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Get inside the world of Minecraft with virtual reality. Build, explore and battle mobs - do all the things you know and love - but from a fresh perspective.

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EXPLORE MINECRAFT IN VR

Get right inside the world of Minecraft with virtual reality. Build, explore and battle mobs - do all the things you know and love - but from a fresh perspective. With a VR headset on, coming face- to-face with monstrous mobs takes on new meaning; creeping into dark caves inspires even greater trepidation thanks to 3D audio; and the light of a gorgeous sunrise seems to envelop you more completely.

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blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

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blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

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Free and Open Source

Blender is a public project hosted on blender.org, licensed as GNU GPL, owned by its contributors.

For that reason Blender is Free and Open Source software, forever. Learn more

Part of the industry

Blender is a member of ASWF, Khronos, Linux Foundation and OIN. It's also well supported by major hardware vendors such as AMD, Apple, Intel, and NVIDIA.

It's about people.

Designers, developers, engineers, artists. All driven by passion. All using Blender to make an impact.

The Ecosystem

Countless communities and thriving businesses are built around Blender.

Together, these tutorial makers and content creators, add-on developers and global marketplaces form an ever-expanding ecosystem.
Find Blender Communities
Everything You Need

Cycles is Blender's built-in powerful unbiased path-tracer engine that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering.

· Real-time viewport preview

· CPU & GPU rendering

· PBR shaders & HDR lighting support

· VR rendering support

Blender's comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze.

· Full N-Gon support

· Edge slide, inset, grid and bridge fill, and more

· Advanced sculpting tools and brushes

· Multi-resolution and Dynamic subdivision

· 3D painting with textured brushes and masking

· Python scripting for custom tools and add-ons

VFX professionals say: "Probably the best tracker in the market". Blender includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3D scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs.

· Auto and Manual tracking

· Powerful camera reconstruction

· Real-time preview of your tracked footage and 3D scene

· Support for Planar tracking and Tripod solvers

Thanks to the high quality rigging and animation tools, Blender is being used for numerous short films, advertisements, TV series and feature films now.

· Envelope, skeleton and automatic skinning

· B-spline interpolated bones

· Curve editor and dope sheets

· Custom bone shapes for fast input

· Sound synchronization

Story Art, Drawing 2D in 3D

Really! Drawing directly in a 3D viewport makes a lot of sense. It opens unsurpassed workflow freedom for story-boarders and 2D artists.

· Combine 2D with 3D right in the viewport

· Full Animation Support with Onion Skinning

· Layers & Colors for Stroke and Fill

· Sculpt brush strokes & Parent to 3D objects

Blender has a flexible Python controlled interface. Layout, colors, size and even fonts can be adjusted. Use hundreds of add-ons by the community or create your own using Blender's accessible Python API.

· Customize the interface layout and colors

· Hi-res/Retina screen support

· Create your own tools and add-ons

· Draw over the OpenGL viewport

· Connect with Blender's Render API

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blender.org - Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

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One of the easiest ways to construct rooms, furniture, and even people in 3D is Structure Sensor. This 3D scanner catches real world projects and transforms them into virtual 3D models. It can be attached to Android tablets and Apple’s iPad.

If you want to play big, you can use the game engines of your choice that also work well with creating interior designs and other non-gaming 3D constructions:

Unity

Unreal Engine

Google VR SDK

Blender

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You can go two ways: immersive real-life 360-degree videos and 3D animation or construction

Three-dimensional Animation

Three-dimensional animation provides better immersion and gives an app a more real feel: users can move wherever they want, take a closer look at objects and interact with objects as they would in real life.

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What is Virtual Reality? - Virtual Reality Society

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What is Virtual Reality? - Virtual Reality Society

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The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both 'virtual' and 'reality'. The definition of 'virtual' is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term 'virtual reality' basically means 'near-reality'. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.

We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.

Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it. You would be presented with a version of reality that isn't really there, but from your perspective it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.

So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.

In technical terms...

Answering "what is virtual reality" in technical terms is straight-forward. Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.

How is virtual reality achieved?

Although we talk about a few historical early forms of virtual reality elsewhere on the site, today virtual reality is usually implemented using computer technology. There are a range of systems that are used for this purpose, such as headsets, omni-directional treadmills and special gloves. These are used to actually stimulate our senses together in order to create the illusion of reality.

This is more difficult than it sounds, since our senses and brains are evolved to provide us with a finely synchronised and mediated experience. If anything is even a little off we can usually tell. This is where you'll hear terms such as immersiveness and realism enter the conversation. These issues that divide convincing or enjoyable virtual reality experiences from jarring or unpleasant ones are partly technical and partly conceptual. Virtual reality technology needs to take our physiology into account. For example, the human visual field does not look like a video frame. We have (more or less) 180 degrees of vision and although you are not always consciously aware of your peripheral vision, if it were gone you'd notice. Similarly when what your eyes and the vestibular system in your ears tell you are in conflict it can cause motion sickness. Which is what happens to some people on boats or when they read while in a car.

If an implementation of virtual reality manages to get the combination of hardware, software and sensory synchronicity just right it achieves something known as a sense of presence. Where the subject really feels like they are present in that environment.

Why have virtual reality?

This may seems like a lot of effort, and it is! What makes the development of virtual reality worthwhile? The potential entertainment value is clear. Immersive films and video games are good examples. The entertainment industry is after all a multi-billion dollar one and consumers are always keen on novelty. Virtual reality has many other, more serious, applications as well.

There are a wide variety of applications for virtual reality which include:

Virtual reality can lead to new and exciting discoveries in these areas which impact upon our day to day lives.

Wherever it is too dangerous, expensive or impractical to do something in reality, virtual reality is the answer. From trainee fighter pilots to medical applications trainee surgeons, virtual reality allows us to take virtual risks in order to gain real world experience. As the cost of virtual reality goes down and it becomes more mainstream you can expect more serious uses, such as education or productivity applications, to come to the fore. Virtual reality and its cousin augmented reality could substantively change the way we interface with our digital technologies. Continuing the trend of humanising our technology.

Features of virtual reality systems

There are many different types of virtual reality systems but they all share the same characteristics such as the ability to allow the person to view three-dimensional images. These images appear life-sized to the person.

Plus they change as the person moves around their environment which corresponds with the change in their field of vision. The aim is for a seamless join between the person's head and eye movements and the appropriate response, e.g. change in perception. This ensures that the virtual environment is both realistic and enjoyable.

A virtual environment should provide the appropriate responses - in real time- as the person explores their surroundings. The problems arise when there is a delay between the person's actions and system response or latency which then disrupts their experience. The person becomes aware that they are in an artificial environment and adjusts their behaviour accordingly which results in a stilted, mechanical form of interaction.

The aim is for a natural, free-flowing form of interaction which will result in a memorable experience.

Summary

Virtual reality is the creation of a virtual environment presented to our senses in such a way that we experience it as if we were really there. It uses a host of technologies to achieve this goal and is a technically complex feat that has to account for our perception and cognition. It has both entertainment and serious uses. The technology is becoming cheaper and more widespread. We can expect to see many more innovative uses for the technology in the future and perhaps a fundamental way in which we communicate and work thanks to the possibilities of virtual reality.

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What is Virtual Reality? - Virtual Reality Society

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The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both 'virtual' and 'reality'. The definition of 'virtual' is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term 'virtual reality' basically means 'near-reality'. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.

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There are many different types of virtual reality systems but they all share the same characteristics such as the ability to allow the person to view three-dimensional images. These images appear life-sized to the person.

Plus they change as the person moves around their environment which corresponds with the change in their field of vision. The aim is for a seamless join between the person’s head and eye movements and the appropriate response, e.g. change in perception. This ensures that the virtual environment is both realistic and enjoyable.

A virtual environment should provide the appropriate responses – in real time- as the person explores their surroundings. The problems arise when there is a delay between the person’s actions and system response or latency which then disrupts their experience. The person becomes aware that they are in an artificial environment and adjusts their behaviour accordingly which results in a stilted, mechanical form of interaction.

The aim is for a natural, free-flowing form of interaction which will result in a memorable experience.

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Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.

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Unity is the ultimate game development platform. Use Unity to build high-quality 3D and 2D games, deploy them across mobile, desktop, VR/AR, consoles or the Web, and connect with loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.

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Getting Started With VR: The Best Software Tools Are Free

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Getting Started With VR: The Best Software Tools Are Free

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Now that you've figured out which headset you are going to get, you're going to have to interface with some software. As you venture into making things for the world of VR, there are two main pieces that you'll have to work with most likely, and those are real-time engines and modeling software.

You start with modeling software to create the things you want, and then move those things into a real-time engine to turn it into something you can experience in VR. These are going to be your tools if you're creating purely digital environments, but also if you're making physical items to interface with your digital experiences. I'll talk more about creating the physical side of things in an upcoming post. For now, lets look at the software tools available.

Not just games

Before we jump into the software that is available, I'd like to mention that you'll be hearing and seeing a lot about games and game design below. This is because, up until recently, most of the use cases for real-time engines were for games. While there were other uses before, virtual reality is really blowing this whole concept open and expanding on what real-time engines are used for. The first commercial units of the Oculus Rift haven't shipped yet and we're already seeing things like virtual tourism, medical training, psycho therapy, meditation, education, architectural visualization, and more.

Just keep that in mind as you move forward.

Real-time engines
Unreal Engine - Cost: Free
The Unreal Engine is very well known in the games industry. This package is incredibly versatile, allowing for creation of games from 2d hand drawn looking platformers up to cinematic almost movie like experiences. They've charged into virtual reality head-on and support the latest technologies natively. There is a built in marketplace where you can find and purchase assets to include in your projects and a very large community sharing tutorials and inspiration.

Most impressively, the Unreal Engine is absolutely free. You can download it now and get started creating virtual reality experiences with zero cost.
Unity 3D - Cost: Free
Over the last several years, Unity has grown from a plucky little startup to go toe to toe with the likes of the Unreal Engine. The upcoming release of the first major commercially available VR headsets has only helped level the playing field as Unity has been aggressively courting this community. You can download Unity and begin building VR environments immediately with no prior experience.
Cryengine - cost: Pay what you want
The Cryengine has long been known for its rich visual abilities, the flagship games from this engine often being used as benchmarks to determine a computer's strength. Up till very recently, there were costs associated with this engine that kept it from the hands of many small developers. Now, it is a pay-what-you-want model which means you could download it for free just to try it out and see if you like it.
Lumberyard - cost: Free
Lumberyard was recently unveiled by Amazon. This is a recent addition to the market, and the community is just beginning to grow. On the technical side, this is a previous version of the crytech engine, but with Amazon backing it, some tweaks have been made.

Modeling Software

All of the items that are in your virtual worlds have to be created. To build these things, you model them in 3d modeling software. There are many, many, softwares available, so I've picked a few that are free, in order to allow you to try out the different types and see what you think.

Note that I've selected demo videos that show sculpting complex faces. 3D modeling software is typically very robust, but I wanted to select something that looked drastically different than CAD to help cement the difference. I'll get more into the differences in a bit.
Blender - Cost: Free
Blender is an open source, cross platform modeling animation and rendering tool. It has grown to be incredibly robust and powerful, rivaling the industry names like Maya, Softimage, and 3DS max. The feature set included with the absolutely free product is enough to take you through the entire production pipeline of game creation. It even has its own built-in game engine, though VR support is still not as strong as you'll see in the real-time engines above.

There is a massive community behind this package and you can find tons of tutorials all over the web.
Sculptris - Cost: Free
On the other end of the spectrum is Sculptris. This free software is very limited in functionality, but does its singular task quite well. If you find yourself encumbered by the interface of a typical modeling software, give this a try. The interface mimics sculpting a piece of clay, and it feels very natural.

Those are just two examples on opposite ends of the feature spectrum. Here are a few more pieces of software to try out.
Sketchup Make
There are many more out there to find if you search around enough. These should be enough to get you started.
What about CAD software?
If you've been doing 3d printing or CNC milling, you've been messing with CAD already. Programs like Autodesk's Fusion 360, Designspark Mechancial, TinkerCAD, and FreeCAD are intended for making accurate 3 dimensional constructions. These are usually not ideal for modeling assets for real-time engines as their focus is on physical accuracy and they don't have many tools for optimizing for a real-time environment.

To put it simply, if you were to design something in CAD software, it would be overly complex and run poorly in a game engine.

This doesn't mean you can't use these tools at all. It just means that when you're getting started, you probably should stick to non CAD systems. After you've figured out the tool sets you'll find that workflows for optimization do exist for CAD software and you can harness that.

Image manipulation for textures and more

Of course modelling isn't the only tool you'll need. You're also going to have to do some basic image manipulation. We can't all afford photoshop, so check out these free pieces of software that can easily do the job.
Gimp - cost: Free
Gimp, or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a very powerful tool for image manipulation. Users jumping directly from photoshop may get frustrated with workflow and interface differences, but make no mistake, this package can get the job done. If you are doing backgrounds, UI elements, textures, or anything else, GIMP can handle it. It is cross platform too, which is nice.
Paint.net - cost:Free
Paint.net may not be as extensively powerful as GIMP, but for some people the interface is easier to understand. Being free, it can't hurt to give it a try!

You'll need sound

For those just getting started, many canned effects will likely keep you busy. However, if you're wanting to make your own sound effects and musical cues, you're going to have to be able to edit.
Audacity - cost: free
There are a ton of ways that you can use Audacity. The most common uses for a beginner would be to record a sound, and bring it into Audacity to clean it up and tweak the speed and pitch. From there, you can expand into the many, many features of the software.
OcenAudio - cost:free
Not quite as feature dense as Audacity, you may find the interface a bit easier to navigate.

We've got sights and sounds, what about code?
Visual Studio Community - cost:free
This was called visual studio express, and was released to get more people coding, who couldn't afford the full package. The community version is free and is extremely capable. You'll find many useful tools and a vibrant ecosystem with tons of documentation.
Notepad++ cost:free
I use notepad++ for all kinds of code, mainly php/html/css. However, it is extremely robust in that you can jump right into C++ or C# or whatever your game engine wants. It is totally free, robust, and uncluttered. Don't expect it to hold your hand though.

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Getting Started With VR: The Best Software Tools Are Free | Make:

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Now that you've figured out which headset you are going to get, you're going to have to interface with some software. As you venture into making things for the world of VR, there are two main pieces that you'll have to work with most likely, and those are real-time engines and modeling software.

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How to make a Story Sphere:

Log in, and click ‘CREATE’.

Enter the title and description. Read the terms and conditions before uploading content. Click ‘NEXT’.

Upload a 360 degree image in a .jpeg or .jpg format. Click ‘NEXT’.

Upload at least one audio file and place it inside the 3D space, using the the positioning tool. Click ‘NEXT’.

If you would like to link to another Story Sphere select the title from the list, and place in the 3D space using the the positioning tool. Click ‘NEXT’.

You’re done. Now you can share it, embed it into your site, or submit it to be apart of the public gallery.

Images must be:

.jpg or .jpeg

a ratio of 2:1

Ideal image resolution: 4000 x 2000 pixels

All audio must be uploaded in .mp3 format only.

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To capture a 360 photo:

The Photo Sphere app on iOS

The native camera on Android

Speciality cameras like the Ricoh Theta

You could even stitch together SLR photographs into a 360 image.

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Free

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Need a computer with a StorySpheres account
At least one 360 photo and audio file

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Story Spheres has been used by journalists, documentary makers, wildlife activists, artists, educators, and small businesses to tell stories that truly revolve around their audiences.

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There is no cost to making an account and using StorySphere

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Very easy to put together because there are few components
1.5/5

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The latest buzzword in the tech world is virtual reality (VR). If you haven't experienced VR, you're probably wondering how it works. The short answer is, using Oculus technology and wearing a VR headset, you're thrust into another environment with little more than tapping a button.

One of Primacy's technology developers, Justin Lutz, wrote a post that introduces the different VR headsets and technology. Give that a read if you're interested in learning more about the technology side.

In this post, I'm going to cover how to plan for and film the immersive video that's fed into the VR experience. Realistic 3D computer-generated worlds are nothing new, video games have been doing it for years. But capturing 360° video of real life locations is a whole new ball-game-with new rules and equipment.

The Equipment

At Primacy, we have a couple of specially 3D-printed camera rigs that hold 6 or 10 GoPro Hero4 cameras in a spherical shape. Each camera is mounted at a specific angle so the camera's field of view will overlap portions of the surrounding cameras' field of view. That overlap will eliminate any gaps in the footage and allow for flexibility at the seams. When all the GoPros are recording, they capture video at the same time, and it covers the entire 360° by 180° area.

There are various ways to hold the camera rig. It all depends on the needs of the shot. A tripod or monopod are the most common, but you can hang it, hold it, drone it, and more.

Field of Vision

Shooting video in 360° is not like shooting regular video. It has its own set of rules and considerations.

To keep things simple I'm going to use the term "camera" to describe the rig of GoPro cameras pictured above. Now, the first thing to remember is that 360° means EVERY THING is in the view of the camera and will be in the shot. This includes you, your crew, any lights, microphones, equipment, every crack on the ceiling, and dirty footprints on the floor. This type of shot limits and gives freedom to the director at the same time. You may have to be in the shot, so be creative, don't make it obvious-blend into the scene-or hide behind/under/in objects on location. When scouting locations, take the entire space into consideration. Envision the action that will take place, how should that action interact with the camera? And make sure the available lighting is suitable or get creative with camera placement.

Camera Location

Placement of the camera in the scene is key and important to storytelling. To capture the action of the scene, you need to consider what role the person wearing the VR headset will take. Are they participants or observers? Meaning, should the camera be placed at an odd position, like hung from the ceiling or low to the ground? Or mounted six feet from the floor to equal to an average person's height? In either case, the camera should be placed in or around the center of the activity. That way the viewer can explore the scene as they wish, and will have something of interest in all directions.

Camera Movement

The last item to consider is camera movement. In order to achieve action, there needs to be an impetus of movement, like a drone, a car, a track, or a person. Bear in mind, whatever is controlling the motion will be in the video. For example, if you hang the camera from a drone or helicopter those vehicles will be visible in the final result. There are ways to remove or hide smaller objects in post-production, but that is a lengthy process. Because the video will become an immersive experience, motion of any kind needs to be calculated and intentional, otherwise it can cause nausea or it can disconnect the viewer from the experience.

Capturing video is only half the 360° battle. All that footage (per camera, per location) will have to be downloaded, synchronized, stitched together, and processed before it gets put into a VR headset. And that's an entirely separate blog post!

360° video has endless possibilities. Just imagine the places and experiences you can go and have without leaving your desk chair!

Interested in how Primacy can help with your VR project? Check out more of our work on on our Virtual Reality page and contact us.

View in Google Chrome for 360° experience and controls

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Behind the scenes of virtual reality: how to create 360-degree video

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The latest buzzword in the tech world is virtual reality (VR). If you haven't experienced VR, you're probably wondering how it works. The short answer is, using Oculus technology and wearing a VR headset, you're thrust into another environment with little more than tapping a button.

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https://www.theprimacy.com/blog/virtual-reality-360-degree-immersive-video-experience/

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https://medium.com/master-of-code-global/how-to-create-virtual-reality-content-5000e0fdd68
https://www.intuilab.com/

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For the shooting, you will need a spherical camera with 360-degree lens, tripods or Steadicams for its stable position.

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You can go two ways: immersive real-life 360-degree videos and 3D animation or construction

Taking a 360-degree video

If you need to create a VR experience of any real-world environment, a 360-degree video is a perfect solution for you.

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Depends on the cost of camera and software used to piece together imaging

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Free

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Depends on software used.
2/5