Cross-Reality (XR) is a term referring to a spectrum of combined—real-and-virtual—environments and interactions now available to us as digital storytellers. XR experiences bring audiences into your world, and then give them room to make your story their own.
Here at PBM, we think of XR as a spectrum because there aren't always clear lines between augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) experiences.
In fact, some favorite executions that we've built for clients transition from a depiction of "the complete real" to "the complete virtual".
There's also a great deal of overlap in the core competencies and capabilities needed to create compelling executions across the XR spectrum: 3D modelling and animation; attention to detail in user experience and design; and an appreciation for the need to allow for user agency and exploration.
In our approach to immersive design, we give audiences the power to create and frame their experience whenever possible. Their investment of themselves into the experience is also what invests them in your story.
Beyond our extensive experience with Social AR, we're also able to create captivating AR experiences for the web, allowing you to create rich augmented reality experiences without the need for your audience to download any special apps or software.
Bringing your ideas into their space is a powerful connection, and one that inherently invites play and sharing.
We're specialists in immersive web executions that turn users' screens into "magic windows" that open onto other worlds. On mobile devices, we tap into motion and orientation sensors to really bring the window metaphor to life.
As users turn and move their phone, they can explore other realities in real-time—the one-to-one correlation between the movement of their phone in real life and what they see on-screen captures that sense of a "cross-reality" experience.
Web VR can now be enjoyed on most consumer VR headsets—like the popular Oculus Quest line of untethered headsets—thanks to the increasing number of VR-enabled browsers.
Users can simply navigate to the destination URL to be launched into a fully-immersed VR experience. A bonus is that desktop and mobile users can still explore the same content, either as a "magic window" or first-person 3D experience.