Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
Launch HN: Scena360.com – Immersive gathering platform
30 points by djoksimo 1967 days ago
scena360.com

Hey HN!

Danilo, Anshuman and Daekun here, co-founders of Scena 360 and Software Engineering students at the University of Waterloo. Scena 360 lets you host more natural and private meetups in shared 3D spaces. In Scena 360, you can turn towards the person that you're talking to and have separate conversations around campfires without having to break into awkwardly-moderated breakout rooms.

Having completed several remote internships and study terms online, we realized how much 2D calls suck, as do most users that we have spoken to. We personally felt anxious keeping our webcams turned on and staring at blank screens, joining "virtual work parties" and "virtual conferences" without being able to casually talk to people. On top of that, we got fed up with malicious video conferencing software.

Imagine that you're in a workshop: Seeing the speaker give a presentation at the front of the room, while you're having a side-discussion with the person next to you about an issue. Turning to the mentor walking by to ask a question. Walking over to another group to strike a chat with them. Talking to a person with their video turned on or a customizable avatar (similar to Bitmoji, Memojis) instead of a blank, muted rectangle. Knowing that your talks are protected with end-to-end encryption. These experiences are made possible with Scena 360.

On top of the above, we plan on expanding the room capacity to handle much more than *10 people/room*, potentially hundreds of people per room.

Scena 360 is built using A-Frame, ReactJS & WebRTC. We'd be happy to answer any questions about our tech or product (example: how we keep conversations private).

We would love to hear your feedback. What do you dislike about 2D video conferencing?

7 comments

Congrats on the launch! Scena 360 is definitely a more unique approach to virtual meet ups. I don't exactly follow how the experience works jumping from accessing via laptop vs. accessing with a VR hardware? Do you just move your mouse to look around if sitting at a PC?
Thanks! Yup, users can simply click-n-drag across the screen and move around using their arrow/WASD keys, like in a video game.

Users will soon be able to access Scena 360 on their VR headsets by either opening https://app.scena360.com in their VR web browser (e.g. Oculus Browser) and then clicking the "Enter VR-mode" button to enter a fully immersive experience (turn head to look around, wave with virtual hands, etc.). The VR users would be able to interact with the desktop/laptop users (meet in the same room).

We're watching the launch live together on Scena 360: https://imgur.com/gallery/a59hE7N
Come check it out here for free! https://links.scena360.com/pWwIZm.
Really amazing platform that me and friends like using! Immersive way to connect with friends and share presentations that go beyond Zoom / Gather
Congrats on the launch! Super cool stuff
3D is a super dope twist to video call
Thanks, 3D always makes things cooler .
Sweet!!
Thanks!