A Customizable WebRTC-based Video Conferencing System For Real-time Communication

In the dynamic landscape of modern communication, the demand for innovative virtual video conferencing solutions is ever-increasing. Our work presents an innovative approach to building a virtual video conferencing system that can be used by remote users with the help of a web page. Our system allows remote participants, joining via a web browser, to freely navigate and view the virtual environment from any angle, enhancing spatial awareness and engagement. Additionally, our system grants participants the freedom to view the environment independently, even if the host restricts certain views which is one of the main drawbacks of the current video conferencing systems. Unlike current platforms, our solution also allows users to choose their appearance location within the virtual space and this feature is missing in the current systems. Furthermore, our system is highly customizable, enabling the integration of features such as recording specific portions of the screen, which are not available in existing video conferencing tools. This flexibility ensures a more immersive, interactive, and personalized meeting experience, significantly advancing the capabilities of remote collaboration technologies. Our work highlights the results of research carried out to create a virtual conference setting in the Unity environment and establish successful real-time communication between the webpage and the Unity environment. In this virtual setting, monitors act as participants, and participants can choose on which monitor they want to appear. Participants join this virtual meeting setup from a webpage, which consists of two windows: the first window shows the participants themselves, and the second window displays the virtual meeting setup. Participants can observe this environment from any perspective they want, navigating using a keyboard and a mouse. Since we are implementing everything from scratch, we have full control over every feature and functionality with Agora video SDK and communication, thus emphasizing customizability. This communication is made possible with the help of WebRTC technology, secured with tokens. We use Agora, which facilitates the use of this technology. To evaluate the validity of our work, objective evaluations were carried out with NetPerfAnalyzer, focusing on different network metrics like latency, bandwidth, bit rate, and packet loss.