Overview / Usage

Workflows

Typical workflow for VR development
A typical VR project is an iterative combination of code and assets. Usually there’s a period of preproduction to concept interactivity and assets (via sketches). However, once production begins, you often face many starts and stops, because the code-development side must wait for finished assets and vice versa.

This situation is made worse when developing for VR, because VR’s unique visual perspective creates issues of scale, placement, and detail that exist in 3D projects presented on a 2D monitor. So you must deal with more back and forth on asset development to get ideas right. You’re also often left with low-quality visual presentation in the prototyping stages that can hinder attracting funding or interest.

Methodology / Approach

Benefits of use VR to prototype

Creating prototype model assets in VR itself creates a much smoother flow for both code and asset developers. This approach allows code developers to more quickly design and adjust the rough versions of what they need, have playable objects, and provide reference material to asset developers, compared to what sketches alone can provide. Modeling normally requires specialized skills in using many different tools and camera perspectives in order to work on a 3D object using 2D interfaces, lending precision and detail but at the cost of heavy workloads.

On the other hand, modeling in VR lets you work in the natural 3D environment by actually moving and shaping in the real-world, room-scale environment. In this way, 3D modeling is more like working with clay than it is adjusting vertices in a modeling app. This approach is not only much faster when creating low-detail prototype assets, but also much more accessible to people with no modeling skill whatsoever.

Benefits of Google Blocks low poly models

Google Blocks provides a simple “build by creating and modifying primitives” approach for VR and allows quick volumetric “sketching.” This combination of modified shapes and simple colored surfaces also lends itself to an aesthetic style that is clean-looking and low poly. This means much better performance, which is going to be extremely useful during the prototyping stage where performance will not yet be optimized. The clean look can even be used as-is for a fairly good-looking presentation.

Revised workflow for VR development

The new workflow for production shifts from start and stop “waterfall” development to one where the code team can provide prototypes of anything they need during the prototyping stage without waiting on the asset team. This approach allows the asset team to take the prototype models and preproduction sketches and develop finished assets that can be simply swapped into the working prototype that the code team has already put in place.

It’s easy to think you can just use primitives within a development tool like Unity* software to do all the prototype “blocking” you need, but the lack of actual rough models can lead to difficulty in developing proper interactions and testing. You will often find your progress hindered when trying to build things out using cubes, spheres, and cylinders. With the new workflow, you can quickly obtain shapes closer to finished assets and provide additional direction for the development of finalized assets as a result of what you learn during interaction development.

Technologies Used

Tools Overview

Let’s lay out the tools we’ll use for development. All of them, except HTC vive*, are free. As mentioned, we’ll use the Google Blocks app to build models in VR using HTC vive. Next we’ll export and share the models using the Google Poly* cloud service. Then we’ll use the models in Unity software for actual development. Finally we’ll work with the models in Blender* for finalized asset development. You can also swap Blender with Maya*, or with whatever your preferred 3D modeling app is, and replace Unity with the Unreal Engine* (also free-ish).

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