Overte

How to see all those worlds

Everything you see on this site was built to be experienced, explored, or used on the Overte platform. The worlds, projects, and places presented here are currently available through Overte's Places application, so you can visit them yourself rather than simply looking at screenshots. And if you feel like building something of your own, many of my worlds are also available as prefab worlds, along with various other free resources and tools, through my GitHub repositories.

Useful links:

• Overte: https://overte.org
• Download Overte: https://overte.org/downloads.html
• My GitHub repositories: https://github.com/AleziaKurdis

What Overte can be used for

Overte is a general-purpose open-source platform for creating and running interactive 3D spaces. It can be used for much more than social virtual worlds or entertainment.

Its combination of persistent 3D environments, spatial audio, scripting, networking and self-hosting makes it suitable for a wide range of professional, educational, creative and collaborative applications.

Virtual offices and workplaces

Create persistent 3D workplaces where teams can meet, talk and collaborate as if they were sharing the same physical space.

Organizations can create dedicated office environments, meeting rooms, reception areas, presentation spaces and private work areas.

Overte can also be deployed entirely within an organization's own infrastructure, without requiring the virtual workplace itself to be hosted by an external platform.

Remote collaboration

Teams can meet inside a shared 3D environment rather than relying exclusively on conventional video conferencing.

Participants can:

• communicate using spatial voice
• move naturally through a shared environment
• interact with shared objects
• present information
• use collaborative tools such as whiteboards
• build customized spaces around their particular workflow

The environment itself can become part of the collaboration.

Education and training

Overte can be used to create immersive classrooms, laboratories, training facilities, demonstrations and simulations.

Because environments and interactions can be scripted, an experience can be designed around a particular training requirement rather than being limited to a predefined classroom format.

Examples include:

• technical training
• safety simulations
• guided learning
• interactive demonstrations
• virtual laboratories
• historical or scientific environments
• instructor-led sessions

Conferences, presentations and events

Build dedicated environments for:

• conferences
• conventions
• exhibitions
• lectures
• product presentations
• community events
• performances
• virtual gatherings

Rather than placing an event inside a generic meeting application, organizers can create an environment specifically designed for the event.

Dedicated business environments

Overte can provide ready-made or customized virtual environments for organizations.

This can range from a simple meeting space to a complete virtual island, campus, office complex or other environment designed around an organization's needs.

The environment can remain available as a persistent location rather than existing only for the duration of a meeting.

Digital twins and 3D representations

Overte can be used to recreate or represent real-world locations and facilities in an interactive 3D environment.

Possible applications include:

• facilities
• campuses
• factories
• buildings
• tourism destinations
• cultural sites
• infrastructure
• architectural concepts

The resulting environment can be explored and interacted with rather than simply viewed as a static model.

Simulation and experimentation

Overte provides a programmable environment in which objects, avatars and environments can respond to events and user actions.

This makes it suitable for creating specialized simulations and experimental environments.

Developers can implement their own rules, interactions, interfaces and behaviors rather than being restricted to the functionality provided by the platform itself.

AI-powered characters and assistants

Overte worlds can contain interactive characters capable of responding to visitors.

Because world scripting can communicate with external services, AI systems can be integrated into virtual residents, guides, assistants, instructors or other characters.

This can include:

• conversational NPCs
• virtual guides
• training assistants
• information kiosks
• interactive characters
• locally hosted AI systems

AI does not have to be provided by Overte itself; the platform can act as the 3D environment in which an AI system operates.

Custom applications inside the 3D environment

Overte is programmable rather than being limited to a fixed collection of applications.

Developers can create specialized interfaces and applications that operate directly inside a virtual world.

This allows an organization to build experiences such as:

• information systems
• dashboards
• interactive kiosks
• booking systems
• custom navigation
• visitor systems
• games and activities
• specialized business tools

The virtual environment can therefore become an application platform in its own right.

Web and external content

Web-based content and external services can be incorporated directly into virtual environments.

This makes it possible to combine conventional web applications with 3D spaces instead of forcing users to switch constantly between separate applications.

Collaborative world creation

Overte isn't only a platform for consuming finished environments.

Creators can build, modify and experiment with worlds and objects, making it suitable for collaborative development and prototyping.

A virtual space can evolve continuously as its creators add new content and functionality.

Persistent virtual places

An Overte world can be designed as a place, rather than simply as a session.

This makes it possible to create:

• virtual cities
• islands
• campuses
• museums
• parks
• resorts
• exploration environments
• fictional worlds
• connected networks of locations

People can return to the same environment and continue exploring it over time.

Exploration and tourism

Overte can be used to create virtual destinations intended primarily for exploration.

A world can contain roads, buildings, landmarks, points of interest, characters and interactive elements, allowing visitors to discover an environment at their own pace.

This opens possibilities for:

• virtual tourism
• cultural exploration
• virtual museums
• heritage preservation
• guided tours
• fictional destinations
• educational exploration

Virtual commercial spaces

Organizations can create dedicated 3D spaces for presenting their products, services or activities.

Examples include:

• showrooms
• stores
• exhibitions
• product demonstrations
• customer spaces
• branded environments
• information centers

Because the environment is programmable, commercial spaces do not have to follow the structure of a conventional website or shopping application.

Private and completely local deployments

One of Overte's particularly distinctive possibilities is that it does not have to operate as a public cloud service.

An organization can operate its own Overte infrastructure and keep its virtual environment within its own network.

This opens possibilities for organizations that require:

• private environments
• internal collaboration
• isolated networks
• control over their infrastructure
• locally stored content
• environments inaccessible to the public internet

In other words, Overte can be used as a private virtual-world platform running entirely under an organization's control.

This is useful not only for large enterprises, but also for organizations that simply want a virtual workplace without depending on an external virtual-world provider.

What makes Overte particularly different

Built to be adapted, not just consumed, Overte is not a single-purpose virtual meeting service. It provides the underlying technology for creating interactive 3D environments, leaving the purpose of those environments largely to their creators.

A single Overte installation can therefore become a:

• virtual workplace
• classroom
• training facility
• conference center
• museum
• showroom
• simulation
• social space
• game
• tourism destination
• fictional world
• AI environment

and potentially several of these at the same time.

Open, programmable and self-hostable

Overte combines several characteristics that are rarely found together:

• open source
• self-hostable
• private/local deployment
• persistent 3D environments
• spatial audio
• VR and desktop access
• extensive scripting
• interactive objects and environments
• custom in-world applications
• support for external services and AI
• collaborative world creation
• no requirement for a centralized virtual-world operator

Overte can be a public virtual-world platform, but it can also be a completely private 3D environment operated by a single organization on its own infrastructure.

That makes it useful not only as a destination for the public, but also as infrastructure for private virtual spaces.