The virtual revolution
VR is back and it means business! Jim Mccauley reveals the new software tools that will change how you work
Discover the tools to create VR content
You couldn’t have missed the launch of Oculus Rift, following on the heels of Samsung’s Gear VR, and with the HTC Vive and Playstation VR to follow by October, 2016 is set to be a big year for virtual reality – and the big names in 3D are scrambling to support it.
With GDC and NAB proving perfect platforms to get the message out, the big software players were keen to elbow their way into the VR sector. Maxon’s big reveal is CV-VR Cam, a new VR plug-in for Cinema 4D released through its education and resource website, Cineversity. CV-VR Cam is designed to enable artists to create pre-rendered or interactive VR content, and can render spherical or cubic VR in both monoscopic and stereoscopic format. “From my perspective VR production is still a huge mess and there is much research necessary for new entrants to the VR world,” comments CEO at moculus.io Dominik Capodieci who says as a Maya user he’s already prepper for VR. “I have access to tools like our vr-plugin.com and the andrewhazelden.com toolbox.”
It’s no surprise then that Autodesk is grasping VR with new releases of Maya LT and its Stingray game engine, providing a set of VR tools aimed at professional indie game makers. Stingray 1.2 now has native support for HTC Vive as well as Oculus Rift, and now features multithreaded project compilation as well as several new features, including an interactive Gpu-based lightmap baker, improved screen space ambient occlusion and a new debug view that makes it easier to see the in-focus and out-of-focus areas. “Since the Autodesk Stingray engine can be connected directly to our 3D tools like Maya and 3ds Max, it makes the artistic or technical changes turnaround time quite fast. This lets developers and designers tweak their content more easily and often, so they can find the sweet spot for their VR games," says Autodesk’s Frank Delise, Sr.
The advance in software options is good news for VR developer Ben Kidd, whose Great White Shark project has garnered a lot of attention. “Being able to be in VR while you work will be the best way forward; it means you can make instant decisions,” says the artist. “VR will offer a direct way of working. You will go in and layout a scene, architects will jump in… game engines will be used to design cars.”
There’s some free solutions too, with Cryengine V offering a ‘pay what you want’ pricing scheme that allows you full access to the entire engine feature-
We may use VR to create non-vr content... that’s an interesting prospect Ben Kidd, co-founder, Curiscope
set and source code for a fee of your choice. Cryengine V also expands its VR hardware support and now covers Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Playstation VR, as well as the open-source OSVR. Amazon are on their heels too, with its own free-to-use Lumberyard platform.
The Foundry has already embraced VR workflows, says CTO Jon Wadelton, “Our customers are already using the image processing expertise in Nuke as well creating CGI content for 360 video using Modo and Mari. Modo, for example, provides a simple workflow for rendering 360 stereo imagery by simply changing the Modo camera projection to VR Pano.”
It’s a commitment being furthered for Modo 10, due for release in the autumn, which promises to provide a toolset capable of creating real-time assets for games and VR, featuring a streamlined and repeatable texture baking workflow.
Perhaps the best news for VR developers, though, came from Unity Technologies, with its announcement that it’s adding full support for Nvidia’s Vrworks SDK to the Unity engine. This means that artists working with Unity will be able to create VR games that take full advantage of Nvidia VR tech, including multi-res shading and VR SLI, which enables developers to intelligently split VR rendering across multiple GPUS.
It’s clear a stage is being set for 2016, as Ben says, “Is VR the new battleground for software? Absolutely, that’s where we are right now.” The consensus is we need the tools. “Image trying to create a TV show before the TV was invented, it’s like that, we’re still finding out how to do this as we go.”
When you also consider Unity’s VR Scene Editor – which enables you to build scenes within a VR environment – called The Chessboard, a more advanced editing mode that provides new tools and more precise object manipulation options, the future is going to be fun. “We may use VR to create non-vr content… that’s an interesting prospect,” Ben concludes.