AltspaceVR social platform launches open beta

AltspaceVR’s social virtual reality platform is now open to all, the company announced at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference today.

The company offers a proprietary cloud-based platform for holding virtual meetings in which users can meet, talk, wave their hands, and share videos and other Web-based content. There’s a small selection of pre-built virtual environments. To move from one scene to another, you teleport via a menu,Â as opposed to walking or flying to the next region over.

AltspaceVR brings synchronized video in-world.

What really makes these guys special, though, is that they seem to have beaten the motion sickness problem — by eliminating motion. You can move your head around to look in various directions, but if you want to move to another spot, you just click on it, instead of walking over.

The latest update of the platform includes more social features, an events calendar, and selfies.

And they’ve also raised quite a bit of funding. The company received $5.2 million in funding last fall from a group of brand-name investors, includingÂ Google Ventures, Oculus VR investorsÂ Formation 8, and SpaceX investorsÂ Rothenberg Ventures.

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Maria Korolov

Hypergrid Business editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist. During the day, Maria Korolov is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Email her at [email protected]. Her first virtual world novella, Krim Times, made the Amazon best-seller list in its category. Her second novella, The Lost King of Krim, is out now. She is also the publisher of MetaStellar, a new online magazine of speculative fiction.