add text chat to the space. If you click on the “chat” box on the top left hand corner of the screen, you will see a dropdown chat box like as follows: As you can see, the chat allows you to send text chats to the whole room. It does not allow you to select an individual and chat. Besides, if you want to BROADCAST anything to ALL members of the space where you are in, type /broadcast in the chat box and it will appear as a pop-up With these features, you can move around the space, and chat, and use voice for discussion with the others. However, framevr is used for many other purposes. We will cover these in our subsequent articles in the series. These will include the following: The concept of scenes The concept of photospheres Specific use cases How to organise meetings in framevr.io How to use Zoom and framevr together. How to record framevr meetings and watch later How to organise poster presentations, grand rounds, and talks 3-D presentations How to do simulations