In the midst of COVID-19, most workplaces have shifted towards a work-from-home environment where most employees clock in from their home offices. The added convenience is great, anyone who works from home can tell you that. However, there are a lot of things lost in the transition to working from home, as most meetings now take place through video calling software. This method is less personal, people talk over each other all the time, and it can often be difficult to present or collaborate on projects.
Fortunately, new software has come forward to fill that void. VR workspaces are software that enable you to meet with your team in a personalized space, where you can present, collaborate, and meet in a more personal and effective way than video conference calls. Since VR workspaces are a new concept, none of them are perfect, but here are seven of the best VR workspace software.
Varjo Teleport VR
Teleport VR is the meeting software from Finnish company Varjo, known for their enterprise-grade VR and XR headsets. Teleport VR is focused on collaborative design, with the ability to import both hand-crafted and scanned 3D models, with which every team member can interact and contribute to the design. Teleport VR is available now, but is somewhat rudimentary compared to other VR meeting softwares.
Vive Sync
Vive Sync is a meeting software that aims to mix professional and social interaction. It has all of the main features expected of a workspace software, like sharing files and models, virtual meeting rooms, and even virtual lecture halls for larger presentations. Vive Sync supports up to 30 users in one meeting, making it a good choice for larger companies or events. In addition, it also features customizable avatars, with the ability to create an avatar by taking a selfie, a variety of environments for different workspace atmospheres, and spatial audio for personal conversations on the side. Sync also supports hand tracking, which eliminates the need for controllers and allows for more nuanced gestures. It is only compatible with Vive headsets, however, meaning cheap alternatives like the Quest 2 are out of the question.
Horizon Workrooms
Horizon Workrooms steers away from the collaborative design aspect seen in many other VR workspaces, and does not have support for 3D model viewing and design. Instead, Horizon Workrooms is really leaning towards the “work from home” crowd. Workrooms allows you to bring your keyboard into your VR meeting room, and use a virtualized version of your at-home desktop. Workrooms also pushes customization, with varied avatars that have a lot of clothing, hair, and facial customization options. While it lacks some tools from other VR workspace software, it still includes the ability to share documents and presentations, and collaborate with a team on a virtual whiteboard.
Iris VR
Iris VR is probably the best VR workspace for engineers, architects, and other designers. In lieu of in-depth and highly customizable virtual workspace environments, Iris VR offers the most in-depth 3D design tools, with the ability to work on models in the workspace, as opposed to just viewing, and a tool that can view the 3D model in slidable cross-sections. Iris VR is also compatible with a variety of 3D design software, like Navisworks or SketchUp.
Connec2
Connec2 offers the best of both worlds, with a 3D design editor that has support for SketchUp, Autodesk, and Blender, and a highly customizable virtual workspace. The Connec2 “office” can be customized by adding company logos, adjusting the color scheme, and adding accessories to make the workspace unique to your company.
Glue
Glue is another one of the better products for a virtual office experience. It offers spatial audio for personal conversations and multiple meetings at the same time, customizable avatars and virtual office spaces, and more productivity tools than other VR workspaces. It also features persistent virtual spaces, meaning that any information or work done during a Glue meeting stays in the workspace even after the meeting is over. Another thing Glue offers over other virtual workspaces is increased security, by implementing data-protection algorithms and authentication procedures, meaning Glue is a good choice for companies handling projects that need to be kept under wraps.
Engage
Engage markets itself as an enterprise-focused VR communications platform, meaning that it is much more than just a VR workspace. It does have support for virtual meetings, but the real draw of Engage is for VR presentations and events. Engage gives users the ability to build customized environments, which opens up VR meeting spaces to classrooms, concerts, and even training simulations for specialized occupations. On paper, Engage is certainly one of the best VR workspaces, but their endorsement of NFTs opens the floodgates to a lot of potential problems. Another thing worth mentioning is that the virtual avatars look significantly worse than other VR workspaces, to the point of being uncanny.
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