Since the Covid-19 pandemic, multiplayer online virtual reality social platforms have been the ideal way for people to get social and have hangout sessions with mates from the comfort of their own homes.

They allow people to interact the same way, to some extent with how they would in person with extra capabilities in 3D designed virtual worlds, all from your living room. They help people minimize the risk of contracting Covid-19 by having real-life meet-ups while making sure people are still able to have productive meet-ups in fun and interesting spaces.

Alpha Blend Interactive, a Germany based game studio, released ChilloutVR on the 9th of February 2021 on Steam. ChilloutVR is a community-driven VR & Desktop sandbox game, that allows users to create, experience and explore a huge metaverse.

ChilloutVR is a new platform but it shows to have great potential when compared to other platforms like VRChat. Alpha Blend Interactive produced a good platform. I had a chance to check it out  and these are the only cons I think the platform has, based on the limited time I spent there.

• The loading time takes forever: trying to join a world will take 2-3 minutes to load
• The menu is not user friendly, it has too many icons and that can get confusing for the average person

• The menu moves away from you, this is a bug that makes it difficult to use the menu

And if you're a endlessly restless creative and are interested in creating your own Chillout VR content, you can sign up for their Community Hub, download the the Content Creation Kit, and develop away!

A part from the cons listed above, I would highly recommend that you check it out. I think this platform has great potential and might just be the alternative you and your mates needed.

Chillout VR is compatible with:

• Oculus Rift S
• HTC Vive
• Windows Mixed Reality
• Valve Index

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