Thread by @slukas

So finally: @Spatiate_app. This will be a big 🧵. One hallmark moment was @AndyLanning painting Groot when we were in London, then uploading it direct to @Sketchfab as seen in this sped-up scene filmed on an iPhone using #ARKit

Showing other people the power of multi-user cross-platform technology was always rewarding, and one moment was called back to in today’s @joinClubhouse talk w/@AndreElijah by @FutureMeme4 (who created OpenVerse). People just “got it.” Every time.

What is Spatiate? @continuumtoon explains it pretty well, this is from @mitrealityhack in 2019

At Unite 2018, we even showed it to Microsoft on Hololens (green) / Magic Leap (gray) / iPad (purple) all painting together. Microsoft to their credit welcomed a joint showcase with open arms, but other parties didn’t sign off. Guest starring @andres & @KatVHarris #ARKit

What we learned was that co-presence made in-headset onboarding EASY as you could see exactly what’s happening in headset. Heavy reduction of “what do you see in there?”questions.
Here with @LucianaSe_

What was really fun was showing how one client (the phone) could create something that the headset could interact with, plus hand tracking. It was true “magic” for the headset wearer. With @AnaMariaKnows & @andres

This understanding of the tech, and knowing exactly what’s happening in real-time, plus being able to collaborate live, was insanely helpful for the demo experience. Here with @harshithakilari & @andres

The paradox for me was as part of Dev Rel, I always put other Devs first for public showcase. I had an unwritten self-imposed rule to only show or support Spatiate when someone else asked for it, or when asked about tech that only Spatiate could do. At GDC '19 w/ @jazna_rossi

"and you waited alllll this hackathon to show me this NOW", per @continuumtoon in this vid, bc again it was a give & take where I wanted to limit showing my own work while also knowing the importance of expanding minds w/ the "art of the possible". With @JacquelineAssar & @andres

One sad thing is that @Facebook had an amazing "3D Posts" feature but shut it down about a year later. Spatiate was initially written as a tilt brush clone that could rapidly make 3d art from any device and share it immediately to Facebook. Here's what that used to look like. #AR

It was also clutch to be able to show multiplayer co-presence on @magicleap (long before pancakes became that standard) to demonstrate the future of the #AR space to #XR powerhouse leaders like @sophiaedm @auradeluxe & @SuzanneBorders (here at GDC ‘19 w/@andres)

At our Bootcamps it was also helpful to demonstrate the multi-modal interaction combo of controller + hand tracking + mobile to partners like @SorayaJaber who were already working in the cross-platform space with @minsarstudio

Besides that there was a lot of joy in seeing the hidden & varied #AR art talents of so many in real-time. Here w/John Holder of @RealitiesCentre where we held our London Bootcamp in April ‘19. Also note that this system allowed for a dynamic, non-stationary spectator camera

In fact, that next month in May ‘19 we happened upon an actual automotive designer, Camillo, who built the bones of an #AR formula 1 car in just a few minutes with no app guidance! (With remote @andres)

Internally, I only brought out Spatiate when teams asked for it. In this case we were included in a spot with @This_Justintech spotlighting social #XR at . Here’s some behind the scenes of how it was shot. (Remotely w/@InFormalMajesty @ali_heston @ga7ahad)

We were also asked to generate a 3D asset for an experimental new diorama type, so @CobyPal and I got in Spatiate to co-design it in 3d space, which was much more efficient than 2d laptops. In-headset 3d asset co-prototyping is one of the prime use cases for this device type, obv

And on that utility front, we learned that Spatialized meetings w/agenda items floating around was very effective memory palace’ing. We were also stunned when @jamese said the Weta team in NZ were using Spatiate WEEKLY to AR rapid prototype, so @andres gave them a roadmap meeting

Video break to recap what this one app uniquely allowed us to showcase:
- Spectator Mode for ML1
- 1st multiplayer app on ML World
- cross-platform w/mobile & HL1
- multi-modal input
And the applied use cases:
- 3d collaboration & design
- immersive meeting
- easier guided demos

On 1 partner engagement @Ksings22 met w/me to go over set design of a Location-Based Experience. She was ready to show me over Skype, but instead we jumped in Spatiate & drew it out at scale. Once complete, I reset the scene to diorama size and had a great reference to work from

And this was all part of the Spatiate roadmap: create models super quickly that you could then use in computing. Increased productivity at lower time cost, no opening Blender or any 3d tool. Export straight to glb, import to Unity.

Thanks to @Sketchfab integration we still had a way to export / share since the FB 3D Posts was going away:

Seriously, @albn is a heck of an accessible and supportive CEO and one of the top partners in the ecosystem, it's no wonder @Sketchfab is here to stay when so many have shut down.

One really important concept for Spatiate was to "draw from any device, then view on any device". That included a replay feature similar to Tilt Brush. This virtual "birthday card" on 08/08/2019 was made in multiple ML1 headsets by the Weta NZ team, I'm replaying in mobile #ARKit

And of course, as always shareable on Sketchfab. @jamese skfb.ly/onKV6 I called my company "Across Realities" because of all of the ecosystems that were put in place to play together, which was my vision for shared #XR: headsets, mobile, Facebook, Sketchfab, everything.

We had a WebXR viewer as well, the idea was to create an Instagram-like feed so you could paint (single or multiplayer, any #XR device), upload the 3d models & stroke data, then view on web or download & view on any XR device. This is an ugly but working prototype of the web feed

With Spatiate being a self-funded project, the app lives on @magicleap, & as functional but limited betas on iOS / Android, & on my personal machines for other platforms. It's used as an informative look at what a future ecosystem could be, but that's it.

Well... we still enjoy using it for co-presence hangs, & my @magicleap Dev Rel crew threw me a surprise farewell party! In a pandemic! I thought we would have a video call as our final chat, and they used #AR co-presence for a real "in-person" goodbye send-off! With balloons!😭

And this amazing heartfelt piece now lives up online. Much love to the team @FortOfBoxes @ShaneEngelman @kitvolta @kbabilinski. Thanks for hearing my journey w/this app & getting a glimpse one of my visions for the #XR space as the adventure continues..🚀
skfb.ly/onKYM

@FortOfBoxes @ShaneEngelman @kitvolta @kbabilinski Thanks to all the contributors to Spatiate along the way: @ali_heston @andres @CobyPal @kaceyweiniger @JJCastilloVR @tramirez89 Vince Martinez, Brady Thomas, @johnhanacek @iBrews @510home.

This video will always be my favorite. #LeapSquad forever.