How you (a VR professional) can go through the coronavirus lockdown

Greetings from the lockdown! As you probably know I’m a VR consultant/developer, and I’m Italian. Here we are currently in lockdown and the situation is pretty frustrating: we can’t travel, we are strongly advised not to go out from home (we must carry a paper that justifies why we are exiting even just to have a walk), and most shops are closed. All because of the damn coronavirus.

We Italians are where China was some weeks ago, and where probably some other countries will be in some days/weeks, when the disease will become more widespread.

Since some of you risk being in the same situation I am in some days, I just want to give you some pieces of advice on how to prepare for the lockdown and make your VR business survive these harsh times. You won’t find any secret recipe, just some common-sense pieces of advice given from my experience during these days. I hope that they can be useful for some other VR professionals out there.

Prepare yourself to work from home

I hate working from home. Being at home is always distracting, and also prevents that exchange of ideas that usually happens in an office with your colleagues. Also at my home, I have not the best environment for working with VR. But during these times, I have no choice, and I have to stay at home. And you should be prepared as well.

Bring a headset home

The first simple but useful advice that I give you is: take at least one headset at home. You never know when you won’t be able to go to the office anymore: usually, here the restrictions are being released during the evening for the morning after. So, keep a VR (and/or) AR headset at home so that you can keep working on XR software even during the lockdown.

Since you can’t take all the headsets at home, try to take the ones that are the most useful. The first headset that I carried home has been the Quest, because I can use it both as a standalone and a tethered headset. Then I took the Cosmos, because it is the best PC VR headset that I currently have and also it has the front cameras that may be exploited for AR. With just two headsets, I can do almost everything: standalone VR, PC VR and some kind of AR.

Don’t forget what a headset needs…

With the headset, remember carrying also the various accessories, like the cables (e.g. the USB cable for Oculus Link) and the (rechargeable) batteries for the controllers. If you don’t have enough of this stuff, Amazon is your friend. Remember that it’s better if you buy online before the physical shops get closed, so that the shipping companies are not clogged up with requests yet.

I am so glad that I changed my laptop for Christmas: the new one is an i7 with RTX2060 which lets me use virtual reality. It heats up like an oven, but it works. If I hadn’t changed my laptop, with the old one I wasn’t able to run VR well, and I would have had big troubles working from home. If you don’t have a VR-ready PC at home, think about buying/borrow one.

Mind the connection

One of the worst things that I have at home is my internet connection. Being always in the office, I have never had an interest in having the highest speed possible at home, but now this is becoming an issue. For instance, uploading a new long video on Youtube requires me leaving the laptop uploading various hours.

So, if you can, be sure that you have a solid connection at home. If you don’t want it, you can consider upgrading the plan of your mobile connection so that to have infinite gigabytes in 4G+. When I need some extra speed (e.g. to upload my videos about Half-Life: Alyx environments), I in fact use tethering from my phone and it uploads and downloads super-fast.

A life-saver for me has also been having a TeamViewer connection with my PC in the office. Before leaving your office, install TeamViewer and leave the PC turned on. This is very important if you need to access some files/applications/whatever that you have only on that PC. In my case, I also exploit it to download/upload files fast since the connection in my office is very good. Create a TeamViewer account and add the Office PC as one of your machines, so that you can log in every time you want, and even reboot the remote PC without any risks. Otherwise, without an account, you need a random password every time you want to connect to the remote peer and this is not what you want.

If it may be useful for some particular reasons, having a VPN to your office may also help.

Mind the space

Think where you can put all the stuff you’re taking from work to home. And also find a place where you can safely use VR. Keep in mind that you may share the house with other people, so you must find a place where you can work with VR without annoying the others (e.g. you can’t play in the corridor).

If you have to go to the office, be careful

It may happen that you have to go to your office, for instance, because you have to take a headset or the PC you connect via TeamViewer froze. In this case, if you are authorized, go there following all the recommendations from the experts: stay distant from the other people at least 1m during the travel, wear a mask if you have one, wash your hands carefully when you arrive at destination, and so on. I found a great post on 9GAG that explains in a cute way how to protect yourself from the infection. You can find it here: https://9gag.com/gag/am5y4e6

But go there only if strictly necessary, now we are strongly advised to stay at home.

Keep your relations with your peers strong

Lots of people like working from home, because this makes them save the time and hassle of the commute. The problem with remote working is that it requires a bigger effort of coordination because there is a higher risk that you lose sight of what your colleagues are doing. Working together in the same physical space, it is easy to update the others on what you are doing, maybe during a coffee break, or early in the morning, while remotely you have to deliberately do so. Furthermore, working from home is more distracting, so the risk is that the overall work of the team gets slowed down.

If you are all working from home, be sure to communicate a lot via chats (Skype, Slack, Discord, etc…) with your team, and do regular video meetings to see each other’s face and discuss about what you’re doing. Scrum’s strategies, like having a standup every morning help a lot in being coordinated.

Your conferences won’t happen

One of the saddest consequences of this damn virus on my work is that I‘m seeing lots of events being canceled. This year I had been invited to top-tier events like MWC, GDC, XR Europe and I was overly happy going there. It would have been a great opportunity for my business and for my blogging activity. But they have all been canceled, one after the other.

So, let’s be honest: all events in March and April ain’t gonna happen in the real world. May is very at risk. June depends on how we’ll be good in containing the pandemics: but some events like E3, that should have taken place in June have already been canceled. The safest bet is from July on.

Between states of emergency, travel bans and all the rest, you won’t be able to attend most of the events. So, my piece of advice is not to book any hotels and flights until you’re really sure that the event is going to happen. If you’re forced to book everything for whatever reason, look for refundable bookings, even if they’re a bit more expensive.

Think about how to do business

Let’s be honest again: doing business in these times is mission impossible. I can’t have coffee meetings with other companies, and it is hard to propose consultancy services when companies now are just thinking not to starve because of the lockdown. Some activities have even been temporarily shut down. Some of the usual services I propose to companies, like AR/VR showcase applications for exhibitions are now useless because there are no exhibitions. The LBVR industry is probably fucked up for months because people will fear to wear the headset of someone else.

But it is not time to surrender, and you must seek the opportunities that are still available, like for instance:

• Virtual events. I’m receiving many requests from companies that are interested in organizing events in VR since their events have been canceled. We are showcasing our VRrOOm Social XR platform to many influential people, and many of them are loving it and may be interested in doing business with us. This is a field you should explore (with us, if you want);
• Remote assistance. If with AR/VR you can offer remote education, assistance, training, and telepresence of any kind, then companies may be interested in your services. For instance, I received some requests for remote education now that schools are all closed;
• Remote showcases. How to show your products to your customers, if either you nor them can move from home? Well, mobile AR can be of great help in this sense. An AR catalog (maybe in AR.js?) can be very useful for companies to showcase their products to everyone blocked at home that has a phone. This is a rough sample that I made some months ago and for which I also shared the code online:

via Gfycat

• Doing a project of yours. These days we of New Technology Walkers have more time to work on our mixed reality fitness game HitMotion: Reloaded. Having fewer consultancies, we have more time to invest in our product, and so earn more money later on with its sales (So expect news on HitMotion soon!). You can do something similar, and work on a project of yours so that to grow your portfolio and have also something to sell later on when the lockdown will be over;
• Enroll for a grant. There are lots of grants around, and here we can participate in some research grants offered by Italy or European Union. Participating requires lots of paperwork, but some of them offer a lot of money. If you have less work to do, you can invest your time to look for partnerships to participate in such grants and prepare all the documents to participate in these contests. We’re doing that as well;
• Work for countries still not in lockdown. Some countries are more “infected” than others. Doing business in Italy is very hard now, but there are countries, for instance in Africa, that have not been much affected by the outbreak yet. So, if you’re used to doing business with these countries, intensify your efforts now. Work more with places where there is not a lockdown yet.

In any case, doing business will be very hard, so mind how you can reduce your costs in this period. In any case, be creative and don’t surrender.

Turn off your TV

The TV is important to give you news on what the govt has decided, and to keep yourself updated on the current situation. But enough is enough: here all the shows now talk about coronavirus, and they have suppressed some of the entertainment programs to add other shows about coronavirus. Before every commercial, there are communications about the behavior that we should have during coronavirus times. It is annoying as hell, ruins the mood and looks terribly dystopian.

You have better things to do that hearing all these useless talking on the situation: so just watch the TV to keep you informed on the evolution of the situation, and after a while turn it off and do something else. VR is better than TV 😀

Think how to escape from the current situation thanks to VR

Living a lockdown is quite frustrating: you can’t go out from home often, and when you can, you look at all the other people as they may be infected. You have to do a line to enter the supermarket. The TV just talks about the virus, the social media just talk about the virus. It’s dystopian.

We are lucky that we have virtual reality. You can use it to escape the current situation and have some fun. Yesterday I and Louis were showcasing the VRrOOm platform and we had a super-cool disco party in Social VR. It was very funny.

Today I’ll try Somnium Space and Bizarre Barber. Virtual Reality is fantastic to escape this current situation, so exploit it. I mostly suggest these kinds of activities:

• Games, because playing in VR is always cool and also can help us to vent. In 9 days we’ll all play Half-Life: Alyx, and we’ll all have a great time!
• Fitness games: some weeks ago, my assistant made me see on 抖音 (TikTok) the videos of many Chinese people finding creative ways to stay fit at home during the lockdown in China. If you have a VR headset, you can play games like Box VR, Pistol Whip, HitMotion (sorry for the shameless plug), The Thrill of the fight, OhShape to stay fit while having fun at home;
• Social XR experiences: hanging out on VRChat, Altspace, Somnium Space, etc… can make you meet other people virtually and have tons of fun even if you stay at home… and you can also hug without worrying about the virus! Also now there will be interesting events in VR, like HTC’s VEC that will happen inside ENGAGE. You can attend them to meet new people and learn something new! If you want to do these experiences with someone you love, be sure they have a VR headset at home as well.

• Exploration experiences: since I miss traveling, having a tour inside Google Earth VR makes me go virtually to other cool places in this world. Yes, it is not like traveling in real life, but it is nice nonetheless;
• Relaxation experiences: as I’ve told you, the lockdown is pretty stressful and everyone becomes more nervous. But apps like Guided Meditation, ArtPulse, Museum of Symmetry, Mind Labyrinth, can “massage” your mind and reduce your cortisol levels. They are a lifesaver in this period;
• Adult entertainment: during the lockdown, you probably can’t meet your boyfriend/girlfriend, so, well… some “external support” may help during this period. Apps like Sex Like Real or websites like VRPorn or PornFoxVR can help in having some relief. Also Pornhub Premium is free here in Italy for the whole March… so either you die of coronavirus, or you live long enough to become blind! Don’t forget to wear earphones… and to clear your browser history 🙂

If you are a VR developer, you can also spend some time doing interesting and crazy experiments. Create something new with VR, for instance using Quest’s hand tracking, or Vive Pro’s SRWorks MR framework, or whatever else that is new and innovative. Then share your results on social media. It is a good way to spend your time. Soon I’ll myself share with you something in this sense…

Invest your time on yourself

Since you’ll have more free time, it’s probably better that you invest it in other extra activities that can make you grow as a person or that can make you feel better.

There are so many hobbies you can start, or that you can re-start. So many good habits you can try adopting. For instance, you can learn a new skill (a new language, a new craft, etc… there are also lots of cool videos on Udemy). Or you can read more books, and improve your culture. You can learn to cook. You can spend some quality time with the people you love. You can call someone that you don’t hear since a lot of time. Or you can update yourself on your work skills: for instance, it’s months that I want to read about the Entity Component System in Unity and never had time to explore it. Or you can stop for a moment and think if the direction that you’ve taken for your job, or for your personal life is the right one. There are lots of things to do… and remember that there is not only work in life (something that I myself find hard to do).

Talking about me, I’ve for instance started again to read books in Chinese to improve my Mandarin skills. So next time I’ll be in China for work or for pleasure, I’ll have new Mandarin superpowers. Here you are the photo of the book I’m reading now. Yes, I am a kid again ahahahah

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And that’s it with this list of pieces of advice on how to stay strong during these harsh times.

I hope they will be useful to someone of you… and if you have other good suggestions to share, please add them in the comments. Also, if you want to discuss this lockdown, or if you’re afraid of these times, feel free to reach out to me. I think that we are in very difficult times, and we should all help and support each other. United we can win. 我们一起可以成功.