XR collaboration firm Frame released version 3.0 of its platform on Thursday, outlining a list of updates to its analytics, application programme interface (API), avatars, and user interface, among others.
Allow us to reintroduce ourselves: Frame 3.0
The spatial web is here. We’re thrilled to be a part of it. What’s new:
📊 Analytics
☑️ Rest API
🔦 Real-time Lights, Shadows
🧑🤝🧑 Full Body Avatars
➕ A whole lot more#metaverse pic.twitter.com/X1dKjBo0Ih— FRAME (@frame_vr) February 16, 2023
The company has included the following changes to v3.0:
Analytics
Frame has added new buttons to check analytics in immersive spaces. Users can click a graph button to access analytics charts and an activity feed.
The feature allows site hosts to view insights on clicks, assets, polls, and the number of visitors. Frame plans to upgrade this initial feature over the next few months.
API Upgrades
The company has opened its Frame API to streamline development of immersive experiences while still allowing coding for settings, member and admin lists, and assets.
Developers can create endpoints to add onboarded members automatically to specified Frames. They can also embed scripts for change content on walls, replacing source URLs with images in the space.
People can also deploy scripts to replace source .glb references for 3D models and other Frame assets. Users can also embed Frames via an iFrame interoperably between the Frame and parent websites.
Lights, Shadows, Action!
To optimise graphics across devices, Virbela’s XR collaborative platform typically has limited geometries, compressed textures, and other resource-saving tactics. The company now offers numerous lighting, shadow, and navigational features directly into environments.
The platform will automatically create navigation meshes by default for uploaded environments, and will add support for custom navigational meshes.
User Interface Upgrades
Virbela has also provided numerous changes to the ergonomics of its user interface, including the following changes:
- Delete assets button switched positions and appearance
- Expanded buttons for users located in People menu
- Redesigned Go To menu for enterprise customers
- Add assets buttons changed in tool bar rather than “Add to this Frame” feature.
- Mic and edit mode buttons added to the sidebar via the Quick Settings dropdown list
- Rename assets in inventories or asset lists
Full Bodied, Full Frame Avatars
Frame has also offered the option to switch avatars from half-bodied to full-body avatars. Users can experiment with body and face types.
People are advised that the option is experimental and may potentially change environmental scaling. Additional issues on the Meta Quest 2 have also surfaced when toggling this XR collaboration feature.
Raise Your Hands, Raise Your Questions
Those attending classrooms or similar settings can use the ‘Question Queue’ feature in the Frame settings. This will trigger an alert to administrators to locate which people need assistance.
Question Queue also allows admins to answer questions in sequential order, preventing disputes over order of priority.
XR Support Centre and Experiments
Virbela has added Frame environments for Support Centres and Experiments. The former will allow customer support teams to interface with virtual users while joining support tables, private offices, private voice zones, and social meeting areas.
Experiments highlights new graphics techniques now available on bespoke Frames, complete with enhanced real-time shadows, lights, and digital assets.
Metaverse-as-a-Service (MaaS) clients can integrate Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)-based authentication on the platform. This allows clients with custom, whitelabelled Frame deployments to use bespoke designs, developments, and other factors for XR collaboration.
Partner Programme
Virbela’s Frame platform now also allows people to create affiliate networks for earning revenue stream via its Partner Platform. Users can share links for others to join and subscribe to Frame, earning extra cash flows with minimal effort.
Previous Frame Updates
The news comes after the Virbela sister application upgraded its functionality and user experience with a series of new features.
Widely used for immersive learning and XR collaborative environments, Frame remains a WebX application, allowing users in-browser access to immersive worlds via PCs, laptops, and VR headsets.
The application is also a mainstay on the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro, but is also interoperable across all immersive kit via a browser.
Previous updates include multiple line texts and language support to navigate virtual displays. It also launched displays for monitoring user stats.
Furthermore, the immersive learning and collaboration company updated the platform with performance boosts while also limiting system resource demands for environment rendering.
