Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#1

Post by pawelwentpawel » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 8:38 AM UTC

Hi HN!

https://flat.social is a web video meeting app for organising fun online meetings & social events. Each participant can move around and talk with others in their proximity.

Here is a quick demo if you wanna see it in action: https://youtu.be/Y2yH3twjrx4

I’ve been on it solo for around a year right now. Tech used is Next.js, Typescript, PIXI.js on the front-end and Node, Mediasoup, Socket.io and Matter.js (physics engine) on the backend.

Feel free to jump in into the demo room (https://flat.social/f/Flat.Social-Demo) to say hi, I’ll be hanging out there throughout today.

Would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat
flat.social

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#2

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 8:43 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#3

Post by firatcan » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 9:10 AM UTC

Hey there,

Great work! I loved how responsive it's. There is fun to play with animations. The flying emojis, and animations!!!

Love the backgrounds but needs some improvements as well :)

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#4

Post by WoodenChair » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 9:14 AM UTC

How is it different from InSpace? https://inspace.chat/

What’s the future revenue model? How expensive are the servers?

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#5

Post by korm » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 9:33 AM UTC

Very creative. Is this HRTF-like spatial audio or are you just modulating volume based on proximity/walls?

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#6

Post by krm01 » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 9:37 AM UTC

Looks fantastic. I'm tinkering with a better way to communicate with text (Slack just doesn't work), but this seems to be really great for video meetings.

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#7

Post by puranjay » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 9:41 AM UTC

This looks amazing! Congrats

The games look particularly interesting - I've been in meetings where everyone uses awkward verbal games to break the ice, but this would be so much more fun

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#8

Post by CodeBeater » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 10:08 AM UTC

This seems to be a take on Gather.town with more realistic graphics. My team has been using Gather for almost a year now, so I'll give it a shot.

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#9

Post by brumm » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 10:08 AM UTC

This really surprised me! It's super polished already and works great! Gonna try to do our company's virtual happy hour here. Great job!

Re: Show HN: I built a fun video meeting app with 2D physics and proximity chat

#10

Post by pawelwentpawel » Wed, Jun 22, 2022, 10:30 AM UTC

WoodenChair wrote: post #4

How is it different from InSpace? https://inspace.chat/ What’s the future revenue model? How expensive are the servers?

It seems from the website that InSpace is a proximity based chat app too so this aspect might be similar. I don't really see a demo there so hard for me to assess the exact differences!

I'm experimenting with the revenue model right now, would be happy to hear any input on the current pricing I set out.

As per the servers cost - it's directly correlated to the usage. It runs audio, video and physics on the backend so high CPU instances are needed to run it smoothly. It's quite optimised for now though and a couple droplets are enough.