LinkXR

"What is LinkXR?", I hear you ask. Here's all about what drove me to develop this platform for the XR community. Last summer - peak metaverse craze - I decided to borrow a VR headset (the Oculus Rift CV1) from a technology institute I teach at, as I was intrigued to discover more about Virtual Reality as a whole. From the moment I put the headset on, I was shocked as to how immersive and surreal it all was. After having delved into several social VR experiences & games - Echo VR, VRChat, ChilloutVR and many more, all the communities welcomed me with open arms. From my experience I've found that each game has its own vibrant community, dedicated to making the experience warm, safe and fun for everyone. All in all, it was an incredible experience - however, there was something always itching me on the back of my mind as I browsed these VR worlds. There were so many people on these platforms, yet there was no way to find them - whether it's on another social app, game or entire platform, there was just no apparent way to go that extra step to stay connected outside that platform. "Surely I must be missing something", I thought to myself. With that big question in my mind, I carried on exploring, trying to find the answer, but to no avail. ...and that's when the entire VR industry was shaken up. It was on the fateful day of July 25th, 2022 when VRChat single-handedly issued the most controversial and disruptive update ever made to their platform, which introduced the EAC Anticheat to the game, effectively killing off all of the mods which the community made for the game - even accessibility and very important comfort-related ones. Leaving the discussion of why they did this and how it was executed aside, the result of this controversial update was a mass exodus of users from the platform, not only to protest this change, but also because many users which relied on those accessibility features were simply left behind, with no other choice but to move to a different platform, leaving their friends and connections behind. Here's where serious issues started arising. With so many people essentially migrating from one social platform to another and no easy way to share their usernames and profiles with others, VRChat users were left with no way to find their friends on the other platforms. Confusion arose amongst players regarding their VR profiles as a whole - but most importantly, thousands of friendships were sadly lost. That's where we come in. With LinkXR, not only are we going to provide a solution to prevent connections from ever being lost again, but we're here to help the community reunite with their friends on other social platforms. LinkXR is the ultimate social VR platform, providing the VR, AR and MR communities with tools to connect, discover and share their experiences on these platforms. However, it's not just about the technology. I'm developing this site for the people - the diverse community of dreamers, creators, and explorers who continue to shape the vibrant tapestry of XR as a whole. I'm excited to invite you to join us on this exciting journey to become a part of our story as we embark on this new chapter together. Your feedback and insights will be key to ensuring that we can improve our platform so that it is at its best during launch. Let me know in the comments below!