EDIT: Sorry I'm having some issues with my servers now since lots of people are using it! Hoping to fix it soon!
Hey HN! I've been working on this project for a few months now and I thought this would be a good time to release a beta version. DJ3D will keep Youtube videos in sync with a group of up to 30 people, and each person gets a fun little avatar in a 3D world to mess around with. All you have to do is create a room and share the URL!
Tech stack:
- Agones + nengi for the multiplayer
- three.js for rendering
- Firestore for video syncing
Coming Soon:
- Usernames
- Chat
- Video queuing
- More expressive features (dances, emotes, etc.)
Sorry if you encounter any issues, it's still a work in progress. Feel free to report bugs or give feature suggestions at our Discord!
Could you have the room creator limit what features are available? I could see this being a valuable tool for education when the feature set is minimal but very fun for social situations when the feature set is fully activated.
Definitely. I already added the option for the room creator to limit who can change the video. Will keep the education use-case in mind for future things like this! Thanks for the feedback
About 10 years ago, Lorne Lanning made something like this, even tried to build a company around it. It did not succeed, but was a lot of fun. Happy to see the idea again.
Just added the username feature! It appears above your head... Working on adding chat next. Technically you could use your username for a super janky chat haha
The biggest problem IME is that VR headsets are not very high resolution, since the screen needs to cover a wide FOV but your eyes look for sharp detail in the center of what you're looking at. So you'll see a slight screen-door effect or aliasing. The VR cinema feels nice and big but you won't see the same level of detail as in real life.
Motion sickness is not usually an issue with apps made for VR because they've usually implemented move-by-teleporting. I've tested VR with multiple people who get motion sick playing regular first-person games like Minecraft, but they don't get motion sick in VR.
I love this! I would be perfect is the little guy can jump in the cubes like in a platformer, it's amazing that you have all this space to run, but it's a litte boring if you can't climb thins or hit/interact with other users. But lovely idea, cheers. (sorry for my english)
1. People running around and blocking the view can be very distracting -- I'm assuming the point here is to be a utility, albeit a fun one. So perhaps allow people to jump or wave or do something in place (like throw emojis above them). But people are locked in place.
2. Enable a performance mode, where people can then view the same in 2d.. so people with less powerful machines are able to partake.
3. A chat sidebar optionally.. so people can use that to discuss.
These 3 would help a lot for so many usecases (including mine -- watching tech talks with co-workers). Does anyone have other recommendations for my usecase?
It'd be cool to have the option to feed my webcam to the face of the character, and for the head to point in the direction of the mouse cursor like Minecraft.
A chat would be nicer for all the other people watching, although a room setting would be a good compromise. People suggesting features left and right just shows how nice this is.
EDIT: You could develop this into a full-blown virtual movie theater experience. Add a snack bar and rows of seats. Maybe you could even sell virtual popcorn to people.
The grass is a cool feature showing how well three.js works,
maybe add a small world building tool with different terrains. Not sure how much more load it would add.
This is very exciting. I have been browsing /shownew lately here and this is another project that is very inspiring.
I have a hard time staying focused when watching programming tutorials, or any educational content really. I felt so much more relaxed and focused having the ability to let my character jump around while watching the content.
Plus this will be a great tool with the social distancing measures being taken.
Hey HN! I've been working on this project for a few months now and I thought this would be a good time to release a beta version. DJ3D will keep Youtube videos in sync with a group of up to 30 people, and each person gets a fun little avatar in a 3D world to mess around with. All you have to do is create a room and share the URL!
Tech stack:
- Agones + nengi for the multiplayer
- three.js for rendering
- Firestore for video syncing
Coming Soon:
- Usernames
- Chat
- Video queuing
- More expressive features (dances, emotes, etc.)
Sorry if you encounter any issues, it's still a work in progress. Feel free to report bugs or give feature suggestions at our Discord!
https://discord.gg/Wpmz55T
More of my projects:
https://neelmango.com/