This will be part of a future release and is still in R&D stage.” The team is working on solutions for people who are walking around to be shown integrated into the 3D environment as well. However, Room can only show of people what their camera video is providing in real time. You do not have to sit at the table to be captured. I asked for more explanation on how it works, and the company said, “Room has purposefully arranged the camera setting in a way that when sitting at the table and looking around, people are placed with a specific fob on the camera path (which Room calls ‘table view’) so that people naturally integrate with the 3D background and the 2D effect is not visible. The trick is making the blending appear to be seamless. It’s actually video of you, cut out and pasted into an animated background. Then it places you in a 3D-animated scene. The tool combines video capture from your webcam to take video of your face and upper body.

But what you’re seeing of the characters is live video. Your video is literally an overlay in a coffee shop or an auditorium or a theater. Room uses video capture from your webcam to take your live capture and place you in a 3D-animated scene.

Both of those companies started out making games, but they both pivoted to make communications tools that have become extremely popular. They were partly inspired by the success of game devs who created Slack and Discord. Last week, former VR game devs Alex Schwartz and Cy Wise of Absurd:joy launched their beta version of the collaboration tool Tangle. Yerli is the latest game developer to try his hand at metaverse-like conferencing solutions. The browser-based, one-click tool has been in open beta for creators, and a general rollout starting now.

The rollout of Room (spelled ROOM by the company) is designed with the new reality of working in mind to make remote teamwork easier. The social 3D communications engine was created by a team led by former Crytek game developer Cevat Yerli, who was behind the Far Cry, Crysis and Warface series of video games. Room is rolling out today as the latest collaboration tool combining video conferencing cameras with 3D-animated backgrounds. Interested in learning what’s next for the gaming industry? Join gaming executives to discuss emerging parts of the industry this October at GamesBeat Summit Next.

Warface hack