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New ShapesXR Revolutionizes XR Development

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Tvori Inc. is releasing a new spatial content creation application, ShapesXR, on the Quest Store today. The new app enables up to twelve participants, developers and, importantly, non-developers, to share a spatial VR environment where they can work together. Users can create their own content using ShapesXR templates, or start from scratch, building and uploading their own 3D models in .obj format. Designers can introduce and manipulate simple shapes at scale, change color and materials, research user flows and review prototypes as 3D storyboards. The resulting design can then be imported into Unity with textures and properties intact for further refinement.

Anand Dass, Director of VR/AR Content at Meta, has been raving about the new ShapesXR app on social media, calling it “One of the most promising VR applications I have come across! Prototype, design in 3D for 3D. Coming to a Quest near you! Brought to you by the formidable team at ShapesXR.” In an email, Dass explained his enthusiasm further. “Just like how new kinds of applications were born when smartphones were created, we expect new kinds of applications to be created that take advantage of the inherent superpowers of VR. In case of Shapes that advantage is the ability to design 3D in 3D, collaboratively. Instead of designing 3D things on 2D screens, designers can now turn to applications like ShapesXR as the future of collaborative design”

ShapesXR represents a major breakthrough because the game engines used to make VR and AR experiences are not collaborative environments where teams work simultaneously. This is a well known pain point in the XR developer community. “In the early stages of the creative process there is a strong need to share and communicate in real time.” Said founder and CEO of Tvori, Inga Petryaevskaya. “ShapesXR is a bridge for developers who are not designers, and designers who are not developers.” 

Game engines are not a team collaboration tool. It’s painful to iterate fast, and difficult to have productive conversations. “Remote teams need to look at designs together, not consecutively after coding.”  Petryaevskaya said. “We need to ideate and communicate spatially, in 3D, in VR. However, 3D tools are very complex, have steep learning curves and do not allow different team members to collaborate in real-time.” 

"At any given time our work spans early stage prototyping to advanced concept design across both hardware and Software projects," said Andreas Connellan, Head of AR/VR Design at Logitech. "Shapes XR has provided an answer to a key question and need within our team to bridge the gaps between design / UX / IxD and Software tools and workflows so that our diverse teams can communicate, design and iterate together using one shared tool.”

“We introduced ShapesXR to our students because it's an excellent prototyping tool in XR.” said Luciana Fortes, of Circuit Steam, which specializes in teaching XR development to individuals and companies.  “ShapesXR helps our students quickly prototype ideas, and it's especially important if they do not know how to code in C# (which is the case with our Design course). Additionally, the tool allows students to prototype their XR in VR.” 

“Shapes XR has increased the speed of my 3D prototyping process. It has really helped me express ideas within a team directly in VR/3D and discuss them early on,” said Simon Fruebis, a German researcher who prototypes hand user interfaces with multi-sensory feedback. “With the ShapesXR Unity extension, I am able to transfer every frame with all game objects into my Unity scene. This allows a seamless transition from ideation to interactive prototyping with high-end game engines. It's just perfect for low-fidelity prototyping, collaborative storyboarding, and brainstorming. It's so easy to use, it feels like Figma for 3D.”

ShapesXR is free in the Oculus store. It includes everything from the $9.99 monthly pro subscription but the number of spaces (rooms) is limited to three rooms or “stages.” The pro subscription allows users to create and share up to 50 spaces. In addition, the pro version offers advanced settings for role assignments (viewers, editors, admins) and up to 3GB of cloud storage. However, the primary target for ShapesXR is professional XR teams who would buy SAAS annual multi-seat subscriptions and advanced settings for roles and permissions, meeting moderation tools, corporate SSO, compliance and more.

Tvori has received seed funding from BoostVC, HTC Vive and most recently the Women in XR Fund. “Shapes XR is uniquely resonating with enterprises, brands and individual creators, due to its usability and collaboration.” says Amy LaMeyer, Managing Partner of the WXR Fund. “WXR is thrilled to be an investor in Tvori as it continues to enable creators of the metaverse and beyond.”

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