Collaboration feature

XR Engage template collaboration feature

The collaboration features in XR Studio enable up to six users to share their presence in the same scene. Users can edit the scene at the same time and see each other.

Collaboration works locally on a single machine and through a LAN (even through a VPN). Some LAN or firewall activity may be requested to let XR Viewer instances communicate.

Features

Supported collaboration features:

• Able to see other users as a ghost-like visualization; each with a different color.

• Able to see other users teleport.

• Able to see other users selection line.

• Able to see other users selected scene element. The element will have a silhouette in the same color as the user ghost representation.

• Each user can independently select one of the possible targets (Screen, Oculus, or OpenVR).

How a VR user appears to a collaborator

This image shows how a VR user appears to a user that is currently in Screen mode.

How a screen user appears to a collaborator

This image shows how a screen user appears to a user that is currently in VR mode.

Configuring the Collaboration

Set up and test collaboration can be set up and experienced directly from XR Studio.

Prerequirements

The prerequirements are:

• The same project is shared to all involved actors.

• All involved machines are connected by a LAN.

Configuration

The configuration consists of three steps.

• Configure the collaboration

• Assign a Reviewer user to each user participating in the session

• Configure communications

Configure the collaboration

1. Open the cfg_cadviewer file and expand the collaboration group.

   

2. Set the reviewersNumber to the number of users that will attend the collaborative session. This value should be consistent for all the instances. So, if it’s going to be a session with 3 participants, then all of them should set this parameter to 3.

The colors identify other users and reviewers inside the scene. It’s a good practice for each collaborator in a scene to use the same color sets, but each user can customize according to their own preferences.

Assign a reviewer to each user

In order to participate in the collaborative session, every reviewer must be identified as an unique participant to share their position and actions to the others.

For example, if the session has 3 participants, they should be identified as:

• Reviewer1

• Reviewer2

• Reviewer3

Select a reviewer

Each user must perform the following steps:

3. Open Project Property Editor in XR Studio.

4. Under Run Configuration, select the view mode (Screen, Oculus or OpenVR) that the user wants to use to participate in the session.

5. Under Project Configuration, use the dropdown arrow to choose the file corresponding to the desired reviewer.

By default, reviewer1 is designed to be the server of the communications.

In the next section, we’ll see how to set up communications.

Configure the communications

This action applies only for users that have not been identified as Reviewer1.

6. Open Project Property Editor in XR Studio.

7. Under Engine Configuration, use the dropdown arrow to choose the file corresponding to the target (Screen, Oculus or OpenVR) that the user want to use to participate to the session.

8. Click Edit to open the file in XR Settings.

9. Locate the Messaging System area and in the Host textbox, enter the IP (IPV4) address or the hostname of the machine used by the reviewer1.

   

Run the collaboration

When every instance participating to the session is correctly set up, the session can start.

• Select the desired target from the Run dropdown and start.

Each instance can be started and stopped independently at any moment.

However, without the communication server the other nodes cannot communicate. When a new user enters the collaboration, there is a pop notification message. If a user leaves (closes) the collaboration their ghost image disappears.