XRDirector: A Role-Based Collaborative Immersive Authoring System

Immersive authoring is an increasingly popular technique to design AR/VR scenes because design and testing can be done concurrently. Most existing systems, however, are single-user and limited to either AR or VR, thus constrained in the interaction techniques. We present XRDirector, a role-based collaborative immersive authoring system that enables designers to freely express interactions using AR and VR devices as puppets to manipulate virtual objects in 3D physical space. In XRDirector, we adapt roles known from filmmaking to structure the authoring process and help coordinate multiple designers in immersive authoring tasks. We study how novice AR/VR creators can take advantage of the roles and modes in XRDirector to prototype complex scenes with animated 3D characters, light effects, and camera movements, and also simulate interactive system behavior in a Wizard of Oz style. XRDirector's design was informed by case studies around complex 3D movie scenes and AR/VR games, as well as workshops with novice AR/VR creators. We show that XRDirector makes it easier and faster to create AR/VR scenes without the need for coding, characterize the issues in coordinating designers between AR and VR, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each role and mode to mitigate the issues.